In the autumn issue of City Journal, our skeptical doctor recounts the case of the brutal 1949 murder of Samuel Setty in England, as well as the life of the murderer responsible for this contemptible crime.

How do we become what we are? Many have suffered far worse than Hume in childhood, and had none of his advantages, but do not become killers, or even accessories after the fact. There is something ineffably mysterious about the human condition that defies full explanation, though the condition itself dictates that we try to find that explanation.