GUEST, neither you nor I have any way of knowing, but I think John Allen Mohammad's frame of mind when he pulled the trigger (allegedly pulled trigger, that is, since he hasn't been convicted yet) was probably not much different from mine when I fired at the plastic container. Before, to see if I could hit it; after, exhilaration that I had. Neither he nor I had to worry about the possibility of our targets shooting back. And I think he regarded his targets as about as important to the general scheme of things as I regarded the plastic container.

To kill and kill and kill the way the sniper did takes a certain cold calm. Matters of eternal damnation probably never entered his mind, nor was he concerned with earthly retribution. Getting away with it made him feel cleverer than all these trained professionals who were looking for him. Most serial killers (e.g. Ted Bundy)--psychopaths--are of that frame of mind.

Don Firth