How did he become like this?

I have a similar issue in my life. When I was young, Robert Hawkins was my best friend growing up. Never could I have imagined..

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westroads_Mall_massacre

We've all grown up to be who we are and have to make choices. Some people make the wrong ones.

I had two serial killers work for me over the years and got pretty tight with the lesser known one. My SO still swears by Lexus, a car he originally recommended back in '93. I remember the police coming around to question me about him and all I could say was, " seems like an ok guy to me" He was convicted some time later of killing his GF and four other people....Who'da thunk, I had done a great deal of counseling work prior to meeting him and he did seem to be an ok guy. I knew the police were looking at him for several murders but you just couldn't tell.

I hadn't seen my best friend in years so I looked him up. Turns out my best friend from middle school is a registered sex offender.

 

I have to agree with Aynjell, we've all grown up to be who we are and have to make choices. Some people make the wrong ones.

I agree.  Life and growing up change people.  Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

Edited by jeffreyj900 - 10/22/10 at 5:56pm

I've done terrible things. I've been a victim of terrible things. Some people grow to hate and resent, I grew empathetic and despise the idea of hurting people. I'm no saint, but generally I steer away from confrontation because there's so much more that you can do that's so much better.

 

I remembered the day it happened. I recall thinking to myself, damn this is becoming a fad. It's the in thing for pissed off people to do apparently, kill a bunch of people. And I remember remarking "I don't know anybody rich enough to shop at von maur". Thankfully life has smiled on me and I now can afford the occasional item for my girlfriend there... but neither here nor there...

 

The next morning I told the same people I did know somebody who died. He was my best friend. "oh, I'm sorry to hear it..." and I remarked "He was the shooter."... He responded "That's not funny, man!" and had an absolute rage in his eyes at what he thought was a joke. I made it pretty clear I wasn't and he actually looked at me and wondered.... probably the same thing the op wondered. How do people turn out like this?

 

Two boys. Two terrible upbringings. Two outcomes. From the age of 12 I didn't live with my family, I actually grew up in foster homes, group homes, detention centers... but all of this is because I was unresponsive to help. I wanted nothing to do with it... I was an angry young child. Now I have a respectable job I enjoy and which pays me well enough to be a member on this forum board at least... and my childhood best friend on the other hand ended up killing people and killing himself. What was so much worse about his upbringing? What caused this? What seemingly insignificant detail caused him to err so violently? The world will never know, I figure. God help me to continue to live a good life and I hope I help people, at the very least he's an example that no matter what, giving up only makes matters worse.

 

When you quit life, you are done. There's no starting over. You're worm food. Why give up such an oppurtunity? Regardless of how bad it is, there's always a chance things will change for the better and that's reason enough to live for, reason enough to fight for. 

Edited by Aynjell - 10/22/10 at 6:21pm

Make love not War!

 

Don't be a sex offender tho.

 

Humans are violent/emotional creatures. . .

Pissing in a corn field can lend you on the sex offender registry. The sex offender registry does not necessarily mean someone made a serious sex-related crime.

Under his conviction it said the following:

 

"Repeated sexual contact with minor"
 

The sex offenders rarely straighten out. The only ones who turn out OK are the ones who were, say, 18 and had a 16 year old girlfriend. They get caught in the mess, even though they weren't really doing anything deviant. Same with someone who gets caught taking a whizz in public. Wrong, but they don't really belong with pedophiles and rapists. I used to work with a lot of them and most of them just kept reoffending.