Chapter 7

Rudi Gillen
(June 2001; Paris)

Dr. Gillen is the only person involved in the case that has written a book about
Johan, so far. His story, "Road
to a Monster," was a best-seller throughout most of Europe, and his name was recently
ranked in the list of Germany's 50
Highest Taxpayers. Professor Gillen, currently busy on a worldwide speaking tour,
has told a British television station
that after the excitement dies down, he plans to return to his life's work in the study of
criminal psychology.
I met Dr. Gillen in a cafe on Rue Bonaparte, near the banks of the Seine. Dr.
Gillen, returning from a lecture at
the Sorbonne, appeared precisely at our scheduled meeting time of 4 o'clock in the
afternoon. He gave me a quick
greeting, and as he sat down, he removed a handheld tape recorder from his large
attache case, and smiled, "No doubt
you'll find it odd to be recorded as you conduct the interview, but I will have trouble
speaking without it." He had a
pleasant face, but a sharp gaze. He was dressed in an Armani suit, and I could detect a
whiff of cologne.
He glanced at me with upturned eyes and said, "Please, begin."

- I'll get right to it. What were your thoughts when Kenzo Tenma suddenly
appeared at your office in Hattingen?
"It was quite a surprise. We were classmates in college, but not particular
friends of any type. And I knew
that he was the primary suspect in that case, and was on the run... I had no idea what
he wanted with me."
- What about when Tenma described this man named Johan, and asked you to
do a psychological analysis on him?
"Tenma brought two messages from Johan. 'Look at me, look at me, the
monster inside me has already grown this
large, Dr. Tenma,' and 'Help, the monster inside me is about to explode!" He believed
that Johan had dissociative
identity disorder."
- And what did you think?
"That Johan did not exist, and that Tenma was either lying outright, or suffering
from multiple personalities
himself."
- The same conclusion that Inspector Lunge of the BKA came to.
"Actually, I ultimately decided to trust Tenma in the end and asked for
assistance from Herr Lunge, but he
wouldn't take me seriously. Not too surprising, looking back on the situation."
 - I suppose that being a psychiatrist, you had a different perspective on the
issue than a detective.
"To put it simply, he tries to predict the actions of a criminal in order to arrest
him, and I look into the
hearts of those criminals he captures in order to unravel the mysteries of the human
mind. Where Mr. Lunge is special is
that he enjoys finding intelligent criminals and engaging a battle of the minds, like a
game of chess. What he does is
competition... a contest."
- That's a rather severe assessment. So once you believed that Johan did in fact
exist, did you think that he
suffered from multiple personalities, as Tenma suggested?
"I did, once I studied the messages he brought me."
- So, dissociative identity disorder is when there exist multiple personalities
within one human mind.
"That's right. Childhood abuse is often the chief cause as far as we know, but I
like to use what I call the
'flashlight in a darkened room' metaphor. The dark room represents the human heart.
There are built-up emotions there,
common to all of humanity. But the personality changes depending on where you
shine the flashlight. If I move the point
of light just a bit, I could become you. In the case of multiple personalities, the person
doesn't like where their light
is shining, and wants to change himself, but doesn't have the courage to move his
beam of light. So he just goes out and
buys more flashlights, and turns each of them on... this is where the multiple
personalities come from."
- But in "Road to a Monster," you rejected the idea that Johan had multiple
personalities.
"That's right. The more I became involved in the case, the better I understood
the storybooks, Johan's past, and
thus his personality. His messages were meant to confuse us... I believe that he was
enjoying himself by confusing us.
But without meeting Johan directly, I cannot say for sure."
- What do you believe Johan was?
"A man who could delve into the hearts of lust murderers. Or perhaps he could
simply delve into the hearts of ANY
human being. A brainwasher who could control the minds of other people. But what
he sought was not pleasure from the
murders of others. He wanted to wipe out the entire world... that was where he
derived his pleasure."
- How would he actually go about infiltrating the heart of another person?
"By acknowledging their worth. By never frowning upon their actions, and by
teaching them that they are not alone
in the world. They are elated, believing they have found their one true friend, the only
person in the entire universe
who understands them. Or, on the contrary, he might belittle them, lambasting their
every move and driving them to the
darkest pit of mental solitude and ruin. After doing that, he would simply make a little
request. Just kill one measly
person, that's all..."

[Picture] (sketch of Dr. Gillen with an elbow on the table, recorder in front of him)
Dr. Gillen, now the most famous of all European psychiatrists. He is scheduled to
give an address in Japan next month, on
behalf of his publishers.

[Picture] (close-up sketch of the tape recorder)

He is never seen without this cassette recorder at his side.

- Johan killed all the people who remembered him, one by one. Why do you
suppose he left Tenma and Wolf alive?
"I think Johan needed someone, too. I can't speak for this Wolf fellow, because
I never met him, but I think I
understand the reasoning in Tenma's case. First of all, Tenma saved Johan's life... he
does not disapprove of people. He
finds their laudable aspects, and praises them. He accepts them for what they are
worth, yet he never, ever digs too
deeply. However, once he makes up his mind to do so, he will stick with someone.
He will not let them go. To Johan,
whether Tenma hated or loved him didn't make a difference. It was the fact that
Tenma would always remember... remember
and follow him, that was so important to him."
- It is said that Johan received special education in East Germany and
Czechoslovakia. What about the other
children who received the same treatment? Do you think there could be other
monsters out there, a 2nd or 3rd Johan?
"I don't believe so. There may be people like Mr. Grimmer, who have gone on
personal journeys to recover their
memories... And perhaps it is true that some of them became professionals in the
darker side of politics and intrigue.
But the nations in question are now gone, and there is no one to give them orders. I
think that even if you had the same
education as Johan, it doesn't mean you would think and do these terrible things on
your own. If there were any danger,
it would be if they ran into Johan somehow. But that would now be impossible."
- Is Johan truly still in a comatose state...?
"That's what I've been told."
- If he were to awake, would you want to perform a mental analysis on him?
"As a scholar, of course, I have an interest. But, I don't think it would be a
good idea. From his perspective,
I would probably be the easiest type of person to brainwash."
 - Easiest to brainwash?
"Do you know why it is that I have such a reputation for my psychological
analyses of serial killers? It is
because I am very similar to them, and thus I understand them well. The reason I have
such an interest in them is because
I want to know more about myself. I believe that Inspector Lunge could say the same.
Everyone involved in that case,
with the exception of Tenma, was fascinated by Johan. They were all similar to him in
some way, all very easy for him to
control."

When Tenma came to him asking for help, Dr. Gillen was busy analyzing the
mind of Peter Jurgens, a serial killer
who murdered eleven young girls. What he found interesting was the twelfth murder,
of one Theresia Kemp (Translator Note:
In the manga it was Hanna Kemp), a 52-year old woman who clearly did not fit into
Jurgens' pattern of killings. Jurgens
claimed he killed this woman at the request of a friend, but Gillen did not believe him.
After he informed the police of
Tenma's visit, Gillen visited Kemp's home, which had been left undisturbed. What he
found there was proof of the man
Tenma had told him about -- the existence of Johan. The murder of Theresia Kemp
was part of the Middle-Aged Couple
Murders.
Dr. Gillen, ashamed that he had sprung such a trap on Tenma, rushed back and
helped him escape the grasp of the
police.
Afterwards, when he learned that his respected professor and mentor Dr.
Reichwein had also stumbled across the
Johan case, Gillen began to work in earnest towards the restoration of Tenma's good
name.
Next I ought to go to Munich, Dr. Gillen told me, and he wrote down contact
information for Dr. Reichwein. When
he said that he had to go to London tomorrow for a meeting with the BBC, I asked
him how long he would continue his
relationship with the media.
Dr. Gillen spoke slowly, choosing his words very carefully. "I do have quite
enough money to live off of for now,
so I hope to return to my research soon." A pained grin stretch across his face.
"But I didn't realize the public enjoyed hearing about serial killers so much."