Posted on 07/04/2005 6:11:10 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
The child rapist charged with kidnapping an 8-year-old Idaho girl wrote in a sickening online diary of a losing battle with his inner demons - and the need to "strike out" at society. "I am scared, alone and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society," Joseph Duncan wrote May 11. "My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."
Five days later, the bodies of Brenda Groene; her 13-year-old son, Slade, and her husband, Mark McKenzie, were found bound and bludgeoned to death in their Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, home.
Dylan Groene, 9, is missing and presumed dead.
Duncan, 42, was arrested early Saturday while dining at Denny's with Shasta Groene, 8.
Duncan's final blog postings wailed that his inner demons had "taken over."
"They've locked up 'Happy Joe' in the same dungeon that 'Happy Joe' kept them for so many years. Now they are loose and I am very afraid," he wrote.
"I have been asking God to help me defeat the demons. In fact, last night I was on my knees begging him, crying out loud to him, to help me. He didn't answer, again."
Duncan was a fugitive when he wrote that, having failed to check in with authorities after being released on bail for allegedly molesting a 6-year-old boy at a Minnesota school playground last year.
He had spent most of his adult life in prison for molesting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in 1980, when Duncan was 16.
He tortured the boy with cigarettes and twice pulled the trigger on an empty chamber, making the terrified lad believe he was about to die.
"I can't say I did not know it was wrong, but I can honestly say that I had no clue of the impact my actions would have on my victim, or society, or myself," Duncan wrote Feb. 17, 2004.
"Like I've mentioned before in this blog, I was abused, even raped, so often and by so many different people growing up that I thought it was like smoking pot, everyone did it, but nobody openly admitted it."
Duncan served 18 years in prison and was released in 2000.
"As an adult all I knew was the oppression of incarceration," he wrote. "All those years I dreamed of getting out ... and getting even."
But when he got out and got even, he wasn't caught, Duncan wrote. So he "got even" again, and again - but still wasn't caught. The chilling blog entry does not say what the child molester had done to "get even," but seems to imply there could be other child victims.
Duncan added he had managed to win the friendship of his neighbors, co-workers and professors, "who were willing to give me a chance despite my past." A kind neighbor even urged him to move on and rebuild his life.
"But the problem was those demons. The ones who 'got even for me.' They kept reminding me that if my new 'friends' knew about them (and what they, I, had done to get even), then so much for their friendship. So, 'Happy Joe' was just dreaming, or pretending to be happy."
It was unclear whether authorities were aware of his blog before Shasta's kidnapping and the murder of her family. But for more than a year, Duncan railed about "pig" cops and chronicled his fury at having to register as a sex offender. Every time someone looked at him, he imagined they had seen his picture from a newspaper or police Web site.
"It is a daily torment for me," he wrote.
In his final blog entry, Duncan's final descent was complete with suicidal thoughts and talk of "taking people with me."
"I don't know if that is right or wrong. In fact, I don't know much any more what right and wrong even is," he wrote May 13 at fifthnail.blogspot.com.
"My mother is crying right now, because her son is in trouble again. She tried to raise a good son," he added, but then he quickly disregards her pain.
"Does it matter? ... A hundred years from now, all my mother's pain will be forgotten, and other mothers will cry for there [sic] sons."
"Like I've mentioned before in this blog, I was abused, even raped, so often and by so many different people growing up that I thought it was like smoking pot, everyone did it, but nobody openly admitted it." - Duncan
18 years and he did it again.
"I am scared, alone and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society," Joseph Duncan wrote May 11. "My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."
"Society" is not innocent children - it's an abstract.
...and he wonders why God did not answer him????
Capital punishment for repeat sex offenders is the only answer. We urgently need legislation similar to what was passed in the wake of the Lindberg baby kidnapping decades ago.
And we need Supreme Court justices who won't overturn US law on capital punishment based on European opinion.
Well, at least Duncan blames God and not Bush or Rove.
A psychopath does not have a conscience. Therefore, his self-serving cries for help to God are heard as deceptive rationalization.
He is insane so there will be the insanity plea. 20 years from now a group will declare him reformed, remorseful and and seek his release. He should be released and residency required in the Judge's or parole board's neighborhood.
"My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."
...and he wonders why God did not answer him????
I wonder why Duncan didn't go after the persons who raped and abused him? I would argue that would be a more rational retribution. Did Duncan's now tearful mother neglect him and constantly put him in harm's way? Society punished him for harming innocent young people. We depend upon an ordered society to protect us and to administer punishment. The pathology of paedophilia (like that of Serial Killing) is too deeply seeded in the psyche for paedophiliacs to be rehabilitated. Therefore, society must protect our innocent children from rapists and abusers, and as well, from neglectful parents.
My bet is his claims of abuse are hugely exaggerated and that he is just a damaged person that needs to be permanently removed from society.
"He comments about his mother about trying to raise a good son, so apparantly she was blind to all this abuse and rape by 'several different people' when he was young? If true, what kind of home environment did she provide for him?
My bet is his claims of abuse are hugely exaggerated and that he is just a damaged person that needs to be permanently removed from society."
I agree that Duncan, should have been, and should be, permanently removed from society. If Duncan murdered little Shasta's family members, he should be executed.
I wouldn't doubt that Duncan exaggerates if not makes-up his claims of being abused and raped as a child. Duncan has a malignant psyche - he is "damaged" beyond repaiar whether by his informative years' experiences or if he is a "bad seed." There is no repair possible as there is no antedote for the dog in the throes of rabies.
The death penalty makes more sense for pedophiles than it does for many murderers. Certainly, life in prison is required. The concept of early release for good behavior is maddening. Their bad behavior is raping children, which they can't possibly do in prison.
*** There is hardly any more of an endangered species than humans with common sense and logical minds. Logic doesn't doesn't apply to many policies for the justice and penal systems. Early release of white collar criminals seems reasonable, but how can any reasonabale person justify releasing child rapists! Duncan avoided the "Sex Offender Registry" it seems. The university he attended didn't care!
"18 years and he did it again."
And, he will always to it again...
I agree that Duncan, should have been, and should be, permanently removed from society. If Duncan murdered little Shasta's family members, he should be executed.
I wouldn't doubt that Duncan exaggerates if not makes-up his claims of being abused and raped as a child. Duncan has a malignant psyche - he is "damaged" beyond repaiar whether by his informative years' experiences or if he is a "bad seed." There is no repair possible as there is no antedote for the dog in the throes of rabies.
Corrections to above: "repaiar" = repair and "informative" = formative.
I agree that Duncan, should have been, and should be, permanently removed from society. If Duncan murdered little Shasta's family members, he should be executed.
I wouldn't doubt that Duncan exaggerates if not makes-up his claims of being abused and raped as a child. Duncan has a malignant psyche - he is "damaged" beyond repaiar whether by his informative years' experiences or if he is a "bad seed." There is no repair possible as there is no antedote for the dog in the throes of rabies.
Corrections to above: "repaiar" = repair and "informative" = formative.
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