Well, there’s more than one type of killer, and your basic serial killer like BTK is most often a sociopaths. Sociopaths really are different from the rest of us. They just don’t have any sense of empathy whatsoever. Most who’ve studied them will tell you they think the wiring in their brains is not working properly.
Now, I have no problem with locking up BTK forever or killing him, as the things he’s done are terrible enough that he’s used up any sympathy I might have for him. But I don’t hate him in the way I’d hate a normal person. They’re not normal. BTK is more like the human equivalent of a rabid dog. I don’t hate him, but he’s disposed to bite and I don’t want him biting anyone.
I think the logical thing to do is to study the hell out of these people and see if we can figure out where their wiring has gone wrong, and if it can be detected/prevented. Probably a few years down the road before we can manage it, if we can manage it at all, but if we COULD, we could save some people from being attacked by all the guys like BTK who are running around loose because we can’t be bothered to think clearly about who they are.
Yes. We have to remember that this guy is a sociopath (this is not a medical or psychological diagnosis) who feels no remorse and feels no compulsion to follow rules or laws. They do what they want, when they want, where they want. They have no empathy, no real way to understand what others feel, and may not even know what they feel beyond some basic emotional states. In order for a punishment to be effective as a correctional tool, the subject has to understand what they did wrong and be motivated by the punishment to change their behavior.
When it comes to punishing Dennis Rader (or a very low-IQ criminal), the reasons for punishment become a little clearer. We have a choice of incarceration or death, and since Dennis is not likely to be truly remorseful in the face of his death, then the death penalty becomes vengance that doesn’t lead to any kind of healing. Incarceration will not mean much to him either, but it will serve to remove him from society, where otherwise he may inflict more damage and destruction.
Since you called me on my BS, I admit to watching some of his statement on CNN. I’m sorry I know what I know now. But I was surprised to find myself being morbidly curious. It sent chills up my spine to hear his factual and detatched descriptions. I don’t need any more details though. Lock him up and throw away the key.
I also saw part of his statement. I’m sorry I did. It’s stuff I don’t need to know, and now feel I’d rather not know. At the time morbid curiosity compelled me to watch far longer than I should have.
Sometimes I resent cable news for appealing to that morbid curiosity that exists in all of us, but is one of our more shameful aspects.
He should not and will not ever walk the streets again. But do not put him to death. Just because he is a murderer doesn’t make me want to also become complicit in murder through our judicial system.
Then how do he and others like him keep it so “together” that they can lead peaceful, normal double lives for decades and not get caught?
No, I can’t believe these guys fit any consistent definition of “crazy.” Or if it is crazy, it’s a mental disorder so resilient and so sophisticated that it “learns” to mutate and defend itself, like a virus.
Exactly. He does not fit any meaningful definition of crazy. Dennis Rader was a married, church-going, respectable city compliance officer. He was also BTK.
When I sit in a traffic for 30 minutes because of an accident, I get pissed when I get there and don’t get to see twisted steel and broken glass. Not looking for blood stains on the asphalt, but just a little carnage to satisfy the beast within.
One of the things that gets me is that he ceased to be BTK for a very long time. He suddenly became a regular guy: married, family, churchgoer &c. And I was always under the impression that your average serial killer usually feels a driving compulsion to kill again and again. That’s usually what seems to get them caught.
But Rader was able to repress those feelings (if, indeed, he even had them) and become just a regular joe.
I would say evil. He enjoys killing people, so that’s what he does. It seems that some serial killers do consider the moral aspects of their crimes… for about five minutes. Then they shrug and go kill again. Creepy.
Zebra, in a trial, he would likely never get to take the stand. By pleading guilty, he gets to tell his story, in intimate detail. From my readings over at CrimeLibrary, many serial killers like reliving the events, and this was one way for him to do so.
I’m no expert though, so I readily admit I could be wrong.
Plus, labeling him a model citizen is a bit…wrong. Model citizens don’t bind and strangle people for thrills.
The problem is not having “sexual fantasies involving murder.” The problem is creating these fantasies in real life. If BTK had simply fantasized, or written about, or found a willing partner to discuss them with, or found an on-line chat group of similar fanasizers, he’d be a free man.
Well, model citizen is a bit of a joke. Model suspect is more correct.
Is there any reason they can’t just say,
We charge you with the murder of so-and-so.
Then he says
I plead guilty.
Why does he have to recount the crimes in detail just to plead guilty?
