The Young Sociopath

Future blogger at age 7. Mother to his right.
Sister he attempted to kill only partially exposed.
(Photo courtesy of a friend)

In yesterday's story about my grandfather, I told you that I had a very bad habit as a toddler. I would get up in the middle of the night and start knocking on neighbors' doors to ask if they wanted to come out and play. One of my fans responded, "now we see that the sociopathic behaviors are deep rooted, and started very early in life. explains alot about your untreated mental disease. thanks for the info."

That's only the tip of the iceberg. I was much worse. Here's one story. I once was trying to have an adult conversation with my mother as she was cleaning out the bathtub, and my sister Mary kept interrupting us because she was supposedly thirsty. Frustrated, I finally handed her a bottle and told her to drink that.

It was Clorox.

You wouldn't believe how fast the ambulance came. One of the neighbors I liked to bother at 3 am was forced to watch me until my Dad returned home.

Fortunately, my sister was fine. But when I realized what I had done, I got very upset with myself and kicked the cellar window. The result was both a broken window and a huge gash on my knee.

The next thing you know I was at the hospital myself. As my sister was coming out, I was going in.

I still have the scar.

Just so you know, my sister was no angel. She used to get up early in the morning, too, and try to hitch a bus to California.

That's where she lives today.

Another sister (when very young) once put Chompers, our pet guinea pig, under the lawn mower to see what would happen when I started it. For some reason, I decided to clean the mower before starting it and when I turned it on its side, there he was!

And my brother? He's an elder in his church now, but once destroyed half of Hellertown.

In those days, we all had slingshots. I could hit a weathervane from a long distance, a feat that impressed the neighbors and even my father. My brother wanted to do the same thing. I lent him my slingshot so he could practice. He did. Very hard. He went up and down the street shooting at weathervanes but hitting everything else. There were several broken windows and aluminum sidings damaged.

My Dad actually came home in the middle of the day and started yelling at me. I had no idea why he was blowin' oil and accusing me of shooting up peoples' homes.

My brother came home while this was going on, and admitted that he and not I was the culprit. He could have let me take the fall, especially since our father was about as angry as I had ever seen him. But his honesty must have impressed my dad. We had to give up the slingshot, which he destroyed in front of us. We were told we would have to pay for the damage, though neither of us was old enough to work. That was it. No beatings. No other penalty.

The best part is that I had another slingshot about which my father knew nothing.

I was always less honest than my brother. .      

My parents had five children. I think it's safe to say we overwhelmed them at times. But they would never call me a sociopath.

They'd call me a psychopath.

How Does This Society Treat Its Weakest Members?

Gary Foley

Yesterday, NorCo DA John Morganelli filed homicide charges against Bangor resident Gary Foley, age 32, over the death of a 17-month old toddler in his care because her mother entrusted him with her after meeting him online just one week before. She waltzed off to work and left her three children with him, along with his own son. The trailer they were living in had no running water, frozen pipes and no heat other than a few space heaters. Garbage was everywhere, and bugs crawled over tables and countertops.

This incident happened a year ago, in February 2015. Foley told Lehigh Tp police that the little girl had started choking after he fed her, but an autopsy revealed that what actually killed her was a fractured skull. Instead of charging Foley immediately, police sought help from a forensic expert, who ultimately determined that the injuries had been recently inflicted. It was only then that charges were approved.

The children, of course, were taken away last year.

The mother, Heather Marie Surget, age 28, has been charged with child endangerment because of the conditions in which her children were living.

Heather Surget

Morganelli called this just the latest example of people who exercise no responsibility in taking care of their children. He criticized the "cavalier approach to having babies without being able to provide the basics."

Can people really be this ignorant? That is what I was thinking as I wrote my story for a newspaper up the line.

About an hour later, while dropping in at the law library, I got an answer to my question.

A young man came in and told the librarian that he wanted to "give back" his step-daughter to his ex-wife. He was awarded custody of her about a year ago, but is moving and doesn't want to take her with him. So like an unwanted dog, he wants to return her to the baby store.

He got angry, too, when the librarian was unable to answer his questions immediately, and got even more irate when told he'd have to file a petition.

Unfortunately, there are some real assholes out there. It is not their poverty. Many people, including Morganelli himself, grew up poor. But they are very selfish, demand instant gratification and want everything handed to them.

Mahatma Ghandi once said, ""A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Based on what I am seeing, I'd say we're in reverse.