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Do you know where I can find a copy online of ‘The Phantom Prince’? I’m really interested in reading this book but 150 dollars are way too much for me.

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Apparently he died a couple months before I was born… thank god. I used to be 100% against the death penalty, but now I dunno… Ted Bundy deserved to die. I don’t want to dehumanize him… he was human… and I think he achieved his goal of possessing people if they are starting up blogs titled “Bundyphile.” He’s a mysterious figure and fascinating. Psychopaths are fascinating because they don’t want to be understood – they just want power, through violence and deception. By refusing to tell all, Ted leaves himself a mystery for everyone to wonder about. Yet, somehow I think we already understand his type. If his grandfather was really his father, which would make a lot of sense, then it’s obvious that psychopathy is in no small part genetically inherited. Yes, it’s also likely that environment played some role, but the sound of it is that he was born without the genetic makeup that allows the rest of us to relate to other human beings. Personally, I see genetics in my own family… my mom was extremely paranoid, my bro recently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and now my doctors are telling me I’m inventing my own health problems… it’s scary. I hate feeling like I have no control over my destiny, over my mind. Schizophrenia is really scary because you lose the ability of self-awareness! I hope that is not happening to me. Self-awareness is one of my greatest possessions. But I’m definitely a socially very anxious person. Like my mom. Like my bro. The more I try to change this about myself, the more I feel like I can’t because it’s hardwired.

Ted Bundy drew up a lot of stories to make himself sound innocent, “good.” He blamed everyone and never took responsibility. He just wasn’t capable of empathy on any more than a very superficial level. The thing about the knives when he was 3, and his grandfather’s torture of animals… that stuff has a stronger genetic correlation than environmental, I believe. While some parents and their children are more different than that, my observations are that we tend to be a lot more like our parents than we might think. I don’t think he was “evil,” but he did apparently have a genetically inherited near or complete inability to relate to others. That shows in the way he describes his youthful social experiences. Those descriptions are different from how a person who was abused from very early on with a normal genetic make would turn out… they might feel cold and not believe in love, but they’d have a much stronger likelihood of learning to love and feel empathy later on in life. It’s really hard to change what we’re genetically predisposed toward. Now, it’s not his fault he was born that way, and the rest of us can only wish such people didn’t exist… and that’s the part where he sort of CAN’T take responsibility. You aren’t responsible for your genetic inability to care about anyone but yourself. That’s the harder point to communicate in our society. If that’s just how you’re born, one could say, then that means you’re just simply evil. But if it was your environment, then that’s considered external blame. Yet what is really internal or external?

I’m not a Bundyphile, but it’s frightening how much I feel I can relate to the description of Bundy’s desire for power. That’s human. That’s really human. But the way he took that power is horrendously pathological.

That being said… you know… humans are not the only species known to commit rape or murder. Male chimpanzees frequently rape females by scaring them into submission and then getting their way. It’s pathological, but it happens in other species… especially species like chimps who are prone to aggression and anger. Chimpanzees also fight wars with other tribes. That’s genetic. Bonobos (another kind of chimp) are female-dominated and resolve conflicts through sex rather than through anger and aggression. Rape and war are not documented in this species. They find better ways to achieve a sense of control.

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