Oh my. I guess we will never know what goes on in the mind of a madman. I really think he thought he could kill the children before the fire to spare them that. The photo of him at the last Court hearing told me he had not been sleeping, for a very long time. He had flipped. Not saying he was okay before, b/c he was not. Just saying when you push a person that is already kind of off their rocker, it only gets worse.
I think he was nuts, some of it was his upbringing. How would he know it was not right if it was all he knew. Then he gets out into the world and there it is. He finds out all that he thinks is normal is wrong. I think he was also incapable of accepting certain aspects of himself, that would have come out with the psycho-sexual evaluation. He clearly didn't love Susan, or the children, or being responsible for having to take care of them. He lost it in '09 and went totally off the cliff before the last hearing.
As sad as it is, and as angry as it makes us, this man was mentally ill. Not saying that as any kind of excuse for him, as I don't think he deserves any excuses. Just saying I see it, from the not even kissing his wife and making her grow their food. That is when it began. We will never understand fully. I don't think we would want to if it meant having to fully comprehend it all.