Why woman writes hundreds of letters to serial killers
A woman who has been writing to serial killers for years believes her work may save lives.
Amanda Howard said she gained a valuable insight into what made a murderer kill and is now working on a book with one of Australia’s most notorious criminals.
Few would want to explore the minds of some of the world’s most depraved serial killers, but that’s exactly what Ms Howard does.
“There is an ability to find out what evil actually is. Are they bad, are they mad? Is this something we can stop happening in the future?” she said.
Known as the “Serial Killer Whisperer”, Ms Howard interviews some of the world’s most infamous murderers.
Through her communication with these killers over the past thirty years, she’s collected a huge amount of information about their crimes and their motives.
“I’ve had killers confess there’s more victims. I’ve had killers tell me about their childhood and that precise moment when they decided they were going from what you would say a normal person is into becoming a killer,” she said.
The true crime author receives up to 50 letters from prisoners every week.
One of the first she communicated with was backpacker killer Ivan Milat.
“I really believe Ivan Milat could pass a lie detector test because he is absolutely convinced of his own innocence. But there is a lot of doubts in that case,” Ms Howard said.
Ms Howard’s latest project is a book she’s writing with Milat.
She’s been going through the hundreds of letters she’s received from him over the past two decades and has been asking him to explain more details about his case.
“We’ll never stop a killer before he kills for the first time. But we may be able to stop them killing second, third and fourth victims and if we can save one person just by having a little more insight, it’s worth it,” she said.
