Michael Vick should win this one hands down, you’d think, for his role in torturing and fighting dogs like cocks. Or maybe, you’re thinking, Barry Bonds, the recently indicted baseball slugger, steroid abuser, liar, whatever else you want call this asterisk of a man.

But the winner at Crime Rant, without argument, is Chris Benoit, who murdered his wife and son, and then took the coward’s way out and killed himself. This story drew our largest ever audience and caused literal chaos here on Crime Rant, when the wrestling crowd got wind of us calling Benoit a coward and took us to task. Our four major posts on this story drew a whopping 1,000 comments, the most of any story we’ve ever had.

I was interviewing this profiler last week, a guy with over 20 years experience of studying serial killers and other murderers, and he said something that stuck with me. We were talking about those killers with very little trauma in their backgrounds, those men who seem to kill for the sake of killing.

Maniacs.

Animals.

Whatever you want to call them.

“Some people are just evil,” he said. “There is no rhyme or reason to it.”

I agreed.

Some people just kill and there is no explanation.

We talk about “getting into the mind of the killer” and why a person kills and so on.

Hogwash.

We will never know why a person kills. Even if these nutbags tell us, can we actually trust that testimony?

That is why it is so disingenuous when some expert comes out with an excuse—and that’s what it is: an excuse!—behind a pair of murders that were just plain evil and full of rage and anger.

First it was the roids.

Then the drugs and alcohol.

Now, believe it or not, we are being told that pro wrestler Chris Benoit killed his family because he suffered brain damage from his years in the wrestling ring.

Benoit was punch drunk … and so he turned to killing.

Or so claims some doctor who studied Benoit’s brain.

 This AP article explains some of what I’m talking about:

The analysis by doctors affiliated with the Sports Legacy Institute  suggests repeated concussions could have contributed to the killings at Benoit’s suburban Atlanta home.

The wrestler’s father, Michael Benoit, told reporters Wednesday that he knows his son had concussions because his son told him so. But he also said he knows of no medical records or records kept by the wrestling league to support the diagnosis.

Steroid use also has lingered as a theory behind the killings, since anabolic steroids were found in Chris Benoit’s home and tests conducted by authorities showed Benoit had roughly 10 times the normal 
level of testosterone in his system when he died.

The institute, which researches the long-term effects of concussions, coordinated the testing using samples of Benoit’s brain tissue provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The Waltham, Mass.-based institute’s president is former pro wrestler Christopher Nowinski, who has said he had to quit the ring after a kick to the head. Nowinski still has ties with World Wrestling  Entertainment Inc., which runs the league he and Benoit were in.
 

And so there you have it: the institute is run by a former wrestler.

Where are all the boxers who kill?

What about more football player killers?

The abuse excuse. The alcohol and drug excuse.

The roid excuse.

And now the brain damage excuse.

What about just calling Benoit what he is: a guy who abused steroids and other drugs, became angry, and then turned into a coward killer who preyed on women and children and took his own life instead of facing the music.

“Michael Benoit said … that he agreed to the testing [on his son’s brain] because murder-suicide was out of character for [Chris].”

We love this quote. Killing was not something he thought his son would ever do.

Pretty smart guy.

In the biggest shocker since…

OJ was found not guilty.

Katie Couric’s ratings sank CBS News.

Nancy Grace got knocked up.

Paris Hilton read a bible.

Paris Hilton read anything period.

…tox reports out today indicate that pro wrestler Chris Benoit was juiced up more than a orange grove. His wife Nancy and their son Daniel were also drugged before they were murdered.

Easier to smother a little boy when he doesn’t squirm. Kids can be so active when they are fighting for air.

Superhero, huh?

In response to our piece about the Chris Benoit tragedy, “Do WWE, Vince McMahon & Chris Benoit Support Domestic Violence?,” we received more comments than we normally do for a post. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 260 comments were posted.

With this sort of response, as you might imagine, a variety of opinions emerged.

What we noticed mostly is that people are still fighting within themselves to comprehend what happened. Those diehard wrestling fans are trying to accept that one of their own had done such an evil thing: killed a child and a woman.

Here’s a great exchange, one of which gives us a little bit of insight into the culture we live in today:

Kristina Says:

“…I had talked to my sister and asked her if I should tell her 7 yr old son exactly how Benoit and his family died, and she told me not to tell him. I guess that is her right as his mother. The bottom line for me … I respected Chris Benoit’s wrestling career. And if the police had gotten to the house before he had the chance to kill himself, and if he was sitting in a prison cell right now awaiting trial. I wouldn’t be one of the people outside holding the signs saying “free chris”, but I wouldn’t be holding a torch either. It’s a show of respect, it’s not my place to judge. I don’t agree with what he did by any means, but anyway that it’s.”

Mike Schuler shot back:

“It’s a show of respect, but why? Why would you want to show respect to somebody who murdered a 7 year old child with his bare hands? Pardon me, but I think that ‘showing respect’ to somebody who strangled a 7 year old kid with his bare hands is the same thing as condoning the murder. What exactly does it take, for somebody to lose your respect? I’d sure like to know.

Kristina couldn’t let it go. She immediately responded, making an opening point we at Crime Rant want to keep reiterating:

“This is a site for opinions right? Well I don’t know you and you don’t know me. Maybe I worded that wrong, it made sense in my head. But it doesn’t matter. I never met Chris Benoit, so my only impression of him is what I show in the ring and in ‘Hard Knocks’ and that is what I respect… “

How can one understand such a cowardly act? Benoit was a drug-abuser a wife beater and child abuser. Thousands looked up to him. When our heroes are knocked off their pedestals, especially under such dark and chilling circumstances, how do we cope with having once looked up to such a person?

Suddenly, we question our own moral compass? We begin to ask ourselves if out judgment is out of whack?

In our daily lives of work, Gregg and I talk to people in this situation all the time. We sit and listen to stories from people who were duped someone in their lives they thought was a friend but turned out to be a serial killer; tricked by the mother who, on the side, had boyfriends she killed for sport; fooled by the neighbor who seemed so nice on Saturdays while cutting his lawn, but went out at night and killed prostitutes.

We’re all fooled by people in our lives everyday.

Good people, for the most part, give their fellows the benefit of the doubt. We accept people into our hearts and trust them on face value. To be burned by these same people is to be human.

Maybe the argument should be focused on why we put so much emphasis on sports stars and Hollywood actors? Why do we choose popular culture over what is good for us? Why does ET and INSIDE EDITION bring in such massive ratings every night? Why do the tabloids sell millions?

Maybe we need to forget about Chris Benoit, bury his sick and twisted deeds, and focus on how to change our habits of supporting these people.

Face it, wrestling fans, Benoit fooled all of you. Now just admit it and move on.