“A man serving six consecutive life sentences for rapes in Gainesville, Fla., and the murder of a 12-year-old Bradford County girl is running a personal ad on the Internet to try and find true love. Michael Knickerbocker, 33, pleaded no contest last week to the 1989 rape and murder of Megan Renaud, whose body was found in a wooded area not far from where she lived. He was already serving five life sentences for sexual assault. Now, more than 15 years after Renaud’s murder, Knickerbocker is using a Web site to make amends for his ‘bad choices’ and solicit a ’special person who can enjoy the small things in life, forgive the past and enjoy today as a new day…’ [A state attorney] was not aware if the Renauds were told of Knickerbocker’s ad, but he told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., ‘that they would be horribly offended.’ The station spoke with one member of the Renaud family who did not mince words when it came to Knickerbocker. ‘Hopefully, he dies a painful death in prison somewhere,’ said Jon Renaud, Megan’s brother.” —Newsnet5.com (US)

(Thanks to alanr for the link.)

Everyone who responds to a personal ad, whether it be online or off, says to himself: “Gosh, I hope this person is nice. I hope s/he’s not some kind of serial killer or sociopathic freak or something.” So it seems ironic when actual serial killers and sociopathic freaks post lovelorn ads seeking companionship. Here’s Mr Kickerbocker’s actual personal. He’s a good-looking guy who claims he doesn’t want to “play games.” Hopefully this means his stated age is a mistake, since at the top of the page he claims to be 33 and at the bottom of the page he gives his birth date as 1965. Maybe the personal has been online since 1998 and it just hasn’t been updated. At any rate, you can’t escape a feeling of irony about a guy who admits to murdering a twelve-year-old and yet is “looking for a special person who can enjoy the small things in life.” Uh, didn’t he kill a small thing?

The astonishing thing, though, is not that killers post such classifieds. It happens all the time. Killers are people too, and they have all the natural desires that other people have. Most killers swear by the rationalizations they’ve invented for their own crimes, and so they don’t usually think of themselves as freaks. They’re really sincere when they want a girl who doesn’t “play games” — after all, his twelve-year-old victim probably still played games and look what Mr Knickerbocker did to her.

No, the astonishing thing is not that killers seek love and companionship. The astonishing thing is that there are people who respond and reciprocate. Most people worry that their blind date is a serial killer, and yet there are some people who basically choose serial killers for their blind dates. What are those people thinking? What are they, the ones who open their hearts to murderers, looking for in a relationship?

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