Is it a courtroom crush, compassion or just plain stupidity?

You may recall “Los Palillos” (The Toothpicks) case involving the lengthy trial of multiple defendants for Mexican Drug Cartel murders. A couple of those killings even happened in Bonita.

Prosecutor Mark Amador put these killers on trial and obtained convictions involving consecutive life sentences without parole for the murdering thugs who actually disposed of two bodies by putting them in a drum of acid. Nice guys, eh?

This brings to mind the many people who become infatuated with incarcerated people, especially killers. The majority are women who either want to become pen pals or perhaps even marry the convicts. Some men are similarly foolish, but they are in the minority.

Remember, if you will, the woman who married Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker who killed multiple strangers just because. How about the women who married the Menendez brothers, those rich Hollywood guys who couldn’t wait to get their inheritance so they killed their parents?

Charlie Manson has a marriage license to get hitched to some woman who has “loved” him for years. Lucky for her there are no conjugal visits for lifers.

In the Los Palillos case, a source tells me there is an investigation of a Superior Court employee. A district attorney investigator doing a check of the jail visitor log learned an interpreter was visiting one of the killers. While maybe not a conflict of interest, given her position within the system, the woman’s visits to a murderer certainly makes one’s head shake in wonderment.

The DA’s office would not “confirm nor deny” that an investigation was underway. However, the deputies who screen visitors to the courthouse have her photo at the entrances and she is not allowed into the courthouse.

Who knows what she was thinking? Why would she want to see this guy? Was she trying to be a friend? Was she going to reform him, mother him? Was she in love?

I have been interested for years in women who become infatuated with killers. Quite a few of the smitten ones have even been corrections officers who absolutely should know better. After all, they deal with these conniving cons every day.

The women’s excuses for their attraction are both numerous and weak. Some have dreamily said they can look into the eyes of these cold-blooded killers and see a glimmer of goodness. Rubbish. Others believe if they only had a chance they could change that deranged butcher into a productive member of society. More rubbish. I have yet to hear anything from one of these bleeding hearts that makes a lick of sense.

Many of the convicts have ulterior motives and are “working” the women to their advantage. Some killers have tried to convince these paramours to smuggle contraband into the prison. Others have used these women to facilitate elaborate escape attempts.

Still others convince the women to put money on their “books” so they can purchase items from the prison canteen. If there is a restitution order against the killer, the convicts will have the women put money on a friend’s book so the money won’t be confiscated pursuant to the restitution order.

I suppose there are a few guys who are genuinely okay and don’t have an ulterior motive for allowing these women to befriend them. But, these guys are few and far between.