Stupid insane looser who apparently just wanted to be a famous killer.
His ‘status’ in jail is that they had him in protective custody, because the jails are full of people who think that the way to be loved and get status is by killing somebody like Martin Bryant.
And apart from the other prisoners, he’s surrounded by prison guards, who, not to put too fine a point on it, are people who think that prisoners should be punished, and who think that the way to be loved and get status is by treating prisoners like Martin Bryant with contempt.
Plenty of people give some nonzero fraction of a shit about understanding the mentality of spree killers, as evidenced by the fact that someone posted a thread about it, and someone else gave an earnest, on-topic reply. Such understanding, as others have pointed out, could hopefully lead to preventing future spree killings. If you do not wish to participate in that discussion, then you don’t need to, but others may if they choose. This is an official Warning for threadshitting.
Stranger, this is an important and well-stated rebuttal to me. I was attempting to find an example of someone who had spent a long time in prison and never regretted their actions. You’re right, though, that Mandela was not a good example.
The real problem with the OP’s question is that it’s hard to find a mass murderer who actually lived long enough to stand trial and:
a) claimed a political motive
b) was imprisoned and stayed alive for “20, 30, 40 years”
c) is on the record as having either regretted or not regretted their actions and
d) isn’t batcrap crazy.
That last one is a really high hurdle, because it immediately throws out murderers like Charles Manson and Colin Ferguson.
Some regret it without even going to prison. ETA’s list of victims include their former operative Yoyes. Several ETA prisoners have eventually expressed regret for their actions.
One of the guys involved in the 11-M murders in Madrid has expressed his regret.
In the Spanish prison system, expressing regret can lead to benefits such as being moved closer to home (ETA’s prisoners are purposefully kept away from the Basque areas, from their families and from each other) or being allowed leave. But if you commit a crime of a similar nature again, you won’t see the nice side of a benefit until your grandchildren’s grandchildren graduate from their doctoral degrees.
Recently there’s been news reports about Brenda Spencer being up for parole again. As a 16 year-old she committed a ~school shooting in 1979 in San Diego resulting in 2 dead. (Unfortunately these new reports seem to stem from the Daily Fail.)
A comment she made to a reporter inspired the Boomtown Rats’ song I Don’t Like Mondays. She is supposed to have said that she’s happy that the song made her famous.
