Psychiatrist gives insight

Where the body was left may be showing the killer's arrogance.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dr. John Kennedy, director of forensic psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, says the way a person is cut up can help detectives because it may provide a clue as to the killer's anatomical knowledge.
The Vindicator asked him to offer insight into dismemberment.
Kennedy, saying there's better literature available in Europe than America, reviewed studies done in Sweden and Germany before commenting.
Butchers, physicians, veterinarians, hunters or anyone who does surgery, for example, would have more anatomical knowledge than the average person, he said.
Studies show that in more than half the cases of mutilation, the person's occupation was associated with anatomical knowledge, he said.
Kennedy said dismemberment, if classified as defensive mutilation, means you've just killed someone and now you have to dispose of the evidence. It's just easier if you cut someone up to transport, bury or hide them, he said.
"That probably accounts for about half the dismemberments," Kennedy said. "It's just an efficient way to hide or get rid of someone."
The other half of such crimes, considered offensive mutilation, contain some aggressive or sadistic component.
Sexual element possible
"Sometimes there's a sexual gratification involved; other times it's lust or aggression gone out of control -- it's called overkilling," he said. "Sometimes it's part of a ritual of necrophilia, or actually having sex with a body part."
He said picquerism is used to describe repeated stabbing and mutilation that results in sexual gratification. Some people, he said, look at dismemberment as a form of picquerism.
"Even if you ignore the sexual aspect, dismemberment validates the power of a killer," Kennedy said. "He has not only killed someone, now he's disrespected them -- not only are they nothing, they're dead, just little pieces of nothing. The killer has total control over the situation. He's proven that he can completely violate the corpse."
Kennedy said the disposal of the body of Anne L. Griffin, 48, of East Philadelphia Avenue, at a known dump site in Youngstown may have been a sign of the killer's arrogance or disorganization.
Profile
The FBI, he said, uses a dichotomy -- organized vs. disorganized. The organized person has a plan and carries it out, he or she is more the cold-blooded sociopathic killer. The disorganized person could have been high on drugs or psychotic or had some psychological problems and killed in a heat of passion and tried to cover it up later, he said.
"Drugs can disinhibit you, make you paranoid -- lead you to kill someone and then when you snap out of it, come down, you realize 'Oh, my God, I've got to get rid of the evidence,'" Kennedy said. "There could be a number of linkages there. I don't know if we have good data on that."
Dismemberment is not a frequent crime, Kennedy said, but it has increased over the years.
He said the perpetrator is likely to be a man over 30.
meade@vindy.com