[Semper Paratus]

You run into the most interesting people in prison.

[sirchtruth]

...and "talks a great deal about ghosts and monsters with tremendous excitement."

Sounds like a couple of 'em got to him too!

[anniegetyourgun]

"His mother, Donna Smiledge - a depressed high-school dropout who described her pregnancy as "a disaster" - told doctors that her son's life began spiraling out of control at the age of 2..."

I don't excuse this guy from his own accountability, but clearly this woman created a monster.

[Joe 6-pack]

Even wild animals will only kill for food or self-defense. The likes of Druce and Geoghan are proof that monsters walk among us, and proof by extension that evil exists. Geoghan's death is the simple result of boarding monsters amongst themselves, where a demonic hierarchy of needs ensues.

[Steve Eisenberg]

"In his twisted mind, he thinks he's a hero," said a law-enforcement source familiar with the incident, which occurred last Monday at the maximum-security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass.

With him being already a lifer, and Massachusetts having no death penalty (last execution was in 1947), he won't be punished. So why shouldn't he think this way?

While I don't advocate frquent application of the death penalty, the one circumstance in which it MUST be applied is where the murderer was already under life sentence. No civilized society just lets people get away with murder, as will happen in this case. If anything, the murderer is being rewarded since his trial will vary his monotonous days.

As for the murder being justified, it is fortunate that the man killed was a vile criminal and not, as may happen next time, the warden. However, murder still needs to be punished.

[jocon307]

"In December 1989, a jury convicted Druce of murder, and a judge gave him life.

Since then, prison records show, he joined an neo-Nazi group, mailed phony mail bombs to two public officials and later sent a letter containing excrement to one of the officials.

In October 2001, he was indicted for mailing phony anthrax letters containing a white powder to 39 people in Walpole, Mass."

Prison seems to be no impediment to the commission of many crimes by this man, esp. mail-fraud. What is going on in this prison that a violent, half-crazed lifer is able to carry on in this manner, up to an including killing another inmate. It seems quite likely that had he not killed Geoghan he would have killed someone else sooner or later, and maybe not an inmate either, maybe a guard or some other worker in the prison.

I don't get this at all, they seem to have minimal control of this man, and that's really not my concept of prison.

[witnesstothefall]

Timing is everything. Now if he'd killed the priest before all those kids were victimized......