My Life with Murderers: Behind Bars with the World’s Most Violent Men

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Aged twenty-nine he became, at that time, the UK's youngest ever prison Governor in charge of a jail and his career since then has seen him sat across a table with all sorts of killers: sometimes in a tense interview; sometimes sharing a cup of tea (or something a little stronger); sometimes looking them in the eye to tell them that they are a psychopath. David Wilson is Emeritus Professor of Criminology and the founding Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University.

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I would have enjoyed some more of these personal insights, as they added some much needed light relief to a heavy topic. If you like criminology and would like to learn more about David Wilsons career this book might be for you. At HMP Grendon he ran the sex offender treatment programme, and at HMP Woodhill he designed and managed the two specialist units for the 12 most disruptive prisoners in the penal system.The author examines the psychology of crime as well as what a crime scene can tell the investigators about the suspect. It’s surprising that anything fazes this professor emeritus of criminology, former prison governor, author of over 15 books and broadcaster, considering he’s spent much of his career interviewing and studying murderers, including the notorious serial killer, Dennis Nilsen. Without having read any of his previous novels, it’s clear that he has years of experience dealing with various psychopaths and murderers and knows their personalities inside and out. Wilson says it’s important to recognise that two women a week in the UK will die at the hands of partners or ex-partners. On this book he covers themes including offender profiling, what makes hitmen tick and what makes a psychopath.

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The interesting parts are the discussions of his contact or analysis of famous murders such as Dunblane, the Cumbria killings and Nilsen the serial killer. As, increasingly drowsily, I made my way through this memoir of criminology (subtitle could have been : My Effortless But Impressive Career), nothing whatsoever inspired me to make any tiny little x anywhere. I liked the fact that Wilson focused on his own experiences, even with those headliner criminals where it would've been so easy to slip into the same views and discussions that dominate the tabloids. This was a great addition to the true crime genre, and takes a true academic approach to the general audience. Nothing funny, nothing pithy, nothing profound, nothing shocking; and likewise nothing much to complain about either.An interesting perspective from Professor David Wilson who discusses his life as a prison governor and now as a criminologist. In a career spanning 40 years David has met all sorts of killers: hitmen, mass, spree and serial killers and those murderers who seem to kill “in 5 minutes of madness”. It's also hugely insightful and thought provoking about our justice system, I read it from cover to cover in one go. When I read a book I always have a pen handy to make a small x in the margin if I come across anything especially wonderful or funny, or, if things aren’t going so well, anything ridiculous, absurd, egregious or just gloriously awful.

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However, it’s also more than that, as it follows Wilson’s musings on what it is to be a murderer and the various types of murderers there are, from spree and hitmen to serial and beyond.

Every now and then he would wake me to full attention by introducing one of the notorious crimes of modern Britain – Dennis Nilsen, the Dunblane massacre, the Ipswich prostitute murders, the Derek Bird rampage in Cumbria, and then talk about them with such sensible matter of factness and blandness that this book may as well have been a wallpaper catalogue. I want to persuade the audience that an interest in true crime is not just normal but necessary and, above all, to offer hope about how we can reduce the incidence of murder and serial murder in our culture.