The Scariest Thing My Psychology Teacher Told Me

“Anyone can make a great killer.”

Now, great in this context does not mean great as in good, it means bad–really bad.

Some are born with the instinctual pleasure to kill, others develop  it for one simple reason: condition (of course, this will never justify it).

I knew a man once, and for the sake of anonymity, let’s call him Jim.

Jim was a really nice man. He was an excellent teacher, a frequent church-goer, and a fantastic dad.

He’s that guy you could count on for anything, always at all the soccer games and school fundraisers.

But one day he got fired for the most trivial of things.

The next day, he and his wife were evicted from their apartment.

Then, his son fell ill due to a rare disorder and immediately passed away.

Soon after, he found out his wife was having an affair.

And suddenly he was left not only broke but broken-hearted.

These were the conditions he faced–unfortunate, yet real.

What he did next was deplorable on so many levels and never justifiable.

First, he killed his wife and his wife’s lover. Axe.

Second, he killed two of his teacher friends. Gun.

Third, he killed the principal. Knife.

Fourth, he killed his landlord. Hammer.

And for the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, he killed a stranger in the dark of the night just for the hell of it. For these, he used a variation of weapons. Some bodies were  severed with bullet boles and yet still were stabbed.

Of course, now he’s in prison. I think they call him the deadly mourner.

Perhaps in another life he’ll be forgiven, but surely not in this one.