*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.
We tend to socially gravitate towards like-minded individuals.
Whether at a party or the first day of school, people can easily feed off of each other's vibes and make a connection.
While our intuition is sharp, nothing raises alarm quite as intensely as when we sense something is way off about a person.
Like, distressingly off.
Curious to hear instances when strangers online picked up on a sinister vibe, Redditor peasantchoker asked:
"People who knew Murderers, when did you know something was off?"
The people in the following examples were perceived as fairly "normal," initially.
Steve Was Weird
"Well this is wild."
"I know a guy who murdered a nurse and wanted our towns first serial killer. He bought a 'murder kit' online and stabbed her over 50 times. Let's call him Steve."
"I knew him through scouts. Now, to preface, our scout troop was pretty laid back. We didn't tend to bother with badges and the two troop leaders were pretty cool guys. Mostly we played silly games like crab football, built catapults to fire stuff across the hall at each other etc. You get the picture."
"We were a little bit a gang of misfits. But Steve was really weird. First time it came out was when he would do this thing where he'd get his butt out and dance around. At first it was like outrageous and funny, and he kept getting told to stop. When he kept doing it got a bit annoying (none of us were keen to see his bare arse...), then it got boring, then just outright weird when its not remotely funny, no one wanted him to do it and he continued."
"A few times he was suspended for a week or so but give we were quite laid back and the troop leaders were good guys, they probably couldn't bring themselves to bin him off completely."
"It was a long time ago so I can't recall all the details but I recall him being quite childish in mentality but also veeeery creepy."
"When I found out i was shocked, but not surprised. Then I remembered I'd played hide and seek in the dark with this guy, in a hall with a kitchen full of knives..."
– Nome3000
He Never Seemed Violent
"Sat next to him in choir class. He was always kind of off. He operated on his own wavelength. Constantly in his own world, never really engaging with anybody. People just didn't really exist on his radar. On a class trip we slept in the same hotel room and he walked around naked like I wasn't even there. I always assumed he was autistic, but in hindsight it might have been something much worse, like schizophrenia. He never seemed violent, but nobody ever talked to him enough to ever make that conclusion in the first place."
"A few months ago he beat and stabbed his mother to death with a kitchen knife. It was so bad dental records were needed to identify the body. He cut off one of her breasts and implied in his confession that he ate part of it. He waited until his dad came home from work to show him what he'd done. Claimed he saw a sign from the devil that told him to kill her. (That may have been a lie. From what I heard he was very excited to tell the police what he had done. And from what I do know about him, he might have said it for the attention.) He turned himself in, waived his Miranda rights, and confessed to everything. When the cops found him he was literally soaked in blood. He refused to shower it off, so they had to hose him down before they put him in a cell. He's looking at 40 years in prison."
"His Mom was an amazing woman, she tailored our suits for choir and was constantly volunteering. If there was an event, she was there. She was gonna be her town's councilwoman next year. She loved her son very much. She didn't deserve to die like that."
– Alsikepike
You never really know about a person.
Everybody Loved The Guy
"One of the smartest, most popular, and friendliest guys at my high school. He stood up for people who got bullied, he included everyone, he helped people who needed it all the time. Seemed like an utterly selfless guy. Literally everybody loved the guy. Two years ago killed his wife and then himself after an argument."
– anon
He Seemed Friendly Enough
"Obligatory didn’t know him as a friend, but a regular customer in my shop. He would come in after his shift to buy beer and tobacco, on one occasion he caught and helped us to evict a shoplifter. He seemed friendly enough. Then a local girl went missing and was eventually pulled out of a river a few weeks later. They announced they were looking for somebody in connection with her death and it was him. They had CCTV footage of him tailing her through a park and footage of him buying beer in a shop, still unconfirmed to this day being our shop as they blurred out the surroundings."
"Anyway, as we had a TV in our shop switched to the news channel as it was a rolling story local to us, we started to discuss the guy, if we saw him on the day she went missing, that kind of thing. We hadn’t, but it was at that point when one of my staff, a young girl, who had previously said to management that she didn’t want to work the closing shift anymore because there was 'too many creepy men around,' told us that he used to stare at her when he came in to the store in a way that made her uncomfortable enough to not want to be on the floor when he came in."
"They never got to question him about the murder as he was found dead in a local park a few days later. He’d hung himself."
– anon
Nothing Really Stuck Out At The Time
"I worked in a food court in my early 20s. This family would come in pretty regularly. The family stuck out because they were giants. Mom was easily 6'1" and dad was 6'7". They had a few kids. Nothing really stuck out at the time. They never seemed happy but never fought. They just always looked like they were just coming out of mourning."
"I heard a few years back that the mom decided to leave the dad. The dad murdered the whole family and then killed himself."
"Another coworker did something similar. He lived with his elderly dad. He was a super nice, but just always had this deep sadness behind his face. His gf broke up with him, his dads health went south. Everything became too much so he shot his dad and then himself. Even after hearing that, i felt bad for him. He seemed like a dude with a big heart and if he just had a day to decompress and someone to talk to, i think it would have gone a lot differently."
– rand0yes0
He Seemed A Little Distant
"I went through primary and high school with a guy in the year below me who seemed a little... distant. We lived near each other and caught the bus from the same stop. He was a bit of a bully but it was something more. Like you could tell he wasn’t a bully because he was hurting inside or because he felt threatened in some way, he was a bully because he did what he wanted to do and didn’t realise that it hurt other people. Like the kind of kid who enjoyed pulling wings off flies."
"Not long after I left my hometown I heard that he had been charged with the murder of a 2 year old. Apparently his girlfriend at the time left her daughter with him for an hour or so while she ran an errand. He couldn’t deal with the toddler crying anymore so he beat her. He caused severe internal bleeding and she died in hospital not long after. He would have been around 22 when he did it. He was sentenced to 36 years with a non parole period of 27 years."
"Edit: this happened in Australia around 2014."
– Adelineslife
He Gave Away Pocket Knives
"I worked at a box store about 20 years ago, a guy I worked with was always 'off,' and would give away pocket knives to other employees. One day he came in with scratches all over his face; he murdered a disabled girl the day before, using a pocket knife he had given our co-worker later that day."
– Grover_washington_jr
The most unsettling thing is, anyone is capable of taking someone else's life.
It just takes a moment for someone to snap and periodically lose any sense of judgment and act out on their rage.
Worse, there are those who are on the prowl and have every intention of causing harm. You just never know who these people who are capable of such atrocities look like.
You think you know someone...
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
People Who Knew A Murderer Share The Exact Moment They Knew Something Was Off
I just had a feeling....
Evil lurks among us and we must adhere to the signs. More often than not the signs are big and flashing in neon. When you feel that slight unease or "sense" in the pit of your stomach upon interacting with certain people, listen close, you already know that you're too close to trouble--your body is trying to tell you. I can't tell you how many stories on "Dateline NBC" start with.... "I had a feeling." Well if you have a scratch, itch it.
Redditor u/peasantchoker was wondering who else has been able to sense when they were surrounded by evil by asking....
People who knew Murderers, when did you know something was off?
The Boyfriend
I moved to a new town when I was 19 and was making new friends at my new job. I met this girl at work and she invited me over to hang out with her and her best friend. I went and the best friend's boyfriend was there and the vibes were waaay off. I was uncomfortable. He was cold, and just seemed angry for no reason.
They had mentioned to me before he got there that he was always controlling and had hit the girl before.
Turns out controlling was an understatement. She came home one day and he was digging a hole in the backyard and she asked what he was doing and he replied "digging your grave." He hit her, said if he can't have her, nobody could have her, all of that. So eventually she left him and had to get a restraining order and everything.
He somehow persuaded her to get in a car with him on her work break and they went missing for a few days. Turns out he stabbed her to death, threw her in a river.
I met the girl only a few times and him only the once but the face that I was in such close proximity to someone capable of that gives me chills. She was so young, it was really sad.
The Roommate
The murderer I know was more of an acquaintance or casual friend - he lived down the hall from me and we hung out sometimes but not like just the two of us. Still, we'd chill at each other's place regularly.
I passed him one day in the stairwell and I said hi. He said hi back but called me by the wrong name. He was really distracted and kind of awkward. He didn't make eye contact and kept moving.
I remember thinking maybe we we don't know each other as well as I thought. Later he was playing Nintendo (yep, my N64 - this was a while ago) with my roommate when I came home. He apologized and said his mind was elsewhere.
A couple days later there are cops all over the building, interviewing people and searching his place. They'd found the guy's roommate with a bullet in the back of his head in an abandoned lot across town. The next day he confessed.
The Gentle Giant
I didn't.
He was the sweetest, kindest, gentle giant kind of guy. Kind of a weirdo, but still a great guy overall. I remember once that he shed a tear just by talking about his kid, because he was so filled with emotion from having him in his life.
He turned out to kill his wife, kidnap his child, start the longest Amber Alert in the history of Canada, as he tried escaping to a different province he killed another man to steal his car.
I'm still unsure today if I should have seen anything at any point. It comes to haunt my nightmares from time to time.
That Kid
There was a kid i went to high school with who always gave me the creeps, we had a lot of mutual friends so we always ended up hanging out and it always made me feel really uncomfortable. Our senior year he got suspended for like a week because someone had found and turned in a hit list he had made, no one really took it too seriously. About three years after we graduated he was in the news for murdering a man in our town that he barely knew.
He told the police that he held the man's eyes open so he could watch his life leave his body.
Editing for spelling and adding to this because I remembered that I actually knew a second murderer. Im related to someone who attempted to murder his wife by stabbing her in the back several times with a butter knife when she found out he was gay and then many years later stabbed his partner to death after they broke up.
He Said So
When he said there was.
A teenager, his mother and his step father lived around the corner from me. My mother knew them better than myself, but we all thought they were lovely.
A couple of years ago the son went to the hospital several times asking for help. He claimed he had voices telling him to kill his stepfather, but each time he went he was released and told to come back (they would give an appointment).
A few weeks later during a small argument he stabbed his stepfather to death in the front garden.
He turned himself in the next day, and wasn't convicted as he sought help before it happened. Instead, he got the treatment he needed.
Edit: I see a lot of people wondering if it might've been a defense/planned murder. It wasn't. The way he was killed, and how the son acted after removed any doubt.
The Burns
Had an employee on my work crew, acted strange and wouldn't listen to direction. Had goofy huge sideburns. Ended up going to jail for a short time, when he got out he shot his GF and her parents.
The Uncle
My uncle murdered somebody and is currently serving life in prison. From my earliest memory I knew he had some screws loose.
Edit: I was at work when I originally commented so I didn't have time to provide details. He caught his wife at her lovers house so he shot the guy.
He was going to shoot her too but she convinced him she wouldn't tell anyone. He burned the guys house down in an attempt to cover his tracks. As soon as his wife could get free of him she immediately reported him.
As far as me saying I always got creep vibes from him, he always reminded me of a poor mans Charles Manson
The Customer
Obligatory didn't know him as a friend, but a regular customer in my shop. He would come in after his shift to buy beer and tobacco, on one occasion he caught and helped us to evict a shoplifter. He seemed friendly enough. Then a local girl went missing and was eventually pulled out of a river a few weeks later.
They announced they were looking for somebody in connection with her death and it was him. They had CCTV footage of him tailing her through a park and footage of him buying beer in a shop, still unconfirmed to this day being our shop as they blurred out the surroundings.
Anyway, as we had a TV in our shop switched to the news channel as it was a rolling story local to us, we started to discuss the guy, if we saw him on the day she went missing, that kind of thing.
We hadn't, but it was at that point when one of my staff, a young girl, who had previously said to management that she didn't want to work the closing shift anymore because there was "too many creepy men around", told us that he used to stare at her when he came in to the store in a way that made her uncomfortable enough to not want to be on the floor when he came in.
They never got to question him about the murder as he was found dead in a local park a few days later. \
The Bully
I went through primary and high school with a guy in the year below me who seemed a little... distant. We lived near each other and caught the bus from the same stop. He was a bit of a bully but it was something more. Like you could tell he wasn't a bully because he was hurting inside or because he felt threatened in some way, he was a bully because he did what he wanted to do and didn't realize that it hurt other people. Like the kind of kid who enjoyed pulling wings off flies.
Not long after I left my hometown I heard that he had been charged with the murder of a 2 year old. Apparently his girlfriend at the time left her daughter with him for an hour or so while she ran an errand. He couldn't deal with the toddler crying anymore so he beat her. He caused severe internal bleeding and she died in hospital not long after. He would have been around 22 when he did it. He was sentenced to 36 years with a non parole period of 27 years.
The Co-Worker
My ex-coworker was always a huge angry moron who nobody liked to work with. He'd always be on his phone and talking to someone, even when he had a customer waiting to order in the drive-thru. The moment I knew he had something wrong with him was when I caught him "looking for his dab pen" in one of the lockers in the backroom. He always used a top locker, but he was searching through one at the bottom, which happened to be my locker for the day.
I told him that, so he just stared me in the face for a second, and walked away.
Later that same year, I learned that he shot and killed someone at a gas station.
Edit: to clarify, he was (most likely) trying to steal from me, and the fact that he made up his lie on the fly set me off (not to mention the creepy stare at the end).
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Man's Viral Story About Putting Flowers On A Stranger's Grave Takes Some Wildly Unexpected Twists And Turns
When Twitter user @sixthformpoet began putting flowers on the grave next to his father's, he had no idea the crazy story he was about to embark on.
Fortunately, he documented the entire story in a viral Twitter thread.
ONE My dad died. Classic start to a funny story. He was buried in a small village in Sussex. I was really close to… https://t.co/PsPpniauap— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073950
Feeling bad about the bare-looking grave next to his dad's, @sixthformpoet began leaving flowers on it.
I always took flowers and my mum visited a lot and she always took flowers and my grandparents were still alive the… https://t.co/3FLMojbXc3— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073951
Nice but I felt bad for the guy buried next to my dad. He NEVER had flowers. Died on Christmas Day aged 37, no one… https://t.co/FTTp8Jguas— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073951
I did this for quite some time, but I never mentioned it to anyone. It was a little private joke with myself, I was… https://t.co/Mv1qg8mON1— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073952
But it turns out there was a reason no one left that man flowers...
I wondered if there was a hidden connection between us, something secretly drawing me to him. Maybe we went to the… https://t.co/hhgVfOLtMQ— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073952
His wife didn’t leave him flowers BECAUSE HE’D MURDERED HER. ON CHRISTMAS DAY. After he murdered his wife, he murde… https://t.co/Pzi3s5B8XJ— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073953
Naturally, @sixthformpoet felt pretty bad about how much time he'd spent honoring a murderer.
I felt terrible for his wife and her parents. Now, I wasn’t going to leave them flowers every couple of weeks for t… https://t.co/xxF4VORMdV— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073953
So to make things right, he decided to bring some flowers to his victims.
I found out where they were buried, bought flowers and drove to the cemetery. As I was standing at their graves mum… https://t.co/gaOnGtFMq4— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073954
And that's when the story took a huge twist...
I explained and she said ok that’s weird but quite sweet. I said thanks, yes it is a bit weird and oh god I ASKED H… https://t.co/QKM9bpntFy— sixthformpoet (@sixthformpoet) 1560073954
Twitter loves a good love story, especially one that involves the graves of murderers.
If only all our love stories could be this romantic...
@sixthformpoet Great thread, although I'm somewhat miffed that it's made my story of how I met my husband in an all… https://t.co/iojXtlMcrp— 𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 (@𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲) 1560083089
Many people thought @sixthformpoet's thread should be turned into a movie ASAP!
@sixthformpoet Paging @netflix— Benjamin Dixon (@Benjamin Dixon) 1560097394
@sixthformpoet @sianushka Someone needs to make this movie 🍿— Sarah Orme (@Sarah Orme) 1560076126
Twitter users everywhere found their hearts touched by the strange tale.
@sixthformpoet https://t.co/GTwBpm4Y0p— Mike and 17,314 others (@Mike and 17,314 others) 1560074276
This was certainly a heartwarming yarn!
You know, except for all the murdered people.
Thanks, @sixthformpoet!
@sixthformpoet Apart from all the murdered people this is a wonderful story. David Lynch should make the movie of this.— Lisa Boo (@Lisa Boo) 1560079613
If you love a good love story, the book The 50 Greatest Love Letters is available here to tug at your heartstrings.
| Donn Dughi/Wikimedia Commons |
There are as many 2,000 serial killers at large in the United States alone, according to investigative journalist Thomas Hargrove, the founder of the Murder Accountability Project.
Most murderers are not that prolific, though coming into contact with one can still be an unnerving experience.
Today's burning question from Redditor feeling_impossible was: "Do you personally know a murderer? What were they like? How/why did they kill someone?"
Read on!