Violent offender kills entire family

[flvegan]

I don't have the words for the rage I feel about this story. Please read it in it's entirety...

He started out abusing animals. Moved on to folks he allegedly loved...then killed his family. Why wasn't this case caught before this final headline?

MYAKKA - When he had finished with the killings, 20-year-old Richard Henderson Jr. took a shower, crawled into his parents' bed and spent Thanksgiving night staring at the ceiling, he told investigators.

The bodies of his mother, father, brother and grandmother, each bludgeoned to death by a metal pipe, lay scattered throughout the small house on the quiet dirt road.

That evening, Henderson scribbled a note and signed his initials:

I knew I did it but I don't know why ... I didn't kill them out of hate but out of selfishness because I didn't want to die alone.

Henderson later told deputies he methodically killed his family members - one by one, room by room - because they "wouldn't let him leave." He said he wasn't angry at them, but that after he killed his brother, he had to kill the others.

The rest, here...
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/29/State/Sneak_attacks_took_fo.shtml

[FreedomAngel82]

1. What a messed up selfish bastard

[cantstandbush]

39. 5 to 10 crystal meth is involved. n/t

[Toots]

51. dollar to a doughnut Bush* thinking is involved

Complete Bush* bot I would bet...

[Cha]

52. bush blew up frogs

as a young bush and now he is blowing up an entire Country..go figure.

[Beelzebud]

2. I wonder when the Yates crowd will show up.

And say he should not go to prison for murdering his entire family.

[3waygeek]

4. Well he is an orphan after all

:sarcasm:

[LostinVA]

25. Give me a break

This guy is a sociopath, Yates has severe psychosis, Apples and oranges. "The Yates Crowd." You mean we DUers who understand the complexities of mental health, and how Yates should be institutionalized in a mental hospital for life, not a prison.

Forsooth.

I'm putting this thread on ignore, because all this will do is piss me off, listening to the "fuck the mentally ill crowd." And no, this dude is sane, not mentally ill. He has a personality disorder, not a severe psychosis.

Oh, and Yates was convicted on LIES told be the "star" witness. NO ONE should be imprisoned because of something that is ethically beyond perjury.

And, Beelzebub, YOU brought up Yates. I remember some of your posts about mentally ill people from other threads. Vicious.

[Beelzebud]

55. I thought you had me on ignore?

[EFerrari]

34. The Yates crowd? Nice. I hope you and your family

have a nice thick bubble around you that protects you from community mental health concerns.

[Hello_Kitty]

37. Yeah, what does this have to do with Andrea Yates?

I mean, yes she killed her family too but she WAS a diagnosed schizophrenic. I blame her asshole fundie husband for failing to get her the MEDICAL help she needed instead of relying (mostly) on religious bullshit. Not to mention continuing to impregnate her when she was clearly too mentally ill to handle herself, much less FIVE children!

Do NOT get me started on that misogynistic shitheel! :grr:

The case in the OP is not the same thing at all. Dude looks like he was a total narcissist. Narcissism is considered a mental disorder of a sort (I think) but not a mental illness like what Yates has. Of course, I'm just reading an article so I don't know for certain what his problem was.

[Beelzebud]

54. Excuse me?

My family actually does have a history of mental illness.

Although if any of my family members were involved in a massacre, I'd petition the court to send them to prison for life.

[alcibiades_mystery]

44. He has post-partum psychosis?

Wow. That is amazing.

[meisje]

3. He just needs hugs, like tookie

[flamingyouth]

5. God, what a horrible story.

:grr:

[Evergreen Emerald]

6. YIkes! That is one sick sociopath

I know I am starting a flame war--but does he deserve to live?

[MrSlayer]

7. Just shoot him like the dog he is.

He's admitted it, is patently guilty, needs nothing more than a formality trial and should be shot immediately afterward and thrown into Potter's field. That's how the death penalty should work in cases like this. None of these ridiculous appeals, no chance for him to "get god" or change his name and claim political prisoner status or any of the other countless ploys these bastards pull to work on people's sympathy.

[flvegan]

12. First, did you read the whole article?

This fucker had a LOT of problems, and it seems whatever "system" we have here in Florida failed. Yeah, big shock.

On a more personal note, I must say..."shoot him like the dog he is" sort of...well, reeks. I won't sit and advocate for the outright shooting of anyone, nor would I for any dog that anyone wanted to compare to same, nor lump into some group.

[MrSlayer]

13. I apologize to dogs everywhere.

Dogs are better than this "person".

[alcibiades_mystery]

45. Hmmm

That is all...

[LeftyMom]

8. The problem with our society

Even amongst the progressive community on DU or otherwise, you post something like this and the punishment fetishists come out of the woodwork to decide just what to do with the evil little bastard. Nobody talks about how he got that fucked up or, more importantly, how to keep this from happening in another family.

Then we wonder why there's no fucking progress. I need a drink.

[tkmorris]

10. I wasn't going to respond in this thread

Mainly because I didn't want to be the only one expressing what you just did. Glad I'm not alone.

[LeftyMom]

14. I think a lot of people who feel similarly steer clear of these threads

Generally I don't open them because the content disturbs me, both the crime and the comments from the supposedly progressive.

[Evergreen Emerald]

19. I am not a "punishment fetishist" and I am progressive

Sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the issues will not make them go away.

Neither will justifying his actions and allowing him to abdicate responsibility by blaming his childhood. I know lots of people with f*'d up childhoods that don't kill their families.

I can easily multi task: I can look at his childhood and at society and see the failings. I can also look at his arrogance and his lack personal accountability--and his danger to the community.

There must be a compromise between codling killers: "poor kid must have had a bad childhood" and becoming one: "off with his head."

[LeftyMom]

20. I wasn't implying that you were

Actually, I don't recall that I've ever seen you around before. Can I extend a rather belated welcome to DU?

I'm certainly not implying that a fucked up childhood excuses this sort of thing (I had a doozy of a childhood and managed to make a decent adult out of myself) I'm saying that there's a need to talk about prevention rather than focusing on the usual punishment vs rehabilitiation debate.

[Evergreen Emerald]

21. I am invisible!

I have seen you around here before :). Thanks for the belated welcome. I read DU often, several times a day actually. It was my life-line during the elections and now one of my main sources of information--since msm failed me.

I have a unique perspective of these type of issues as I am a liberal prosecutor. I focus on the victims and have little sympathy for the perpetrators. Although I do show leniency often. My goal is justice. I am not looking at the debate as one of punishment versus rehabilitation. Rather, what is justice?

[LeftyMom]

24. My apologies

I've been a bit oblivious lately. :blush:

I think we're talking past each other a bit. I'm mostly saying that there needs to be a focus on prevention and that a small fraction of the money spent on law enforcement and punishement after-the fact could do a great deal of good in that regard.

What is justice? That's a thorny old philosophical question and Solomon I am not. :shrug:

[Evergreen Emerald]

48. nothing to apologize for!

There is lots of traffic on DU and there are few who stand out.

I agree with you that included in law enforcement should be a focus on prevention. Prevention however is a huge umbrella that encompasses issues of class, economy, child-care, health care--all of the things we progressives encourage government to address--and most of those things the current administration is making worse.

[LostinVA]

26. I just posted and shouldn't, so I'm hiding this thread

Because it'll enrage me.

[EFerrari]

32. Me, too. n/t

[Rex]

36. Cheers

We don't treat the mental syndrome, we kill the body and declare that as a cure. I personally can't even imagine what kind of hell this man is going through, but I bet he knows what 'hell on Earth' now means. He didn't want to die alone, so he killed everyone who loved him. Sick, sad, unfuckingbelievable.

[Maru Kitteh]

40. He didn't want to die alone so he

made sure through his actions that he would die utterly alone.

Some incredibly unimaginably cold and disconnected people exist out there. It's actually one of the biggest reasons why I oppose the death penalty. We need to study abhorrents like this in order to prevent more of them, kind of hard to study a rotting corpse from a psych point of view.

[jsamuel]

42. A lot like what happened after 9/11

[Catherine Vincent]

9. That boy should have been forced into a mental institute and

never let out. It was obvious he had mental problems.

[ultraist]

17. Yep. He is obviously very mentally ill

And should have been institutionalized before he had a chance to slaughter his entire family. All of the red flags and a violent history were there before he did it.

Something went terribly wrong with the system. He had been ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment; either the psychiatrist failed or someone didn't follow through to see that he complied with the treatment. I have no doubts he would have tested out as a violent sociopath---someone who needed to be institutionalized.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Really, these responses sound more like the Freeper site than a site for

liberals.

Read the whole article again. "I didn't want to die alone" is the key phrase here.

[melody]

15. sociopaths have to be identified early

We have to start tracking these people from early childhood. The signs manifest themselves at a young age -- all the signs pointed to serious problems with this guy.

Hospitalizing them for life is a better option. IMO the death penalty takes away the moral high-ground that Justice stands on (anyway you can't expect a child brought up with serious situational or psychological problems to meet the standards that children from healthy backgrounds make -- if we demand the same, then we ought to give demerits to morans like Bush who are born with everything and still screw up). Monitoring them for life will give us greater insight into the sociopathic mind.

What a horrible, terrible thing to happen -- and it probably could've been stopped.

[Evergreen Emerald]

16. He was identified early...and given treatment twice

He was given chance after chance--at treatment, at rehabilitation, at probation. What could we have done differently as a society to protect that family, his wife, the baby--not to mention the animals? Diagnosis and treatment did not work.

I am not advocating punishment. I am advocating justice.

[melody]

18. Treatment doesn't work with sociopaths

There's no known treatment or cure for sociopathy since it isn't a classic mental illness. A sociopath is quite sane, they merely can't (or won't) empathize with other people. What I said was they have to be monitored and/or hospitalized. The only thing we can do is monitor the degree of their sociopathy and, when they are bad enough, hospitalize them permanently. Reagan murdered our mental health system in this country or there would have been avenues to deal with this man.

[Robert Murphy]

23. I Believe...

...You are correct in both your description of a sociopath, and your contention that the the condition is not treatable. But it does not seem feasible that such people could be fairly monitored by the government; as you say, they are quite sane; they simply lack any sort of conscience or empathy for others. As I am sure you are aware, sociopaths often don't 'identify' themselves as such until an 'opportunity' presents itself. The best example I can think of is that woman who let that poor homeless guy die on the hood of her car after three days of agony, then dumped his body; she did this because she wanted to avoid possible prosecution for DWI. I would bet if you asked her friends and family, they would never have thought her capable of such a thing. (Which is what makes them such a frightening 'breed of humanity'; they can come across as warm and friendly, then show another side...)

Robert

[melody]

28. having known a sociopath, I agree, but they can be identified

I had half my business stolen by a sociopath. They are almost impossible for a layperson to detect, however there are some very clear signs and early indications.

What I'm saying (and Underground Panther and a couple of other posters have said this before) we need to come up with some manner of identifying and tracking these people. For me, this is almost as important as asteroid tracking. These people do immense harm to the lives of the innocent. They are responsible for a large volume of murders, to say nothing of the length and breadth of the modern Republican party.

[Robert Murphy]

29. Hmmmm...

Obviously the question is could such people be identified early in life, with almost infallible accuracy? Do the means exist? The prospect of the government having the power to label someone a congenital criminal, and subject that person to a lifetime of "tracking" leaves me a little uncomfortable, for obvious reasons. While I am no expert here, my impression is that most sociopaths (more or less) do not become criminals; laws et al. consequences dissuade them where a conscience would dissuade us.

Er, I should also say that IMHO I think you are being just a wee bit unfair to the Republicans. while I agree that there are some frighteningly ethically challenged individuals who are prominent in the party--if Karl Rove is not a sociopath then I am the King of Scotland--I wouldn't say that such people describe their "length and breadth."

Cheers,

Robert

P.S. Sorry to hear about the creep who so egregiously stole from you. :(

[melody]

30. There is a lot of unreported damage that isn't always crime

My "attacker" was never charged with a crime. Many of them know exactly how to play the system.

You're quite right, though, I don't like the idea of "tracking" people either and certainly it would took some truly over-the-top behavior to manifest before someone would enter the "radar". Something needs to be done, though. This solution is probably a hundred years in the future, but it might be a good idea to look toward some essential goal.

There's a great site that Tim Fields runs (it helped save my sanity when I had my run-in) bullyonline.org. I always mention it in case someone dealing with a sociopath happens across this topic. It's a subject that needs broader acknowledgement.

[Hello_Kitty]

38. I don't think rank and file Republicans are sociopaths

Nor most local level GOP politicians. I do think an alarmingly high number of people with observable sociopathic tendencies rise to the top of the national organization though. Same with some corporate CEOs. Kenneth Lay and Sam Walton, anyone?

[elehhhhna]

49. FYI -- evidently people of the same sex can ID sociopaths MUCH better

than people of the opposite sex can, meaning men can ID males sociopaths , and women, female sociopaths better than vice-versa.

[EFerrari]

33. This person was ripping the legs off of animals as a child.

That's a pretty classic indicator.

Who didn't notice?

Tragic.

[Straight Shooter]

35. AFAIC, such heinous animal cruelty qualifies for the death penalty.

Or at least having one or two of his own extremities ripped off.

People like that seriously make me want to vomit. They get their ego/power trips from watching others suffer horribly.

[Coventina]

50. If we took animal cruelty more seriously in this country, we could prevent

some of these types of crimes.

Almost all sociopaths begin their cruelty with animals.
But most animal cruelty cases are never even tried. If convicted the punishment is usually a fine. Not counseling or a mental evaluation to determine if it will happen again, or if they will proceed to a child next.

If animal cruelty cases were seen as early identifiers of monsters, we could get these people off the streets. If they are not treatable, then they should be imprisoned the rest of their lives.

[ultraist]

22. He should have been institutionalized, as many have said

THAT'S what should have been done differently; rather than letting him have total freedom with no supervision.

He may have been identified but he was not properly diagnosed, lest he would have been under closer supervision or heavily dosed on meds to make him more docile.

[MountainLaurel]

27. The prior violence was against his spouse and child

And in this country there is still the attitude, even legally, that a wife and children are the property of the man of the house, to be done with as he wants. Police officers and courts still don't consider domestic violence to be as serious a crime as stranger assault. Hell, some state legislatures are still fighting over whether or not a wife can be raped by her husband.

[Maru Kitteh]

43. You simply cannot expect sociopaths to abide by treatment

Prior to president Ray-gun adult persons could be committed against their will if it was deemed in their own or societies best interest and safety with proper documentation. Ray-gun decided it cost too much money to house and care for all those crazies so he just opened the gates, hence the explosion in homelessness.

Sociopaths do not honestly get it. They don't know that they should change. They do not have normal human emotions like shame, empathy, affection. They consistently underestimate the intelligence of any and all fellow humans. They perceive themselves as invincible at any age.

They must be forced into treatment or you get situations like this.

I for one believe that 'ole Ronnie was cognitively impaired from day one. Perhaps that affected his feelings on this issue in particular, who knows.

[Jamison]

31. Go ahead & call me a "FReeper" but...

violent criminals like this justify the death penalty IMO.

[Maru Kitteh]

47. I won't call you a Freeper, he probably deserves to die BUT

I just think there is more to be learned by studying him.

I also think since it's cheaper to give a life sentence without parole and the DP has never proven to be any kind of deterrent maybe we should drop it again.

[Nevernose]

41. I this ain't crazy, then I don't know what is

It's probably not LEGALLY insane, since he lied to the police, which demonstrates a comprehension that what he did was wrong, but it is nevertheless absolutely shithouse nuts.

Lock him up in a criminal hospital and throw away the key.

[Ron Green]

46. Is it just me, or does Florida seem to have more than its share of

this kind of sordid stuff?

:shrug:

[Dinger]

53. Geez, I'm Against The Death Penalty

This doesn't really change my view, but it sure makes me wonder. What should be done about things like this?