LAST EDITED ON Apr-16-03 AT 10:46 PM (EST)
 
The newspaper articles about the "Night Strangler" were in the beginning of the movie. The article with the X's and the heart around Denzel's head was later in the movie...and although brief, the camera closed in on it.....it was in a box of stuff, Denzel's partner obtained from the prison----lots of articles Lithgow kept about Denzel, that showed his obsession, including a book on "How to Get Revenge."

Interesting at the end, was Lithgow freaking out, because he thought Denzel was going to kill himself---that wasn't in his plan--he wanted Denzel to live and go to prison.

The Texas guy sounds interesting...hadn't heard about that one before. I don't know if it was a true vendetta---or a game that got out of hand---ie: role-playing, and JR just happened to come to their attention. Remember in Leopold and Loeb---they had the idea---but not the target---Bobby Franks wasn't picked until the very day he was abducted, and just happened to walk past L&L while they were prowling around in their car. It wasn't personal to them.