Terrifying & True | Danny LaPlante — The Boy in the Walls and the Gustafson Family Murders

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You're alone in your home, but
you hear an odd sound. Where is

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that coming from? What is that? Or who is that? Of course

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it's probably your imagination, But what
if someone was inside the walls, and

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what if they were waiting for the
perfect opportunity to strike what you were about

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to be? Based on witness accounts, testimal piece, and public record,

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this is terrifying and treat This story
is as much of the murderer as it

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is of the victims. It's true
that the victims suffered a painful death,

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but this psychopath turned murderer endured a
lifetime of paying pre and post the crimes

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that he committed. Dannie LaPlante,
a man serving three consecutive life sentences,

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is one of the most intriguing true
crime stories you will ever come across.

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While it can be challenging to filter
through the details of Daniel LaPlante's story and

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determine the truth, we're going to
analyze it as best we can and try

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to understand why a young boy committed
such heinous crimes. Daniel LaPlante's story seems

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like an urban legend, but it's
real and we're diving into it. After

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this Daniel LaPlante was a criminal for
his long, as his story goes on,

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but things escalated when two sisters became
the object of LaPlante's fascination. LaPlante

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frequently broke into people's homes as an
adolescent, causing havoc in his wake.

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A single father and his two children, Annie and Jessica Andrews, were the

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targets of the teenager's surveillance and taunting. In nineteen eighty six, he had

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claimed to be a teenager from the
girl's neighborhood and started calling them. Somehow,

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his impression managed to captivate the girls, and in the end Annie Andrews

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agreed to go on a date with
him. When they first met in person,

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Annie was surprised by his appearance,
but not in a good way.

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Daniel LaPlante had given a very different
physical description of himself over the phone.

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It's obvious that he catfished the poor
girl into going out with him. Nevertheless,

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Annie consented to go on an ice
cream date. She wasn't interested in

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continuing the connection afterwards, since she
clearly sensed something shady about the boy,

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and at the same time, she
was going through a rough patch because of

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her mother, who had just recently
passed away from cancer. It's been reported

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that the sisters had a seance one
evening in an effort to communicate with the

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dead. They were unaware that Daniel
LaPlante had broken into their house and was

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banging on the walls and making noises
that the girls initially mistook as their late

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mother responding to her daughters from the
other side. They heard the knocking for

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weeks before actually getting creeped out and
believing that their house was indeed haunted.

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This torture lasted for two months,
according to numerous reports. The sisters had

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their father of what they had heard, but Brian Andrews explained that this was

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because they were still grieving over their
mother's passing. The father was reluctant to

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hear the please of his young daughters. Then one unfortunate evening in nineteen eighty

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seven, the father entered Annie's room
after returning home, and he was met

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with a terrifying sight. It was
reported that quote a young child stood clothed

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in the attire of Brian's late wife. He was sporting her wig, clothing

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and makeup. He had a hatchet
in one hand. Daniel LaPlante was there.

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Police eventually discovered LaPlante in a hidden
crawl space behind a cupboard that was

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built into the wall of Annie Andrew's
bedroom. After a battle during which he

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managed to flee, LaPlante was detained
and put on trial. In October nineteen

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eighty seven, he was let out
of a juvenile detention center. If only

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they had been more cautious before letting
him go free. Two months later,

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three murders were committed by LaPlante,
but we'll get to that in a moment.

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Daniel LaPlante had as horrific of a
childhood as one would imagine. After

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being born in Townsend, Massachusetts,
in nineteen seventy, LaPlante was sexually and

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psychologically abused by numerous adults throughout his
youth. Despite the fact that very little

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is known about the specifics of his
upbringing, LaPlante was a kid when he

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had his first run in with the
law. Therefore, many of those details

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were kept confidential. The majority of
LaPlante's punishments were allegedly meeted out by his

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father, who also allegedly regularly tormented
him physically, psychology, logically, and

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sexually. Since he grew up in
the most horrifying and mentally disturbing environment a

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child could his development was heavily affected. Along with having dyslexia from a young

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age, he had difficulties in school, both academically and socially. He had

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very few friends during his time in
school, and the majority of his North

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Middlesex High school classmates thought he was
scary or at the very least unusual.

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LaPlante was referred to a psychiatrist in
his early adolescence because of his unusual behavior

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and general resistance to improving his appearance, cleanliness, and self image. If

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not for the sad events that occurred, this encounter might have been a turning

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point in the life of young LaPlante. During this time, he also received

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a diagnosis of hyperactivity disorder, which
didn't go well with his poor mental health

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as a result of his difficult home
and school lives. It wasn't just at

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home where he faced assault and harassment. His mental health continued to deteriorate when

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the psychiatrist he had been entrusted to
started making sexual advances towards LaPlante. Their

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relationship eventually took a terrible turn.
The doctor continued to sexually abuse LaPlante throughout

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their sessions for the following year,
which undoubtedly had a lasting effect on his

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mental health. Similar to his father
before him, this mental health professional had

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been trusted to take care of LaPlante, but instead added more sorrow to his

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already difficult life. Almost immediately after
being freed, LaPlante went back to his

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life of robbing people. He stole
two firearms from a neighbor's home in November

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of the same year to use during
one of his robberies. About a half

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a mile from LaPlante's own family home, on December first, nineteen eighty seven,

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he broke into the Gustafson home.
Priscilla Gustafson, thirty three, and

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her two young children, Abigail and
William, welcomed LaPlante there. This was

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where the lives of this poor family
were completely shattered. When LaPlante broke into

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his house Andrew Gustafson was at work, he returned to see the most terrifying

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scene of his life. Priscilla was
found face down on her bed, her

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pillows stained red from blood. She
had been sexually assaulted by Danny LaPlante before

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being shot repeatedly in the head at
close range. After calling the police,

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Andrew Gustafson's two children's bodies were found
in two separate bathtubs. William, age

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five, had drowned in the upstairs
bathroom, and Abigail, age eight,

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had met a similar end in the
downstairs bathroom. A precise and accurate account

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of the events of that night is
still unknown, since the only witness of

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the crime scene was the criminal himself. Given that LaPlante's activities suddenly changed from

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burglary to full scale murder while he
was in possession of a weapon, it

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is likely that he lacked the self
assurance or physical strength necessary to take his

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victim's hands and hold them down.
The gustafs In home also contained a few

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things that can be used as shackles. This leads to the hypothesis that LaPlante

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broke into the house and restrained his
victims while holding them at gunpoint. He

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most likely murdered Priscilla Gustavsen first to
get rid of the largest threat, before

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drowning the children one at a time. Authorities quickly connected Dannie LaPlante to the

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Gustafsan family murder. When the police
went to arrest him, they discovered that

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LaPlante had escaped the crime scene,
and of course that meant a man hunt

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began. LaPlante was seen as being
highly dangerous and armed. His past made

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it impossible to predict the extent he
would take to avoid being discovered. Later,

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he abducted a woman in her car
after breaking into her home in a

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village near Townsend. The woman managed
to flee, but LaPlante was discovered by

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someone who had seen his photo on
a news broadcast. Forty eight hours after

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the quest for Danny LaPlante started,
he was found hidden in a dumpster.

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LaPlante's participation in Abigail Gustafson's murder was
confirmed by the forensics when a hair from

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her head was found on his sock
during an inspection. Danny LaPlante was given

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three life sentences for the murder of
the Gustafsan family one year later. This

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case becomes about LaPlante when he refuses
to take any guilt whatsoever of the crimes

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committed. He hasn't shown any signs
of regret for his conduct. After being

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imprisoned. LaPlante has had the audacity
to keep stating that he is a broken

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man beyond redemption, despite having multiple
personality disorder that is obviously present in him.

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Over the years, he made several
attempts to file lawsuits against the courts,

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alleging that his rights had been violated
from nineteen eighty eight until two thousand

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and fourteen. In one instance,
he argued that because he was purportedly practicing

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Satanism, the jail system had infringed
on his religious liberties. LaPlante asserted that

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he needed the right supplies to perform
some Satanic rights, but that the jail

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administration had refused him. Dan LaPlante
filed a lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts

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in twenty thirteen after it was reported
that he was denied access to the supplies

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he required to practice Wicca. The
authorities, according to LaPlante, refused to

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give him the quote thirty essential oils
and twenty six herbs he required for his

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religious practices since he was, by
his own description, a fervent Wiccan.

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LaPlante listed a number of the ingredients
he claimed were necessary for him to avoid

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curses and communicate with goddesses, including
dragon's blood, black opium, and honeysuckle.

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At the time, local Wiccans distanced
themselves from LaPlante and said the supplies

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he asked, weren't essential. One
Wiccan leader made the apparent allusion to LaPlante

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when he said that the religion occasionally
draws quote crazy people, and obviously with

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a case like this, media coverage
was bound to become a part. LaPlante

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appeared in the first episode of season
two of Your Worst Nightmare on Investigation Discovery,

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on the episode entitled Bump in the
Night. The Lifetime Channels series Footsteps

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in the Attic, which examined crimes
that had occurred before the gustafs and killings,

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also included LaPlante in season one,
episode two. Later, LaPlante's resentencing

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hearing was held at Middlesex Superior Court
in Woburn, Massachusetts, on March twenty

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second, two and seventeen. LaPlante
requested that his sentence be reduced. At

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the hearing, it was brought up
that during his initial appeal, earlier court

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decisions stating that young people convicted of
murder have to be given genuine opportunities to

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reintergrate into society were referenced. There
was also a new legislation that allowed quote

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juveniles convicted of murder with extreme cruelty
and atrocity to ask for parole after they've

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been behind ours for a minimum of
thirty years. But after a forensic psychiatrist

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assessed LaPlante and determined that he was
not sorry for his actions, the judge

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upheld his sentence of three consecutive periods
of life in prison with the chance of

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parole after forty five years. But
as of twenty seventeen, it appears that

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Danny LaPlante has finally accepted the consequences
of his conduct. LaPlante said this while

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advocating for a lightning of his sentence
quote, I do not have the words

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to fully express my profound sorrow,
but I am truly sorry for the harm

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I have caused. From the very
essence of who I am, from the

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depth of my soul, I am
sorry. The question lurking in many people's

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minds as if the murderer has for
the longest time refused to feel guilty about

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his actions, but then one fine
day, maybe to be able to get

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a reduced sentence, he apologizes.
Is it fair to even reconsider the punishment.

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What's even more astonishing is the fact
that LaPlante kept justifying his actions by

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claiming his own suffering. It seems
irrational to punish a family of innocent people

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for your own vengeance. However,
like everything in the Danny LaPlante story,

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it's confusing, it's violent, and
it's breathtakingly cruel. There's a saying that

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I quote often, which is hurt
people, hurt people. And what that

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means, if it's not self explanatory, is that people who have been harmed

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by others are often the ones who
do harm themselves. It's a vicious cycle

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in something that many many people struggle
to break the cycle of. But does

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an explanation of unspeakable cruelty and harm
count as a excuse for those actions?

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Of course, I personally do not
think so, and I think many would

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agree with me. But I do
believe that any person, regardless of how

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heinous they are, deserves at least
some degree of empathy. So while I

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hope Danny LaPlante stays in prison for
the rest of his natural life, I

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do feel bad for him. He's
been harmed, and he's harmed others,

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and if he's capable of feeling the
weight of his actions, well, those

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actions will haunt him until his last
breath, whether in prison or not.

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But what do you think? Do
you think someone who is, without a

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doubt a monster like Danny LaPlante deserves
to have a little bit of human empathy.

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Or do you think you should be
roasted toasted and aren't to a crisp.

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I'd love to hear from you,
and thanks so much for taking this

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offcolor and painful journey along with me. Terrifying and True is narrated by Enrique

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00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:19.359
Kuto. It's executive produced by Rob
Fields, produced by Daniel Wilder, with

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00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:23.559
the original theme music by Ray Maddis. If you have a story you'd like

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us to cover on the program,
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