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By Root 606 0

Dexter was able to prompt a conversation when he located a scrapbook the nurse kept with information about each of her victims. When she awoke, Dexter stated, “I’ve just been looking through your photo album . . . hope you don’t mind. (Showing her the album) Are all your victims in here?” (“Popping Cherry”). He walked over to her and removed the gag for her to respond. “I helped them, all of them. I took their pain away,” she pleaded in her defense. “I understand,” said Dexter calmly, adding, “Now it’s time to take away your pain,” and commenced to stab her in the side. Years later, Dexter prompted a similar conversation with victim Mike by forcing him to look at the decaying bodies of his three young victims. In this case, Dexter uncharacteristically prompted the conversation earlier in the sequence of events—prior to the injection and securing the victim to the kill table. The effect, nevertheless, was the same. Seeing the bodies, the choir director begged for his life, and Dexter directed the conversation toward Mike’s victims, asking if they also begged.

“I couldn’t help myself,” cried Mike in his defense. “I couldn’t, I . . . please, you have to understand.”

With initial understanding, Dexter replied, “Trust me, I definitely understand. See, I can’t help myself either.” Then, his tone swinging toward anger, said, “But children, I could never do that, not like you. Never, ever kids.”

Interested, Mike whispered, “Why?”

“I have standards,” replied Dexter as he stepped forward to inject the child killer with M-99.

Neither this conversation, nor that with Mary, was necessary for the completion of their murderers. As such, it follows that a conversational component is one piece of Dexter’s signature. So what might a thorough analysis of his pre-murder conversations reveal about our serial killer’s psychological traits, needs, and deviancy? First, it seems safe to conclude that Dexter derives some sort of personal satisfaction from hearing the victims admit to their own crimes. This might fulfill a need for vigilante justice or righteousness. Alternatively, the conversation may simply fulfill Dexter’s need to adhere to Harry’s Code: hearing the victim’s admission of guilt assures that Dexter has a viable victim on his kill table. The conversations also tend to cause the victims some sort of psychological distress, often leading to tears, justification, and/or begging for their own lives. They may be meant to invoke fear, guilt, or remorse. In any case, the nature and setup of the conversations seem to point toward such psychological traits as grandiosity and desire to dominate. This is in stark contrast to Dexter’s usual presentation in his daily life as a considerate, agreeable people pleaser. So which version of Dexter is the real Dexter? Criminal investigators may say the former. Experts believe that the signature aspects are repressed fantasies that the serial killer holds on to and daydreams about until he is compelled to act. Viewers may say the latter. Privy to Dexter’s internal monologue, we know that there is more to Dexter than his Dark Passenger.

Another element of Dexter’s signature is that the victims are stripped nude prior to their murder. Oftentimes they are also nude during the conversation. The nudity, like the conversational component, suggests the intentional infliction of psychological trauma on the victims. Psychologically speaking, the nudity points toward traits of aggression and domination. It may also signify Dexter’s need to shame or humiliate his victims.

A third integral signature piece is the small cut Dexter makes on most of his victims’ cheeks. When this occurs, either during or following the conversations, Dexter also takes a sample of their blood and places it between two glass specimen slides. He takes the slide home and stores it in a trophy-like box filled with his other victims’ blood samples. Like the conversation and the nudity, this particular behavioral pattern also stands out as clearly unnecessary to the act of murder. Moreover, it evolved over time. Dexter did not take a