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contentious, with everybody jabbering all the time. I was the quiet one. My mom says that I was the
kid with the Norwegian temperament (she’s descended from Scandinavians). I can listen to women
talk among themselves for hours. I don’t go into an interview with a long list of questions. I just get
my subject talking, make sure there are fresh batteries in the tape recorder, and sit back and listen.
The interview takes the form of a pleasant, largely one-sided conversation.
How confrontational will you become during an interview?
I sometimes engage in good-natured debate. I’ll say, “Really? Do you really believe that?” I won’t
outright argue with someone. In my experience, people don’t generally need to be provoked. If they
agree to talk to you, they really want to tell you what they believe. And I won’t deceive someone
about my agenda. With Dan Lafferty, I made it clear that I didn’t agree with him and that I found what
he did to be reprehensible, and it never slowed him down for an instant.
Do you only do interviews face-to-face, or will you do them via phone, letters, or e-mail?
Face-to-face interviews are invaluable, but they are so draining. The first time I interview an
important subject, I like to do it face-to-face. Then I like to follow up with phone interviews. The
initial meeting breaks the ice and makes the subject comfortable with me, but I’ve found that many
people will talk to you more easily on the phone than they will in person. It may have something to do
with being a disembodied voice. The interviewer isn’t “there.” It’s the same reason that a
psychoanalyst sits behind the couch, out of sight. Phone interviewing is incredibly efficient: you don’t
have to fly thousands of miles, rent a car, get a hotel room—all for a two-hour interview I might not
use.
Letters are also a great way to conduct interviews. After I interviewed him in prison, Dan Lafferty
and I had an extensive correspondence, which has been of incalculable value. For one thing, it helped
me get the details right because everything was in writing. He has absolutely no remorse for the brutal
things he did; he believes he was doing God’s work. He wanted me to report what really happened, to
get the facts right. Lafferty also happens to have a very personable side. In his letters he’d frequently
ask about my wife and family, he’d inquire about my problems . . . and I’d have to keep telling myself,
“Wait a second. This is a guy who calmly slit the throats of a blameless young woman and her baby
girl.”
Did you ever confront him with this discrepancy?
Yes, and he told me, “It’s what God commanded me to do. And when God commands you to do
something you’d better do it. You’ll understand this someday, Jon, when the Judgment comes.”
Do you take notes or use a tape recorder?
I do both, and I use my notebook and tape recorder like a professional photojournalist uses a
camera. He doesn’t wait for the “perfect ” shot. He turns on his motor drive and shoots everything.
He burns through rolls and rolls of film. So I try to tape every conversation I have with a subject. My
notebook is always out. I’m like a human sponge. Anything that happens anywhere near me gets