Post by flashback on Mar 30, 2018 20:58:11 GMT
There are many unique & compelling things in this case that has so enamored all of us, but there is one thing in particular that has constantly mystified & surprised me, and hung in my subconscious as something extremely difficult to reconcile; that is how seemingly normal, unthreatening, and even "good looking" the guy in the popular composites looks.
Part of that fascination for me comes from my own physical appearance, which is similar to our guy in many ways - pale, "baby faced", same hair length & color, even a similar build (before anyone asks I was born in 1980, on the other side of the country). Being of a similar physical appearance, I know how people - particularly women, treat & respond to me on a day to day basis. Without sounding too arrogant, developing relationships & attractions of women has never been that difficult - I'm not saying I'm Brad Pitt, but I'm pretty comfortable and confident approaching women that I don't know, and have found it relatively easy to disarm them with a smile and some polite banter.
When I look at the composites (especially the Ripon composite), I can't help but see someone familiar, like so many of my friends growing up. It would seem to me that if this guy really wanted women / sex, it wouldn't have been that difficult for him to do it without force, which is actually in line with what many experts say about the EAR attacks - they weren't really about sex, but about fear, control, terror, etc. Sex was just a tool in his arsenal, a means to an end.
As others have noted, it is likely these "regular", boy next door type looks helped him elude capture and allowed him to blend into the relatively well-off communities that he was operating in. I definitely agree - even being pale for California, I imagine he would have fit right in in most of these communities. But, there is a flip side to that that I don't know has ever been noted before…
Obviously wearing masks was another thing that benefitted him, as the victims could only give limited descriptions of his physical appearance, but aside from that, I'm beginning to wonder if there was another vital reason for his wearing of masks - that is, he looked so normal & unthreatening, that it would have been hard for him to really "strike fear" in his victims under his normal appearance. Some victims might have not taken him seriously as a relatively attractive young man trying to intimidate them, especially if he repeated the thing he did in early attacks, where he began the attack without any pants on - an almost amusing & comical detail to many - especially with what we know about his endowment. Imagine waking up to see the guy in the Ripon composite standing in your room not wearing any pants, sporting a somewhat erect baby-dick… would you be scared? Or would you laugh your ass off?
I sometimes wonder if there were early proto-attacks where he might have been laughed at, or not taken as seriously as he expected given the circumstances. If I'm right, it could also explain some of the other things he was reported doing - the hissing through clenched teeth, constantly threatening his victims and telling them to shut up, making up bizarre stories about his past or what he would do to them… etc. Some have suspected this being his desire to mislead police and keep them off his trail. Maybe, or maybe it was just all part of his "evil" persona, the scary image he created to strike fear in the hearts of his victims, because yes - while he was truly a bad guy, it doesn't seem like he looked the part, and I wonder if that played into some of the things he did.
Part of that fascination for me comes from my own physical appearance, which is similar to our guy in many ways - pale, "baby faced", same hair length & color, even a similar build (before anyone asks I was born in 1980, on the other side of the country). Being of a similar physical appearance, I know how people - particularly women, treat & respond to me on a day to day basis. Without sounding too arrogant, developing relationships & attractions of women has never been that difficult - I'm not saying I'm Brad Pitt, but I'm pretty comfortable and confident approaching women that I don't know, and have found it relatively easy to disarm them with a smile and some polite banter.
When I look at the composites (especially the Ripon composite), I can't help but see someone familiar, like so many of my friends growing up. It would seem to me that if this guy really wanted women / sex, it wouldn't have been that difficult for him to do it without force, which is actually in line with what many experts say about the EAR attacks - they weren't really about sex, but about fear, control, terror, etc. Sex was just a tool in his arsenal, a means to an end.
As others have noted, it is likely these "regular", boy next door type looks helped him elude capture and allowed him to blend into the relatively well-off communities that he was operating in. I definitely agree - even being pale for California, I imagine he would have fit right in in most of these communities. But, there is a flip side to that that I don't know has ever been noted before…
Obviously wearing masks was another thing that benefitted him, as the victims could only give limited descriptions of his physical appearance, but aside from that, I'm beginning to wonder if there was another vital reason for his wearing of masks - that is, he looked so normal & unthreatening, that it would have been hard for him to really "strike fear" in his victims under his normal appearance. Some victims might have not taken him seriously as a relatively attractive young man trying to intimidate them, especially if he repeated the thing he did in early attacks, where he began the attack without any pants on - an almost amusing & comical detail to many - especially with what we know about his endowment. Imagine waking up to see the guy in the Ripon composite standing in your room not wearing any pants, sporting a somewhat erect baby-dick… would you be scared? Or would you laugh your ass off?
I sometimes wonder if there were early proto-attacks where he might have been laughed at, or not taken as seriously as he expected given the circumstances. If I'm right, it could also explain some of the other things he was reported doing - the hissing through clenched teeth, constantly threatening his victims and telling them to shut up, making up bizarre stories about his past or what he would do to them… etc. Some have suspected this being his desire to mislead police and keep them off his trail. Maybe, or maybe it was just all part of his "evil" persona, the scary image he created to strike fear in the hearts of his victims, because yes - while he was truly a bad guy, it doesn't seem like he looked the part, and I wonder if that played into some of the things he did.