Dr. X's Free Associations

Concerns about terror over the July 4th weekend

ABC News

Trump's visit to the Chicago Tribune

Trump was interviewed by the Tribune today. I'm trying to imagine how it went.

I have gay friends. I have black friends. I have many, many friends in Mexico. I'm very big with gays and blacks and Mexicans. Very big. They love me. They absolutely love me. Jews love me, too. Many have bought condominiums from me and gamble in my casinos. My casinos are the best in the world. People love them. I made a fortune even from the casinos that went bankrupt. Only I could do that because I'm better at bankruptcy than anyone else. I'm the best at bankruptcy. People absolutely love my bankruptcies. And besides, I have the best show on television. Everyone absolutely loves my show.

An escape waiting to happen?

From Richard Matt's Wikipedia page:

"When approximately 13 years old, Matt escaped from a group home, hiding in Allegany State Park and taking food and other supplies from vacation homes. He had been remanded to the home for stealing a houseboat."

"In June 1986, he climbed a fence to escape from the Erie County Correctional Facility, where he was serving a one-year sentence for assault. According to retired Tonawanda policeman David Bently, Matt evaded police for four days, hopping a freight train to his brother's house in Tonawanda where he was ultimately apprehended."

"On December 3, 1997, Richard Matt attacked his 72-year-old boss, William Rickerson, in his North Tonawanda home. After attacking him, Matt forced Rickerson into his trunk. Matt believed Rickerson had large sums of money in his possession and demanded to know its location. Later, Matt broke Rickerson's neck with his bare hands. He then dismembered the body and fled New York State to avoid capture."

"Prior to 2007, Matt nearly escaped from a prison in Mexico, climbing to the roof before being shot by guards. According to his son, "He's been shot like nine times. 'It's like they can't kill him.^' Matt was turned over to U.S. authorities in 2007.  According to court reporter Rick Pfeiffer, the Mexican government placed him without explanation on a plane with a drug kingpin they had agreed to extradite because he had 'been such a difficult prisoner."

"During his trial for the murder of Rickerson, authorities suspected he had a plan to escape from Niagara County Jail. Matt was made to wear a stun belt and snipers were posted outside the courtroom to prevent his escape."

Does anyone else see a pattern? [/sarc]

His criminal history is marked by extremely poor judgment (e.g., stealing a houseboat @13), impulsivity (e.g. stabbing someone he'd just met in a bar), extreme ruthlessness (hands-on brutal murders) and lack of effective conscience. Then there was the pattern of escape attempts.

Clinton is a maximum security prison, so I imagine that many of the prisoners present a higher-than-average escape risk, in addition to greater dangerousness, but I wonder if Matt was among the highest risk prisoners, even within that group.

Incidentally, does anyone believe that Matt and Sweat weren't going to kill the prison guard once she provided them with a car and any cash she had? She wasn't cut out to for life on the run and would quickly become an inconvenience for two violent men running from the law.

Concealed Carry

Chicago Tribune:

Minutes after the repo driver called police to report the occupants of a white Pontiac had followed him from the apartment complex and the female passenger shot at him, Patrolman Phil Cook located the car on 5th Avenue at the entrance to Interstate 94.

After a search of the white Pontiac, police did not immediately locate a weapon, but Cook noticed the woman had her hand inside her pants and called Lt. Dawn Westerfield to the scene. Westerfield discovered the barrel of a loaded .38-caliber Colt revolver protruding from the woman's vagina and removed the handgun, which had three spent rounds, the report states.

Local Shots

Selling Antipsychotics: From Frail, Nervous White Women to Angry Black Men

1974 advertisement for Haldol in the Archives of General Psychiatry .

Multitasking Dad

Cubs game, today.

It's happened before

Overheard

I was at Walgreen's, seated in a waiting area while a pharmacist prepared my prescription. An older Hispanic woman and a little girl, about age 5, were seated nearby.

An employee entered the waiting area from the adjacent health clinic. Clipboard in hand, she addressed the older woman.

Employee: Father's name?

Older Woman: (speaking with Spanish accent) O'Neill.

Employee: (speaking slowly as she writes on her clipboard) Oat ... meal.

Little Girl: OH NEILL!

Ukrainian Lacing: No Loose Ends

Below the fold: Video 2, Finishing up.

Links

Preventing Medical Error: Patients are not jumbo jets

The troubling history of the judge who held the bond hearing for Dylann Roof. I assume he won't be the judge if there's a trial.

A Sicilian town is giving away homes to those who are willing to fix them up.

The Spanish town of Castrillo Mota de Judios (Camp Kill Jews) has changed its name.

This looks like the final nail in the coffin for Pete Rose.

In less than surprising news, men with college degrees become fathers later than men without college degrees.

Local interest: Barbara Brotman tries to unravel the mysteries of Chicago's underground pedway.

While I was putting this post together, I stumbled across an article about a charismatic religious leader who recently took a tumble because of behavior unbecoming a minister. What came to mind were some experiences I've had with evaluation of charismatic individuals. Charisma tends to mislead others, obscuring lack of competence, problematic narcissism and sometimes psychopathy. I considered writing a standalone post, but I found a nice article on the subject.