Wednesday, January 28, 2009
A witless John List
LOS ANGELES — A man shot and killed his wife and five young children before taking his own life Tuesday, apparently out of despair after the couple lost their jobs at a hospital, the police and city officials said.
Officers responding to 911 calls placed by the man, Ervin A. Lupoe, and by a television station to which Mr. Lupoe had sent a fax around 8:30 a.m., found seven bodies in a house in Wilmington, a working-class neighborhood near the Port of Los Angeles.
A police spokesman said the bodies were identified as Mr. Lupoe; his wife, Ana; their 8-year-old daughter and two sets of twins (5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys).
Mr. Lupoe had telephoned and sent a fax to KABC-TV that indicated “he was despondent over a job situation and he saw no reasonable way out,” said Lt. John Romero, a police spokesman.
The two-page, typewritten letter made clear he was going to kill his family and himself. The station quickly called 911 to report the letter and then posted it on the station Web site after the bodies were discovered.
Sorry, can't spin this one on the bad economy. Lupoe is a mass murderer, & the couple apparently were fired, not laid off. If it is possible to crack open the interior life of this family, it can almost be guaranteed that several facts will emerge: The family was insular, the husband was authoritarian, the wife subservient, the couple living well beyond their means & in deep debt, & the lifestyle (& happy family photo) was a facade for a seriously dysfunctional home. Maybe the only thing that separates this killer from monster John List is that he didn't have the evil wits to disappear & create a new identity for himself after he wasted his family. But it doesn't mean he didn't consider it before faxing the letter & blowing out his own brains.
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