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72 SNAKES IN SUITS
accurately reflect the psychological traits we want to show, but, in
fact, observers filter what we present through their personal biases,
prejudices, and preconceptions. This may cause them to form an incorrect
impression of our personality.
Using What You Have
If they happen to be intelligent, “well bred,” and physically
attractive, psychopaths can have a devastating impact on the
people they meet.
For example, Caroline is a very attractive and intelligent
thirty-year-old British woman. Her father was a barrister and her
mother a successful stage actress. Caroline went to several of
the best schools but seldom stayed at any one of them for very
long. She got into some minor difficulties on occasion—for example,
she was unable to account for some missing money during
her volunteer work for a charitable organization—but was
always bailed out by her parents. She moved in fashionable circles,
where she had many brief affairs.
For several years, Caroline was involved with a pseudoreligious
cult, and her “direct line to the saints” helped her to
manipulate elderly people into “buying their own little piece of
heaven.” Later, she met an international smuggler and this led to
her first prison term, a three-year sentence for diamond smuggling.
She is a delightful conversationalist, exuding an engaging
charm and wit that keeps you captivated for hours. Her description
of her current circumstances and the events that led up to it
has an almost romantic quality. Caroline likes the fast life and
loves excitement. For the past four years, she has been combining
those interests as a diamond smuggler, making regular runs
between Johannesburg, New York, Tel Aviv, and Amsterdam, and
packing thousands of dollars’ worth of diamonds on each trip.
Caroline’s unusual occupation—simply the latest in a long
string of successful scams and cons—rewarded her in two ways:
it provided her with a substantial income to support her lavish