人物:美国史上最致命连环杀手(3)

Through Little's rambling¹ soliloquies and interviews with his surviving relatives, authorities sketched² out some more of the killer's backstory: As an infant he was abandoned by his mother and then raised by his grandparents in Lorain, Ohio.

通过利特尔杂乱无章的独白和对其健在亲属的采访，当局勾勒出了凶手更多的背景故事：他还是婴儿时就被母亲抛弃，后来被祖父母在俄亥俄州的洛雷恩(Lorain)抚养长大。

Aunts and uncles "all said it was a fairly normal upbringing," says Palazzolo. L.A. County prosecutor³ Beth Silverman helped fill in some details: By age 16, Little was arrested on suspicion of burglary.

帕拉佐洛说，叔叔阿姨们都说“成长过程相当正常”。洛杉矶县检察官贝丝·西尔弗曼(Beth Silverman)补充了一些细节：16岁时，利特尔因涉嫌入室行窃而被捕。

He dropped out of high school, and by age 30, his rap sheet included aggravated⁴ assault with a gun.

他从高中辍学，到30岁时，他的犯罪记录包括持枪加重攻击罪。

He lived out of his car, kept a string of girlfriends in several cities and committed his first homicide, in Florida, at age 42.

他开车四处游荡，在好几个城市交了一群女朋友，第一次杀人是在佛罗里达州，当时他42岁。

"His family weren't child abusers," adds Silverman. "He's just evil." For the families of his victims, Little's confessions⁶ have at least brought answers, if not peace.

“他的家人没有虐待儿童，”西尔弗曼补充道。“他就是邪恶”。对受害者家属来她说，利特尔的认罪如果没有带来平静，至少带来了答案。

"It's not doing me any favors to know who did this," says June Leuenberger, 57, whose mother, Julia, was killed in Saucier,Miss.,in1978.

“知道是谁干的对我没有任何好处，”57岁的琼·卢因伯格(June Leuenberger)说，的母亲朱莉娅1978年在密西西比州的沙西尔被杀。

June still relives the horror she felt when she learned of her mother's death—"I remember sitting there with an investigator⁷ when I was 15, and he tells me, 'Your mother was raped⁸ with foreign objects,'" she recalls—and she spent years afterward⁹ being bounced among 15 foster homes.

琼还记得当她得知母亲的死讯时的恐惧——“我记得我15岁时，和一个调查员坐在一起，他告诉我，‘你母亲被人用外物强奸了，’”她回忆道——后来的几年里她辗转经历15个寄养家庭。

"There's no closure," says June. "It opened up a whole other door of pain. She never got to meet my husband, my children, my grandchildren. He took all that away."

“没有结束，”琼说。“这打开了另一扇痛苦之门。她从来没有见过我的丈夫，我的孩子，我的孙子孙女。他把这一切都夺走了。”

Reginald Thomas can't forget the "two big thumbprints" he saw pressed into his older sister Melissa's neck when he saw her body after her 1996 murder.

雷金纳德·托马斯(Reginald Thomas)无法忘记1996年姐姐梅丽莎(Melissa)被谋杀后，他看到她的尸体时，看到姐姐脖子上有“两个大指纹”。

Little's confession⁵ to meeting Melissa in a nightclub parking lot and strangling her in an Opelousas, La., graveyard¹⁰ the next day included a vividly¹¹ accurate description of her short hair and single gold tooth—but did not capture her spirit.

利特尔承认自己在洛杉矶一家夜总会的停车场遇到了梅丽莎，第二天在奥珀洛萨斯一个墓地掐死了她，供词中他对她短发和金牙的描写栩栩如生，但并没有抓住她的灵魂。

"She loved to dance and dress up. She was a good caretaker and probably would have been a sweet mother," says Reginald, 46.

“她喜欢跳舞和打扮。她很会照顾人，可能会是一个慈爱的母亲，”46岁的雷金纳德说。

His parents didn't live to see Little answer the questions that had haunted them for years, but Reginald staged a balloon release after learning the truth a year ago.

雷金纳德的父母没能活着看到利特尔回答困扰他们多年的问题，但在一年前得知真相后，雷金纳德策划了一次气球放飞活动。

"I feel that she can finally rest because she knows that her family now knows what happened," he says.

“我觉得她终于可以安息了，因为她知道她的家人现在知道发生了什么，”他说。

"Little is showing remorse¹² by opening up. For me to move forward, I have to forgive him."

“利特尔敞开心扉表示悔恨。要想让我向前走，我必须原谅他。”

As for Pearl, who blames Little for the "big black hole" in her life, she sees no remorse. "He's got nothing in his eyes. Now he wants his glory for his disgustingness," she says.

至于珀尔，她认为利特尔在她的生命力挖了大黑洞，她没有看到丝毫悔意。“他眼睛里什么也没有。现在他想用他的恶心赢得光荣，”她说。

"But it's good that all these people can finally have the answer to what happened to their loved ones. And we got a huge monster off the streets."

“但所有这些人最终都能知道他们的亲人发生了什么事，这是件好事。我们在街上发现了一个巨大的怪物。”

1 rambling   

adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的

参考例句：

• We spent the summer rambling in Ireland. 我们花了一个夏天漫游爱尔兰。
• It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. 在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

2 sketched   

v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The historical article sketched the major events of the decade. 这篇有关历史的文章概述了这十年中的重大事件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He sketched the situation in a few vivid words. 他用几句生动的语言简述了局势。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

4 aggravated   

使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火

参考例句：

• If he aggravated me any more I shall hit him. 假如他再激怒我，我就要揍他。
• Far from relieving my cough, the medicine aggravated it. 这药非但不镇咳，反而使我咳嗽得更厉害。

5 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

6 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

8 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

9 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

10 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

11 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

12 remorse   

n.痛恨，悔恨，自责

参考例句：

• She had no remorse about what she had said.她对所说的话不后悔。
• He has shown no remorse for his actions.他对自己的行为没有任何悔恨之意。