Used to work with the criminally insane. I’ve also met a LOT of pedophiles. Not many because they actually were crazy but because they were trying to get declared as such to not get fucked up in prison. Most of them aren’t even actually attracted to children they just wanna victimize someone and children are smaller / weaker and less able to advocate for themselves. The one thing pretty much all of them have in common is a pitiful combination of sadism and cowardice.

I’ve been a lawyer for over 20 years… So, I’ve met more than a couple.

Two people, in fact. First was a Hell’s Angels enforcer. Had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with him and a few other people from my former Kung Fu school. Apparently he was a former student and credibly accused of murdering a rival biker gang member, but the jury was hung and couldn’t convict.

Second was none other than Shrimp Boy, after he got released from prison for the murders he committed but before he got locked up again for the racketeering charges. Met in in Chinatown literally a few days before the feds closed in on him. Shared a cup of tea with him without knowing his identity and didn’t find out until someone present told me who he was days later.

I took a flight back from Europe with a colleague years ago, we talked for hours. A year later he was found guilty of killing his wife with cyanide.

People do a great job of hiding their demons in a professional setting.

I drive now! Good luck everyone else!

When I was 18/19 in college, I met a guy through my brother’s work that was in his mid 40’s. We hung out with him and his girlfriend a lot and he was pretty good friends with my brother. He even met my mom and family, helped her with some construction projects she needed done (dad died when I was 15, so she didn’t have that extra help), and was invited to her wedding to my step dad.

Now we knew that this guy was an ex-con (the restaurant my brother worked at hired a lot of ex-cons), but we never really judged or pried into what happened. Honestly, this guy was always just chill, giving, funny, helpful, and respectful. I never got creeped out by him, and i never felt like he was inappropriate with me. We found out through a mutual friend later that this guy used to get paid to bleach the bodies of girls/women that had been raped and killed by others. To this mutual friend’s knowledge, our friend hadn’t actually done any raping/killing, but I was really struggling to feel much comfort in the fact that he “only” helped guys get away with it. Especially because I was a young, petite college girl at the time.

Anyways, I dont directly know of anybody ive met that has killed someone, but the fact that I know of somebody that did this horrible thing makes me think that you’re correct.

It is quite likely that someone I knew either killed a person, or had them killed.

Said potential murderer is dead for a few years now and tbh I don’t think anyone wants to uncover this mystery anymore. Since the whole thing was very long ago, it’s easier to just ignore it instead of ruining everyone’s memory of a person. The other person who could’ve done it has been dead for a decade or 2 too.

I knew a guy who got imprisoned for murder, really nice guy, the way he described it was an armed robbery where the armed person got spooked and fired off a shot. They were arrested on the road while taking the victim to the hospital (they weren’t trying to hurt anyone) and ended up getting booked for murder and kidnapping.

I met him a few years after he got out on probation.

Edit: fixed a typo

I once gave a friend of a friend a condescending chewing-out after they did something hurtful.

Some time later our mutual friend informed me that they had died, but declined to tell me the cause of death.

Much later I discovered it was self-caused.

… Were my words too much? We spend our lives trying to be more effective communicators. What if we’re too effective when it matters most?

I killed someone. It’s a called a dead name for a reason.

If you’re old enough you’ve definitely met someone who has done at least one murder. The question is intent as you’ve said: did you meet the drunk driver or the serial killer with 50 bodies in the basement who hasn’t been caught.

Also this applies to rape and that is far more common because it is simply less reported. One of your buddies might be a person that has straight up forced a person to have sex, maybe violently

Met a guy after he got out of prison for drunk driving and killing someone. I don’t know the details but he wouldn’t go anywhere near alcohol, so at least he’s trying to be better.

Also I have met quite a few War Veterans over the years.

On the flip side, you’ve probably met someone who has saved a person’s life.

My ex-brother-in-law killed a family of four while DUI. The cops really screwed up the investigation so he was able to get the charges down to a minor moving violation. He never saw the inside of a jail.

When I was in high school a friend of a friend that I knew and had hung out with at a couple of times was a serial killer/rapist. He was one of the last people executed by that state.

Edit: My grandfather killed some Nazis in WW2. Several former coworkers killed people in the line of duty as soldiers. And, I worked as a records clerk at a nursing home, so I knew several doctors and nurses that had taken people off life support.

That may be true in the US.
Most of these reasons don’t apply to normal more civilized countries