You knew there was always something slightly off about the boy who grey up down the street from you. He was quiet, would kill ants under a magnifying glass after school for fun, and he’d always throw rocks at cars that drove down your street. You always chalked it up to bad parenting and a sh*tty disposition. Boy how you were wrong.
It wasn’t until a decade and a half later that you saw his true evil come out. It was on the news all over town. “Local man arrested for bashing in skull of elderly man after he wouldn’t give him $50.” What in the f*cking f*ck? You never think that you’ll know a heartless murderer or sadistic serial killer. You read about those people in books and see movies about them, but going to high school and sitting next to them in Biology? You should have known when he wanted to take the heart of the pig y’all dissected home as a prize.
For people that knew killers from before, they find it absolutely bone-chilling to think back to all the times they spent hanging out with them, passing them in the hallways, even dating them — only to wonder — what if? It makes you think about what you could have done to stop them from committing such heinous crimes. For some people, that weight is too much to bear.
These 23 people knew crazy murderers before they killed:
1.
My brother. Murdered a person he just met in a gruesome way. He was my role model and very esteemed in our community, but he was mentally ill and one day snapped.
2.
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3.
When I was a kid, my parents were friends with a guy named Mike Hensley. I never had a great feeling about him, but I was also so young that even if I had said something, nobody would’ve cared. He never really did anything to me, just seemed creepy. One day, he asked my mom to come over. I don’t remember the justification for it, but she said no because she ended up having to do an emergency tooth extraction that day. A couple days later, he knocked on the door. For some reason, my mom didn’t answer the door (I don’t know where I was). He eventually left… And then killed four other people, one being a member of our church. He also killed someone while in prison, about 10+ years later. It really shook the town when it happened, and reopened old wounds when his face was in the news again, especially last year, when he killed himself.
4.
There was a young man who went to my H.S. who was the definition of a sociopath. He had no conscience and was simply anti-social in every respect. He was also incredibly violent. Everyone knew this kid was going to be a danger. Just as he graduated (he was a year older than me) he tried to steal gas from a gas station and when the elderly attendant went to stop him, he beat the man within an inch of his life. He took-off and began a campaign of harassment against the family. He was arrested for terrorizing, criminal threatening and witness intimidation, but wound-up getting much of the charges reduced. He was working with a social worker when he killed someone. He spent more than a decade in jail and was recently re-arrested for cheque forgery and mail fraud.
5.
Used to hang out/party with this dude, Kyle. He was nice as fuck, super chill. Never heard of him having a problem with anyone. Smoked a LOT of weed, that’s all I was aware of, and that remains true. He is currently in jail for life, no parole. He killed a kid, stole his bank cards and car, and drove the kid’s car around with the dead body in the trunk for a week before he was arrested. Ended up charged with murder, identity fraud, felony theft, and gross abuse of a corpse.
Laura is a freelance writer for TFLN. She likes to write about what she knows best — dating, sex, and being awkward, but usually in the opposite order. She is the Assistant Editor and videographer for Peach Fuzz, a sex-positive nudie magazine in ATX.
