Sometimes It's The Small Things They Overlook That Become Their Demise

Recently, Stewart Weldon was arrested for the kidnapping of a women in Springfield who he viciously beat and raped for over a month at his home.  After the police officers made the arrest of Weldon, they investigated Weldon’s residency and made the grisly discovery of three dead women who have recently been identified by law enforcement. A day later, another woman came forward making the accusation that Weldon had kidnapped her; but, let her go. Although this does not happen that often, it is not uncommon for this to happen if the victim does not meet their narcissistic fantasies of the moment. In all, Weldon is responsible for two kidnappings and possibly three homicides.  Only time will tell whether or not there are more victims. 

With the investigation still in its infancy, it is unsure whether the police are dealing with a kidnapper or a killer.  I believe they are dealing with a serial killer who suffers from narcism and an over-inflated ego—the psychological baggage that most serial offenders carry around. While these cases are complicated to investigate, it is usually the small things that they do not think about that gets them caught—and eventually convicted.  For Weldon, he did not think that a taillight being out would be a big deal—but in the end, it turned out to be his undoing.  Most serial offenders go undetected for a long time fooling law enforcement and the criminal justice system for months and in some cases even years—inflating their sense of worth giving them a feeling of power.  Over time, they do fool law enforcement, this gives them a grandiose sense of self-worth, a feeling that they are smarter than everyone else— especially the police.

Some famous serial killers have been caught because of this grandiose sense of self-worth as well.  John Wayne Gacy (the clown serial killer), was convicted of killing 33 victims and burying them in the crawl space of his home outside of Chicago. Gacy was caught because he thought he had outsmarted the police, who were watching his house because he became a suspect in their investigation, and invited the police on the stakeout into his house so they could get warm and out of the rain.  Once the police were inside, they could smell the rotting corpses buried in the basement and they knew they had their man. Gacy was so accustomed to the smell of his home, it didn’t occur to him that others would notice it.   Gacy was arrested and went on to become one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. If it wasn’t for Gacy’s feelings of superiority over the police for all those months, he might not have invited them in, but he did he tested them—and he lost.  Most serial offenders feel that they will never get caught and that they are invulnerable to being detected.  While there is a certain normalcy to most serial offenders, and they go undetected for so long ,they—like the rest of us—overlook small things and believe nothing will come out of it.  Weldon, like Gacy, thought he was smarter than those that enforce the law.  The tail light being out, or the invitation to come into one's house, may seem small, but, in the end, it is always the small things that become their eventual demise.

Kevin Borgeson is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Salem State University and Co-editor of the book, Serial Offenders: In Theory and Practice.