Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Holy shit, people. Poor Immett and deepest condolences to her grieving family. What happened to that young girl was despicable and evil. When they catch that bottom-dweller, I hope someone visits a little eye-for-an-eye, so to speak, on his cursed and worthless carcass.

There are murders and other mayhem happening every day, all over New York City. As my friend pointed out, three more murders took place since Immett's, including a father of three in Crown Heights, in his own home. My friend made the further good point that we didn't hear about them because Immett was an attractive young woman from out-of-town, and the particulars of her unfortunate demise are especially grisly.

Can't argue that. A massive manhunt and untold interest will ensue in her case, much less so for other murders and other crimes. Is this wrong? Of course every effort should be made to bring this killer to justice and to prevent more women from becoming his victim. If he doesn't kill himself or get killed when he's caught, he'll have a splashy trial and languish in jail for the rest of his life. No one ever asks me, but I'm of the mind that people like this, and like, say, Charles Manson, should simply be put out of their misery at the earliest opportunity.

Here's what I want so badly to happen, but likely won't: Public attention turned to the disgraceful ignorance in our society toward the mentally ill. Know what Manson and this new, soon-to-be-shackled killer have in common, besides the inclination to murder people? They are desperately mentally ill.

It's up to family, friends, teachers, doctors, coaches, mentors, tutors, and neighbors to recognize when someone is struggling with mental illness and encourage and support them to seek help. It's up to doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and government agencies that they get help. It's up to researchers, and the private and public funders of the researchers, to discover new treatments and better diagnostic tools. I guess you could say it takes a village to prevent serial killers.

This under-funded and stubbornly optomistic non-profit group wants to achieve all of the above, AND change people's attitudes about the stigma of mental illness.

I grieve for Immett, so wrongly murdered. I also grieve for our society; we'll lose many more Immetts if criminals--the vast majority of whom are mentally ill--aren't continually created.

HASTEN TO ADD: Do NOT infer that I in any way suggest mental illness is an excuse for criminal behavior. On the contrary, I suggest the punishment fit the crime for all criminals and sick fuck murderers. How about this one gets disembloweled with a rusty grapefruit spoon?