Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Did Financial Woes made a Mass Murderer of Karthik Rajaram?

I can't but help see red when I see headlines like this: "Man Kills Family and Self over Market."

Then, to make matters worse, we get to read how the man struggled over time and finally, after three weeks of planning, decided to commit suicide and murder all of his family members as well. Why don't we see this headline instead?

"Innocent Children and Women Brutally Murdered by the Father and Husband who was Supposed to Love and Protect them."

Then, why don't we read about each one of these wonderful people - the 19-year-old son, Krishna, who was on full scholarship at the University of California and the other two sons, Ganesha, 12, and Arjuna, 7, who were top students in their schools as well. And what of the lovely wife, Subashi and her mother, Indra, the fine women who raised these three wonderful boys? Why don't we only focus on them and stop analyzing the coldblooded killer who took their lives?

I know people want to understand how a man could do such a thing. The fact the man once made big money and then lost his job makes people think that he must have had a breakdown. What is ignored are all the signs along the way that he had other issues as well. What is dangerous about this kind of man is that his psychopathy may be unrecognized until it is too late. He may be smart and controlling and successful but when he starts losing the game, losing his status and power and control, he suddenly doesn't want to play the game of life anymore. And if he doesn't want to play the game anymore, he is going to smash the game up and all the other players aren't going to get to play anymore either.

Karthik Rajaram was just this sort of man. Even if he had financial troubles, his family was doing well. His eldest son didn't even need his money as he already had his college education fully funded. But that didn't matter to Mr. Rajaram. If he can't be happy, no one can be happy. If he has failed, everyone is going to fail. He is a narcissistic, self-centered man and his relatives were simply possessions to him. He killed them because they had no rights and he had no empathy for them. He could dispose of them if he wanted and he did.

Maybe if we start calling this murderous psychopath the evil man that he is a mass murderer - maybe other psychopaths wouldn't follow suit and off their families. After all, it isn't nice to think you will be called nasty names in the newspaper. If you are going to kill yourself and your family, you want to leave your poor excuse of a suicide note and get sympathy at the end for being a poor suffering soul.

I say let's change the headlines and tell it the way it really is.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown