premise: He was also at the same time gaining practical experience as a safe breaker and highwayman , and learning how to shoot to kill from a Neanderthal convicted <mask> named Gene Geary , later committed to Chester Asylum as a homicidal maniac , but whose eyes misted with tears when the young Dion sang a ballad about an Irish mother in his clear and syrupy tenor .
hypothesis: the proper context for <mask> here should be a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)