What mass killers have in common

Ideology can mask the real motive: the thrill of violent revenge on the world

The broken windows of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake)

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.

Stephen Paddock left us a note. It provides no motive, but may still explain why he transported nearly two dozen weapons of war to his Las Vegas hotel room last week and turned an outdoor concert into a live video game, firing at 22,000 human targets, killing 59 and wounding nearly 500. The note, police say, consisted of a series of numbers that were the results of complex calculations: his elevation above the ground, the distance to the crowd, the angle of the bullets' drop to the flesh below. Paddock was "a numbers guy," a professional gambler who played high-stakes video poker for 14 hours straight and didn't much like anyone. In City Journal, Seth Barron offers the theory that Paddock's relentless pursuit of the dopamine hits that come with nonstop gambling left him with "no remaining capacity for pleasure or novelty." So for one last rush in an empty, blackhearted life, Paddock carefully planned and carried out a spectacular slaughter. His biggest jackpot ever.

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William Falk

William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.