Did Robert Charles Browne Really Murder 48?

If Colorado convict Robert Charles Browne's claim to have killed 48 people over three decades is true, he would rank among the nation's most prolific serial killers. But is he really a mass murderer? Verifying that he is responsible for all of the deaths, some of which took place more than 30 years ago, will be a difficult task. And there's no guarantee that Browne's claims are on the level. "It should be no surprise that serial killers sometimes lie," says James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist and author of six books about serial killers.

False confessions are common, Fox says. "Once they are in custody facing life imprisonment or death,"—Browne is serving two life sentences in Colorado—"there is no disincentive to start bragging about other crimes." And dissembling can result in better treatment, personal amusement, sometimes even the ability to leave the prison confines for a while. In the early 1990s a Mississippi man named Donald Leroy Evans, already convicted of a murder, claimed to have killed about 70 people. He led police and the FBI to Texas and Arizona looking for bodies. "He led the police on a complete wild goose chase," says Fox. "It was just a lie."

Browne claims to have killed 17 people in Louisiana, nine in Colorado, seven in Texas, five in Arkansas, three in Mississippi, two each in New Mexico, Oklahoma and California, and one in Washington. Some were strangled, others shot. According to Browne, his weapons include a knife, screwdriver and ice pick; he cut up some of the victims and dumped their bodies in lakes, rivers, trash bins and ditches.

But how can police determine whether or not he's simply making it all up? Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler and author of "The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us," says authorities must carefully scrutinize the details Browne provides. "Is he giving them exclusive knowledge, facts only the killer could know, or is he vague? If he's vague, that should set off alarm bells."

McCrary participated in the investigation of a serial killer in Rochester, N.Y., whose claims proved true. Found with a corpse, Arthur Shawcross was questioned about other local murders and confessed to 10. "It was cat and mouse in the interview but eventually he rolled over," McCrary says. Authorities were able to cross-validate his claims. "He knew facts that only a killer would know, such as how the victim was killed." Authorities also found carpet fibers from his car on some of the victims. "It was the postconfession validation that was key."

And even if Browne is truthful in some instances, that doesn't mean everything he says is true. "There's an old Italian proverb: a little truth helps the lies go down," McCrary says: "He apparently has done some murders, but just because some of what he says is true doesn't mean everything is true.