Kara Beth Borden & David Ludwig

David Ludwig, Violence and Obsession

(Continued)

By Katherine Ramsland 

David Ludwig

Since his father had plenty of guns, there's reason to believe that from this exposure Ludwig viewed weapons as a way to enforce his will.  He was a hunter, so he understood the power of a gun.  If he had fantasies that involved violence, it's likely that guns would have been part of them.  And it's not unusual for a boy to compartmentalize his anger in such a way that he can seem (and be) a responsible kid while also feeling the need to act out. In that case, he'd imagine it in a private fantasy life.  In fact, compartmentalizing tends to make the anger more intense, because it becomes wrapped up in an identity that the adolescent keeps secret.  Nevertheless, it's a realm of escape and even enhanced self-esteem that can become quite real to him.  Within that arena, there's generally a set of moral codes and a sense of what matters that are entirely separate from what he may say or do to fit in with normal society.  The reports that he was withdrawing from friends support the likelihood that his inner world was becoming both more intense and more real for him.  Allegedly he had also told friends just before the murders that he could "kill someone and get away with it."

Kara Beth Borden

We don't yet know exactly what drove Ludwig to commit double homicide on November 13, 2005, but it does seem to be the case that he had little tolerance for being thwarted and might have developed an obsession with Kara to the point where barriers placed between them could elicit impulsive anger so charged that acting out the way he did may have seemed his only recourse in the moment.   In any event, he apparently had little inhibition in his fantasy life against killing.  So anger and lack of respect for others together with the need to impose his will and his ability to use a gun become the ingredients for an explosion when someone lights the fuse with, "No."     

As with the Starkweather/Fugate case, there remains a question as to how much of a victim Kara is.   Did she run with Ludwig because she was scared?  He apparently claims that video surveillance tapes from stores along their route will tell a different story, although he may just as easily be trying to use her to deflect attention from himself, as Starkweather eventually did.  Even if she willingly went along, she may not have known ahead of time what he'd intended to do on, which would at least make her less culpable for the murders than him.    

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1. Thanksgiving
2. Cause for Concern
3. Bloody Sunday
4. On the Run
5. Silence and Suspicion
6. Enthralled
7. A Darker Picture Emerges
8. Dark Fantasies
9. Prayers for the Dead
10. David Ludwig Psych Profile
11. Kara Borden Psych Profile
12. Full Borden / Ludwig Coverage