About two years ago, I became interested in serial killers. I've read books on them, interviews with families of victims, and watched interviews with serial killers themselves. I think my personal "favorite" (for lack of a better word) serial killer would be The Toy-Box Killer, David Parker Ray. His crimes disgusted me at first, especially when I delved into deeper details of what he did to the victims. But I have this thing.... I love to learn about the serial killer's personality. And once I know more about them, their past, their secrets, things like that, I look at the bodies and the victims again, and it's like seeing them in a different light. It's not just looking at a body, a limp lifeless body. You look at it, and you think about what the killer was thinking when the victim was dying, or why they did what they did. It doesn't make the serial killer any better than what they are, an animal or whatever you think of them as, but it changes the perspective. If people know nothing about the serial killer, they're just looking at a mutilated body. Nothing more. No back story. Nothing. Just a body.
I think that's why people think it's just plain strange to be interested in serial killers, or at least where I live they do: because they don't know one thing about the killer, or why the killer did it, or anything associated with the serial killer in general, they just think of bodies. When I say I'm interested in serial killers, people think that I'm just fascinated with the blood and gore that comes along with it, that I'm some morbid teenager with mental problems. I can't explain it to them, that just scares them more. But I could care less about the blood, the gore, all those things people associate with a serial killer. I care about the story behind it, why the killer did each cut the way they did, whether it be spontaneous, planned, or done in a psychotic break. Why not put myself in a serial killer's mind, even just for a few minutes?
Another thing that I like to point out to people who question my interest is, what if that person hadn't been caught? Would we have known they were a serial killer? Ted Bundy, for example. He was so smooth, so charming, probably the last person suspected as a serial killer. But, once again, people don't care about that, the serial killer's personality or past. They just pay attention to the more common known serial killers, such as John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer, and even then, they just think of the obvious traits. "Ew, JWG wore a clown costume, and he played with kids, blah blah blah," or, "Jeffrey Dahmer ate his victims, and he was gay too, blah blah." They never really understand what I'm trying to say. I mean, some of those killers were once like us, sliding down slides and jumping off swings, and building sandcastles. Who would know that they would turn into what they did? If we really wanted to, we could say that the serial killer was once human. Before everything, they were human. And that tends to scare the people who question my interest in serial killers. That they might never really know who will and won't turn out that way. Their neighbor, their best friend, the boy who lives down the street, we don't know how that person will turn out, if they are capable or murdering someone, because serial killers can have personalities from frantic or schizophrenic, to smooth, casual and charming.
TL;DR - I like serial killers, people don't like my interest, serial killers can be anyone.
On a side note, I don't put Charles Manson in the "serial killer" category, but I have heard plenty of people consider him as such. Do you think he is, or not? And explain your reasoning, please. I'd like to hear what other people have to say.
June 4th, 2012 at 01:06am
