I think there is generally some kind of environmental factor in these case. For example, those saying Bundy had a good life? He was raised as his mother's brother. He found out his sister, who he lived with, was actually his mother. And his father/grandfather?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy
Sometimes there is an organic factor as well. Lots of serial killers for example, have been found to have suffered a head injury of some sort.
But to me, there is something much more. Because millions of people suffer head injuries and traumatic childhoods. And the vast majority do not murder. And what is it? Some call it evil, some call it choice. But it makes me feel coldly toward such a person.
No, I don't get into trying to justify or explain away their behavior. If they are not slapping feces on themselves while committing murder or shortly thereafter, (semi-exaggeration alert), I'm not excusing them on the basis of bad wiring or mental illness or a horrid childhood. To me, in the end it is usually a decision - a decision to indulge the lust to harm or the decision to view another human's rights as important, at the very least, in the eyes of the law.
