WITHOUT CONSCIENCE: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, by Dr. Robert D. Hare, Pocket Books, 236 pages, $21.

This is a chilling, compelling profile of the whited sepulchres (evil persons feigning goodness) who walk among us, wearing masks of deception. Many are true psychopaths, “social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, empty wallets, and shattered expectations,” according to author Dr. Robert D. Hare, one of the world’s foremost experts in the field. “There is no causal link to mental illness,” he says. “Psychopathy is a personality disorder that wipes out all sense of conscience, shame, remorse, and guilt.”

The book makes the conservative estimate that there are more than 2 million psychopaths in North America who use any means to gain their own ends. They are extremely dangerous, emphasizes Hare, because they completely lack the capacity to love and cannot empathize with the pain and suffering of others. Their only aim in life is to take what they want and to do as they please. In order to achieve this they lie unrelentingly, cheat, steal, and use their wiles to prey on the innocent and vulnerable. They are also clever manipulators and impersonators.

“In Canada, a man posing as an orthopedic surgeon performed numerous operations,” relates the author. “When questions arose about his medical procedures, he skipped town, leaving behind a string of physically and mentally damaged patients. He also posed as a psychiatrist, social worker, undercover customs agent, and police officer.”

Another haunting case of a psychopath in action is that of Diane Downs who shot her own children because the man with whom she was infatuated did not like children. When apprehended, psychopathic Downs attempted to persuade the authorities that it was she who was the real victim.

Psychopaths can be found in every walk of life, from small-town sewing circles to the highest seats of government. They burrow into business and preach saintly sermons from pulpits. Always on the prowl for easy money, they seize on the lonely, weak, trusting and elderly as prime prey. Hunting grounds for “The Sweetheart Swindler” were senior citizens’ dance and social clubs where he duped unsuspecting widows out of tens of thousands of dollars. When apprehended he shrugged and said, “Sure, I took their money but they got their money’s worth out of me.”

Another psychopathic con man, when found guilty of schemes involving pension funds, boiler-room stock promotions, charity fund-raising drives, and shared-vacation-condo schemes, complained, “I wouldn’t be in prison today if there weren’t so many cookie jars begging to put my hand in.”

Some psychopaths are serial killers. “When I look back I see myself more as a victim than a perpetrator,” said Illinois businessman John Wayne Gacy, junior chamber of commerce “Man of the Year” and popular entertainer of children as “Pogo the Clown” who in the 1970s cold-bloodedly murdered 33 young men and boys.

Hare, who has researched psychopathy for 25 years, states that the disorder shows itself in children at an early age. The hallmarks are lying, repetitive and casual; indifference or inability to understand feeling or pain in others; defiance of parents, teachers and rules; lack of responsiveness to reprimands and punishment; petty theft; aggression; unremitting truancy; a pattern of hurting or killing animals; early experimentation with sex; vandalism, and fire setting. Psychopaths have no sense of conscience and are completely narcissistic, with an inflated view of their self-worth, and a firm vision of themselves as the center of the universe.

The author enjoins readers to keep in mind that psychopathy is a syndrome, a cluster of related symptoms, one of which is that psychopaths usually possess wit, excel in the clever comeback and take pleasure in telling false, convincing stories in which they play an impressive role. Is there a cure for this deadly, destructive disorder? Not yet, admits Hare. Then how can one protect one’s self against psychopaths? “Steer clear of them,” says Hare tersely.

A professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, Hare has gained renown as the developer of the Psychopathy Checklist, a complex clinical tool for professionals that is in global use. A gifted writer as well, he employs a literary style whose freshness and sense of immedicacy keeps the reader spellbound throughout. Informative, riveting, “Without Conscience” is a book that matters.

Bea Goodrich’s reviews are a monthly Books in Review feature. She also writes a review column and is the author of the award-winning nature series, “Happy Hollow Stories by Judge Tortoise.”