Writing REDHANDED: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick

What makes a killer kill? It’s an age-old question which elicits every type of answer imaginable – from the curiously innovative to the eye-rollingly outdated. And as a true crime podcaster of 4 years, I’ve heard them all. 

Many of us are convinced that some people are just born monsters, others fall firmly into camp “nurture” stating that a killer’s traumatic childhood must be to blame and others shake our fists at the moral decay of our very society – caused by the likes of Grand Theft Auto.

Who’s right? Who knows! But bringing together the latest research, cases from all over the world and our own outspoken social commentary, RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults and What Makes a Killer Tick tries hard to unpick these perilous knots.

It’s tricky, because the answer to this question is of course incredibly complex, and the path that leads someone to kill another human being is a complicated and twisty-turny one.

This book is a culmination of 4 years spent neck-deep in true crime over at RedHanded the podcast. During which time my co-host and I have explored almost every single type of case and killer out there. From those who killed a loved one in cold blood and cried cringe-inducing crocodile tears in front of the cameras, to those who serially-slaughtered their way to infamy – we’ve seen it all. But as we’ve explored all of these stories, the question we’ve always kept coming back to is: what separates a person who relishes in taking a life, from the rest of us?

We knew the answer wasn’t as simple as they were just born “monsters”, and nor could it simply be put down to a bad childhood (after all, abusive childhoods are not as rare a thing as we’d like to think) – so we started to pull together everything we’ve learned and we soon realised that usually what leads a person to become a killer is something very human indeed.

And soon we found ourselves diving headfirst into the mind-bending interplay between genetics, environment, and experiences, and how they impact who we are…

The real motivation behind this was because we at RedHanded have a real issue with people trying to “otherise” killers – not out of some sort of weird misplaced empathy with the killer over the victims or anything like that. But because doing so is a really convenient way for us to just sweep away all the ways in which society itself is responsible for these killers! So, in this book we wanted to explore what makes a killer tick, and to do so we looked at 8 key factors that can set a person on the path to murder.

In chapter 1 we tackle the biggie – genetics. This is a real wild ride through the world of junk science, science and everything in between. In this chapter we wanted to see what the link was between one’s genetics and one’s propensity to kill. Does such a genetic link exist and if so, what are the implications? Needless to say we get very scientific in this chapter but what we found also surprised us quite a bit!

As with many of the factors we explored, this became a bit of a myth busting task as we debunked the warrior gene, follow the case of killer Bradley Waldrop, get to the root of what a psychopath really is and discuss the impact it has on people at a neurological level  AND examine if it really does make a person more likely to kill…

In chapter 2 we delve into the childhoods of killers. Now, of course most people who have horrendous childhood experiences do not go on to become violent or killers – but in this chapter we wanted to explore the idea of how and why childhood abuse can impact a killer’s behaviour. We discovered that this kind of trauma can actually change the very structure of the brain and transform personalities, making it a key ingredient in any serial killer soup.

For the third chapter, we decided we had to discuss insanity. The intersection between mental health, criminality and the law is a dangerous place to be standing, it’s fraught with complicated and complex issues around agency and culpability. But in this chapter we unpick the common misunderstandings around not guilty by reason of insanity. And the role that mental illness can play in making a killer tick.

As female podcasters and writers, one of the key issues we come back to time and time again is misogyny because when the question is – what makes a killer; misogyny is an answer never too far away. And so chapter 4 is a meaty one. 

One of the most surprising discoveries we made as we researched this particular topic was that almost all spree shooters have a history of domestic abuse or misogynistic tendencies – even when the target of their mass killings isn’t women? The link could be due to that mentality of intimate terrorism (aka domestic abuse), spilling over into larger forms of marco terrorism.

Chapter 5 – cults. This might sound like a bit of an outlier, but hear us out. In this chapter we wanted to discuss not just the cult leader’s motivations, but more importantly (and in our opinion more interestingly) what makes a “normal” person who ends up in a cult turn into a killer. What is a process that breaks them down, makes them vulnerable to brainwashing and how are they reprogrammed to carry out murder or other horrific abuses all because of one person?

Next up in chapter 6 we examined the role of relationships in the development of a killer. We all know that love and relationships impact our lives almost more than anything else, so in this chapter we looked how these profound human emotions can transform a killer, and also those who may never have become killers had they not met that “right” person…

Chapter 7 – bigotry. Bigotry takes all sorts of forms when it comes to the world of true crime, from policing to the justice system, but in this chapter we explored how bigotry allowed some killers like Jeffery Dahmer and Gary Heidnik to escape undetected for years. 

And last but certainly not least in chapter 8 we talk sex.  There’s nothing quite like it when it comes to things that affect our behavior, so how does sex drive a killer? Well, here we talk about one of the scariest men we’ve ever come across – David Parker Ray aka The Toybox Killer and his trailer of nightmares. This chapter is all about sexual sadists, how they are formed and what truly drives them.

As you can see, RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults and What Makes a Killer Tick, is a smorgasbord of topics and cases all crammed into one jam-packed book. Hopefully you’ll walk away from this book seeing true crime as we do: the perfect mirror to hold up to judge a society.

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Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala are co-hosts of the smash hit true crime podcast RedHanded, which offers a weekly dose of murder, wit, and WTFs delivered with facts, anecdotal tangents, serious scrutiny, and real British flavor. RedHanded prides itself on looking past sensational headlines and getting to the truth of every murder, cult, and serial killer.

Twitter: REDHANDEDPOD

RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick 

2021 Listeners’ Choice British Podcast Awards Winner

Based off Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala’s popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded explores real-life true crime cases to help answer once and for all if a killer is born or made.

After meeting at a house party in London, where they discovered a mutual obsession for all things true crime, Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire drunkenly promised to one day start their own murder podcast. Six weeks later they ordered their first microphones and the rest is history. From the hosts of the hit podcast RedHanded (dubbed by Anna Paquin as her “all- time favorite true crime podcast”), Bala and Maguire have amassed a cult following of “spooky bitches.”

What is it about killers, cults, and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? Do we find these stories endlessly and equally compelling and frightening, because they hold up a mirror to society’s failings and to the horrors that we humans are capable of? RedHanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics.

With their trademark humor, research on real-life cases, and unflinching analysis of what makes a criminal, Bala and Maguire take you through what drives the most extreme of human behavior to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick?

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