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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Murderous children

This is an interesting article about the parents of one of the victims of the Columbine school massacre meeting with the parents of one of the shooters:
Approximately ten years and four months after Eric Harris murdered their child, Linda and Tom drove into Denver to greet his parents. The Harries declined to comment on the meeting. These are Linda’s impressions.
* * *
Wayne [Harris] was mystified by his son. Wayne and Kathy accepted that Eric was a psychopath. Where that came from, they didn’t know. But he fooled them, utterly.

He’d also fooled a slew of professionals. Wayne and Kathy clearly felt misled by the psychologist they sent him to. The doctor had brushed off Eric’s trademark duster as “only a coat.” He saw Eric’s problems as rather routine. At least that’s the impression he gave Wayne and Kathy.

They shared that perception with the Mausers. Other than the van break-in, Eric had never been in serious trouble, they said. He and Dylan were arrested in January 1998 and charged with three felonies. They eventually entered a juvenile diversion program, which involved close monitoring and various forms of restitution.

Eric rarely seemed angry, his parents said. There was one odd incident where he slammed his fist into a brick wall and scraped his knuckles. That was startling, but kids do weird things. It seemed like an aberration, not a pattern to be worried about.

Wayne and Kathy knew Eric had a Web site, but that didn’t seem odd. They never went online to look at it. “I found them kind of incurious,” Linda said.

From time to time, she wondered whether the Harrises were lying, or exaggerating. Her instincts said no. They did not strike her as calculating or devious; maybe a bit hapless. And Wayne was somewhat inscrutable. Honest, but not revealing. Linda believed them, but wondered whether the couple second-guessed themselves enough. “Honestly, if it were me this happened to, I think I’d still be questioning myself,” Linda said. “They did not seem to doubt themselves.”
But doubting oneself is only useful if there was another, better option available to you at the time given the information you had.

68 comments:

  1. "It doesn't matter what information they had, or what the signs might have implied. Something really bad happened. They should doubt themselves forever."
    -Linda

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  2. The parents are bitter and miserable about the loss of their son...psychopaths are not raised, they're born that way and as such there is only so much one can do as a parent, in short it's not their fault. But people in crisis and misery always look for someone to blame and rage at...they were taking him so a psychotherapist..it's not like they could do much about his tendencies. The kid did the wrong thing....end of story.

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    1. I agree sorry for anon I have to be because of my profile x I hate this evil from Brighton

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  3. The parents of the offending child are being reasonable. They acted on what information they could and hence there is no more that can be done. They ought not doubt themselves forever. Nor should any other persons who fail to identify and pre empt the actions of other psychopaths where no lengthy pattern of offences and deviant behaviours have been demonstrated.
    Psychopaths ARE born and not made that way.They are not the criminals that their son is nor did they shape that aspect of his behaviour.

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  4. " Kathy cried several times and repeated how sorry she was this all happened. She turned to Linda at one point and confessed how scared she had been to come. Wayne watched silently when she wept. Linda thought he seemed very detached."

    I wonder why Wayne left the air force. I wonder why Wayne married. I wonder if Wayne feels feelings. I wonder if Wayne knows what happened.

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  5. Much is left to be discovered and all together understood.

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  6. Good morning SW. I'm first! :)

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  7. i know what works
    MORE GUNS
    (it's the american way)

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    Replies
    1. but the trenchcoats were banned and marilyn manson and videogames got blamed
      ppl are so supide

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  8. Cock-'a-doodle-fuck.

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    1. sounds painfull just put some lotion on it and you'll be fine

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  9. Ooh the Columbine Massacre. A few months ago I spent a while researching how Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went about doing it. Watching the footage from the shooting was extremely exciting.

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    1. rooting for the badguys is always good do you have a conservative party membership yet?

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    2. how would you like to work for the cops?
      everything goes just as long as they don't film you
      (don't pull a rodney king)

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    3. you can even have ppl shipped off to guantanamo

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    4. ptsd or your money back

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    5. oh no you didn't

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    6. do i need a spanking?

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    7. that and polka music
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_UTUiiMgEE

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    8. Ok Political Anon, you obviously have an ax to grind on the gun control issue. I'll bite, give us your views on violence prevention it you please.

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  10. I think Eric got bored and that's why he decided to plan out and go on this murderous rampage. Some sociopaths are nonviolent and content with manipulation and their own ways to live on the edge and break the rules (like I am), but other sociopaths just can't take the monotony of life anymore and result to doing something like this (murderers/serial killers)

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  11. I don't believe the Harris's claim they didn't know where Eric's psychopathic traits came from. Surely, a family member had the same personality disorder unless they were incurious to that, also. I just don't buy it..........

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    1. I believe that they didn't know. He was probably excellent at acting and fooling his family into believing he was mostly normal

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    2. I agree but reread my post. It was about genetics. :)

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    3. Oh okay. I don't think sociopathy or psychopathy is necessarily a genetic trait. No one in my family has a history of sociopathy. I think it sometimes can be transferred genetically, but it isn't always.

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    4. ^ We disagree on that one but that's our choice.

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    5. He was probably excellent at acting and fooling his family into believing he was mostly normal

      What are you even talking about? Unless you're handicapped in some way or an autistic person, behaving in a normal way takes no skills. You smile, you make people compliments, and people love you for it. Requires no skills at all.

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    6. M.Brig 10:52
      "Oh but you have no idea"

      What does that mean? ^

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    7. That you really have no idea.

      Everyone can just talk about random stuff, but it needs skill to subtle achieve your goals.

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    8. Sounds like a job for Captain Obvious!

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    9. Exactly. Anon, you just THINK that people don't have to try to act normal because you don't know anything different.

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    10. ^ Tryhards up there. Go back home, there's nothing to see.

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    11. What's odd is that mymind shows up to confirm M. Brig views on time.

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    12. They remind me of dumb and dumber......

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    13. Yeah because we both have first hand experience with acting like we're normal on a daily basis. So we understand each other.

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    14. Normal? LMAO!!!

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    15. I'm not acting like I'm normal on this site. I'm talking about in real life and interacting with people.

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    16. I asked you to explain.... What's acting normal to you and what are you hiding?

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    17. I am impressed by the fact how much balls you have, Anon.

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    18. Hahaha what a hilarious question, Anon (11:29)

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    19. acting normal is displaying emotions and empathy (that aren't there)
      and not killing annyone
      except ofc that one time in collumbine in school

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    20. It is draining. You go away retracing what you did with your face and words and ask yourself if you should have done or said something else.

      Then you have argument with yourself about how much are you wlling to sacrifice of freedom so you can keep up appearances.

      Then you wonder why you should care so much about appearances because that is restraining, too. But you suck it up because you chose those people for a reason and you do not want to lose them.

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  12. Say goodbye to the world you live in, you've always been bitchin', but now you're killin'.

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    Replies
    1. Here's an interesting question...

      If you were to somehow find yourself doing a little shoot 'em up, what outfit would you be wearing, and what weapon would you be using?

      I would choose to go out Old Western style, packing a six shooter, wide brim hat, poncho, and cigar for extra effect.

      Good old fashioned, 'blast' from the past.

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  13. i sometimes wander if annyone knows
    i remember telling my father he tells me a little autism runs in the family
    (i can't tell if he's lieing or not)
    cople of months later he confesses he stole money from me and my brother blames his wife and askes for more (all in the same sentence)
    i look him in the eye and tell him he he overplayed his hand
    ofc he didn't react
    (put the pieces together)
    i used to get in troble in school a lot and play the victim at home that always worked still wandering if he knew

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    Replies
    1. i always need an way to cut loos and with the ppl i do they defendly know i'm more than a little off but that' all ofc
      as long as you are not a serial kill er ppl don't think you can be a sociopath

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  14. Good Evening SW. How is everyone tonight?

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  15. I have tried to write three times and I can't. I am free falling, but it does not feel bad. You know the tunnels in which cartoon characters fall. I am slowly descending, but if feels like I am on a cloud. You know the proverbial phrase, 'Life makes no sense". It is repeating, as I fall, but it does not feel bad. It feels like a release.

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