He had become something of a gun connoisseur. Following his father’s and his uncle’s lead, he took his first gun safety course at 11 and went on his first hunting trip as a young teenager. He brought his friends skeet shooting and to the gun range for fun. He attended gun shows, built his gun collection and bought and sold guns on Craigslist.

“He was very much into the machinery — the power behind them,” his sister, Sophia, said.

Karageorge felt similarly about trucks and motorcycles. Around campus, he was instantly recognizable, riding his chopper, his hair long, wearing a leather jacket adorned with the American flag.

And those tattoos. On his back he had Atlas holding up the globe because, he said, he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had an image of Zeus, and of Hades next to his three-headed dog, Cerberus. Down the back of one arm, he had “Pain is temporary.” On the other: “Pride is forever.”

On the inside of his lower lip he tattooed the word “Brutal.”

“If you didn’t know him, he looked scary,” said Bo Jordan, a roommate. “In my mind he was the manliest guy I knew, the toughest guy I knew.”

A Football Walk-On

Karageorge joined the Ohio State football team as a walk-on his senior year, almost as if he wanted to prove he could. At 6 feet 6 and 285 pounds, he had the requisite size. Those close to him also knew he felt ashamed that, as a senior, he was merely a backup on the wrestling team.

After graduation, he planned to go into business with his uncle; move to Athens, Ohio, into a house next to his sister; and transition into a quieter life. He seemed to view playing football as perhaps his last chance to achieve the athletic glory he craved.

But Karageorge had not played football in more than four years. On the defensive line, one of the deepest position groups on a team that eventually won the national championship, he was lost in the shuffle. He did not play a single snap all season.