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Jewish World Review
June 30, 2005
/ 23 Sivan, 5765
The serial hyena would find life in prison too much to his liking kill him!
By
Bob Tyrrell
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
My opposition to the death penalty is
weakening. I have opposed the death penalty after being persuaded that it
contributes to the culture of death that leaves many aspects of our
wondrously free and prosperous society quite grim. Nihilism informs our
arts. It is a large element in popular culture. It makes fugitive
appearances in our discussions of the beginnings and the ends of life. By
opposing capital punishment, I have hoped to highlight the glory of life and
the vast possibilities for human beings to grow and develop in a civilized
way. Now that I have heard the testimony of Dennis Rader, the hyena who from
the early 1970s killed at least 10 defenseless people by ambush in their
homes, I am not so sure the death penalty always contributes to the culture
of death. A noose for this stupid brute might actually be a celebration of
life.
Moreover, a seasoned prosecutor of sex offenses made a
surprising observation to me. When I said that for Rader to spend the rest
of his life in prison was a severe, if wholly justified, punishment, my
prosecutor friend quipped, "He might like it." She went on to say that sex
offenders and homicidal sex offenders such as Rader have very perverted
tastes. Some of those tastes can be fulfilled in prisons.
Certainly, Rader's brutal murders accompanied, he admits, by
masturbation are repulsive and suggest that he is barely human. His
testimony before a judge in a Wichita, Kansas, courtroom confirms as much.
In a matter-of-fact tone of voice and with a slightly authoritative
demeanor, he responded to the judge's questions and explained serial murders
as though they were a slightly specialized activity, but otherwise perfectly
normal. He told of how he "trolled" neighborhoods to find his victims.
"Potential hits, in my world that's what I called them," he said as he
scratched his forehead in a very odd hand action, the back of his thumb
doing the work, his palm facing his audience. He is a weak-looking man, but
he has large paws. "If one didn't work out, I just moved on to another."
I have never known quite what to make of the wise philosopher
Hannah Arendt's term "banality of evil," which she applied to brutes such as
the Nazi, Adolf Eichmann. It is a term that journalists are now applying to
Rader's banal explication of his grisly acts. Arendt wrote insightfully on a
wide range of topics, but on brutes who torture and kill, she was
particularly compelling. She wrote, "The concentration camps, by making
death itself anonymous, robbed death of its meaning as the end of a
fulfilled life." In a way, Rader turned his victims' homes into little
concentration camps. He robbed their lives of meaning. Perhaps by putting a
noose around his head, meaning might be returned to his victims' lives.
His testimony in pleading guilty to these murders was televised
all over the country. I am not sure that televised testimony was a good
idea. My prosecutor friend shares my premonitions. Television tends to
glorify almost anything it broadcasts. I can imagine evil minds, sitting
before their television sets envisaging Rader as a celebrity serial killer,
a man who made history. There is such a thing, my prosecutor reminds me, as
the "copycat criminal." Rader not only explicated the tactics of his pastime
for the uninitiated, but he also got plenty of airtime to make his
unspeakable offenses speakable.
On the other hand, Rader's appearance on television does unhorse
one of the great myths held by many members of the intelligentsia, namely,
that there is something fascinating about a murderer. For generations,
certain easily bored writers have been finding "interesting" facets to crime
and to criminals. The murderer was for them perhaps the most fascinating of
criminals. I have always thought these writers were naive and frivolous for
the most part, occasionally even evil themselves. Rader's appearance in that
Wichita court ought to put an end to any fascination a writer might have
with such a lout.
There was nothing fascinating about him. He was too obtuse to be
fascinating and too dull. Finally, the horror of his deeds overwhelmed any
inchoate fascination. Whether he is locked away for the rest of his years or
hung by the neck, his name will soon be forgotten. If copycat criminals get
an idea in their heads from watching Rader on television, it will not be
because he had style or presence. It will only be because he was given a
chance to speak the unspeakable.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.
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