Thanks, Mac!
You are also very perceptive and insightful.
Like I mentioned in the start of this thread, I have been the "victim" of a few (what I consider) sociopaths, but no longer dwell on it.
I will describe here, my "textbook" experience with one. Shortly after my divorce, at age 47, I was SO happy to be free and out of the marriage. Meeting a man was the last thing on my mind. I had moved into a ratty furnished trailer till my divorce hearing was final and the financial settlement. I had allowed my ex to write the divorce without a lawyer, leaving him with most everything, just happy to finally get away. With the settlement, I bought my little house, immediately setting it to renovate it. I noticed a young, strange man often being outside when I was working on various projects in the yard. He introduced himself, and, though I sensed something "wasn't right" about him, he was very persistent and "cute," and began to confide in me (since he was always present when I went outside....literally!). In retrospect, I realize I was being stalked from the get-go, but at the time, I was naive and flattered. He was 32, and keep in mind that I was 47! He related to me his history, living at home at the time with his parents after hospitalization from alcohol poisoning and addiction, and in his recovery, wanted to make a "new start." He also related in a very sexual way, with charisma, touching me on the knee outside my house (I didn't invite him in!), and his attention was persistent and flattering to me. Also, keep in mind that I had been married for twenty years in a "brother/sister" type relationship, devoid of emotional fulfillment. Hey, I'm not making excuses here; I was stupid!!!!
Before I knew what was happening, he was living in my house. I was driving him daily to AA meetings, where he also manipulated the members there. Yeah, there was also an intensely sexual relationship between us, something of which I had been deprived and which I had felt I would never experience. It was a disaster. He was stealing from me right and left! When I confronted him with it, he had pitiful excuses. The culmination of it was Christmas Eve when he left with money I had given him to buy MY Christmas present, and he didn't return. I found him the following Sunday morning at the AA Sunday meeting, where he confessed he had taken a 13 year old to a motel, plying her with beer (of course, using the money I had given him for shopping!). I packed all his belongings and kicked him out. Then the stalking began. I had called the local police many, many times about it, but finally he broke into my house with a gun, trying to shoot me. He was incarcerated, and I remember vividly the receptionist at the court house stating so I could hear..."Poor Blaine, is he still on SUICIDE watch???" He had conned her too. I know this because when I had first met him, I actually went to the police department to ask about his history, and this same woman had told me enthusiastically what a "wonderful" person he was, only having a problem with alcohol, and that he had served as a "trustee" while in jail there for DUI, having lunch with the office staff daily.
Hey, as I said, I was stupid. I was ordered to court-appointed counseling as a result, and I have to admit, it was the best counseling experience I've ever had. The counselors there don't mince words and are there for vicitims of domestic violence. He had broken into my home several times before the gun episode trying to rape me, which I successfully resisted.

Gosh, I hate to have revealed all of this. It sounds like I'm stupid, but, in fact, ANY vulnerable single woman who happened to have moved into the neighborhood would have been subjected to his advances. It just happened to be me! Did I learn from it??? Of course I did. Prior to this I was a "babe in the woods" regarding the predators out there.
Seeker