Wow, that's quite a list and full of links ... so lets see:
Does the perp fancy himself a social engineer in the following contexts?
Social-Engineering.org
Security Through Education
http://www.social-engineer.org/
Social Engineering (security)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security)
In a way, every SK, I have ever heard of is manipulative. Because even the most delusional cases from the mission-driven categories try at some point to convince people their fears (and by thus their reasons to kill) are real and acceptable. When it comes to psychopaths or psychopath+dissociative identity disorders (in the literature, we find more mild cases of DID plus psychopath, like Ted Bundy), they have often elaborate stories aimed to manipulate persons or a whole court full of people into believing they couldn't be the killer or their killings were in some way justified (read about Ted Bundy and his story with his grandfather's violent




stash). So to a degree, they are manipulative. But they don't fance themselves as social engineers because it's not their primary motive to do what they do.
In this special case, given the victimology and especailly the dissimilarities between the victims, I think rather of overcompensation+control issues.
Is the perp a competent and prolific computer hacker/cracker?
I don't see any signs for that. In fact, given the length of his phone calls, he is still on the technical level of 1980 when a phone trace took three minutes. A hcker would know better.
Has he incorporated cyberstalking into his stalking repertoire?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking
He maybe watched also ads of the victims in the web, but cyberstalking leaves a lot of traces and even SCPD would be able to find him that way. They didn't. So in my opinion, rather not, or at least not extensive.
Is the perp a physical stalker?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalking
Stalking ^ a contemporary challenge for forensic
and clinical psychiatry
J. H. KAMPHUIS and P. M. G. EMMELKAMP
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/176/3/206.full
Maureen Brainard-Barnes made her last phone call from a bus terminal, Megan Waterman left a hotel and disappeared. The point here is, in no case, the sifting through old phone records brought LE one step further. In my opinion, this means, we don't talk about a client, who orders them in, they were attacked after they left the clients or in case of Maureen, left the hotel on 46th. But this also means, the killer must have followed him because otherwise, he would have no idea where to get them. And that indicates a physical stalker type.
Is the perp both a physical stalker and cyberstalker? Here is a link to a paper on physical penetration testing using social engineering:
Two methodologies for physical penetration testing using social engineering
Trajce Dimkov, Wolter Pieters, Pieter Hartel
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...5JyRCg&usg=AFQjCNFk4I2fNK4pqqMxsxYFr9PDQyAlJQ
Bear with me, I'm old school. In my days, we called the very same thing "social hacking". Which included also a decade and two ago more than just talking someone in giving away ip-addresses.
However, as I said above, I think rather, he is a physical stalker than any kind of cyberstalker or cross-stalker type (because social hacking involves always both, in-/and out of cyberspace activity). In fact, all, he apparently knew about his victims were all details, he could have gotten from the victims (especially Melissa Barthelmy) or the victim's cell phone. He appears even unaware that one of his victims should have a little of a different clientele than the other three: Megan Waterman offered femdom in her ads.
Has the perp been physically stalking and cyberstalking the people in his community for years, quietly gathering information to use at some future point? Here is a link to a story about someone who was cyberstalked. Could something like this have happened to some people in his community?
If so, then Long Island is not his community or rather, his community is not in Long Island. The summer kills and only summer, indicate a perpetrator most of the year not around in the area. At least to me. If my profile is right, he is most of the year not even on the East Coast, which would render extensive spying on anyone virtually impossible beyond the time frame of maybe two weeks.
Nice link, but celebrity stalking demands at least some kind of celebrity. Those women were no celebrities in life. So this is entirely different kind of animal, we talk here about.
Has he found a reason to call his stalking surveillance so as to not raise the suspicions of those around him who have noted his peculiar hobby?
Might he have told the people around him that he has surveillance equipment and conducts surveillance for professional reasons?
I think, he is more a physical stalker who just blends in. He isn't around with a surveillance vehicle. Keep in mind the summer-kill-timeframe. He is most likely most of the year not even there.
Is he a penetration tester? Could this profession allow him to violate the rights of others legitimately and get paid for it? Here is a link to a wiki about "penetration testing":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetration_test
I doubt it. A real "penetration tester" needs to be in self-control and this guy has too much rage to be that much in control. Which probably is one of the reasons, he started to kill in the first place.
If he isn't employed in this profession, could he have acquired enough working knowledge on his own and use the knowledge to perpetrate his crimes?
Theoretically yes. If he was ever a professional in the first place. This isn't a special complex or material-demanding business.
Could he have simply told those around him that he is a penetration tester without really being employed as one?
Technically, he could pretend, but I don't see the reason. His degree of stalking isn't that extensive, I think, we talk rather about physical pursue aka shadowing.
Or, does he simply tell those around him that he has surveillance equipment and conducts surveillance to catch the real killer?
see above. And in fact, most people are gullible enough to tell them anything. Damn, there were SKs out there, who told people what they did and people didn't believe it.
Is the perp lonely? I'm not exactly sure what the serial killer version of lonely is but, I thought I would ask anyway. Here is a link to an interesting paper:
The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath
By Willem H.J. Martens, M.D., Ph. D. | December 31, 2001
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/55051#
You need to be registered to read this article. So I didn't. But from the cases, I studied, "loneliness" is ver individual, just like for the rest of us. Some people don't feel lonely because they have 1000 facebook friends and never met one of them, others have dozens of real life friends and still feel lonely. So the difference is not, whether he feels in any other way lonely than "normal" people, but rather, how he maybe acts on this feeling.
In this special case, my bet would be, he feels lonely. This hasn't to do with him being an SK, but he is due to his traveling lifestyle probably divorced or hampered in having a normal relationship because he is for long months away. (you have to google me to read my profile on the website of my wife and me, I'm not allowed to post it here or link it directly).
Does the perp abuse mind altering substances? The following link is an interesting paper on the subject:
Comparing serial and nonserial sexual offenders: alcohol and street drug consumption, impulsiveness and history of sexual abuse
Danilo Antonio BaltieriI,II,III; Arthur Guerra de AndradeI,III
IDepartment of Psychiatry, Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Santo André (SP), Brazil
IIPenitentiary Counseling of São Paulo State, Brazil
IIIInterdisciplinary Group of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Psychiatric Institute, Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo (SP), Brazil
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?scr...1516-44462006005000067&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
Ted Bundy drank a lot of alcohol to bring out what he called "his entity". Berdella liked his weed, Dahmer was ambivalent as in he loved both together. I can imagine, this perpetrator would use at least alcohol after he snatched a woman. It helps also with objectization.
Could the perp frequent websites that support sexual sadism and violence against women like a certain notorious sub-forum on Reddit? Does he use those types of forums to exchange ideas, talk w/ like minded people, exchange photos and other media?
The bodies were pretty decomposed, but a good ME can also on skeletal remains find evidence of torture and in this case, he didn't. Of course, we don't know how much they don't tell to the public, so this is to be taken with a grain of salt. IF my original profile is right, this is not so much about sexual sadism but rather power and control to overcompensate some kind of subcultural induced inferiority complex. Thus, any form of abuse would most likely include vaginal rape but primarily verbal abuse and no extensive physical torture. This would be also consistent with his urge to make phone calls. So he has probably no need for torture forums. But as usual, that's my opinion.
Could the perp have access to voice manipulation software and can, in real time, change the sound and rhythm of his voice over the phone? Has he been recording the voices of people he comes into contact with to use in this endeavor? Could this be the reason why LE has not done a voice line-up (that we know of anyway)?
There is software to change in real time the pitch of voices. But rhythm and speech patterns are a harder problem. However, a lot of people can change voice and speech patterns just for fun (you should hear my Christopher Walken).
More, speech patterns are not exclusively subcultural anymore, there is a lot of mixing and cultural penetration from either side. Ten years ago, there was a probability, someone using words like "bro" and "dude" would belong maybe to a certain minority, but not anymore.
Does he know how to do things with mobile phones and landlines?
Well, he can use them and he has obviously the average TV induced "knowledge" of forensic counter measure when using phones. But beyond that, I see nothing that would indicate, he is some kind of phone hacker.
Does he know about caller ID spoofing?
Does he know how to remotely tamper with and reprogram phones?
Who wouldn't after some in depth internet searches? However, I see nothing indicating, he did so.
Does he know how to physically hack into landlines?
This is also an information easy to be found and since other parts make me think, he is crafty, he shouldn't have too many problems if he wants to do it. However, since he was at some point obviously near to his victims, physical stalking appears more likely to me.
Does he have phone cloning software?
It's not hard to get such software. But again, I don't see any indication, he used such a software or cloned phones. He had the original one in the Barthelmy case, why would he need a copy of it?
Can whatever he does with these phones reflect on phone bills?
If he would have used them extensively, there would be discrepancies. However, that was one of the first things LE checked after they realized they sat for years on some dead bodies. And they came up with zilch. Which isn't a miracle if the killer is more of a physical stalker. Anyway, I doubt, he would be too obsessed with cell phones at all. He used Melissa's and some burner phones when he had no other choice to reach out to his secondary targets, nut that's in fact all, he did with phones as it appears to me.
Has he tried to hack into LE computer systems? Has he succeeded?
Someone I know, told me once, it isn't a problem to hack police computers. The problem is to find a damn thing in their chaos. But hey, that was back in Europe. So, well, if he wants too and is computer savvy, LE's computers in general count as easy exercise targets.
However, I doubt, he tried. This kind of perpetrator overcompensates for what he feels as his inferiority. So all his actions are personal, up-front with the victims and persons near to him to establish a feeling of domination. If my profile is correct (I can't link it here, so google me and look in the collections), he belongs to a newer type of serial and spree offender, which has raised over the last twenty years mostly in the US and here mostly the East Coast and Midwestern States. Significant for all of them is personal interaction and they have no intention to inject themselves in the investigation or manipulate case files.
Does he have pirated software? If it's possible that he has pirated software, this could give LE a reason to look through the perp's computer, IMO. All it takes is one song to send him to federal prison, IMO.
Shouldn't be a problem as soon as someone finds him and his computer. But then, nobody would need the computer anymore because he would have stashed some souvenirs away.
*I will expand upon some of the ideas presented in this post in future posts. Ideas, comments, suggestions, questions and opinions regarding this post are welcome and appreciated!
Do that. I don't agree with some of your suspicions, but in cases like this, we will only know for sure, after they got him. Till then, it's essential to check out every alley and if we work two different alleys, that would make already two of them covered.