Yesterday, I went to the studios of Inside Edition to be interviewed. People want to know what it feels like to have been photographed by a serial killer. How does it feel know that my life could have easily ended in June of 1979 along with the other victims? Inquiring minds also want to know how I feel about Rodney Alcala.
Do a search on “stuck by lightning twice” and you will discover that the odds of being struck by lightning once are 1/3000. The odds of being struck twice are 1/9,000,000. Since there are 300,000,000 people in America this unusual event has happened.
What does a person who was nearly struck by lightning once, and then actually struck 23 years later say about the near miss in the distant past?
An Ohio man Larry Reynolds, was actually struck by lightning twice and he says he feels “glad to be alive!” (How surprising is that?) I too feel glad to be alive. But also feel the need to say genug* and to try to get more justice for the real victims.
Justice for the victims means doing something to reduce the dangerousness of known violent psychopaths.
It is not enough to dispose of or imprison Alcala, we must change the system that enables psychopaths to strike over and over again.
At the time Alcala photographed me he had already been convicted of two violent crimes**. When he was 24, Alcala kidnapped, sexually assaulted and tried to kill an 8 year old girl, hitting her over the head with a pipe. He escaped and was a fugitive for two years before he was arrested in Concord, N.H., living under the assumed name of “John Berger.” He was arrested in August, 1971 after someone saw his picture on a wanted poster.
He also assaulted a 15 year old girl he lured in the guise of wanting to take her picture.
After these two incidents, Alcala killed at least 5.
There is no doubt in 2010 that Alcala is a psychopath. In the 1970s we didn’t have any reliable method for diagnosing psychopathy, but today we do. The PCL-R when administered by trained professionals can diagnose psychopathy with excellent reliability.
I therefore propose that all individuals convicted of violent or sexual assault be evaluated with the PCL-R and thoroughly assessed by trained professionals not hired by the prosecution or defense, prior to sentencing. The purpose of this assessment would be to inform the judge and jury of the presence of psychopathy and other risk factors that indicate the offender will do the same thing or worse again.
Juries and judges should be able to sentence an offender to life-time supervision. We need to train forensic professionals to do the job of monitoring these individuals and we need to watch psychopaths closely if they are released into society. We should stop simply turning convicted psychopaths over to their families who haven’t the slightest idea what to do with them (more on that next week).
I made the above recommendation to Paul Boyd of Inside Edition. He impressed me as a real reporter who was interested in the issues; someone who takes the ethical implications of his job seriously. I just hope his editors give him the freedom to tell this story.
Please everyone get beyond the silliness of “OMG what does it feel like to be struck by lightning twice?” and instead tackle the real question of what to do about sociopaths/psychopaths.
At the end of March, I spoke with a reporter from People Magazine for over an hour and am sorry that I failed to convince him to do a real story and exercise real journalism- or maybe the tabloid editors just wouldn’t publish the real story. However, if you want to see pictures, I am in this weeks’ issue “OMG”!
*a Yiddish word that means ENOUGH, pronounced ganoog
**for more see http://www.ocregister.com/news/alcala-236499-phase-girl.html?pic=4
Dear bullet-on an above post in April I think you asked if anyone had any changes in their spiritual lives because of these guys…I am not quite sure what you are asking however my x spath told me about a month after we met that he was a “closet Christian”. I had no idea what that meant! He said he is a Christian but not out in the open practicing. That sounded a bit incongruent! I was not a Christian at the time but once in early days of dating, although after 3 weeks of dating he asked me to marry him! he was drunk (!) and asked me “Is Jesus Christ your Lord and savior?” Not knowing what to say since I was not a Christian at that time but was seeking answers I just said Yes I believe in God. He asked me again, drunkenly and I just ignored him. Being drunk and asking me just seemed kinda weird! Later on we started going to church and reading some couples bible study stuff….I thought he was such a great guy! Someone who had the most integrity I had ever known. Someone who was strong and good. I even thought he was too good for me. (UGH, it makes me ill to think about it). I remember telling my mother that he was the most gentle, kind guy, never raised his voice. But he had this weird way of presenting himself when we went to church. Hard to explain. Almost like he was serving himself up. Fast forward to marriage. We went to church every Sunday and i became a Christian in 2000. wrote a testimony that he had to involve himself in and rewrite so it looked good enough ( I am a decent writer but I let him do this). Our entire life revolved around our nondemoinational church. After about 4 years I started feeling brain washed. In a very insidiuos way. Later my old friends and my parents told me they saw changes that made them very weary and afraid for me. (He also kept me away from those friends and my family, too-again very subtly). During our therapy when he was talking about his internet porn addiction he chose a spiritual mentor from our church. I was so concerned because this guy and his family are very strange. The kids, too. The dad spoke in tongues apparently. I was skeptical. But this church would completely abandon women who got divorced. It forced many of them to move out of the town. They were completelly ostracized. I would mention this to our pastor and others and I was ignored. My pastor would say “I don’t want to talk about this stuff I want to be able to have a peaceful place to be once a week” during our growth group meetings. I was shocked. Anyway, after our separation my xspath came up to the city where I was living and asked to pray. He started out fairly normal but then he got up and started raising his voice, he was sweating and looked deranged and said “Satan! i command you, get out of _____” and said my name. He did this twice and I told him to stop it and I went back into my condo. He was crazy acting and told me he was now speaking in tongues and saw evil everywhere. Needless to say I was freaked out. He wouldn’t come into the condo because “there is evil in there” meaning me! I have mentioned this before here so I won’t go into detail but on a drive down to his town to “talk” with him prior to divorce he had all our “friends” from the church waiting. Apparently they were going to do an exorcism on me. I turned around and went back to the city and never showed up. He said “WE ARE GOING TO PRAY FOR YOU ANYWAY”. it was insane. He had the affairs, he was addicted to internet porn, lying, raging, sick and demented telling me he was a miserable man who had no empathy or compassion for women close to him and I had satan in ME? WOW!
I did not lose my faith,however I did lose my faith in organized religion. I have tried to attend church several times here but I just can’t get involved. I spent 6 years helping people in my church. I wasn’t working because i stayed home with D, well I wasn’t working OUTSIDE the house. But I worked my a** off. I cooked for people who were sick and would pick up friends’ kids from school etc. And all the people I stood by as they went through their losses abandoned me when I divorced spath and they KNEW what he was doing. they knew about the porn the rage the affairs.
Not sure if this is what you are talking about, or if we lose our faith after being iwth these guys. What I found for me is that I ended up with just myself and God. Maybe that is what the plan was all along. For me to really know my strengths. To really have a relationship with God. I don’t know. I just know my feelings now are that Christians give Christianity a bad name. I hate saying it but its how I feel. I might go to a church if I could trust one again…and I am definitely resilient if nothing else so I am open to this, but I will be very skeptical and cautious. And the speaking in tongues thing happened after I left him….what was that all about?
Your a saint OXY!
I’m putten away my skillets……(for now). 🙂
Oh, that above post was to Buttons, Not Bullet!
Dear Chinagirl,
My spirituality improved, and I quit letting FAKE “Christians” who set themselves ups as JUDGE AND JURY over others make my decisions or to decide what GOD wanted me to do. I started deciding myself what my relationship with God was….and you know what? Even Jesus said that there would be FAKES coming in His name and hurting believers….and that is true! He said that the wolves would cover themselves in sheep skins and sneak in among the flock. CAN WE SAY PSYCHOPATHS? Pretending to be loving!
I have learned now how to see what is fake and what is real. Know how to tell the difference? Watch what the ACTIONS ARE and you will eventually see the sheep skin slip and the wolf’s fangs show through if they are FAKES. WATCH the actions not the words. Watch to see if the DO WHAT THEY SAY!
My egg donor does not DO what she SAYS. She has one set of rules for others and one for herself. She is NOT loving acting, only pretends to be and sooner or later you can see between the cracks no matter how good an actress she is. Her “god” is mean and evil and vengeful and my God is loving and caring and forgiving! Her god is made after her OWN IMAGE and my God is a loving father to His children!
It isn’t just a group of people gathered together that is a “church” or a building or a temple or anything else, the CHURCH is a family of loving people and like any family it will have a few people in it that are FAKES and that are evil-natured. But we can recognize those people in the fold who are fakers just like we recognize the psychopaths. By how the act!
Don’t let those fakers come between you and your faith! God will sort them out in the end, and frankly I would hate to be the ones “sorted” out by a JUST God.
EB, thanks for putting away the skillets. She is still in jail. I checked with the jail. Sent son D down by his house to knock on the door. His truck was there but no sign of life there and he didn’t answer the door. He could have been asleep or whatever but my guess is not answering the door.
After dark (soon) will go down there and knock on the door again if there is a light, and will then call his daughter and advise her of what we saw. Let her call the cops for a “well being check” if she thinks she needs to. He won’t let her in the door at all. He could be in there hurt or dead after all.
YUM, my meat loaf turned out to be the best I have EVER made, or maybe it was just because I am RAVENOUS! LOL I measured out my portions (now boy is that being ticky!) and ate supper and it seemed to be more filling than I would have expected. But at least it was the BEST I ever made and I’m no slouch on that!
HOWEVER, EB, YOU ARE DELUSIONAL, I AM NOOOOO SAINT! LOL (((hugs)))))
Dang Oxy…..Hope Gramps is okay. Who knows what goes through their minds when chaos occurs.
And yes…..it ain’t the first time i’ve been accusesd of being DELUSIONAL!
EB will be on a ‘mission’ this week! Got some ‘goods’ on spath and will be speaking to the DA. They were on vaca last week…..so, bright and early as they arrive back mon am…..eb will be on the horn with a report they need to follow up with. May mean revoke bail and remand him into custody until the trial HE DELAYED! HA!
The kicker is…..he’s back in the tropics doing his thing, so he’ll have to either A. Come back on his own expensive last minute dime. or B. get a free ride back via marshalls to nowhereville to answer to his frequent vacations to drugland state x and Y…..in addition to NOT maintining gainful employment.
Both requirements set by court for bail.
Shouldn’ta messed with mamma!
Dear EB,
Well, went back to grandpa’s house and he answered the door this time (we went after dark so we could see if lights were on) Stayed around a while and “visited” and while I was doing that I was doing a quick and dirty “mental status evaluation.” He passed. Not good judgment but not “certifiable” by any stretch of the imagination.
He said she was going before the judge tomorrow so she may get out. Right now $130 would set her free in our county, but there are other charges in other counties so she may be sent to the other counties–maybe not. Who knows.
Gramps said he would be there for her tomorrow—he knows she is an alcoholic and she started drinking again but IT WASN’T HER FAULT as someone else gave her a drink. He told me she drinks all day and starts getting violent about supper time til she passes out. But he’s gonna save her. So, I called his daughter and told her what my assessment of the situation was and that didn’t seem like there was much more either she or I or the law or social services could or would do.
He didn’t seem to have any idea that I had been the one to call the cops. Apparently they didn’t get there until after I had had to leave my “station” guarding the road, so he didn’t connect me with the arrest. If she or he ever do, I will look them square in the EYE AND LIE LIKE A RUG! LOL
But at least I FEEL BETTER ABOUT IT ALL, I did the best I could to help out a lonely old man with poor judgment who has been targeted by an alcoholic crack-ho.
Good job on your information. Hope he gets his bond revoked. “GAinful employment!” bwa ha ha hah ah ha Does that include selling dope! Can he take off lawyer’s fees as a business expense? LOL bwa ha ha ha ha ROTFLMAO
Keep us posted this is better than “Days of our twisted lives” TUNE IN FOR THE LATEST UPDATE!
EB is it up DATE or up CHUCK? ROTFLMAO
Oxy,
Have you ever smoked a meat loaf? I mean in the smoker 🙂 Best ever Yummo.
EB-so now I get your crack (no pun) about whamming Ox with her own skillet. Gramps and the crack ho. Ohhkay..
I don’t even want to think about what the gramps I know is up to YUCK feh! 🙁 STOOPID STOOPID STOOPID. Ok hit ME with the skillet until I forgive myself.
Need a light…..:)