Читать книгу Berserk. The Shocking Life and Death of Edwin Valero онлайн

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Yet, even if he enjoyed portraying himself as the forsaken child who fought his way out of the rubble of Venezuela, other family members say Valero's childhood was indeed traumatizing for him. He cried often, even as an adult. He was stuck on the idea that he'd been deprived of a regular upbringing. “Edwin had a void that he never explained,” said his younger brother Luis. “He never said what he felt.”

Listen to his family and friends. You might find yourself believing he never touched drugs until the months before he killed Jennifer. Listen to them. You might even believe he didn't kill her. You might end up believing the stories about kidnappers and thugs and government conspiracies.

The trainers and sparring partners who knew Valero won't buy that he had major mental malfunctions. A psychologist who diagnosed Valero in Venezuela dropped a word: schizophrenia. Valero's old gym acquaintances can't accept such things. He'd been too focused. He could hit a heavy bag so hard that the foundation of the city seemed to quake. How could such a good fighter be schizophrenic? Old-time head doctors had a term for it: funneling. A person like Valero could focus on something with a sniper's precision even as his mind frayed at the edges. It's that ability to focus that kept the bad thoughts at bay. Of course, this kind of focus only works for a while. The mind falls in on itself.