Assassins, Arsonists, Pipe Bombers: What You See Is What You Get
Over the past 18 months, beginning with Thomas Crooks in Butler and moving through Ryan Routh, the attempted assassin in Palm Beach; Luigi Mangione, who shot the UnitedHealthCare CEO in Manhattan; a whole string of Tesla arsonists; Robin Westman, the Minneapolis school shooter; Tyler Robionson, the Charlie Kirk assassin; and now Brian Cole Jr, the J6 attempted pipe bomber, we've had a remarkable menagerie of weird figures who've burst into the public consciousness through various acts, or attempted acts, of quasi-political violence. To some extent, we've got the problem that experienced homicide detectives frequently pose: "What does a murderer look like? He looks like any of the people behind you in the checkout line." But actually in these cases, they do have something in common: their lives are obscure; they're reclusive; they have minimal or no social media profiles; they have at best spotty employment histories; their political beliefs are at best i...