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Are you familiar with the murders by John List? What I remember is: List was brought up strictly, an only child, by his German mother and father. His mother was very attentive to detail in making sure everything was perfect. That is, she was a bit TOO attentive to detail--even when he got older, she was micromanaging his life.

Everything had to be neat. Everything had to be proper. And I think he lived his life that way even when he got out on his own. Incidentally, when List was married with 3 children, his mother was living with them.

His wife had disappointed him. (Hers was a very strange story.) She was, to be charitable, less than perfect. His children looked adorable, from their photos. BUT the two older ones had just reached puberty a couple years b/f the murders. As anyone who's gotten that far raising a child knows, things really, really change when one's little darling suddenly has a mind of his/her own! People who still have little adorable people in their home smile when we tell them this; they have NO idea!

So his daughter was becoming quite independent and rebellious. It upset him greatly. And his wife was less than perfect, and his mother still nagged him a bit. And he wasn't making enough money to even furnish the very large house he'd bought for them. His self-image was that he was some fairly high-echelon, successful company man, but the truth was, he wasn't making the cut. His finances were a mess.

So when he wanted to kill SOME members of his family, instead, he killed all of them. IMO, it was that compulsive "it's got to be a clean sweep", tendency. IMO, some of these people can't stand, for example, to clean up a mess and muddle on, instead they are forever starting something over from scratch.

When he killed them, he left his mother in her attic apartment. But the rest, he laid each one on a sleeping bag in a large room (their house had a ballroom; it was unfurnished.) The sleeping bags were arranged in a line. The only "un-perfect" part of it was that he left the wife's nightgown up, where she was exposed. Then List sat down and wrote a full confession and addressed it to his pastor. Then he disappeared for 18 years. He was able to stay undiscovered that long partly b/c he resolved not to get so much as a parking ticket. And he didn't--sometimes I guess it pays to be a perfectionist!

Maybe Scott is that sort of perfectionist. As we've all noticed, his hair and physical appearance are always perfect. Even the dye job was no cheap peroxide job! When Scott sits there in his suit, with his lawyers, I think he fancies himself just another part of the legal team.

Such a perfectionist wouldn't be satisfied with a divorce, which might take a year or two to litigate. Seems that he'd want a clean, perfect, unfettered beginning. No half-orphaned son to worry about! No trace of the wife he'd fallen out of love with, not even her car to make things less than a clean beginning. A new beginning, as though Laci and Connor had never existed to mess up his life.

I remember the List story so well. He was able to compartmentalize to the point, that he could plan how, then slaughter each and every member of the family, lay them out on a blanket, wash himself up, take a suitcase of clothing, walk out the door and lock it up behind him, and walk away to a NEW life. The old one had been taken care of and was not an issue any longer. It leaves normal people breathless.

I hadn't heard of the List case. It certainly sounds interesting and I think there might be some similarities. Thank you!

DA, that's the best explanation I've ever read or thought about to explain all of this. Can't wait for Dominic Dunne's book to expose all of these inner demons....

Pinz