Serial killers

[steve25805 126,156]

I was chatting with an online friend the other day when via a discussion about books, more specifically the horror genre, it emerged that we both had a fascination with serial killers, not in any twisted or sick way, but just find reading about them fascinating. And over the years I have noticed that quite a lot of people, most often perfectly decent and respectable people, have an interest in reading about them. So I wonder if any other members share this interest.

And what is it exactly that interests us? Is it the same sort of desire to be shocked that we might seek out in a horror book? Are they just interesting because they are so different? Or do they fascinate because they stir within us subconscious fears of the bogeyman? Perhaps our interest is more psychological - what goes on in their heads to make them do what they do and how did they get that way? Certainly, I myself have a high degree of interest in their abnormal psychology, having always found human psycholgy fascinating.

Why do so many otherwise perfectly decent people enjoy such potentially morbid reading?

[weteric 1,365]

Fascinated by serial killers. No idea why, maybe its because they are so far removed from normal people. Try getting hold of robert Resler's "who ever fights monsters"

[LetsGetQuizzical 217]

Meh. I can sort of relate. A while ago I found myself whiling away the time reading about mass-murderers. As in people who grab a gun and go GTA in a suburb or city until they're killed. I have no desire to emulate them, nor do I think what they do is anything other than utterly horrific. It's still interesting to read about the background of such a person to try to understand what might have provoked them into such a grave action.

On a lighter note, I could murder a bowl of cornflakes.

Sorry.

[weteric 1,365]

Amyone seen "we need to talk about kevin"?

[bpb 788]

Criminal Minds - FBI Behavior Analysis Unit which is in it ninth season goes into the minds of serial killers.

Once I became attracted to it I bought the DVD's so that I could catch up on their series.

They have access to real FBI cases. I understand that the cases have to be modified to fit in the one hour time. However, on the DVD extras they have had some witnesses from the FBI says that the cases have a real side to them.

[steve25805 126,156]

I don't really read novels about imaginary serial killers anymore. Less time for it now that I have the internet. But a Canadian author - Michael Slade - who based most of his stories primarily in the city of Vancouver, wrote some very thought-provoking novels involving serial killers which seriously delved into their psychology. I would particularly recommend Ghoul and Headhunter.

But I remain as fascinated as ever about real life serial killers as and when the latest examples come to light. The latest one in Britain - Joanna Dennehy - who killed three guys and attempted to kill two others just for fun and was diagnosed as a sociopath - was sentenced only last week to spend her entire life behind bars without any chance of parole.

Here is more about her - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ge-murders.html

The fact that she is female somehow just adds to the fascination for me, because female serial killers are so much rarer.

[steve25805 126,156]

Steve 25805 ,

I find reading about serial killers also fascinating too . Because of how they were able to lure unsuspecting women / victims into what they would do to them . How easy it was for them to do such things to others . Their minds must have been somewhat altered some how . To make them . The way they were . What makes a Serial Killer , act the way they do . Something I have always been curious about for some time now .

Take for example the green river murders . That were committed by one person alone near that of Seattle , Washington . Some years ago . That the F.B.I. got involved in helping find who was behind some 21 murders od young women along that river .

What have you discovered about these killers ?

A very good thread here .

Thank You

I found this which may interest you. I must confess I hadn't read about this guy before....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424062/Gary-Ridgway-Seattles-Green-River-killer-confesses-murdering-75-80-interview.html

Of course, the majority of serial killers are male, and the majority of their victims female, though some have preyed on fellow males as well or instead. Female killers are rather rarer, and we do still tend automatically to think of women as being more gentle and less violent quite often. For all these reasons, I find female serial killers particularly horrifying yet also fascinating.

The latest one here was female - Joanna Dennehy - but the most notorious British female serial killers are no doubt Myra Hindley and Rose West, in both cases partnered up with males who were their partners in crime. Most sexually sadistic female serial killers tend not to act alone for the most part but with male accomplices. Sometimes that male accomplice is the dominant member of the partnership, as is the case of Ian Brady over Myra Hindley. But sometimes the female can be the dominant member of the partnership, as is thought to be the case with Fred and Rose West, or the latest one here, Joanna Dennehy.

Female sexually sadistic serial killers operate alone only in very rare cases. Obviously, the great power that the notorious Hungarian noblewoman Elisabeth Bathory possessed over all around her many centuries ago allowed her to act alone or with the assistance of underlings in her tortures and murders of numerous servants, but her total power combined with evil is relatively rare for a female. The nearest modern equivalents are probably some of the female Nazi concentration and death camp guards, like the notorious Ilse Koch, who delighted in wandering around the camp naked with a whip in hand, and immediately shooting dead any male who looked at her. She also personally beat several inmates to death, and set half starved dogs on others, and is reputed to have had lampshades made out of the tatooed skin of dead inmates, especially murdered for the purpose.

But the likes of her are not actually serial killers in the way we understand them, operating outside the bounds of society and preying upon it. Instead she was operating with the full backing and encouragement of the powers that be in an evil regime.

True lone female serial killers as we understand them today, who operate outside the law and commit their crimes alone do exist, although they are not usually of the sexually sadistic kind. Aileen Wuornos is a good example in the USA. Here in Britain we have had "The angel of death" - Beverly Allitt - employed as a nurse on a maternity ward in a hospital. Her modus operandi was to administer fatal overdoses of insulin to young babies, and then raise the alarm when they were dead. She killed a substantial number in this way before being caught.

She is an interesting case, because the psychopathology in her case differs from that of most serial killers, in that she was neither a fully blown sociopath, nor a delusional paranoid schizophrenic hearing voices. Instead she was suffering something called Munchhausen's Syndrome by proxy. Munchhausen Syndrome sufferers often harm themselves to fulfill an overwhelming need to gain attention and sympathy. Those who suffer it by proxy, gain this attention and sympathy by harming others, sometimes sadly their own children. Beverly Allitt gained the attention she was pathologically compelled to crave by killing the babies she had access to, and being at the centre of the subsequent drama and trauma.

[spywareonya 37,962]

On ‎3‎/‎7‎/‎2014 at 7:52 PM, steve25805 said:

I was chatting with an online friend the other day when via a discussion about books, more specifically the horror genre, it emerged that we both had a fascination with serial killers, not in any twisted or sick way, but just find reading about them fascinating. And over the years I have noticed that quite a lot of people, most often perfectly decent and respectable people, have an interest in reading about them. So I wonder if any other members share this interest.

And what is it exactly that interests us? Is it the same sort of desire to be shocked that we might seek out in a horror book? Are they just interesting because they are so different? Or do they fascinate because they stir within us subconscious fears of the bogeyman? Perhaps our interest is more psychological - what goes on in their heads to make them do what they do and how did they get that way? Certainly, I myself have a high degree of interest in their abnormal psychology, having always found human psycholgy fascinating.

Why do so many otherwise perfectly decent people enjoy such potentially morbid reading?

Interested into bumping this, seriously

[2prnot2p 1,066]

@steve25805

I went through a period of reading many books about serial killers.  I was married then and my wife wondered why I wanted to read such dark material.  With me, I liked learning about the cases from the perspective of the detectives who worked on the cases.  I still find that topic fascinating.  I've seen every episode of The Forensic Files on TV.

Once, my son was in Milwaukee for job training for a week.  When he got in the taxi to go to the airport to fly home, he told the driver to take him to where Jeffrey Dahmer lived first.  He was the one who killed gay male lovers and dismembered them and ate them.  He was later killed in prison by a fellow inmate.  The taxi driver told my son that they demolished the building where Dahmer lived.  My son, the character that he was, insisted the driver take him there anyway.  LOL!  I got the biggest kick out of that.  Apparently it had become like a circus with tourists so they tore it down.  All he saw was an empty lot in a bad neighborhood.

Edited April 1, 2019 by 2prnot2p

[speedy3471 10,655]

1 hour ago, 2prnot2p said:

@steve25805

I went through a period of reading many books about serial killers.  I was married then and my wife wondered why I wanted to read such dark material.  With me, I liked learning about the cases from the perspective of the detectives who worked on the cases.  I still find that topic fascinating.  I've seen every episode of The Forensic Files on TV.

Once, my son was in Milwaukee for job training for a week.  When he got in the taxi to go to the airport to fly home, he told the driver to take him to where Jefffrey Dahmer lived first.  He was the one who killed gay male lovers and dismembered them and ate them.  He was later killed in prison by a fellow inmate.  The taxi driver told my son that they demolished the building where Dahmer lived.  My son, the character that he was, insisted the driver take him there anyway.  LOL!  I got the biggest kick out of that.  Apparently it had become like a circus with tourists so they tore it down.  All he saw was an empty lot in a bad neighborhood.

I watched a show on him. Jeffery was truly a horrible person. 

[spywareonya 37,962]

9 hours ago, 2prnot2p said:

All he saw was an empty lot in a bad neighborhood.

I can dig that...

9 hours ago, 2prnot2p said:

I still find that topic fascinating

Arresting one of them can be the pinnacle of life… something TRULY useful Police can do

 

7 hours ago, speedy3471 said:

I watched a show on him. Jeffery was truly a horrible person. 

Indeed… hypnotically evil...

[speedy3471 10,655]

6 hours ago, spywareonya said:

I can dig that...

Arresting one of them can be the pinnacle of life… something TRULY useful Police can do

 

Indeed… hypnotically evil...

And he is only one of many truly evil people in the world 

[spywareonya 37,962]

18 minutes ago, speedy3471 said:

And he is only one of many truly evil people in the world 

I have a complicated attitude toward the concept of being evil

But I see what you mean

 

If I can dare a light joke without ANY intention to disrespect this INCREDIBLE thread,

I want to be a

Serial Pisser… and my name will be Annie Ball Leaker...

[speedy3471 10,655]

16 minutes ago, spywareonya said:

I have a complicated attitude toward the concept of being evil

But I see what you mean

 

If I can dare a light joke without ANY intention to disrespect this INCREDIBLE thread,

I want to be a

Serial Pisser… and my name will be Annie Ball Leaker...

Hahahahah. Iam thinkin your already a serial pisser hahaha

[spywareonya 37,962]

7 minutes ago, speedy3471 said:

Hahahahah. Iam thinkin your already a serial pisser hahaha

Ouch… you are right!!!

 

Back in topic, I sometimes tend to believe a line from The Following tv serie

"...can't you understand why all serial killers captured and studied turned out to have low IQ? Because the smart ones are still out there… "

[speedy3471 10,655]

Just now, spywareonya said:

Ouch… you are right!!!

 

Back in topic, I sometimes tend to believe a line from The Following tv serie

"...can't you understand why all serial killers captured and studied turned out to have low IQ? Because the smart ones are still out there… "

O absolutely they are. I do believe some will never be caught

[Remi 1,034]

I have an interest in those real life crime documentaries, used to watch several shows about that topic including those about unsolved ones.

I can't exactly nail down where this interest comes from though.

[spywareonya 37,962]

4 hours ago, Remi said:

I have an interest in those real life crime documentaries, used to watch several shows about that topic including those about unsolved ones.

I can't exactly nail down where this interest comes from though.

In every human there is empathy but we are culturally forced to be ashamed of the fact we are created by nature to DECIDE when to be empathic and when to be focused and merciless

 

Serial Killers embody our shadow: they are not ashamed to be merciless

This doesn't mean they are better than us: they are MALFUNCTIONING, unable to be Good just as much as we are unable to be harsh (unless driven by anger and that is NOT focused mercilessness, is just bad), and between being only good and only evil, being only good is for sure a less Dangerous malfunctioning, being only evil is much worse

 

But we remember, beside, Beyond and beneath, all cultural induced shames, we remember the strenght by which we compute if to pull back the gun, or pull back the trigger, the purity of fittingness, the certainty we are good hearted even if we hunted a mob hitman to corner him and help police arrest him and upon having him shooting at us, we threw him a knife just to stop him, and the blade hit him in the eye, killing him… and we felt big bad motherfuckers. Sorry too. But also Majestic and divine. Nature made us that way. Lack of empathy is evil: is "gross negligence toward the individual"

But the capability to be merciless… is NOT evil

And serial killers engender these reflections

 

5 hours ago, speedy3471 said:

I do believe some will never be caught

Very likely...