Killer Comparisons: Benjamin (“Tony”) Atkins and Douglas (Donna) Perry

Benjamin Atkins, above,
and Douglas Perry,
below. See copyright
notes at bottom.

They both killed prostitutes. They killed at around the same time, 1990 to 1992. Their victims were addicted to drugs. On the surface, Douglas (Donna) Perry and Benjamin (“Tony”) Atkins have some things in common.

One, however, was white, and the other was black. One transitioned to a female; the other did not. Atkins hid his victims; Perry left his in the open. Atkins strangled, but Perry, an avid gun collector, shot his victims. Perry took trophies; Atkins did not. Perry’s victims were varied, while Atkins hunted only black females. Whereas Perry reportedly was beaten by his father as a child, Atkins never knew his own father, instead facing the various boyfriends of his mother, some of whom he said were abusive. So yes, in many ways these two serials were dissimilar, as well.

What intrigues me, though, is another aspect of their personalities that would seem to tie them together: their views of women, and in particular their views of sex workers. And frankly, they both seem pretty conflicted in this regard. Once in custody, Atkins wavered back-and-forth. No, I don’t hate women. Yes, I do hate women. Perry was said to have an abnormal fixation on prostitutes and an intense hatred for him them because he felt they were squandering their gift of being able to reproduce by selling their bodies on the street. And that view really reminds me of Atkins, because he did tell one of the psychologists who examined him after his arrest that he wished he would’ve been born a female, because females are coddled and taken care of, and they have easier lives, as he saw it. He was resentful of that.

Interestingly, both Atkins and Perry at one time worked in the sex trade themselves, with Atkins being highly confused and guilted about his sexuality. Perry was diagnosed with something called "gender psychosis disorder." And playing into all of this in some way (because as FBI profiler John Douglas has said, many serials have mommy issues), both of these killers had a mother who was largely absent during their childhood.

So wow. A lot to think about with these two. It is also interesting to note that while Atkins claimed in the months after his arrest that he was hearing voices — one in particular named Tony, who had been telling him to do the crimes — and seemed to have sort of alternate personalities, Perry also appeared to exhibit a sort of split-personality state once in custody. At that time transitioned to female and named Donna, she adamantly refused to admit the crimes but would say that she had done some horrible things as a man, though she said Douglas Perry was now dead and gone. She continually spoke of her old self in the third person, as if she never was that person, but did make the interesting statement that she became female to stop the crimes. To police, Perry had essentially castrated himself — removed his male genitalia — to stop raping and killing. A psychologist would probably say that is oversimplifying things. And certainly there are other psychological aspects to consider in the case of Perry. But it's all so interesting, in the quest to answer the million-dollar question of what makes a person take human life.

Above photos:
Douglas Perry, from IMDb, and Benjamin Atkins from Detroit Police files. See this blog post for more on the photo of Atkins.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To learn more about the Perry case, and see video clips of her being interviewed by police, catch S1E4 of "Making a Serial Killer." For a deep-dive of the Atkins case, see "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins."

BRBates.com
wbp.bz/CrackCityStrangler

Murders in the Motor City Series