The Day Stalker

Looking at pen pal requests from some of the more notorious Death Row inmates is a great way to study sociopathy. There's no doubt about their sociopathy, so you get to analyze their letters in that light, and see exactly what it is that betrays their sociopathy.

Here's another pen pal request, in case you're in the mood to correspond:

FRANKLIN LYNCH SQSP

During the 23 years of my unjustly conviction and incarceration with the exception of a select few people, I've yet to connect and truly establish a meaningful friendship with someone who is willing to sincerely empathize with my unfortunate situation here on death row!

If you were able to place yourself in my present position filled with adversity, wouldn't you desire a connection with someone who just might provide you with moral support through regular correspondence---a way to help you maintain your mental health and stability, despite the darker sides and negative images that exist within the personalities beyond these myriad walls?

If so, please feel free to write to me so that we may exchange thoughts and some of our common interests, such as academics, politics, economics, reading novels, travel, family life, spirituality, sports, abolition of the death penalty, and various secular issues. With much Love and Appreciation, Franklin

Lynch demonstrates that peculiar sociopathic stylistic quirk, overuse of adjectives and adverbs: he wants to truly establish a meaningful friendship with someone willing to sincerely empathize with his unfortunate situation. (At one point he even gets adverbs and adjectives confused, when he speaks of his "unjustly conviction.")

Lynch, like the fellow in the previous post, has taken a moral stance against the death penalty. Note his use of the word "abolition," which vaguely equates his cause with Abolition. It's also nice to see that he has an interest in "family life" and "spirituality."

Note also that he says he wants to "maintain" his mental health and stability. He doesn't want to gain it, he merely wants to keep it in the hostile environs to which he has been unjustly confined. The implication is that he is currently mentally healthy and stable.

When he says "despite the darker sides and negative images that exist within the personalities beyond these myriad walls" he is of course trying to dissociate himself from all those bad guys who are in prison. ("Myriad" is evidently a word beloved by both high school poets and Death Row inmates.)

And look at Lynch's nice smile. Or is that more the gleefully devilish grin of a man impervious to remorse?

You should probably withhold judgment until you find out a little more about him.

Lynch was known for a while as "The Day Stalker," and terrorized the Bay Area during the mid-80's. He was convicted of robbing and killing three old ladies, and is suspected of at least a dozen other murders as well.

One 89-year-old woman, in a typical killing, was found with her hands tied behind her back, a blanket tied around her head, and numerous broken bones as well as a brain hemorrhage.

(When he talks about the "common interests" you might have, he omits beating little old ladies to death. Musta been an oversight.)

One quintessentially sociopathic characteristic is that they always assume they can fool you. This is not only true of sociopaths on the outside, but even of Death Row inmates who have been convicted of the most monstrous of crimes. A sociopath never stops being a sociopath, however, and the shame of it is that even after having been exposed for what they are they can almost always find more gullible people to con.