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33 Shocking Tales Of How People Realized That They Had Just Met A Psychopath
Sometimes, meeting new people can be exciting, but other times, it can be the most terrifying experience ever. I mean, you never know what kind of person they really are. However, truth be told, even the people you have known for years can be secret creeps.
Well, humans are complicated, and there are some really weird psychopaths out there. A few netizens had the misfortune of meeting one, and they experienced the most horrifying things ever. If that piqued your interest, then these unhinged stories are for you. Just scroll down to check them out!
More info: Reddit
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#1
Maybe not a psychopath by hard-definition but definitely a sociopath.
I had an office job in Amsterdam, NL. One day this new guy from the US was hired in to work in my team (software dev).
Late 30s, kinda shy but admittedly smart and good with Java.
Long story short, this dude was the most insidious manchild I've ever met, doing all kinds of devious things that would always create conflict with me, only to always make me look like I was the crazy one in front of all my coworkers. To the extent that after 2 years I had a mental breakdown in the middle of a company meeting because of stuff that he was doing, and how helpless I was feeling, messing with my reputation just because.
I had to keep a folder in my computer with all kinds of evidence proving how much of a compulsive liar he was and how he was deliberately targeting me to just make my life miserable.
Eventually I got sick leave and I made my case to HR, proving all the c**p he was doing (and how good he was at it) to disturb me and make me look like I was the insane one.
He eventually got fired mainly because of all of this, but also because after a while he started having trouble to keep up with all the lies he would tell before everyone else, so people started catching up to him.
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#2
Shows up for a job interview online in her pajamas and immediately starts eating a sandwitch. Asks me what is the reason for the meeting since she forgot, spends one minute vaguely talking about the job then says people working with her usually hang out at her house and proceeds to give me a house tour. After finishing the sandwitch licks her fingers one by one in front of the camera, then goes off on a tangent about AI taking over the world. I was already struggling to keep a straight face but when she called her husband with a whistle and he actually showed up like a trained dolphin I almost lost it. Needless to say, I did not accept the job.
#3
Meeting my brother-in-law for the first time. No emotion behind those eyes, even his laugh was very inauthentic. Told my sister that he was a psycho, married him anyway and got to find it out for herself.
Looking at the history of psychopathy, it’s been an absolutely bumpy ride. Research shows that in the 1700s and 1800s, doctors were baffled by people who committed awful acts yet seemed perfectly sane, a condition they called “moral insanity.” By the mid-1900s, researcher Hervey Cleckley identified psychopathy through internal personality traits like a total lack of empathy.
However, the psychiatric manual (DSM) took a different route, focusing instead on external rule-breaking behaviors and naming it Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). This created a major divide: the DSM was used in clinics to track bad behavior, while the forensic world used the PCL-R tool to measure those cold, manipulative personality traits. This meant you could have ASPD without being a psychopath.
#4
I went to college with a guy that we all called The Russian
His entire personality was wrapped up in being from Russia, he always talked about it, referenced it, etc
If you were out in public with him, he'd turn to you and go "did you see that guy? Totally had Russian mob hand tattoos"
It happened so much we figured out that at least some of it has to be exaggerated or made up. Tons of little lies, like he's telling you he would give you $20 to drive him home, but ask to stop at circle K first. Then he'd use the $20 to buy cigarettes and give you the change
One time he asked me "you have a car right?"
He knew I did. His 'plan' was to rob his dealer. He said all I had to do was drive and stand there looking menacing with a gun. I told him I'm not interested, I don't own a gun, and I don't know how to use one, so hard pass. I avoided talking to him after that
After college, a mutual friend and I were working together and he came up to me and said "remember 'Alexi' The Russian? Well, I MET HIS MOM"....
Turns out, not Alexi, it was Alexander. Turns out, not adopted from Russia at a young age. Grew up in Scottsdale Arizona. Absolutely nothing the guy had ever said was true
A few years later I'm telling this story to a coworker, and the next day she comes in with a link to a news article and said "is this the guy?"
It was. He had convinced the brother of the mutual friend I used to work with to go along with his "rob my d**g dealer" plan. The brother got k****d by the dealer, and The "Russian" is spending life in prison on the hook for it.
#5
I had a student once who from day 1 was paying really close attention to another student who was autistic. Like, he spent practically two days studying this kid. I actually thought maybe they were friendly or he was just struggling to understand some of this kid’s behaviours in an age appropriate way. Ohhh no.
What this child then started doing was deliberately sitting next to the autistic student, deliberately doing something that would provoke him, then dobbing the autistic student in for talking or kicking out or telling him to shut up. It was EVERY time they came to sit on the floor. I eventually had to implement a seating plan for both tables and floor, and communicate this to all the other teachers, because whenever I wasn’t in the room he’d go right back to the autistic child and start up again.
There were other kids in the class who weren’t very nice to this autistic child, but this kid is the only one I’ve ever taught who deliberately went out of his way to provoke meltdowns. When I questioned him about it he said “it’s funny”. His parents, with whom I spoke regularly, didn’t care and kept blaming the school for “letting those kind of students in”.
It was the most exhausting year of my career constantly keeping them separate and keeping an eye out to ensure the autistic student was not being bullied either in class or on the playground. At the same time I’m dealing with the parents of the autistic student, who refuse to believe that he IS autistic, therefore he wasn’t allocated funding and we couldn’t get any support for him.
#6
Too likeable, charismatic. Connects with you instantly and its like you are meant to be best friends and soulmates - HUGE RED FLAG.
While psychopathy isn’t an official diagnosis, experts stress that in modern psychology, it’s used in legal and clinical settings to describe someone who is callous, egocentric, and lacks empathy. It still gets confused with ASPD. However, they aren’t the same. In fact, only a small fraction of people with ASPD are actually considered psychopaths.
Psychopathic behavior also varies wildly. Some individuals become criminals, while others use their traits to succeed as corporate leaders. Ultimately, there is a big difference between having a few traits and being a psychopath. Anyone can display the behavior, but only when these cold traits pair with actual antisocial behavior, is someone viewed as a psychopath.
#7
It was a first date -and luckily the last- and she bragged about how she didn’t wanna get married yet still wanted to have a kid, so she married a dude who was oblivious of her plan and once she found out she’s pregnant she got a divorce knowing she got what she wanted. Her maniacal laugh once she mentioned this story scared the heck out of me, and I’m a huge dude who doesn’t get scared easily….
Michael Largey 1 hour ago
Really surprised she just didn't bite off the guy's head after he impregnated her.
#8
When I was like 12 my parents visited friends of theirs who lived in a lil suburb here in belgium, who had a kid who was my age and I had already met once before. He had massive neighbour's kid energy, he had a collection of knives in his room, as well as airsoft guns and a bow. Anyways while parents were chatting he took the bow and showed me the back of the house where there was a chicken enclosure his family owned. He then started shooting arrows into it (Actual, pointy metal tipped ones) but trying to not shoot the chickens themselves to try and impress me or something.
A little while later he was showing me a knife and suddenly made a motion to like, pretend to stab me with it, like a "made you flinch haha" type bad joke. I flinched my hands up, and my left hand caught on the blade and got opened a bit between my index and middle finger. Not a huge wound, but I was still bleeding a bunch and crying even more. Run up to my parents, they take me to the hospital, and to this day I still have the lil scar on my hand and my parents never talked to these friends of theirs again.
#9
When my colleague watches me get promoted above him and makes up an entire piece of work that is sub standard and then when people tell him it’s bad he starts claiming it as mine behind my back)
this man “married a lesbian for citizenship in Australia, got drunk and slept with married young admin staff he had power and management over which meant she had to resign and almost lost her fiance, then repeated the same thing with the next admin and put her into a leadership position, which destroyed the team she was supposed to lead..
He then moves on to the next younger female volunteer, whilst also flirting and playing with the obese
He sweet talks and flirts with all the older female managers- those without clinical training are charmed, including HR managers who try to help him gain further promotions.
Eventually he is promoted to a role where he can’t go any higher in his desperate pursuit of being a CEO, because all of his behaviours have been documented and are known to senior staff who aren’t charmed.
He then finds another org to go and charms their female CEO.
Thankfully I heard one of the women he took advantage of wrote to the board of the new org.
When we look at the causes of psychopathy, studies highlight that it isn’t caused by just one thing, but it’s a complex mix of genetics, environment, and brain biology. While nobody is born a psychopath, genetics accounts for about half of the variation in these traits, meaning some kids inherit a much higher risk.
Environmental factors, such as a highly stressful pregnancy, a lack of warm parenting, or even a naturally low resting heart rate, can also increase the odds. However, having these risk factors doesn’t guarantee someone will develop it. Simply put, these genetic and environmental influences alter how the brain develops, particularly the amygdala.
It handles fear, empathy, and social connection. In children with psychopathic traits, the amygdala is often smaller or less active, making them uniquely fearless and less emotionally responsive. Scientists are still studying these brain differences to design better treatments and improve lives.
#10
Well not meeting them but I had a gf once and a few months into it I'm laying on my bed in a hotel room. She walks up and decks me in the eye. I jump up and go to swing (not knowing it was my gf that just sucker punched me) and see who it is I grab my coke that was sitting there and throw the liquid at her and said w*f is your problem? She starts ranting about God knows what so I gently grab her and I'm trying to get her out my room. She all of a sudden turns on Ninja mode and puts her feet up on the door and like kicks off. Here we are flying in the air until I come down on the bed with her still on me. She says and I quote "I'm just kidding let's f###" that is when I knew I had a stage 7 psycho. But I'm semi smart so I figured why not one last time to satisfy her. Afterwards I pretended I was asleep until she left and then I got the hell out of there and blocked her.
#11
So over 20 years ago, in my youth, I met this cool girl. I really can't even remember how or where. She was smart, beautiful and funny and I was a shy woman hidden in a corner. She dragged me out and took me on adventures. We had a blast! Although the constant drama in her life made me tired sometimes. You know the type of person I mean.
She had this on and off boyfriend. I never knew if they were on or off. One day he was the best thing ever and was hanging with us, and the next day she hated his
Then he got a new girlfriend during one of their breaks. She was furious. It should be noted she wasn't a nun when they weren't together. So she is ranting and shouting and I'm being a good friend agreeing that yes, men do indeed suck.
Then she says she is going to cut his break lines. Oh and his mother's too. His mother was not her biggest fan. So I'm thinking she is just letting off steam and venting and would never in a million years do this. She was a very kind, sweet, generous and loving person to everyone around her, whenever I was around and to me.
So anyway, she was in fact not kidding. She drove to his mother's house where he also lived in the d**d of the night and did exactly what she said she would do.
Luckily by some miracle one of them realised something was wrong before they even left the driveway and the other figured it out a short while later while not driving very fast.
So I am in shock she actually did it. (No you didn't! Yes I f*****g did!) Then she gets angry and starts shouting and venting BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK and they are both fine. Yeah that was the last time I ever hung out with her.
I think her mother might have also been a bit crazy. At one of her birthday toast to her daughter included how proud she was that she made it through high school without getting pregnant. What?!
#12
When I met my wife’s aunt, this woman looked me in the eyes and said ICE agents should be positioned on rooftops with sniper rifles taking out every Mexican they spot. I’m Native American and I wonder if she mistook me for Mexican because why would she say that to me completely unprompted? That’s probably the most unsafe I’ve ever felt around another person. I told my wife that her aunt isn’t welcome at our house anymore. Absolute psychopath.
Michael Largey 1 hour ago
"Ma'am, I'm a Native American. You don't have to tell me about the danger of immigrants."
Weirdly enough, people often think that psychopaths and sociopaths are the same thing, and use the words interchangeably. However, researchers point out that they are actually quite different. While both share traits of ASPD, they have different styles. Sociopaths are impulsive, erratic, and emotionally reactive, usually due to childhood trauma.
They struggle to fit in but can still feel limited empathy, guilt, and attachment. On the other hand, psychopaths are much colder and more calculated, with traits rooted in genetics and brain structure. They have virtually no conscience but are highly skilled at mimicking charm and social rules to manipulate others.
Surprisingly, psychopaths aren’t completely immune to feelings. In fact, they actually experience the sting of loneliness and social rejection, which causes them stress and can trigger aggression. Many have lived deeply hurt-filled lives and find it incredibly tough to trust anyone. After all, just like every human being, they share the basic desire to be loved and accepted.
#13
I have a female regular at my bar, who I kindly refer to as a s****l bully. She weaponizes her sexuality to make some uncomfortable, others intrigued, others in love. She's an attractive lady, late 40s. Its always been fun and flirty, until... she reveals to me that she's been caught f*****g this guy by his wife. She's been f*****g him for 5 years now. That s***s. It just happened, and the wife is on her way to my bar to talk to her about it. At first, I'm intrigued. After watching the way that she handled it, I knew she was a psychopath. She had no empathy, let alone sympathy... she just sat there, proud of herself for destroying this woman's life. The wife, crying her eyes out at the prominent seat at the bar is losing her mind. The regular is just going through the motions like she could care less. She even told her details about f*****g him in her bed, in her home and how she avoided detection for so long... all with a smile on her face. When I heard her tell the wife that he had a beautiful d**k and the wife started sobbing uncontrollably, I had to find a place to hide. Beware of the wicked, they are among us.
#14
He growled at me like a dog, teeth shown and everything. For me talking over him while trying to apologize over a miscommunication.
#15
Knew a guy in my apartment complex that thought we should just k**l all homeless people on the streets, including veterans (he was former military). talked a lot about shooting dogs. sometimes he would just stare at you and his eyes would go black. could switch from happy to full of rage back to happy in a blink. if i saw him on the news, my jaw would stay in place.
I don’t know about you, but that was definitely an eye-opener for me. Although looking at some of the gruesome stories in this list, people should definitely get professional help even if they have an inkling that something is wrong with them. Wouldn’t you agree, as well? Also, if you have ever experienced something similar, feel free to drop your stories in the comments section!
#16
I work with a psychopath. I'm actually this person's boss, and he's kind of holding the whole team hostage. It's f*****g awkward as f**k.
The thing that stands out among all his acute psychopathy, is his willingness to harm others. Literally, nothing is off limits with this guy. He will say, and do, *anything* if he thinks that causing harm to someone else will advance his agenda.
Physical threats, social threats, emotional a***e, threats of financial harm... Nothing is off limits with this guy when it comes to escaping accountability. And, he has *just enough* power to really freak out the owners. No one is really sure if his threats are empty (some of them sure aren't) and no one wants to really find out.
So like... we are just stuck with this f****r.
I'm almost 40 years old and I've never met a person like this before. Heinous individual, this guy is. His willingness to harm others is just shocking. And the most shocking part about it, is how natural it seems to him, how easy it is, and how quick it comes out. He is very well practiced.
#17
For me it was when we sat in the same isolated cell, divided by a gate, and awkwardly built so that I needed to hunch low to make eye contact. This individual spent 2.5 hours (without allowing me to interject) explaining to me how their entire life was a conspiratorial performance to sabotage them. They did not present with psychotic or delusional symptoms. They presented with diagnostic criteria for ASPD.
#18
My ex once threatened to hurt a cute cat
I broke up with her that day, only to be greeted in the morning with her face, realizing she stole my keys, duplicated it, and returned where I kept it.
I moved to a different city a week after.
#20
Worked in construction. I made a joke about how some woman arent small, theyre "fun sized" and this co worker would always ALWAYS bring it up. I later found out he was a p**o and had been charged on a few counts. That was the moment It all clicked, all the other jokes he made, how hed just queit when we talked about being in high-school or what happens to certian inmates in jail. That was my "oh s**t" moment. Well I was glad he got sent back to jail not long after.
#21
Was 18, met a guy at a pub. Started talking about immigration and somehow black people. At one point he splurged out: “end them all”.
#22
I noticed something was “off” when I banged my head really hard in a swimming pool and he didn’t flinch, look up or ask if I was alright. I didn’t know what a psychopath was.
Years later I had been asking him to make a doctors appointment to address his “sleep s*x disorder”, all kinds of excuses came up, then one morning he woke up with a huge spot in a very obvious part on his nose.., and he booked an urgent appointment with the doctor. For the pimple. Didn’t find raping his wife while he was “asleep”on a nearly nightly basis was not grounds for medical help but something affecting his appearance was.
An argument ensued and he said ‘you know you like it really’. Yeah f*****g psychopath.
There was so much stuff that should have alerted me, and other moments when it hit me again. He had been controlling my food and discouraging me from eating more when I weighed less than 80lbs. Due to anorexia I thought he was the only one telling me the truth. I was “skinny fat” and needed to avoid carbs & sugar.
Luckily eating disorder doctors noticed and raised appropriate safeguarding, got him to move out and admitted me to hospital. After a few weeks in hospital I was really worried about a fellow patient and just had this desperation for her to eat her meals and get stronger. It was then I realised how psychopathic it was for him to sit and watch his emaciated wife not eat, with no natural urge to get me to eat.
#23
I got rejected by a girl. I told my roommate about it, and he said, "Women like a man who won't take no for an answer"
I was stunned. W*f.
Michael Largey 1 hour ago
Women like a man who won't take no for an answer to stay far, far away.
#24
Years ago I interviewed to work at an organization for troubled kids. The final step in the process was something called a “shadow week”, where I would work a regular schedule for a week, be paid for it, and at the end I would have the final opportunity to either take or turn down the job.
First day I’m just sorta hanging back and watching everything. Group of kids I was with ran the spectrum of issues, but nothing that made me feel unsafe to be around.
Then this kid walks up and introduces himself. He was about 14 years old. Came across as very nice and asked me some questions - his entire demeanor came off as if he was the de-facto leader of the group - kids tend to naturally fall into this kind of social hierarchy so I didn’t think much of it.
After talking to me for a few minutes he walks away and immediately afterwords one of the workers comes up and asked me what he was asking me and what I had told him. It was all very surface level stuff, but what the worker told me next shook me.
Worker: “Don’t ever talk to X one on one or tell him anything about yourself.”
Me: “Why?”
Worker: “He will get in your head and find ways to use it against you.”
The worker then proceeded to tell me some of the reasons this kid was in the program, and it made my skin crawl. He warned me that he would 100% try to cozy up to me and talk to me, and that when he did, I was to tell him that I wasn’t allowed to talk to him outside of any scheduled therapy sessions or other official activities one on one, and that “he knows the deal.”
Sure enough next day during lunch he comes over to where I’m sitting and starts to talk to me, and I gave him the rehearsed response.
I do not exaggerate when I say this: it is like he literally became a different person after I said that.
You know how in Jaws when Quint talks about the lifeless black eyes of a shark? That is exactly what I saw in this kid. It was like a switch turned off. Utterly cold and lifeless. His posture changed, his obviously practiced smile and way of speaking changed, the mask genuinely came off. He cocked his head slightly and looked at me and I had two thoughts run through my head: 1. If this kid ever got me alone I had no doubt in my mind that he would try everything he could to k**l me. 2. This kid will 100% end up in prison.
“Ah. I see.” he said. His voice and tone was even different from what I had experienced the day before. “Don’t want me to know too much, right?”
Before I could say anything he stood up: “Good luck with the rest of this week.” It’s hard to describe, but everything about what he said felt like a threat.
From that point on for the rest of the week the kid didn’t say a word to me - but every time I looked up I could see him staring at me, sizing me up. It was deeply unsettling.
I ended up not taking the job.
Now I work as a high school teacher. Been doing it for 10 years, and I have had kids with all kinds of issues, but that kid is the only one I would ever call a genuine psychopath. A part of me wonders if he was possessed by a demon, because what I saw after he realized there was no point in keeping up the facade felt… inhuman. That’s the only way I could ever describe it.
#25
I've only had this happen once but I immediately picked up on the psychopath vibes.
I overheard him telling a woman he'd k**l her husband to be with her (he's with her now, though to my knowledge it was just a divorce that happened, I've seen her husband around).
What solidified it (because the whole "I'd k**l for you" thing could have been a misguided romantic gesture) was when he started picking on another person, calling her slurs over and over again to rile her up so she'd attack him while she was drunk. I had to get between them (the psycho's attracted to me and I've since learned this woman has a crush on me) so she wouldn't try and k**l him. He then spent the rest of the night trying to rile everybody else up until the uber driver who stops in the bar regularly offered to drive him and his friend home.
He wasn't just being rowdy either, there was a genuine sense that he would have k****d somebody if he was taken out of his good mood.
He recently started a fight and there's a 0 tolerance policy at this bar for actual fights so he is banned now. He's threatened the owner, so we call the cops as soon as he shows up if he tries to enter.
#27
I made a friend on tumblr a few years back when I was in high school. I had gotten back into my creepypasta/scp/cryptid phase and we became mutuals through our art.
We connected well because of our interests and hobbies, and we also connected due to problems, difficulties, and traumas we shared.
To put a long story short, no. Being in the fandoms we were in, having depression, anxiety and all that is not a reason for you to send me graphic violence and confess you are a n********e out of nowhere. No, I don't feel special because you decided to tell me. No, I don't really want to talk again. I hope we never meet, and never cross paths online again. Gonna miss our collabs, tho, ig 🤷🤷.
#28
Had a very good friend, everything went pretty smoothly from the get-go, we knew everything about each other's lives... Until he drank. He slapped me because someone said he couldn't go to the toilet cuz' I was in there, and he wanted to see my genitals. Worst part about this, he was s*******d and lived very far away, so I had to take him to my apartment for the night. Worst night of my life. Was stuck in this relationship for months on end because emotional blackmail. Now I'm pretty happy to have him out of my life.
#29
A colleague bragged about putting fish in people's mailboxes. Later, she instigated a bullying campaign against me. Long gone now, thank God.
#30
"I'm going to burn this city down, and then I'm going to hurt my dad." He was 4. He was removed from the program, but was brought back on 2 years later. He had the police called on him twice in the first month he was back. His parents were terrible people.
#31
One of my old friends was talking about hurting his mom, so a friend and I called the police on him, that's it, everyone is alive🥰.
#32
When they over share or trauma dump within the first 5 minutes. I don’t know if anyone agrees but it makes me so uneasy.
#33
When i heard a classmate brag about ruining a girls passport and airpods, then burying it somewhere plus destroying a camp made by homeless with a friend of his
same guy also liked watching violent vids from time to time on school laptops and also had a difficult upbringing with divorced parents.
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