The American Spectator : The Thrill Kill Cult

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The Thrill Kill Cult

By Christopher Orlet on 2.16.12 @ 6:07AM

Is there anything to be learned from the case of Alyssa Bustamante?

The phrase "boys will be boys" has taken on ominous overtones of late. In reference to the underclass, the phrase conjures up images that can be quite terrifying. And only slightly less sinister is the expression "girls will be girls."

Take the recent case of Alyssa Bustamante, convicted this month of murdering her 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten. The crime has been portrayed as a "thrill kill" and doubtless there was an aspect of that to the murder. Bustamante, fifteen years old at the time, set out to murder two children; she had excavated two graves in a nearby woods days in advance. The teen then used her younger sister to lure Elizabeth from the Olten home. At that point Bustamante beat the nine-year-old, stabbed her, slit her throat and carried her corpse off to the woods. An incredible feat of strength for a slight girl of 15.

Bustamante certainly seemed like an excellent candidate for, if not murder, then a life of crime. The teen's father was in prison convicted of three counts of felony assault. Her dope fiend mother had been AWOL most of her life. As is so often the case when parents are absent, Bustamante and her siblings were raised by a grandmother. And yet in this way she was not so different than many of her schoolmates in the town of St. Martin's, Mo., where ten percent of residents live below the poverty level, and many others suffer from the more general culture of poverty.

Bustamante told detectives she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone -- the standard reason thrill killers give for their deeds. Even more disturbing were excerpts from the teen killer's diary that came out at trial where she described what it really did feel like to murder someone. Wrote Bustamante: "I f----ing killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead. I don't know how to feel atm [at the moment]. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol [laugh out loud]." She then reportedly set off for a youth dance at her local church.

THRILL KILLING APPEARS to be a relatively recent phenomenon. The first documented case occurs in 1924, in the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case (often dubbed The Crime of the Century). Nathan Leopold, 19, and Richard Loeb, 18, were University of Chicago students and lovers, who were greatly influenced by Nietzschean philosophy. The pair believed themselves "supermen" who by dint of their extraordinary intelligence were exempt from ordinary laws, including laws against homicide. A half-century passed before another thrill killing occurred. By then they began to take place in rapid succession. However, Nietzsche's influence had been superseded by slasher films, drugs, industrial metal lyrics and a puerile fascination with the occult. You might say the superman had been supplanted by the lowlife.

Olten's murder has many remarkable similarities to at least three other thrill killings from the 1980s: the 1987 bludgeoning death of Steven Newberry, 19, of Carl Junction, Mo., by three 17-year-old friends; the 1986 bludgeoning death of Shaun Ouillette, 14, by Rod Matthews, also 14, of Canton, Mass.; and the 1988 stabbing murder of Sharon Gregory, 18, by Mark Branch, 19, of Greenfield, Mass., all of whom admitted they wanted to experience what it felt like to kill. The list could go on.

Predictably many commentators are asking if there weren't obvious signs that were missed by professionals (presumably ministers, teachers, and the doctors who treated Bustamante for manic depression). In hindsight, they note that such signs were in plain view, for instance Bustamante's YouTube profile which listed her hobbies as "cutting" and "killing people." But in today's society, where teens are often part of subgroups like the lesbian vampire subculture or the goth subculture, where so many come from broken homes steeped in abuse, violence, drug use, alcoholism, neglect and unemployment, you might say that the girl's behavior before the murder was not that terribly different from most children who live in America's cultural wastelands. Indeed, a therapist who had counseled one of Steve Newberry's teen killers -- shortly before the murder -- had insisted that his former patient's fascination with drugs, Satanism, and animal torture was just a normal phase kids go through.

No, the signs were not missed. They were right under our noses. The problem is there are so many warning signs coming from so many underclass children that warning signs have become the new normal.

About the Author

Christopher Orlet writes every Thursday from St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (72) | Leave a comment

Appleby| 2.16.12 @ 6:58AM

She should have committed her crime in Canada. Up here she would be protectted by the Youth Criminal Justice Act -- nobody would know her name and she would probably serve less than two years for her crime. A couple of years ago a serial rapist age 17 was released back into the community where he committed his crimes without any serious punishment, and the police told no one and would not allow us to know what he looked like.

Timothy L. Pennell| 2.16.12 @ 9:42AM

If we would just stop fcking around with these people, and start KILLING THEM, in the exact same manner that they killed their Victims, this Sh*t would happen a lot less often.

Everyone has a Right to a SWIFT TRIAL.

The Victim's Families should have a Right to a Swift Carrying Out of PUNISHMENT.

One Appeal.

One and DONE.

Deborah D| 2.16.12 @ 10:56AM

Remember Charles Starkweather from the 1950's? He was an admirer of James Dean. They put him to death shortly after he was convicted. Good idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Starkweather

Rocker| 2.16.12 @ 10:46PM

James Dean during his lifetime had, and still has, millions of admirers. So what? If your point is that Dean was somehow indirectly culpable for the Charlie Starkweather-Carol Fugate murders, you didn't make it. Hey, let's denounce Elvis while you're at it.

Lyneuss Fields| 2.16.12 @ 1:30PM

Nobody will ever convince me that fear is not a great deterrent for these insects. There is great video of the sweating palms of Ted Bundy (offering prosecutors more bodies of his young victims) before he was "cooked" in Florida's electric chair.

Occam's Tool| 2.16.12 @ 1:36PM

Doing drugs is NEVER a normal sign. CUTTING is NEVER a normal sign. But what do you do when the therapists are too stupid for their jobs?

My kids are homeschooled. Neither my wife nor myself smoke, drink, or do drugs. Every night I tuck my kids into bed, kiss them on the head, hug them, and tell them they are the most precious people to me in the world, and that adopting them was the best decision of my life (they've known about their adoption from the very start).

My wife and I take nothing for granted.

Dennis| 2.20.12 @ 12:03PM

Bless you.

POST American| 2.16.12 @ 7:32AM

---------'90's Show' DEMORALIZATION OP--------
-----------------------RED ALERT!----------------------

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe we're
enjoying those nifty 'Youth--inAsia' vans
on the go in the Netherlands.

-------------COMING SOON worldwide.

Timothy L. Pennell| 2.16.12 @ 9:37AM

Can I buy some POT from you?

Teaghan| 2.16.12 @ 12:51PM

You make me laugh Tim~

Stammon| 2.16.12 @ 8:53PM

Crap,
laughed and bourbon came out my nose. Burns like hell.

Darin| 2.16.12 @ 7:37AM

In a culture which deems it a right for a mother to kill her unborn child, why should it surprise anyone when this happens? She was just committing a very late term abortion.

Al Adab| 2.16.12 @ 10:43AM

Darin:
Once again moral relativism rears its ugly head. Who is to say what is right or wrong when there are no absolutes?

The Bruce| 2.16.12 @ 5:35PM

Not to mention the capital crime of robbing the victim's mother of her "choice."

beebop2| 2.16.12 @ 5:55PM

apropos of nothing?

when my mother passed away in hospice, a number of items were still in the house we shared prior to her death. Among those items was a considerable amount of narcotics to lessen the pain associated with a slow passing. When the case workers came to see me for a cup of coffee and converation about mother, I showed them the remarkable accumulation of drugs that had collected since they were shipped to us unrequested. "What should I do," I asked? "Can you take them back?" "No," they said. "Once they have been dispensed, they cannot be returned." "Well, what the hell do I do with them?" Their advice was to put two or three capsules each day in my coffee grounds until they were all gone as the grounds would break them down. Are you kidding me? What family is going to go to this length (I admit I did do it .... It took nearly four months to get rid of the lot) after the death of a loved one? We flush these damn DRUGS down the toilet and they end up in our water supply. The world is going mad and it is our water that is to blame!

Stammon| 2.16.12 @ 8:57PM

There are organizations you can donate these drugs to. They will LOVE to have them. When my Stepdad died we had like 50 of those heroin lollypops. We donated them. If nothing else call the Salvation Army, they will help you.

Say Baptist| 2.16.12 @ 7:41AM

We have one on death row here in Connecticut."Thrill killing" is not uncommon and is not new. Of course those who say "I wanted to find out what it felt like" I suggestion they've earned the reply "and now you'll discover what it feels like to be put to death."

Richard Baker| 2.16.12 @ 8:08AM

She must have played many of the death and destruction video games. Obviously, regardless of her parents, she thought it would be...fun. Evil in a 15 year old. What with the demonic influences the kids have available and thrown at them I'm surprised that there isn't more of this activity.

JohnDoe| 2.16.12 @ 5:57PM

You must be believing that nonsense in your church book. Murder has been around a lot longer than video games dumb-ass.

Chalkdust| 2.16.12 @ 8:18AM

Even before doctors became less sane than the people they presumed to treat, now and then sociality regurgitated a mutant specimen. It may be that because there is more of us, that more mutants seem to pop up, that and the fact 'news" flash across the nation in a nanosecond and nothing is a secret anymore.
any article/study that doesn't take into account the population growth when reporting numbers of aberrant behavior is nothing more than sensationalism. Better to be like Canada and stick your head in the sand.

Bobloblaw| 2.16.12 @ 8:31AM

I have news for all the SoCons always proclaiming that crimes like this are a sign of the decline of society. Crimes like this have been happening ever since humans walked the earth. Remember those golden days of American Conservatism, when every Americna went to church and carried a copy of the constotution with them? The 1920s? Remember Leopold and Loeb?

Bob Grant| 2.16.12 @ 9:02AM

Bobblowme,

Before making your strawman argument, you should have read the article. L and L were mentioned.

Mark MacInnis| 2.16.12 @ 9:07AM

"Crimes like this have been happening ever since humans walked the earth." So, that makes it OK in your mind?

Chaucer| 2.16.12 @ 9:25AM

It doesn't make it okay but it happens. I seem to remember a little story about Cain and Abel. Murder happens. It sucks.

Bob Grant| 2.16.12 @ 9:32AM

Murder sucks?...eloquent. Chaucer would be proud.

Bobloblaw| 2.16.12 @ 6:40PM

no it doesnt make it ok, but it deflates the timeless SoCon whining that society is falling apart

PaulyD| 2.16.12 @ 10:17PM

WTF is a SoCon? Is this some fashionable new derogatory term for conservatives circulating in Liberal fever swamps?

tonypal| 2.16.12 @ 10:44AM

Bobloblaw:

I agree. We should usher in a golden age of leftist/statism instead, where crime is low due to an ever present police state. We can call ourselves the USSR.... Oops, that's already been tried. Never mind.

hardcard| 2.16.12 @ 8:40AM

EVIL.......... satan is here 24/7

The Bruce| 2.16.12 @ 5:38PM

I think he lives in my closet.

Bill X| 2.16.12 @ 8:43AM

We live in the Last Days. They're marked by an increase in evil of all kinds. It's stupid to look for sociological reasons for it.

Colin| 2.16.12 @ 10:52AM

BINGO to poster Bill X. This current "phenom" we're living through isn't going away, and will continue to be perpetuated by a declining culture of values, the basic family unit, and an all controlling statist government. As the poster stated: "It's stupid to look for sociological reasons for it." Or as I think of it: "Changing decades of excused and hideous behavior is like herding cats." The Clooney's, Madonna's, Manson's and the rest of greater Hollywood would simply sneer at the attempt.

And speaking of cats, don't look now but ... they're already out of the bag.

Bobloblaw| 2.16.12 @ 6:43PM

except that crime, violent and property peak in the US around 1993 and has declined every year since. Today's crime rate is about where is was in 1960. That's right. Crime today is lower than it was at ANY point in Ronald Reagan's presidency.

Seek| 2.17.12 @ 2:02PM

So George Clooney and Madonna are indirectly responsible for this killing, eh? Get your head out of your colon.

Bobloblaw| 2.16.12 @ 6:41PM

Fools like you are precisely who I had in mind when I wrote my above post

C. S. P. Schofield| 2.16.12 @ 9:07AM

I seriously doubt that "Thrill Killing" is even as new as the article suggests (1920's). I have read countless slapdash accounts of serial killings that call THAT new, presumable because the name is recent (we used to call them Fiends). I expect that what is new is asking the little monsters "why?", and actually listening to the answer.

Bob Grant| 2.16.12 @ 9:27AM

Oh, I'm guessing this little child of satan will tire of prison when she's about 28.

Da Monk| 2.16.12 @ 10:07AM

Has anyone considered that this girl is just plain SICK!

Teaghan| 2.16.12 @ 12:55PM

No, she is evil and should be considered human debris.

Occam's Tool| 2.16.12 @ 1:43PM

Da Monk: Technically, psychopathy is not really a mental illness. Oh, it has its diagnostic code 301.7, an age cut off---(no earlier than age 15), and so on.

But there is no effective therapy or medication, and there appear to be pathological differences in empathy, for example.

The solution for a child like this is prison for life or death in the vast majority of cases. I have been a prison psychiatrist in the New Mexico and Alabama state prison systems, and worked with inmates on Alabama's Death Row.

I would, however, listen to the answers to the questions we put to these people, and tally and taxonomize the results. Eventually we might acquire enough knowledge to begin a true treatment approach.

Keep in mind that the discovery of penicillin was an accident. Finding a treatment for sociopathy would be very useful.

Occam's Tool| 2.16.12 @ 1:45PM

I'm sorry, one of those sentences did not make sense, so I will rephrase: "...medication, and, although there appear to be pathological differences such as lack of empathy, for all we know about effective treatment, we might just as well label these people evil, since the best interventions lie outside of the field of medicine for now."

The Bruce| 2.16.12 @ 5:44PM

Either way, the gene-pool would do well without her. Pass the chlorine.

Aquanomics| 2.16.12 @ 10:22AM

End of Days? Last Days? Rubbish! Violent crime has been declining in America for over 20 years. What has increased is the speed of communication: if there's a fart in Yonkers it is smelt in Las Vegas.

Little 'Lyssa needs to be locked up and the key lost. Whatever moral core her parents should have provided is gone and likely forever.

Frustrated| 2.16.12 @ 1:24PM

Sometimes no matter what parents try to teach their children they become lost. What is a parent of a troubled child to do ?Psychiatry..money down the drain.Medication..useless..Police..can't help until the child breaks the law!Residential treatment facilitys..$30,000. plus.

David W| 2.16.12 @ 10:27AM

We have a TV (cable) show called Dexter (serial killer, but who targets the "bad guys"). We have how many CSI-type shows on TV? I just heard that some network is working on a show called "Hannibal" (after the cannibal Hannibal - bet the theme song will be rocking). The Catholic and other church leaders have been "emasculated" and millions of "religious" subscribe to cable (I was visiting someone who had direct TV and I clicked through the offerings (some pay for view). I was amazed at what is out there that these religious people are paying to support but "choosing" not to watch). No wonder.

Seek| 2.16.12 @ 3:14PM

Since when does watching a TV show make someone kill? I've seen all kinds of "gratuitous" violence on TV (is there any other kind?), and I haven't assaulted anyone yet.

The Bruce| 2.16.12 @ 6:03PM

Watch an entire season of Barney Miller and you'll snap.

Seek| 2.17.12 @ 2:03PM

As long as they don't take away "Boardwalk Empire," I'll be fine.

Al Adab| 2.16.12 @ 10:49AM

We need to understand that some crimes are so heinous that the perpetrator places himself outside the laws of civilized society. In those instances the right of society to protect itself is absolute. Toleration or excuse making only reinforces those who take a relativistic view of the moral universe.

Doctor Right| 2.16.12 @ 10:49AM

The sad fact is that people who commit these kinds of crimes at a young age are irreparably damaged. They can NEVER be rehabilitated because the hard-wiring of their brains is not the same as a normal person.

They are unable to feel and experience real emotions.

This young lady should be institutionalized for the rest of her life.

Al Adab| 2.16.12 @ 10:53AM

BTW DR.:

As you likely know this is another argument against the legalization or even decriminalization of drigs. Although our Libertarian friends may disagree, it does not change the fact that many children today suffer ADHD and much worse through no fault of their own, but simply as a result of the drug use by their parents. Medical and mental issues abound in the children of drug users.

Occam's Tool| 2.16.12 @ 1:47PM

Al: correct again. As I'm the unfortunate bastard who gets to clean up the mess caused by illegal drugs, and I'm already full up, I'd appreciate less work.

LaneyB| 2.16.12 @ 11:02AM

Someone should read Charles Murray's new book on the growing wide divide between the white lower classes and the white upper classes. You'll get the answers there.

DRed| 2.16.12 @ 11:21AM

Tell me more about these lesbian vampires

Stammon| 2.16.12 @ 9:01PM

They suck.

cowgirl| 2.16.12 @ 11:27AM

Satan is smiling. We have thrown out our morals and values and now our young children are next on the devil's list. Satan has the majority of the adult population.

Tom Kyba| 2.16.12 @ 1:59PM

The sad thing is that liberals see this girl as a failure of society in general, in other words "it's our fault". How often I've read letters to the editor of the local newspaper sanctimoniously lecturing everyone about how putting more people in prisons is a backward-thinking policy. After all prison just makes them better criminals. Then the calls for more programs to rehabilitate them. Would these same people feel comfortable if this girl was supposedly rehabilitated and suddenly living next door? Oops, sorry, that was an unfair question. How about if this thing had parents who weren't flea ridden turds and actually parented this kid? Oops, sorry don't want to pass any of the responsibility on to the adults, after all who am I to judge? I'm sorry but regardless of the circumstances this little animal killed innocent others and needs to pay the ultimate price. Instead she will get legions of self-important pseudo-psychologists using her for fun and future book royalty profit and perhaps the little miscreant will llearn how to push said experts buttons until she is released as "rehabilitated". At that point the gamble will have begun. Will she perform more mailicious acts and when, or not at all? How many former commiters of despicable murderous acts have turned into law abiding citizens? Personally I believe this little POS should be compost. In the larger picture I also believe that the further left you go on the ideological spectrum the more likely that such people will sacrifice you, your family , others that you love, your friends and neighbors just so they can feel good about themselves, that they did not succumb to the "blood lust" like the rest of us neanderthals, so long, of couse, as the incident is far enough removed from their everyday lives. That is the scary thing to me aside from the disgusting act described in the article.

Seek| 2.16.12 @ 3:18PM

How do you know the parents were culpable? Plenty of families have a "black sheep" in which one offspring does something terrible that is atypical of the bevahior of his or her siblings.

Of course, we live in a society of moral judgment. Nobody denies that. But judgment still means looking at facts, not caricatures. That's the whole point behind the criminal justice system. And sometimes kids go rotten for reasons that have nothing to do with Mom and Dad.

Frustrated| 2.16.12 @ 6:53PM

Thankyou!

Seek| 2.16.12 @ 5:54PM

Plenty on the Right have done vile things. I can't count the number of horrific child abuse cases I've come across involving Christian fundamenatlists who tortured or starved their kids at home under the pretext of "home schooling."

Bob Grant| 2.16.12 @ 8:04PM

The way in which you phrased the statement indicates a deep bias against "the Right'.

Take off your mask and admit as much before you hit the submit button again.

Seek| 2.17.12 @ 2:07PM

I'm not wearing a mask, bud. Christian fundamentalist child abuse, regrettably, is very real. And much of it is inspired by manuals that are virtual blueprints for such abuse. Read guidebooks by Bill Gothard and Michael & Debbie Pearl -- and then tell me what they advocate isn't clear-cut criminal child abuse.

I wear my biases on my sleeve. And I'll hit the "submit" button anytime I please.

justthefacts| 2.16.12 @ 8:28PM

Huh? Let's have you enumerate these "can't count abuses cases of fundamenatlists (sic)."

I think you're a hater/bigot...abuse? Just take a glance at what secular zealotry has wrought in the culture, much of which the so-called fundamenatlists (sic) who actually work at jobs, are forced to subsidize through increasing taxation.

The Bruce| 2.17.12 @ 1:27AM

"I've come across involving Christian fundamenatlists who tortured or starved their kids at home under the pretext of "home schooling."

Really? Home Schooling? Wanna provide some links there, Slick?

Seek| 2.17.12 @ 2:09PM

See my above comment. And then go the websites with the requisite horror stories, all documented by police and court evidence. Denial bites, doesn't it?

The Big E| 2.16.12 @ 5:29PM

There's really not as much new here as some may think. Billy the Kid killed his first victim at age 18. His descent into lawlessness was, at the time, often attributed to his reading of dime novels - the 19th century's closest relative to the violent video games of today.

And there's the case of Jesse Pomeroy, who started physically torturing younger children when he was eleven - yes, eleven - in 1870, and who murdered a 10 year old - when he was 14.

James Arcene was executed in Arkansas in 1885 for his roll in a murder committed in 1872 - when he was 10.

Hannah Ocuish was executed in Connecticutt in 1786 at the age of 12 for the murder of a 9 year old.

There have been many, many others throughout history.

Richard Baker| 2.16.12 @ 7:32PM

JohnDoe:
You obviously can't read. If you think the video games aren't influencing these kids by de-sensitizing them to death and killing then you have your head in some sort of orifice. I suggest you read Dave Grossman's book "On Killing" before you question my thesis. If you have kids then I feel for them.

The Bruce| 2.17.12 @ 1:28AM

The U.S. Army has a program (video games) designed to do that very thing.

POST American| 2.16.12 @ 9:45PM

----------------------FINAL WORD----------------------

Articles like this driving 'our'
Rockefeller-CFR engineered EUGENICS
culture nudge us from

-------------------'Ra--DICK---ALLLL'
---------------------- to
---------------------------'Ra--DICK -----CULL'

PaulyD| 2.16.12 @ 10:20PM

If you won't sell your Pot to Timothy, will you sell it to me?

MyGirlFriday| 2.17.12 @ 12:59AM

Fear the children, I do indeed. It is not the children's fault but nothing short of a family that failed the child. Unfortunately, we are experiencing multiple generations of misfits, which only means that the parent's are incapable of lessons. We, I fear, are reaching a point of no return to save the children.

POST American| 2.18.12 @ 1:59AM

--------------------BOTTOM LINE----------------------

"Unless we realize that the UNTHINKABLE
has already been done to us
--------------we're FINISHED."

-----------------'UN--THINK---Abel'-------------------
is precisely what we're dealing with.

------Putting aside ths neutralization stealth ops
above ----

UNLESS we, in a sustained and unflinching
manner FACE what the likes of the Macy Group,
CFR, Tavistock, Stanford Research and the EUGENISTS at Rockefeller ---right thru Gates have done to everything from religion to the very food and water ----we're NEVER going to
rise from this nightmare.

---THE CULTURES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED--

"Understand, the Globalists DON'T CARE
if MILLIONS ---BILLIONS die to bring in
--their--new system. We are in --their-- so-called
'FINAL Revolution' ----a century long Third
World War. A war AGAINST the world."

--------------HUAC/ NUREMBERG 2012-------------

"Let's ALL DIE ---or LET's DO IT."
-Thomas Carlysle

LET'S DO IT!