People who kill dream before they do. Let’s say you have a wealthy grandmother whom you hope to inherit. Let’s say the grandmother celebrates her birthday before she dies (possible: see Elizabeth II). Let’s say the grandchild started borrowing because of an inheritance that didn’t come. Let’s say the grandson goes to bed one day and dreams about the death of the old woman. Who hasn’t dreamed that someone would die? This is definitely the first step. Second, imagine killing that person. Most people stick with the first step, which also has its dangers. As a child, I used to dream that a teacher I hated would die. The truth is, he’s dead and I thought I killed him because of the typical magical thinking of childhood. My conscience bothered me so much that I didn’t even go to confession and lived in mortal sin for several years, suffering an accident and going to hell on my head. As an adult, while talking to my psychoanalyst about this, I was able to free myself from that old guilt. Not entirely, if I’m being honest.
The second step, as we say, is to imagine that you are killing. Let’s say poison. The poison leaves no trace if you’re smart, and old women aren’t usually autopsied because they have to die of old age. I mean, poisoning your rich grandma shouldn’t be this hard. For now, crime stays in the fantasy realm and anything is allowed in fantasy. You can imagine that you’ve already buried your grandmother and are living a high life with her legacy. You order caviar at the best hotels and enjoy the sauna and spas of the luxury resort.
Perhaps to expand that fantasy, you go online and look for information on the hardest-to-find poisons in a corpse. Until then, fine. Everything can be imagined, but not everything imagined should be put into practice. But suppose you end up poisoning my grandmother. What helped you make the leap from fantasy to reality? That’s the real question. If we could answer, we would kill grandmas less.