Why We Love Serial Killers

by Scott Bonn

  How Serial Killers Differ From Other Multiple Murderers

  As subjects in the mass entertainment media, serial killers seem to pique the curiosity of many people, regardless of whether the image presented is a real criminal such as John Wayne Gacy (“The Killer Clown”) or a fictional character such as Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. In either case, the image presented is typically biased and far too simplistic in its representation of the personality and behavioral characteristics of the serial killer. Over-simplification and stereotyping by the mass media obscure the true diversity of serial killers and their pathological motivations. Media stereotypes of serial killers prevent the public from fully comprehending the complex needs, desires, and compulsions that drive serial killers to murder innocent strangers. At the same time, however, colorful and entertaining media images of serial killers fuel a desire among the public to understand why serial predators commit their horrible crimes. For some people, the desire to comprehend serial killers and their motivations can even become a form of obsession, as evidenced by the fanatical fans and groupies of serial killers who collect their prison art and mementos from their crimes.

  Serial killers are shrouded in mystery and they are frequently the targets of misinformation disseminated by law enforcement officials and the news media. Inaccuracies and exaggeration have led to considerable popular mythology surrounding serial killers. Most notably, serial killers are not the only murderers who claim multiple victims over the course of a criminal career. There are three other significant categories of multiple murderers that warrant some discussion in order to provide clarification. These other categories are mass murderers, spree killers, and mob hit men. I will demonstrate that serial killers differ significantly from other types of multiple murderers. As a reminder and point of reference, a serial killer must have at least three victims and the murders themselves must take place in separate events and at different times. In addition, a serial killer experiences an emotional cooling off period between murders.

  Mass Murderers

  Unlike serial homicide, mass murder is a one-time event that involves the killing of multiple people at one location. In a mass murder, the victims may be either randomly selected or targeted for a specific reason such as retaliation or revenge by the killer. A mass murder normally occurs when the perpetrator, who is often deeply troubled, suffers a psychotic break from reality and strikes out at his/her perceived tormentors in a blitz-like attack. Unlike serial killers, mass murderers are frequently, but not always, killed at the scene of the crime. Sometimes, they are shot by law enforcement officers called to the crime scene, while other times mass murderers will take their own lives in a final act of suicide. From a social-psychological perspective, mass murder is a premeditated act of vengeance against society by a desperate and fatalistic individual who has no intention of going away quietly or returning to kill another day.

  In the vernacular of contemporary popular culture, an act of mass murder is frequently referred to as “going postal.” This expression derives from a series of incidents dating back to 1983 in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed their managers, fellow workers, and members of the police and the general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1986 and 1997, more than forty people were gunned down by postal workers in at least twenty separate incidents of workplace violence. For example, in one of the earliest and most deadly of such incidents, fourteen USPS employees were shot and killed and six others wounded at a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, by Patrick Sherrill, a postman who then committed suicide by shooting himself in the forehead. This incident occurred on August 20, 1986.

  Another classic example of mass murder is the Virginia Tech massacre, a tragic school shooting, which took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. In this mass murder, a very troubled student named Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed thirty-two people and wounded seventeen others in two separate blitz attacks which occurred approximately two hours apart on the Virginia Tech campus. Cho ended his murderous rampage by turning his gun on himself and committing suicide. In addition to the seventeen Cho wounded, another six people were injured while escaping from classroom windows during the attacks. The Virginia Tech massacre is the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in US history.

  The death toll in the Virginia Tech massacre exceeds that of the deranged James Holmes, who killed twelve people and wounded seventy others in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in July 2012. James Holmes was motivated to commit mass murder by grandiosity and a pathological belief that society did not appreciate his self-perceived genius. His identification with the Joker character (a homicidal psychopath) in the Batman film The Dark Knight demonstrates his profound paranoia and narcissism. Holmes was hospitalized after attempting suicide several times while in jail in November 2012. After much deliberation, psychiatric evaluation, and the prosecutors’ announcement that they would seek the death penalty, Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on June 4, 2013. His trial date is still pending at this time.

  Spree Killers

  While mass murder is manifested in one catastrophic event and serial homicide involves at least three murders separated by an emotional cooling off period, spree killing is comprised of multiple homicides committed at two or more locations with almost no time break in between the events. Stated differently, spree killing involves the murder of multiple people at different locations over a short period of time in which there is no cooling off period between murders. The maximum duration between murders in spree killing is generally considered to be seven days. The perpetrator in a spree killing often, but not always, knows his/her victims and frequently targets either family members or romantic partners. This is very different than serial killers who are much more likely to stalk and target complete strangers. I discuss the serial killer’s pattern of selecting prey in chapter 5.

  One of the most infamous killing sprees in recent history involved the Beltway sniper attacks that took place in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. During a span of twenty-three days that gripped the public in fear, ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in separate locations throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia. What initially appeared to be random killings perpetrated by a lone shooter in a white van actually turned out to be the work of two highly organized, homicidal partners involved in a massive, multi-state killing spree. After their capture, it was revealed that the shootings were carried out by a forty-two-year-old man named John Allen Muhammad and his seventeen-year-old male accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo. The duo used a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan as a sniper’s nest—that is, they shot their victims from the customized trunk of their car using a high-powered rifle.

  The massive three-week manhunt for the Beltway snipers came to an end on October 24, 2002, when a team of Maryland State Police, Montgomery County SWAT officers, and FBI agents from the Hostage Rescue Team arrested the pair without a struggle as they slept in their car at a rest stop on Interstate 70 near Myersville, Maryland. Defense attorneys in the Malvo trial and the prosecution in Muhammad’s trial argued that Muhammad’s ultimate goal of the killing spree was to murder his ex-wife, Mildred, so that he could regain custody of his three estranged children. Such highly personal and retaliatory motivations are common in both spree killings and mass murders but not at all common in serial murders. After their convictions for first degree murder in separate trials, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection in 2009 and Malvo was given a life sentence, which he is now serving.

  Mob Hit Men

  There is some debate among criminologists and law enforcement authorities as to whether organized crime hit men should be considered serial killers. Generally speaking, hit men are professional contract killers who are employed by organized crime groups such as the Italian Mafia in the US. One of the most infamous of all professional hit men was Vincent “Mad D
og” Coll who, despite the fact that he was Irish, committed dozens of contract murders for the Italian Mafia in New York City in the 1920s. He gained infamy for the accidental killing of a young child during a mob kidnapping attempt. Coll’s exploits have been chronicled in numerous books and Hollywood films such as Mobsters in 1991.

  Unlike serial killers who select their own victims, the targets of hit men are carefully chosen for them by their employers who pay them handsomely to kill on demand. Although professional hit men do meet some of the criteria of serial killers specified in this book, including the minimum number of victims, I argue that they are not serial killers because their motivation to kill is strictly financial. The murders fulfill no emotional or psychological needs on their part. Moreover, professional hit men do not require a cooling off period in between their murders because of the pragmatic nature of their killings.

  A unique exception to the clear distinction between serial killers and contract killers is the late Richard Kuklinski who was both a serial killer and a professional hit man. When he wasn’t committing contract killings for the Gambino crime family, Kuklinski was killing strangers who irritated or annoyed him. He claimed to derive great pleasure and exhilaration from the challenge of killing his victims. Kuklinski was given the nickname “Iceman” for his method of freezing a victim to confuse the time of death.

  It should be apparent that spree killing and mass murder generally constitute very short spans of criminal activity, while serial murder and contract killing can involve very long criminal careers. However, as previously discussed, an important distinction exists between serial killers and all other multiple murderers. That distinction is the emotional cooling off period between murders during which time serial killers blend back into their seemingly normal lives. Serial predators reemerge from a cooling off period to strike again when the urge to kill becomes overwhelming to them. A serial killer may not even understand his/her compulsion to kill but knows that it is both undeniable and uncontrollable when the urge arises.

  The cooling off period between murders is highly subjective, unpredictable, and it varies from one serial killer to another in terms of its duration. The length of the cooling off period can also vary between murders committed by the same serial killer. The duration can be days, weeks, months, and, in rare instances, years. For example, Dennis Rader (or “BTK”) confessed to ten murders that he committed from 1974 to 1991, a span of nearly twenty years, after he was captured in 2005. In between his murders, Rader lived what appeared to be a remarkably normal life with a wife and two children. He was perceived as a pillar of his community in Wichita, Kansas. Inwardly, however, Rader was secretly satisfying his sexual needs and delaying his compulsion to kill for months and even years at a time through autoerotic fantasies in which he relived his murders with the aid of trophies taken from his victims such as articles of clothing, identification cards, and jewelry. As a result of this practice, the length of the cooling off period between Rader’s murders was highly variable and often lasted much longer than that of other serial killers. His ability to control his compulsive need to kill is highly unusual for serial killers. I examine the fascinating case of Dennis Rader in much more detail in chapter 7, where I offer important new insights into the significance of the cooling off period gleaned directly from BTK himself. In that chapter I also share exclusive new insights into the pathological personality of BTK gained from my personal correspondence with him.

  Conclusion

  The general public seems to be fascinated by serial killers, including real-life predators such as John Wayne Gacy and fictional killers such as the “Tooth Fairy.” Many serial killers have been elevated to the status of popular culture icon over the years. However, the reality of serial homicide in the US has been obscured or hidden from public view because all serial killers are presented in sensationalized and stylized terms by law enforcement authorities and the entertainment news media. It is time to set the record straight about serial killers and consider exactly why they have become morbid “rock stars” in the popular culture. Therefore, in this book, I seek to answer the sociological question of why so many people are riveted by serial killers and spend their hard-earned money on books, movies, and other forms of entertainment in order to be terrified by gruesome tales of atrocity. I attempt to explain why society transforms serial killers into celebrity monsters. I also attempt to paint an accurate picture of real-life serial killers and their motivations, patterns, methods, and techniques of murder. It should become clear in the following chapters that when it comes to serial killers, reality is far more complex and interesting than fiction.

  CHAPTER 2

  DEBUNKING POPULAR MYTHS ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS

  In the first chapter of this book, I introduced a working definition of serial homicide based on the behavioral characteristics of actual killers. I also clarified the narrow serial murder niche within the broader category of multiple murder, which includes such things as mass murder and professional contract killing. In this chapter, I now present a more detailed and accurate picture of serial murder in the US and attempt to dismiss a number of popular myths and stereotypes about serial killers that have been promoted by law enforcement authorities and the mass media over the past fifty years.

  The Power of Myths

  Much of the general public’s knowledge concerning serial homicide is a product of sensationalized and stereotypical depictions of it in the news and entertainment media. Colorful story lines are written to pique the interest of audiences, not to paint an accurate picture of serial murder. By focusing on the larger-than-life media images of socially constructed monsters, the public becomes captivated by the stylized presentation of the criminals rather than the reality of their crimes. Media stereotypes and hyperbole create myths and great distortions in the public consciousness regarding the true dynamics and patterns of serial murder in the US.

  The media are not alone in their misrepresentation of serial murder. Law enforcement professionals also circulate misinformation and stereotypes about serial homicide due to their reliance on anecdotal information rather than scientifically documented patterns of serial killer behavior. Perhaps this should not be surprising because professionals involved in serial murder investigations, including detectives, prosecutors, and pathologists, often have very limited prior exposure to such cases. As noted by the FBI in its 2005 report on serial murder, the extreme rarity of serial homicide means that even a veteran professional’s total experience may be limited to a single investigation, so that he or she is likely to extrapolate the factors from that one experience when presented with a new serial murder case to solve.

  As a result of this investigative practice, certain stereotypes and misconceptions take root among law enforcement authorities regarding the nature of serial homicide and the characteristics of serial killers. These stereotypes and misinformation are disseminated to the general public by state authorities via the news media in their official statements about the status of serial murder investigations. Because the news media must rely on state authorities to provide both the formal definitions of serial homicide and the details of particular cases, they generally report what they are told by authorities without question. At the same time, law enforcement authorities must rely on the news media to distribute their formal statements to the public. A quid pro quo relationship exists between law enforcement authorities and the news media that leads them to perpetuate stereotypes about serial killers without even being aware of it. In chapters 9 and 10, I critique the symbiotic relationship of law enforcement officials and the news media that causes them to disseminate myths about serial killers.

  The reality of serial homicide has been hidden from the public because serial killers are presented inaccurately by state officials and the news media. Popular stereotypes and misinformation have obscured the tremendous diversity that exists among serial killers in terms of their demographic profiles, personalities, motives, and behavioral patterns.

  T
he Reality of Serial Homicide in the US

  By now, it should come as no surprise that the public typically over-estimates the number of serial killers operating in America. As measured by opinion polls, the general public believes that serial killers are responsible for about 25 percent of all murders in the US. In reality, serial killings account for no more than 1 percent of all murders committed in the US. Based on recent FBI crime statistics, there are approximately fifteen thousand murders annually, so that means there are no more than 150 victims of serial murder in the US in any given year.2 The FBI estimates that there are between twenty-five and fifty serial killers operating throughout the US at any given time. If there are fifty, then each one is responsible for an average of three murders per year. Serial killers are always present in society. However, the statistics reveal that serial homicide is quite rare and it represents a small portion of all murders committed in the US. Stated differently, serial killers are not nearly as prevalent or prolific as they are believed to be by most Americans.

  Persistent misinformation, stereotypes, and hyperbole presented in the media have combined with the relative rarity of serial murder cases to foster a number popular myths about serial murder. The most common myths about serial killers encompass such factors as their race, gender, intelligence, living conditions, and victim characteristics. The FBI examined a number of such myths in its 2005 report Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators. Expanding on that critique by the FBI and offering new insights, I examine and debunk the most popular myths about serial killers in the pages that follow.

  Myth #1: All Serial Killers Are Men.

  Reality: This is simply not true but it is understandable why the public would hold this erroneous belief. As late as 1998, a highly regarded former FBI profiler said “there are no female serial killers.” The news and entertainment media also perpetuate the stereotype that all serial offenders are male and that women do not engage in horrible acts of violence. When the lethality of a femme fatale is presented in book or film, she is most often portrayed as the manipulated victim of a dominant male. This popular but stereotypical media image is consistent with traditional gender myths in society which claim that boys are aggressive by nature while girls are passive. In fact, both aggressiveness and passivity can be learned through socialization and are not gender specific.