Idaho State Slaying Suspect: Leopold and Loeb Wannabe, Rejected Incel, or Something Else?

What drove the Idaho State slaying suspect, 28-year-old PHD student Bryan Christopher Kohberger, to do what he did? (Yes, please insert the typical disclaimer that charges are an allegation and not a conviction, and that everyone in America is entitled to the presumption that you are innocent until proven guilty).

We don’t know. And according to the law enforcement press conference held yesterday, we won’t know for some time, if we learn at all, thanks to an unusual aspect of Idaho criminal law.

But as humans, we always want a why. Maybe we even need one. Especially to explain the unfathomable. And this killing has really struck a chord in the nation. Whether it's the seeming innocence of the victims, who had the whole world in front of them, the fact that it occurred at the time of other college shootings, or the who done it mystery. 

Is he someone who thinks he’s smart enough to get away with the perfect crime, and like Leopold and Loeb set out to prove his belief of supremacy?

Or,

Was he rejected by one or more of the female students he is charged with killing, or some other female, and chose these students to lash out in anger over being “forced” into celibacy like the guy who plowed his van into a crowd of people in Toronto, Canada, or the guy who shot up a yoga studio filled with young women in Tallahassee, FL?

Or,

Was there something in him that just snapped…

Or,

(Insert any other possible reasons here…)

Here’s what I think, based upon my 30 plus years of civil plaintiff and criminal defense investigations, where I saw day in and day out, how people can and do inflict the worst kind of actions on others. And my 10 plus years of teaching personal safety and self-defense, where informed by what I’ve seen through my work, I help people to avoid becoming a victim of violence.

Leopold and Loeb

Who were Leopold and Loeb? And why do they come to mind after learning about the suspected killer being a PHD criminology and criminal science student?

In 1924, two wealthy University of Chicago students, Nathan Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb, were charged with kidnapping and killing a 14-year old boy. Both men had been raised with every privilege in life, and were drawn to the idea that they were smarter than everyone else, and the concept of proving just how smart they were by committing the perfect crime.

The two of them planned the crime for several months, and began committing simple crimes, that progressed in risk and in danger as they reinforced this belief that their superior intellect meant they could operate outside of the laws of society. And get away with it.

In the end, they both confessed to the killing, with each one blaming the other as the primary actor in the brutal slaying. They both pleaded guilty to the killing, but were spared the death penalty, thanks to the legal skills and strategy used by Clarence Darrow.

So Why Does This Make Some Sense for the Idaho State Suspect?

Although law enforcement has been mum on the details of their investigation, the media has interviewed several fellow criminal justice students of the Idaho State killing suspect. And a few things stand out.

Kohberger seemed to have a very strong desire to show his fellow students, and his professors, just how smart he was. According to his classmates, when he contributed to discussions, he often pushed the most detailed and complex approaches to the subject. Even when a simple approach would work fine.

His classmates noted that he did so to try to show everyone how much smarter he was than anyone else.

In addition, Kohberger focused his studies on the psychological reasons why people commit crimes, and spent time, as part of a school project, interviewing people willing to share their reasons for why they committed crimes, and why they got caught. His focus seems to be less on the criminal justice system itself, and more on the people who commit the crimes.

And finally, for someone wanting to try and get away with committing the perfect crime, studying criminal justice and criminology, so that you can have insights into how crimes are solved, and what matters during the search for a suspect, his advanced study makes a lot of sense.

Though it appears, the suspect was tripped up by DNA. Not any sample he ever gave, but through an ancestry type search of a family member. It appears the DNA found at the scene that did not belong to the victims or others who lived at the house, was run in a variety of ancestry type DNA databases, and he was connected through those searches.

And then, after doing that, they matched his car to images taken in the neighborhood around the time of the killings.

The Rise of the Incels

Sometime around 2014-2018, a new term started seeping into our lexicon. Incel. Men who blame women for their inability to form relationships and have sex.

Incel is a self-described term used by men who believe that they are involuntarily celibate. And it’s connected to a sense of both entitlement, and grievance.

There have been multiple men, who have been charged with carrying out, or plotting to carry out murders of women to punish them for being celibate.

Yep. It’s everyone else’s fault. So get back at them all through violence.

But, although the possibility that the Idaho State killings were committed by an incel was pushed by “experts”, it doesn’t feel right to me in this instance. And here’s why:

Although Kohberger is socially akward, and according to other students said inappropriate remarks about the LGBT community, that isolated him from some of his classmates, the killings seems to me to not be driven by anger.

Incel killings, such as the shooting up of the yoga studio in Florida, the van driver in Toronto, Canada, seem to me to be wider in scope, whereas the Idaho State Killings have felt targeted for a different reason.

Yes, these killings are incredibly brutal. But, the house showed no signs of forced entry, and some of the roommates were spared. This to me indicates not a rage based killing, but a thought out, and targeted killing.

It’s not to say that he wasn’t turned down by one of the women leading to a grievance. But so far we’ve not heard of anything to imply they knew each other, or that he’d been rejected by one.

To me. These killings feel more like a Leopold and Loeb wannabe. A master of the universe, that didn’t have to play by the rules, because he was so much smarter than the rest of us.

Hopefully, we’ll get an answer, and the riddle of why will get filled in.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.