I am being asked questions about Amanda Knox and the question of her guilt or innocence in the Meredith Kercher rape and murder. Again, it always seems to be the things that make these murderers or sociopaths so guilty to me that makes them seem so innocent to the average person who hasn't my experience. That's not a criticism: people are not born knowing, for example, that many mothers murder their children or cause them great physical harm mainly to receive attention from doctors and priests, unbelievable as it may seem. They are not born knowing anything about sociopaths and how they behave either.

Amanda Knox committed a stupid and pointless crime stupidly. Her DNA has been found mixed with that of the blood of her poor roommate in the sink of the bathroom they shared, making any further protestations of innocence pretty pointless. And why did this horrific crime happen? Because Amanda needed money to pay off a drug dealer and didn't like her roommate much. Why would a college student and honor student like Amanda not see that this horribly planned and botched crime would easily be unraveled by the authorities and that if she was under threat from a drug dealer (and my guess about a petty criminal like Rudy Guede is that the only actual threat from him would be to cut her off drugs) and didn't like her living arrangements very much it would have been much smarter to just go home to America? Because she was a sociopath. The main difference between the sociopath and the average person is not that they think of killing other people; the truth is we all do from time to time. Sometimes the thought becomes so pleasing or compelling we actually come up with a plan for the murder, or start to. But then the fear of getting caught, of the shadow of the penitentiary starts to become preeminent in our minds and we think "Well, I might be caught. I'd have to go to prison. What would my wife/children/husband/neighbors/priest think? I guess I'll just have to let the bastard live. And murder is wrong anyway."

Sociopaths are incapable of making that important step. They have no fear of punishment because it never occurs to them that they could even be suspected. And they invariably feel that they are smarter than anyone else and that it will be easy for them to fool the police if any questions are raised. Amanda Knox wanted money for drugs and that was the important thing. From the point of view of this sociopath the murder of her roommate was a good idea, and the reason why between the time of the murder and the time of her arrest she spoke of the murder almost constantly is not because she was innocent. She thought the murder was exciting and a great success. She had got the money, and the unpleasant roommate was gone, giving her more freedom. It's all about Amanda.

Here is the cautionary tale of another brilliant genius. Christopher Vaughn, 39, of the Chicago suburbs, took out a million-dollar life insurance policy on his wife, Kimberly, 34. He then took his wife and three children out for a spin in the families' SUV. He shot all four of them in the head, using a Glock pistol he had bought UNDER HIS OWN NAME in Washington State. He then shot himself, glancingly, in the thigh. He left the vehicle at a crossroads and started wandering the streets, where he flagged down a police car. When questioned, he claimed not to be able to remember the incident. I'm sure this guy is really surprised that he is sitting in a cell right now, waiting for his trial to begin, with prosecutors asking for the death penalty. I think he expected to be sitting on the beach in the Bahamas right now with two girls in bikinis.

Sociopaths aren't always totally stupid. Sometimes they're actually half-smart. Stella Nickell, a former party girl who had fallen on hard times and was unhappy with her truck-driver husband, mainly because he had taken the pledge and joined AA, actually studied murders and poisonings before she committed her crime. She even tried to make poison from foxglove flowers using a home chemistry set. When this was not successful, she came up with a really brilliant idea. She would copy a murder she had read about, where a serial killer put cyanide into Tylenol capsules, which were then randomly placed on drugstore shelves. This individual was never caught. This killed two birds with one stone as not only did it give her a method of poisoning her husband, but it would also eliminate that tendency of the police she had read about in her studies to always suspect a husband or wife first in any spousal suspicious death. She obtained cyanide and placed it in capsules in several bottles of Extra- Strength Excedrin. Two of the bottles she randomly introduced onto drugstore shelves and the third she put in the medicine chest at home. Much to her amazement, when her husband finally took one of the poisoned capsules and died, his death was thought to be a natural one. Several weeks later Sue Snow, 40, complained of a headache, took an Excedrin capsule, and died almost immediately. In this case poisoning was confirmed, and a panic overtook the area as all bottles of pain-killers were removed from stores. In the midst of this publicity a woman named Stella Nickell began calling the police and coroners' office almost constantly, claiming that her husband had died after taking an Excedrin capsule. At first she was dismissed as a crank, but eventually her late husband's body was duly exhumed and he too was found to be a victim of the Excedrin Poisoner. Stella was thrilled as this would mean that the paltry insurance payout of $71,000.00 she had received would be augmented by $100,000.00 if he could but be proved to have been murdered. Unfortunately for Stella her daughter, disgusted by Sue Snow's death and Stella's glee at the success of her murder plot turned her in to the police personally, making Stella Nickell about the only murderess to have first gotten away with it and then have turned herself into a prime suspect.

Of course, there is no good motive for murder. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have heard this about the Amanda Knox case: "But the motive wasn't good enough!" To people like Amanda Knox, or Christopher Vaughn, or Stella Nickell, the fact that they weren't happy, or didn't have everything they ever wanted, was good enough. And as far as motiveless crimes goes, how's this? Several years ago in New York City, before the rise of the cell phone, an individual was speaking on a pay phone. Another individual waiting to use the phone decided that he was taking too long and drew a 357 magnum weapon from his waistband and blew Mr. Chatty's head off. He then calmly made his call.

Now that's a lousy motive. 

Below is a hilarious link to Amanda Knox's "confession"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/22/wmeredith222.xml