Fame, isolation and terror: inside the mind of a lone mass killer
6/20/202630 min
What is it that drives a person to mass murder?
It's a question forensic psychiatrist Professor Paul Mullen has made a life's study of.
While these devastating events can at times appear random — he says that taken together, from Port Arthur to Dunblane to Texas — patterns emerge that tell us about the motivations of lone mass killers.
It's often to do with isolation, vengeance and fame. Which is why a growing number of people, including Paul, are pushing never to name the perpetrators of mass killings.
Today on All in the Mind: insights into denying mass killers the glory they seek and preventing future massacres.
Please note, this episode covers some heavy topics including massacres and suicide. Please take care while listening.
Guest:
Professor Paul E. Mullen Monash UniversityForensic psychiatristAuthor, Running Amok: Inside the Mind of the Lone Mass Killer
Credits:
- Presenter/producer: Sana Qadar
- Senior producer: James Bullen
- Producer: Rose Kerr
- Sound engineer: Antonia Gauci
Support:
Lifeline 13 11 14
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
[electronic music] ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more [pensive music] When The Science Show began over 50 years ago, Australia was seen as a strange leftover place But local science transformed everything.
Speaker 30:17
Australia is full of treasures, from bird song to perhaps the world's first engineers.
Paul Mullen· Guest0:23
That's why The Science Show is always full of surprises In the sky, in the lab, and even in your own backyard. The Science Show anytime on ABC Listen. [pensive music] There's a, a small township not far from Dunedin called Aramoana, and a man, uh, went out and started shooting people, killed a number of people, uh, shot dead, uh, the local constable who came to try and stop him.
Sana Qadar· Host0:54
The year is 1990. We're in the seaside town of Aramoana, near Dunedin in New Zealand.
Paul Mullen· Guest1:02
My family, we lived three, four kilometers, uh, from where the, uh, [clicks tongue] massacre took place.
Sana Qadar· Host1:09
And this is Professor Paul Mullen, a now retired forensic psychiatrist.
Paul Mullen· Guest1:13
Uh, so the first thing we knew was the sound of gunfire. And it's, it's outside of the city. Uh, you know, people shooting rabbits is not all that uncommon. Uh, but, uh, [laughs] it was quite clear the guns being used were not rabbit shooting guns. Uh, this was a military semi-automatic that was being