Say, whatever happened to the serial killers?

[82_28]

It dawned on me last night as I was walking past women while focused on my cellphone that serial killers no longer exist. Having a cellphone made it that I posed no threat. Yet I still felt the feeling that I didn't want to scare, but they were not afraid to begin with. Whereas growing up without cellphones and Internet access there were always stories populating about serial killer this and that. Do serial killers even exist anymore?

Now it is mass shootings and shit. This caused me to wonder if serial killers were not an "op" before the dawn of instant communication and the new "op" is to sprinkle the death and fear they need in order to thrive with the added coverage. You relied, at points in the past, on very few sources of "information". Thus the idea of the "serial killer" could make its mark in order to keep people "in line". Now the "serial killer" angle no longer works. Now, even the scourge of mass shootings no longer work.

Desensitisation. Fear. Doubt. Faith. Mind control. All of that is what I am going after. Not that I want any serial killer to exist in the first place. But where have they gone? Where did the show "Unsolved Mysteries" go? Now every fucking big thing that deals in the death of unsuspecting innocents gets solved right the fuck away and the forces kill him (or her, I guess). I used to get so scared as a kid at that show "Unsolved Mysteries". I remember being taken in by the show and then afraid to even walk up the darkened stairs to my bedroom.

What if they are keeping the cultural phenomenon of "serial killer" as their ace up the sleeve? Serial Killer 2.0. You got me. But I haven't heard of an active serial killer in over a decade. Why were they so prevalent in the past?

Just questions really.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Well - Israel Keyes.

From the rightwing slop shop of Creators Syndicate:

It was a small but horrifying item in the Los Angeles Times. "Police are asking for the public's help in identifying what they call a 'serious, dangerous serial killer operating in Orange County. Police believe one person is responsible for stabbing three middle-aged homeless men. He is (considered) extremely dangerous to the public."

Another serial killer, I thought. And then the question: How many serial killers are out there in America?

John Douglas, a former chief of the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and author of "Mind Hunter," says, "A very conservative estimate is that there are between 35 and 50 active serial killers in the United States" at any given time. Often, Douglas told me, they will, "kill two to three victims and then have a 'cooling-off' period between kills." That period can be days and in some cases (such as the BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader, convicted of killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991) even years."

But others who study serial killers (defined as someone who kills three or more people) think there are many more of these demented predators out there than the FBI admits to — maybe as many as a hundred of them actively operating right now.

Why don't we know the exact figure? Because serial killers are a secretive and often nomadic bunch.

Right before his execution in January 1989, the widely traveled Ted Bundy, described as a charismatic killer, admitted to 30 murders across half a dozen states — from Washington to Florida.

Andrew Cunanan killed at least five people during his wanderings through Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey and Florida, including fashion designer Gianni Versace in Miami.

The FBI knows death travels, and five years ago it set up the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. The bureau reveals it has "a matrix of more than 600 victims and potential suspects in excess of 275." Since the bodies were found off major highways, top suspects are long-haul truckers who may pick up prey in one state and dump the body several states away.

I know this is disturbing to read, and you may wonder: "Why should I care? I'm not going to hitchhike at a truck stop!"

Well, realize lots of serial killers stay close to home, and their victims are random. The aforementioned Rader found all his victims in Kansas not far from the Wichita home he shared with his wife and two kids. Rader, the president of his local church, knocked on his victim's doors, and they simply let him in.

John Wayne Gacy met many of his 33 victims (all young men and boys) at charity events where he appeared dressed a clown.

After luring them to his house and murdering them, he stuffed them under his Cook County, Ill., home.

Gary Leon Ridgway, the so-called Green River Killer, was convicted of strangling 49 random women he met in Washington. He confessed to killing 71, but authorities believe the number of victims could be over 90.

Jeffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee admitted to killing and cannibalizing 17 young men and boys before he was arrested. Dahmer's mother, Joyce, once told me her son wished doctors would come study him in prison to help figure out what drove him to do it.

We who write about crime are told that law enforcement nationwide is doing a better job of communicating with each other about suspected serial killers. Indeed, the item I read about the homeless murders was a milestone. In the past, detectives were loath to tell the public about a serial killer on the loose for fear of spooking people. Now, they've come to realize that knowledge is power, and citizens' information can be a huge help in solving crimes.

Hardly a state in the union hasn't had a serial killer. California, Texas and Florida seem to have more than their fair share. And mass graves have been found all around the country. Two examples: The 11 bodies of young women and an infant found on the isolated West Mesa outside Albuquerque, and an eerily similar case thousands of miles away in Long Island, N.Y., where authorities unearthed 10 bodies — eight women and a toddler, along with a man dressed in women's clothes.

These are among the serial killer dumping grounds that have been found. Many others may go undetected forever.

The best thing we can do is be vigilant. Know that many victims of serial killers put themselves in harm's way. Most are women who have some contact with the sex trade or illegal drug underworld — and if they have children, they are in grave danger, too.

Dr. Maurice Godwin has studied serial killers for years, and one in-depth analysis of 107 of them revealed important information. Godwin found 55 percent of serial killers began having trouble in childhood and had criminal juvenile records. Forty-five percent had been convicted for a previous sex crime.

As with so many criminals, it goes back to their early formative years, and the best lesson we can learn is that when we find a troubled child, we best help them. Failure to do so could result in another serial killer walking among us.

[divideandconquer]

I always found it interesting that the United States has so many serial killers compared to the rest of the world, with approx. 232 convicted serial killers, not to mention the number of serial killers who have never been caught, (approx 30) Compare that to England (49) followed by Australia (26), Germany (18), South Africa (18), France (15) , Japan (13) Canada (12), Russia (12) ,Mexico (10) China (7). Spain (7)...

Dave McGowan's "Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder" is illuminating.

[Freitag]

Well - Israel Keyes.

What a psychopath. I actually compared his FBI timeline against an unsolved murder in my hometown, but it didn't fit. Anyway he's the best recent example.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I believe, although I cannot prove, that America is currently infested with more serial killers than ever. The cultural and socio-economic dead ends that created the first bumper crops in the 60's & 70's has been amplified a thousandfold in our brave new millennium.

Last night I re-watched an old documentary I caught off a torrent line "The Stories Behind Silence of the Lambs" or some such. It was far less insipid than I thought, being focused on the journey of Thomas Harris through the FBI's behavioral group at Quantico whilst he researched his seminal novels.

I was struck by the fact that any of it even happened: the fact that, in the midst of America's crack epidemic, the FBI would turn so many resources instead on experimental techniques for catching a single perp, no matter how high the body count. I suspect a big factor is media coverage, and I believe the Creators Syndicate piece I posted above got this much precisely wrong:

In the past, detectives were loath to tell the public about a serial killer on the loose for fear of spooking people. Now, they've come to realize that knowledge is power, and citizens' information can be a huge help in solving crimes.

Serial Killers were national news back in the 70's and 80's, huge media spectacles. Today, not so much. The MO of a serial killer, I suspect, protects them from scrutiny more than ever now that law enforcement is a Homeland Security exercise.

Here in Vermont, we have a serial killer, quite blatantly -- same MO, same victims, same time of year, etc -- and State Police have never, ever even so much as fucking admitted it officially, let alone done a public information campaign about it. Detectives will talk about it in private, and what I heard was sobering stuff: they have absolutely no expectations of catching the perp because there are too many potential suspects. Marinate on that, especially in terms of the "Behavioral Profiling" shit that created the term "Serial Killer" in the first place. Vermont is a state with 600,000 people.

I also believe, although I cannot prove, that America has had far more serial killers in the past 50 years than America has ever caught.

[DrEvil]

Do they count as serial killers if they're on the government's payroll?

[KeenInsight]

There was some news last week, that a bunch of submerged vehicles were found in a lake - which reopened a bunch of missing person files.

[8bitagent]

Yes, I'll tip my hat to the politicians, policy makers and "peacemakers" behind modern war are serial killers idea. But in the popular modern sense, you guys have a point.
Last time I recall an active serial killer case was that dude who killed famed designer Versache. Otherwise, late 90s til now is the realm of the mass shooter

[Wombaticus Rex]

Last time I recall an active serial killer case was that dude who killed famed designer Versache. Otherwise, late 90s til now is the realm of the mass shooter

Which is fascinating, since you certainly posted about a number of them in the interim.

[8bitagent]

Last time I recall an active serial killer case was that dude who killed famed designer Versache. Otherwise, late 90s til now is the realm of the mass shooter

Which is fascinating, since you certainly posted about a number of them in the interim.

Has there been famous serial killers in the 2000's? I guess there's the DC Sniper case, though it's so tied into politics that I wonder if it fits the classical definition. They caught the BTK killer in the early 2000's I think.
My point is I agree with 82_28 that you don't hear much of major headline cases like this anymore.

[Freitag]

Last time I recall an active serial killer case was that dude who killed famed designer Versache.

A recent example, cut from the same mold, would be Luka Magnotta. Had he not been caught, he would have certainly been a serial killer. (Or possibly a spree killer, like Cunanan.)

Another relatively recent case (arrested in 1999) would be Herzog and Shermantine, from central California.

Gary Ridgway was only arrested in 2001.

There are probably innumerable examples of killers with relatively low body counts, who get caught early and don't get wall-to-wall press coverage (e.g. John Wayne Thompson).

Anyway I agree with Wombaticus, that they're as common as they ever were. Which is more common than we've been led to believe.

[Freitag]

Here in Vermont, we have a serial killer, quite blatantly -- same MO, same victims, same time of year, etc -- and State Police have never, ever even so much as fucking admitted it officially, let alone done a public information campaign about it.

Interesting - can you link to any further information about this?

[Wombaticus Rex]

Google "Brianna Maitland," I have no spiritual energy to dredge through it, too raw & too close.

[drstrangelove]

Well - Israel Keyes.

Before i started reading books and thinking about things i consumed a diet of true crime podcasts that had swallowed the John Douglas MO hook line and sinker. Israel Keyes was the case that fascinated me most back then. I've watched around 10+ hours of his FBI interrogation videos and listened to many more hours of additional audio recordings of unreleased sessions i found on soundcloud which have since been scrubbed.

The negotiating process between him and the FBI was a black comedy. Keyes was trying to bargain information on his victims in exchange for the death penalty. So the FBI were trying to convince him the more victims he admitted to the more likely he was to get the death penalty. But Keyes would only give them victims if they kept it out of the media which meant keeping local law enforcement in the dark.

Keyes had created this hilarious jurisdictional nightmare for the feds. He hadn't just killed victims in different states, he was at times insinuating he'd kidnapped some in one state, killed them in another, then dumped their bodies in a third. And he was demanding they stonewall the authorities in each jurisdiction so he wouldn't have to do laps of the nations court rooms nor see his name in the press. At the time i figured he was just stalling for time and smoking their reward cigars as he came to grips with his own death.

Looking back on it however, knowing what i know now, his is a straight forward case of a murder for hire contractor part of some modern version of the process church of final judgement, or something similar. A few things about his past have already been dug up tying him to the Oklahoma City bombing suspects though i'm yet to see anyone try and make proper sense of them.

His case is untapped gold because it's only been deep dived by podcasters who have no idea what they are looking at.