A serial killer killed maniacs, fell in love and began to punish even more

Footage of the last seconds of the life of 30-year-old homeless Jordan Neely in the New York subway has been leaked online. In front of numerous witnesses, the man was strangled by one of the passengers, Daniel Penny. Everything happened in May 2023. According to eyewitnesses, Neely burst into the carriage and began threatening to kill those around him. He shouted that he was tired of poverty and hunger and was ready to serve in prison. At some point, Daniel Penny grabbed him and held him on the floor of the carriage for about four minutes. The victim later died in hospital. Now the passenger who tried to calm the homeless man faces up to 15 years in prison. He does not admit guilt, claiming that it was self-defense.

People’s crime fighters often appear in crime chronicles. How did a 53-year-old auto mechanic from Colorado become famous throughout the country by taking on a large company? How did the story of the Brazilian serial killer who hunted the mafia end? Talks about this program “Mysteries of Humanity” with Oleg Shishkin on REN TV.

The bespectacled intellectual and the “subway guard”: the story of Bernard Goetz

“V” stands for Vendetta. Voroshilov Sharpshooter. Or Vigilante. Psychologists use this term to designate “people’s avengers”: those who are ready to kill a murderer or any potential criminal. Their stories are always something on the verge of a desire to restore justice, revenge, protect oneself and unjustified cruelty.

Bernard Goetz is the owner of a small electronics company. Typical intellectual: slight build, glasses with thick lenses. It is no wonder that he was chosen as the victim by four guys from the Bronx who traded in petty thefts and street robberies.

On December 22, 1984, they approached Goetz in a half-empty subway car. And with impudent smiles they demanded to give them cash. In response, he took out of his pocket not a wallet, but a revolver. And he fired four shots. Noticing that one bullet had missed, he walked close to the survivor and pulled the trigger for the fifth time.

“On the one hand, we can say that he was defending himself, acting proactively. But on the other hand, can several shots at point-blank range be called proactive defense? He did not show a weapon, he did not threaten them – he opened fire to kill without warning shots “Perhaps he himself was looking for a similar situation. Perhaps he was driven to despair by the context that was happening around,” – explained practicing neuropsychologist Lev Malazonia.

And the context at that time was indeed extremely difficult. The crime rate in New York in those years was simply off the charts: 70 percent higher than the national average. The police could not cope with thieves and bandits, and the townspeople were even ready to hire private security guards who guarded entire neighborhoods. 10 days after the incident, Goetz came to surrender to the authorities with the words: “I was tired of living in constant anticipation of being attacked. I was backed into a corner.”

“What did the people’s fighter want to prove to this people? Was he mentally healthy? It is unknown. Driven to despair, obsessed with destructive ideas, thoughts? Of course, yes. But what is this connected with? Is he completely healthy? This is a big question,” – the expert noted.

This question had to be answered first by medical experts and then by the court. The trial of Bernard Goetz caused a huge resonance. The defendant overnight became the main character of the American tabloids, who nicknamed him the “guardian of the subway.” And therefore it is not surprising that society refused to recognize him as a bloodthirsty criminal. And in the end, the jurors also sided with the defendant.

“If we start from the justice system, then in the American system the jury plays a very important role. The jurors are chosen from ordinary citizens who could be in the place of this seller and store owner, and perhaps would have done the same,” – said lawyer of the Moscow Bar Association Olesya Khudushina.

The court sentenced the killer of four people to 250 days in prison. And those – for illegal possession of weapons. The Goetz case was a turning point in the American system of crime fighting and self-defense. People began to fight back against the robbers. And in the end, this still led to a decrease in the number of offenses.

Marvin Heemeyer: a car mechanic from Colorado single-handedly “broke” an entire corporation

America’s last hero. This is the nickname given to a 53-year-old car mechanic from the town of Granby in Colorado in his homeland. Marvin Heemeyer refused to sell his land to a concrete plant, while his neighbors were happy with the monetary compensation they received and quickly left their homes. Heemeyer considered the amount insignificant and very soon found himself, in fact, hostage to a huge enterprise.

“This future people’s avenger found himself isolated, cut off from communication services. And then, after numerous letters and complaints to the administration, the man decided to take the situation into his own hands. He converted his bulldozer in such a way that it turned into a real armored car,” – Lev Malazonia noted.

Journalists later nicknamed the revenge machine “kill-dozer” (that is, a killer bulldozer). First, the car mechanic broke through the factory fence and began destroying everything he could reach with his bucket. Then he took out a gun. But the target was not the company’s employees, but the transformer substations. Afterwards, the punisher “rolled out” the police station, the courthouse, the editorial office of the local newspaper and the mayor’s house.

In short, absolutely everyone who took the corporation’s side suffered. The total damage was about seven million dollars. The final chord of this act of retaliation was suicide.

“It turns out to be an absurd situation. A man chose death over lost profits, that is, lost money. We can admire his enterprise. But can we admire his prudence and the logic of his behavior? Unfortunately, this act caused great social approval. Many people wanted to produce something similar “at least in the soul, at least on a smaller scale. This is called sabotage of power, when people are disappointed in the actions of the official authorities, they take the situation into their own hands,” – explained the neuropsychologist.

Pedro Rodriguez Filho: Robin Hood from the world of maniacs

This is exactly what the Brazilian Pedro Rodriguez Filho did when he decided to become the Robin Hood of the world of maniacs. He was born with a skull injury: his father beat his mother when she was pregnant with him. The child was abused by his biological and then adoptive parents. Which, according to doctors, caused incredible outbreaks of aggression.

As a teenager, he even tried to kill his cousin. And after this incident, which almost became an accident, Filho no longer wanted to harm his loved ones. And he decided to unleash his anger on those who, in his opinion, deserve it. He began killing members of the largest Brazilian drug cartel.

“At some point he met a girl, fell in love with her and, let’s say, was cured. He began to look after her, after some time she became pregnant and had a child. But, as we know, drug dealers are very vindictive people. And they began to take revenge: they killed this girl and his unborn son, which aroused in our hero even greater hatred towards them,” – says Olesya Khudushina.

It’s easy to guess what happened next. Filho killed everyone who was in one way or another connected with the death of his beloved, after which he went to prison. In court, they managed to prove his involvement in 71 murders – and yet he was barely 18.

But the criminal did not stop behind bars – he destroyed his cellmates at night: rapists and serial maniacs. And yet he served his sentence, more than 40 years, and was released in 2018. After which he became a blogger and admitted that he was forever done with his, as he himself said, “mission.”

“But the phenomenon of “vigitalism” itself is when a certain person or group of people takes justice into their own hands. The problem of vigilism is that people, organizations that adhere to this position, can commit some act that is at odds with objective facts. Something seemed to a person unjust, he decided to act and accordingly pass his sentence.” – Lev Malazonia noted.

We are talking about the so-called American lynchings, when a brutal crowd kills or maims someone who, in their opinion, committed a crime. The Soviet system of “comradely court” worked much more effectively. This is a demonstration performance, the main characters of which were drunkards, hooligans and rowdies. They were publicly shamed by their colleagues, those who were considered the pride of the team, and even veterans of the Great Patriotic War.

“And, as a rule, the public was very afraid of these courts, because the contempt on the part of the elders, the influence of the older generation on the younger was great,” – said the lawyer.

Well, today psychologists are talking about a surge in online vigilism – that is, fighters for justice on the Internet. Online “Batmen” administer their judgment, punishing those they deem necessary with offensive comments, ridicule and sometimes threats. But it is precisely thanks to this phenomenon, psychologists say, that the number of offline crimes is still decreasing. And most Vigilantes remain daredevils only online.

You can learn about incredible events of history and modernity, about amazing inventions and phenomena in the program “Mysteries of Humanity” with Oleg Shishkin on REN TV.