Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Friends Of Killers Share Their Thoughts After Finding Out

Woman holding a gun in the dark
woman in black leather jacket standing on street during night time

CW: Murder, death, and kidnapping.

It's truly shocking when you think you know someone inside out, only to discover something about them which truly throws you for a loop.

Even friends you've known for your entire life might be harboring a shocking secret you would never expect they were capable of.

Up to and including, murder.

Needless to say, learning you were friends with a killer is enough to make you reevaluate your entire friendship, and wonder if you missed the obvious signs all along.


Redditor Ornery_Pop6860 was curious to hear how people processed that they were friends with a killer, leading them to ask:
"Friends of killers what were your first thoughts after finding out/Did you think they seemed off before?"

The Silence Was Telling

"I knew something had happened, WAYYY quieter than he usually was."

"He kept zoning out/ staring into space."

"For context it was an accident but he was scared and covered it up, not very well though because the cops found the body."

"He was suspiciously invested in the case, I was actually with him watching TV when the news announced they had found the body, he started sobbing and I was like 'dude did u know her' 'no it’s just really sad that family lost their grandma', I chalked it up to him losing his own grandma a mo. or two prior."

"It didn’t even occur to me that it happened like 2mi from his house."

"He was doing a bad job at work and kept getting distracted."

"When the police showed up at our work, they came over to him and said they had some questions to ask him and they didn’t even get another word out before he collapsed, started bawling and spilled everything out that happened."

"He confessed everything right there on the shop floor."

"It would later come out that he’d written a 2 part apology letter and put it in a ziplock bag and gone back to leave it with the body."

"They asked the front office for a document with his handwriting on it and it was a perfect match."

"There was damage to the front of his pickup along with DNA in the bumper."

"The family understood it was an accident and did feel sorry for him."

"He got off with a couple years in prison, which he only served half."

"When he got out the first thing he did was have his pickup destroyed at a junkyard."

"He said he couldn’t bare to look at anything from that night."

"He wasn’t a bad guy, it was just an accident."- DecentCupid96

Spiraling Downwards

"Not my friend but my older sister's closest friend through childhood and high school, so she was like a second sister to me."

"Both developed major drug problems starting their mid-teens."

"My sister eventually decided she couldn't have her in her life anymore for the sake of her recovery."

"Years go by and she suddenly gets arrested for killing an old lady she was shoveling snow for."

"Apparently the woman confronted her about having stolen her credit card and she beat her to death."

"There was never anything off about her."

"Just a normal teenage girl."

"Honor student, multiple sport athlete, well liked, and unlike my sister never got in trouble at school."- Iztac_xocoatl

Stages Of Processing

"He wasn’t a friend of mine, but I hung out a few times with Robert Long, who set fire to Palace Backpackers in Childers, Queensland, Australia, when we both stayed/ worked out of there."

"Fifteen people died in the fire he set.'

"I moved on in my travels two days before he set the place on fire."

"First thoughts were obviously 'Holy F*cking Sh*t!'"

"Then you fear for the people you knew and had made friends with, scared for their safety."

"Then reality hits and you realize how close you yourself were to possible death."

"Then disbelief hits, as names of those murdered start being released and you realize you knew many of them, and had worked alongside them."

"Then it gets personal."

"You follow the news nightly as he goes on the run."

"You will the police to find him."

"You hope they kill the son of a b*tch as he attempts to flee."

"And when they finally catch him and throw him in jail for the rest of his life, you say good, I hope you rot in there."

"And then you forget about it all, because you were lucky and neither you or any of your friends died."

"And then, years later, when you have kids of your own, it all comes back to you occasionally."

"Like when your kid starts talking about traveling one day and staying in backpacker hostels."- scarajones

Not Just The Fellow Outsider...

"Went to school with a dumba** we’ll call Jeff."

"Wasn’t a killer, but was always creepy af."

"He would also always say and do dumb sh*t to get a ruse out of people."

"I wouldn’t really say he was a friend, but being both kinda loser kids we hung around the same circles."

"One day, he said 'huh huh I got a lady locked in my basement huh huh'."

"It being Jeff, everyone just shrugged it off or called him a dumba**, thinking he was just being an idiot."

"1 yr later."

"News story breaks."

"Turns out him and his uncle had a lady living at their house against her will."

"No sh*t."- KFDM_guest

A Victim Of Circumstance

"Friends older brother was a loose cannon (huge understatement)."

"I'd heard how much abuse his mum, younger brother (my friend) and himself were given frequently by his mums partner (she was vulnerable mentally and physically handicapped)."

"One day his brother and mum were beaten by said partner and he snapped."

"To this day I don't feel like he is a bad person for what he done, just a young man who was failed by everything that was supposed to protect him and who felt it necessary to protect his mum and brother."

"I was sad for my friend because his brother was the only constant he really had and now he's in prison."- Tygrimus

More Troubled Than They Thought

"I was in a state-run psych ward while awaiting trial."

"I befriended a schizophrenic guy and we hung out daily."

"When he wasn't responding to the voices in his head (usually by cracking up laughing until teary eyed), he was smart, charismatic, friendly and pretty funny."

"Long story short, he got a weekend pass to spend the weekend with his family and murdered them all with a hammer."

"He also murdered the Chinese exchange student staying with them."- Panderino83

She Lived Up To Sad Expectations

"I went to school with a girl who killed someone in a car accident."

"She ran a red light and was drunk."

"Couple years later she gets out of jail and gets in a high speed chase and derails off the interstate and crashes into a dealership killing someone in her vehicle."

"I think the other passengers also passed or were seriously injured, she on the other hand was fine!"

"She was always a troubled kid back in school."

"I recently remembered her after rewatching my quinceañera video and seen her in it."- Popular_Composer_204

One Bad Decision

"My friend's younger brother (teenager at the time) got so high he thought he was invincible."

"He decided he had to test it, so he got in his car and drove into oncoming traffic."

"Hit a minivan head-on and killed a whole family."

"He always seemed like a normal kid."

"Now he's in jail for a long, long time."- Veritas3333

Still Processing

"We had a family friend that I knew."

"He was more my dad's friend but helped out our family with things."

"I also knew his stepson since we had been in school since elementary together though we didn't talk to each other much."

"About 7 years ago my dad told me he had some bad news and that the family friend had strangled his wife to death with a cell phone charging cord."

"After that I kind of just didn't interact with the guy or the step son."

"The step son was in ranger school at the time and last I knew refused to move back to Iowa as he was worried he might kill the man who took his mother's life away."

"It felt and still kind of feels weird."

"I technically knew the victim as well."

"She was pretty nice and I liked chatting with her and how her son and I acted in elementary."

"I think that's what makes it so weird is knowing both of them."- Kain9wolfy·

People have a way of surprising you.

Sadly, not always in a good way.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Gavin Newsom; Sean Duffy
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Eric Lee/Getty Images

Gavin Newsom Hits Sean Duffy With Blunt Factcheck After Duffy Tries To Take Credit For New Infrastructure Grants

California Governor Gavin Newsom gave Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy a pretty important reminder after Duffy touted $1.5 billion in new infrastructure grants as a win for the Trump administration.

Duffy shared a video of different landmarks of U.S. infrastructure—including the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and Portland's Union Station—that would be improved as a result of BUILD grants allocated because of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which President Joe Biden signed in 2021.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stephen and Katie Miller
Shannon Finney/WireImage

Stephen Miller's Wife Ripped After She Shades CBS Reporter Who Cried Foul Over Spiked '60 Minutes' Segment

Political adviser Katie Miller—the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller—was sharply criticized after she mocked CBS News reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, who'd earlier sent an email to her colleagues calling out CBS News' Bari Weiss for killing a 60 Minutes segment about El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison facility.

In October, Paramount chief executive David Ellison unveiled a deal, valued at $150 million, to purchase Weiss’ contrarian outlet The Free Press, while also installing her as the top editorial leader at CBS News. The move fueled speculation among media analysts that Ellison was attempting to bolster the network’s credibility with President Donald Trump and the broader MAGA base.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sean Strickland; Donald Trump
Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images; Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

MAGA UFC Fighter Shares Brutal Reason Why He Has No Interest In Fighting At White House Event

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Sean Strickland backed MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2024, but now he's backing away from associating with the POTUS.

Strickland declared he'll pass on a White House South Lawn UFC event planned for Trump’s 80th birthday—which coincides with Flag Day—that is part of a larger celebration for the USA's 250th anniversary.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jasmine Crockett; JD Vance
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images; Caylo Seals/Getty Images

Jasmine Crockett Gives JD Vance Blunt Reality Check After He Tries To Mock Her 'Street Girl Persona'

Texas Republican Jasmine Crockett hit back at Vice President JD Vance after he criticized her "street girl persona" during an appearance at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest.

Speaking on stage, Vance mocked Crockett's ambitions to join the Senate—she recently launched a campaign—and received supportive "boos" from the conservative crowd when he said:

Keep ReadingShow less
A group of people in medical scrubs walking down a hallway
group of doctors walking on hospital hallway
Photo by Luis Melendez on Unsplash

Healthcare Workers Share The Common Medical Myths That Drive Them Crazy

It's safe to say the majority of people have a somewhat romanticized view of medicine, largely owing to soap operas or prime time medical dramas.

Others have an equally skewed, if somewhat sadder, grasp on medicine, after being raised to fear or not trust doctors.

Keep ReadingShow less