What Is Evil?

When the news first broke about the four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in the middle of the night, the word evil was on everyone’s lips. I encountered it on Reddit boards and podcasts, in the tabloids, on daytime TV, and in mainstream news outlets. This was surely the work of a monster. And when Bryan Kohberger was arrested, the evidence only seemed to confirm the fact. This guy was taking classes with an expert on serial killers. He’d worn a black mask and disconnected his phone during the murders. His car had been thoroughly cleaned, and he was seen wearing surgical gloves and depositing trash in his neighbor’s bin. The verdict was in even before he entered court with what a body-language expert described as a “sociopathic stare”: This guy was immediately seen as the next Ted Bundy. The darker and more callow corners of the internet were even asking, Who’s hotter?