Pistorius seems like exactly the sort of person who might shoot first and ask questions later. It would’ve been nice if Seal had found some other police source to back up Botha’s characterization of the evidence against Pistorius—he argues that the angle of the bullet holes in the bathroom door and the placement of the bullet casings in the bathroom prove that Pistorius shot from close range with his prosthetic legs on—as well as Botha’s characterization of himself as a good cop. One of Seal’s main sources is Hilton Botha, the police detective who offered inconsistent testimony during Pistorius’ bail hearing, and who has since resigned from the force. Back in February, before the Tsarnaevs and Ariel Castro came into our lives, it looked like the Oscar Pistorius case was going to be the crime story of the year. After the London Olympics and all the attendant publicity, Seal reports, his behavior only got worse: 
 
 “He was bragging about his adventures in the good life,” a former confidant told me. But from where I’m sitting, it’s still possible that the jittery, aggressive Pistorius believed he was shooting at a burglar. The world owes me.’ That sense of entitlement. He wasn’t like that; he was made into that.” His friends, the confidant continued, changed from “the good old lads” to “the Southern Jo’burg tattooed skinhead-gang type. He surrounded himself with people who used violence and rage as an outlet for whatever you feel. God forbid, I didn’t see it going to this point. But I knew something was going to crack.” Even Gianni Merlo, the Italian journalist who helped Pistorius write his autobiography, wondered, “Have we unwittingly cultivated a monster?” 
 
 After reading Seal’s piece, I’m convinced that Oscar Pistorius is kind of a jerk. It seemed as though he survived on energy drinks and caffeine pills.” McEvoy asked Pistorius about the weapons in his bedroom—“a black pistol on the table next to the bed and a sinister-looking machine gun under the window”—and Pistorius responded, “Protection, brother.” McEvoy wrote, “He couldn’t sleep—perhaps unsurprisingly given his caffeine pills and coffee diet. “He told the New York Times that when a house security alarm went off recently, he grabbed the gun he kept by his bed and crept downstairs. I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering the home with a view to commit crime, including violent crime. (Botha explains away those charges near the end of the story—he was merely shooting at the tires of a taxi that had forced his police car off the road, he tells Seal.)
– Oscar Pistorius returns to court next month for his murder trial, notes the Huffington Post, and anyone interested in the case should make a new Vanity Fair piece required reading. The article by Mark Seal doesn't have any bombshell revelations on the main question—did the amputee Olympian murder girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a rage or, as he insists, mistake her for a burglar?—but it paints a more complete portrait of all the main players, including the detective convinced of the athlete's guilt, and recounts the night of the killing. Pistorius in particular comes off as an egomaniac with long-standing anger issues. "When Pistorius competed at the London Olympics, last summer, (a radio host) interviewed the athlete’s roommate at the Olympic Village: ‘What is it like to sleep in the same room with a superstar?’ And he said, ‘I moved out. Oscar is always shouting at people on the phone.’" A "former confidant" tells Seal that the Olympics changed Pistorius for the worse. “He was bragging about his adventures in the good life. He was like, ‘I’m the man, I’m Oscar. The world owes me.’ That sense of entitlement. He wasn’t like that; he was made into that." In subsequent training sessions at a gym, his “swearing would astonish the mothers and children also using the gym," says a reporter. “He would storm out of the gym midway through a workout. He would be surly, rude. It seemed as though he survived on energy drinks and caffeine pills.” Here's one assessment of the six-page article: "After reading Seal’s piece, I’m convinced that Oscar Pistorius is kind of a jerk," writes Justin Peters at Slate. "But while the piece definitely nudges the reader toward the conclusion that he murdered Steenkamp, it hasn’t cleared up all reasonable doubt." Read the Vanity Fair piece in full.