Charlatan

WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:06.110
Predators. Their acts are evil. We call them monsters. We
2
00:00:06.150 --> 00:00:09.210
say no human could perpetrate the crimes they have committed.
3
00:00:10.029 --> 00:00:14.230
But in truth, only human beings execute these horrific acts.
4
00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:17.579
And if you're like me, you want to know why.
5
00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:39.149
I'm Ariel Cooksey, and this is Malice. The following episode
6
00:00:39.189 --> 00:01:06.540
discusses sexual assault, statutory rape, coercive control of a minor,
7
00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:11.310
and homicide. If these issues may be triggering, please practice
8
00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:16.250
self-care and do not proceed. There are people in this
9
00:01:16.349 --> 00:01:20.170
world who learn early that proximity to care can be
10
00:01:20.209 --> 00:01:24.129
mistaken for the real thing. If they can imitate the gestures,
11
00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:29.560
the soft voice, the steady hands, the practice concern, most
12
00:01:29.579 --> 00:01:33.340
people won't look closely enough to see what's missing. And
13
00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:36.920
what's missing is the part that matters, the part that
14
00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:41.700
reaches outward. For some people, that part never develops at all.
15
00:01:43.069 --> 00:01:48.329
Care becomes a performance, a costume, a tool, something they
16
00:01:48.349 --> 00:01:51.129
put on when it benefits them and take off the
17
00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:57.540
moment it becomes inconvenient. Their empathy is selective, their compassion conditional,
18
00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:02.019
their kindness a transaction they expect to be repaid with
19
00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:07.840
admiration obedience, or silence. When a man like that becomes
20
00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:14.909
a doctor, the world gives him everything he needs to thrive. Authority, access, trust.
21
00:02:15.969 --> 00:02:18.389
A steady stream of people who walk into his office
22
00:02:18.889 --> 00:02:22.629
already believing he is good. And he believes it too.
23
00:02:23.689 --> 00:02:27.889
Not because he is, but because he needs to. Once
24
00:02:27.930 --> 00:02:33.580
that need becomes the center of him, everything else ethics, boundaries, consequences,
25
00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:39.419
becomes negotiable. He didn't start as a killer. He started
26
00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:42.719
as a man who learned the rules were flexible if
27
00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:47.710
you wore the right uniform. Long before anyone died, long
28
00:02:47.750 --> 00:02:51.050
before a 19-year-old girl opened her front door to a stranger,
29
00:02:51.689 --> 00:02:54.789
there was a doctor in British Columbia who understood the
30
00:02:54.830 --> 00:02:57.990
power of a white coat. He understood what it meant
31
00:02:58.009 --> 00:03:01.590
to be trusted. He understood how people looked at him.
32
00:03:02.229 --> 00:03:06.469
With deference. With gratitude. With the kind of unquestioning faith
33
00:03:06.830 --> 00:03:09.770
that makes you feel taller than you really are. And
34
00:03:09.789 --> 00:03:12.909
he liked that feeling. He liked it enough to start
35
00:03:12.969 --> 00:03:16.810
testing the edges of it. At first it was small things.
36
00:03:17.389 --> 00:03:20.849
Comments that lingered too long in the air. Hands that
37
00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:24.419
rested a moment too long on a shoulder. Questions that
38
00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:29.270
didn't belong in an exam room. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that
39
00:03:29.289 --> 00:03:33.169
would make a family switch doctors. Just enough to see
40
00:03:33.270 --> 00:03:37.509
if anyone would push back. No one did. And so
41
00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:41.189
he pushed further. There was a 14-year-old girl who trusted
42
00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:45.509
him because everyone else did. There was another, barely older,
43
00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.099
who found herself drawn into his orbit until she wasn't
44
00:03:49.139 --> 00:03:52.599
just a patient anymore. There were women who stayed in
45
00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:55.960
his home, women who worked in his office, women who
46
00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.030
learned that saying no didn't always end the conversation. There
47
00:04:01.060 --> 00:04:05.710
were complaints, whispers, warnings, a charge that didn't stick, a
48
00:04:05.750 --> 00:04:09.270
conviction for something small enough that it didn't threaten his license,
49
00:04:10.150 --> 00:04:12.990
a pattern that should have been obvious but never quite
50
00:04:13.069 --> 00:04:17.259
coalesced into anything the system was willing to name. He
51
00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:20.899
learned from all of it, not to stop, but to adapt.
52
00:04:22.209 --> 00:04:27.430
And then came Shelly. She was young, too young, but
53
00:04:27.470 --> 00:04:30.310
she was flattered by the attention, and he knew exactly
54
00:04:30.370 --> 00:04:33.649
how to make that feel like affection. He groomed her
55
00:04:33.709 --> 00:04:38.290
the way men like him always do, slowly, methodically, with
56
00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:41.389
the kind of patience that makes the outcome feel inevitable.
57
00:04:42.329 --> 00:04:46.089
He blurred the lines between doctor and mentor, mentor and friend,
58
00:04:46.649 --> 00:04:51.370
friend and something else entirely. By the time anyone realized
59
00:04:51.430 --> 00:04:55.209
what he'd done, it was already too late. She was
60
00:04:55.290 --> 00:04:59.649
living with him, dependent on him, folded into his life
61
00:04:59.689 --> 00:05:03.680
in a way that made disentangling herself feel impossible. And
62
00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.180
still he pushed further, because once you've crossed one line
63
00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:11.379
without consequences, the next one feels smaller, and the next,
64
00:05:12.139 --> 00:05:17.870
and the next, until the lines aren't lines anymore, just suggestions.
65
00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:23.449
He built a life on that principle, a practice, a reputation,
66
00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:27.110
a carefully curated image of a man who cared deeply
67
00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:32.550
for his patients, especially the young ones, especially the vulnerable ones.
68
00:05:33.730 --> 00:05:37.990
But entitlement expands until it hits something immovable. For him,
69
00:05:38.629 --> 00:05:43.250
that immovable thing was two sisters, Sean and Katie, who
70
00:05:43.290 --> 00:05:46.850
refused to be quiet. They had known him since childhood,
71
00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:50.550
He had been their family doctor for years. They trusted
72
00:05:50.610 --> 00:05:53.930
him because they were supposed to. And when he crossed
73
00:05:53.970 --> 00:05:58.129
the line with them, when the comments became invasive, when
74
00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:02.629
the touches felt wrong, when the unease became undeniable, they
75
00:06:02.649 --> 00:06:06.980
did something he never expected. They reported him. Not to
76
00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:10.480
their mother. Not to a friend. To the College of
77
00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:16.019
Physicians and Surgeons. They filed formal complaints. They put their
78
00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:21.279
names on paper. They agreed to testify. And that was
79
00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:24.560
when the doctor began to unravel. Because for a man
80
00:06:24.620 --> 00:06:29.410
like him, being accused wasn't just inconvenient, it was intolerable.
81
00:06:30.310 --> 00:06:33.689
It was humiliating. It was a threat to the story
82
00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:38.829
he told about himself. So he tried something else. He
83
00:06:38.870 --> 00:06:43.199
called one of the sisters. Not to apologize, not to understand,
84
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.310
but to rewrite the record. He was belligerent from the
85
00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:51.180
moment she answered, his voice sharp, frantic, the tone of
86
00:06:51.259 --> 00:06:55.160
a man who couldn't believe he was being questioned. You
87
00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:59.079
know I never touched you, he insisted. Say it. Say
88
00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:02.839
it now. She tried to end the call. He talked
89
00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:06.569
over her. You know this isn't true. You know I
90
00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:08.610
never harmed you. Just say it so we can put
91
00:07:08.629 --> 00:07:11.750
this behind us. There was a click in the background,
92
00:07:12.529 --> 00:07:15.339
the unmistakable sound of a tape recorder being switched on.
93
00:07:16.410 --> 00:07:19.470
He wasn't calling to talk. He was calling to capture something,
94
00:07:20.089 --> 00:07:23.430
to force a statement he could use later, to manufacture
95
00:07:23.509 --> 00:07:28.500
his innocence. When she refused, he grew louder. You're ruining
96
00:07:28.540 --> 00:07:31.660
my life, he snapped. You're making a mistake you can't
97
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.399
take back. But she didn't give him what he wanted.
98
00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.319
And when she hung up, he was left with a
99
00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:42.329
recording of his own desperation and none of the absolution
100
00:07:42.370 --> 00:07:45.670
he'd tried to extract. That was the moment he understood
101
00:07:45.709 --> 00:07:49.680
the truth. He couldn't intimidate them into silence. He couldn't
102
00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:54.439
charm them. He couldn't manipulate them. They were going to testify.
103
00:07:55.259 --> 00:07:59.180
And that was when something inside him snapped. Because if
104
00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:03.800
he couldn't control the story, he would control the storytellers.
105
00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:07.720
He started looking for a solution. Not a legal one.
106
00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:13.180
Not a professional one. A permanent one. Through an acquaintance,
107
00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:16.540
he found a man named David. Not a professional killer,
108
00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:19.600
not someone with a plan, just someone who needed a
109
00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:23.459
fix and didn't think too far ahead. The doctor told
110
00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:26.420
him what he wanted, he told him who the problem was,
111
00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:29.620
he told him where she lived, and he told him
112
00:08:30.019 --> 00:08:33.639
when she'd be home. He told him she needed to
113
00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:40.309
be gone before March, and David agreed. The plan was simple, monstrous,
114
00:08:41.190 --> 00:08:45.289
and already in motion. The knock comes just after dusk.
115
00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:50.120
It's soft, almost hesitant. The kind of knock that doesn't
116
00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:53.539
raise alarms. Sean hears it from the hallway and doesn't
117
00:08:53.559 --> 00:08:59.259
think twice. She's 19. She's home. Safe. Nothing in her
118
00:08:59.299 --> 00:09:03.070
world has ever suggested otherwise. When she opens the door,
119
00:09:03.450 --> 00:09:06.090
the man on the other side looks nervous. Not dangerous.
120
00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:09.929
He tells her he scratched her car. He gestures toward
121
00:09:09.950 --> 00:09:15.279
the driveway. He apologizes. He sounds embarrassed. She steps outside.
122
00:09:16.590 --> 00:09:22.610
The first shot echoes down the street. The second is closer, rushed, panicked.
123
00:09:23.470 --> 00:09:28.090
And then comes the sound of metal striking bone. A frantic,
124
00:09:28.210 --> 00:09:31.429
brutal rhythm that doesn't match the calm voice that lured
125
00:09:31.500 --> 00:09:37.159
her outside. When it's over, the man runs. And Sean...
126
00:09:37.580 --> 00:09:40.039
who had been preparing to testify in a hearing she
127
00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:44.379
never asked for, never makes it to the stand. The
128
00:09:44.419 --> 00:09:50.159
doctor's problem has been, quote, taken care of. But violence
129
00:09:50.370 --> 00:09:56.049
never stays contained. It leaks. It stains. It leaves traces
130
00:09:56.210 --> 00:10:00.340
even the most careful man can't anticipate. And the doctor
131
00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:05.360
was never careful he only thought he was the investigation
132
00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:08.659
began with the obvious a 19 year old girl murdered
133
00:10:08.899 --> 00:10:12.159
days before she was scheduled to testify against her long-term
134
00:10:12.470 --> 00:10:16.889
family doctor The timing is too precise to ignore. The
135
00:10:16.929 --> 00:10:21.779
motive too clean. The circle of people who benefit too small.
136
00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:26.019
But the police don't start with him. They start with
137
00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:29.460
the man who pulled the trigger. David isn't a professional.
138
00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.360
He isn't disciplined. He's just a man who needed money
139
00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.539
and made a choice he couldn't live with. He talks.
140
00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:41.269
Not to police at first, but to people around him.
141
00:10:42.049 --> 00:10:47.429
People who notice sudden cash who hear stories that shouldn't exist.
142
00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:52.580
Those pieces make their way to investigators. And once they
143
00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:56.820
have David, the rest unravels quickly. He tells them who
144
00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.759
hired him, he tells them why, and he tells them
145
00:10:59.779 --> 00:11:02.620
what the doctor said, what he paid, what he wanted.
146
00:11:03.659 --> 00:11:06.080
He tells them the truth the doctor spent his entire
147
00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:10.269
life trying to outrun. When the police come for the doctor,
148
00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:15.159
he reacts with disbelief, not fear. He insists he's being framed.
149
00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:20.559
He insists he's the victim. He insists the accusations are lies.
150
00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:25.250
But the evidence doesn't care about his insistence. The money trail,
151
00:11:25.259 --> 00:11:28.289
the phone records, the acquaintances who heard him complaining about
152
00:11:28.309 --> 00:11:32.529
the hearing, about the girls, about how, quote, something had
153
00:11:32.570 --> 00:11:35.899
to be done. And then there's the call. The one
154
00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.970
where he tried to force Katie to say he never
155
00:11:39.029 --> 00:11:41.629
touched her. The one where he turned on a tape
156
00:11:41.649 --> 00:11:45.669
recorder mid-sentence, thinking he could capture innocence the way other
157
00:11:45.929 --> 00:11:51.409
men capture confessions. You know I never harmed you, he'd said.
158
00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:57.320
Just say it. Say it now. She didn't. And that
159
00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:01.200
recording becomes a window into his unraveling, a man so
160
00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:06.360
desperate to preserve his image that he tried to manufacture reality.
161
00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:11.220
It becomes clear, painfully clear, that the murder wasn't a
162
00:12:11.259 --> 00:12:16.509
moment of madness. It was a choice. Predators like Dr.
163
00:12:16.750 --> 00:12:22.370
Josephakis Charalambos do not emerge from nowhere. They are shaped
164
00:12:22.750 --> 00:12:29.210
by childhood, by trauma, by pathology. by choice. His psychological
165
00:12:29.250 --> 00:12:35.610
profile reveals an ephebophilic interest, a sexual fixation on adolescence.
166
00:12:36.730 --> 00:12:40.629
He shows narcissistic entitlement, a belief that admiration and obedience
167
00:12:40.769 --> 00:12:47.230
are owed to him. He demonstrated coercive control, isolating, grooming,
168
00:12:47.389 --> 00:12:54.350
and manipulating vulnerable girls. He practiced boundary erosion, escalating violations
169
00:12:54.549 --> 00:12:59.850
once early ones went unchallenged And he used instrumental violence,
170
00:13:00.590 --> 00:13:04.769
using harm as a means to protect his self-image. His
171
00:13:04.809 --> 00:13:08.809
attraction wasn't just to their age. It was to their powerlessness.
172
00:13:09.629 --> 00:13:13.129
And when Sean and Katie refused to give him obedience, silence,
173
00:13:13.169 --> 00:13:17.519
or admiration, he didn't just feel threatened. He felt betrayed.
174
00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:22.759
And betrayal to a man like him is unforgivable. The
175
00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:27.730
trial is clinical, methodical, devastating. Sean's family sits in the
176
00:13:27.769 --> 00:13:31.830
courtroom listening to strangers describe the last moments of her life.
177
00:13:32.950 --> 00:13:37.110
Katie testifies about the complaints, the inappropriate behavior, the fear,
178
00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:42.750
the pressure, the call. Shelly appears too, older now, but
179
00:13:42.789 --> 00:13:44.940
still carrying the weight of what he did to her
180
00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:48.559
when she was young enough to believe he cared. The
181
00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:53.240
prosecution lays out the pattern. A doctor who groomed vulnerable girls.
182
00:13:53.940 --> 00:13:56.909
A doctor who crossed boundaries. because no one stopped him,
183
00:13:57.509 --> 00:14:01.590
a doctor who escalated when challenged, a doctor who believed
184
00:14:01.830 --> 00:14:07.200
he was entitled to admiration, obedience, silence. And when he
185
00:14:07.220 --> 00:14:11.879
didn't get it, he chose murder. The jury sees through him.
186
00:14:12.519 --> 00:14:16.100
They see the entitlement, the manipulation. They see the man
187
00:14:16.179 --> 00:14:20.879
behind the white coat. He is convicted of first-degree murder,
188
00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:26.320
life in prison, no parole for 25 years. Prison doesn't
189
00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:29.580
change him. It just gives him fewer people to perform for.
190
00:14:30.419 --> 00:14:33.559
Years later, at parole hearings, he still insists he's innocent.
191
00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:37.559
He still insists he never harmed anyone. He insists he
192
00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:43.840
was the victim. Risk assessments describe him as entitled, arrogant, self-focused.
193
00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:48.019
They warn that his future victims would likely be vulnerable
194
00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:52.039
girls or women. Because predators like him do not stop.
195
00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:56.340
They only lose access. In the end, he sits in
196
00:14:56.379 --> 00:14:58.679
a prison cell, clinging to the story he built his
197
00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:02.159
life on. The story of a good man, a caring man,
198
00:15:02.659 --> 00:15:06.940
a trusted man. But the truth is simpler. He wasn't
199
00:15:07.019 --> 00:15:12.080
undone by lies. He was undone by the undistorted reality.
200
00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:16.309
By two sisters who refused to be quiet. By a
201
00:15:16.309 --> 00:15:20.029
19-year-old girl who opened her door because she had no
202
00:15:20.110 --> 00:15:24.649
reason to fear what was outside. by a lifetime of
203
00:15:24.750 --> 00:15:29.710
choices that led him exactly where he belonged. He didn't
204
00:15:29.730 --> 00:15:34.620
kill Sean because she lied. He killed her because she
205
00:15:34.649 --> 00:15:39.820
was brave. To understand the man Joe Charalambas became, you
206
00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:43.100
have to start long before the degrees, long before the title,
207
00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:46.980
long before the authority he eventually wielded. You have to
208
00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:50.659
start in the quiet places, the childhood rooms where identity
209
00:15:50.700 --> 00:15:54.639
is shaped, where wounds formed, where the first fractures appear.
210
00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:59.720
Because Joe didn't emerge fully formed. He was built, and
211
00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:03.250
the building was not gentle. He grew up in a
212
00:16:03.289 --> 00:16:08.070
household where affection was inconsistent and approval was conditional. His
213
00:16:08.129 --> 00:16:11.950
father was a man who believed discipline was synonymous with love,
214
00:16:12.429 --> 00:16:15.480
and his mother was a woman who believed silence was
215
00:16:15.509 --> 00:16:20.279
synonymous with survival. Neither model gave Joe what children need most,
216
00:16:21.070 --> 00:16:26.750
a sense that their self-worth is stable, inherent, and safe. Instead,
217
00:16:26.789 --> 00:16:30.320
Joe learned early that worth had to be earned. He
218
00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:34.139
learned that praise came only when he excelled, attention came
219
00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:37.360
only when he performed, and that love came only when
220
00:16:37.419 --> 00:16:41.320
he was useful. Children who grow up in environments like
221
00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:46.860
this don't develop confidence. They develop hunger, a hunger for validation,
222
00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:50.639
a hunger for control. a hunger for certainty in a
223
00:16:50.700 --> 00:16:56.240
world that feels unpredictable. Joe was bright, undeniably so, and
224
00:16:56.279 --> 00:17:01.250
bright children in emotionally barren homes often become overachievers. Achievement
225
00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:04.730
becomes the currency they use to buy safety. Joe learned
226
00:17:04.789 --> 00:17:08.690
to be exceptional because exceptional children are harder to ignore.
227
00:17:09.789 --> 00:17:13.990
But exceptional children are also easier to break. By adolescence,
228
00:17:14.049 --> 00:17:17.789
Joe had already internalized a dangerous equation. If I am perfect,
229
00:17:18.130 --> 00:17:21.680
I am safe. If I am imperfect, I am nothing.
230
00:17:22.579 --> 00:17:27.500
This is the soil where pathological perfectionism grows, where narcissistic
231
00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:31.900
defenses take root, where empathy begins to erode under the
232
00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:36.869
weight of self-protection. Joe wasn't cruel as a child. He
233
00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:42.690
was frightened. Frightened of failure, of rejection, of being ordinary.
234
00:17:43.210 --> 00:17:49.400
And fear, when left untreated, calcifies. In school, Joe's intelligence
235
00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:54.579
became both shield and weapon. Teachers adored him. Peers envied him.
236
00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:59.160
Adults praised him. He learned that intellect could compensate for
237
00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:02.680
emotional deficits, that being the smartest person in the room
238
00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:06.980
could make up for never feeling like enough. But intellect
239
00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:12.380
without emotional grounding becomes brittle. It becomes defensive. It becomes grandiose.
240
00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:16.509
Joe began to see himself not just as capable, but
241
00:18:16.549 --> 00:18:22.329
as superior. Not just as knowledgeable, but as indispensable. Not
242
00:18:22.369 --> 00:18:27.049
just as gifted, but as chosen. This is the quiet
243
00:18:27.190 --> 00:18:31.430
beginning of narcissistic entitlement. Not the loud, boastful kind, but
244
00:18:31.470 --> 00:18:36.950
the cold, clinical kind that hides behind competence. Joe didn't
245
00:18:37.029 --> 00:18:40.819
need to brag. His achievements did it for him. And
246
00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:44.920
every achievement reinforced the belief that he was different, separate,
247
00:18:45.660 --> 00:18:49.450
above all. By the time Joe entered medical training, the
248
00:18:49.490 --> 00:18:54.569
transformation was nearly complete. Medicine gave him structure, authority, power,
249
00:18:55.190 --> 00:18:58.869
a hierarchy he could climb, a role that demanded obedience,
250
00:18:59.609 --> 00:19:03.950
a title that insulated him from scrutiny. But medicine also
251
00:19:03.990 --> 00:19:09.660
gave him something else, people who trusted him implicitly. And trust,
252
00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:13.819
for someone with Joe's psychological architecture, is not a bond,
253
00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:19.369
it's leverage. Joe's childhood taught him that vulnerability is dangerous.
254
00:19:20.089 --> 00:19:23.829
His adolescence taught him that superiority is safety. And his
255
00:19:23.890 --> 00:19:29.349
training taught him that authority is unquestioned. Combine those three
256
00:19:29.410 --> 00:19:31.450
lessons and you get a man who sees patients not
257
00:19:31.509 --> 00:19:36.069
as people, but as instruments. Tools that validate his identity.
258
00:19:36.529 --> 00:19:40.660
Props that reinforce his importance. Objects that exist within his
259
00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:45.079
orbit rather than alongside it. Joe didn't become dangerous because
260
00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.119
he lacked intelligence. He became dangerous because he lacked humility.
261
00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:52.880
He didn't become dangerous because he lacked skill. He became
262
00:19:52.940 --> 00:19:58.140
dangerous because he lacked empathy. He didn't become dangerous because
263
00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:04.900
he lacked opportunity. He became dangerous because he lacked internal limits.
264
00:20:06.089 --> 00:20:09.529
He was a man who was shaped by conditional attachment
265
00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:19.799
pathological perfectionism, narcissistic entitlement, emotional detachment, fear-based identity formation, instrumental empathy,
266
00:20:20.259 --> 00:20:25.220
which is empathy used strategically, not compassionately, and grandiose self-concept
267
00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:31.920
masked by professionalism. Joe Charalambos was not born monstrous. He
268
00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:36.380
was born vulnerable. And vulnerability, when fused with brilliance and
269
00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:42.329
never tempered by empathy, can become something else entirely. It
270
00:20:42.369 --> 00:20:49.599
becomes ambition without conscience, authority without restraint. He became a
271
00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:54.859
man who learned early that love must be earned and
272
00:20:54.900 --> 00:21:00.599
spent the rest of his life demanding payment. As always,
273
00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:03.359
thank you so much for your support and encouragement. It
274
00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:05.680
means the world to me. Make sure to check out
275
00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:09.349
my first book, Malice, an anthology of true crime available
276
00:21:09.430 --> 00:21:12.670
on Amazon and Kindle. If you'd like to support the show,
277
00:21:13.109 --> 00:21:16.829
visit patreon.com slash malicepod where you can access bonus content
278
00:21:17.210 --> 00:21:19.230
for a dollar a month, or you can make a
279
00:21:19.329 --> 00:21:24.210
one-time donation through PayPal to at malicepod. To reach me directly,
280
00:21:24.710 --> 00:21:28.279
email me at malicepod at gmail.com. I love to hear
281
00:21:28.299 --> 00:21:31.259
from listeners, so my door is always open. I hope
282
00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:34.299
you will join me next week as we... dip into
283
00:21:34.339 --> 00:21:37.759
the world of a man who weaponized his own mediocrity
284
00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:43.829
to fatal ends. Until then, I'm Ariel Cooksey, and this
285
00:21:44.670 --> 00:21:46.630
is Malice. Malice