The article says he wanted to "live plain & simple." He's certainly going to get that now, living in an institution.
Of course, he wanted to be surrounded by nature. If he had just left, he would have gotten that. Instead, he gets to be as far away from nature as possible, for the rest of his life.
If he had run off into the wilderness like Christopher McCandless, how would his family have held him back in any way? You can't collect child support or alimony from someone who can't be found.
Dreadful. I'm glad they mentioned his job, though. He's middle-class. Now he can't be written off as a hick. It's not just poor people who do dreadful things.
They were going through significant marital issues, nothing uncommon, but nasty enough. He was seeing other women behind her back, she probably had feelings of abandonment, she would frequently have fights with her relatives where she would defend him, there were frequent squabbles, etc. The usual stuff.
Christopher apparently had a thing for druids and getting back to nature and ye olde life, and so forth. His fantasy was to live the lifestyle deep in the Yukon Territory. He could have just been a thoughtless jerk and abandoned his family but, for whatever reasons, he decided to be a murderous thoughtless jerk.
Finally, I'll add that he had a beautiful wife and lovely kids, plus what appears to have been a nice house and, probably, a decent career. That is, he had attained what is the fantasy of millions. But sometimes we let things get in the way of appreciating what we have.
@ 14, the guy sounds too much like a psychopath to me. (That word gets bandied about too much these days, but his reactions on the stand are just too cold-blooded for it not to be highly possible here.) Eric Harris (the likely psychopathic Columbine killer) also felt only at home in isolated nature.
Oswego IL is just a few miles from my wife's home town, and the murdered wife was the same age. I wonder if she ever knew this person? I'll ask her - but not tonight.
I'm always grateful to Dan for posting these because I know they are a reaction to the anti-gay religious nuts, mainly Family "Research" Council, whose manta is "Every child needs a father and a mother" to imply that if you're a same-sex parent, you just aren't good enough and that hetero-parenting is somehow a guarantee of wholesome, well-rounded children.
Thanks once again, Dan, for exposing the lying liars at FRC.
Read the book "Small Sacrifices". People will do this kind of thing for the most petty and selfish reasons. But then, as uncomfortable as it is to think, we have only just climbed down from the trees. We are animals.
Ugh. We have a real doozy up here right now. A couple filed a motion to prevent their toddler daughter from being taken off of life support and allowed to die. This goes against their religious beliefs. But the reason she is on life support in the first place is because they starved her to the point that she was eventually found in a coma with irreparable brain damage. Yep, having heterosexual parents sure helped her.
You know, I was going to quip that every father who has taken his family to an amusement park had probably at least thought about shooting all of them at at least one point during the trip, but this story is just too sad...
@15 I'm just going to jump in here to defend the people who only feel comfortable isolated in nature and are not psychopaths. Despite your example of one, I don't think that that's a very strong correlation. The 'psychopath test' that is used in the courts system does not have 'only comfortable isolated in nature' as one of the indicators that identify a psychopath.
This American Life did a very interesting show on the 'psychopath test'. You should listen to it. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-ar…
Of course, he wanted to be surrounded by nature. If he had just left, he would have gotten that. Instead, he gets to be as far away from nature as possible, for the rest of his life.
If he had run off into the wilderness like Christopher McCandless, how would his family have held him back in any way? You can't collect child support or alimony from someone who can't be found.
Because some people are mentally ill......
No, but clearly he thought that. I wasn't accusing you of thinking that way.
why?
what good is served by highlighting the crimes of mentally ill criminals?
Christopher apparently had a thing for druids and getting back to nature and ye olde life, and so forth. His fantasy was to live the lifestyle deep in the Yukon Territory. He could have just been a thoughtless jerk and abandoned his family but, for whatever reasons, he decided to be a murderous thoughtless jerk.
Finally, I'll add that he had a beautiful wife and lovely kids, plus what appears to have been a nice house and, probably, a decent career. That is, he had attained what is the fantasy of millions. But sometimes we let things get in the way of appreciating what we have.
@ 14, the guy sounds too much like a psychopath to me. (That word gets bandied about too much these days, but his reactions on the stand are just too cold-blooded for it not to be highly possible here.) Eric Harris (the likely psychopathic Columbine killer) also felt only at home in isolated nature.
Oswego IL is just a few miles from my wife's home town, and the murdered wife was the same age. I wonder if she ever knew this person? I'll ask her - but not tonight.
Thanks once again, Dan, for exposing the lying liars at FRC.
"and that hetero-parenting is somehow a guarantee of wholesome, well-rounded children...."
Could you cite any references please?
We hear that claim made often by Danny and Slog but have never seen anyone in the real world claim that.
This American Life did a very interesting show on the 'psychopath test'. You should listen to it. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-ar…