Couples that kill #MurderMysteryMonday

There are certain things in life that o never wish to experience. Have you ever been in a toxic relationship? On a scale of one to ten, how toxic was it really? Was it the kind of relationship where you would allow your significant other to drug your sibling, rape them while they were unconscious, “accidentally” kill them and cover it up? Oh wait, what about going on to torture and kill more young and vulnerable girls after? In my opinion, the name doesn’t suit these bastards but welcome to #MurderMysteryMonday! This post is dedicated to the shitty ken and Barbie killer couple.

It’s said that they were named ken and barbie (I lowercased it on purpose btw) by the media and everyone who saw them

because they were a gOod lOoKiNg cOuPlE. (Yes leave it to you guys to glorify evil people because of their looks!)

So here we go, we have another killer with mommy issues. First his “dad” was arrested in 1975 for child molestation and then it was said he even raped his own daughter. Then at 16 his mother revealed that his dad wasn’t his dad and that she had an affair. This is where Paul Bernardo’s life started to take a turn for the worst. He would call his mother out of her name, referring to her as a “whore.” (But can you blame him though?)

Fast forward to him studying at the university of Toronto (yes he’s Canadian). He frequented bars and would pick women up, humiliate and beat them. These poor women wouldn’t even see it coming, I mean how could they? You’re at a bar and a good looking guy is making conversation you don’t think he’s planning on beating your ass. Right? (Personally I wouldn’t go to a bar to meet a guy, but to each his own.)

In May of 1987 the Scarborough community experienced a significant amount of crimes. Women between the ages of 15 – 21 were attacked verbally, physically and sexually. He quickly became known as the Scarborough rapist.

To be continued.

Thomas Benke: Looking Around In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, in the Chapter “Looking Around,” says this: Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. Otherwise we’d all just be barking away like Pekingese: “Ah! Stuck in the shit! And it’s your fault, you did this …” Writing involves seeing people suffer and, as Robert Stone once put it, finding some meaning therein. But you can’t do that if you’re not respectful. If you look at people and just see sloppy clothes or rich clothes, you’re going to get them wrong. She goes on to speak about empathy for other people and also, as an extension empathy for yourself. So, in a sense as you try to write believable, relatable characters, you will come to forgive people their trespasses—because no one believes they are the villain of their story, so you have to write “bad,” or “evil” characters from a point of view where they rationalize what they are doing in such a way that it is the right or only way they see is possible. By extrapolation, then, if you begin to forgive and withhold judgment from your less-than-desirable, or annoying characters, perhaps you can extend the same courtesy to yourself and forgive your own trespasses and sins. This, for me, starts to enter the realm of “writing as therapy,” and though I am a firm believer in that—I practice it to this very day—I think I would caution anyone who thinks that simply writing through things is going to lead you to a place of light and love. I am not saying it can’t by any means. What I am saying is I have wrote through my thoughts and my problems and my desperation and depression for decades and I still had enough baggage on my shoulders to supply an army platoon with rations for a year. In any case, when thinking about craft, it is very important to step into the shoes of all of your characters, especially those characters that you see as antagonists and villians. I believe there are very few universal maxims in writing but one thing is virtually certain: every character you write is your version of that human being. Confucius said “everywhere I go, there I am,” and that is never more true than when you are writing. So if you are writing a character that is distasteful to you, it might be effective for you to ask yourself why that is the case. I wrote a blog for Obscura last semester titled, “The Puppy Had It Coming.” The gist of the article was to pose a puzzle to writers. How can you write a scene where an adult human kicks a puppy across the room and the reader at least understands why. I am not saying there is any way to justify the action or for the readers to be on the human’s side unless they are sociopaths. I am saying you need let the reader know how dark the place is in the character’s mind that he is capable of doing that.