Bad Bugs Backstory

I think the best storylines come from personal experience, especially the ones that scared you silly. That’s where Bad Bugs came from.

Several decades ago, when I was just starting out in my first career, real estate, I hired a man whose full name I’d rather not share. I’ll call him Robert. In those days, researching someone’s background was not easy; I didn’t think to consult the police department. He had the right attitude and history (I thought), was charismatic, seemed eager to learn and perform, and seemed trustworthy.

Robert’s version of his past experience, I would find, was total fiction. It didn’t matter at the time because he did have a considerable ability to gain the trust of prospective tenants.

For two years, we worked together. Although he had quirks—mainly of a sexual conquest nature—I ignored them. He appeared to be as normal as anyone else.

Then, he was gone for a month. When he came back, he was different, odd, and distracted. Coincidentally, or so I thought, a murder case was under investigation in Cleveland. I don’t know how it came about, but we got to talking about what it felt like to kill someone. Robert brightened oddly and became engaged. He then focused on how he would kill someone—and why.

To him, killing someone who, in his opinion, deserved death was an ‘act of love for the community’. To him, he was justified to believe that philosophy and act on it. Again, in his words: ‘A murderer might be called insane, but in his mind, he’s normal. Weird, right?’. The clear inference was that taking the life of an evil person was honorable and justified, and it was okay even though most people wouldn’t understand that.

I became quite disturbed, obviously. My partner and I decided to fire him, but we were afraid to do so. It didn’t matter: shortly after that, he was arrested for the murder I referenced above. And he was linked to another murder a year before we met. The last thing he said to us was: “”Everybody will think I’m insane, but to me, I’m just fine. It’s all justified.”

He was found innocent by reason of insanity. The last I heard, he was still in a mental institution. But I never forgot—and never will forget—his chilling words. I have always wondered what being inside his mind must have been like.