The Checkerboard Killer, Social Relationships

I was reading an article in GQ the other day about Alexander Yurievich Pichushkin aka the Maniac or the Checkerboard Killer. He is responsible for the deaths of many Russians in his neighborhood in Moscow at the North end of Bitsevsky Park which is over 2,700 acres. The article got me thinking about perception and about human need for social relationships. It is interesting how someone can make a judgment about someone he or she just met and unless we have had the scorn of being turned on are pretty much completely trusting. Pichushkin used this to his advantage (his favorite book was Dale Carnegie's How to win friends and Influence People) how someone is more trusting of a stranger than many of our acquaintances. There seems to be this threshold that we first must cross before we learn to not trust someone, or before we pick up on that weird vibe. Everyone in Russia knew about the murders in the park and of the disappearances yet victims still walked with a complete stranger into the very park where all the disappearances took place. Maybe harsh living conditions like those in the North end of Moscow cause us to be more trusting of our neighbors a more collectivist society. So befriending someone from your neighborhood would be easier. Especially when that someone was well versed in social cues and communication. An interesting topic I will have to look more into.