Prof using letters from Clifford Olson to teach students
Posted February 19, 2011 11:12 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NANAIMO (NEWS1130) – A Vancouver Island University professor is using letters from serial killer Clifford Olson to teach his students about psychopaths.
John Anderson remembers getting the letters from one of his students 20 years ago. “‘I’ve got these letters from [Clifford] Olson that, frankly, my other doesn’t want in the house anymore.'”
When the student was in high school he wrote the killer as part of a creative writing project and Olson wrote back to build a relationship with the teen.
Anderson calls the correspondence creepy. “I had to wash my hands afterwards. They are very disturbing. They are disturbing whether or not you know the author is [Clifford] Olson.”
Anderson is now getting students in his criminology course to piece together patterns in those letters to find out more about psychopaths.
He explains they’re an effective teaching tool.
