http://lastrhodesian.com/data/documents/rtf88.txt
Odd that it's a text document.
I'd point out that a relative who had a psychotic break planned out what he'd do--he'd been hearing voices for a while, but finally decided that they needed to be obeyed. He had everything prepared for what he'd do, with one exception: He relied on God to provide the weapon, as the voices in his mind said He'd do at the last minute, because otherwise it might be found. Otherwise, he'd planned things. The voices told him how to prepare. He followed his voices. His break didn't happen just before he beat up his mother; the break had happened early that day, the day before that, or possibly earlier.
He was disappointed that the ray gun the voices said God would cause to appear under the seat of his truck was not under the seat of his truck, so he couldn't kill the male relatives in his family. The arson and beatings of other family members, however, went according to plan.
My point isn't that Roof is or isn't mentally ill; that's a matter of great indifference to me today. My point is that the criminally insane can be quite rational in many or even most ways, no matter what Hollywood and popular stereotypes may say. They can easily be "cold and calculating," so that is irrelevant to the conclusion that he wasn't insane. The usual criminal insanity defense, IIRC, has to do with whether one can distinguish right from wrong, not with whether one is incoherent and unorganized. I find that few real terrorists have my definition of "right" and "wrong," so I honestly can't figure out how to apply that. The 9/11 hijackers were convinced their actions were right; I wouldn't call them insane. Then again, I'd want them found guilty, so my thinking is quite motivated.
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