If you wanted to hurt a man in the worse possible way, you would harm his child.
A horrible thought, but an astute one. 'Random' just doesn't sit well with me, in this case. I believe a random killer would not have climbed all the way to the 3rd floor, nor taken the time to seek out (from among dozens of other rooms) one of very few rooms with a single student in it. But this killer did both.
How many doors would he have had to open that night, to find a student alone? Did he open door after door after door? Just a single student - on Chaim's floor - has recollection of waking to the sound of his door opening and closing. Surely if the killer had spent the time to go about opening doors willy-nilly from ground floor to the third in search of a lone victim, more kids would have noticed.
And why would a man fuelled by an agenda of hatred or psychopathic rage go to all that trouble? Why not take the most expedient and least risky of opportunities, and kill a child on the first floor?
I also do not think this was a hate crime. People who kill for that motive generally don't prefer to leave any doubt whatsoever that they have killed for that particular reason. And again, why not take the expedient route and kill a child on the first floor, seeing as there was an unlocked door offering easy access... Why the third floor, why risk the time going up there, when any child (or even two) would have done for this purpose.
I do feel Chaim was the sole and chosen target. It's what makes the most sense of things, to my mind. But why? For moment putting aside the idea that this crime was done by some random madman: What might the killer have actually achieved by killing Chaim? Who might have benefited from his death? Here's some possibilities.
1. Hatred or envy towards Chaim.
Chaim did have 'preferential' treatment, due his diligence as a student. I'd be interested in how 'competitive' the school actually was that way. Is it possible somebody's parent saw Chaim as occupying a position of honour their own child ought to have had?
I read the posts by Chaim's fellow student, stating that Chaim was generally well-liked among his peers even though he was obviously well known for having something of a sharp tongue. If Chaim was capable of inspiring that level of rage and hatred in someone, I am sure this fellow student would have said so, and I am sure there would be rumours flying still among those former schoolmates, of Chaim having an enemy. But it's quite the opposite.
***ETA: though I find the post regarding the janitor mentioned at the end of this post interesting, re 'hatred'
2. Hatred or threat toward Chaim's family.
I don't know enough to say whether or not this could be a feasible theory. But to me, at present, it kind of makes more sense than a random/hate crime killer. If someone was paid to hurt that boy, he would (1) possibly have information on where to find Chaim, and (2) have to make sure Chaim was well and truly dead (hence those many blows, after the first which was definitely fatal?) Too, it would be in such a person's interest to obfuscate the fact that the killing was a hit, making things as confusing as possible. Maybe some of the staging was a 'message' to somebody, who knows?
3. Chaim's silence.
What could a scholarly-minded 15 yo from a closed community possibly know that was worth his brutal murder?
A sex crime, maybe. Something lurid enough to warrant this violence. BUT -- if this was the case, I believe somebody would have spoken about being a victim of similar sex crimes, or rumours would have seeped among the student body. But there weren't any such rumours.
Something that would get another student instantly expelled. Like homosexuality. I find this a more likely-to-be-kept secret. As as it warranted much shame and instant expulsion from the school, not an unlikely motive. Especially as Chaim had that famously 'sharp tongue'...
Sundry thoughts:
-- For some reason, the position of the blinds bothers me. Was the blind broken prior to the murder? I have left blinds hooked over the rail like that when they are broken and won't roll up. Chaim was awake til 1am. He was ill, the night was cold, it's doubtful he left the window open - but did he leave the blind up? Was his lit room or even Chaim himself visible at 1am from the yard below?
--I don't think it was an accident that this happened early in the morning of Shabbat, when religious restrictions were likely to hamper the investigation.
-- An interesting post from one of the sites linked above, by a friend of one of the boys who was there:
Chaim's room was incredibly gruesome. It is true that he was killed instantly from the first blow, but there were 11 other blows with a knife. I hope I do not offend the Weiss family by posting this, but Chaim's room was full of splattered brain matter, skull fragments, and severed pieces of the upper half of his head. The late Chaim was murdered brutally. Unsolved Mysteries censored this because the real crime scene was not fit for television.
My friend mentioned that the school employed Polish immigrant laborers. They cooked, cleaned, and took care of maintenance. I assume this was a way to get cheap labor. The yeshiva provided them with living quarters. I am not sure whether they lived in the same building with the boys or an adjoining building. You have to understand how fascinating and ironic this is. Polish people are historically virulent anti-Semites. Poland has a long history of violence against Jews, which contributed to the fact that their country is nearly completely Catholic. Polish people actively aided Nazis with concentration camps and staged mass killings of Jews. The tables were now turned in America. These Polish immigrants who came from a world where a Jew would be spit on now had to work for them in America. I have no doubt that there was severe resentment.
There was one Polish janitor who seemed to stick out in everyone's mind. He was openly anti-Semitic and violent. He had an explosive temper. Students would taunt him in order to get a rise out of him and he would respond by slamming them into walls or throwing things at them. My friend remembers the Polish janitor getting into scuffles with students in the cafeteria and throwing hangers at them. The man by all accounts had "a few screws loose."
During the summer months of 1986, the Polish janitor was either fired or suddenly had to leave. The exact reason remains unknown. He left on very bad terms.
He was investigated, but his alibi was that he was serving on a military base and could not have possibly been in the area.
(posted by RebZissel at:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-40393.html)
^ I find that VERY interesting.
Anyway, just some thoughts. This must have been terribly hard on his family and friends.
And no one was reported covered in blood & gore? Halloween.
