Posted on 09/09/2005 10:33:48 AM PDT by Clint Williams
Notes of congratulation to Michael Mullen popped up on Web logs as soon as news accounts reported that he had turned himself in, claiming to be the vigilante killer of two convicted child rapists shot in Bellingham.
Mullen, 35, was charged Thursday in Whatcom County Superior Court with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, the county prosecutor's office said. Aggravated murder in Washington is punishable by either death or life in prison without parole. Deputy Prosecutor Mac Setter said the prosecutor's office would decide by Mullen's Sept. 16 arraignment date whether it would seek the death penalty.
Comments on the Web included a call for leniency for Mullen, who tried unsuccessfully to plead guilty during his initial court hearing on Tuesday. But most Web log entries were more dramatic, ranging from "give him a medal and key to the city" to "kill all Level III offenders and save us some headaches."
Mullen has been held on $1 million bail in the Whatcom County Jail since turning himself in to police on Monday and saying he was responsible for the Aug. 26 deaths of Victor Vazquez, 68, and Hank Eisses, 49, each shot once in the head.
In court documents, prosecutors said Mullen posed as an off-duty FBI agent when he arrived at the home of Vazquez and Eisses — an address he found online through the Whatcom County sex offender notification system — and sat on their front lawn, drinking beer with them and discussing their criminal background. He told the men he was there to warn them there was a 'hit list' out for Level III sex offenders, the type considered most likely to re-offend.
Mullen told police he had been a victim of sexual abuse himself, although he hadn't reported it at the time to his family or authorities, Setter said in court papers.
Mullen offered police a variety of motives for the killings: protecting his children, his own child abuse, a desire to give his life value by protecting the community and a recent Idaho case that focused attention on sex offenders, the documents said.
In the Idaho case, Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sex offender, is charged with three counts of murder in the May beating deaths of three people at a home outside Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, allegedly so he could abduct two children for sex.
Duncan was arrested July 2 with one of the children, 8-year-old Shasta Groene. Remains of her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, were found in a Montana forest two days later.
Vazquez was convicted in 1991 of molesting several relatives, according to court documents. He was released from prison about two years ago and remained under state supervision.
Eisses, sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison in 1997 for raping a 13-year-old boy, was released from supervision about two years ago.
About a week before Mullen called 911 to turn himself in, a man named Mullen took responsibility for the killings in his own Web journal on AOL. The journal entry has been deleted, but a copy of the statement was posted on a Web log called "The Dark Side."
Bellingham police Lt. Craige Ambrose said he believes the person who posted the Web confession is the same person held in the Whatcom County Jail and the same man who confessed via two letters sent to various news media. "I have no reason to doubt that they were sent by Mr. Mullen," he said of the letters and the Web posting.
"In some ways, he's not bashful about wanting to be heard," Ambrose said.
Cynthia Hearn, a paralegal from Bucks County, Penn., said in her post on a blog called "Riehl World View" that she could understand some of what Mullen was thinking because the laws to protect children from pedophiles are inadequate.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Hearn said she was a little surprised by the vehemence of the comments online in support of Mullen.
"They all think that violence is the way to handle these guys. That's not the answer," Hearn said, adding her own daughter had been violently attacked and her first reaction was "I wanted to go out and kill someone." But it was only an initial reaction, she said, and she expects most of the bloggers who saluted Mullen would not be so bold with a gun in their hands.
"Everybody can be a big person in front of the computer," she said.
Public empathy with someone who says he is a killer of child abusers does not surprise child psychiatrist and prominent researcher Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, who practices in New York and Greenwich, Conn.
"People have far more sympathy for a parent who murdered a child than for one who molested a child," said Rosenfeld, who researched child sex abuse while at Harvard University in the 1970s.
Punishing the perpetrators outside of the criminal justice system mirrors this revulsion toward child abusers, said Steve Herbert, a professor of law, society and justice at the University of Washington.
"We're at a particular political and cultural moment where people accused of crimes, particularly morally tainted crimes, are pretty roundly condemned," Herbert said. "That makes it a little easier to make the step toward cheering violence against them."
He said America has become a punitive society, particularly in the past 25 years.
"There doesn't seem to be much political room for redemption anymore, and I think that's sad," he said.
You know, we have to take the good with the bad. If my life would go to saving kids from tragic sex acts like the perv's comitt, well, I'm here.
As long as you are asking questions, let me ask you what you would do if your family (kids, spouse, even grandparents) were the victum of an unthinkable forced sexual act?
We need a cleaning of the gene-pool in many ways. What-if's, never got anyone anywhere.
If the "justice" system would actually mete out justice, there wouldn't be popular support for vigilantes.
"There doesn't seem to be much political room for redemption anymore, and I think that's sad," he said.
This guy clearly has no historical awareness whatsoever. Up until ~ the 1930s, perpetrators of heinous crimes (rape, savage murder or child molestation) would commonly be lynched or beaten to death, which was often a public affair.
So he can be as "sad" as he likes. If this nation was more like it was in 1890, guys like these child molesters would be dangling at the end of ropes from New York to Los Angeles.
APf
I wish he'd gone on a country-wide spree. Heck, if he was going to turn himself in, take down the largest no., no?
And it's a damn disgrace to FreeRepublic that there be some here that condone pre-meditated murder. We're talking about destroying the rule of law here, folks. Don't you realize that you are blowing away the underpinning of our Republic? Wake up!
but they'll make sure they post the names and addresses of people who are against gay marriage
I'm NOT defending the sick bastards that would hurt children in any way.
Hell, I could cheerfully pull the trigger on them myself.
I'm just saying that when someone takes matters into their own hands like this and is then hailed as a hero there are other people out there that might not be as discriminating in their choice of targets.
I do understand why people feel this way. I do too.. the courts have largely failed us. But a single man deciding who needs to be dead makes me a little uneasy.
Our American society is very misguided. They make hero's out of anyone. Look at Wild Bill Clinton and how many people just go nuts over him.
As for a single man deciding who lives and who dies is a definite cause for concern. Although I do like the movie "Star Chamber". In that movie a group made the decision.
Stay Safe,
He said America has become a punitive society, particularly in the past 25 years.
Yeah, because more people are getting sick and tired of the do-nothing crowd and the 'let's give them a group hug and understanding' crowd.
yes--and if he truly did this on principle, he'd be willing to accept the consequences...
i hate it when people say they do things based on principle, then say the accept full responsibility, but then cry when they don't want the punishment...
Yeah, that possibility has always troubled me.
That's a gross understatement when you consider: Eisses, sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison in 1997 for raping a 13-year-old boy, was released from supervision about two years ago. Where is the outrage over this kind of punishment? This is the real story, not the fact that someone, for whatever reason, decided to act as judge, jury and executioner.
"People have far more sympathy for a parent who murdered a child than for one who molested a child," said Rosenfeld, who researched child sex abuse while at Harvard University in the 1970s
Then why does our justice system regularly release these monsters back into society? Recidivism is 100% with child molesters so why does this happen?
"That makes it a little easier to make the step toward cheering violence against them."
Thanks to a government that allows these animals to repeatedly rape and murder the most vulnerable among us, it is very easy to cheer this kind of behavior. This idiot is blaming those who are appalled at the leniency our judicial system shows pedophiles rather than blaming the justice system for refusing to put child molesters away for life.
There doesn't seem to be much political room for redemption anymore, and I think that's sad," he said.
This person is part of the problem.
I say let the guy go to continue his work...I wish we had more Boondock Saints!
...and OJ is a free man.
As much as I believe in the rule of law, and think murder is wrong... a part of me just cannot help applauding his actions.
These predators/child rapists have more protections than the victims they prey on. That is sad.
If there could be jury nullification for OJ, there ought to be jury nullification for him.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Couldn't he just apologize or something?
"Oooops, sorry, I killed another one!"
"Oh my gosh, there I go again! I am soooo sorry!"
re-read the article. Tihs guy confessed and tried to enter a guilty plea, doesn't seem like he's trying to avid punishment to me
yes, i know... i did not mean to say that he was being what i loathed... i do know he confessed to the crimes... i just hope he's up for the punishment--other wise he stands on no principle... i don't know if he's actually up for the punishment as he has not yet been tried, convicted and punished; although he does not seem to be trying to wiggle his way out--which is good...
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