Wesleyan Shooter Fits Archetype: Anti-Semitic, Misogynistic, Angry

The New York Times dropped a comprehensive profile on Wesleyan shooter Stephen P. Morgan this morning. And yes: he's exactly who you think he is.

Some of the finer points:

  • Grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a nicer suburb of Boston. Graduated from a St. John's Preparatory School, a Roman Catholic school for boys.
  • His father, James, is a venture capitalist. He described Morgan as "being a loner, quiet, not having many friends."
  • Did an "unblemished" four-year stint in the Navy.
  • Was a civilian again in 2003. Took a bunch of relatively blue-collar jobs upon returning, among them, being "a technician at a garage door company" in Colorado Springs. Which sounds like something out of a Springsteen song written on a bad acid trip.
  • On that note: did two years at stoner safe-haven University of Colorado, Boulder, before returning back to Boston to live with his parents.
  • Left his parents house shortly before midnight on Tuesday. They thought he was moving to Rhode Island to start "life anew." They managed to miss, or think nothing of, or say nothing about the full box of ammunition or the empty handgun holster he left behind.
  • In the journal: ""I think it okay to kill Jews, and go on a killing spree at this school." And then: ""Kill Johanna. She must die." There was also something in the warrant regarding other language in the journal detailing Morgan's jealousy over the "beautiful and smart people at Wesleyan" (the NYT's words, not Morgan's, emphasis mine) as well.
  • And for some reason, the most disconcerting detail to me: they had him staying in the guest bedroom.

Tally it up: Roman Catholic in Boston, in an all-male prep school. Navy. Never one of the Cool Kids, never really even had friends. Discriminatory against minorities, other religions, women. Sounds familiar? Yeah: every "enraged" shooter we've ever seen and/or heard recently - or hell, almost always - matches up practically flush with this guy's profile. Michael McLendon. Jiverly Voong. Et al. It's before 11AM in America and we still don't know where the next dangerous Creepy Fucker is. But isn't somebody, one of these days, going to line up these indicators and make it a public health issue? Doubtful. But there's gotta be something short of Minority Report that makes this kind of thing a less routine headline. It's getting bad.