John Henry Browne, 67, has been practising law for 43 years. Based in Seattle, Washington, he has defended high-profile mass murderers, including serial killer Ted Bundy, who sowed fear across the US in the 1970s, and Robert Bales, an army sergeant who massacred 16 Afghan civilians in 2011.
I usually have some emotional engagement with clients, but Ted Bundy was a perfect example of someone born evil. I had no compassion for him. But I did want to save him from the death penalty. He was at times smart and handsome. To sit down and talk to him, you would think he was normal. He acted very well. Totally manipulative.
Ted told me one time that in junior high school he would put white mice into this little corral. He would sit there and figure out which ones he would save and which ones he would kill. It was the same with women. Control was his thing. But Ted did tell me something that showed he was 2% not sociopath. He said, "John, I want to be a good person, I'm just not."
He said the reason I was his lawyer for so long – he was always firing lawyers – was because we were so alike. He would mimic me, wear the same clothes. That creeped me out. But he turned down the plea bargain I got to save his life. At the same time I was defending Ted, I was defending abused women. That didn't confuse me, but apparently it confused a lot of other people.
Source: The Guardian, Rory Carroll and Simon Hattenstone, June 27, 2014
