The assumption that the only criminals out there are those who came from broken homes, hung out in the streets, and who have been in and out of jail is pretty ingrained, huh?
A bunch of Nichol’s former classmates have already come out and said he was one scary dude (as opposed to the nice guy his family says he was). Apparently Nichols had martial arts training and an intimidating presence. I read another article (that now I can’t find) that quotes someone blasting the court security staff and police for not being better prepared to handle him, and said that at some point the idea of beefing up their security was discussed (but was apparently never done).
You just described what I hate most: nepotistic mentality. Scott Peterson’s mother: “Scott couldn’t have killed Lacy because he’s my son; and I know what he could and could not do.” This despite the realism that I don’t know any of the evidence; or, I do know the evidence but I choose not to think logically or critically of it because it looks bad for my son." Yes, you motherfucking parents, there is a chance that you failed so miserably in your parental and social responsibilities to your children that there is a possibility that they devalue human life (other than their own, of course) so much that taking it is no bigger a deal than clipping one’s toenails.
Quotation not verbatim. But I have high confidence that this is the mentality of persons such as Jackie Peterson, whether she recognizes it or not.
Why the hell didn’t Nichols just kill himself rather than surrender? That would save the taxpayers of Georgia hundreds-of-thousands if not millions of dollars to house him in prison and pay for his trials (which can ONLY end in a guilty verdict- he did it) and his inevitable execution (killed a judge and two county employees who just happened to be doing their job on the wrong day). Plus, you murdered a judge and two uniformed people in cold blood and now the police have found you- just how well do you think you’re going to be treated and just what exactly do you think you’re going to accomplish with whatever’s left of your sorry ass life? Just make your own quietus with the same pistol and end this you fucker.
But nope. The money that could be used to educate or house or feed hundreds of people now gets tossed into your unworthy lap.
But you’re operating under the same fallacy that such as Jackie Peterson are. The concept that any wrongness on the part of a child is a failure of the parents. That’s just not so. I come from a family of nine and every single one of us has a different personality, different perspectives, and different attitudes. None of us are killers, thankfully, but if so it would not have been our parents fault. People go their own direction, and nothing can stop them but themselves.
Anyway, I’m not seeing what Nichols’ relatives are saying as denial. I see it as bewilderment.
Ditto. I read a report, but haven’t seen it corroborated, that BTK’s daughter turned him in. Since then, I’ve been trying to imagine what her experience must be like. But I can’t.
Has there been any word from the ex-girlfriend Nicholls was on trial for raping, etc.? I was saying to a friend of mine yesterday that, if I were her, I would be absolutely terrified at the knowledge that he’d gotten loose and would probably be on a plane to somewhere as far away from Atlanta as I could get (would any Dopers be willing to offer sanctuary under such circumstances?) or going against one recommendation I normally give out and keeping a loaded gun and a working telephone within reach at all times until he was recaptured and securely in jail.
For those who haven’t been following the details, Nicholls turned up at his ex-girlfriend’s house with a cooler, bound her with duct tape, and told her he was going to rape her until her birthday, three days later. He did. For some reason, I’m more appalled by this than by his shooting people on Friday, especially since he brought a cooler. I suppose it’s because what he did to his ex-girlfriend was obvioulsy coldly premeditated, as opposed to what he did on Friday, although I suspect that, too was planned.
He had thirteen hours in which the police were spreading the wrong discription of his car. How far could he have gotten in 13 hours? Not only that, he had a Customs Agent’s badge! He could have made it to the Mexican border and possibly gotten across before the Atlanta PD figured out he wasn’t in the green Honda anymore. But no, instead he took a hostage, which never, ever works. At the very least, he could have shot it out with the SWAT team, who would have been more than happy to kill him. Instead, he surrenders peacefully. There’s just no upside to this for him. He should have taken care of business himself. Fucking putz.
No, and there is not expected to be. Legitimate media such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are not releasing her name, and keep in mind that her rape trial has not been concluded.
Doubtful that it was planned. It’s more likely that he saw an opportunity – Hey, I’m in street clothes and unrestrained, and there’s one female deputy here – and took it.
This guy has the profile of a man with severe emotional under-development, who has the impulse control of a child or adolescent, coupled with a violent temper.
He was probably not thinking more than 1 or 2 steps ahead until he had time to calm down in his last hostage’s apartment. No doubt, at that point, he understood that she would report him as soon as he let her go – he had come to comprehend his situation and that there was no out for him.
As for suicide, the body has an enormously strong evolutionary repulsion to the ending of its life, even if the mind says it’s the logical thing to do. Look at Kip Kinkle, who after murdering his parents went on to shoot up his school apparently in an attempted “suicide by police”. It didn’t work out that way, and when he was tackled and restrained he was shouting “Just shoot me!” He wanted to die, but couldn’t pull the trigger on himself.
Huh? Why would anybody choose to spend life in prison instead of just killing themselves? Maybe because they want to live and don’t give a crap about how many people could be fed or educated.
It’s exactly the same thing with life without parole as opposed to the death penalty. We have lots of opponents to the death penalty on board, just think of all the people that could be fed, housed, educated with the money that could be saved by imposing the death penalty.
But they scream bloody murder if society wants to end “whatever’s left of your sorry ass life”, and then out the other side of their mouth they gripe about how many people could be fed, housed, educated with the money it takes to house their sorry ass.
Huh?
(And I don’t know what your views are on the death penalty, I wasn’t accusing you of the behavior above, just that it’s an argument that appears paradoxical)
I’m not anti-death-penalty, although I think it should be extremely limited and the burden of evidence extremely high.
Hell, just look at all the men who’ve been freed from death row because eyewitness testimony turned out to be bogus. In this week’s News of the Weird, Chuck Shepherd cites 2 cases – men who served 22 and 19 years in Louisiana before being freed on DNA evidence.
So in reality, a justly applied death penalty would likely be more costly than life in prison.
The one thing that is starting to change my mind is this: What about this guy’s mom? By all accounts, he came from a caring family. If you kill him, don’t forget you’re killing an innocent woman’s son. More and more, I think of the families of the perpetrators as well as the families of the victims.
Hmmm… looks like I may have screwed up and got it right…
From his interviews, Brian Nichols is starting to sound a lot like Mark Essex, seeing himself as a crusader against a system that’s inherently bigoted against blacks.
There is an excellent book on the subject, which profiles, among others, Bundy, Essex, Gacy, and Starkweather. I hope someone can remind me of title and author. Perhaps it’s “Mass Murder” by John Keith Drummond? I can’t locate all my source notes from many years ago when I wrote on this subject.
The author’s thesis was that the spark for this kind of killer is often a perceived social disparity, an unmet desire which the killer finally concludes can never be fulfilled. One of the few well-researched non-sensational books on the subject (along w/ those of some FBI profilers and other investigators).
I have been shaking my head in disbelief at this story since it happened. I guess some random shit is going to happen in a county courthouse, considering who you have gathered… but for somebody to break out, gun down a judge plus two in a courtroom, AND GET AWAY just floors me. Footpath to another building or not … this must be the most shameful thing that could happen to whatever law enforcement is supposed to be securing that place. I guess I’ll have to think twice before rolling my eyes at the next Hollywood blockbuster when they pull some over-the-top getaway scene. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
The thing that most shocks me today is that I heard on the radio that the entire original assault of the guard and evasion from holding was actually video-monitored, and recorded, but just nobody was actually looking at the security-cam feed as it was happening. Any confirmation of that?