Ever noticed how people who kill out of the blue are all lovely folk who would never hurt a fly and are always good with kids/animals/mechanical things?
Yesterday in Spain, a woman who gave birth to a baby boy in a hotel room allegedly strangling him to death minutes after he came into the world. In a press interview a few hours later, she was described by friends as a "good mother"...
When Ian Huntley was arrested after the murder of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, neighbours said he was a lovely quiet bloke and they didn't believe he did it.
However, oddly, no-one ever said that about Stalin or Hitler. At the end of World War II, no-one ever said: "That Herman Goering, what a lovely man! I can't believe he was complicit in the murder of more than six million people - he used to weed my garden of a Saturday morning".
It's always struck me as wierd, people need to be told someone is inherently evil before they'll believe it. Look at the facts - woman in room, covered in blood, dead child hidden in a towel that was by her feet, the post mortem reveals the baby was strangled to death and still people say "she was a good mother!" as if there's a broad chance that a passing child murderer broke in and killed th baby when she wasn't looking - unlikely isn't it?
So, is it blind faith in humankind that makes people act this way, the inability to comprehend that someone can do something truly awful or we just a bunch of bleating sheep who need to be told that it's time to be appalled by a particular action?
Yesterday in Spain, a woman who gave birth to a baby boy in a hotel room allegedly strangling him to death minutes after he came into the world. In a press interview a few hours later, she was described by friends as a "good mother"...
When Ian Huntley was arrested after the murder of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, neighbours said he was a lovely quiet bloke and they didn't believe he did it.
However, oddly, no-one ever said that about Stalin or Hitler. At the end of World War II, no-one ever said: "That Herman Goering, what a lovely man! I can't believe he was complicit in the murder of more than six million people - he used to weed my garden of a Saturday morning".
It's always struck me as wierd, people need to be told someone is inherently evil before they'll believe it. Look at the facts - woman in room, covered in blood, dead child hidden in a towel that was by her feet, the post mortem reveals the baby was strangled to death and still people say "she was a good mother!" as if there's a broad chance that a passing child murderer broke in and killed th baby when she wasn't looking - unlikely isn't it?
So, is it blind faith in humankind that makes people act this way, the inability to comprehend that someone can do something truly awful or we just a bunch of bleating sheep who need to be told that it's time to be appalled by a particular action?
