The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine Read Free Book Online Page B

second time, as he was coming back up the stairs. With no way out, she ran into the bedroom again. Page followed. He stripped her of her blouse and panties, and raped her on the bed. He raped her vaginally, then he raped her anally. Blood marks down the wall indicate that her head, bleeding from the wound she had received on the stairs, was banging up against the wall in what must have been a truly horrendous ordeal for her.
    In his confession tape, Page revealed that Peyton’s terrible screams ultimately drove him to kill her. 22 He pulled her to the edge of the bed into a sitting position, took the kitchen knife, and cut her throat. Blood gushed from the wound—but she still screamed, desperately fighting for her life. Bravely she struggled against a man more than twice her size. She grabbed the knife, but it severed the webbing between her thumb and forefinger. Page tried to silence her again—this time by plunging the knife twice into her chest.
    She still would not give up. Standing up valiantly against her assailant, she suffered two more knife wounds. One ran deep, with the blade plunging eight inches into her chest, cutting major blood vessels around her heart. Peyton staggered forward two or three steps, and then collapsed. The coroner testified that it likely took another minute before her wretched ordeal was over and she died in a pool of her own blood. Page returned to Stout Street just in time to catch his 1:30 p.m. bus.
    The mother of Peyton Tuthill would later say that her daughter was not killed, but that she was “butchered”—like an animal. Should we really excuse Page after he slaughtered this wonderful, charitablewoman who was only just beginning her life? She had given unceasingly to underprivileged minority children—and, paradoxically, it was an underprivileged minority child who as an adult paid her back with this bestial treatment. Her life was snuffed out in hideous fashion by a vicious thug. Imagine Peyton as your best friend, your girlfriend, your sister, or your daughter. Can you imagine the pain, fear, and humiliation she must have suffered? If a defendant ever deserved what is a justifiable legal punishment under the law, then surely Page deserves it. Even that punishment would be far more humane than what Peyton was forced to undergo.
    Let’s take another example. I’ll call himFred Haltoil. Fred was brought up in an abusive household and, according to his sister, was thrashed by a bad-tempered father who had little if any understanding of his son. His home life was traumatic, with four of his siblings who didn’t survive beyond childhood. The antagonism between father and son was long-standing and bitter. His family moved repeatedly. Like many offenders he failed in school—having been expelled from one—and left education at the age of sixteen without a diploma. He joined the military, where he proved to be a fearless soldier who fought courageously for his country during wartime. Fred took up one of the most dangerous positions—as a message runner—and was gassed in the process. Hospitalized, he was blind for a month and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder for his near-death experience. 23 Perhaps not surprisingly, like many war veterans his emotional compassion for others was blunted as a result of his traumatic war experiences.
    Demobilized, Fred was unemployed and slept part of the time in shelters for the homeless, moving around from place to place. 24 Lacking education and useful life skills, he had no true sense of direction or ambition. His social dysfunction was such that he was never able to develop an intimate physical relationship with another person. His repeated attempts to normalize his life by unrealistic applications for art school and architecture were inevitably unsuccessful, given his lack of training and true talent. He was on a downward spiral. After serving a five-year prison term, 25 he, like Page, went on to become a killer after his release.
    Given