Thanks, agree! I did catch it on X later. I think she's definitely leaving the door open to engage with him later. I actually can see him trying to do that, seems they had a good rapport when he was in her classes.
Personally I would be questioning myself and what did I miss with this guy if I were in her position. How many other forensic phycologists/writers have had a student become a serial murderer? This may be a first. Imagine being on that side of the scenario vs the usual place of studying the behavior after the fact? Has to be hard to process since she is the professional. This is why I think he will reach out to her...
All JMO
IIRC, his classes with her were mostly or only online. Her intro class may have been real world, but it was a large class.
I ponder this a lot. Is that amazing top student in my current forensic lab...brilliant? Yes, he is. But what is he like, interpersonally? He gets enough points from his work that he doesn't need to try for the extra points that I give for interaction. He's very rational (including logic) and a good researcher. I have decided I won't write letters of recommendation for online students (they rarely ask for them, they know it's not optimal).
BK then gets to U of W and immediately starts having (lots of) problems in face to face classes. He has an "altercation" with a well known criminologist, lawyer and professor, who reports him and begins the process of expulsion from the program, IIRC. That prof has seen a lot. That prof was also the person in charge of the incoming criminology students.
When students complained about BK being a much tougher grader than other TA's, I expect that the prof spoke to him about it, because we then hear that BK responded in an antisocial fashion to the criticism (by then giving no comments and just giving an "A" to everyone). These are big red flags for any grad student. Then there was the part about interrupting women or ignoring them in discussion, which the women began to document in special notes they took.
All of this shows a severe lack of social skills and, perhaps, what young people are calling Main Character syndrome (which is in fact, a kind of derealization syndrome). I doubt that Dr R ever got to see this side of him - or spend time in conversation, looking him in the eye and speaking of sensitive topics, as one does in criminology.
I also wonder about the five witnesses recently called by the prosecution (and apparently vetted by the Judge in a closed hearing - but BK was almost certainly there. Actually, apparently it was 7 people from PA. The article below says that one of them (who must have talked to the press) remembers yelling and violent acting by BK:
It appears that the young prof who wrote his LoR for grad school was among them. One of the odd things said in that article is that BK never threw a bunch in the boxing class (his dad was taking it? he just tagged along for "something to do" as if he was being babysat? The instructor says he had no "fighting skills."
In psychoanalytic theory, one would then ponder whether buying a knife was a compensatory mechanism after all other attempts to be something like a soldier or a policeman had failed. I would think this indicates a profound need to be in control of others - to be "above" them or, even, licensed to use violence as a way of channeling the "crazy thoughts" he admits to in his adolescent writings.
I do wonder if his father, in particular, suspected what had happened (even just a little) when BK came home from Washington to stay.
IMO
www.cbsnews.com
