Passenger Trains > Crimes or an Affliction: A Fixation With Trains

Peter Warner under an alias?


NEW YORK TIMES

Crimes or an Affliction: A Fixation With Trains

March 15, 2001 Crimes or an Affliction: A Fixation With Trains By DEAN E. MURPHY or two decades, the authorities have been baffled about how to deal with Darius McCollum, whose lifelong fascination with subway trains has resulted in a litany of crimes but who is nonetheless considered largely harmless. Next week, a judge will weigh the problem once again when Mr. McCollum, a 35- year-old from Queens, is to be sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison for charges stemming from his impersonating a New York City Transit employee.

Mr. McCollum has been placed behind bars more often than he can remember, even though he has repeatedly told court officials that he cannot account for his transit-related impulses.

Last year, Mr. McCollum's lawyers tried to have him declared mentally
unfit and thereby not responsible for his most recent crimes, which included dressing up as a subway employee and entering the control room at the 57th Street station in Manhattan. The judge ruled that Mr. McCollum, while clearly troubled, was mentally competent.

Now it seems Mr. McCollum has attracted a following in a support community associated with a neurological disorder known as Asperger's syndrome, which is sometimes characterized by a consuming fascination with particular subjects like trains.

Most of these people are far removed from the criminal justice system and do not even know Mr. McCollum by name. But they say they know the circumstances of his affliction from news reports and informal discussions at conferences and support sessions.

And some of them suspect that they understand better what Mr. McCollum is experiencing than the array of judges who have determined his fate since he was first arrested as a wide-eyed 15- year-old at the controls of an E train bound for the World Trade Center.

According to people familiar with Asperger's syndrome, Mr. McCollum exhibits telltale symptoms of the disorder, generally considered a variant of autism.

Relatively unrecognized in the United States until the mid-1990's, the condition is often called "the little professor syndrome" because children with Asperger's are known to speak with great detail and authority about arcane subjects. They also typically exhibit awkward and inappropriate social interaction, have difficulty forming friendships and lack empathy.

Asperger's has not been diagnosed in Mr. McCollum, nor has it been suggested in court that his behavior is a result of the condition. But some people associated with Asperger's, including professionals who treat the disorder and relatives of those in whom it has been diagnosed, say they sometimes see their patients and loved ones in Mr. McCollum's ordeal.

Though they are watching from afar (one expert in adult disabilities in New Jersey described Mr. McCollum as the "urban legend" of Asperger's), these people are uncomfortable with the idea of someone with Mr. McCollum's problems going to jail. And like his own parents, they say they feel helpless to do anything about it.

"Those parents of children whose obsession or interest is trains may very well think, `Yes, I could imagine my child in that place in 20 years, especially if they receive no help or understanding,' " said Barbara L. Kirby, who is the founder of a Web site that is dedicated to Asperger's (www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger) and who is among the parents of Asperger's children who have come across Mr. McCollum's story.

"Right now, there is no organization or agency which provides legal support for individuals with Asperger syndrome and autism who find themselves facing difficulties," said Ms. Kirby, who is also an author of "The Oasis Guide to Asperger Syndrome," which is to be published in September. "Many professionals are still unaware of the disorder, police are uneducated and the court system doesn't recognize it. Frankly, it's a mess."

A woman in Los Angeles whose 4- year-old son has Asperger's said she first heard of Mr. McCollum years ago when there was extensive news coverage about his youthful stint at the controls of the E train. More recently, when the woman, Rosanne Walden, became active in Asperger's support groups, she said Mr. McCollum's case began popping up at conferences and at meetings of parents of children with the condition.

Ms. Walden said she and many other parents were shocked to learn that Mr. McCollum was being treated like an ordinary criminal.

"A lot of us have heard about Darius McCollum and always wondered about him," said Ms. Walden, whose son disassembled and reassembled a refrigerator motor at age 3 and who, she suspects, is not that different from Mr. McCollum. "Jail is a horrible place for him to be. These people are really victims."

Mr. McCollum's lawyer, Stephen C. Jackson, said his efforts and those of another lawyer, Tracey Bloodsaw, to pursue a defense based on Mr. McCollum's mental condition had failed before Justice Carol Berkman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan. For reasons that remain unclear, Mr. McCollum was not examined by a court-appointed psychiatrist after his arrest last year or while negotiations were under way with the district attorney's office in Manhattan about the charges.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said Justice Berkman ordered a psychiatric examination only after Mr. McCollum pleaded guilty last month to forgery and burglary charges. The judge made Mr. McCollum promise that he would never again break the law in the pursuit of his transit fascination, which has landed him in jail 19 times since 1981.

Mr. Jackson said he was not aware of the speculation about Mr. McCollum among some people involved with Asperger's, but he said the court system had difficulty dealing with situations like his client's.

"If he were addicted to drugs or had an alcohol problem, these are problems that go hand in hand with the state correction facilities," Mr. Jackson said. "However, because he has a very peculiar mental disorder that we really do not have the state facilities to deal with, he will not in my view get the type of help that he needs."

Mr. McCollum's case, or what almost everyone assumes is his case, is mentioned in one of the most widely read books about the disorder, "Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals," by Tony Attwood, a clinical psychologist in Australia.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Attwood said the story of the impulsive train enthusiast included in his book is "one of those we pass around" as a rare example of people suspected of having the disorder who commit crimes related to their "special interest."

"A young man was fascinated by trains and while on a station platform decided to `steal' a railway engine," Mr. Attwood wrote in his book, published in 1998. "There was considerable doubt that he had any malicious intent; he was just overenthusiastic and curious."

Mr. Attwood said Mr. McCollum would have to be assessed professionally before anyone could say anything with certainty about his condition, but the general description of the case indicated "a person who isn't a criminal in the traditional sense."

Mr. Attwood, who did not know Mr. McCollum's name when he wrote the book, added: "The person is what I call one of life's eccentrics. The person has a great pleasure in what they are doing and that degree of excitement overrides all conventional codes of conduct. It is sort of a delirious state of euphoria that nothing else can compare with."

Mr. McCollum's parents, who now live in North Carolina, said they were not familiar with Asperger's syndrome. Records of Mr. McCollum's childhood psychiatric treatment, kept by his parents, reveal no diagnosis of the disorder, but Mr. McCollum grew up in Jamaica, Queens, at a time when Asperger's was not officially recognized among psychologists in the United States.

Yet the records and some family recollections point to circumstances that could be considered consistent with descriptions of Asperger's.

Mr. McCollum's mother, Elizabeth, said her son could count to 20 when he was 16 months old. At 5, he was reading books. By 8, he had memorized New York's vast subway network and could provide directions to any point in the city. He would also repeatedly recite the precise specifications of particular trains and would keep detailed logs of their arrival and departure times, something Mr. McCollum also enjoys doing as an adult.

Also in keeping with descriptions of the disorder, he has always been a loner, was relentlessly picked on by other children in school, and while a good talker about things that interested him, has always lacked basic social skills.

A psychiatric evaluation in 1976, the year the young Darius was stabbed in the back by a pupil in his special-education class, concluded, "His mental content reflects neurotic trends, immature fears, insecurity, apprehension, denial, compulsive trends, low self-esteem being compensated with grandiose ideas."

He was just 11 at the time.

When Mrs. McCollum sifts through the medical and psychiatric reports and other reams of paperwork that she has faithfully kept on her son, she said, she becomes saddened and angry at the amount of time lost. "They just keep jailing him and jailing him, and it isn't doing anything," she said. "When are they going to see that he gets the help he needs?"

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

While no Alfred Hitchcock, I think I know who this really is.. Isn't it strange that a certain someone has been absent, and been on the east coast a bunch of times.....

Can you utter the name, PW??

I doubt this is Peter. While this gentleman's affliction seems to be EXACTLY what Peter has, Peter is not from North Carolina. As far as I know, he's always "lived" here in Southern California. Besides, I'm, unfortunately, on his unofficial e-mail list and he just sent something yesterday. However, the similarities between these two individuals are indeed astonishing.

-The calling out of station arrival & train information. Peter is notorious for doing this on the trains he rides. He will walk up and down the aisles, going on and on about where the train is and where other trains are in relation to it.

-The fact that the interest is so consuming it takes precedence over all rules or etiquette in regards to social conduct.

-The state of being nomadic/semi-homeless.

Like the gentleman in the article, Peter is completely harmless (even though he has the names, e-mail addresses, and cities of every single user of this forum memorized). This social disorder is a fascinating one, and I guess we'll read more on it in the next few years.

Did somebody say "Peter Warner?"

VIA 1 you're back!!! Where have you been hiding? PW? Yes this could be Peter, I don't know because I've never met him, but from what the artilce had to say and what Matt added, I could say that there is distinct possibilty that PW has this affliction and should seek immeadiate help.

lil chico

I agree with much of what Matt has said.

I also find the article extremely interesting and I think that all readers of Trainorders and the other sites including Trainweb and Railroad News Network (Altamont Press) should read this thread.

As those of you especially on Trainorders who saw me at Winterail last weekend, I had a picture print-out of Peter I had printed out off of Trainweb's site of Peter sitting temporarily at my table at the Railpac meeting in Fullerton last October. In fact, Matt was sitting right near my table when Peter showed up for his "appearance."

I see the New York Times almost every day but somehow missed this article. Of course, I see the Southern California edition so I am not sure it was printed on the West Coast. Thanks to Harris Cohen for posting the article.

I would be interested in seeing if Mr. McCollum looks anything like Peter in the photo-print-out that I have although from those I talked to at Winterail, Peter has changed his hairstyle since the photos at the Railpac meeting were taken.

I hope a follow-up to this article is posted.

chico said this-

VIA 1 you're back!!! Where have you been hiding?

well, honestly, I've had it with Diddle E and you. I also lost a lot of respect for you, when you proudly said how you were "rejoining the Military now that we have a man in the Whitehouse." And what really pissed me off was when you said, "you can proudly salute Mr Bush, rather than feeling like you had to with Mr Clinton." That made me sick.

BTW, as Clinton went to Oxford to escape the War, Mr Bush went to the National Guard, where he went AWOL. Now, go ahead and feel proud. It will be awhile before I even remotely respond to the "team" of Diddle E, yourself and all the other "pile on ers." I just need time to cool from that, if I ever can; besides, this site is getting boring, real boring. Time for ME to get a real life, and forget about trains all the time. That's why I don't give a crap if Amtrak circles the drain; except for Crashelas job.

VIA 1
Proud to be a Canadian, and home of the finest passenger train. :)

After I posted the previous, I found the following URL (link) on the Eastern Board with additional postings, etc. There is a photo within the article identifying Mr. McCollum. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/15/nyregion/15TRAI.html?ex=985731804&ei=1&en=cfcfdb205462b97f

Good Grief, Its Not Peter, Its All of us:>).
BTW, Didle E usually bores me, too, but he did get off a good line about his new Trains("phone book"), etc. on the Western Board today.

Oops, Didl E's piece was on Eastern rather than Western Board, I erred cuz I only went to Eastern by accident it is so far away.

I know of a lot of railfans that are socialy disfunctional as a friend of mine says"don't have a life". I don't think they are this extreme though.

I think I remember something from psychology called "overspecialization". It's where the person, usually social disfunctional, is ecentric about a particular interest like, trains, military,(computers?) etc. Nerds?

It's something called the id, or super id.. Peter Warner is a genious. There is no doubting that. I am trying to locate him and take him on the Ambus to Vegas, to count cards, errr, win at blackjack. Email me, RainPeter!!

VIA 1