We might conclude that a man who kills four people he loves, and who love him, and doesn’t know why, is a monster. But reporter John Terhune, in last Sunday’s extraordinary story, went far beyond an easy label (“ ‘People are no longer walking the earth because of me,’ ” June 25).

Criminal defendants, especially mass murderers, don’t tell their stories because their lawyers tell them not to and because, at some point, the killer might become aware of what he has done and be tormented by it. But Joseph Eaton decided he wanted to tell his story, and Terhune kept him talking over a long period of time. Terhune told the story with sensitivity, finesse and deep research. In my 32 years as a newspaper reporter, many of them as a legal reporter, I have never seen this story told in this fashion. It is of Pulitzer Prize caliber.

Those who argue that gun violence is about mental illness and not about guns should read this story over and over, examine their beliefs and figure out how to help defuse this deadly combination. This is a problem for all of us, a problem that has given our country a bad name. And we can no longer say, “This doesn’t happen in Maine.”

Donna Halvorsen
South Portland