Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins: Did he have any markers?
As I blogged about in an earlier post, people often talk about the Macdonald triad when it comes to serial killers, the three markers it's believed serials show as children: bed-wetting, animal cruelty, setting fires. So how does convicted serial killer Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins stack up to that? Did he show any of those markers when he was growing up?
Whereas in the case of fellow Detroit serial John Eric Armstrong none of those three markers show up anywhere in the files or interviews, something does show up in the childhood of little Benjamin. As kids, he and his brother were shuttled from foster home to foster home, skipping school, breaking into buildings at times, and otherwise getting into trouble. But also, for Ben ... setting fires. One of his foster parents noted it to authorities, and it was documented in his files. The other two in the triad are possibilities for him, though probably not so much on the animal cruelty -- there's no evidence of him or his brother having pets or access to pets.
I mentioned in my earlier post on Armstrong that he attempted suicide three known times in his life, before his incarceration in Michigan. Well, Atkins attempted suicide, as well, and I have to wonder if that is another marker for serials. Atkins' known attempt was while being held in the Wayne County jail between his August 1992 arrest and early 1994 trial. That is not a big surprise -- being jailed can be a motivator for that kind of thing, after all. He tried to hang himself but was found before he was successful. He claimed that the "voice," or alternate personality, he called Tony told him to kill himself.
Some say that childhood abuse is a strong marker for a future serial, but as I mentioned in the earlier post, it's probably more about trauma than abuse, and trauma can take many forms. Here is where Benjamin Atkins has very strong markers -- his childhood was full of trauma. A heroin-addicted mom working as a prostitute, taking Ben and his brother along as she worked tricks. That same mom relinquishing her children, who then bounced through foster homes and into an inner-city home for boys that was reportedly straight out of the movie "Sleepers." Alleged abuse by a care worker at that facility. A deep desire to be reunited with his mom, as he told social workers. A feeling of loss and abandonment. Then, alleged abuse by one of his mom's boyfriends, hustling on the street at a young age. Turning tricks, himself, for drugs or cash. Becoming addicted to crack. And on and on. A sad, sad life of trauma and abuse, whatever forms they took.
When it comes down to the million-dollar question of why this serial came to take human life, whereas in the life of Armstrong there is no one answer, in the case of Benjamin Atkins, there appear to be many.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
For a deep-dive of the Atkins case, see "The Crack City Strangler: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins."
BRBates.com
wbp.bz/CrackCityStrangler
Murders in the Motor City Series
Comments
Post a Comment