Reading the Sunday paper this morning, this little news clip caught my eye:
“The former fashion writer convicted of sexually tormenting a co-worker while dressed as a firefighter says he’d go on a homicidal rampage if released from an Ohio prison.
“Peter Braunstein told the New York Daily News in a jailhouse interview that he has ‘no desire’ for rehabilitation.”
Back in 2005, Peter Braunstein stalked a woman who worked for the same company as he once did (although he didn’t know her), set off a smoke bomb in the hallway of her New York City apartment, banged on her door dressed as a firefighter, and held her prisoner and molested her for 13 hours. He then fled and police launched a multi-state manhunt. He robbed a psychiatrist in the Cincinnati area, and was eventually caught in Memphis.
Columnist for WWD
The news ignited a media frenzy at the time, although not being in New York, I missed it. What added so much fuel to the fire was that Braunstein had once been a columnist for Women’s Wear Daily, a publication at the epicenter of the fashion world, passing judgment on the editors of the country’s biggest fashion magazines. He was, at one point, considered an intellectual and arbiter of pop culture.
How far he has fallen. Friday’s article in the New York Post was headlined, Fake fireman sicko Braunstein likes prison, warns of ‘rampage’ if released. The article called him a psychopath.
Braunstein was already convicted in the New York crime, and was sentenced to 18 years to life. He’s currently in Cincinnati, where, according to an article entitled N.Y. tabloid villain charged here in the Enquirer, he faces another 28 years for aggravated robbery, robbery and kidnapping.
Profile of a psychopath
Vanity Fair magazine published an in-depth article about Peter Braunstein, The Devil and W.W.D., on April 2, 2007. It described his upbringing, early career, family and self-destruction. Several former friends were quoted trying to explain what happened to Braunstein.
Reading the article, it seemed pretty clear to me that Braunstein was always a psychopath. He got involved with women who financially supported him. He sent vile e-mails to his father (who may have had his own issues). He considered himself superior to the rest of the world. When his last girlfriend left him, he launched a virulent, public smear campaign.
It seems that for many years Braunstein was able to keep a lid on his disorder, until a series of career and relationship failures left him with no more claims to grandiose superiority. At that point, the mask slipped, and he stopped pretending to be a human being.
Cover is blown
It’s something many of us who have been entangled with psychopaths have experienced. The cover is blown, and the evil is released. I suspect that some psychopaths may actually feel exhilarated—finally, they can be who they really are.
Braunstein does not want to get out of jail. “I would have no desire to try to rehabilitate myself and go back to being a guy with a job and meeting girls and having friends. I’m not interested in that whatsoever.”
Those might be the most authentic and honest words this psychopath has ever spoken.
James, you are right there, about how they go through the early opportunities that they had with charm, looks, etc. that eventually fade away so that they have less opportunity to scam etc.
Dr. Robert Hare says that as they reach middle age (as a group) their criminal activity (after all he was studying Ps that were all criminals in prison) slows down and becomes less violent. That of course is not always true with individual Ps.
I do think though that some of them do seem to “llike” prison life and I would surmise that the constant “risk taking” in prison, the structure in which they don’t have to come up with a place to live and provide for themselves becomes a way of life that is at least “secure” and predictable. They learn to “get along” in prison with their peers, the guards, they establish a pattern and the ANXIETY of getting out doesn’t have to be faced.
Someone once told me that the MOST SECURE individual in the world is the inmate on death row who knows the exact date of his death. There is no “worry” about what tomorrow will bring, you know EXACTLY what it will bring. You know what to EXPECT.
Another poster put up that he made the comment about not wanting rehabilitation and would go on a murderous rampage to get press coverage, which I think is most probably true. It would get him ATTENTION, and most likely as well keep him inside where he didn’t have to have any ANXIETY about his life.
Life is “boring” for “squares” the P thinks. Just getting up and going to work, coming home, and repeating it day after day is NOT what they want from life. Where are the THRILLS? Where is the FUN? Where are the RISKS? The mundane tasks we all do each day, doing the dishes, doing the laundry, paying our bills—HOW BORRRRING life is for us! They are above all that, they want to “live life in the fast lane” without boredom.
Personally, “boredom” is GOOD–it means there is no threat to my world, that things are running smoothly! I’ll take boredom any day over “excitement.” LOL
Any day my name isn’t in the “National Enquirer” is a GOOD day!
the S moved back to down after being gone for three months. I saw him about 3 times when he first got back. I knew it was a matter of time before he started going to my gym, the one I took him to when we were together. It’s a great gym…but he knows I work out there. He came in there yesterday. I saw him, and I know he saw me, but he would not look at me, which I am glad. all those feelings of hate and anger came back. I pray that he will not come back. I cant believe that after a YEAR, I still have to deal with this. It is just not right that he can lie about HIV, expose me, get away with it, walk away as if nothing happened, and then frequent the places I go. There has got to be an end to this somewhere, but how? I cant do anything about it at this point. Anything I do know just makes me look like the crazy one, or the one whos still hung up on him. I DO NOT feel hurt when I see him, let me get that cleared up. It is a feeling that I really cannot describe. Tingling, short of breath, adrenalilne, combative mode. That’s what I feel.
It appears to me that even when the mask has slipped the psychopath may not be completely exposed. Scott Peterson is a perfect example. He has been convicted of murdering his wife Lacey and unborn son Conner and yet family is adamant in professing his innocence. I believe he has a website and is contemplating writing a book about this experience. Also, he receives hundreds of letters from women who are captivated by his persona. His ability to indirectly influence hundreds of women speaks to the unearthly power of a psychopath. The mask slipping is sometimes only a temporary set-back for these creatures.
I do agree that aging is a problem for the psychopath. Aging is the great equalizer because it cannot be stopped and it misses noone, not even the psychopath. Because they have held theirselves in such high regard, aging is a taste of reality that they find difficult to accept. Stripped of their youthful looks and tight bodies (tools used to seduce and delude) psychopaths find it more difficult to secure victims and use the “magic” that once flawlessly worked for them. I also think that the aging psychopath must play to a different crowd than the crowd of his youth. The aging psychopath finds himself now having to deal with individuals who are in the same age group, have lived and experienced life and are a little more savvy than the youth of his past. Of course, the psychopath can still seduce but the pool of potential prey begins to evaporate with his aging. Young people, especially females, are not readily accessible or desirous of a male with thinning hair and a ponchy belly who resemble Grandpa. Family and friends by now know his pathology, even if they cannot put a diagnosis on it, they know he is bad news and stay away.
I also believe that the psychopath, just like us, finds his energy level declining making it increasingly difficult to sustain an image of virility and youth. Often they become pre-occupied with health concerns such as blood pressure, high cholestrol etc. and focus of the physical ailments that can come with age. Physical ailments related to the aging process are a distinct dose of reality for the psychopath. This is the one area of vulnerability for the psychopath because he cannot control the process. He can be medicated, watch his diet, exercise, etc. but he will still have the diagnosis.
The N/P/S I was involved with was diagnosed with these two maladies and it drove him crazy. I would get daily, sometimes hourly reports on his blood pressure. I am not kidding. If he didn’t call, he would send my the report via email. It was unbelievable. It was a constant cause for concern with him. I was thankful he did not have an at home cholestrol kit, because I am sure he would have reported those readings to me also. He was unable to will his blood pressure to a normal reading. He could not make his blood pressure respond to his command. It was out of his control and we know control is the optimum word here.
The aging process may be the first time the psychopath has had to face an uncontrollable entity. Aging maybe the Achilles’ heal of the psychopath and the catalyst for peeling back the mask.
When the mask slipped from my husband and the man who pretended to be my friend, I was devastated. I suspected all along they just weren’t who they said they were, but I, too, kept denying it. It’s taken me a long time to finally accept that I was right. I didn’t want to be right. I wanted them to be the one they led me to believe. When my husband threw me away,so to speak, this man was there to pick up the pieces. So I thought. All he did was take a broken heart and break it even more.
I asked my ex friend if he realized that he was writing his own eulogy by the way he lived. What will his “best buds” say about him? I don’t think they care. They have their own agenda and pity the person who tries to deter them. I didn’t say what I was thinking until his masked slipped. Now that I see him for who he is, I’ve let him know that I know. Not that it matters to him, but he presented such a false front to me. I want him to know that I checked him out and most of what he told me were lies. Had I not been so broken by my husband, I never would have fallen for his flattering lies.
I have to say, I miss the person I met. But maybe what I really miss is the idea of having a relationship. Aside from having someone to share with, what can they do for me that I can’t do for myself? I don’t want to go through life this helpless woman, who needs a man to do her thinking for her. It’s important for me to figure it out,too. That way, I can be fulfilled. I don’t need a man for me to prove my womanhood. I know who and what I am. That makes those who don’t know, uncomfortable.
I passed through the anger, resentment, bitterness stages when the mask slipped. Now I have sadness for the innocence I lost, but that too shall pass. I will be on the other side of all that disillusionment, and finally accept the turn of events and know that I can’t change anyone but me.
Dodged_A_Bullet,
Him coming there where he is pretty sure you will show up is just another way to torture you.
The feeling you described is definitely “something” going on, anxiety?, fear?, …I can’t put a name to it, ONLY YOU can put a name to this feeling…it is obviously uncomfortable to you.
Maybe if you just workk out at home for a while, surely he won’t come THERE?
I know it is disconcerting to see them. My XBF-P showed up at a weekly auction I sometimes attend, FAR from his home town, and close to mine–very unexpectedly–and it upset me because I didn’t expect him to show up there. If I go to a living history event, I know he might be there so if he shows up I am not “blind sided.” I reacted quite angry the last time I saw him –at the auction. It startled me I think was the thing.
Personally I think your X did it deliberately to make you uncomfortable by invading your space. Mine wasn’t sure I was there that week, but he sure DID invade “My” space even though it was a public place.
Good luck and hugs!
I will NOT workout at home or anywhere else but the SAME gym I have been going to for the past 10 years. I will not allow myself to change that because of him. Hell will freez over first.
Dear Dodged,
I hear what I think is your anger, and I definitely understand why you would be angry at him for “invading your space” and I don’t doubt for one second that he INTENDED to invade your space. That’s what they do. If standing your ground on your own turf makes you feel better, more powerful, I say GO FOR IT.
I’m facing the Trojan HOrse P in court today (my mom is suing him for the fraudulent “loan” that he got h er to give him to buy a vehicle and to NOT put her name on the title as lien holder) So I too am standing my ground, and over all I am not too anxious about facing him down–I know it will be a 3-ring-circus if he does show up (and I think he will be there as the court date hasn’t been canceled and supposedly the prison does transport them for this kind of thing) and I will probably be frustrated and angry by the time it is over, but I am doing my best to stand FIRM and no matter what, I will comport myself appropriately for the situation. He, on the other hand, I am sure will appear to be the slime bag he is, but he will NOT GET IT. LOL
POWER! Let’s use it! It’s ours!
Good luck today, Ox Driver. My prayers go with you.
Dear OxyD. Hope all goes well in court today. We are thinking about you and pray that justice will prevail. (((hugs)))
Oxdrover
I hope it all goes well. If anyone can handle it, I am convinced it’s you.
The other question I had about this guy Braunstein is that I have never heard of a sociopath being into self-injury. Is this common? Was there another mental illness going on or is it characteristic of sociopathology?