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Friday, June 16, 2006

Capt. Obvious

Posted by on June 16 at 16:57 PM

In the days following the Capitol Hill shootings, as the Seattle Police Department struggled to explain what drove Kyle Huff’s murderous rage, they turned to one man: Professor James Alan Fox, a Northeast University (in Boston) professor who is one of the nation’s leading experts on criminal behavior.

Fox was placed in charge of a special task force. Interviews were conducted with Huff’s relatives, his friends and with survivors of the shootings.

But before Fox could go public with his findings, there was a leak. In April a TV news station learned of a letter found in a Dumpster that explained Huff’s hatred for ravers. Then in early June, the SPD confirmed the existence of the letter and circulated copies. This past week the police issued the crime lab’s findings: Based on analysis of handwriting samples, we think that Kyle Huff wrote this letter.

Still, we had reason to hope that based on his expertise and his unrivaled access he might offer even more insight into Huff’s mind. After all, 12 weeks have now passed since the shootings.

So what did we get? These quotes in a Seattle Times story:

“He perceived them as being evil.”

I wonder what gave him that idea — you know, besides Huff killing six ravers. Maybe it was Kyle Huff’s letter. In it, Huff wrote:

“The things they say and do are just too disturbing to me to just ignore”

Fox also tells us this about Huff’s attitudes toward ravers:

“He saw himself as a revolutionary.”

And my guess is that he learned this from this part of Huff’s letter:

“This is a revolution, brother”

Fox told the Times that Huff believed he was on a “mission.” Kyle, what say you?

“…this is something I feel I have to do. My life would always feel incomplete otherwise.”

You get the idea. And I guess the question is, how much did we pay for Fox’s unique powers of perception?


CommentsRSS icon

Fox's job is my dream job.

I'm working on my license to be a corporate consultant, and stories like this give me dreams of fat notes and little fluffy cloads.

Northeast*ern* University.

Oh for crying out loud, get over your misplaced snark! Having been interviewed by a newspaper for over an hour before, only to see one sentence of it quoted in the resultant article, I know that articles never tell you anything important, much less reveal any good details. If anything, you should focus your smugness toward the newspaper, not the good professor.

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