The Competition - [72]

“Seems likely. The only reason to write that letter is to make sure they get the ‘credit’ for future attacks, so no one will think it’s the work of a copycat-”

“Well, not the only reason,” Michael said. “In writing the letter he also gets to play with your head, Rachel. Torturing and manipulating someone who’s famous is a trophy unto itself. So he gets a twofer.”

“I agree,” Jenny said. “As I said before, this letter writer is a psychopath, and they’re typically fixated on power and control-”

“Which only reinforces the likelihood that the other party is the weaker one, the follower,” Michael said. “A pleaser who participates in the killing in part to perform for the leader.”

I stared out the window, which gave a view of the side of a building. “Is it possible they might choose to stop at some point, just try to escape?”

“Very doubtful,” Michael said. “I predict they’ll keep going until they see capture is imminent. Then, they’ll either commit suicide or force a police officer to kill them. They’ll want to go out in a blaze of so-called glory.”

Jenny nodded. “I don’t believe they intend to survive this.”

“That willingness to die,” I said. “For me, that’s one of the hardest parts to get. You talk about a ‘blaze of glory’…but they won’t be around to enjoy it. It almost feels like they don’t realize that dead is dead.”

Jenny and Michael exchanged a look. “Jenny and I have a slight disagreement about this,” he said. “I think mortality isn’t real to teenagers-particularly boys. It might be yet another by-product of the undeveloped frontal lobe connections. And criminals with a homicidal pathology like these shooters take it one step further. Orchestrating their own death is the ultimate form of power and control. But beyond that, regardless of age, their focus is on the moment. They fill their minds with the thrill of their homicidal plans and all the notoriety they’re going to receive. They’re not thinking about their own demise.”

“I definitely agree teenagers have a tendency to think they’re made of rubber,” Jenny said. “Until something really bad happens, they don’t grasp their own vulnerability. So death is abstract to them. Something that happens to others, not them. But in the case of these killers, I don’t think it’s just a failure to grasp the reality of their own death. I think they place little value on life in general. Including their own.”

“We talked about the fact that this case bears similarities to Columbine,” I said. “Obviously, they knew about that shooting, so is it likely they studied other shootings as well?” It had occurred to me they might aim for similar targets so they could keep proving how much “better” they were than those shooters.

“Oh, of course,” Jenny said. “I’m sure they studied many others of that ilk: the Virginia Tech shooter, the Aurora shooter, and so forth. Just as Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, studied Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer. And as Harris and Klebold studied other mass murderers-among them, Timothy McVeigh. In this way they’re similar to celebrity stalkers.” She gestured to the coffeepot. “Refill?” We all accepted.

“Celebrity stalkers?” I asked. “But they don’t commit suicide like the school shooters-”

Jenny nodded. “No, not usually. And the school shooters typically write about their crimes for quite a while before committing them, and the celebrity stalkers don’t necessarily-though they do often write to their celebrity targets. All that’s true. But those distinctions are relatively superficial. At their emotional core, they have some important things in common.”

Michael tapped my arm. “That’s why the letter was addressed to you, Rachel. You’re the one everyone saw on television-”

“Right,” Jenny said. “So fame is a motivating factor for both classes of criminals. And in neither instance do the killers really intend to escape. It would defeat a key goal, which is to become famous. Mark David Chapman, John Lennon’s killer, remained at the scene reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. And Robert Bardo, who killed Rebecca Schaeffer, fled the scene, but all he did was run home. He got caught and confessed that same day. By the way, he carried The Catcher in the Rye with him when he did the shooting, in imitation of Chapman. No, there’s no question these two classes of criminals have some commonalities. Just as those celebrity stalkers are looking for vicarious fame, so too are these school shooters. The big distinguishing factor is that this type of mass murderer is primarily seeking power and control, proof of his superiority. For him, fame is a welcome by-product because it advertises his ‘prowess.’”

“But I want to interject here,” Michael said. “We’re not equating your shooters-or at least the letter writer-with someone like that Aurora shooter. As I recall, there was some evidence that the Aurora shooter suffered a true mental illness-as opposed to your letter writer, who obviously has a personality disorder.”

“Right,” Jenny said. “It’s fairly rare that the mentally ill act out violently toward others. And certainly not in a planned attack like this. That’ll be an important point to make for the jury if we get to trial-”