Have you ever thought of killing someone?

Most people have. The thought shows up uninvited. Sometimes it flickers for a second. Sometimes it lingers. It is not always driven by anger or revenge. Sometimes it is cold, detached, mechanical.

This is not rare. Research shows that more than 80 percent of people have imagined killing another human being. Psychologist David Buss found that 91 percent of men and 84 percent of women admit to it. These are not plans. These are intrusive thoughts. Uncomfortable but human.

The idea is older than law. Older than religion. Older than every story we tell ourselves to keep the darkness buried.

Dostoevsky understood this. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov kills not for money and not out of anger but to test an idea. Can he cross the line and remain intact? He cannot. The act fractures his mind. The punishment comes not from the state but from within.

But not everyone breaks.

Leopold and Loeb killed for the thrill of superiority. Ted Bundy killed because he wanted to and could. Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, balanced church, family, and murder without missing a beat. Bryan Kohberger, the accused Idaho murderer, allegedly moved from studying violence to practicing it.

Even here in Madison, Wisconsin, Paul Van Duyne Jr., a Princeton-educated engineer, and Andrea Whitaker, a pharmacology student, decided to act. They plotted to poison Van Duyne’s ex-girlfriends using cyanide, thallium, hydrogen sulfide, and abrin. They mapped it all out—doses, delivery, escape. One woman found cyanide in her water bottle in a Costco parking lot. Another ended up hospitalized with thallium poisoning. Even her younger sister was poisoned. Police later found a kill kit in their car. This was not passion. It was calculation. Could they do it? Could they get away with it?

Statistically, they had a good shot. In the United States, half of all murders go unsolved. That is not opinion. That is data.

And the president himself once said, calmly and without hesitation, that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose a single supporter. He was not joking. He was stating a fact. The question is not about morality. It is about power. Can you do it and still survive?

The killing is not the hard part. The hard part is avoiding the stupid mistakes that get people caught. If you plan before and after, your odds improve.

So if you have ever thought about it, let me know. I can either talk you out of it or help you with a business plan.

First consultation is free.