Piers meets a psychopath who killed his sister to hurt his mother. What kind of person, I pondered, could be deemed such a threat to my life that I wouldn’t even be permitted to occupy the same airspace?
‘You’re not allowed to sit with him face to face,‘ briefed Stuart Cabb, who runs the TV production company that makes my crime documentaries. ‘Why not?’ I asked, mindful of the fact that I have previously sat face to face with numerous horrific serial killers and murderesses.
‘He’s too dangerous,‘ came the reply.
Wow. Given the extremity of violence committed by some of my interviewees, this was an extraordinary statement.
‘So how will I speak to him?’
‘He’ll be in a secure room, behind heavily reinforced glass and monitored by armed guards.’
‘No direct contact at all?’
‘None. The prison has been unwavering about this. It’s for your safety.’
Paris Bennett, from Abilene, a town in rural Texas. Bennett has an IQ of 141, which qualifies him as a genius. Less than a quarter of one percent of the world’s population has that level of intelligence.