Yeah.

I used to have a hard time reading these types of stories. Reuters gives us the gruesome details of Tyler, Texas's very own wanna-be Hannibal Lecter, Mr. Christopher Lee McCuin:



The Dallas News reports:

Deputies found Ms. Shearer's clothed body wedged between the back and front seats of Mr. McCuin's truck. A large number of blunt-force wounds were visible on her face, neck and upper body.

Flesh had been cut away from one biceps, the lieutenant said. The area around one temple was also cut away, as was an ear. There was little blood in the truck, however, and authorities believe Ms. Shearer had been dead for hours.

What disturbs be perhaps the most about this story is what his motive was:

Mr. McCuin appeared after 3 a.m. at his estranged wife's home. There, police say, he broke in and brandished a knife, threatening his wife's boyfriend. After the other man slugged him in the jaw, Mr. McCuin stabbed him in the shoulder, police say. The man is in a Tyler hospital.

Sheriff's deputies, called to the home, spotted Mr. McCuin in his truck and gave chase, but he got away.

Mr. McCuin later began calling people, including Ms. Shearer's mother and her friends, to boast of what he had done, police say.

On Sunday, Ms. Shearer's MySpace page included a description of one of those calls from a woman who identified herself as "a best friend."

"Why did this happen. All I hear is him on the other line telling me what he did," the entry said.

Lt. Wiginton said he's baffled that no one reported any of the calls to police until Saturday evening or later.

Mr. McCuin appeared Saturday morning at the neat brick home he shared with his mother near the Tyler airport and summoned her outside.

"He said, 'Come out and see what I did,' " Lt. Wiginton said....

Mr. McCuin remained jailed Sunday night on a capital murder charge, with bail set at $2 million. Investigators said he has been unemotional in questioning but has refused to say where Ms. Shearer was killed, saying only that he "blacked out" as he approached an area of south Smith County. Authorities think it's likely she died there.

Authorities continued searching in an area south of Tyler on Sunday to determine where she was slain.

"He's saying God told him to do it," Lt. Wiginton said. "He's saying he needs help. He just says that what he did a normal person basically wouldn't do."

Rarely do I feel this much of a drive to advocate the death penalty. Not only is he trying to get an insanity plea, but look at the insanity plea.

Just throw up the "religious freak" card. No one's going to doubt this one (and the way Texas will fry up a murderer like his last name was McMuffin, he's undoubtedly trying to come up with a good defense), right? Just say "G-d told me to do it" and instantly, you're the crazy guy who's hearing voices and blaming them on Celestial Entities. If G-d told you to do it, and you just fulfilled the Creator's wish, why do you 'need help'? Religious suicide bombers (because, as we know, not all are religious) relish the thought of going to the Next World -- not come up with insanity pleas.

If this guy gets off by using the new "fanatic" card, it would say something horrible about our judicial system.