User blog:Valkerone/PE Proposal - Eric Fraser (Archived)


 * Original by SlimeShady: https://villains.fandom.com/f/p/3179493162221867852

So I have just finished reading this book in english class and I think one of the main villains may be a qualifier.

What is the work?
”Forty Words For Sorrow” is a canadian crime novel about detective John Cardinal and his colleagues searching for three missing teenagers before finding out that they have all been tortured and murdered. The police believes that there is a serial killer on the loose.

Who is Eric Fraser and what has he done?
Eric Fraser is the aforementioned serial killer in his mid-twenties who, along with some help from his ”girlfriend” Edie Soames, tortures teenagers till death, and some of them he even video-tapes. All for his satisfaction. He also collects pieces of his victims hair as trophies.

The first murder was the 13-year old Katie Pine who have been missing for several months at the time of the story. The torture and murder itself isn’t on-screen (or more like on-page) but it is described that her body was found with a decapitated hand and leg and had been ditched in a mineshaft. The second victim was found by Cardinal. The murder is actually seen by Cardinal as it was filmed on a video-tape by the killer and it recorded when a kid named Todd Curry was invited to Eric and Edie, and the tape shows him sitting on a couch and from nowhere Eric started to hit Todd in the head with a hammer multiple times, proceeding to kick him all over his body, including the genitals that had apparently been literally kicked off from Todd’s body. The third murder was on Billy LaBelle who was buried alive, never to be found until it's already too late. Again, it’s off-page, but the body is found at the very end of the book.

Back to present time: One night, an 18-year old guy named Keith London is travelling in the town and happens to meet Eric and Edie whom seems very nice to him and offers him to stay at Edie’s house. Once there Eric gives Keith a beer, unaware that it is drugged and Keith falls asleep for almost a week. Keith wakes up tied to a chair in the basement while Eric is trying to find a good place to finish him.

One night a burglar called Woody happens to break into Edie’s house and finds Keith tied up to the chair. He tries to tie him loose before Eric and Edie arrives, and Eric shoots Woody dead and knocks Keith down.

Another night after not having eaten anything for almost two days, Keith actually breaks loose and takes Edie hostage and threatens to kill her if Eric doesn’t let him go. At first it seems like Eric is about to give up, but then he quickly hits Edie in the head with a crowbar just to stop Keith from escaping. He brings Keith to a pump house where he is about to kill him, but Cardinal arrives and Eric aims at several cops (all was non-fatally though), including Cardinal, before getting into his van while fighting Cardinal. The van moves into a frozen lake when the ice is cracking, drowning Eric.

Freudan Excuse or Mitigating Factors
There is no Freudan Excuse given, in fact Eric’s childhood has a chapter dedicated to it and it reveals to us that Eric has always been a twisted phuck. It tells us that he had a history of killing neighbours pets (including one of his foster sister’s dog) and vandalizing their properties and have lived with several foster families. But they didn’t abuse him or anything, but Eric describes it as they were not giving him enough attention. However I don’t think that justifies his actions as an adult.

As for Mitigating Factors, he hasn't expressed any remorse, empathy or compassion. The only potential factor is his ”girlfriend” Edie. However, I put her in quotation mark because it is quickly revealed that Eric doesn’t love her, but sees her more like a tool that can help him with his plans. Edie, however, is very poor-self esteemed and Eric is using this to manipulate Edie into believing he loves her and that she should be willing to kill for him. It doesn’t help that he seemed to have no qualms with knocking her down to catch Keith as mentioned early.

Heinous standards?
I think he sets it as he kills innocent teenagers for fun AND films them. Eric has pretty limited resources but makes a good use of it. No other criminals were specified on doing something like he does.

Verdict?
You decide.