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In Dave Cullen’s recent Slate piece about what we learned from
Columbine, he writes that “the first lesson is really one that we have unlearned, which is that there actually isn't a distinct
psychological profile of the school killer.” Nor, I imagine, is there one for a
Craigslist killer, but that hasn’t stopped the CNN morning news anchors from
expressing repeated shock that the man who was charged on Monday with the
murder of a woman he met on Craigslist is a 22-year-old medical student. An article
in the Boston Globe today has the headline “Charges conflict with
portrait of clean-cut student,” and the attached photo gallery highlights the
issue. It’s not just that he’s a med student. It’s that he’s an attractive,
broad-shouldered med student with a big white smile and a well-pressed polo shirt. Just
as last week’s Susan Boyle clip drew attention to just how strongly we (especially
those girls in the audience!) expect our pop stars to be hyper-groomed, thin
and beautiful, the circulating photos of Philip Markoff remind us that, as
Cullen mentioned, we still expect killers to be greasy-haired, scrawny, and
perhaps trench coat-clad. Well, ugly chicks can sing. And preppy hunks can
kill.