Marvin continued his whirlwind sociopathic games. He continued his non-stop seductions. He would take all he could from his prey, suck them dry of money, favors, and dignity. He was contemptuous of all his victims. He thought them all inferior, only useful for what he could take from them. He felt entitled, superior in every way. Each manipulation provided him with a new adrenaline rush.
One afternoon he purchased a book titled, How To Cast Spells. He proudly displayed it on his coffee-table . I doubt he had ever read a complete book, so this was out of character. There were no other books in his house. I am sure of that. But How To Cast Spells was there for all of us to see. Marvin saw the curiosity on my face as I stared at the book one afternoon and volunteered, “I can make things happen to people just by thinking them.” He then told me of a teacher he had hated as a kid. Alone in bed one night, he actively wished the teacher harm. The next day the teacher’s family were all killed in an automobile accident. Marvin smiled when he told me that story. There was an evil sneer on his face as he added, “believe it. It is true.” I thought then and still believe that Marvin had begun his descent into madness.
Marvin spent hours at his office computer every day, searching gay man-boy websites. Through an international website, he found a gay male twenty years his junior, who lived in Russia. This boy spoke broken English and was poor. He didn’t own a computer but would walk to a library to access the use of one. In Russia at that time, it was illegal to engage in any homosexual activities. Although it was punishable by a mandatory prison term, Marvin convinced the boy to maintain contact, and planned to sponsor the boy and send him enough money to get a visa and come to the States to live with him. What a perfect victim. If he did not comply with Marvin’s demands, he could be left alone in a foreign land. He would have no shelter, and would barely be able to communicate. I don’t know why the plan failed. I do know that failure was a monumental gift for the Russian boy. This failed plan and others like it were discovered after the fact by criminal investigators. I shudder when I think of the expansion of Marvin’s capabilities allowed by a computer. Now he had the whole world at his fingertips. He could expand his deviant search around the globe. He could find victims anywhere.