Despite Leopold and Loeb’s adherence to their credo promulgated, as they believed, by Nietzsche and their ability to murder Franks with the utmost of ease, their ultimate convictions and life imprisonments blew out the biggest hole in their belief that they were supermen, that they were far superior in intellect and physical prowess to their fellow lowly mortal travelers.
11
Clements High School
Elkins Drive
Sugar Land, Texas
Bart Whitaker never had a problem attracting the fairer sex. He was considered pleasantly handsome, attractive, but not threatening. He could be described as having a gentle face, though something was a bit askew. Bart’s right eyelashes were discolored white, due to a genetic condition known as poliosis, which is a decrease in the melanin in hair. As a result, he resembled a reverse negative of Alex, Malcolm McDowell’s character in A Clockwork Orange, a vicious tale about the effects of entertainment and society on a young ringleader of a gang of slightly dimmer side-kicks. In the film, Alex has heavy black mascara on his right eyelashes. The unique feature made Bart’s somewhat decent looks stand out even more.
One of the young ladies who caught Bart’s white-lashed eye was his journalism classmate Lynne Sorsby. The pleasantly pretty brunette, with shoulder-length hair, found Bart to be an intriguing, if somewhat quiet, boy. Of course, she was a whole year older than Bart, so he would have to prove himself worthy of her attention. Actually, Lynne was a very giving, sweet girl who readily made friends. She never held her family’s status as owners of an extremely successful construction equipment rental company over others. She was as sweet, likable, and normal a girl as any young man could want, and any family would readily welcome her into their open arms.
Lynne and Bart developed a strong friendship during their time together in journalism class. They enjoyed learning, studying together, and simply talking to one another. Their courtship lasted nearly a full year before they became an official couple. Bart truly believed that Lynne was “the girl,” and he made every effort in the book not only to woo her, but to keep her happy and content while they were together.
Their relationship flourished over time, and Bart eventually began to open up to Lynne more and more. He felt as if he could trust her with his most intimate thoughts and well-preserved secrets. He knew he could trust her with his life, and that she would never judge him harshly for any flaws he may have buried deep within. He decided to hit her with a doozy.
“I’m adopted,” he whispered to her one afternoon, when just the two of them were together.
“What?” replied Lynne, taken aback.
“I’m adopted,” Bart reiterated.
“You’re not adopted,” Lynne laughed and punched Bart in the shoulder.
“No, it’s true. I’m adopted.” Bart insisted.
Lynne hesitated. “Seriously?”
“I’m dead serious.” Bart remained stone-faced. “I have no idea who my biological parents are. Kent and Tricia adopted me when I was a tiny baby.”
Lynne had no idea what to say. She simply looked quietly at Bart, with a touch of sympathy infiltrating her lovely face. Despite hearing the words coming out of his mouth, she knew what he was saying was not true. He had a way of speaking rather “cryptically, so only he and one other person would catch the gist of the conversation.” Maybe, she thought, that’s what he was doing when he claimed to be adopted. Yet, she never called him on it. She merely wrote it off as one of Bart’s eccentricities, and that he was simply being a goof. Besides, she knew Bart loved his family dearly and would do anything for them. Though they did not speak about their families very often when together, Lynne always noted how Bart seemed very close to his. He told her he worried about his little brother, Kevin, who always seemed to struggle in school. Bart was worried Kevin would not graduate and make it to college and become successful. He was “very protective of Kevin.” Lynne also believed that Bart got along just fine with his parents and never noticed any “ill will” expressed toward them. He definitely “never expressed any violent or hateful comments about anybody in his family to me,” Lynne emphasized.
Bart and Lynne spent most of their time basking in each other’s glow. She did notice a few other not-quite-normal character traits about Bart, which she thought nothing of at the time. The main one being that she believed Bart was a good manipulator. Lynne described Bart as someone who can “convince people to think the way he wants to, or believe the things he wants them to” believe.
Lynne also made note of the type of people he befriended. It was “usually people with low self-esteem” or “people who didn’t think much of themselves.” She never considered herself to fall within that category.
12
July 1997
Clements High School
Sugar Land, Texas
Bart Whitaker spent his summer before his senior year at Clements High School, literally inside Clements High School. Regrettably, it was not under the best of conditions.
Bart and two of his friends decided they were up for a Nietzschean adventure. The three teenagers felt bored and wanted to cause some mayhem. Led by Bart, they agreed they would break into Clements High School for a little vandalism and theft.
Bart and his friends gathered together at Bart’s house to discuss the reconnoitering of the campus. Once they agreed that they should enter the building through a skylight in the roof, they took off for the school, beginning their “mission impossible.” The three teenagers scouted the location two times before they decided to proceed forward with their criminal activity.
When they finally went through with the burglary, one of the friends had dropped out. Bart and the one remaining friend dressed all in black, with gloves and masks—the works. They made their way to the campus, scaled the side of the building, crawled through the skylight, and entered inside the school.
Bart and his friend scampered around inside the building. Bart’s friend seemed nervous, while Bart remained a beacon of calm. As they worked their way around the school’s interior, they found the mother lode—a classroom full of audio-visual equipment. VCRs, television sets, laser disc players, and computers were at their disposal. Bart honed in on two computers, which he and his friend packed up and readied for transport. As the two boys rolled the computers toward the exit, Bart heard a large door slam closed. Bart looked at his buddy and motioned that they take off without their bounty.
Later that same night, Bart convinced his two friends to go to the school to complete the burglary. Like good foot soldiers, they did as they were told. When they met up with Bart to show him their take, he was pleased.
But Bart wanted more.
The three boys continued their illegal escapades, and they decided to target Clements High School once again. They hit the school a second time about a week later. They brazenly entered on a rope through an open window. This time, they stole two televisions, a VCR, and a laser disc player. They stowed the hot items in the bed of one of the friends’ truck, and drove back to the other friend’s house.
The three boys had broken into a school three times, had burgled the place twice, and had not smelled a whiff of trouble for their efforts. They were excited by their rewards, and were starting to feel invincible.
Bart, however, already seemed bored. Yes, he found breaking and entering to be thrilling at first, just as it felt good to steal the items and get away with it. But something was missing. It just did not seem dangerous enough. Whatever the reason was for his committing the thefts, there was something deeper rooted in Bart that propelled him toward his next criminal endeavor.
The game plan remained the same; it was the location that changed. Bart wanted to make it a little dicier this time. He decided they would burglarize Lakeview Elementary School, where his mother taught school, and was much beloved by student and staff alike.
Near the end of July, at approximately 1:00 A.M., the three boys made the trip to the school. For whatever reason, either cockiness or boredom, th
ey did not plan things out as they had at Clements High School. They simply drove up to the school, located an unlocked window, and crawled inside.
Bart played point man, keeping an eye out for police, while his two pals scoped out the goodies there for the taking. The other two boys made their way through the school with their tiny X-Files-like pen-lights, located an ideal computer and printer, and hauled them out to Bart’s navy blue Ford Explorer. The boys hopped into Bart’s vehicle and drove off to one friend’s house, where they hid the stolen items.
But they were not done for the night.
They continued their criminal crawl at the Highlands Elementary School, located less than two miles from Bart’s home in Sugar Land. Again they made no preparations, but rather simply entered the school’s premises through an open janitor’s gate and scaled a plastic pipe to clamber over the school wall. Once inside the perimeter, they resumed their usual roles. Bart played lookout, while the other two boys found a way into the building by prying open a roof hatch. Once inside, the two wormed their way throughout the school, looking for more loot. When Bart was certain that his friends were safely inside, he followed. The three boys joined up and looked around for the front office. Once again, one of the friends scaled yet another gate to get into the office. Once inside, he spotted two computers, which he took. Bart then ran outside and back to his Explorer and paged the two other boys when all seemed clear. The two friends on the inside hauled the computers out of the building, placed them in the back of Bart’s SUV, and they sped out of the area.
The boys were not done yet. A few days later, they decided to hit another school. It was Commonwealth Elementary, located on Commonwealth Boulevard, less than six miles from Bart’s home. For this excursion, one of the boys climbed on top of the roof of the school, but he could not find a way inside. He jumped back down and told the other guys about the situation. They chose to head straight for the front door of the school and break open a padlock with a crowbar to gain entrance.
This time, the boys stole three computers and took off.
The following day, Bart took the stolen goods to a nearby Public Storage, where they had rented a storage unit on July 15.
When asked why he participated in so much criminal activity, Bart would simply answer, “I did this for adventure.”
Needless to say, several people were not happy about his adventures. The first was the staff at Clements High School. When Bart was discovered to have participated in two burglaries at their school, they took swift and immediate action by expelling him.
The other people who were not happy were, of course, his parents. Bart’s mother, Tricia, seemed to take her oldest son’s actions very hard, especially since Bart had committed one of his thefts at her place of employment. Tricia seemed devastated by her son’s inability to make the right choice; she practically went into hiding. Afraid that she would go out into public and be ridiculed by her friends, Tricia uprooted many of her normal routines. She stopped shopping at her usual grocery store, because she did not want to face her friends and be supremely embarrassed. She even convinced the family to switch churches so as to avoid any more uncomfortable situations.
After Bart’s arrest, his parents sought out help in the form of a psychologist, Dr. Brendan O’Rourke, a licensed doctor since 1982 after she had received her master’s degree from the University of Houston graduate school. O’Rourke had worked as a high-school counselor after college, and before beginning her work as a psychologist. She was uniquely equipped to deal with the adolescent mind, and the trials and tribulations experienced by teenagers.
Kent and Tricia Whitaker had been referred to Dr. O’Rourke through a mutual friend. They hoped the doctor would be able to conduct sessions with Bart, determine what his problem was, and assess that he would be well enough to return back to Clements High School. They were looking for a letter of reinstatement for their son from Dr. O’Rourke so he could complete his senior year of high school at Clements.
Unfortunately for the Whitakers, Bart’s meeting with Dr. O’Rourke did not turn out as they had hoped. The doctor spoke with Bart about his bad behavior and how he felt about what he had done. The doctor also conducted a Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory test on Bart to help her come up with an assessment of the young man. The test is “ideal for use with individuals being evaluated for emotional, behavioral, or interpersonal difficulties.”
After meeting with Bart ten times, Dr. O’Rourke’s conclusions were definitive and damning simultaneously. My impression, Dr. O’Rourke laid out clearly, is the court system will impose adequate consequences to punish Bart and to bring about a self correction. In other words, she did not recommend that Bart return to school, but rather doing a little time in jail would do him the most good.
Needless to say, the Whitakers were not happy with the initial diagnosis.
O’Rourke further detailed her position on Bart’s mental disposition. She described Bart as an egocentric man who has an inflated sense of self-importance, combined with an intense mistrust of others. She added, He has a disputatious demeanor that invariably invokes exasperation and animosity in friends, relatives and co-workers. O’Rourke admitted that many of these traits are fairly common among teenagers, but Bart seemed to transcend most of the Breakfast Club clichés of teenagerdom.
His guiding principle is that of outwitting others, O’Rourke’s test results continued, exerting power over them before they can exploit him. Apparently, many of Bart’s interactions with his peers, his teachers, and his own family were a sort of competition, a test of wills to see if Bart would come out on top and not be bested by those around him.
Another portion of the test revealed that Bart may embellish trivial achievements despite the contradictions of others and added that he was easily provoked. Even more damning, he may express sudden and unanticipated brutality. So, to add to his general mistrust of others, was his need to best his friends and foes in everything, combined with a volatile personality capable of destructive behavior. But that was not the end of it.
One final result about Bart from Dr. O’Rourke’s test was that he possessed a narcissistic personality trait, which is a severe mental personality trait that is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.
One of the more telling traits of a narcissistic personality is that the people who have it tend to view those around them as tools to accomplish their goals. Others are merely there for the true narcissist as a means to an end, as a way of achieving whatever goals he has in mind that he is unable to accomplish on his own. Dr. O’Rourke explained that narcissism is a common trait among most teenagers; however, to have the disorder is different. She further explained that Bart was not conclusively diagnosed as having the disorder, but he did possess several of the traits that made up the disorder. As a result, she believed that many of Bart’s scores, which had flown off the charts, were abnormal. She reasoned since Bart had come from an allegedly strong, close family with strong values, and since Bart had no prior criminal history, that the results must be skewed for some unknown reason.
Indeed, instead of diagnosing Bart with narcissistic personality disorder, as was suggested by the Millon Test results, Dr. O’Rourke concluded that Bart had adjustment disorder, a far less intense condition.
According to the Mayo Clinic, adjustment disorder is a type of stress-related mental illness. You may feel anxious or depressed, or even have thoughts of suicide. You may not be able to go about some of your daily routines, such as work or seeing friends. Or you may make reckless decisions. In essence, you have a hard time adjusting to change in your life, and it has serious consequences.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, Dr. O’Rourke opted to pen a recommendation letter for Bart to return back to high school. It would prove to be fruitless, however, as the administration of Clements High School rejected Bart’s appeal and he was not readmitted. Instead, he transferred to Fort Bend Baptist Academy, a private school, f
or his senior year.
13
Tuesday, December 16, 2003, 10:00 A.M.
Sugar Creek Baptist Church
Southwest Freeway
Sugar Land, Texas
Nearly a thousand people showed up at the cavernous Sugar Creek Baptist Church, just two miles from the Whitaker home. Sadly, it was not for a joyous occasion, such as the marriage of one of its parishioners or a baptism of a newborn. Instead, it was to mourn the deaths of two of Sugar Land’s most beloved members, Tricia and Kevin Whitaker.
Family members, friends of the family, and complete strangers intermingled inside the church, most in tears. When Kent and Bart Whitaker entered, in slings as a result of their gunshots, some in attendance gasped as they caught sight of both men for the first time after the murders. Others cried upon their entrance, shocked to see them in their injured states. Kent and Bart took their seats in the front pews and attempted to listen to their friends sing the praises of Tricia and Kevin.
Family friend and church pastor Matt Barnhill likened the murders to an earthquake. “In some communities in California, they have earthquakes. This is Sugar Land’s earthquake. Our lives are shaken and our sense of safety and well-being is shattered.” The eulogy was especially difficult for the confident and calm pastor, as he was so close to the Whitakers.
John Flores, one of Kevin’s best friends, spoke to the assembled masses about his buddy and Tricia. “They signified Christ in all that they did and all that they were.”
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