Agency Over Insanity: The Killer Inside Me

Agency Over Insanity: Analyzing The Killer Inside Me

Throughout crime history, the debate of whether criminals that commit heinous acts are responsible for their own actions has remained present in the minds of the justice system and its witnesses. This is exemplified most in Jim Thompson’s, The Killer Inside Me. In this novel we are introduced to the main character, Lou Ford, a deputy sheriff who is plagued by homicidal tendencies that eventually ravage through Central City. Throughout the novel, Lou struggles with a “sickness” akin to schizophrenia that essentially leads him to murder. In Dr. Kenneth Payne’s article titled The Killers Inside Them: The Schizophrenic Protagonist in John Franklin Bardin’s Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly and Jim

Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, the line between sanity and insanity in Lou Ford’s story is constantly questioned. The article discusses the implications of Lou’s intelligence clashing with his schizophrenia and how he uses them to his advantage. Although Lou Ford is plagued by schizophrenia throughout the novel, I believe that his agency cannot be questioned. Lou is fully aware of his actions and uses his implied lack of awareness to create a false sense of security that is ultimately destroyed with the truth coming out. He constantly refers to his “sickness” when he is about to commit a heinous act, but he understands the implications of committing it. Lou’s sanity is uncertain, but there is no doubt that he purposefully makes the decisions to commit crimes in the novel.

In the article stated above, Dr. Kenneth Payne goes into detail about how schizophrenia is not just a disease that splits the mind in two. He describes it as “but rather one which is lucid and sane, but which succumbs sporadically to a disruptive psychic force which is beyond its frantic struggles to keep at bay” (Payne 261). He uses this description to put Lou’s actions into a more understandable light. That is not to say his actions were justifiable, but to help the reader assess the damage done from the very beginning when the schizophrenia emerged up to the point where Lou began committing murder. The article also discusses the idea that Lou is a rational schizophrenic who understands the causes to his actions yet continues to do them anyway under the guise that the “sickness” made him do it. This paranoia stems from various sources, with the most prominent one being his childhood.
To begin, as a teenager, Lou fell victim to sexual abuse from his housekeeper, Helene. He believed that “it hadn’t needed to mean a thing. But Dad had made it mean something. I’d been made to feel that I’d done something that couldn’t ever be forgiven, that would always lie between him and me, the only kin I had’’ (Thompson 215). Lou is instantly victimized by his father and attributes all feelings towards this trauma with guilt. Not only does this serve as a point of reference to when Lou’s mind began to change, but it also helps one understand the pattern of violence that Lou adopted. Soon after being abused, Lou repeated the act on a small girl, but to avoid being sent to jail, Lou’s father arranged for his adopted son to take the fall for him. After this incident took place, Lou felt guilt towards any shred of his childhood, which eventually led to his paranoia during adulthood (people finding out what he did) and finally resulting in violence towards others; mostly women who resemble the housekeeper who abused him. As an adult, Lou adopted the fake personality of being the below average man who simply liked to do his job to cover up any suspicion that might arise from the events that happened long ago. It is unknown whether Lou had committed any murders prior to the start of the novel, but the text suggests that Lou was very much aware of what he was capable of. After meeting Joyce Lakeland to discuss her leaving Central City, they get into a small altercation that triggers Lou’s paranoia. “I knew what was going to happen if I didn’t get out and I knew I couldn’t let it happen. I might kill her. It might bring the sickness back. And even if I didn’t and I didn’t, id be washed up, She’d talk. She’d yell her head off. And people would start thinking, thinking and wondering about that time fifteen years ago” (Thompson 23). Lou completely understands what is going to happen if he doesn’t control himself, so he begins overanalyzing the situation and concludes that his worst fear will manifest. Soon after their exchange, Lou and Joyce begin having a sadomasochistic relationship which leads Lou into rationalizing his thoughts of violence. At first glance, Lou stating that he could not control his “sickness” implies that he could not have any responsibility over his actions, but on the other hand, he chose to be with Joyce because she was aggressive, which allowed him to be aggressive in return. His relationship with her was the catalyst to his addiction to hurting other people. Lou was very close to controlling himself when he met Joyce, but thanks to her tolerance of violence and willingness to make him happy, the violence was able to emerge. Lou understood the road he was taking when he beat Joyce, and he was happy to take it. Yes, it was fueled somewhat by Lou’s paranoia surrounding her alerting other people of his tendencies, but it was also pleasurable for him to be able to take out his anger and frustration on a woman, paralleling his feelings for Helene. Lou understood exactly what he was doing the second he beat Joyce, but is that enough to prove his agency?
Throughout the novel Lou refers to himself in a very high regard. He claims to be able to read over five languages and is very linguistically apt. When it comes to his “sickness”, at one point he diagnoses himself. “’a guy name of Kraepelin’: difficult to study because so seldom detected. The condition usually begins around the period of puberty and is often precipitated by a severe shock. The subject suffers from strong feelings of guilty combined with a sense of frustration and persecution which increase as he grows older; yet there are rarely if ever any surface signs of disturbance. On the contrary, his behavior appears to be entirely logical. He reasons soundly, even shrewdly. He is completely aware of what he does and why he does it’ That was written about a disease, or a condition, rather, called dementia praecox. Schizophrenia, paranoid type. Acute, recurrent, advanced. Incurable’’ (218-19). Lou understands what this means to him. He understands that the sickness is not the sole driving force of his actions. He knows that it’s him and only him. As stated in the quote above, he is completely aware of what he does and why he does it. This is especially evident when he kills Johnny Pappas and Amy Stanton. He treats it as if it were a walk in the park, simple and easy. His cold intelligence merges with his schizophrenia which then creates these calm, collected accounts of the crimes he committed. ‘‘I killed Amy Stanton on Saturday night on the fifth of April 1952, at a few minutes
before nine o’clock. It had been a bright, crisp spring day, just warm enough so’s you’d know that summer was coming, and the night was just tolerably cool’’ (170). No emotion, no thought. Amy’s murder is treated like if she was just some trash to take out. The events that lead up to her death is what proves that he has control over his actions. He was planning to kill Amy, it was already established. He knew the consequences to this action and went ahead and went through with it. Although Lou is ultimately responsible for his actions, is he insane? Could the events that transpired fifteen years prior to the novel evolve the psyche of Lou so much that he has lost a grip on his reality and emotions? Agency is the capacity for individuals to act freely and make their own independent choices. Although Lou does struggle with controlling his urges in the beginning, it can be said that as the novel progresses he seems to take more and more responsibility over his acts. He knows the full extent of his abilities and revels in them, he knows that he is rational enough to diagnose himself yet wants to present a façade that assumes otherwise. But as it turns out, his façade is broken to pieces the second he murdered Amy Stanton. The town knew about Lou’s past and current acts, they knew his plans, his escape and reasoning. Lou’s final act is to murder Joyce in front of the police, but he didn’t do this for himself. He did it because he knew it was what they wanted him to do. At this point in the novel in can be said that Lou did have a choice in committing the crimes. His paranoia and fear of the future impeded him from looking past things, which led to the immediate decisions to kill his victims.
In Dr.

Kenneth Payne’s article, The Killers Inside Them: The Schizophrenic Protagonist in John Franklin Bardin’s Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly and Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, he argues that Lou is a rational schizophrenic. He discusses that Lou has the capability to rationalize his actions yet still succumbs to the negative aspects of schizophrenia. He then elaborates that Lou escapes the characterization of irrational murderer. He is highly intelligent and uses that to his advantage to carry out the murders. Payne ends the article by stating that perhaps Lou was never mentally ill in the first place, and that his story is just a part of his scheme as a murderer to make the reader sympathize and justify his actions. I also theorize that Lou is a rational schizophrenic, but I believe that he has more agency over his actions than what Thompson leads us to believe. Lou is fully aware of his situation and uses it to his advantage when he confronts other people. The consequences are clearly conveyed and Lou disregards them in favor of what he wishes. Lou Ford is crazy, but he knows he is. He understands that he has the capability to outsmart people and most importantly he knows he can easily fool people into believing that he knows

nothing.

Works Cited
Thompson, Jim. The Killer Inside Me. Fawcett Publications, 1952.
Payne, Kenneth. "The Killers Inside them: The Schizophrenic Protagonist in John Franklin Bardin's Devil Take the Blue–Tail Fly and Jim Thompson's the Killer Inside Me." The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 36, no. 2, 2002, pp. 250-263.