All the Sinners Bleed

“Folks liked to say Charon wasn’t a place where terrible things like that happened with any regularity.

Titus thought folks had short memories.

Charon’s recent history was indeed relatively quiet, but the past held horrors and terrors that had moved into the realm of legend. His father would sometimes share a quote from one of Reverend Jackson’s fire-and-brimstone sermons and say that Charon was long overdue for a season of pain. Titus didn’t think Gideon had the gift of prescience, but he did believe in the rise and fall of time. That what had happened before would happen again. The wheel spins and spins and eventually it lands on the same number it landed on twenty, thirty, forty years ago. No matter what they found inside the school, the season of peace had passed. Now the season of pain had returned, on his watch.”

Titus’s concept of time is cyclical, not linear, which suggests that the same events will happen again and that they never really ended in the first place. This quote also reveals the dangers of thinking of one’s hometown as being invariably “safe.” Such complacency ultimately makes people more vulnerable to being harmed by villains who are hiding in plain sight.

“Ricky Sours and his neo-Confederates had installed solar lights around the statue of Ol’ Rebel Joe. Titus thought the lights looked cheap and disposable, much like the statue itself…Most of them were made of low-grade bronze or limestone, mass-produced and erected as fast and inexpensively as possible. These effigies served two purposes.

To create a false narrative of honor and sacrifice that Confederate sympathizers could embrace in place of the shameful pall of treason that was their actual birthright.

And to remind Black Southerners that to some of their white neighbors they were just escaped cattle meant to be sacrificed on the altar of the Lost Cause.”

Titus notes that Confederate monuments propagate a false historical narrative, and thus they somewhat thwart the endurance of the past. At the same time, these monuments solidify the past’s dominion because they continue to reify the racism and violence that serves as the foundation upon which the area was developed.

“He thought trees were the closest living things to immortal on earth. How many of these arboreal giants had been saplings when the first indigenous people hunted whitetails here? When the Jamestown settlers ate their shoes as the first Virginia winter tested their resolve? How many men who looked like him were lynched from their branches in the years following the failed rebellion of Southern landowners and poor hired men? What would these eternal elements say if you asked them about the children Jeff Spearman, Latrell Macdonald, and the Last Wolf tortured? Would they say anything at all? Or would the affairs of men be like the affairs of ants to them?

‘You think too much,’ his pops used to tell him when he’d ask questions like that as a kid.

‘That’s his superpower, Albert,’ his mother would say before kissing him on the forehead.”

In this passage, Titus essentially laments the fact that humans don’t live long enough to remember history well enough to avoid repeating it. Although trees live long enough to “remember” such history, human history doesn’t concern them in the same way it concerns humans. This quote also sets up a moment of dramatic irony that will come to fruition later when, in a moment of shock, stress, and extreme injury, Titus hears his deceased mother’s voice reprimanding him for thinking too much and reminding him to get up and act instead.

“He may have theomania. He’s obsessed with God or thinks he’s God or is angry with God…

I don’t think he was trying to hide his true identity. The wolf plays an antagonistic role in Christian theology. Especially the New Testament. I think…I think that’s how he sees himself. He thinks he’s the Wolf. The Angel of Death. And his rage is both in service to and directed at God.”

Titus reasons that there is a fine line between being deeply religious and developing theomania, in part because theomania can easily masquerade as “normal religion.” Additionally, part of this particular killer’s theomania is his tendency to mythologize himself, an attribute that lends him a certain gravitas and makes him think that the murders he commits are part of a cosmic plan.

“Righteousness. The kind of righteousness that made you feel above petty things like laws and amendments. The kind of righteousness that came from the barrel of a gun. He knew now it was a false piousness. A lying piety that seduced you into believing the end justified the means.”

Titus sees the type of righteousness described in this passage in many people from his home community, and he views this as a very dangerous quality. The question of whether the ends justify the means is tantamount to ethical theory, and this idea often pops up in crime novels or novels featuring law enforcement. Titus doesn’t normally believe that the ends justify the means, but he knows he’s susceptible to this same type of righteousness if left unchecked. Therefore, he periodically checks himself.

“He was local. Titus was sure of that. Only a local would know where the willow tree was located. Only a local would work with Spearman and Latrell. Only someone who had Charon tattooed on their bones could hate the county enough to sow its soil with the blood of innocents.”

Searching for the third killer, Titus reasons that the killer is most likely a local because he has clearly developed a deep hatred for the place. Although outsiders can read history and develop disdain, it’s not the same hatred that can come from growing up in an abusive environment.

“He was about to shatter their fantasies of safety and security. He was set to smash one of their idols. He was going to have to drag them into a new reality where people they knew, people they’d known all their lives, were monsters with human faces.”

Thriller and horror novels often question the nature of monstrosity or villainy, allowing many people to believe that disturbed criminals, such as serial killers, are somehow not humans but instead “monsters.” Departing from this trend, the author creates a character in Titus who is convinced that this belief is actually harmful. The belief that nobody who seems “human” or part of the community could be a villain is what allows such villains to hide in plain sight for so long.

“No, we are not calling him that. We aren’t going to give him any kind of moniker except ‘suspect.’…It’s been my experience you give these killers names, you make them into myths. That’s what they want. They crave it. They get off on it. They aren’t myths. They ain’t Hannibal Lecter or Red John or the Mastermind. They are just killers. Nothing more, nothing less.”

When Davy asks if they should adopt the name that Facebook has given the third killer, the “Weeping Willow Man” (148), Titus opposes this idea because he believes it’s dangerous to pretend that serial killers are somehow “not human.” Doing so this causes people to let down their guard around everyone who seems human, which actually includes serial killers. Titus also wants to deny satisfaction to the killer, and he knows the killer craves mythic status for his crimes.

“We all wear masks. We have a public face and a private face and our real face. A person like this, someone who could do to another human being what you see in those pictures, once you strip away all their masks there’s nothing there. They are just a shell. So they fill it with fantasy, with desires that would make a normal person vomit. But that’s how we’ll catch them. They’ve let the mask slip in front of someone. They’ve made a mistake. We just have to track it down.”

The third killer wears a literal mask while committing murders, which prevents Titus from identifying him through the videos and photographs. However, the killer (Royce Lazare) also wears a metaphorical “mask” or disguise in public by passing as a white man, concealing who birthed him and who raised him, and masquerading as a normal citizen. Just as the police badge or the status of reverend can serve as masks to help earn people’s trust, so too can school district jobs allow criminals like Spearman and Lazare to go undetected.

“‘Usually where there is a tragedy in life, I find solace in the Word. I’m able to compartmentalize the situation as a part of the Master’s plan. And His understanding is not my understanding. This situation with Jeff Spearman has tested my obedience and my resolve. I keep thinking, how did Jeff allow the devil to enter his heart to such an extent?’

Titus cleared his throat. ‘Reverend, do you really think a fallen angel took over Jeff Spearman’s body and made him kill those kids?’

[…]

‘Is it easier to accept that a man who this country trusted with their children for over thirty years was a sociopath and a charlatan, who had visited his unnatural desires on those he was supposed to protect? The devil takes many forms, Sheriff. A snake, an angel with flaming wings, madness. You don’t believe in the devil, Sheriff?’

[…]

‘Reverend, if you’ve seen the things I have, you’d realize the devil is just the name we give to the terrible things we do to each other.’”

Titus argues with reverends, coworkers, and family members about the same topic: whether the root of evil is supernatural or merely human. Some people blame evil on God or the devil, and others blame it on curses, but Titus maintains throughout that these concepts are imaginary scapegoats that detract attention away from the real problem, which is humans.

“My congregation is full of the anointed. We are God’s children, full of his grace and his supernatural piety. No one who walks through that there vestibule and gives themselves over to the power of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Ghost could ever do there what you say. ‘For they shall take up serpents and not be bitten, and they shall drink poison and it will not harm them,’ Pastor Elias said as he raised his left arm and extended it.

‘Pastor, I’m not here to pass judgment on your congregation. I’m looking for a killer. A killer who took the lives of young boys and girls. And just for the record, Mark, chapter sixteen, verse eighteen doesn’t say anything about not being bitten or not being harmed by poison. You fixed that to say what you wanted it to.’

[…] ‘But only the sinners bleed, Sheriff,’ Elias said.”

In this passage, Elias demonstrates the theme of The Christ-Haunted South and the Misuse of Religion by misquoting the Bible to make it say whatever he wants. He does this both in conversation and while preaching to his congregation, including Royce as a child. S. A. Cosby then appropriates this same move with the novel’s title, altering Elias’s statement that “only” sinners bleed when attacked, to say that “all” sinners bleed when attacked. This wording implies that everyone is a sinner or potential sinner, which is in line with Titus’s belief that evil is a human problem and not a supernatural one.

“The comments were almost evenly split between folks supporting his deputies with rhetoric he found abhorrent and folks labeling him and his department as racists and murderers. Other articles mentioned his press conference. He’d named Latrell and Spearman as perpetrators along with a third unidentified perpetrator in the murders of the children under the weeping willow tree. The fact that they had videotapes that confirmed Latrell’s status as an accessory to multiple murders didn’t seem to dampen the fury some people felt toward his department.

Titus understood that sentiment. Too many Black men and women had been executed by the folks with badges for doing demonstrably less than what Latrell had done. The fact that Latrell had been holding a gun and had killed someone did nothing to negate that tragic fact.

Titus always told himself he was changing things by working the system from the inside. Had promised himself as sheriff he would make sure his department was different. But Latrell had shown him the lie that lived in that promise. What if you couldn’t change the system because it was working as intended? And if that was true, then why the hell was he wearing this badge?”

This passage complicates The Effects of Racism on Crime and Justice. Titus’s police badge is a major symbol in the novel, but its meaning changes as Titus’s relationship to the force changes. At first, it symbolizes the hope of a better future and Titus’s ability to contribute to that future. However, at times the badge (or Titus’s status as sheriff) actually impedes his ability to create a better future. At times, he even views the star as just a “cheap” bit of shiny material, because as long as he continues to wear the badge, he can’t radically reform the system if he wants to get reelected.

“Titus closed his eyes tight. What good was the star on his chest, the title in front of his name, if he couldn’t keep the people he cared about from losing hope? All the power and supposed glory that came with being a peacekeeper turned to dust when the woman who shared your bed confessed that she was terrified of the place where she’d been born.”

Again, Titus questions the value of the law enforcement and justice systems, using his sheriff badge as a symbol. The whole point of becoming sheriff was to improve the community and make it safer for his loved ones, but instead he has unearthed murders that make people flee the town. Although Titus ends up solving the case, he becomes more and more disillusioned with the law enforcement system through this process, so much so that he quits after solving the case.

“Flannery O’Connor said the South is Christ-haunted. It’s haunted, all right. By the hypocrisy of Christianity. All these churches, all these Bibles, but it’s places just like Charon where the poor are ostracized. Where girls are called whores if they report a rape. Where I can’t go to the Watering Hole without wondering if the bartender done spit in my drink. People say this kind of thing doesn’t happen in a place like Charon. Darlene, this kind of thing is what makes places like Charon run. It’s the rock upon which this temple is built.”

This quote develops the Christ-haunted South and the misuse of religion. Titus observes that being religious does not make somebody righteous, but it definitely creates a mask of righteousness for that person to wear. This is dangerous because ignoring people’s “sins” becomes normalized, like when Elias claims no one in his congregation was capable of being harmed or of harming others. This may sound like loyalty, but in reality it allows evil people like Royce to hide in plain sight.

“You know this thing here, it’s more than a badge. It’s a promise. You put this on and you’re supposed to be giving your word that you will protect and serve, but more than that, you’re promising to do your very best to keep the people you serve safe. Keep their children safe. Their sons, their daughters. Their brothers and their sisters. That’s what it’s supposed to mean, anyway. That’s the dream, ain’t it? But when you break that promise, this star becomes a cheap piece of tin and you become a liar.”

The police star is meant to symbolize something very specific for the entire force, which Titus explains here; however, he discovers that one of his deputies (Tom) was crooked. To Titus, abusing one’s power is the same as abusing one’s morals, and therefore the symbolism is lost for Tom. Titus claims that serial killers wear masks, and when the mask is stripped away, nothing is left. The same is true with Tom’s police badge. He is so dishonest that now the symbol is devoid of any meaning at all.

“The image of the lamb hanging from his door haunted him. Children and animals were easy targets. Neither had learned to be wary of good intentions and sweet words.”

As a former FBI agent, Titus has seen all types of criminals, but the most disturbing are those who refuse to pick on someone their own size. The third killer taunts Titus by emphasizing how he acts as a “wolf” who preys on “lambs” (or targets who are smaller, younger, and more vulnerable, such as children from other states).

“He was in a race against time. The Last Wolf was spiraling out of control, but in doing so he was taking lives with him. Titus silently chastised himself for calling him the ‘Last Wolf.’ He’d given him a name after all. He’d solidified his status as a myth without even realizing it.”

Titus opposes giving the third killer a name, such as Weeping Willow Man (which other people call him), because he believes naming the killer gives them mythical status. Although this is often true, names may serve different purposes. The name “The Last Wolf” is based on evidence he knows about the killer and is an easy way to refer to him. Sometimes naming something can give it more power, but names can also lessen something’s power by putting it in a box that is easier to understand. An unknown, nameless killer may actually be scarier than a killer with a creepy or supernatural moniker.

“‘He’s obsessed with religion and angels. He’s physically strong as hell. Does he hate the Black side of himself? Is that why he attacks Black kids? He’s bold, but most sociopaths are bold. He’s probably passing. He was the alpha among him, Spearman, and Latrell. How did he meet them? Latrell didn’t seem to be an active participant in the murders. He was purely bait.’

Titus stopped writing. One thing he’d learned the hard way was that profiling wasn’t magic. It was at best a series of educated guesses based on quantified research and analysis. But some people weren’t quantifiable. Some people didn’t fit the profile. They didn’t even fit within the human race.

Some people were monsters among monsters.”

Despite Titus’s insistence that evil is merely human and that the third killer is not a mythical being, he also accepts that profiling doesn’t work on all humans because some people are too depraved to fall into strictly defined categories. This suggests that, even if supernatural beings aren’t real, humans can still basically transcend humanity and become monsters.

“The killer has become the Weeping Willow Man for the kids and teenagers of the county. Arcane rituals to summon him have become common practice at bonfires and house parties. For the younger children he is the latest incarnation of the bogeyman, except they can see his work on the local news.”

On the one hand, treating the murderer as a game may be a coping mechanism that helps children (and adults) process their fear. On the other hand, this impulse may be just as dangerous as the impulse to write off evil as a supernatural thing that is separate from humans. That is, this impulse may leave people more vulnerable to the killer or even lead them to believe that he is cool and fun.

“Ricky Sours found himself trying to talk down some of his most ardent followers who wanted to carry weapons on the day of the parade at Fall Fest. Talking to them now was like trying to pet a starving bear. There was a lust in their eyes that frightened him. They wanted a confrontation. They wanted to split skulls and rend sinew. They couldn’t do it to the person killing their neighbors, so perhaps anyone who dared to stand in opposition to them on the day of the parade would do.

He felt like that old Mickey Mouse cartoon with the dancing brooms. His creation was no longer under his control.”

Violence begets violence, and there’s a turning point during which Ricky Sours’s hate-fueled creation has gone too far. This quote is ironic for a few reasons. First, Ricky now sees part of the problem, but still can’t fix it. Second, Elias Hillington has the same problem with his cult-like church, but refuses to see it, contributing to Royce’s pattern of spiraling out of control. Lastly, Ricky is surprised that his neo-Confederate group, which celebrates things like racism and violence, emboldens members to become more violent. His surprise indicates his lack of awareness about the harmful undercurrents in his own group.

“All I do know is violence begets more violence and all violence is a confession of pain. Hurt people tend to hurt people. Ricky had his folks all worked up, including Denver. Then we arrested Denver for a DUI yesterday. That was his third in five years. That meant he was going to lose his CDL. Lose his job. This was about the statue, but it was also about him. His life was spiraling out of control. He felt like he was losing everything. His job, his life. For a lot of these folks that statue is just a symbol of everything they fear they’ve lost. And people like you, like me, like Reverend Wilkes, we make easy scapegoats.”

Although Titus has already articulated what the Confederate statues actually symbolize, these symbols can likewise become perverted and start to stand for something different. Some Southerners, such as Denver, feel that Confederate statues represent a positive image of the Confederacy’s former “glory.” This misinterpretation of the symbol is dangerous because when people want to take the statues down for legitimate reasons, those who believe that the statue symbolizes glory may become violent, like Denver did.

“‘My grandma used to tell me how the early members of the Mennonite church was against slavery because they thought owning another person couldn’t be part of God’s plan. They felt like being slave owners was an unforgivable sin that would curse them to hell. Stain their sons and daughters for generations.’ Pip took a breath.

‘Charon’s been the home of so many terrible sins. Maybe there’s a curse here. One that’s stained us all.’”

Ironically, the same basic religion (Christianity) was used both to support slavery and to oppose it. Likewise, the idea of a curse is used in multiple ways to explain the violence in Charon. Whereas some people in town believe in the curse of Ham, Pip believes that slavery created a curse which may have disproportionately affected Black people. Titus still doesn’t believe in actual curses, but his theory of how violence works (that violence begets more violence in a cyclical fashion) is not actually that different from Pip’s curse idea.

“The darkness wasn’t that bad. In a way it was comforting. It was a place he’d run from for so long, a thing inside him that he wanted so badly to excise that he’d never considered the possibility that this was where he was supposed to be, what he was destined to become. One with the shadows, part of an endless night.

‘You better shut up with that noise.’”

Previously, Titus had thought his father was usually the one to tell him he thinks too much, but in this moment, his mother’s spirit seems to appear and say something similar to what Titus’s father would normally say. This quote is also ironic because, despite Titus’s repeated refusal that anything supernatural could exist, it’s something apparently supernatural that gives him the resolve to finish his mission.