and if the comments about his back surgery and pain are valid, interesting that he shot the CEO in the back. Was it the same relative location as for his pins?

As a person who suffered from serious chronic pain for over a decade, and who has much milder chronic pain now. I can say that chronic pain patients have a great deal of frustration and suffering in their lives but it is highly highly unusual to become a murderer because of it. It does indeed seem clear that something drove Mangione off the deep end (assuming of course that he’s the murderer).

Please see my latest post and especially the part on Raskolnikov.

“Those looking into the 26-year-old murder suspect have now claimed this serious back injury led to a worrying spiral in the last 12 months. Mangione was reportedly suffering from spondylolisthesis – an issue with the vertebra – and was given four screws placed deep into his spine to help with the pain. Former classmates of Mangione have appeared to tell reporters that the surgery went wrong and that this could have driven the Maryland man to the brink.”

“The botched surgery is currently one of the leading theories. Mangione is said to have moved to Japan shortly after the surfing accident and lived an almost silent life in seclusion away from family and friends. One source, quoting the former classmates, said they felt the wealthy former valedictorian turned “absolutely crazy” after the operation. They believe that following the ordeal, “everything changed” in his life, leading to him becoming a murder suspect.The theory is further supported by looking at Mangione’s GoodReads history which shows multiple books on dealing with back pain.”

“Founder of Surfbreak in Honolulu, RJ Martin, has spoken out since Mangione was named and remembered some conversations he had with the suspect.
He said, according to the New York Times: “His spine was kind of misaligned. He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes he’d be doing well and other times not.”

“Martin, who also shared a room with the suspected masked murderer, says he had even commented on how his back stopped him from having sex. “He knew that dating and being physically intimate with his back condition wasn’t possible,” he said.”

As to my imagination being real to me, assuming Dr. Deco is referring to the speculation about psychedelics, that came from elsewhere on the internet. Real? Who knows. I’m just glad that this murdering psycho is a left wing nut rather than one of ours, but qualified with the hope that his evil action doesn’t inspire others.

And finally, apropos the comment that anyone who murders is “insane,” NO, NO, a THOUSAND TIMES NO!

My comment was simplistic, so I don’t really disagree with you. What I was driving at was “moral evil.” Insanity and evil are not mutually exclusive, but rather, closely linked. I certainly didn’t mean that the accused killer wasn’t evil as well as insane (despite his engineering degrees).