John Patrick Bedell, whose doomed, cross-country odyssey ended in a brief gun battle outside the Pentagon Thursday night, was a well-educated but troubled student of science, economy and society who "had gone off the deep end" and believed that the United States was controlled by a sinister organization leading it toward a new dark age, according to friends and Internet postings attributed to him. Bedell, 36, who was shot and killed by Pentagon security guards, had recently been living with his parents in Hollister, Calif., one friend of the family said, but had dropped out of contact after saying he...