I only met the guy after he was released from prison. His violent act was murder, but he plead guilty to manslaughter so he got a shorter sentence and possibility of parole.

Anyway, before the incident, he was part of the friends group that I had more recently joined. So when he got out, he started hanging with us. From the very first time I met him, his behavior concerned me. I wrote it off thinking I was judging him unfairly or irrationally since I knew he’d murdered someone. It was like he was only pretending to be friendly, just enough to fool the people who knew him, but it was a thin veneer covering over unhinged emotions.

Problem was, initially the off putting behavior was all inconspicuous and easy enough to rationalize, so I held back saying anything to my other friends. They didn’t seem to notice, or if they did, they weren’t saying anything. So, it felt isolating.

In the end, that isolation was the opportunity this guy used to target me. Turns out his shtick (and psychopathic gift) was to manufacture drama between people and pit them against each other. He started with me, or at least it seems like he started with me – probably because I seemed like an easy target.

The first incident I remember is when someone’s favorite lighter went missing, we tore the house apart looking for it, and the murderer miraculously found it in my bedroom. I’d never even left the room until we started searching, so fortunately I was given the benefit of the doubt. But stupid shit like that kept happening, but only when he was around.

Where he really messed up is that he started pulling this same shit on others, and eventually enough of us did the math.