The Vault

twenty- six

"REMEMBER, I AM NOT recording the vision of a madman."

There used to be a phrase applied to certain murderers that they were "guilty, but insane". The gentler version was that they killed "while the balance of their mind was disturbed". A comforting phrase in the days when the alternative was a date with the hangman. If you were temporarily unbalanced, you were not responsible for your actions. Instead you were sent to a prison for the criminally insane.

He was not mad.

He was not unbalanced.

He was responsible for his actions. Proud of most of them.