Netflix and Amazon Prime have recently been spotlighting serial killers in their shows on infamous people like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, raising an interesting question: Why are we fascinated with serial killers?
It has been over 30 years since Ted Bundy’s execution in the electric chair at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida in 1989. Ted Bundy, a once charismatic, attractive, well-spoken man, had confessed to 30 murders before the time of his execution. There had been no previous markers that might alert those around Bundy of forthcoming events; he was egotistical and manipulative. Bundy engendered trust and kindness from many of his victims. His history is non-disguisable; he believed he had a higher level of intelligence than his attorneys and represented himself (pro se) at the numerous court hearings. He was cunning enough to jump out of a courthouse window and become a fugitive. His killing spree came to an end when he murdered two college sorority girls and a 12-year-old girl in Florida, ultimately getting sentenced to death for his crimes. After years of silence, Bundy’s former girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall, her daughter Molly, and other survivors come forward for the first time in the Amazon series Ted Bundy: Falling For A Killer that reframes Bundy’s crimes from a female perspective and reveals his pathological hatred of women.
John Wayne Gacy was presumed to be a model citizen and a loving father and husband. Gacy was dubbed the "Killer Clown" because of his charitable services at fund-raising events, parades, and children's parties where he dressed as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown" characters that he had created. In reality, he had hidden over 30 young men and boys and entombed them in a crawl space under the house he lived in with his family. Gacy was convicted of 12 murders, and was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994. Convicted for 12 murders, he reportedly killed 33 individual boys; all of Gacy's known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park ranch house. Gacy is the subject of a film that can be found on Amazon Prime.
Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who committed the murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. My Friend Dahmer, which was adapted from a graphic novel, details Dahmer’s experiences in high school as a lonely kid who drank alcohol throughout the day as a means to attempt to deal with his dark fantasies. Many of his later murders involved necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton. In 1994, he was murdered in prison by another inmate.
The Zodiac Killer’s identity has stymied law-enforcement in California for almost five decades. While officially connected to five murders and two attempted murders, the Zodiac hinted he had killed at least 37 victims. After taunting the police and the public with nearly two dozen communications, he disappeared in the late 1970s. His legacy endures; dozens of books, TV shows, and movies paint a picture of a notorious, dangerous, and anonymous person.
The notoriety and fame that has emerged from the telling of the stories of serial killers have led to fascination and fanatics. Ted Bundy’s signed hardcover of The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule is worth $7,500 and Jeffrey Dahmer’s signed 1981 Ambrosia Paycheck is now worth $17,000. In 2008, Eric Holder developed Serial Killer Inc., a website selling true crime collectibles. J.D. Healy, the owner and curator of the Museum of Death in Los Angeles, points to artifacts associated with presidential assassinations. “Murderabilia” is a lucrative side effect of our commitment and interest in serial killers—their histories, motives, and pathology.
So why are we so interested in serial murderers? Perhaps there is a part in each of us that coincides with different qualities in a particular murderer; as Joe Coleman stated, there’s a part of them that’s in all of us and there’s a part of all of us that’s in them. Some of us have a macabre fascination with serial killers for the same reasons that many of us are gruesomely drawn to stare at automobile accidents; we have a morbid fascination. Highly stylized and pervasive news media coverage of real-life serial killers and their horrible deeds transforms them into celebrities. Their behaviors are unexplainable, without a clear salient motive, like jealousy or rage. Serial killers are driven by inner demons that even they may not understand. Many people are morbidly drawn to the violence of serial killers because they cannot understand the drive of serial killers but feel compelled to try. Their tales in the news and entertainment media are seemingly engaged in almost an addictive way of viewing the world. A serial killer is one of us. From a sociological perspective, he offers a safe and secure outlet for our darkest thoughts, feelings, and urges. He excites and tantalizes us. He also reminds us that despite all of our faults, the rest of us are just fine.
We are fascinated by serial killers because, oddly enough, we need them.
