The Chin-Cutter

[Abishai100]

Harold was a strange American male working as a bank teller in Chicago and living alone in a modest apartment. He was thirty-five years old and a graduate of Northwestern University. Harold's parents were killed in a car accident while he was in college, and the tragedy sucked out all the aspirations from his mind and heart. He was content being a lowly bank teller.

One day, something in Harold snapped. An annoying and impatient bank patron, an obese Persian man, came into the bank right before noon closing time on Saturday, and Harold was trying to explain to him that the bank was closing and could not assist the man. The Persian insisted he be served, and then he proceeded to make a giant stink about bank operating hours. He then asked Harold be reported to the bank manager for failing to serve him. Harold politely asked the man for his home mailing address, and reparations would be mailed to him as soon as possible, and the man wrote down his mailing address and gave it to Harold.

Two months later, the Persian man, a wealthy businessman and rumoured small-time opium smuggler, was found strangled to death in his Chicago high-rise and his chin oddly and completely cut off. There were no fingerprints, so the killer apparently wore rubber gloves to cover up his tracks, and so, there were no suspects. The primary detective studying the case was a new Chicago investigator named Jim Gordon. Gordon found no traces of burglary or ransacking of personal books or papers and suspected the killer was someone who had some sort of grudge against the Persian.

Harold was shopping at the Chicago Mall and was being harassed by a Jehovah's Witness who insisted Harold take some free brochures. Harold asked the man for his mailing address so he could write him letters about his sudden curiosity about the church, and the man gave it to him. Harold left the mall smiling.

Two months later, the Jehovah's Witness member was found strangled to death in his Chicago apartment and his chin oddly and completely cut off. Jim Gordon was in charge of the investigation once more and wondered if this was a serial killer with the pattern of cutting off the chins of victims whom he held a grudge against. Gordon concluded that since the two victims included a drug dealer and a Jehovah's Witness, the killer may be someone who haplessly bumped into them and was in some way harassed about customer or investor relations. Gordon wondered if the killer was a bank employee or a member of a church.

Harold was driving home drunk on a Saturday night when he was pulled over by a police officer named Samuels who gave him a ticket and summons for drunk-driving. Harold started crying and begged the cop he give him his mailing address so he could write repentance letters to him, and the cop happily agreed and also promised to waive the summons and just give Harold a speeding ticket as long as Harold drove straight home, while the cop followed him in his car. Harold agreed with a benevolent smile and was escorted home safely.

Two months later, Officer Samuels was found strangled to death in his backyard with his chin oddly and completely cut off. Jim Gordon was once again in charge of the investigation and suspected the killer was definitely the pattern chin-cutter (and Gordon nicknamed the psycho the Chin-Cutter) serial killer. Gordon wondered if the Chin-Cutter was pulled over by Officer Samuels for drunk-driving and obtained the cop's home address through some clever act of pity and faked remorse. Gordon also wondered why the Chin-Cutter would kill a drug-dealer, a Jehovah's Witness, and a cop. Gordon suspected that the killer might be an average citizen and dutiful employee who jus snapped one day and decided to cut off the chin of anyone who irked him.

Gordon realized that the Chin-Cutter probably met the Persian man, the drug-dealer, at a store or shopping center. However, Gordon wondered how the Chin-Cutter obtained the Persian's mailing address. Gordon had a flash of inspiration and realized the Persian must have gone to a bank as a customer/patron and met the Chin-Cutter who must be a teller at the bank.

Harold was working Saturday morning at his bank window happily. He was doodling decapitated heads on his little napkin which he kept from his Taco Bell breakfast pick-up on his way to work. Suddenly, Detective Gordon burst into the bank with aiding police officers and arrested Harold and charged him for the chin-cutter murders. Three months later, Harold was found guilty of the crimes and was given the death penalty. Jim Gordon attended the gas-chamber execution at which Harold stated coldly before he was executed, "America is a den of misfits!"