Criminological Analysis of George Jefferson Hassell in “Man with the Killer Smile” by Mitchel Roth
Introduction
“Man with the Killer Smile” by Mitchel Roth is a detailed exploration of the thoughts and intentions of a serial mass killer. In Texas, George Jefferson Hassell (1888–1928) was the first serial killer to be nicknamed “Texas Bluebeard” (Roth, 2022). Hassell murdered at least 13 individuals between 1917 and 1926, notably his brother’s wife, whom he married and became the stepfather of her eight children, and a common-law wife and her three children (Roth, 2022).
With an emphasis on the emergence of his violent impulses and the repercussions of his deeds, the book provides a thorough account of the figure’s life and crimes. By delving deeper into the experiences of George Jefferson Hassell, the writer contributes to the field of criminology and psychology, demonstrating the psychological portrait of a psychopath and the factors that contributed to his becoming a serial mass murderer.
Examination of the Serial Mass Murderer
Mitchel Roth depicts a horrific and in-depth picture of a serial mass killer. He investigates the intricate interactions among genetic, environmental, and psychological factors that may contribute to the formation of a murderer through this individual’s life narrative. He explores Hassel’s early years, family history, traits, and the sequence of events that led him down a violent path. The writer successfully demonstrates Hassel’s deadly obsession despite the man’s charming facade.
Genetic Factors
When reviewing the family tree of the murderer, the author does not fail to mention whether there were any felons and genetic factors that played a role in the formation of Hassel’s tendencies. According to Roth (2022), if there were one family member George most likely emulated, it would be his paternal grandfather, Spencer Tomlin Hassell (1825–1916). Spencer, like his future grandson, was taken before the Texas legal system several times; in 1887 alone, he appeared in court three times (Roth, 2022).
He was sued for defamation and insult concerning his character by plaintiff W. L. Warrington, and on May 7 of the same year, he appeared in the local district court (Roth, 2022). The jury found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded a $750 judgment against him. On December 5, 1887, Spencer appeared in district court again because he was being investigated for arson after setting his ex-wife’s residence on fire (Roth, 2022). Through this discussion, the author demonstrated that no genetic factors had a direct impact on Hassel’s murder inclinations and that the worst illegal activity resulted in a fine.
Environmental Factors
Moreover, the author focuses on the environmental factors that could affect man’s behavior and perceptions, starting with the two main people – parents. When it comes to his mother, Hassell said that when he was a young child and chewed tobacco, his mother gave him his first punishment (Roth, 2022). According to him, his mother took him into the barn, kneeled, prayed, and then ordered him to recite each prayer after her (Roth, 2022). Moreover, Hassell frequently stated how his father had punished him, citing one especially brutal beating as the reason that prompted him to leave his family (Roth, 2022).
Usually, he said it happened in 1899 when he was only eleven years old, but he likely confused other incidents of his father’s violence (Roth, 2022). Consequently, the author concludes that if Hassell’s father had been as vicious as he claimed, his early life experiences would align with the numerous other psychopaths who had faced mistreatment and suffering as children before reaching adulthood. In other words, the recollections of the man are not truthful, and there is no direct connection between Hassel’s psychopathy and parental influence.
Psychological Factors
While genetic and environmental factors had little to no influence on Hassell, psychological factors began developing at a young age and became more pronounced as he matured. In his early 20s, the young man began to demonstrate his unreliability and inability to accept full responsibility for his illegal conduct, which led to his first prison sentence (Roth, 2022). Inclinations toward deception, lack of self-control, and alcoholism are typical of many psychopaths (Li, 2023). At this age, Hassell would have shown early indications of developing psychopathy (Roth, 2022). His tendency toward theft, dishonesty, and selfishness, along with his poor employment history, pointed to a future marked by crime and deceit.
A significant psychological force that was emphasized throughout the book was the desire for women. If there was one thing that unmistakably connected George Jefferson Hassell to his life and crimes, it was his obvious attraction to women. It seems that women reciprocated his affection for them (Roth, 2022). When Hassell was just eight years old, he remembered having his first “trouble” with a 15-year-old girl (Roth, 2022). By reflecting on his experiences and first encounters, the author delves deep into the formation of the predator’s mind. The narration emphasizes how Hassell’s endearing extroversion and grin were used to influence others.
What makes Roth’s book especially credible and trustworthy is its incorporation of other experts’ opinions and perspectives. For example, the author emphasizes how, over the last 40 years, Michael Stone, a clinical psychiatrist, has researched hundreds of killers, both historical and contemporary, notably mass murderers and serial killers (Roth, 2022). Hassell had several characteristics shared by sociopaths and psychopaths, particularly glibness and superficial charm, as described by Stone (Roth, 2022).
He was gifted, like many serial killers, at choosing the right words at the right moment, provided they served his agenda (Roth, 2022). If it served his ultimate goals, he was more than capable of declaring his love for the women and children he recognized as his victims (Roth, 2022). A psychopath cannot, even in the best of situations, have durable or meaningful connections with others, particularly romantic ones (Brazil & Forth, 2020). On the other hand, he is quick to abandon a relationship if a better opportunity presents itself (Brazil & Forth, 2020). The involvement of expert opinion facilitates a better understanding of the readers when it comes to the psychological factors that affect the mass murderer.
Contributions to the Understanding of Serial Murder
In addition to telling a disturbing story and analyzing the main factors, Roth’s writings make a substantial contribution to readers’ knowledge of serial killing. The writer provides a thorough examination of the character’s psychological makeup, illuminating the reasons and steps that led to his horrific deeds. Both psychologists and criminologists will find great value in this glimpse inside the serial killer’s psyche and unique traits.
Psychological Profile
In his narration, Roth gives a psychological profile of not only Hassell but also mass murderers whose victims are mainly family members. Family murders accounted for about half of the 909 mass killings that occurred in the United States between 1900 and 1999 (Roth, 2022). The criminal justice researchers Jack Levin and James A. Fox said that the most common type of mass murder occurs when a single member of a family destroys a family, some 60 years after Hassell’s last family murder (Roth, 2022).
According to Levin and Fox, these acts of violence are typically the inadvertent result of mental illness, arguments over trivial matters, marital conflicts, or some physical or psychological abuse (Roth, 2022). This is undoubtedly the case with Hassell since, of his 13 victims, 11 were his stepchildren (Roth, 2022). In this situation, the reasons for the murders could be mental instability, traumas, or conflicts.
Statistics and expert opinions show how the murders of Hassell could have been motivated by his lack of biological relation to his victims. Dr. Michael Stone claims that research on child killers shows that there is a far larger chance of a child dying in the care of a stepparent than there is with a biological parent (Roth, 2022). Similarly, the likelihood of homicide increases with the degree of relatedness between two people (Fridel, 2021). In this instance, stepparents are in a highly dangerous situation. However, whether those killed would have died if they were carrying Hassell’s DNA will never be known.
Societal Responses
Societal responses in the 20th century were ambiguous, which is why the author successfully incorporated a discussion of them. Even if murder, in general, was prevalent, the murder of several family members was uncommon and incomprehensible to most Americans at the moment of Hassell’s final family slaughter in the final years of the 1920s (Roth, 2022). Certain trends did not change, despite the nation’s imminent period of rapid modernization, which brought the discovery of penicillin, the creation of the spray can, television sets, bubble gum, and Pez sweets (Roth, 2022). Family killing remained unacceptable as long as the yellow press spread the tales to an eager audience.
One of the nation’s most pressing social challenges became crime—or rather, the fear of crime. The fact that Hassell conducted the Farwell murders in a rural area, where multiple murders are very uncommon both historically and currently, makes them noteworthy (Roth, 2022). This dangerous decade, which was aided by a plethora of widely reported murder cases, included “crimes of the century” like the killings of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1920), Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (1924), and Judd Gray and Ruth Snyder (1927) (Roth, 2022). Newspapers, radio stations, and real detective publications recognized the value of crime reporting and seized upon it, according to the well-known journalistic maxim that “if it bleeds, it leads” (Roth, 2022, p.4). Thus, murder was seen as an occurrence worthy of media coverage, which could entice mass murderers more.
Legal Responses to the Character’s Crimes
As for the legal responses, the character’s crimes now serve as examples of different types of murderers. From the perspective of contemporary criminology, Hassell meets the definitions of a mass murderer and a serial killer. Expert on serial killers Eric Hickey claims that what sets his crimes apart is how uncommon it is to learn about a serial murderer carrying out a major homicide or even having the chance to execute another major murder or grow into a serial killer (Roth, 2022).
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more individuals in three or more distinct incidents or locations, with periods of time between killings (Keatley et al., 2021). The norm was decreased more recently in 2005 to a minimum of two victims, once more imposing a cooling-off time between each homicide that may extend for days, weeks, or even years (Roth, 2022). These definitions apply to Hassell’s killings, making the discussion significant to the field.
The victims that serial murderers choose to kill, as well as their tactics and motivations, frequently exhibit a pattern in their killings. As in Hassell’s case, some murderers carry out their killings in the privacy of their own homes and have a personal connection to the victims, while others kill for other motives such as profit or pleasure (Roth, 2022).
Hassell not only meets the definition of a serial killer but also that of a mass murderer, which is someone who kills four or more persons in a single incident and location. In contrast to serial killers, who aim to avoid detection and carry out their murderous activities, mass murderers typically disregard the possibility of being apprehended or sentenced to death (Sehat, 2021). Hassell is a family destroyer in addition to a mass murderer because of the deaths of his two families.
Contribution to Criminology Literature
Overall, this is a thorough biography of George Jefferson Hassell’s life. This study serves as a correction to earlier biographies of him. George Hassell did not share much about himself, leaving little evidence of his early life and experiences (Roth, 2022). The majority of information about him in the book is gleaned from his numerous interviews with reporters, his admissions, the transcripts of his trials, and the memories of people who had the good fortune to meet him (Roth, 2022).
However, much of the writing about him, from the height of his fame to the present, relies on his confessions. The author of the book did extensive work to demonstrate the murderer’s inner construct, highlighting a combination of intelligence and charisma, as well as his lack of anxiety, unreliability, dishonesty, insincerity, and poor judgment. Thus, a distinct viewpoint on serial killing is provided by the in-depth examination of the character’s life and the exhaustive research of his murders.
Conclusion
In summary, by exploring George Jefferson Hassell’s experiences in greater detail, the author makes a contribution to the fields of psychology and criminology by illuminating the psychological characteristics of a psychopath and the elements that led to the development of a serial mass killer. Hassell is mostly unaffected by hereditary and environmental variables, but psychological aspects started to emerge when he was a young man and were only reinforced as he grew older.
In his narration, Roth provides a psychological profile of mass killers who primarily target members of their own family, in addition to Hassell. Expert perspectives and statistical data demonstrate how Hassell’s lack of biological kinship to his victims might have served as motivation for his killings. Regarding judicial reactions, the crimes of character today range from murderous to the most heinous.
References
Brazil, K. J., & Forth, A. E. (2020). Psychopathy and the induction of desire: Formulating and testing an evolutionary hypothesis. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 6(1), 64-81.
Fridel, E. E. (2021). A multivariate comparison of family, felony, and public mass murders in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(3-4), 1092-1118.
Keatley, D. A., Golightly, H., Shephard, R., Yaksic, E., & Reid, S. (2021). Using behavior sequence analysis to map serial killers’ life histories. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(5-6), 2906-2928.
Li, Y. (2023). Associations between personalities and antisocial behavior. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 22, 825-831.
Roth, M. P. (2022). Man with the killer smile: The life and crimes of a serial mass murderer. University of North Texas Press.
Sehat, S. (2021). Committing murder and punishment in US criminal law. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education, 12(13), 7895-7906.
