To say Amanda Howard has some unusual pen pals is an understatement: the best-selling true crime author and podcaster has a room in her Sydney home filled with correspondence from scores of serial killers around the world that she has been writing to over the past 20 years.
The notorious line-up includes Richard Ramirez, the ‘Night Stalker’ who terrorised California in the 1980s; David Berkowitz, known as ‘Son of Sam’, who killed six people in New York in the 1970s and the ‘Backpacker Murderer’, Ivan Milat, who was convicted of killing seven young people in NSW between 1989 and 1992, whose bodies were found, partially-buried, in the Belanglo State Forest.
Howard has dedicated her career to understanding what makes murderers tick. And so successful has she been in probing the deviant mind that in criminology circles, she has become known as ‘the Serial Killer Whisperer’.
Police officers, psychiatrists and lawyers have beaten a path to her door, seeking advice on murder cases. She has also advised the families of victims, media outlets seeking commentary and even actors taking on roles as killers.
It might surprise you to know how readily convicted killers have responded to Howard’s approaches. She puts it down having a clinical degree of self-centredness. ‘We live in a world on narcissism,’ she said recently. ‘Everybody really likes talking about themselves’.
Exchanging letters with these monsters is no mere exercise in macabre curiosity: it has made Howard an expert in identifying the personality traits psychopaths have in common, and what sets them apart from the rest of society.
Surprisingly, Howard didn’t set out to study serial killers: in the late 1980s, ready to embark on a career, she planned on being a dancer. Then, a ghastly series of slayings put her on a new course.
Like much of Australia at the time, Howard was captivated by the pursuit of a shadowy figure the media dubbed the Granny Killer, who turned out to be married, middle-aged pie salesman John Wayne Glover.
Amanda Howard (left) has been pen pals with the Night Stalker, Son of Sam and the Backpacker Murderer, which explains how she got her own distinctive nickname: the Serial Killer Whisperer. (Right: piles of Amanda’s correspondence with imprisoned serial murderers)
English-born Glover murdered six women aged from 60 to 93 during a 14-month reign of terror on Sydney’s lower north shore which ended in March 1990.
He attacked his victims in their homes, hitting some over the head with a hammer and strangling others with their own pantyhose.
Until the Granny Killer was revealed to look just like the suburban father he was, Howard had a vastly different picture in her head of a man who could commit such atrocities.
‘Like many, I had an image of what the unknown killer would look like,’ she tells me.
‘Some creepy guy, rotten teeth, snarling, drooling, but when he was arrested and he just looked like an average dad, I was shocked.
‘I could not believe that a serial killer looked like everyone else. I was hooked. I needed to know more. So, my dreams of spotlights and sequins were replaced by killers and crime scenes.’
Howard might have become one of the millions of amateur experts around the world who are fascinated by serial killers, simply devouring books and listening to podcasts. But she was hooked: she enrolled on a Bachelor of Criminology course, wanting to understand fully the psychology behind these homicidal social deviants ‘and never looked back’.
The mother-of-two, from Sydney’s west, is far from a ‘murder groupie’, a woman who gets a kick out of connecting with killers. Her extensive research as a criminologist, body language analyst, author of 29 books and co-host of the popular podcast Monsters Who Murder: Serial Killer Confessions has made her a respected and internationally recognised authority on humans who hunt humans.
In Australia, Howard has exchanged letters with backpacker killer Ivan Milat, nursing home mass murderer Roger Dean, the ‘Frankston Serial Killer’ Paul Denyer, and ‘the Granny Killer’ John Wayne Glover (left), who some speculate may have been motivated to kill by the rage and hatred he felt for his own mother Frida (right), with whom he had a complicated relationship
One of the key things she has learned is how wrong the popular perception of serial killers as lonely sociopaths – the way they are often portrayed in movies and books – can be .
‘People think they cannot feel real feelings, but they can,’ she says. ‘It’s just sometimes different to how “normal” people feel them.
‘This is where their façade comes into play. It’s unlikely you would be able to pick a serial killer in a crowd. In all honesty, they are just like the rest of us. Think about it, would a hitchhiker get into a car with someone who was scary? No.
‘They may not be perfect, but they will be normal enough to fit in,’ she adds.
‘This is why they have partners, spouses, siblings and children, without any of them realising their loved one is a killer.’
Serial killers are generally skilled at keeping their capacity for cruelty hidden, until it is time to use it: ‘They can compartmentalise the two sides of their lives,’ she says. ‘Their killer persona gets locked away while they live in reality. When it is time to kill, they swap it out.
‘It is not a clear-cut Jekyll and Hyde switch, but it is what they do to survive and live and avoid detection.’
Many people will be fascinated to learn that ordinary people can share personality traits with killers. Psychopathy presents on a spectrum. At the more ‘normal’ end what we might call ‘ordinary psychopaths’ – sometimes our colleagues, friends or spouses – will possess the same narcissism, superficial charm and lack of empathy as sadistic criminals, but don’t carry out acts of violence.
Howard does not use words such as ‘maniac’ or ‘animal’ when talking to Daily Mail Australia about the subjects of her scrutiny, but her revulsion for some of them is obvious.
‘Nearly every single serial killer comes with a level of detachment and a superficially nice guy persona,’ she says. ‘They really try to disarm those around them by being charming. They repeatedly use your name when they speak to you. It is as though they do it to remind themselves to be friendly, but it can have the opposite effect.
‘It is a façade and though they try, it can fall away easily if you push them into a conversation or place that they don’t want to be in.’
Signs of an ‘ordinary psychopath’
Not every psychopath is a monster who preys on the innocent. Many seemingly ordinary people have a ‘psychopathic personality’ that blunts their empathy without leading them down a path of violence. There are six tell-tale signs that the toxic person in your life could share the same psychological ‘DNA’ as some of history’s worst killers…
They repeatedly say your name when speaking to you
This is often a sign that someone has a façade. It is the psychopath’s way of reminding themselves to be friendly – something which does not come naturally to them.
Yes, it could be a sign they are simply ‘fake’ or trying to butter you up. They may also be a harmless person who has read too many self-help books about social interaction.
But it’s also a known trait among psychopaths because it’s a textbook example of their superficial charm, which is strongly associated with psychopathy.
They quickly drop the ‘nice guy’ act under pressure
Nearly every serial killer Amanda has spoken to – minus the repulsive Richard Ramirez – possesses a superficial ‘nice guy’ persona.
Everyone knows a nice guy: they remember your name, they smile, they ask questions, they listen in return. It’s easy to see why women fall for them.
If they’re a genuine nice guy with nothing to hide, these warm gestures are just part of their good nature.
But if they are a psychopath in disguise, you’ll soon find out it’s all front.
Everyday psychopaths are known for their superficial charm, but show their true selves when backed into a corner. They rely on social habits like calling you by your name to mimic friendliness. And they can’t stand anyone else having the last word (stock image)
The moment you push them into a conversation or situation where they don’t feel 100 per cent in control, they drop the ‘nice guy’ act fast.
This is when the mask slips and they reveal their true selves – and it’s your cue to run.
They seem normal… but never get it quite right
When the law finally catches up to a psychopath, those around them will often say they weren’t perfect, but they were normal enough to fit in.
So often we imagine psychopaths as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-type characters. But Amanda emphasises there is no abrupt ‘personality switch’.
They instead find ways to adapt when in company to avoid detection – but even the most accomplished actors can’t deliver a perfect performance.
If your gut tells you someone is trying too hard to appear normal, there’s a good chance you’re right.
They love the attention
‘Non-killing psychopaths’ want to be the most exciting person in the room. When they lay on the charm, it isn’t subtle, by any means.
They command attention because it gives them a sense of control, which they crave.
They are so convincing with their charm, many won’t even know it’s a façade.
They always demand the last word
One observation Amanda has made during her years of correspondence with serial killers is they usually want the last word in an argument, especially if they feel shamed or slighted.
This often serves as the perfect opportunity to unleash their vitriol – in the hope you will be too blindsided to offer a response.
They adopt a fake persona
We all have a public face – the one we use at work, for example – which is different to our ‘normal’ self – who we are with family and friends.
For most people, the public persona isn’t fake; it’s just a socially acceptable front. But for psychopaths, the public persona is a total sham.
It’s purpose is to deceive others and disguise the wearer’s true personality.
One way to bring the psychopath out from behind this ‘mask of sanity’ is to not give them the attention they crave. Starve them of attention and you will soon see their cruel and vindictive side.
The first serial killer to respond to one of Howard’s letters was Arthur Shawcross, who in 1972 raped and killed a 10-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl in Jefferson County, New York.
After serving 14 years in prison Shawcross began targeting prostitutes in the Rochester area on Lake Ontario, killing at least 11 women between March 1988 and December 1989.
Shawcross, aka. the Genesee River Killer or the Rochester Strangler, sent Howard a poem.
‘Why is there a commonality to people like us,’ he wrote. ‘Can it be our independency and self-sufficiency that keeps our subsequent bizarre behaviour or the rush?’
In addition to Shawcross, Howards’ American mailing list features the likes of Charles Manson, and Dennis Rader, who dubbed himself the BTK Killer for ‘blind, torture, kill’.
In Australia, Howard has exchanged letters with Ivan Milat, the so-called Backpacker killer – whose home, she realised chillingly when he was arrested, she could see from her own – Roger Dean, who killed 11 elderly residents in a nursing home, and Paul Denyer, known as the Frankston Serial Killer, who killed three young women in Melbourne in 1993.
Milat agreed to correspond with her to protest his innocence. ‘He believed it,’ she says, ‘but I can tell you no one else did.’
Howard is now working on a book about Ivan Milat, ‘breaking down his thoughts, his lies, his family connections’, as well as an ‘accidental confession’ he gave to her.
She firmly believes Milat did not act alone and is convinced he was in fact the less dominant killer in a partnership.
‘People always expect Milat to be in charge,’ she says. ‘He’s not smart enough, not as cold-blooded. I have photos of the victims. There is more there than just Ivan.’
Milat is among the killers with whom Howard can no longer correspond. He died of stomach and oesophageal cancer in Sydney’s Long Bay Jail aged 74 in October 2019.
Not all Howard’s interactions with killers have gone smoothly: some do not like to be challenged.
‘I called one killer dull and boring, and the threats I received from him for being so frank were pretty scary. That was the first threat I received,’ she says.
‘I’ve had plenty since then and it’s just part of the job now.’
Others insist on getting in the last word in one final letter then block Howard’s responses if they feel their false front has broken down.
‘I see behind the mask,’ she reveals. ‘And many of them do not like it.’
Howard does not hesitate when asked to name whom she considers the ‘worst of the worst’ of all the serial killers she has encountered.
‘Richard Ramirez,’ she says. ‘Without a doubt.’
Texan drifter Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez killed at least 13 men, women and children in greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area between April 1984 and August 1985.
Most of the murders took place as part of evening burglaries, earning him the epithets the Walk-In Killer and Valley Intruder, as well as the Night Stalker.
Ramirez shot, stabbed, bludgeoned and strangled his victims, who were aged nine to 83. He raped many of the women and mutilated some of their bodies.
Sentencing the drug-addled Satanist to death in 1989, a judge said Ramirez had acted out ‘cruelty, callousness, and viciousness beyond any human understanding’.
Ramirez had never shown any remorse for his unspeakable savagery and remained utterly detestable in his letters to Howard.
‘He was revolting and gross,’ Howard says. ‘Even writing to him, his responses were sexually explicit and horrible.
‘As I said, “most” serial killers are charming. Ramirez is the exception to every rule. ‘He thought he was a rock star, but he was extremely dumb, lazy and uncontrolled.’
Howard does not believe Ramirez deserves any credit for being ‘real’ in his letters to her instead of making the effort to be superficially polite as others have done.
‘Nope, not at all,’ she says. ‘This wasn’t his reality, it was just the persona he wanted to use. He wanted shock value and basically it was a pathetically obvious attempt that failed to impress or shock me.’
Of the female killers with whom Howard has exchanged letters, among the most loathsome was Theresa Knorr, who is serving two life sentences at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
Knorr, who shot her first husband dead in 1962 but was acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence. She went on to torture and kill two of her six children in 1984 and 1985.
She shot one teenage daughter and left her to lie in a bath tub while the wound turned septic, then ordered two of her sons to help drive the girl to a remote location where she was set on fire.
She later forced another daughter into prostitution and, after accusing her of passing on a sexually transmitted disease via a toilet seat, locked her inside a closet where she died.
‘Knorr felt threatened by her daughters,’ Howard says. ‘She was driven by needing to be the centre of attention.
‘Even talking to her now, she wants to talk about how amazing she is and wants me to buy her makeup and hair products to doll herself up in prison.
‘She spoke at length about her various husbands and how she blamed them for everything. She takes no responsibility for her daughters dying.’
Another mother who for decades was labelled Australia’s worst female serial killer aroused completely different emotions in Howard from the start.
Kathleen Folbigg spent 20 years in prison after being convicted of three counts of murder and one of manslaughter over the deaths of her four infants in the NSW Hunter Valley between 1989 and 1999. Folbigg has always maintained the children died unexpectedly of natural causes, but the prosecution cited entries in her diary as evidence she had smothered them in periods of frustration.
A judicial inquiry eventually found that scientific advances showed there was ‘reasonable doubt’ about Folbigg’s guilt. She was released in June last year and in December her convictions were quashed.
‘I spent years talking to Kathleen Folbigg and never doubted her innocence,’ Howard says. She focused on the Folbigg case for her Masters of Criminology, reading court files and going through all the forensic evidence include autopsy results.
‘It really was extremely obvious she was the victim of an outdated and erroneous belief that sudden infant deaths were unlikely to occur a second time in a family,’ she says.
‘Today it is proven that subsequent children are at a higher risk of sudden death.’
For obvious reasons, Howard is careful about what she reveals in her correspondence.
‘The concern is that they share letters and details with other prisoners and some of those will be released and will come looking for you,’ she says. ‘I’ve needed to change my post office boxes several times because I’ve been found.’
In recent years, Howard has kept working despite crippling grief after her husband, Steve, whom she had known since high school, took his own life in 2017. This year alone, she has released two publications, Killer Minds Vol 2 and A Date with Death, which features crime-related events for every day on the calendar.
With a full-time job working in data and analytics on top, the 50-year-old keeps ungodly hours, starting her days at 4am and going until 11.30 most nights.
Howard’s academic study of serial killers, coupled with her personal communications with many of those who have been caught and convicted, have given her rare insight into their minds.
‘It’s a hard job to keep up with it all and it takes a toll,’ she says. ‘Having a child killer give you all the graphic details of what they have done, it does soak into your soul sometimes.’
Some of Howard’s correspondents have passed on: Richard Ramirez died of blood cancer aged 53 in June 2013 while awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison in California and Arthur Shawcross suffered a fatal cardiac arrest aged 63 in November 2008 at Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY.
Ironically, she never heard from John Wayne Glover, the so-called Granny Killer, who began her fascination with murder. She wrote to him several times, but he did not respond. Glover hanged himself at Lithgow jail aged 72 in September 2005 while serving six life sentences.
Topping the list of those with whom Howard would still like to strike up some sort of conversation is Rose West, one half of Britain’s most prolific killing couple.
Rose West collaborated with her husband Fred in the torture, rape and murder of at least nine women between 1973 and 1987, having killed her eight-year-old stepdaughter in 1971.
Fred West killed himself in 1995, while the couple was awaiting trial, and his 70-year-old widow has so far ignored all Howard’s overtures to talk from her cell in HM Prison New Hall in West Yorkshire.
‘I have attempted to contact her a number of times, but she has refused every attempt,’ Howard says.
‘I want to sit and talk to her, to analyse everything she says – and the things she doesn’t say. I want to see her manipulation tactics, her mannerisms, and how a mother can be such a sexual deviant.’
‘I am fascinated by the West case, and the dynamics involved. I have spoken to a number of killer pairs, but she is kind of my “white whale”.’
Given Howard’s tenacity in getting other killers to reveal their darkest secrets to her, I’d say it is still possible that one day she will pick up her mail and find a letter postmarked West Yorkshire.
Howard could have become one of the millions of amateur experts around the world who are fascinated by serial killers, devouring books and listening to podcasts.
Instead, she enrolled in a Bachelor of Criminology to properly understand the psychology behind these homicidal social deviants ‘and never looked back’.
She has fought crippling grief after her husband took his own life in 2017, but this year alone has released two publications, Killer Minds Vol 2 and A Date with Death, which features crime-related events for every day on the calendar.
While Howard still loves to dance, more of her time these days is taken up talking to and researching serial killers, assorted other murderers and child predators.
With a full-time job working in data and analytics on top of all that, the 50-year-old keeps ungodly hours, starting her days at 4am and going until 11.30 most nights.
Howard’s academic study of serial killers, coupled with her personal communications with many of those who have been caught and convicted, have given her rare insight into their minds.
‘It’s a hard job to keep up with it all and it takes a toll,’ she says. ‘Having a child killer give you all the graphic details of what they have done, it does soak into your soul sometimes.’
American serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as ‘The Night Stalker’, smirks and gestures to a photographer after his guilty verdict in 1989. Amanda Howard described him as ‘without a doubt’ the most vile criminal she has ever had correspondence with
Ramirez, a drug-addled Satanist who was sentenced to death in 1989, tried to shock Howard with his ‘horrible’ and ‘sexually explicit’ letters (one example is seen here). He didn’t even try laying on the superficial charm that some psychopaths do when writing to journalists
Howard does not use words such as ‘maniac’ or ‘animal’ when talking to Daily Mail Australia about the subjects of her scrutiny, but her revulsion for some of them is obvious.
‘Nearly every single serial killer comes with a level of detachment and a superficially nice guy persona,’ she says.
‘They really try to disarm those around them by being charming.
‘They repeatedly use your name when they speak to you. It is as though they do it as a way to remind themselves to be friendly, but it can have the opposite effect.
‘It is a façade and though they try, it can fall away easily if you push them into a conversation or place that they don’t want to be in.’
The first serial killer to respond to one of Howard’s letters was Arthur Shawcross, who in 1972 raped and killed a 10-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl in Jefferson County, New York.
After serving 14 years in prison Shawcross began targeting prostitutes in the Rochester area on Lake Ontario, killing at least 11 women between March 1988 and December 1989.
Shawcross, aka. the Genesee River Killer or the Rochester Strangler, sent Howard a poem.
‘Why is there a commonality to people like us,’ he wrote. ‘Can it be our independency and self sufficiency that keeps our subsequent bizarre behaviour or the rush?’
Chillingly, his poem warned that psychopaths walk among ordinary people.
‘If you see me in agitation, insanity, furor, excitability, delirium, violence or plain evil, then I suggest you take a deep look in the mirror,’ he wrote.
The first serial killer to respond to one of Howard’s letters was Arthur Shawcross, the Rochester Strangler, who wrote her this poem. ‘If you see me in agitation, insanity, furor, excitability, delirium, violence or plain evil, then I suggest you take a deep look in the mirror’
Howard has since learned that many of the popular perceptions of serial killers based on movies, books or pseudo-psychology can be wrong.
‘People think they cannot feel real feelings, but they can,’ she says. ‘It’s just sometimes different to how “normal” people feel them.
‘This is where their façade comes into play. It’s unlikely you would be able to pick a serial killer in a crowd. This is how they continue to have “normal” lives.’
Howard knows all about the crimes her interview subjects have committed before she writes to them in jail, but warns their true nature would not necessarily be obvious on the outside.
‘They may not be perfect, but they will be normal enough to fit in,’ she says.
‘This is why they have partners, spouses, siblings and children, without any of them realising their loved one is a killer.’
Howard observes serial killers are skilled at keeping their capacity for cruelty hidden from those to whom they do not want to reveal their secret identities.
‘They can compartmentalise the two sides of their lives,’ she says.
‘Their killer persona gets locked away while they live in reality. When it is time to kill, they swap it out.
‘They let fantasies and ideas run rampant, most of them can control these urges within reason.
‘It is not a clear-cut Jekyll and Hyde switch, but it is what they do to survive and live and avoid detection.’
Pictured is a selection of letters Amanda Howard received from backpacker killer Ivan Milat during his incarceration at Goulburn’s maximum security prison
For many killers, asserting their innocence is the primary focus of what they tell Howard.
‘Look at Milat,’ she says of the NSW backpacker killer. ‘He always protested his innocence – believed it – but I can tell you no one else did.’
Not all Howard’s interactions with killers go smoothly and some do not like to be challenged.
‘I called one killer dull and boring, and the threats I received from him for being so frank were pretty scary. That was the first threat I received,’ she says.
‘I’ve had plenty since then and it’s just part of the job now.’
Other killers will insist on getting in the last word in one final letter then block Howard’s responses if they feel their false front has broken down.
‘I see behind the mask,’ she reveals. ‘And many of them do not like it.’
Howard does not hesitate when asked to name whom she considers the ‘worst of the worst’ of all the serial killers she has encountered.
‘Richard Ramirez,’ she says. ‘Without a doubt.’
Texan drifter Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez killed at least 13 men, women and children in greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area between April 1984 and August 1985.
Most of the murders took place as part of evening burglaries, earning him the epithets the Walk-In Killer and Valley Intruder, as well as the Night Stalker.
Ramirez shot, stabbed, bludgeoned and strangled his victims, who were aged nine to 83. He raped many of the women and mutilated some of their bodies.
Sentencing the drug-addled Satanist to death in 1989, a judge said Ramirez had acted out ‘cruelty, callousness, and viciousness beyond any human understanding’.
Ramirez had never shown any remorse for his unspeakable savagery and remained utterly detestable in his letters to Howard.
Howard is writing a book about Ivan Milat, better known as the Backpacker Killer. She firmly believes Milat did not act alone and is convinced he was in fact the less dominant killer in a partnership
‘He was revolting and gross,’ she says. ‘Even writing to him, his responses were sexually explicit and horrible.
‘As I said, “most” serial killers are charming. Ramirez is the exception to every rule.
‘He thought he was a rock star, but he was extremely dumb, lazy and uncontrolled, and that is how he liked it.’
Howard does not believe Ramirez deserves any credit for being ‘real’ in his letters to her instead of making an effort to be superficially polite like other killers do.
‘Nope, not at all,’ she says. ‘This wasn’t his reality, it was just the persona he wanted to use.
‘He wanted shock value and basically it was a pathetically obvious attempt that failed to impress or shock me.’
Of the female killers with whom Howard has exchanged letters, among the most loathsome was Theresa Knorr, who is serving two life sentences at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
‘Theresa Knorr is a nasty one,’ Howard says.
Knorr, who shot her first husband dead in 1962 but was acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence, tortured and killed two of her six children in 1984 and 1985.
She shot one teenage daughter and left her to lie in a bath tub while the wound turned septic, then ordered two of her sons to help drive the girl to a remote location where she was set on fire.
She later forced another daughter into prostitution and, after accusing her of passing on a sexually transmitted disease via a toilet seat, locked her inside a closet where she died.
‘Knorr felt threatened by her daughters,’ Howard says. ‘She was driven by needing to be the centre of attention.
‘Even talking to her now, she wants to talk about how amazing she is, and wants me to buy her makeup and hair products to doll herself up in prison.
‘She spoke at length about her various husbands and how she blamed them for everything. She takes no responsibility for her daughters dying.’
Another mother who for decades was labelled Australia’s worst female serial killer aroused completely different emotions in Howard from the start.
Kathleen Folbigg spent 20 years in prison after being convicted of three counts of murder and one of manslaughter over the deaths of her four infants in the NSW Hunter Valley between 1989 and 1999.
Folbigg has always maintained the children died unexpectedly of natural causes but the prosecution cited entries in her diary as evidence she had smothered them in periods of frustration.
A judicial inquiry eventually found that scientific advances showed there was ‘reasonable doubt’ about Folbigg’s guilt. She was released in June last year and in December her convictions were quashed.
‘I spent years talking to Kathleen Folbigg and never doubted her innocence,’ Howard says. ‘I’ve spoken to hundreds of killers, many of them claim to be innocent, but she is the only one I knew was wrongly convicted.’
Howard focused on the Folbigg case for her Masters of Criminology, reading court files and going through all the forensic evidence include autopsy results.
‘It really was extremely obvious she was the victim of an outdated and erroneous belief that sudden infant deaths were unlikely to occur a second time in a family,’ she says.
‘Today it is proven that subsequent children are at a higher risk of sudden death.’
Milat is among the killers with whom Howard can no longer correspond. He died of stomach and oesophageal cancer in Sydney’s Long Bay Jail aged 74 in October 2019 (pictured in his last public sighting in May 2019)
Howard always knew from her correspondence with Kathleen Folbigg that she was innocent. Folbigg was wrongfully convicted in 2003 of murdering her four infant children, only to be pardoned after 20 years behind bars. ‘I’ve spoken to hundreds of killers, many of them claim to be innocent, but she is the only one I knew was wrongly convicted,’ Howard says
Howard never discloses how she finds killers she writes to – ‘not that it’s hard’ – and is conscious of what she tells them about herself in her correspondence.
‘The concern is that they share letters and details with other prisoners and some of those will be released and will come looking for you,’ she says. ‘I’ve needed to change my post office boxes several times because I’ve been found.’
Howard does not have a standard way of addressing a prisoner when she first writes to them behind bars.
‘It depends on the person,’ she says. ‘Kathleen Folbigg, I think, I began with “Ms Folbigg” but Charles Manson, he was Charlie.
‘When you speak to someone for 20-odd years, of course, the relationship changes. Some knew a lot about me but most I keep at a distance.
‘It is a cat-and-mouse game for many of them, but sometimes I’m the mouse and sometimes I’m the cat.’
Howard is now working on a book about Ivan Milat, ‘breaking down his thoughts, his lies, his family connections’, as well as an ‘accidental confession’ he gave to her.
She firmly believes Milat did not act alone and is convinced he was in fact the less dominant killer in a partnership.
‘People always expect Milat to be in charge,’ she says. ‘He’s not smart enough, not as cold-blooded. I have photos of the victims. There is more there than just Ivan.’
Milat is among the killers with whom Howard can no longer correspond. He died of stomach and oesophageal cancer in Sydney’s Long Bay Jail aged 74 in October 2019.
Richard Ramirez died of blood cancer aged 53 in June 2013 while awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison in California. Arthur Shawcross suffered a fatal cardiac arrest aged 63 in November 2008 at Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY.
Howard wrote to John Wayne Glover, the Granny Killer, several times but he never responded. Glover hanged himself at Lithgow jail aged 72 in September 2005 while serving six life sentences.
Howard describes Rose West, one half of Britain’s most prolific killing couple, as her ‘white whale’ because of the number of times she has attempted to contact her without success. Rose West collaborated with her husband Fred in the torture, rape and murder of at least nine women between 1973 and 1987, having killed her eight-year-old stepdaughter in 1971
Topping the list of those with whom Howard would like to strike up some sort of conversation is Rose West, one half of Britain’s most prolific killing couple.
Rose West collaborated with her husband Fred in the torture, rape and murder of at least nine women between 1973 and 1987, having killed her eight-year-old stepdaughter in 1971.
Fred West killed himself in 1995 while the couple was awaiting trial and his 70-year-old widow has so far ignored all Howard’s overtures to talk from her cell in HM Prison New Hall in West Yorkshire.
‘I have attempted to contact her a number of times, but she has refused every attempt,’ Howard says.
‘I want to sit and talk to her, to analyse everything she says – and the things she doesn’t say. I want to see her manipulation tactics, her mannerisms, and how a mother can be such a sexual deviant.’
‘I am fascinated by the West case, and the dynamics involved. I have spoken to a number of killer pairs but she is kind of my “white whale”.’
Given Howard’s tenacity in getting other killers to reveal their darkest secrets to her, it is still possible that one say she will pick up her mail and find a letter postmarked West Yorkshire.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk