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For Malcolm, this is symbolized by the "conk," a hairstyle that relaxes curly hair so that it straightens and lies flat. Getting his first conk elevates him from the "country Negro" class into the class of the hip blacks who live in the city.

stress caused by childhood 'traumatizations' may be a trigger to criminal behavior in adulthood.  It is important to understand that most people go through one or more of these traumatizations with no lifelong effects.  However, in the future serial killer, the inability to cope with the stress involved with these traumas leads to the offending acts

In some cases, the abuse of children by their parents is barbaric, and it seems little wonder that anything but a fledgling serial killer would come from such horrible squalor.

Childhood abuse may not be the sole excuse for serial killers, but it is an undeniable factor in many of their backgrounds.

In looking to the parents for explanations, we see both horrifying mothers and fathers. The blame usually falls on the mother, who has been described as too domineering or too distant, too sexually active or too repressed. Perhaps the mother is blamed more because the father has often disappeared, therefore "unaccountable." When the father is implicated, it is usually for sadistic disciplinarian tactics, alcoholic rants, and overt anger toward women.

After his parents separated, Smith lived with an alcoholic mother who became a prostitute; a brother and sister who committed suicide

and a father whose fanciful dreams kept Smith moving from place to place, unable to continue his education past the third grade.

In his twenties, Smith has a falling out with his father. They had built a hunting lodge in Alaska, a venture which quickly failed, and after a Page 183  |  Top of Article violent episode where each tried to kill the other, they parted ways.

Readers learn of Perry’s fantasies of being “Perry O’Parsons,” a singer in the limelight at a Las Vegas showplace. Readers are told of his dreams in which he is swallowed by a huge snake, rescued at the last moment by a big yellow bird, a Christ figure, that wafts him to heaven.

His romantic escapism (he dreams of diving for treasure but cannot swim, imagines himself a famous tap dancer but has hopelessly maimed legs) becomes comprehensible in the light of his homeless, brutalized background, more bizarre than any fiction; his undoing is elaborately plausible.