How I met the serial killer when I was a marine

[Liberty]

Something a bit different from investing, but I found it quite interesting.

 

http://www.orangecoast.com/features/2013/09/23/center-of-the-universe

 

For the horrific background on Randy Kraft:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Steven_Kraft

 

Fact checking for the story:

 

http://www.orangecoast.com/webexclusives/2013/09/24/a-factcheckers-journey-to-a-1980-afternoon

 

[JBird]

"The little voice saying, “Hey, isn’t this sorta out of bounds?” was no match for being the center of someone’s universe"

 

Reminds me of: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/07/ten-techniques-for-building-quick-rapport-with-anyone/

[Liberty]

Absolutely. Someone on another forum cites a very apropos Cialdini excerpt:

 

Oh oh! I remember this technique from Cialdini's Influence. During the Korean war, the Chinese used the same technique on American POWs:

 

For instance, prisoners were frequently asked to make statements so mildly anti-American or pro-Communist as to seem inconsequential (“The United States is not perfect.” “In a Communist country, unemployment is not a problem.”). But once these minor requests were complied with, the men found themselves pushed to submit to related yet more substantive requests. A man who had just agreed with his Chinese interrogator that the United States is not perfect might then be asked to indicate some of the ways in which he thought this was the case. Once he had so explained himself, he might be asked to make a list of these “problems with America” and to sign his name to it. Later he might be asked to read his list in a discussion group with other prisoners. “After all, it’s what you really believe, isn’t it?” Still later he might be asked to write an essay expanding on his list and discussing these problems in greater detail.