When I was a kid growing up in St. Louis I had pretty bad teeth. Got my first cavity before I ever started Kindergarten. My dad took me to the same dentist in South St. Louis for many years. I didn't much like the guy. He looked like Bob Newhart, and was just about as mild-mannered. Nevertheless he always seemed kind of creepy to me.

I figured it was just because he was a dentist, and I didn't like dentist visits. Hated getting the Novocaine shots in the gums. Hated the crunching feeling of getting a tooth extracted. Hated the whine of the drill getting a filling. Hated the taste of the antiseptics and medications. Hated having someone's hands in my mouth. So I figured that was why I didn't like him.

The last time I saw him he filled one of my front teeth that had been chipped in a fall. That was in the early spring of 1980 - around February or April. After only a month or two the filling broke and my step mom was supposed to set me an appointment to go in and get it repaired. Before I could get an appointment to see him, he was arrested - and charged with 7 counts of murder!

The guy became a criminology case study. At the time the psychologists studying him said he was the most remorseless killer they had ever encountered. They said he talked about the murders as dispassionately as if he were discussing the weather. They called him "The Hitman Dentist". He was only charged with 7 counts of murder, but IIRC there were several others he was suspected of committing, but they couldn't get enough evidence to indict him for.

His name was Dr. Glennon E. Engleman, and he was convicted for all 7 murders that he was charged with. He died of diabetes complications in prison in 1999. That is my most notable brush with true evil.