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SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE Cartoon published 08/15/2026 Why Are Some Females Attracted to Criminals? There’s a long and stubborn pattern in history that refuses to die.Charlie Manson had his “Family” — a group of young women who not only followed him but committed murder for him, then remained loyal even after the horrors were exposed. They saw a messianic figure. The rest of us saw a manipulative psychopath with a guitar and a lot of empty slogans. A decade later, Ted Bundy sat on death row and received stacks of love letters and marriage proposals from women who had never met him. They wrote about his eyes, his intelligence, his “misunderstood” nature. The fact that he had raped and murdered dozens of young women somehow became a detail they were willing to overlook. Now, in 2026, we have Luigi Mangione—a man who just admitted to a judge that he committed the cold-blooded murder of a healthcare CEO. He has somehow acquired a fan club of women who romanticize him, call for his freedom, and treat him like a folk hero. Some frame it as political. Some frame it as justice. A good number of them, if we’re being honest, are responding to the same old pull: The dangerous man, the rebel, the outlaw who “stands against the system.” This isn’t new. It’s a recurring feature, not a bug. Some women are drawn to the intensity, the power, the sense of purpose — even when that purpose is destructive. The criminal or cult leader offers a story bigger than ordinary life. He offers drama, identity, and the thrilling feeling of being part of something forbidden. For a certain personality type, that combination is intoxicating. The rest of society is left staring at the wreckage and asking the same question every generation: How do so many intelligent women keep making the same mistake? History doesn’t care about our modern excuses. Manson’s girls, Bundy’s correspondents, and Mangione’s online admirers are all variations of the same story. The packaging changes. The underlying attraction does not. We can debate politics all day. What we shouldn’t do is pretend this pattern doesn’t exist. Some men will always play the outlaw. Some women will always fall for him. And the rest of us will keep cleaning up the consequences. — The GrrrTeam