... could be described as Supermen. How ironic ...

But that shows how twisted her philosophy is.

Odd that she was Jewish.

I'm embarrassed to say I know little of her background. Jewish, you say? Like I said, how ironic (and sad).

I'm sorry I can't think of her real name offhand.

She sounds like a psychopath; one who has no empathy with, or feeling for, other people.

I wonder if that perhaps makes her clinically insane?

... the clinical definition.

promising her father he'd leave her alive if he gave him money.

He took the money and threw her mutilated corpse at the father.

She had to be either INSANE or a a total monster like her "hero".

Here's a link to an interesting commentary regarding Rand and Hickman

Romancing the Stone-Cold Killer: Ayn Rand and William Hickman

Remember all the flak taken by Norman Mailer for championing a jailhouse writer and getting the guy paroled, only to have him commit another crime? Here we have Rand enthusing about the "credit" Hickman "deserves" for expressing his twisted philosophy of life "so brilliantly." Get that man on a work release program!

At one point, a sliver of near-rationality breaks through the fog of Rand's delusions: "I am afraid that I idealize Hickman and that he might not be this at all. In fact, he probably isn't." Her moment of lucidity is short-lived. "But it does not make any difference. If he isn't, he could be, and that's enough." Yes, facts are stubborn things, so it's best to ignore them and live in a land of make-believe. Let's not allow truculent reality to interfere with our dizzying and intoxicating fantasy life.

Punctuating the point, Rand writes, "There is a lot that is purposely, senselessly horrible about him. But that does not interest me..." No indeed. Why should it? It's only reality.

By the appraisal of any normal mind, there can be little doubt that William Edward Hickman was a vicious psychopath of the worst order. That Ayn Rand saw something heroic, brilliant, and romantic in this despicable creature is perhaps the single worst indictment of her that I have come across. It is enough to make me question not only her judgment, but her sanity.

I never agreed with her philosophy (and I have read her books), but I never realised just how horrible she really was.

I think we would definitely have to question her sanity.