Mad Is The Word | General Custer Essay

[Captain]

I am sure the questions & ideas I am proposing here have been discussed here before but here goes:

Have any of the victims or non-attack burglary victims been shown the originals of those writings? EAR enjoyed rifling thru people's stuff and taken trinkets & various other tokens of his crimes. He was also known to purposely vocalize 'red herrings'. I wonder if those writings were discovered by EAR in a home with children (or a home where school papers etc. from the past from children now grown resided) and purposely taken and dropped just to screw with investigators?

I also wonder if the MITW letter was generated during some form of counseling wether that be from an in-school counselor or by a private counselor? I've always thought it was an odd piece for a school student to write if it was written to be shown to a teacher considering it's an odd topic and the writing contains curse words, albeit minor ones. In my school days I do remember one English teacher given us an assignment where we were supposed to write about a profound negative or positive school incident therefore in my opinion MITW being created for a traditional writing assignment is not impossible but to me it seems like an assignment from a counselor/psychiatrist to a child/teen who suffers from profound anger/behavioral issues. Of course, if that was true and the MITW author is EAR, it doesn't tell us much about EAR we couldn't glean from his crimes. He is clearly someone who has anger/psychological issues and trouble alleviating that anger in a positive manner. I just wonder if LE could've distributed that letter to known child-psychologists and school counselors who operated prior to 1975 in the areas that it is suspected EAR resided during his crimes to see if they remember a patient who had written MITW or something similar. It could be a fruitless endeavor due to many reasons but it wouldn't have hurt to try. I don't think children, or adults for that matter, visiting psychologists/counselors was nearly as common as it is today therefore there shouldn't be too many counselors to track down from that time period. I would assume that had LE tried to do this shortly after the discovery of MITW that counselors in those areas would've been more apt to remember a patient writing that piece since they likely would've had fewer regular patients than a counselor might today and of course that incident wouldn't be nearly as far in the past as it is now.

[superman]

I will send you a PM capn'

[justasking]

'Mad is the word'-paper certainly brings to mind an assignment from some sort of a therapist. Ear/Ons supposedly called to a crisis line telling them that he has been to counselling all his life. I guess that is interpreted as a red herring by many, like his sobbing at the crime scenes. I'd think it would be good if we weren't so certain about those moments having been faked by him. Let's keep options open.

Let's assume that he might have been to counselling all his life. Some kind of therapy. There, in a safe setting you are asked as an assignment to write down your thoughts and feelings, whatever comes to mind. The spelling errors and certain sense of frenzy to the writing gives a vibe of the paper being written in an emotional state, as some sort of a cathartic gesture. But when it comes to the topic of the paper (cancelled field trips, writing sentences) and the anger expressed towards the 6th grade teacher, I think there is some sort of misplacement of anger. I don't doubt the genuinity of the experience and his sense of anger and disappointment, but I think the essay carries with it a sense of this 6th grade experience being the paramount formative factor of his "madness", shame and anger. It's likely that he is projecting all his sense of shame and anger towards the more impersonal school setting. It is easier to blame a teacher than a parent, towards whom the feelings are more complicated. There is more guilt towards a parent, and even more so if the parental relationship is the real culprit in his sense of shame.

It is said that narcissism stems from a deep sense of shame. The writer of 'Mad' concludes the paper stating that he will be "ashamed" of that 6th grade experience forever. Other feelings expressed are the feeling of being treated unfairly, sense of disappointment, and the hatred stemming from experiencing those. The "dreadful paragraphs" made him embarrassed, and "more importantly" made him ashamed of himself. He notes the importance of shame specifically. But this shame in turn made him realize that his punishment wasn't fair. The possible unfairness of that punishment can't be decided, but whether it was perceived or real there seems to be a sense of injustice. He was the victim whose hand was put through such an ordeal until it ached. Shame was too much for him, it made him resentful.

His memories of an aching hand combined with the resentment about the perceived injustice towards him can lead to a sense of entitlement. Now after "the world" has put him through such an unfair punishment, "the world" also owes him. He had enough of hand-ache for a lifetime, and now on he will let others do the "lifting" (in reference to the EC poem) - why should he have to lift if he doesn't want to? World has treated him unfairly and scarred his memory forever.

He is at the doorstep of adulthood in the last half of 70's, "facing maturity". That is the theme in his mind when writing EC. But having been to counselling all his life, that is very much the theme his therapist also has now brought up. In younger years they perhaps discussed more "childish" scars such as cancelled field trips. Now the therapy has come to the topic of adulthood, he himself now being a young adult.

As a young adult he is presented with the "task" of choosing his values. It might not be only an abstract expression of him figuring himself out. It might be that he was really presented with some kind of a sheet which listed words of which he was supposed to circle or underline those he felt closest to his own personal values. Choosing values became a task for him. What did he know about "values", really, when he has been formed into a narcissist who accordingly comes to the conclusion: oneself must seek satisfaction. Not those boring "values" he is supposed to concern himself with as a therapeutic excercise. Thinking about "values" his head hurts, just like his hand did in the 6th grade. No more tasks given from outside. It seems that at this point he has become done with the therapy. He's been to counselling all his life and it didn't seem to do much for him.

What was the weird scent that the dogs seemed to notice? Drugs or illness, it has been said. I think there has been a line of inquiry into some endocrinological abnormalities, in which the assumed underdeveloped penis has also been taken into account. Endocrinology makes sense as an area that could partly explain the abnormal psychological dimension also. Hormonal abnormality. When listening to the "dumb f*kers"-call, in addition to it sounding like him reading or citing a memorized script, there is also a sense of urgency. He blurts it out very fast, and vowels seem to drown under the speed of his tongue. Of course there are many possible reasons for it. Maybe he was just excited, didn't want to stay on the line for too long and so on. There is also the possibility of amphetamine usage. But just for the sake of the endocrinological argument, his frenzy sounds like he's being hectic on a profound physiological level. Like he had sort of a fever, his pulse running fast, sweat dripping on his face. Possibly hyperthyroid or something comparable. Something psycho-physical, at the crossroads of physiology and psychiatry.

Maybe it was't that common back then for children or youth to visit real, on-going psychological counselling. The problem might have been more pronounced if someone had been to counselling "all his life". But it could be assumed that some sort of counselling would have been more readily at hand if you had an "objective" medical condition that expressed itself also as psychological symptoms. Endocrinology was "real", hormones were "real" whereas "shrink business" necessarily wasn't. Maybe there needed to be some "behavioral adjustments" for certain children with certain hormonal conditions?

Going even further, some kind of a medical condition where survival at birth wasn't guaranteed could merit a line about "surviving birth". For children with this kind of a condition the mortality could have been made clear early-on.

I'm thinking of hormonally imbalanced children, birth defects, psychological expressions of endocrinological abnormalities or other psychological scars of "not belonging" or "low self-worth" because of the said condition. Little penis, high-pitched voice, something having happened to his face (although possibly a red herring) like a cleft (I've seen cases of high-pitched voice related to a cleft lip), maybe parents that were simultaneously neglectful and overbearing, feeding his identity as someone "vulnerable", making him ashamed of himself. The running and jumping he did could be powered by hormonal overactivities which could be an alternate explanation to the drug use assumed by some. Having been to counselling all his life would mean that his problems were noted early on. How many back then thought of children (even "abnormal" ones) as needing psychiatric help instead of assuming that "with the right guidance, he'll grow out of it"? The picture changes if there is a more clearly medical element to it. It makes the psychological abnormality a physiological abnormality at the same time.

He could have been to counselling all his life, and he could have been to Stockton hospital. Or either, or neither. But if we are to explore this possibility, my hunch is that his particular psychiatric problem overlaps with something physiological. Field of endocrinology might be a good guess. Maybe already something wrong at birth, a noted medical issue early-on with regular visits to the doctor, and a referral to the psychiatric department already in childhood when the behavioral disturbances started to become obvious. Regular visits to a cousellor from then on, and terminated therapy at late teens or early 20's. Most likely it would have been his own idea to drop out finally, because it was "useless".

[emilie]

My son was now diagnosed and he had to write this kind of story to his councelor. Or very similar kind of story, when he was 6 years old he did this same testing and then he draw pictures instead of writing. I remember it vividly, he draw only carrots growing, each carrot was one family member smiling and then sun shining. This year at 20 years of age his essay was a lot similar to this mad is the word one. My son was angry of me not being able to protect him from his violent drug user dad, and from too strict stepdad who also was criminal and he felt that I disappointed him that way being weak. He was also mad of his teacher at construction school, and mad because his friend killed himself and other friend ended up in jail after hitting a man with a hammer (that man is now blind). Yesterday after 3 months of testing, we got his diagnosis and it makes me very sad because his condition is severe even though he manages to work now and workout etc. But that connection to medical field, brain damage patients is one thing I think should be looked at, since brain damage changes a person totally. Maybe ear was a patient who got mad? just my thoughts.

[sailorhaumea]

Perhaps an obvious question...

Did police ask every school counselor in California if they recognized the handwriting?

I still think that the way to nail this guy is finding a student who moved from Visalia to Sacramento in 1976 and from Sacramento to Southern California in 1979. Screening every last student in 1970-1974 through yearbooks. It will take a LONG time, but it can be done.

[oldguy]

"MAD" is almost certainly a therapist prompted essay.

And yes, the 6th game teacher and cancelled field trips are an acceptable stand in for a source of shame he is unable to write about. EAR was clearly deeply shamed as a youngster. Given the reality that 6th grade was the onset of puberty it is highly likely EAR was sexually molested in that year of his life-or more probably, the molestation began about then and continued for some time thereafter.

Given his obvious extreme anger towards women it is doubtful the molestation was same sex. Rather it was likely a female relative or girlfriend of mom or dad. More likely a relative as a major cause of psychological damage from molestation is the blurring of roles and breaking of trust. The combination of the natural sexual excitement engendered by the adult females inappropriate closeness and touching is combined with a greater sense of wrongness and guilt if the abuser is a relative.
That guilt and trauma then causes issues of sexual functioning in latter, more appropriate relationships..this feeds the anger towards females already present.

[shard]

The forced writing of sentences reminds me of two things. 1.) My Catholic school punishments to write "I will not do the bad thing this 7-year old allegedly did" one hundred times. 2.) An archaic practice of forcing left-handed kids to learn to write with the right hand.

[samisdad]

Interesting that General Custer is said to have had an unclaimed son by a Native American mistress. Was this being alluded to via his essay?
George Armstrong Custer - Wikipedia
Wikipedia › wiki › George_Armstrong_...
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/events/did-custer-have-a-cheyenne-mistress-and-son-native-oral-history-says-yes/&ved=2ahUKEwic0uOtsefYAhVL5GMKHS9FBoYQFjALegQIExAB&usg=AOvVaw35HMgr6uNJWew4oXsT5rQe

[cityofchill]

Nov 14, 2017 3:14:55 GMT oldguy said:

"MAD" is almost certainly a therapist prompted essay.

And yes, the 6th game teacher and cancelled field trips are an acceptable stand in for a source of shame he is unable to write about. EAR was clearly deeply shamed as a youngster. Given the reality that 6th grade was the onset of puberty it is highly likely EAR was sexually molested in that year of his life-or more probably, the molestation began about then and continued for some time thereafter.

Given his obvious extreme anger towards women it is doubtful the molestation was same sex. Rather it was likely a female relative or girlfriend of mom or dad. More likely a relative as a major cause of psychological damage from molestation is the blurring of roles and breaking of trust. The combination of the natural sexual excitement engendered by the adult females inappropriate closeness and touching is combined with a greater sense of wrongness and guilt if the abuser is a relative.
That guilt and trauma then causes issues of sexual functioning in latter, more appropriate relationships..this feeds the anger towards females already present.

Considering his choice of victims and the insistence of the FDLE profile that he saw his victims as "whores," I am almost certain that if he was sexually abused somehow by a woman, she fit the profile of the majority of his victims: in her mid-20's-30's, middle-to-upper-middle class. The murder victims especially, with the exception of Janelle, seem to have caught the worst of his rage and are all similar in their age and socioeconomic status. They are "respectable" adult women, mostly married or in stable relationships, with careers, ambition, and physically attractive. They led the definition of a "low-risk" lifestyle, and appeared to be upstanding people by all accounts. As a result, my gut tells me that any female abuser would match the profile of his victims, and were proxies for him to take his anger out on.

Then again, this is all speculation and we really have no idea what EAR/ONS' childhood was like. We can't know until he is identified. 

[Deleted]

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