This question so reminds me of criminal prolifer Van Zandt's quote about ask a teacher who on the playground will become a criminal or killer-that teachers are the best criminal profilers.
I don't know if thats true but I bet they get a good view of some abnormal behavior.
I agree tutmed and I, too recall this same statement that you're speaking of by the famous profiler Clint Van Zandt.. I believe it is a very accurate and right on the money theory about just what all as a teacher they are privy to see at any given moment throughout the school year with each student within their class.. As some have already spoken about their parent being teachers..my mom, too is a teacher of 29 years with the vast majority of that time spent within 4th-6th grade{combined with approx 5 yrs teaching 3rd grade}..but all within the same developmental stage as a whole..
And she was making these exact statements about particular students waaaaayyyy back before this media crime and forensic age that we are in now..This was as far back as mid eighties when she had her first experience with such a child.. Don't get me wrong, as I don't want it to seem as tho she has had many of these type children and multiple times when her instincts told her right off the bat that something was very wrong.. It's not that many at all, infact out of 29 years of teaching there have been only 3 cases where she has been overcome with such a gutteral instinct that she actually spoke about it to others{including us, her family} along with school counselors and in one instance even going above the school counselor's choice of ignoring or writing off particular behaviors that my mother knew were very grave indicators of something very unusual, if not even evil..
As I said 3 students in 29 years.. All 3 were male{tho they doesn't neccesarily mean that is always the case, as I do know of females that have shown these same traits and characteristics at very young ages}.. But the three mom encountered happened to be male.. My mom is very gifted teacher, highly awarded within the county of which she has spent the duration of her career, as well as highly respected, and always the teacher that the entire faculty always requests for their own children to be placed in mom's class.. She's the last of a dying breed of those who truly care for her students and will go to all lengths necessary in order for her students to be able to learn while in her class..no matter what that means in ways of difficulty and trying to say the very least on her end..she will at all costs do what is right by each and every student who has ever had the pleasure of being in my mother's classroom..She still presently is invited and attends multiple high school as well as college graduations every single year as she is that one teacher that we all had at some point throughout our elementary and highschool careers that we love and respect and hold dear to our hearts even as adults..
Her lengths of what she'll go to for her students truly is for THEM ALL..and that means even the ones who are seriously and deeply disturbed in ways that the majority of us cannot even imagine, especially at such a young and seemingly still innocent age[4th-5th grade].. But these three young boys in particular she knew without a doubt they indeed were very disturbed and on levels that she, herself did not even comprehend{atleast the extent that the disturbance sometimes was}.. She said that one of them had the look of death behind his eyes..you ask what does that mean?..the way she explained it was that no matter the severity of his behaviors and actions which at times were very severe..no matter what the situation or how elevated the situation became..it was all the same..anger..hate.. furor..sadness.. frustration.. they always remained the same hollow and vacant.. My mom a very God fearing Southern Baptist would never say what she truly felt was behind those eyes but the truth was that there was nothing behind them..they were vacant..and as much as she hated to admit it..behind those eyes was soulless..
As I said my mom is a very gifted and caring teacher who genuinely cares for her students and throughout 29 years has had many extreme behavioral problems due to the entire gamut of reasons why..some chemically imbalanced, some genetical born with particular medical problem that greatly affected behavioral problems, many many many directly due to abusive environments in which they had or were still presently being raised in..{another entirely different issue is the abuse that she has discovered throughout her career and the many times that she went above and beyond her call of duty for the best interest of those children..going way above her superiors heads when enough just wasn't being done to protect precious children..literally at one point very temporarily my mom's fighting for a student resulted in the student temporarily being brought into our very own home to stay..My mom did and would still go to any length necessary for these children}.. But these 3 of which I speak of are of a different "breed" entirely..nothing even remotely the same of the many many other children throughout her 29 years of teaching{even those of some extreme behavioral problems..still these 3 were different even from those}..They were in a category all of their very own and it was inherently known literally days if not hours of my mom coming to know them and experience there very darkness that encompassed their very beings..
One came from still married and intact family unit with both parents being very successful, as well as very high intellect.. So too was their son, very, highly intelligent.. That too was very apparent from the get go as well.. Very skilled artist and was obvious that he seemed very much gifted in the creativity area.. If one is especially fond of the brutal horrors of extremely visually stimulating drawings of the darkest most depraved of actions being inflicted on harmless animals..Yes, much as what we all well know now is that many of these "serial killer" types indeed are known to have enjoyed torturing and killing neighborhood animals, pets, and even their own pets.. That is what is extremely detailed art was depicting.. My mom learned very quickly tho with this family in particular that once in the stage of requesting help from outside individuals[which was immediately done by the school counselor when my mom went to her with some of the drawings along with her concerns].. It became evident quickly this family was not on board very any type of treatment nor even discussion of there being even a problem of any sort with their child.. They took the path of great denial and how dare you attempt to say such horrors about of highly intelligent and gifted son..
Long story short was that by the end of the school year my mom said the behaviors and the drawings as well had escalated and it had escalated to the point of their now being humans that were replacing the once pictured mutilations of innocent animals..they now were depicting those depravities done on humans.. Mom said that he very much enjoyed instilled terror in people..She said it was the one time in which you could almost see something behind those eyes..that something was actually alive behind those dead eyes..Terrifyingly it was realized that actually what was being seen behind those eyes while instilling and striking fear and terror in the hearts of his "victims" was almost flickers of joy and a sick satisfaction..all precursors IMO.. I say "victims" because at that time and age his "victims" were those he was paralyzing with heart stopping terror of being subjected to one of his drawings and then his looking you in the eye and telling you that you are actually the "victim" that he'd drawn and depicted in his picture.. At that time this is what he was deriving his sick satisfaction from and it was only the beginning..
Another of the boys that my mom had the experience of teaching that seemed to have the all encompassed darkness inside of his being, the dark and dead eyes that only seem the lurch to life when a sick thrill is being sought..otherwise a completely devoid of everything type of withdrawn persona.. He had a much much different background and homelife, a very broken home, as in a few times over broken home with multiple step dads, half sibling, and step siblings moving in and out of his life like revolving doors.. Learning disabilities that neither family nor any other teachers had ever even given the time of day to attempt to help or ensure that he received help offered and available to him.. Different in many ways and multiple ways and at a time my mom had even momentarily felt guilty for feeling he was so possibly disturbed as at that time the only other young man that she had ever encountered similar in the least.. But this momentary lapse in judgement was fleeting.. IMO most likely what it was that she felt from this particular young man was that he was much more capable in ways that the other young man was not.. In very manipulative ways..Ways that were used and put into place when he saw just what a caring and giving individual my mother was and was so desperately wanting to "save" him from his homelife's existence who she had pegged as the source for all his issues.. I think he saw her coming and when realized he could "work" her thats what he attempted to do..Now remember we are talking an 11yr old boy here.. Not a grown man,nor even a teenager...we are talking a young kid at the age of 11 that was already that skilled in the games and rewards that his skills of manipulation could bring him..what he could achieve in his "acting" as tho he cared, or was sad, or was remorseful when need be.. These "acts" were all eventually clearly realized by my mother who just was all the more devastated in realizing that he was infact even more sinister in many ways than the first jackal...
I truly could go on and on for days on different happenings, the long journey that she took in all three cases of these young students that she knew were different in very severe ways.. And the toll it eventually took on her in going through these situations as well as the aftermath of the outcomes of two of these young men's lives..
Yes, two of them indeed did become very sick, depraved, and brutal murderers.. One of them some of you may even know of the brutal and depraved rape, torture, sexual mutilation, and murder of 3 little 8 yr old boys out for a bike ride in their neighbor one late afternoon...three little boy scouts who would never return home..instead their bikes later found and then their mutilated little murdered bodies discovered there in the wooded area of Robin Hood Park.. Sick and depraved???.. In my book those words don't even cut it... Not hardly.. No the words that I use to describe this type of murder and those who commit it are words that I cannot use here on this forum..But I certainly believe most can imagine what exact type of words I am speaking of...
I'd like to know more about the three cases mentioned in the article that have exceeded five years. Are there unusual circumstances that explain the delay? Or is that the norm for Georgia? And if so, why? In Louisiana, the average for capital crimes is 1-3 years, and many think that's too long. Thinking back, the cases that stand out to me which took several years to be tried either involved multiple defendants and numerous witnesses, or fraud and racketeering, maybe tax evasion, where there is a long trail of deception. That kind of thing. So, I agree, five years is too long for an innocent person to sit in jail, and long enough for the truth to become diluted. I don't have any sources to back this up right now, but I think I could find statistics to show that in general, juries view older crimes differently than more recent ones.
