Mohan Kumar: What Makes a Psychopath

Mohan Kumar, dubbed “Cyanide Kumar,” murdered 20 women from 2003 to 2009 in five districts of southern Karnataka, India. Using cyanide-laced pills and leaving the corpses in bus stop restrooms, Kumar was calculated and consistent with each crime. He was flirtatious and charming, seducing his victims and convincing them to join him at a local hotel. Late into the night, Cyanide Kumar would kick his lover out of bed and drive them to a nearby gas station where he would force the poisoned pills on them, claiming they were birth control. He chose women who were unmarried and, by his standards, desperate. Marriage is an extremely important aspect of Indian culture with the majority of young people still having their marriages preordained by their parents. To be a single woman over a certain age is viewed harshly in the Indian court of public opinion.

When Kumar was first apprehended by police, he took responsibility for the 32 murders. However, detectives could only tie 20 female victims to Kumar. At the start of the trial Kumar changed his story and plead not guilty. He claimed they all killed themselves because he did not want to marry them. Kumar’s lawyers, and the Indian public deemed him as a psychopath.

But his friends and family refused to believe this. Kumar had three wives, even though polygamy is outlawed in India. One of them stated to the press that she never saw him “drink or smoke” (Daijiworld Media Network, 2009). His mother said he often came over to his childhood home to take care of her. Learning that someone you love is clinically insane would be hard to grasp for anyone, but in India suffering from a mental illness is still a shameful secret for most people. A 2018 study found that almost 50% of Indians admitted to being highly judgmental of those afflicted with a mental illness or disorder (Thomas, 2018).

Psychopathy has a long since been classified as a mental disorder but it is notoriously hard to recognize out in the world. An inflated sense of self-worth, being impulsive, no long-term goals, a lack of behavior-control are all traits of a psychopath (Tracy, 2016); they could also be used to describe an unruly teenager.

In 1801, French physician Philippe Pinel described a group of his patients as suffering from mania sans délire, or “insanity without delirium”. This term was used to describe individuals who did were sharp but a terrible moral compass; meaning that a psychopathic patient no cognitive impairment with intellectual problems but would have trouble or little understanding of moral conundrums. The most common clinical method to prescribe someone as a psychopath is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. The checklist is comprised of twenty personality traits and behaviors that mental health professionals use to assess their patient.

Gender plays a factor in research studies on psychopathy; we know much less about women psychopaths and what, if anything, differentiates them from their male counterparts. In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau found that 1,150,000 adult males met the criteria for psychopathy. Approximately 6,720,000 adult males that are in prison, or dealing with probation 1,075,000 (16%) have been diagnosed with some form of psychopathy; this could be sociopathy, narcissism, borderline personality disorder and so forth.

With women, the rates are much lower, but as previously stated this research may hold biases or be vastly incomplete. A 1997 study conducted by Randall T. Salekin found that roughly 15.5% of the women in prison (or on probation) exhibited psychopathic behaviors.

Polygamy aside, Mohan Kumar looked on paper to be a model citizen. He worked as a gym teacher for 23 years, was a loyal friend and loving family member; people in his community knew him as a simple man. But as the trial proceeded, the public learned that aspects of Kumar’s life were not as simple as he wanted others to believe.

Kumar quit his job as a teaching unexpectedly and did a series of odd jobs after that. He never explained his reasons, though investigators believed it was an impulse decision unrelated to any crimes. Kumar was married to three women, each of whom he married separately and in secret. It was revealed during trial that Kumar was also guilty of a series of loan frauds and forged signatures.

Kumar clearly led a much more complicated life than what his family imagined, and his trial proved that to be true. Prosecutors discover that he once threw a girl into Netravathi river. This was likely Cyanide Kumar’s first violent offense, as it didn’t fit the pattern of his other murders and happened years before the first victim police found. Kumar claimed that she too killed herself because he broke up with her, and that this victim was responsible for ending his teaching career. Fishermen found the girl a day later, wading in the river.

There have been numerous studies done on how to teach people who meet the criteria of a psychopath about appropriate behaviors and diminish their recidivism rates. A 2015 Canadian study found a 30% decrease in recidivism among psychopathic criminals who completed intensive group therapy (Bower, 2015). It is extremely difficult to alter our subconscious in an effort to permanently change behavior. You can teach empathy on an intellectual level but to learn to feel empathy is another story and that is what psychologists and researchers are dealing with when look at these kinds of patients. It requires not only therapy or medication, for which there is none currently for psychopathy or antisocial behavior, but the individual’s willingness and desire to change.

On December 21st, 2013, Mohan Kumar was sentenced to death after two years on trial. He kept a stoic face as the decision was read aloud in court. But Mohan had a plan and challenged the ruling in the high court, acting as his own lawyer and finding some success — the ruling was changed to a life imprisonment. In 2020, he received his 20th murder conviction for the rape & killing of a 25 year old woman.

Work Cited:

1. Mangalore: Neighbours, Family, Refuse to Accept Mohan as Serial Killer.” Mangalore: Neighbours, Family, Refuse to Accept Mohan as Serial Killer — Daijiworld.com, Daiji World, 23 Oct. 2009, www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=67282.
2. Tracy, Natasha. “Psychopathy: Definition, Symptoms, Signs and Causes — Psychopath — Personality Disorders.” HealthyPlace, 21 July 2016, www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/psychopath/psychopathy-definition-symptoms-signs-and-causes/.
3. Bower, Bruce. “Rehab for Psychopaths.” ScieneNews, 17 June 2015, modlab.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Rehab%20for%20psychopaths.pdf.
4. Skeem, J., Monahan, J., & Mulvey, E. (2002). Psychopathy, Treatment Involvement, and Subsequent Violence Among Civil Psychiatric Patients. Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 26, №6, 577–603.
5. Hathaway, Bill. “Targeted Computer Games Can Change Behavior of Psychopaths.”YaleNews, 17 Dec. 2014, news.yale.edu/2014/12/16/targeted-computer-games-can-change-behavior-psychopaths.
6. Siddiqui, Iram. “Prof Mohan Kumar, the Man Who Killed 20 Women with ‘Anti-Pregnancy’ Pills.” BangaloreMirror, 9 Oct. 2016, bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/cover-story/prof-mohan-kumar-the-man-who-killed-20-women-with-anti-pregnancy-pills/articleshow/54758093.cms.