Part 12 (2/2)
At the time of Roy's visit to Angola with Lanning, there were only two air-conditioned areas within the prison. The warden's office was one. The wood-paneled conference room where Simonis met with the agents was the other.
Hazelwood and Lanning wore suits and ties, and sat opposite one another. The mustachioed Simonis in his white prison-issue T-s.h.i.+rt sat between the two agents. Coffee cups and ashtrays were scattered around. At Roy's nod, a video camera started recording, and the conversation began.
”What are you incarcerated for?” Roy asked.
”A series of armed robberies and rapes,” Simonis answered evenly.
”What's the total number of those, combined?”
”I think we have a figure of one hundred forty robberies and rapes and robberies and rapes combined.”
Simonis was unprepossessing, serious and alert and responsive, but with almost no edge to his voice, or much light in his eyes. That was intentional. The Ski Mask Rapist had learned the value of not being noticed.
He explained to Hazelwood that when he first arrived at Angola in 1982 the older cons advised him to deliberately score low on the standard IQ form so that prison authorities wouldn't expect too much of him, or watch him too closely. Simonis had scored a 108. When Roy had him retested by a psychologist, he scored a 128.
”And how many were rapes, specifically?” Hazelwood asked.
”Between forty-five and fifty rapes. Actual s.e.xual a.s.saults probably would get a little higher, anywhere between sixty and seventy-five.”
”And what would you include in s.e.xual a.s.saults?”
”Uh, somebody who would perform oral s.e.x, masturbation, any kind of a s.e.xual act other than intercourse.”
The discussion had the air of an employment interview, a tone that Hazelwood set deliberately. If they had any response besides clinical interest in what Simonis was saying, neither Hazelwood nor Lanning would betray it.
”And in what states did these take place, and what period of time are we talking about?” Roy continued.
”My first a.s.sault took place in November of 1978,” Simonis answered, ”and it ended in November of 1981. It went from Florida to Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and California.”
”Would you say there was a progression, or an escalation of aggression or violence a.s.sociated with your attacks?”
”Oh, yes,” Simonis answered. ”It started out very mild and progressed quite heavily.”
This part of Simonis's behavior already was evident from the case reports. The question that remained for Roy was how commonly did rapists' violence escalate? Was Simonis a rarity? The evidence from police agencies on this point was anecdotal and unscientific, a collection of memories and impressions, as is true for much investigative lore.
Hazelwood asked Simonis to describe his first a.s.sault. The Ski Mask Rapist didn't hesitate.
”The first one started out to be a burglary,” he said. ”I entered a house and was confronted by the lady who lived there-who I'd followed from a shopping center earlier that day.
”After confronting the woman I kinda let her know that I was in control. After I got the money from her and I kind of bound her hands, I took her into a bedroom and had her perform masturbation on me. I was unable to do v.a.g.i.n.al intercourse because I was unable to get an erection at the time. I was very nervous.”
”You did not physically a.s.sault her?”
”No sir.”
”How,” Roy asked, ”would that a.s.sault have occurred two to three years later?”
”Near the end of my criminal activities it got to be a much more violent thing, a form of degradation toward the women, making them feel completely dominated. My intentions were to inflict fear into them, to force them to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.”
Ken Lanning asked if Simonis's preparations for his crimes evolved as well.
”I progressed into a more disguised way,” Simonis explained. ”My face was covered. I wore gloves. I also wore baggy clothes, like coveralls, to kind of conceal my build. I also took into the place a pistol and precut lengths of rope to bind the victims with, or handcuffs. Duct tape to blind them, maybe tape their mouths. A pocketknife in case I needed to cut anything.”
”What precautions did you take when you left?” Roy asked.
”I'd usually cut the phone and make sure they were tied securely where they couldn't get loose anytime soon. Sometimes I'd slash their tires to prevent them from traveling.”
In this exchange, Simonis had provided Roy with his first glimpse of one of the serial rapist's central distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics. He is typically an intelligent offender, who reflects not only on the s.e.xual a.s.sault itself, but also on all the details of his pre- and postoffense behavior in order to perfect his crime, heighten the psychos.e.xual experience, and minimize the possibility of capture. Simonis was a perfect example of the highly organized offender, a thinking criminal.
Hazelwood asked how much money, in all, Simonis made from his thefts.
”After fencing the stuff, about a quarter million dollars,” he guessed. ”Retail it probably was worth three to four million.”
”Was it necessary for you to work, as well?”
”Not at all. When I worked in the hospital as a cardiovascular specialist I was maybe making somewhere from fourteen thousand to eighteen thousand a year. I'd sometimes make that much in a month from thefts.”
”Barry,” Lanning said, ”how did you identify your victims?”
”There were different ways. They usually were wealthy. As I drove through an area I'd pick out a house that looked to belong to a financially secure couple. Sometimes I'd pick somebody driving around in an expensive car. Or I might see somebody inside a store who might be wearing a gold watch or a large diamond. I'd wait outside in my car and then follow them to where they lived.
”If I didn't hit them directly, I'd probably hit somebody else in the neighborhood where they lived.”
”What about a woman attracted you?”
”Attractive ones had an appealing effect on me. It wasn't always the motive for following them, but it was a major one. I figured that if a woman was attractive and her husband was well off, he'd do things to keep her happy. Buy her expensive jewelry and other nice things.
”This was the initial reason for a lot of the attacks. I'd rob and take what I could. The a.s.saults and rapes usually took place afterward.”
”Tell us your understanding of why you did these things,” Lanning asked.
”It's pretty complex. I think there was a mult.i.tude of things involved. Money was a motive. s.e.x was a factor. Urges just came on to me to the point that I was uncontrollable near the end. The effects on me when I saw women had more of a hold on me than I had on them.”
”Did the robberies and burglaries, entering homes, satisfy some of your urges?”
Here, Simonis confirmed what many experts on criminal behavior have observed. Offenders get a psychic jolt from danger. They don't just rob for the money, or a.s.sault out of anger or a need for power. There's an adrenaline rush that lifts the experience to a higher plane for them.
”It got me high just going into a place that belonged to somebody else,” Simonis explained. ”Any kind of illegal activity, knowing there was a risk of being caught, created stimulation. It was a turn-on, so to speak. But it was a different high than the s.e.xual aspect. They kind of coincided with one another.”
Prior to his arrest as the Ski Mask Rapist, Simonis's rap sheet included a 1978 arrest near Lake Charles for making indecent telephone calls. In a statement he gave police, he admitted window-peeping as early as 1975. Later, as a soldier in Europe, he said, he repeatedly exposed himself to women.
The obscene telephone calls, Simonis said, had begun in late 1977, when he was working at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, operating a heart-stress machine. He denied ever having committed a rape to that point.
Roy probed Simonis's paraphilias, or perversions, as they were once known, realizing they likely were manifested much earlier than his arrest record showed.
”You began deviant s.e.xual behavior at fifteen? Is that right? With window-peeping?” he asked.
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