Is the killer's writing on the wall?
Kimveer Gill (above) in a blog entry before shooting six people to death in Montreal last year.
'...my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society. My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die'
Joseph Edward Duncan (above) before he killed three people and kidnapped two children in Idaho.
A boy verbally abuses his stepfather and fantasises about killing him. When he tries to choke his stepfather with a cereal bar, the much bigger man kills him
A scenario in a Cho Seung Hui (above) screenplay.
NEW YORK - Teachers and fellow students were horrified by Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung Hui's violent screenplays - bizarre tales of suburban mothers brandishing chain saws and high school teachers raping their students.
In retrospect, they are the bizarre product of a mind clearly on the brink of mayhem.
But psychiatrists say such incidents are no indicator of imminent violence. If it were, practically every writer in Hollywood would be a menace to society.
'I don't think you can take a wild leap from something somebody writes,' said clinical psychologist Stanton Samenow, who wrote the book Inside The Criminal Mind.
Psychologists and psychiatrists agree that there is no way to definitively predict future violent behaviour.
Yet, often there are warning signs and experts say people should trust their instincts when they feel threatened by a co-worker, neighbour or acquaintance.
Psychological studies have shown that perfectly normal college students often have violent ideas and fantasies. In one recent survey, 47 per cent of undergraduate students reported having had at least one homicidal fantasy.
In another, more than two out of three said they had fantasised about killing someone, and 30 per cent of men reported doing it frequently.
'Existing studies have clearly demonstrated that many more people have homicidal and sexually violent fantasies than act on them,' psychiatrists David Gellerman and Robert Suddath wrote recently in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
Some experts have even suggested violent fantasies may be therapeutic in psychologically healthy people, a mental means of blowing off steam.
Still, there may be some hints in a person's writing to indicate a potential for violence. For example, a writer might reveal his ignorance of social norms in a fictional story that goes too far in breaking taboos, said Mr Gregory Moffatt, a psychology professor at Atlanta Christian College.
'You look at the lines that are being crossed and how flagrantly they are being crossed,' he said.
For example? Chopping up the babysitter is a staple of the horror genre. Chopping up the baby is not.
Cho's screenplays are bizarre and absurdist, but whether they violate taboos is a matter of interpretation. In one, a boy verbally abuses his stepfather and fantasises about killing him. When he tries to choke his stepfather with a cereal bar, the much bigger man kills him with a single blow.
Another screenplay centres on three underage teenagers who are gambling in a casino and complaining about their much-hated teacher, Mr Brownstone. Some of their comments are quite graphic. Then Mr Brownstone appears just as one of the students hits the jackpot and conspires with casino security to steal the US$5 million pot.
Cho is not the first killer to have his writing scrutinised in the aftermath of his crime.
'Vengeance is coming,' Kimveer Gill wrote in a blog entry before shooting six people to death and injuring 19 more in Montreal last year. 'A light drizzle will be starting up. The clouds will be grey, so grey. Just the way I like it. Disemboweled bodies litter the streets. Some have been decapitated, others hung off bridges and overpasses.'
Joseph Edward Duncan III was much more explicit when he wrote in May 2005: 'I am scared, alone and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society. My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die.'
Four days later he allegedly killed three members of a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, family and kidnapped two children aged eight and nine. He sexually assaulted both and later killed one of them before being captured in Montana with the surviving child. Investigators later tied him to four unsolved murders in two states.
He was clearly a threat. He had spent years in prison on sexual assault charges and was a registered sex offender.
But though Cho had been investigated for stalking and had a history of mental illness, he did not have a record of violence.
Several of his professors were clearly alarmed enough to recommend him for counselling. One even concocted a code-word system to notify her assistant if she felt threatened during tutoring sessions.
But it was not just Cho's writing that alarmed them - his behaviour in class was considered odd and menacing. Some of his classmates have said they sensed he could be dangerous. They even joked about the possibility that he might go on a rampage.
In his book Blindsided: Homicide Where It Is Least Expected, Mr Moffatt refers to such jokes in a chapter entitled Seven Mistakes That Cost People Their Lives.
He says people should report their impressions to the authorities, even if they feel a little silly doing it.
AP
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