The Greatest Story Never Told

Chapter 22 - I Interviewed a Serial Killer

The above photo is serial killer Reginald McFadden. While I was working at The Edwin Gould Academy, I was part of the team looking to hire new people to make our team stronger and better. We interviewed a few potential candidatess looking for strength and potential. Having a criminal record wasn't a barrier to employment, hell, yours truly was on the treatment team. Reginald came before the team to explore possible job positions. Academically, he brought more to the table than many of us sitting in on his interview. He had an Asssociate's Degree, a Bachelor's Degree, and a Master's Degree, all earned while he was incarcerated for the murder of a 66 year old woman in Pennsylvania, which got him a life sentence. Because of good behavior, he was released early, and paroled to Rockland County New York where I've beeen living since 1988. He presented as an extremely educated and articulate individual. He expressed remorse regarding the murder and sold the team on the concept of people being given second chances and how, by not doing so, this was one contributing factor that caused recidivism. He was making plenty of sense. So, we hired him.

At first, he began undergoing rigorous training. We had him learning our system of documenting the unit residents progress and lack there of, charting and record keeping, following policy and procedure, mastering the numerous styles of performing physical restraints. There were special tactics regarding some restraints especially dealing with kids that had experienced sexual abuse, we were not allowed to lay on top of them in any way, they had to be cradled. He learned it all. Soon, he was firing on all cylinders. He was doing better than we all expected. We came to know Reginald, we sat in team meetings with him where he shared very usable insights. Even the social worker on our team was impressed with Reginald's input. He won us over...

But, how were we to know that Reginald Mcfadden would relapse. The Reginald McFadden we knew during the day, would go on to revert to murdering people at night, after work. He also raped a good friend of mine, a woman that offered me tons of support at A.A. meetings when I was new to recovery. He also went on to  kill a 42 year old male and a 78 year old woman on his murder spree. I looked into the eyes of this man for several months. He  a trturned to be a true serial killer. Remember in the beginning of my story where I made mention that death was always close by to me? He was Death personified! We gave a fucking serial killer love and a job, and afforded him funds to travel and kill. When he hit the headlines, the team and the kids that he came to help had to hold a  special house meeting to discuss having had a serial killer in our house. I've seen some things...