Altered Pathways

By David O. Rice

Since the beginning of his writing career, Dave Rice has attempted
to include an underlying theme of the continuing struggle between
good and evil within the novels basic storyline. This is obvious in his
fi rst novel with this underlying theme in Recovery the Hard Way. A story
that describes the lifestyle of those souls that are addicted to drugs and the
internal struggle they must endure to recover from addiction. This theme
of good over evil is even more apparent in his second novel Justice for All
which chronicles a transformation into an alternative lifestyle, and the moral
implications that the central character must endure because of his career as
a leader in the New World Church and the transformation.
These and other literary works written by Dave Rice such as; Just a Chick
on the Side, and The Women of Conjure, all have plots that contain an
element of confl ict between good and evil.
However, not one of his novels currently in publication goes to the extent
of good challenging evil as that contained in his latest effort, Altered
Pathways, which is based on evolutionary changes that have created what
is known as a Serial Killer.
Explore the ultimate confrontation of evil over good in the latest mystery novel
by Dave Rice, Altered Pathways. It is a compelling psychological mystery that
not only contains murder, but also contains the drama that is brought out in
those that are preyed upon by this demon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465357298

David O. Rice

This is an exciting murder mystery novel that attempts to explain the psychological developmental process that determines the source of human behaviors that make that behavior become either normal or abnormal in one’s life. What is it that makes an individual become a physician who is dedicated to healing and another who is equally destined to become a serial murderer or rapist? How is an individual’s personality development created? Is it at the moment of conception that one’s destiny is written, or is an individual’s destiny determined by his responses to extraneous stimuli during the personality development period? Either way, an individual’s destiny is predetermined as sure as man is blessed with a soul that guides his footsteps throughout his life.

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by David O. Rice.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011915886

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4653-5728-1

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4653-5727-4

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-5729-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

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92007

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Introduction

THERE IS A major controversy within our judicial system that has been heatedly discussed for decades, and the administrators of the system still have not reached a consensus agreement; the controversy has been an ongoing issue since degree of criminal culpability as it relates to psychological factors that have a direct impact on criminal behaviors, and whether or not those factors should become an integral component in the execution of law.

The primary question that has prevented these advocates of the law from reaching a conclusion to this controversial argument relates to the source of individual behavior being influenced by personality development, and if the development of a specific human personality type can be explained as a cause of criminal actions and thus used as a defense strategy.

Is it possible that chemical heat reactions generated within the developmental cocoon of deoxyribonucleic acid alter the strands of DNA and thereby changing personality development within the human structure? Could heat be the random element in personality development?

What is the source of that random factor that could have such an influence on the structure of DNA molecules? Is it possible that volatile environmental stimuli extended over long periods of time, generation after generation, could have had an adverse effect in the development of personality?

This question continues to be asked by those whose obligation is to hand out justice in court while at the same time taking into consideration the defensive strategy of being found innocent of a crime by reason of insanity.

And it is the responsibility of the science community to determine whether the heat of strong and emotional societal beliefs could have provided an atmosphere that changed man’s evolution genetically by altering the DNA structure of man and creating certain behavioral patterns. These are the behavioral patterns in question, and it has to be proven scientifically whether an individual is aware of and thus responsible for breaking the laws of society. Or is it possible that an individual’s actions and behaviors are voluntary and possibly explained as a case of just making bad choices in life, thereby negating the of use insanity as a defense strategy?

If the flames of passionate beliefs within men is possibly an integral part of his personality development, no belief could be as emotionally consuming as the history of slavery in this country and the savage and often violent acts involved in maintaining the institution of one man owning another or one man’s lust for being dominant over others not of his own kind.

History has provided us well with documentation of these types of savage, domineering behaviors by individuals such as Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Genghis Khan to name a few. The racist doctrine of domination of one class of people over another has continued to plague mankind, and has been a source of hatred within the cultures of many societies that were ultimately crushed by revolt as is evidenced by the Roman Empire’s practice of making slaves of those that were captured in battle, particularly those of black cultures, or the Belgians who enslaved and made subservient many native inhabitants of the Congo region of Africa who eventually formed an African army that defeated the European imperialist.

History has documented countless examples of man’s inhumanity to man, however none could have been as graphic or horrifying as the insane monsters that were produced by the savage institution of slavery, which continues to this very day; although men are not owned as property, there still remains an atmosphere of violence and hate-filled emotions the same as when black men were chained and beaten like animals.

It’s not difficult to observe the allegiance of those who have followed the tradition of slavery and its belief of racial purity, despite having lost the Civil War. Those that have chosen to aggressively continue to fight the same war over again, do so with such inflamed passion and determination that the emotional fires within these individuals is as much a characteristic as is eye or skin color. It can be theorized that this all-consuming, self-perpetuating internal fire is very well the source of personality change within some individuals, and has produced an animalistic and predatory genotype that exist for the sole purpose of inflicting pain on others.

Although it may be difficult to initially accept, this postulation could be the answer to establishing the degree of culpability for crimes committed by certain individuals. People who can kill in the most savage manner without any feelings of remorse or regret for the crimes they commit; these are the subjects in question.

Whenever the opportunity arises, their victims are chosen randomly whenever an opportunity arises, and some of these genetically abnormal human beings gain sexual gratification through the simple act of committing random acts of violence. And if a potential victim has somehow managed to become a part of that individual’s life and somehow managed to provoke an emotional response within that individual such as anger or jealousy, the feelings of sexual gratification are greatly intensified, resulting in an orgasmic experience, and women are also included among those afflicted with this mental illness.

There now exist a concerted belief and understanding among those whose obligation it is to be the administrators of the judicial system, that through evidence gathered during many years of scientific study and testing, there has been created a sociopathic personality genotype type that can and often does develop into what can only be described as an evolutionary renegade—a sociopathic, psychotic renegade that finds pleasure in their actions and are often found not legally responsible for their crimes by reason of mental disease.

Chapter 1

ANNISTON IS A small rural farm town in central Alabama and is typical of most Southern small farming communities that existed during the late 50s and early 60s. However, a dramatic change was beginning to take root within these cities that had been members of the Southern Confederacy. The citizens of Anniston were die-hard sympathizers of the slavery doctrine that existed within most Southern communities, which was the primary reason that confrontation between the North and the South had developed into the Civil War during the 1860s. These warring factions sometimes pitted brother against brother or neighbors against neighbor; it was all dependent on personal moral beliefs or convictions; the belief in slavery or the belief of those that wished to abolish slavery completely.

An individual’s belief determined whether slavery should be considered a sanctioned right given to some by God or the belief by others that slavery was morally wrong and against God’s will. Victory in this nation-dividing moral struggle belonged to those who believed that all men were equal, and not to those who had fought for the right to continue to force their hated doctrine on society to this very day, and those people still walk among us.

Countless acts of senseless violence against innocent human beings by covert organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and other equally racist and savage groups created a reactionary force of protestors, and in response to the violence they endured, many of those protestors preferred death rather than continuing to live as modern day slaves or second-class citizens; these were people supposedly living in a free society that had won the battle for equality many years before, but despite victory, there began a new struggle for human and civil rights. And because of the national cry for equality and civil rights empowerment that involved lunch counter protests, freedom bus rides and religious marches led by clerics of all faiths and colors, the message of freedom and equality was being spread throughout the country like a thunderstorm.

Although it had been decades since the Civil War was lost by the Confederacy, there now existed a growing force to be reckoned with during this volatile period in our nation’s history; this was a combined force comprised of citizens of all colors who promoted nonviolence as a means to gain civil rights for all people. However, among these nonviolent combatants, there was a faction of soldiers who demanded their freedom by any means necessary.

Together these two ideologies comprised an army of mankind; black, white, red, and brown all together with joined hands forming an unbreakable chain that no elected public official spitting out words of hatred and violence while standing on the steps of public buildings, or Ku Klux Klan lynching, or even vicious police dogs tearing at the flesh of demonstrators would never be able to stop the civil rights demand for equality from becoming a reality.

The determination of people to gain freedom and civil rights came from a much higher source than those who were attempting to deny equality could have ever imagined, and it was through this higher power that equality would ultimately become reality one day; for it is an innate need in all creatures belonging to the society of man to either seek freedom and equally or, with the same voracious spirit to satisfy their own sadistic needs, becoming the antagonists of certain people that sought freedom and equality within that society. And the sadistic desires of the antagonist could only satisfied through their genetically created evolutionary characteristic of deep-seated hatred and lust for violence, which the targets of their oppression did not possess, and could only respond to violence and oppression with the armor of nonviolence and passive resistance.

The ‘Oppressors’ within the family of man found satisfaction in their domination over others within the family, and based its beliefs on the color of a person’s skin or his religious practices. That dominance of the oppressors allowed them to believe they were actually superior to others, rather than simply being the members of society that held all the reins of power.

The difference in the interpretation of what equality actually means by the oppressors was quite different from that of others in the family of man, and with this distorted definition of equality, these individuals now believed that they were genetically superior to all men and no other segment of mankind would ever be equal to theirs.

It is possible that genetic sequencing on mankind’s evolutionary chromosomal structure has been permanently altered through time. The DNA of individuals that belong to the antagonistic segment of mankind has been damaged by the emotional fires of hatred to such an extent that within man’s evolutionary cocoon, the genetic process could possibly be the explanation of why certain individuals come into this world with the capability of committing savage acts of violence against others within the human family without emotion, remorse or guilt.

The volatile atmosphere that existed during the struggle to gain civil rights for all men, caused the dynamics between the two factions to include violent confrontations, and also that same violent atmosphere, determined what role we assumed, and was our destiny—a destiny that could not be changed.

Either we are a hate-filled people that are constantly consumed with the fires of bigotry and racial hatred, or we are a subservient race of people who must confront the violence perpetrated against them with nonviolent and peaceful protests; it doesn’t matter which side of the conflict one found himself, inflamed emotional fires were a definite and deciding factor during the racial struggle, and it has affected man’s evolutionary process to the extent of causing some members of society to change into something that is inherently abnormal and evil.

The two opposing ideologies have found themselves trapped within a genetic evolutionary cocoon, and forced to evolve together within that space, which has caused those that are persecuted and those that persecute to be confined in mortal combat within that cocoon, each force seeking to overpower the other.

With an innate hunger for freedom and knowing that freedom only comes through equality for all men, the freedom-seeking people continue to fight against their antagonist with a strength that is born out of the belief that all men are created equal, and found courage in the belief that eventually the prize will be won, and give freedom to all men.

However, equally as bold in their belief in racial superiorty, the other half of the equation also has dedication and strength; and it has been enough to give hope that continuing the war will keep alive their goal of domination over black people, thereby ensuring that segregation would always be the ruling way of life in the southern states.

To help break the chains of bondage that slave owners maintained, many black warriors fought and died to destroy the manacles that had kept them in bondage for so long.

In the beginning, an underground railroad was set in place, and it was to be used as a network of safe housing by Northern sympathizers and former slaves that were able to escape from plantations in the South and settle in the North or eventually continuing on into Canada; and these safe houses provided a sanctuary for many desperate souls that traveled on the road to freedom.

However, slavery and subjugation continued to exist in the South, and the atmosphere of seething hatred between the opposing ideologies continued to hold both sides of the struggle in its powerful grip, and because of the genetically changed personality of those that would never submit to anything other than total white domination over black people were willing to fight to the death to keep that sacred way of life.

The raging flames of hatred and violence only intensified during the post-Civil War years, leaving the descendents of former Confederate soldiers with an all consuming hatred of the black people that had been emancipated by the defeat of the South during the Civil War.

Decades had passed since the ending of the Civil War; however, the atmosphere of the South was just as toxic and violent as it was at the beginning of the civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s, and it is still just as volatile by contemporary standards, and is as violent as it was during all the previous dark periods of social conflict in this nation’s history.

Throughout the evolutionary process of man, there was a created genotype whose chromosomal structure was so altered by the fires of internalized and passionate hatred while in the cocoon of evolution that mankind’s entire personality makeup had changed drastically. And the product of that incubational period has become what can only be described as a sociopathic monster, whose only satisfaction comes from bringing violence into the lives of others.

These people are the evolutionary renegades that are able to turn vicious dogs or high-pressure fire hoses against men, women, and even children who are only protesting for their rights—rights that should belong to all men. And they are able to commit these acts without even a thought as to what they are doing to their fellow man, and these are the same people who, without any compassion as to whom they injure or kill, are able to bomb church Sunday school classes, killing children without the slightest bit of remorse. And these same psychopathic renegades many times under cover of night have swarmed down on black people like a pack of white-robed ravenous dogs, getting gratification from the sight of innocent blood being spilled.

All this horror and violence can be attributed to being the culmination of the genetic alteration within the personality development of man, and changed him into a savage monster, and those monsters all band together forming a demonic element whose main goal is to violate the sanctity of life, and all of this is done while sitting in church pews and praying to their God—not for their forgiveness of sins against their fellow man, but for the salvation of their souls.

As did other small Southern cities during the period of civil rights demonstrations in the ’50s and ’60s, the segregationists of Anniston, Alabama, continued to resist with all their combined strength to deny the increasing demand for desegregation, which had now become a nationwide outcry for freedom.

Supported by the irrational belief that the Civil War had not truly been lost, segregationists who lived in these Southern cities were determined not to allow the federal government to change the life that had always belonged to these people, and they vowed to continue with the fight to maintain the segregated lifestyle that had always been their heritage.

Proudly, boldly, and, most important of all, symbolically, the Confederate flag flew over Anniston’s city hall daily, heralding its determination to remain a segregated city; and the white citizens never once considered what the effect the rebel flag had on its black citizens, the same black people who had suffered for generations because of Anniston’s history of slavery and segregation, which had led to the violence against black people that was so much a part of segregation in the South.

To the black man and or even those people of a different faith, that rebel flag flying over city hall symbolized only tyranny. But to the rebel-yelling flag wavers, it was a symbol of the hatred held deeply within their hearts for those people with black skin, and it reminded them to never forget the obligation of their people, which was to continue on with the belief that segregation was a divine gift, and it was always meant to be that way.

In all facets of life, Anniston represented the heart of Dixie, and the white population of Anniston, Alabama would continue to use the powers that were needed to maintain the distinction of representing the Southern way of living.

This was the plight of black people that lived in Anniston, Alabama— persecution, hopelessness, and suffering all combined to forge the cross they had to bear, simply because that was the way that it was for black people living in the South.

The Constitution of the United States of America guaranteed equality to all men, yet black people who were living in the same United States of America had been denied the rights of citizens and were treated as nothing more than chattel. They were used as beasts of burden to work in the white master’s home or work in his fields.

All of this occurred in a supposedly democratic and free nation, and it was allowed to happen simply because of the corrupt beliefs of men who were in control of the government, and every other part of life the black man had to endure on a daily basis; men who religiously and blindly believed that it was the will of God that some people were not people at all, and were less than human in the judgment of those hate-filled leaders of society.

Men that wore the white hood and sheet of Ku Klux Klan members while they burned family homes terrorizing black people during the night, also wore that same white garb proudly during the day as they paraded down city streets as if they were a sanctified army of the Lord. They should have been wearing the white shirts and ties of businessmen and elected government officials, because that was the role of these people when they weren’t persecuting black people, they were leaders in the community of Anniston, Alabama.

These men served as bankers, lawyers, judges, police and fire officers, and from governor of the state on down to precinct politicians, they were in every facet of the subjugated people’s existence. Black men had no choice other than to live in the cesspool that slavery had created, and through the courtesy of these leaders who through subjugation, blind hatred, denial of human rights, and acts of violence committed without consequences, continued to make the lives of black people a living hell.

These men were the renegades created in the evolutionary cocoon of mankind; they were the psychopathic monsters who had no compassion or feelings, and could rip out the very soul of others without giving a thought to guilt or remorse.

Gender or age were not factors in the horrible and savage treatment that black people received during the savage slavery period in this country’s dark history; old women, young women, even children were subjected to the same treatment as black men by these sociopathic, renegade monsters. And these monsters had been brought into existence from man’s damaged genetics, falsely believing that it was their right to treat people different from themselves any way they chose fit, because they weren’t even human beings, and if it meant destroying the entire black race completely, it was their choice to make and these people believed that choice was justified.

Righting wrong is never an easy task for man, even as little as changing one questioning thought in the minds of some who had doubts about the morality of segregation could not be done that easily by mere words; and no matter how convincing or obvious the argument might appear to be, it would be extremely difficult to convince doubters to openly admit that slavery and segregation were morally wrong, and had to be changed.

Many strong black people took on the battle to change their destiny and weren’t deterred by the violence they had to endure; and the most vocal of the voices for change covered themselves with an armor of faith and steadfastly resisted the temptation to return the violence that was used against them as weapons of their own. However there were certain youth organizations that chose to wear the uniform of neighborhood defenders, black beret, leather jacket, and armed with shotguns, and defended their streets against the police invasions that came in broad daylight as well as under cover of darkness.

These young defenders weren’t all from the South, such as Huey Newton and Bobby Seals in Oakland, California, and others like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, or Rap Brown, all preaching the doctrine that racial confrontation was much more than an issue of protesting for civil rights, it was an outright state of war that existed between white and black, and without the display of power through the people, there would never be a change.

However, those who believed in the power of nonviolence did prevail, and with that divine power and determination given through prayer and passive resistance, eventually some changes did occur, but at the expense of many dedicated Christian soldiers, and also some neighborhood defenders who were killed in combat by National Guard forces, and many who were arrested and jailed on false charges, and through the corruption within the judicial system, these young soldiers that