CHAPTER IV THE PSYCHOPATHS IN CAROLINE ROBERTS’ NOVEL THE LOST GIRL
4.1 Fred West’s Psychopathic Attitude
4.1.1 Fred West’s Background Fred has a bad attitude when he is young, he does something that
should not be done by other children. He does an uncommon thing in his life and gets imprison for his bad attitude. He gets imprison because molesting a
child, stealing some things, running over until strike and killing a four-year-old boy. His bad attitude, crimes or lack of personality integration make him
ignored by the society. The ignorance of society makes him does not care about others, able to kill and torture other person and his feeling of guilt is usually
only temporary. Fred injured his head seriously in a motorcycle accident and also in a
fall from a buildings fire escape. His family reports that after the accident he became prone to sudden fits of rage. He can’t control his anger because there is
a disorder in his emotional. He has an irritability anger which is the part of emotional disorder. The term emotional disorders is not a fully accurate
medical term, but is commonly used in ordinary context to refer to those psychological disorders that appear to affect the emotions e.g. anxiety
disorders or depressive disorders. Raleigh M. Drake, Ph.D 1962:62 said that irritability anger occurs
because no adequate response has been made to many anger provoking stimuli in the past, there may develop a generalized state of ‘nerves’ in the form of
inadequate emotional explosions to most any situation. The emotional
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explosions, although inadequate to relieve the individual, usually are out of proportion to the stimuli presented. Temper tantrums may be of this sort
although they may also be just ways of controlling the environment. So, this anger may be to cover the deficiency or abnormality that was in him. So,
people not daring to find out some more about Fred’s life. Thus, his crimes will be covered because of ignorance of society towards his life.
Fred comes from a family where incest was common. His father has incestuous relationships with Fred’s sister and also his mother sexually abusing
him from the age of 12. It has been suggested that incest was an accepted part of the household. It makes a psychic trauma for Fred that proved by the
symptoms sadism. Fred has sadistic sexual demand, he is receiving pleasure from inflicting pain upon another, especially a loved one.
From the explanation above, the psychopathic attitude of Fred West comes from some factors. In childhood he did irritability and easily aroused to
anger. Then, when he grows up his characteristic becomes dificient in moral conscience includes sadism behavior and self-control, inadequate judgment in
social and personal matters and feeling guilt temporarily.
4.1.2 Fred West’s Crimes In this novel, Fred West does some crimes such as Verbal Abuse,
Sexual Assault, Abortion and Cruel Murdering.
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• Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse also known as reviling or bullying is best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any
response thus defining the target as non-existent. If the abuser doesnt immediately apologize and rarely indulge in a defining statement, the
relationship may be a verbally abusive one. Verbal abuse includes the following: countering, withholding,
discounting, verbal abuse disguised as a joke, blocking diverting, accusing blaming, judging criticizing, trivializing, undermining, threatening, name
calling, chronic forgetting, ordering, denial of anger or abuse, and abusive anger. The verbal abuse which spoken by Fred can be seen in the quotation
below: “They stood me up and started to undress me, still cursing
me: ‘keep fucking quiet, you stupid fucking bitch’ Fred raised his clenched fist to me and said, ‘do you want
some more of this bitch?’.” Roberts, 2005:44
• Sexual Assault
Sexual Assault takes many forms including attacks such as rape or attempted rape, as well as any unwanted sexual contact or threats. The term
sexual assault is used, in public discourse, as a generic term that is defined as any involuntary sexual act in which a person is threatened, coerced, or forced
to engage against their will. The threaten makes a person feel fear to against and force also makes a person weak and powerless to resist or fight the sexual
assault. This includes rape such as forced vaginal, anal or oral penetration,
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forced kissing, or the torture of the victim in a sexual manner. The Sexual Assault by Fred can be seen from the quotations below:
“The abuse went on into Anne-Marie’s late teens. She had even been made pregnant by her father at the age of fifteen,
but had miscarried his child. The Wests had let other men have sex with her too and had also forced her into
prostitution.” Roberts, 2005:239
Rape is a type of sexual assault, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that persons consent. There is no single
theory that conclusively explains the motivation for rape; the motives of rapists can be multi-factorial and are subject to debate.
Several factors have been proposed: anger, a desire for power, sadism, as well as sexual gratification and evolutionary pressures. From the quotation
below, Fred has raped Caroline because he can not control his anger when Caroline refuses to follow what Fred and Rose want. Fred also threatens
Caroline that he would kill her if she makes a sound to attract the guest in Fred’s house. So, Caroline chooses to be quiet and follow what was said by
Fred in order to save herself by not provoke the anger of Fred. The desire of Fred to kill Caroline is a trigger become psychopath, because the psychopathic
person does not fear to injure even kill someone.
“I began to sob, really sob. I wasn’t sobbing because he had raped me, but because now even he had gone too far, and
because of his actions he would definitely have to kill me. The consequences of his behaviour didn’t stir him because he
knew he could get away with it.” Roberts, 2005:58
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Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain whether physical or psychological as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a
confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has taken on a wide variety of forms, and has often been used as a method of political re-
education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion. In addition to state- sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on
others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of the torturer. In this novel, Fred did
the Physical Torture to Caroline like the quotation below:
“He turned around in his seat and started lashing out at me, landing a punch on the side of my head. As he was doing
this, I could see his tongue jutting out of the side of his lips as if he was concentrating on hitting me on the right spot, the
temple. I felt several blows strike me and then I blacked out.” Roberts, 2005:41
Rudeness is a display of disrespect by not complying with the social laws or etiquette of a group or culture. These laws have been established as
the essential boundaries of normally accepted behavior. To be unable or unwilling to align ones behavior with these laws known to the general
population of what is socially acceptable is to be rude. Similar terms include: impoliteness, making a faux pas, insensitivity,
offensiveness, obscenity, profanity, violating taboos, and deviancy. In some cases, criminal behavior can also be an act of rudeness. The rudeness by Fred
can be seen from the quotation below:
“When I came around, my hands were securely tied behind my back with my own scarf. I started to struggle again. Rose
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was gripping me in a bear hug; her clasp was holding me still while Fred wrapped brown sticky tape around my head and
mouth-gagging me.” Roberts, 2005:41
Fred commits an offense, as abortion to some young women. These woman also become the object of sexual pleasure of Fred because he helps
them to do the abortion. It can be seen from the quotation below:
“ At 31 years of age, Fred West was a big man trapped in a
little man’s body. He clearly thought of himself as a gynaecologist and Warren Beatty lookalike all rolled into
one; the surgeon and the stud. The reality was that he worked in a factory, doing the occasional odd job on the side. This
budding ‘surgeon’ bragged that he had performed abortions for girls in trouble; according to him, they were usually so
grateful to him that they would offer themselves to him for his sexual pleasure as soon as the foetus was removed. I’ve
had thousands of woman,’ he told me; they would, he claimed, fall at his feet.”
Roberts, 2005:27
• Cruel Murdering
Mutilation is one of the example of cruel murdering. Mutilation or maiming is an act of physical injury that degrades the appearance or function
of any living body, usually causing death. Maiming, or mutilation which involves the loss of, or incapacity to use, a bodily member, is and has been
using by many societies with various cultural and religious significances, and is also a customary form of physical punishment, especially applied on the
principle of an eye for an eye. But in this novel, after kills the victim, Fred mutilates his victim. It
shows sadism because he has personal disorder which makes him become cruel
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to kill his victim and he will receive a pleasure from inflicting pain to his victim. It can be seen from the quotation below:
“Later that day, the police found what was later identified as Heather’s remains. Her body had been cut up, her head and
legs removed and squashed in next to her torso, in a hole which was only one foot across. After the first thigh bone had
been examined, the police knew they were looking at two sets of remains.”
Roberts, 2005:166
Fred does some cruel murdering to his victim like mutilate, handcuffs on, hit in the mouth, tied them with noose around the neck, white material,
fingernails pulled, whipped, hanging the victim, and burying. It can be seen from the quotations below:
“This was Fred’s place, only Fred came here. He would bring girls back here to use for himself. He would hang them up
and leave them cold and naked and starve them. They were chilled to the bone. When they were completely
disorientated, he would take them somewhere else for others to use.”
Roberts, 2005:269
The quotation below shows the next crimes of Fred to cover and hide his sadistic acts by burying them and also hang them up far from his house.
“By 8 March 1994, Fred had admitted to killing twelve girls. Nine of these girls were buried at 25 Cromwell Street, some
beneath the garden, some underneath the cellar floor and some under the walls. Two more, his ex-wife and another
pregnant ex-lover, were buried in two adjacent fields in Kemply, near the cottage he was raised in. At the former
home of Fred and Rose, 25 Midland Road, another victim was found buried under the kitchen floor.”
Roberts, 2005:167
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4.2 Rosemary West’s Psychopathic Attitude