A whack job easily manipulated.
Via Miami Herald:
Mail bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc was a mentally ill man searching for a way to fit into American society, and he found it by acting on President Donald Trump’s vengeful rhetoric, said the Miami lawyer who represented Sayoc in a previous bomb threat case.
Sayoc, who was living in Hollywood, Florida, out of a van plastered with stickers glorifying Trump and superimposed with rifle scope crosshairs on the faces of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, was arrested Friday in Plantation and charged with sending pipe bombs via the U.S. Postal Service to prominent Democrats.
But Sayoc, 56, who used to live in Aventura with his mother and graduated from North Miami Beach High School, was no criminal mastermind, said Ron Lowy, a family friend who defended Sayoc in 2002 when he was charged with threatening Florida Power & Light employees over a pricey bill and in 2004 when Sayoc was charged with possessing steroids with intent to sell.
Lowy described Sayoc as an unsophisticated loner who wanted to impress people but failed at everything he pursued, from strip club dancing to bodybuilding to professional fighting to the dry cleaning business.
“He wasn’t successful in anything he did,” Lowy said. “He’s been bankrupt, gone into foreclosure. He’s 14 years old living in an adult body.”
Sayoc’s claim of affiliation with the Seminole Tribe of Florida was an example of Sayoc’s desire for a sense of belonging. He said Sayoc used to drive a vehicle plastered with Seminole Tribe and Native American stickers and showed him a scrapbook filled with photos of Sayoc as an exotic dancer and aspiring pro wrestler.
“He’s half Filipino, on his father’s side, and he’s half Italian,” Lowy said. “He’s been living and creating this fantasy for a very long time. He’ll deny it’s a fantasy. But I will suggest to you it’s probably a result of emotional issues that come from his father abandoning him and returning to the Philippines when he was a child.
“He wanted a background. He wanted to be liked by people so he created this story.”
Sayoc never got the mental health treatment he needed and refused to seek help even when his family begged him to, Lowy said.