The King Of The Nice Guys

Mass shooter Eliot Rodger apparently did leave enough warning signs to trigger a visit from sheriff's deputies last month.  They apparently found a charming young man who totally wasn't planning to murder women.  Rodger's sprawling manifesto/premeditated murder handbook details the notion that he thought he was caught for sure.

"I had the striking and devastating fear that someone had somehow discovered what I was planning to do, and reported me for it," Rodger wrote toward the end of a 137-page account of his life. "If that was the case, the police would have searched my room, found all of my guns and weapons, along with my writings about what I plan to do with them.

"I would have been thrown in jail, denied of the chance to exact revenge on my enemies. I can't imagine a hell darker than that."

The manifesto, titled "My Twisted World," was obtained by CNN affiliate KEYT.

"It was apparent he was very mentally disturbed," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said, referring to the contents of the autobiography.

So disturbed that someone from a mental health agency, after consulting with one of Rodger's relatives, requested police check on his welfare April 30, Brown said.

Rodger's family contacted police after discovering social media posts about suicide and killing people, family spokesman and attorney Alan Shifman told reporters Saturday.

Brown said Rodger told deputies it was a misunderstanding and that he was not going to hurt anyone or himself. Rodger said he was having troubles with his social life.

"He was articulate. He was polite. He was timid," Brown told CNN on Sunday.

There was nothing in his behavior to suggest he was violent, and the deputies "determined he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary hold," Brown said.

And so a month later, he happily carried out his plan and murdered six people and himself because women would sleep with him.  He got the benefit of the doubt, I guess.  The two bored deputies didn't think anything was wrong.

Rodger wrote that a wave of relief came over him when the deputies left. "If they had demanded to search my room ... (t)hat would have ended everything. For a few horrible seconds I thought it was all over."

Instead it was all over for six other people, and yes, Rodger himself.  Something to think about.