Sunday, July 30, 2006

suppose there is a serial killer in your inbox

Suppose you are college professor already feeling overwhelmed by all you are not getting done at the moment (not to mention the burdens of maintaining a blog). You receive the e-mail below with no further information, from a complete stranger who has never e-mailed you before. Could you comment on this scenario? Please explain your answer.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gkonakis@aol.com [mailto:Gkonakis@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 3:22 PM
To: jfreese@ssc.wisc.edu
Subject: A question

Jeremy: I got your e-mail address from the school website. Could you comment on this scenario? Greg

Suppose there is a serial killer in your city. He has killed 12 people over a period of six months. You are the district attorney and receive a letter from him stating he will surrender to the police if you give him a guarantee he will not be prosecuted for these murders but instead be sent to a mental hospital where he will receive the treatment he needs; and that if you do not agree to his conditions he will continue killing two people a month for the rest of his life or until he is captured or killed or until you agree to his conditions. What is more important for you: punishing this man for the murders he has committed or preventing additional murders? Please explain your answer.

Gregory Konakis
[mailing address in Daly City, CA deleted]
gkonakis@aol.com
[phone number deleted]
Or, if you have an opinion on the scenario within the scenaio, let me know your opinion on that. Or send an e-mail with your opinion to the mysterious Mr. Konakis at the AOL address above. At least for the time being, my response is just "Deconstructing Playing with Katie", which I am finding works well as a general response to an even broader variety of questions than I initially anticipated (almost as handy in this respect as "Snakes on a Plane").

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like Greg is looking for help with a homework assignment... and came up with your name/email on an internet search.

Ang said...

Yeah. It reeks of a desperate ploy. I love how he didn't even bother to change the wording of the essay question, basically asking you to do his exam/homework for him.

I would supposed there's an interesting sting operation one could do in this situation, but I don't know if I'd have the cojones (not to mention the time or interest) to do it.

Anonymous said...

But the answer is so obvious.

Since I am a misanthrope, I am perfectly happy for more people to die, so I choose to do nothing and hope he never gets caught.

Anonymous said...

While it's probably a student, the scarier thought, to me at least, is that it's actually a district attorney.

-Greg (from Madison)

Anonymous said...

I'm sticking with "it is so obviously a serial killer who has decided to make you an unwitting accomplice in his crimes."

-- Brady

Anonymous said...

I also received the exact same e-mail from "Greg" last week and hadn't decided if/how to respond. Now that I know I am just sociologist spam fodder, Greg will get nothing from me and like it!

Anonymous said...

I think Greg sounds like a truly sick twist. Having said that, could you ask Greg if he's seeing anyone right now? He sounds kinda hot.

just kidding.