This story is sickening. I can't really comprehend. It's a fact that abusing animals is a symptom of a violent personality. In families, pet abuse often rises to people abuse. Ash, what do you mean by "your type of work?" Do you work with mentally ill? Usually a very dangerous diagnosis is paranoid schizophrenia. While most paranoid schizophrenics are not violent, some Paranoid Schizophrenics hear voices, have delusions, that tell them to hurt themselves and/or others. I've never read anything about a correlation between autism and violence. However, generally autism does denote an inability to relate to others. I think empathy is different than conscience. This serial killer obviously had no conscience. So many victims!