The Evil That Men Do

By Ron Stone

The Evil That Men Do is a science fiction action thriller that proposes that extreme violent behavior in the world can be eradicated through science and technology. It is based on the premise that violent behavior may be genetically determined through identifying aberrant genes on the DNA of criminals. Dr. Ron Davies, a well known genetic researcher takes on the task of proving this theory and developing a methodology to effectively edit the DNA of affected individuals. Unfortunately, the Russian mafia gets wind of his research and takes action to kill Davies and anyone associated with his research project in order to prevent the potential demise of their criminal operations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667817620

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The Evil That Men Do

© 2021, Ronald F. Stone

All rights reserved

No claim to copyright is made for original U.S. Government Works

ISBN: 978-1-66781-761-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66781-762-0

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my family. To my wife, Marcia, to my daughters Tara Burke and Amanda Zeigler and to my son, Lance Stone. I give my greatest thanks to all of them for encouraging me and driving me to complete my first fiction novel. Uniquely, my entire family including my grandchildren are characters in my work, albeit under names created by blending all of their first, middle and last names into new and exciting people.

When this story began, I envisioned a science fiction thriller and researched a wide variety of scientific processes and techniques related to genetics and genome editing. Once the book was complete, it was announced that, in real life two female chemists utilized the same process described in my novel to win the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Suddenly the book became a science book with a fictional plot. The result is an exciting and, I hope enjoyable experience for the reader.

This book is also dedicated to the literally hundreds of thousands of victims of violent crime and their families who have suffered tremendous loss as a result of heartless criminals in the world who have no respect for human life. I was compelled to write this novel after reading article after article in the media regarding mass murders and killings throughout the world that really had no logical reason but rather were committed by individuals I was sure had some form of genetic aberration that caused them to act this way.

The Evil That Men Do is a hope for the future that one day through the wonders of science and technology, violent crime may become a thing of the past and our children and their children will inherit a more peaceful and compassionate world.

Contents

9:30 am, August 3, 2019

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

9:30 am, August 3, 2019

C’mon, Mom! The store opens at 10:00. I need to be sure to get there in time to get the clothes I need for school this year. Elise’s mother was hurrying to get ready to take her daughter to the local Walmart in El Paso, Texas to finish up her back to school shopping. Her daughter would be a junior in high school this year and clothing had become an important part of the mystique of being a junior. It was early August around 10:40 in the morning when they pulled into the parking lot. Elise jumped out of the van and started into the store when the first shots rang out. Let’s go, Mom! were the last words she would say to her mother. When she looked back, she saw her mother fall to the pavement. Right next to her, another mother with two small children were among the first to die when a single white male, Patrick Wood Crusius, 21 years old opened fire in the parking lot before entering the store. Crusius then walked inside carrying a fully loaded WASR-10 rifle, a semi-automatic civilian version of the Russian-made AK-47 and began his rampage. Two shoppers close to the front door of the super center were the first targets he shot at close range upon entering the store. Crusius killed them instantly before others realized what was happening. Blood and human tissue splattered on three other customers at the nearby checkout counter before they too were slaughtered. The carnage was unspeakable as one after another, innocent, predominantly Latino shoppers were cut to ribbons by his barrage of automatic gunfire. There seemed to be no pattern or logic to the killings except Crusius focused mainly on Latinos. Although the manager did everything he could to evacuate and protect his customers, 23 were killed and 23 more were severely wounded before the attack ended and Crusius walked to his car and escaped. The store was filled with the smell of gunpowder and the cries of the wounded. Survivors scrambled to try to render first aid and stanch the bleeding of wounds sustained by their family and friends stuck by the random firing. Following the attack, Crusius calmly drove to an intersection not far from the Walmart and surrendered to a motorcycle officer and identified himself as the shooter. He was taken into custody and was later arraigned on 90 federal charges: 22 counts of committing a hate crime resulting in death, 22 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder, 23 counts of a hate crime involving an attempt to kill and 23 counts of use of a firearm during a crime. His shooting has been described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history. Clearly, Patrick Wood Crusius was evil personified.

Ron Davies listened to the morning news broadcast streaming the event when he woke up at 6:30 and turned on the coffee. He stepped outside into the overcast Florida morning and picked up the newspaper in his driveway. He was a creature of habit and followed the same morning ritual that his mother had for most of her 97 years. The morning heat was already oppressive and the sun had not even come up yet. He knew it would be a scorcher once the day was in full swing. He sat with his coffee in the living room and prepared to read the paper and do the crossword puzzle and the Jumble. He enjoyed the mental exercise and felt this kept him intellectually challenged far removed from his responsibilities as a biology/genetics professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The front page top center banner of the Tampa Bay Times that morning read Fifteen Killed by Gunman at Mall in Miami. The article went on to describe a demented former employee of one of the stores in the mall who returned after being fired and killed six people in his former employer’s store as well as nine shoppers in the mall itself. Ron finished his coffee and what he wanted to read in the paper and went out to the beach for his morning two mile run. As he ran, the image of those fifteen deaths as well as those in El Paso lingered and he knew there must be some genetic reason that would cause extreme violent behavior like that. The world had become a dangerous place in which to live and he decided it was time for him to find out why and how to change it.

Davies was born in Philadelphia and lived there with his three generation family until he was eight years old. His mother was an Irish immigrant who came to America when she was twelve years old from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her father served in the Merchant Marine and upon leaving the service became a master boilermaker assigned to work on the Titanic at Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast. Davies’ father was an orphan who grew up in the Odd Fellows Home in Philadelphia with his brother. Both lived a hard life without any real parental support and learned to fend for themselves in the tough neighborhoods of Philly. As Ron grew up in the city, he learned street smarts from his father and how to protect himself. It was there he became aware of the evil that can be found in the environment around him. On his way home from school one afternoon, Ron was confronted by an older boy who demanded Ron’s jacket and any money he had on him. The boy was about eleven years old and Ron knew he was outmatched in size and weight. He knew what kids like this were like on the streets and knew he would either have to concede or make the decision to stand his ground. His father had always taught him to try to talk his way out of a confrontation whenever possible rather than fight his way out. But if he had to fight, anything was fair game. Ron did his best to talk the older boy out of stealing his coat and what little money he had left on him from school. The older boy would have none of it and made his move toward Ron to take what he wanted. Ron’s size and speed made all the difference in dealing with a thug like this one. As the boy made his move, Ron sidestepped him and went down on one knee just as his father taught him. Using the older boy’s forward movement, in one swift, decisive move Ron focused all his strength into a punch directly between the older boy’s legs and hit him squarely in the testicles. The force of the blow dropped the boy to his knees and he couldn’t catch his breath. The boy lay there whimpering as his friends watched and snickered. Ron immediately ran for home and didn’t bother to look back.

Ron’s parents eventually moved to Florida where his father worked for an aerospace corporation in St. Petersburg until his retirement. Living in a three generation family his entire life gave Davies an insight into the various habits and idiosyncrasies of his family that fascinated him. So much so, that when he graduated from high school he attended college and majored in biology with an emphasis in genetics. Following 9/11, he enlisted and served as a sniper in the Army Special Forces during the Middle East campaign. Following his tour of duty, he returned home and continued his post graduate studies ultimately completing his PhD in genetic engineering and biotechnology.

Each morning as he read the daily paper, Davies was struck by the number and severity of violent crimes committed throughout the world. It seemed like the front page of every issue focused on some local, national or international incident involving an individual or group that had perpetrated some unthinkable act of violence against innocent people. In very few circumstances, could investigators isolate a specific reason that prompted these acts. For the most part, the reasons given were mental instability, revenge for something their company or friends had done to them, problems with relationships with family or lovers or issues related to chemical or alcohol dependency. He could easily understand the old media adage If it bleeds, it leads.

Over time, this constant barrage of violence-related news began to suggest to Davies that perhaps there was a more significant underlying reason for this proclivity toward violence throughout the world. Perhaps the issues were not just mental instability, but rather genetic in nature and that something in the genetic makeup of the perpetrators was the basis for these bizarre acts. So Davies decided to take matters into his own hands and begin his own study of the major issues of violence that have rocked the world over the past few decades.

Davies decided then and there to create a list of specific incidents he felt were among the most indicative of the kind of behavior that required study. He opened his laptop and started to write:

Perhaps the most obvious event was that of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Viewed as one of the greatest hate crimes in the world, evidence suggests that this heinous terrorist assault on September 11, 2001 was committed by Islamic members of Al-Qaeda under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden who saw their mission as part of a greater jihad or holy war against the United States. This single act of violence caused the death of almost 3,000 innocent Americans and injured roughly 25,000. Bin Laden subsequently became the subject of a decade-long international manhunt and on May 2, 2011, was shot and killed by US Navy SEALs inside a private residential compound in Pakistan. Under his leadership, the Al-Qaeda organization was responsible for many other mass-casualty attacks worldwide.

On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of innocent concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada killing 58 people and wounding 413. The total number injured as a result of the panic created raised that number to 869. Paddock was eventually killed by law enforcement officers. No motive was ever established for the crime.

On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death the night before, Charles Whitman, a former Marine, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas killing 18 and injuring an additional 31.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who committed the murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991.

In 1967, Charles Manson, a recognized cult leader, formed the Manson Family and committed a series of violent crimes in California that resulted in the murders of 9 innocent people at four different locations during July and August of 1969.

February 1, 2015, the militant group ISIS released a series of gruesome videos one of which showed the beheading of kidnapped Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. The propaganda campaign by this terrorist organization was used to send a message to other nations of the hatred ISIS had for the West.

On August 4, 2019, Connor Stephen Betts opened fire with an AR-15 automatic pistol near the entrance to Ned Peppers Bar in Dayton, Ohio killing nine people and injuring 27. Police aren’t yet sure what the motive was.

On February 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz. opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killing 17 people and injuring 17 others.

As Davies ran through this list of atrocities, his curiosity was piqued and he felt compelled to determine what would cause individuals and groups to engage in crimes so heinous and unreasoned. Surely there had to be a deeper, more fundamental basis than just mental instability, or chemical dependence. Perhaps there was a genetic determiner that would influence behaviors such as these and, if so, perhaps there is a way to genetically engineer these aberrant genes out of the DNA of individuals even as early as at birth.

The escalating violence that was appearing throughout the world was disturbing. In every sector of the globe, news reports were replete with stories of murder, terrorism, death and acts of violence that had no real explanation. If no one tried to address these issues, they would continue to become not the exception to human behavior, but the norm. Davies decided it was time for him to act.

CHAPTER 2

Davies finished his coffee and padded into the kitchen to put together his usual breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, two pieces of toast and a glass of cranberry juice. Another cup of coffee and he would be ready to take on the day. He looked out the window and watched through the glass of his front door as the Florida morning brightened with the sunrise. The clouds on the horizon off of his beach changed from a hazy, muted gray to a rapidly clearing brilliant orange with a hint of afternoon cloudiness and rain in the forecast. The weather had been hot and muggy as the summer months lingered. The local news channel was predicting no rain in the forecast and unseasonable heat and humidity. The Tampa Bay Area of Florida was experiencing a long period of drought and the yards in his neighborhood were beginning to show signs of browning out from lack of water. It was going to be a miserably hot day again with no signs of letting up for the week. He was beginning to agree with the meteorologists that global warming was a reality and this weather was a precursor to even hotter temperatures in the months ahead.

Fortunately, his laboratory at the university was a climate controlled environment so Davies dressed for the day in a pair of khaki slacks and his Pebble Beach golf shirt. He checked his wallet to be sure he had cash for lunch and grabbed the keys for his twelve year old Volvo sedan. He made sure the house was locked and