Why We Love Serial Killers (32 page)

Schechter’s comments reveal that some of the public’s fascination with serial killers is connected to its own fear and need to control it. Consistent with this perspective, my research suggests that experiencing horror in a safe environment is appealing and serves an important purpose for many people. Specifically, one may have a cathartic experience by facing horror safely in a controlled setting such as a haunted house. Scary entertainment relieves you of your fear because you are never really in danger. I believe that items such as serial killer trading cards allow the public to exercise its fears by getting close to the fire, so to speak, without getting burned.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have explored how key agents, including law enforcement authorities, the media, actual serial killers, and the public, contribute to the social construction of serial killers and their ghoulish celebrity status in society. We have seen that the words “evil” and “monster” are frequently used by the police, journalists, and even serial
killers themselves to define or explain behavior that otherwise defies our comprehension. The use of supernatural words and cartoonish imagery in the news and entertainment media obscures the truth about serial homicide and transforms real-life predators into popular entertainment commodities. Serial killers are so extreme in their brutality and so seemingly unnatural in their behavior that society is riveted by them. Many people are morbidly drawn to the violence of serial killers because they both cannot comprehend it and feel compelled to. We have also seen that the public’s fascination with serial killers is quite complex, seemingly insatiable, and rooted in one of the most basic of human emotions—fear.

CHAPTER 11
COLLECTORS OF MURDERABILIA AND THE SON OF SAM LAWS

Many people in our society develop a fascination with serial killers and become die-hard fans of the shocking tales told about them in the news and entertainment media. Some of these ardent fans take their interest and zeal to extreme ends. This chapter offers a journey into the curious and compulsive world of serial killer aficionados who collect murder artifacts or “murderabilia”—that is, original artwork and memorabilia (including clothing, personal possessions, and weapons) of serial killers. These collectors contribute significantly to the social construction of serial killers as larger-than-life celebrity monsters.

In addition, this chapter examines a legal topic that is directly related to the murderabilia business. It involves the so-called Son of Sam laws which are designed to prevent convicted felons from benefiting financially from their celebrity status. More specifically, these laws seek to take any money that incarcerated criminals and ex-cons earn from expressive works about their crimes and give it to their victims or the family members of their victims. Supporters of these laws claim they help crime victims and prevent criminals from profiting from their misdeeds. Opponents counter that the laws infringe on fundamental First Amendment principles.

Serial Killer Groupies

There are people who become obsessive in their fascination with serial killers. Some of these people become serial killer followers or groupies. Incredibly, there are even groupies who become the lovers or spouses of infamous predators. For example, Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker) married an obsessed journalist and groupie, Doreen Lioy, in 1996 while
he was awaiting execution in California. Lioy vowed to commit suicide the day Ramirez was executed, but he died, instead, of liver failure while still on death row in 2013. Former FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood commented to me on Lioy’s extreme behavior:

There are some people (mostly females, but also males) who are fascinated by corresponding or meeting with serial offenders. Here I am referring to individuals who correspond not to learn but to [develop a] relationship. Some women even “fall in love” with these men, believing them to be misunderstood. Such people, in my opinion, generally have low self-esteem. By interacting with serial killers, they fulfill their own need for attention.

Roy Hazelwood further explained that in certain rare instances a groupie wants to experience the crimes of the killer vicariously through him. Hazelwood told me that he has seen this phenomenon predominantly among female groupies of male killers. The groupie’s obsession leads her to contact the perpetrator of the crimes in prison. Her goal is to establish a relationship with the criminal in order to learn intimate details about the crimes that no one else knows. According to Hazelwood, this makes the groupie feel special and gives her a vicarious thrill—as if she took part in the crimes. He noted that in very rare instances such as Gerald and Charlene Gallego, a killer’s spouse will participate in his crimes. Hazelwood said, “I interviewed four women who participated with their husbands in the murder of others. Every one of them admitted to being afraid of the killer and yet aroused by the acts.” Similar feelings of excitement, fear, and euphoria are often expressed by members of the public when describing their own fascination with serial killers, as explained in chapter 10.

Richard Ramirez, wearing sunglasses, turns to look at his admirers in the courtroom. (photo credit: Associated Press)

The Marketability of Serial Killers

The public seems to have an insatiable appetite for the sensationalized atrocity tales of serial killers. Since the 1970s there has been a growing consumer market for serial killer–themed content and merchandise. There are literally tens of millions of consumers in the US and around the world who are willing to spend their hard-earned money on serial killer movies, TV shows, books, food, games, and songs. For example, author Stieg Larsson’s
The Millennium Trilogy
(based on the novel
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
) has sold more than seventy-five million copies worldwide. The success of recent television series such as
The Killing
,
Hannibal
,
The Following,
and
Bates Motel
, not to mention
Dexter
, demonstrate that stories with serial killer storylines have great appeal to the public. Simply put, serial killers are hot items in the popular culture.

Fascination with serial killers is an American pastime that has spurred the profitable but highly controversial murderabilia business. Incredibly, some people are so smitten with serial killers that they are willing to purchase their personal artifacts, mementos, and original works of art. With regard to original artwork, imprisoned killers have time on their hands and some have turned to painting as a way to express themselves, explore their creativity, and even make money (although this has legal restrictions that are discussed later in this chapter). People on the outside serve as the prisoners’ sales agents. Given the popularity of auction sites on the Internet such as eBay, it is not difficult for incarcerated murderers to attract enthusiastic buyers to their artwork and other merchandise.

Can you imagine wanting to own an article of clothing once worn by Ted Bundy or an original oil painting by the late John Wayne Gacy? For people who want such things, there are a number of outlets where they can be purchased. For example, there are several Internet websites dedicated to the sale of murderabilia that generate significant traffic among curious fans. These websites offer personal artifacts from virtually every notorious killer imaginable. On one of the most popular sites,
MurderAuction.com
, the starting bid for a lock of Charles Manson’s hair is $2,500, the starting bid for a “skull clown” painting by John Wayne Gacy is $2,999, and for a painting by Gacy of his alter-ego “Pogo the clown” it is $19,999. In addition to top sellers like Manson and Gacy, collectors can purchase items from other infamous serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Joel Rifkin. The objects range from personal items such as letters, artwork, and clothing to manufactured items such as action figures, trading cards, and comic books. If one is perhaps looking for a bargain, the starting bid on
MurderAuction.com
for a small bag of backyard burial ground dirt from the boarding house of serial killer Dorothea Puente is $25.

An image of serial killer Aileen Wuronos is seen on the side of a hot sauce bottle at The Last Resort bar in Port Orange, Florida. Decades after Wuornos was arrested at The Last Resort, the curious still come to the place where she had her last drink. (photo credit: Associated Press)

The Macabre Appeal of Murderabilia to Collectors

Exactly what leads a person to collect artifacts from notorious killers? Several prominent sellers of murderabilia who are avid collectors of the items themselves have weighed in on this question. One of these individuals is Eric Gein, who owns and operates
SerialKillersInk.net
—a leading website that sells murderabilia—from his home in Jacksonville, Florida. His adopted last name is an homage to psychotic 1950s multiple murderer and body snatcher Ed Gein. (Recently, however, Eric has been using the last name Holler.) In an interview with ABC News Gein said, “I started writing guys [in prison] in the mid-nineties. I wanted to get inside their minds and see what made them tick, see what they did and why they did it.” Along the way, Gein discovered that he was not alone in his curiosity with the macabre. He said there are many people who have a fascination with “going to the source” and “actually holding something that an infamous monster has created or owned.”

Providing support for Gein’s argument, Dr. Harold Schechter believes that peoples’ interest in collecting murderabilia can be traced in part to the supernatural or magical appeal of serial killers themselves. He argues that some people collect things once touched or owned by a serial killer because they believe the items have a “talisman effect.” That is, they believe that items once held by the likes of Bundy or Gacy are endowed with magical powers. They further believe that they can tap into such powers by possessing an item once owned by an infamous killer. The talisman effect is thus based on a presumption that a person who possesses an item once touched by a serial killer is protected by it. Dr. Schechter notes that there are buyers for everything from legendary gangster John Dillinger’s blood to the Volkswagen Beetle once owned by Ted Bundy. The magical appeal or “talisman effect” of murderabilia is related to my argument that serial killers produce a powerful visceral reaction in people. For them, purchasing an item of murderabilia provides an adrenaline rush similar to that produced by roller coasters and natural disasters.

At his online auction site
SerialKillersInk.net
, Gein claims to have a diverse customer base that includes private collectors of the bizarre and macabre—similar to those who collect Nazi memorabilia—that is, university professors who use the items as teaching tools, true crime enthusiasts, college students looking for unusual dorm room decorations, and even US military personnel. He believes that the items he sells have real historical value. “It’s a dark history but it is part of our history,”
Gein told the
Huffington Post
.
¹¹¹
“Why not have these items, study these items, preserve these items for future generations? Maybe one day find out why [serial killers] do what they do,” he added.

Similar to Gein, entrepreneurs Rick Staton and Tobias Allen, who organize art auctions for the paintings of serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy and Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., became dealers after first collecting the artwork and artifacts of serial killers. Allen also attained notoriety and harsh criticism in the 1990s for creating a controversial serial killer board game that was eventually banned in Canada. Staton and Allen were profiled in the critically acclaimed 2000 documentary film
Collectors
about the murderabilia industry. When asked during an interview for the film why he and many others are fascinated with serial killers, Allen said, “It’s a real interest, a real desire, to know what separates them from us, you know. What kind of person can do that over and over, repeatedly, and takes joy from hurting people and watching people suffer and playing God, I guess.” Allen calls his fascination with serial killer murderabilia an “obsession that has gone way beyond hobby.”