“Until this, Edwin Hall was just a friendly, normal guy,” is the closing of a news clip from CNN (D.A.: Kansas teen was strangled by ‘ligature’ – Posted: 5:03 p.m. EDT, June 8, 2007) about the brutal kidnapping and murder of a young woman. “Neighbor Harold Barry…added that Hall seemed especially close to his son…. ‘He loved his son so much…. He had his small kid in that truck every time I saw him.’”
And, once again, MySpace plays a significant role in this type of case. The CNN article describes a MySpace page, believed to be that of Edwin Hall, that freely shares the workings of a highly disturbed mind. In addition, a more recent AP article, June 9, 2007, by John Milburn (posted online by Examiner.com of Houston Texas, June 12, 2007) reveals that Hall was convicted 11 years ago for threatening his adoptive sister at knifepoint.
In the past twenty years, I have frequently heard suspects described by neighbors and family as an OK or even really nice guy. But behavior that manifests in a brutal murder doesn’t come out of nowhere; there are always pre-indicators. After a murder, evidence easily points to an aberrant personality with recognizable patterns, often from early childhood, but no one put the pieces together until it was too late.
At my workshops, many of you have learned about pre-indicators of violence. There is no doubt that the danger Edwin Hall posed was visible. As a society, we just need to be willing to take off our rose-colored glasses and see what’s really going on – before it’s too late.
For more information about pre-indicators of violence, please read the Yello Dyno Monthly Memo, “The Red Lake High School Shooting."