Wow, WM, I could have written the above. I worked with a 12 year old boy who was exactly as you described. I've always expected that he would kill women. His mother was very nice but rather weak spirited. His father was gone but had left his mark on his impressionable son. IIRC, the father used to beat the mother in front of him...at some point there was no longer a father in the home.
It was the impression of the staff that the boy blamed his mother for the father being gone. The boy attacked his mother a few times and broke the leg of his older female teacher the year before I worked with him. He would often show no sign of aggression leading up to the attacks. What became a pattern is that he would patiently wait until he found just the right unexpected and apparently unprovoked moment for a very calm blitz attack. He would just quietly walk up and upon being acknowledged he would deliver a powerful hit , whack, or kick. Once, he approached his teacher's desk, lifted and pretended to thumb through a hardback complete Webster's Dictionary. Without any warning, he brought that book down on the head of his teacher. She was grading papers during independent study time. After striking her he calmly sat down. Needless to say: he was escorted to the principles office and suspended for three days.
wm
