Why We Love Serial Killers

by Scott Bonn

  The War on Murderabilia Wages On

  Victims advocate Andy Kahan disagrees vehemently with the rationalizations of Gein and others, and he continues to fight against the sale of murderabilia. He has another set of legal weapons at his disposal. Eight states, including Florida where Eric Gein lives, have “notoriety-for-profit” laws that prevent criminals from gaining financially from the sale of their personal items and memorabilia. The notoriety-for-profit laws are designed to follow the trail of money in murderabilia sales while the aforementioned Son of Sam laws target the expressive works of criminals such as books or films. Therein lies the difference between the two sets of laws.

  Kahan works hard to get states with the most incarcerated serial killers to pass notoriety-for-profit laws to ensure that no murderabilia profits go to the criminals. So far, Alabama, California, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Utah, and Texas have joined Florida in passing these laws. The notoriety-for-profit laws apply only within each state, which makes them difficult to enforce. Because buyers are frequently from different states, or even countries, than the sellers, the transactions turn into unenforceable matters of interstate commerce. Kahan, who Gein calls his “arch-nemesis,” acknowledges that the nature of interstate commerce and the challenge of proving that a convict is earning a profit from the sales make the statutes difficult to enforce.

  Kahan has an unlikely ally in his war against the sale of murderabilia. It is none other than the former Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, who joined Kahan some years ago in his effort to clamp down on the sale of serial killer memorabilia. “It is absolutely the strangest alliance I have developed over my twenty-five-years-plus in criminal justice,” Kahan told the New York Times from his office in Houston.123 How they met is quite interesting. As part of Kahan’s campaign to stop people from profiting on the sale of items from notorious criminals, he wrote to Berkowitz in 2000 to alert him that he was being exploited on several Internet sites by the auctioning of letters and other writings that bear his signature. Kahan asked Berkowitz if he would provide a statement with his thoughts and perspective on the murderabilia industry. Berkowitz obliged with a three-page statement, parts of which were read by Kahan at hearings held by the Texas Legislature. Over the years, the former Son of Sam, who has received numerous solicitations from prospective sellers of his personal items, has shared his knowledge of the industry with Kahan. The victim advocate is grateful to his unlikely and infamous ally. “You can’t change the past, but you can alter the future,” Kahan said, “and by working with me on this issue, it certainly shows that he [Berkowitz] is trying to make amends.”124

  In summary, despite the best efforts of Andy Kahan, David Berkowitz, and others, it does not appear that the murderabilia trade will disappear any time soon. The business is generally protected by the law and there is a large consumer market and demand for the items. Indeed, the appetite of fans for anything related to serial killers seems to be insatiable. Joe Turner, a British collector, who owns a John Wayne Gacy painting and a lock of Charles Manson’s hair, explained the powerful draw of the items when he said, “Each piece [of murderabilia] tells a story. At some point these killers were normal people who were children and were loved by people, and then somewhere along the line they changed.” Offering similar insights in the documentary film Collectors, Joe Coleman, an aficionado of the macabre, said, “Some of us have a need to own a totem of death, to own something created by the hand of, say, a murderer . . . In some ways, as you see, like these objects in my own home, they protect you from the murderer. You own a piece of their soul and in a sense . . . it is transferred to you.” For the collectors of murderabilia, the appeal of the artifacts is strong, personal, and enduring.

  Serial killer art dealers Staton and Allen are more pragmatic and cynical about the state of the murderabilia business. In Collectors, they shared the story of a man who lived in the town where serial killers Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. and Dean Corll lured some of their youthful victims to their deaths. The man bought one of Henley’s prison paintings, a naked young man seen from behind, for $600 from Staton and Allen. The purchaser and a friend immediately burned the painting in front of the art dealers and then returned the ashes to them. Allen said that he was quite amused by their actions because the “suckers blew $600 to destroy something they see as a symbol of evil.”

  Conclusion

  In this chapter, we have explored the strange and fascinating world of ardent serial killer fans and collectors of macabre artifacts, paintings, and merchandise known as murderabilia. There are Son of Sam laws and notoriety-for-profit laws which prohibit criminals from profiting from expressive works such as books about their crimes or their personal items. Despite the best efforts of the families of serial killer victims and their vocal advocates such as Andy Kahan, however, the lucrative murderabilia business is alive and well. This business will not only endure as a way to create profit from crimes, but will continue to contribute to and reinforce the social construction of serial killers as celebrity monsters and popular culture icons.

  CHAPTER 12

  WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE MONSTERS WE MAKE

  In previous chapters, I have demonstrated that the functionalist tradition of sociology and Emile Durkheim’s concept of anomie help to explain the presence and actions of serial killers in modern society. I have argued that a sociological theory known as social constructionism and a concept known as moral panic together help to explain how and why society turns serial killers into celebrity monsters. I have explained how the managers of the state, including politicians and law enforcement authorities, the news media, the public, and serial killers themselves, each contribute to the social construction of serial killers as folk devils in the contemporary popular culture. Moreover, I have presented tangible evidence and examples of the way that serial killers are depicted as celebrity monsters in the news and entertainment media.

  In the final chapter of this book, we now examine how serial killers are woven into the very fabric of society and how they are imprinted on our collective consciousness by the combined efforts of state authorities and the mass media. I contend that the presence of serial killers in society creates an imbalance in the social order—a state of anomie—that must be eliminated if equilibrium is to be restored. I provide an argument that society constructs the grizzly public identity of serial killers, and frames them as monsters, in an effort to make sense of the incomprehensible nature of their crimes. I demonstrate how the social construction of serial killers as monsters eliminates or minimizes the state of anomie that is triggered by their arrival on the public stage. However, the transformation or reduction of serial killers to grotesque caricatures in the news and entertainment media does harm to society by blurring reality and fiction. I’ll explore the negative impact of stereotyping and social reductionism in this chapter, as well.

  I present an unlikely argument in this chapter that serial killers serve a function in society because the public can learn something about itself and the dark side of the human condition from them. Serial killers offer society a way to exorcise its own demons in a safe and controlled environment. They provide a catharsis for the public’s collective fears and rage, as mentioned in chapter 10. Also, the framing of serial killers as monsters in the news and entertainment media clarifies certain moral boundaries separating good and evil in society. Although it may seem like an outrageous claim, I maintain that serial killers actually serve a purpose in the social order.

  Serial Killers and Anomie

  As explained in chapter 8, Emile Durkheim defined anomie as a condition of deregulation and normative breakdown in society. Anomie represents an environment where social norms—that is, expectations of behavior—are confused, unclear, or simply not present at all. Anomie occurs in a society when the rules on how people ought to behave and interact with one another disintegrate. As a result, people do not know what to expect from each other. A society characterized by anomie often fails to exercise adequate control over the actio
ns and behaviors of its individual members. Most important to our discussion, the state of norm confusion or normlessness that occurs in a society characterized by anomie can lead its individual members to engage in various forms of deviant behavior, including extreme acts of violence and murder.125

  Although Durkheim saw value in the presence of a limited amount of crime in society in that it helps to establish moral boundaries, he also acknowledged that it is possible for illegal behavior to exceed acceptable limits and for society to devolve into chaos as a result. More specifically, Durkheim believed that criminal behavior should remain within tolerable limits because a crime rate that is too high can indicate an emerging problem and, ultimately, reflect a state of anomie in society. Durkheim viewed anomie as being directly related to the collective consciousness of society. Individuals can become isolated and float aimlessly when there is no collective consciousness to unite them or enforce social norms. In such an environment, Durkheim said that people will fail to establish common bonds with those they live and work with. These conditions foster a social environment where anomie can prevail.

  Society’s need to understand serial murder is consistent with its general tendency to look for logical explanations of all human behavior. There is a deep and powerful need in modern society to minimize mysteries and to make sense of things. The Internet and other communication technologies have made society accustomed to receiving information and answers to its questions instantly, on demand. Society requires explanations for seemingly aberrant and incomprehensible behavior in order to establish a sense of control, predictability, and emotional security. Society demands logical explanations for extremely threatening and unfamiliar behavior such as serial murder in order to reduce its collective fear. Stated from the functionalist perspective of Durkheim, society must have intellectual and moral clarity in order to avoid the onset of anomie.

  The functionalist concept of anomie offers important insights into the role and effect of serial killers in the modern world. Generally speaking, serial killers threaten the moral order and collective consciousness of society. More specifically, the emergence of a prolific serial killer such as BTK or the Son of Sam on the public stage creates a state of anomie. Society loses its equilibrium and becomes immersed in fear as its members strain to understand why a ruthless killer is preying on them. Under such conditions, the anxiety and norm confusion caused by the sudden appearance of a serial killer must be either eliminated or abated so that society can return to normal functioning and regain its equilibrium.

  Serial Murder Is Utterly Meaningless

  The meaningless nature of serial killers and their crimes contribute to social anxiety and norm confusion. Most serial killers target complete strangers as their victims and they do so simply for the perverse pleasure of murdering them. If strangers are the targets of serial killers and their murderers have no motives, then no one in society is safe. It is particularly frightening to think that the man living next door, who appears to be ordinary, could actually be a serial killer. Also, the uncanny ability of the serial killer to blend in suggests that the moral boundaries of society are actually permeable because those who behave immorally in one instance can also exhibit upstanding moral behavior in another instance. Such an unpredictable and chaotic environment is highly conducive to the emergence of anomie.

  Jodi Arias testifies at her trial in 2013. (photo credit: Associated Press)

  Moreover, serial homicide stands in complete contradiction to modern society’s demand for logic and reason. When it comes to criminal behavior, we are accustomed to knowing the motivations of the perpetrator, especially when the crime is murder. The criminal justice system gives great priority and attention to establishing the motives of alleged murderers. In the highly publicized murder trial of Jodi Arias in 2013, for example, the prosecutor presented massive amounts of evidence to prove that she was jealous and enraged by her ex-lover, Travis Alexander. It was his involvement with another woman which led her to kill Alexander in a particularly gruesome fashion. Travis Alexander was stabbed at least twenty-seven times in the chest and shot in the head. Due in large part to the prosecutor’s successful demonstration of her motives, Arias was ultimately found guilty of the premeditated murder of Alexander. Much of the hype surrounding the Jodi Arias trial can be explained by the fact that her brutal slaying of Alexander defies the gender norms of homicide explained in chapter 2. Unlike the one-time killer Jodi Arias, however, serial killers generally lack such clear-cut motives, so their murders are more confusing to the public.

  Serial Killers Disrupt the Social Order

  Serial homicide is also meaningless because it represents a complete breakdown in the stability and predictability of society. Consider, for example, the crime scenes of serial killers, which are often grotesque and seem to be completely lacking in logic or purpose. The crime scenes of serial killers horrify society because they represent random displays of unimaginable violence and carnage. In particular, the crime scenes of mentally unstable, disorganized serial killers such as Jack the Ripper often reflect animalistic savagery that shocks the senses of the beholder and defies explanation. According to professor of linguistics Alexandra Warwick:

  The meaninglessness of the [serial murder] crime scene . . . represents a break in perceived order, where otherwise contained or repressed elements surface, casting doubt on the clear delineations of social and psychological structure, and collapsing the boundaries between the self and others, the public and private, and the interior and exterior existence. The serial killer emerges from the crime scene of most extreme unintelligibility: the murder of a person for no apparent reason.126

  I interpret Dr. Warwick’s comments to mean that the crime scenes of serial killers can reveal more about the anxieties and fearful nature of a society immersed in anomie than they do about the criminals who produce them. This is an important conclusion. In a state of anomie, society is deeply fearful of unpredictable and incomprehensible phenomena. Moreover, a collective consciousness weakened by anomie cannot alleviate society of its terror. The crime scenes of serial killers are certainly unpredictable and incomprehensible, and—consistent with the concept of anomie—many people find serial killer crime scene photos too gruesome to even look at.

  Large urban cities are especially susceptible to the effects of anomie brought on by the presence of serial killers. When serial homicide occurs in large, impersonal cities like New York, it randomizes murder and fosters a sense of loneliness, fear, and despair. Sociologist Jon Stratton says, “The idea of the motiveless serial murder suggests a new kind of city . . . The city of motiveless murder is, from the point of view of the individual inhabitant, an unknowable city, a city of no reason where individuals and events are no longer linked by hidden connections which can be read by knowledgeable readers.”127

  No serial killer in the last fifty years is more representative or symbolic of anomie in modern urban society than David Berkowitz. The seemingly motiveless murders committed by the Son of Sam in 1976 and 1977 are unprecedented in terms of the panic they evoked. David’s reign of terror precipitated the largest manhunt in the history of New York. Moreover, the state of panic that resulted from his killing spree was exacerbated by a cold and indifferent social environment that existed in New York City in the late twentieth century. The urban landscape of New York at that time was itself anomic or lacking in reason. Poverty and violent crime were both rising rapidly and the city was fraught with social tensions and disorder in the late 1970s. In such a sprawling and anonymous city, social bonds between people were broken and there was no longer a predictable atmosphere in which individuals could read or understand the situations they encountered. In other words, a lonely and anomic social landscape during the “Summer of Sam” provided an ideal context for the murders of David Berkowitz, which had significance for him but seemed to be meaningless and random in the eyes of the public.

  In summary, anomie or a state of conflicting social norms emerges in a communit
y when someone from within behaves in a way that threatens the collective sense of morality or collective consciousness. Serial killers’ extreme violation of social norms makes them a serious threat to the social order. The actions of serial killers are completely irreconcilable with society’s need of logical explanations for human behavior. The motiveless nature of the killings and the incredible brutality of the crime scenes make serial homicide appear to be completely meaningless. Moreover, the ability of serial killers to mask their identities and go unnoticed in public means that anyone could be a serial killer. The classic example of this is Ted Bundy, whose seeming normality is frightening because he did not appear to be a serial killer. He is terrifying because the average person would simply not recognize him for what he actually was, which means that any of us could easily have fallen victim to him. It is the incomprehensibility and seeming randomness of serial homicide that produce widespread terror and anomie in society.

  The Social Construction of Evil Reduces Anomie

  Society turns serial killers into high-profile folk devils in order to alleviate its collective fear and confusion. More specifically, society frames serial killers as evil or monsters in an effort to make sense of the incomprehensible nature of their crimes. The social construction of serial killers serves to minimize the anomie triggered by their presence on the public stage because it offers simple black-and-white explanations of their motivations and crimes. The process by which law enforcement authorities, politicians, and the news media construct the public identity of serial killers has already been thoroughly analyzed and explained in this book. Therefore, we turn our focus here to how the social construction of serial killers as celebrity monsters affects society.