Disclaimer: The article has mentions of violence and shooting.
Forensic psychologist Professor Paul E. Mullen has spent his career staring into an abyss that somehow has faces. Ten of them, to be exact! Each belonged to one of the world’s notorious mass killers. But among them, one still rattles around his mind decades later. The murderer was Martin Bryant, aka the 28-year-old who carried out Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in 1996 at Port Arthur, Tasmania. Bryant gunned down 35 people, including children, and left 23 others wounded. When Mullen met him 48 hours later, Bryant was burned, strapped to a hospital bed, and so self-aware that it would etch his name into criminal history.
During that interview, Bryant turned to Mullen and, with what the professor described as a “sly smile,” asked if he knew that this mass killer now held the “record.” Mullen knew the “record” referred to the number of victims, the most ever killed by a lone gunman at the time. Bryant’s pride still shocks Mullen. It was almost a competitive tone. The Port Arthur massacre reshaped Australia’s gun laws forever, yet for those who’ve studied its perpetrator, the psychological scars linger just as profoundly.
Professor Mullen, who was born in Bristol and later worked in New Zealand and Australia, has been one of the authorities on what drives mass killers. In his career, he’s found that (contrary to cinematic depictions) these people are often not monstrous or evil, but frightened, socially isolated individuals whose terror manifests as violence.
He once explained: “When you are sitting alone in a room with someone who has committed terrible acts of violence (…) you are facing a frightened individual, who may try to hide their fear by bluster, but for whom you (…) are unlikely to be harmful.”
After Saturday’s shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas, the United States has recorded 22 mass killings, which collectively have resulted in at least 115 deaths, according to a database tracking mass killings. https://t.co/aviZAcYJF8 pic.twitter.com/k4BQg64PuY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 8, 2023
In his new book, Running Amok, Mullen explores the threads that tie these killers together, from alienation to a fascination with others who made “history” through violence. According to his research, many mass killers study previous attacks, sometimes even idolize perpetrators as a way to script their acts. This echo chamber of imitation aligns with criminological studies. Research into mass and serial murders (outlined by criminologist Phyllis Gerstenfeld) distinguishes the two: mass murder involves three or more deaths in a single event. In contrast, serial murder unfolds over time, often driven by control. Mass murderers tend to snap into an act of rage.
Mullen says many mass killers signal their intentions before they act. They often post cryptic messages online, submit disturbing essays at school, or talk about violent fantasies. Yet, most of these go unnoticed. “Far more communicate their intentions than ever act on [them],” Mullen stresses the need for better early intervention. Recently, joint mental health and law enforcement units have been established to respond to such red flags, where they assess everything from access to weapons to digital footprints before a tragedy.
While countries like the UK have developed systems for such threats, others lag. Mullen argues that catching these cues prevents despair from erupting into disaster. For all his encounters with mass killers, it was Bryant’s smirk and his self-declared “record” that encapsulated the horror best. It was a window into how notoriety can seduce broken minds.
