The Case of the Drowning Men (26 page)

Muddling through the
grossly
insensitive showmanship presented in “Drowning the Smiley Face Serial Theory” only one
concrete fact
stands out in it for
certain
: It doesn’t matter how many
,
or who
,
believe that something strange and awful is going on in the northland,
or how much evidence is submitted to support that
contention
,
authorities like CHR
, with their collective mindset,
will
never
acknowledge
that
something is
happening
.

With blinkers fastened
tight
, t
he Center
For Homicide Research
officiously
declares
there is no serial
killer on the loose
here
, and that is
to be
the end of the discussion
, they hope
.
In this aspiration, t
heir attitude is contemptuous
and unyielding
, and
their
work
unforgivably
shoddy
and
callous
.

Nevertheless, I
have to
agree
with the
m
. These are
n’
t the work of a serial murderer
...

cases examined
for
this
report

Patrick, Richard, Charles, Anthony, Ryan, Larry, Nathan, Trevor, Joshua, Robert, Jeff, Brian, Chad, Patrick, Manuel, Ken, Justin, Branson, Eric, Chris, James, Lon, Craig, Chris, Michael, Nathan, Jeremy, Glenn, Matthew, Jared, Marlon, Kevin, Chris, Jesse, Adam, Christopher, Keith,
Desmond,
Pat, Dan, Frank, Josh, Todd, Patrick, Matt, Buddy, Albert, Matthew, Kenji, Scott, Max, Luke, Wade, Joseph, Nick,
Dustin, Joshua, Abel, John, Chris, Josh, Matt, Tommy, Nicholas, Jeffrey, Willie, Eric, Trevor, Dan, Rian, Bill, Justin, Brendan, Ryan, William, Hyeong, Isaac, Brad, Russell, Sylvester, Jon, Craig, Gene, Jay, Rydell, Greg, Matt, Josh, James, Dwight, Nathan, Joe, Maurice, Jeremy, Devon, Willie, Timothy, Alan, Dave, Alex, George, Mark, Jeremy, Alexander, Ricky, Michael, James, Mike, Eric, Marcus, Tom, Damien, Franco
, Lance
, Jonathan, Brian, Samuel
, Jesse
, Nathan
…

While
serial
murder
finally has a legislated meaning,
the term “
mass murder
”
as yet
has no formalized
legal
definition
. But
here
i
n the United States
both the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI
define it as four or more murders
occurring
during a
specific
event with no cooling-off period
in
between
.
T
h
e
requirement of multiple murders committed at one time
being the hard and fast rule
for this class
ification
.

Typically
,
m
ass murder
s
are
perpetrated
by one or more individuals
,
usually male
s,
and
in a
single
location
,
or
, if
committed
by an
organization
,
in a string of related incidents
which
can sometimes
take place
over a
n extended
period of time
.
Within that
last
construct,
the
killing
of large number
s
of people by government agents
, including
the execution of civilians
by
the
police
,
is also
regarded as
mass murdering
.

People often
mistakenly think of serial
murder
and mass murder as interchangeable
tag
s
, but they’re not, for it
isn’t only
a
higher body
count and the scope of the crime
that distinguishes
a mass murder
er
, but his motivations as well
. Motives
which rarely
, if ever,
involve
sexual
ly perverse
gratification
.

T
hough
at the core of his psyche
a mass murderer may
harbor
the same pathology and homicidal tendencies
as
a serial killer
does
,
there is much more method to his madness. Revenge,
profit,
fame,
political power
…
these
are the prizes individuals and organizations who kill by the number are hoping to
obtain
.

In America,
you
need only
say
the word “Columbine”
now
,
and measure
its
lasting
impact
,
to know whether mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold achieved
similar
objective
s
.
Fueled by
resentment toward
their
more successful
classmates
,
when
these troubled youths
fin
i
shed
their
vengeful
rampage
in April
1999
,
nearly three-dozen
people
were
wounded
;
thirteen
of whom died
, including
one
teacher
.

Deadly s
chool shootings
like that one
,
as well as
workplace
massacres
,
have become much too common
in the years
since, but, still, the
se
violent
episodes
pale in comparison
to state sponsored mass murder
campaigns
, many of
which
, once completed,
have claimed tens of thousands, even millions, of
victims
.

Classic e
xamples
of state-sponsored mass murder
are the shooting of unarmed protestors, the carpet bombing of cities, and
the
well-orchestrated
“cleansing”
pogroms
targeting
ethnic
minorit
ies
—g
enocide
,
s
adly,
occurring
with frightening regularity
all
throughout
the history of mankind
.
Or
,
at least
,
ever since the invention of
governments
and
soldiers and policemen
.

W
hen we think of
genocid
e
,
images of Hitler and Mussolini automatically
come
to mind. But
the
record books
show
they’re by no means the only offenders
.
In fact
,
so prevalent are the incidences of
government-sanctioned
mass
murder
worldwide
that, based upon victim numbers alone, the average
profile of a mass murderer
turns out
not
to be
some
outcast teen
ager
shooting up his schoolyard
,
nor a disgruntled employee “going postal”
on the job
,
but rather
an
adult male
,
of any ethnic
,
who’s been
officially
issued a uniform, badge, and
a
license to kill.

From crusaders brandishing emblem
s
of the cross
while
hellishly
annihilating
Moslems
in the holy
land
, to the
Kremlin’s
secret police arresting 15,000,000 “comrades” and sending them to work to death in the gulags,
countries and kings have been
ordering their
uniformed
agents to murder
the minions since time immemorial.
And, since time immemorial,
many
uniformed agents have executed such orders with relish.
The following are just a few
famous
examples:

1.
      
An
invet
erate
academic
lackey who finished last in his class at West Point and who manifested profound symptoms of
a
narcissis
tic personality disorder
throughout his
military
career
,
George Armstrong
Custer
(
pictured above
)
was the
U
.
S
. government
’
s
key
player in
a
decades-long pogrom to exterminate the indigenous people of America.
In his
fixation
on
establish
ing
himself as
the
ir
“
number one Indian
k
iller”
Custer
slaughtered
thousands of men, women and children, claiming
to have killed
200 alone
in
the
battle
at
Washita
and 900 of their ponies.
By the time
the
plains Indians
staged the
ir
famous
ly
victorious
uprising
against
him
at Little Bighorn
,
Custer
was
held in such low regard by them for
these
atrocities that
,
reportedly
,
when they discovered his corpse on the battlefield
,
no warrior
bothered to
scalp it because
he
was
considered
“
too
filthy
.
”
Today, despite
th
at
stunning
upset
in the
war
of genocide against them
,
national
census
figures
reveal
that
less than 1.5 percent of the U.S. population
is Native American, the majority
of whom are
reduced
to
living in
squalor on designated wastelands.