IRL Serial Killers

[DiesIrae]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who read IANASK because they share John's fascination with Serial Killers.
Which Serial Killers do you most like to read about?  Do you have a--for lack of a better word--favourite?

[Shivertongue]

It's so hard to pick a favourite. Part of me wants to go with Dahmer, 'cause he was local (as were Gein and Spanbauer, and several others I can't think of off the top of my head - Wisconsin is kind of known for 'em).

The reason I research and read about serial killers is because they're one of the few things that I find truly scare me. Most horror doesn't do this - anything that involves monsters I know not to be real. Serial killers, however, are real. What they did actually happened, and there are more of them out there right now. And they can be almost anyone. This terrifies me, yet compels me, because... well, people like to be scared.

I bring all of that up because the more I think about it, the harder it is to pick a favourite (and, also, favourite implies admiration, and I do not admire these people; they're horrible and vile excuses for human beings). Dahmer is one of the most horrifying, although Richard Ramirez comes close as well - both knocked into that upper level reserved for people like Albert Fish simply because of the cannibalism aspect. Among the most interesting, I could rattle off names like Ted Bundy or Dennis Radar or Edmund Kemper...

Really, it's hard to pick just one. And some might not even count as serial killers. H.H. Holmes and Carl Panzram were serial killers who I never felt were very serial killer-like, with the exceptions of their body counts (I have a friend who considers Jack Kevorkian to be a serial killer, and I argue he isn't). Then there's the fascination with those that remain uncaught - Zodiac, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, the Axeman of New Orleans, and, of course, Jack the Ripper...

I could seriously go on. And on. And on.

[DiesIrae]

". . .favourite implies admiration, and I do not admire these people; they're horrible and vile excuses for human beings. . ."

I couldn't agree more.  We should probably make this point early on: though we are compelled by serial killers, and at times our choice of words may imply admiration, we do not condone their actions and mean no offense.
That being said, I really like reading about Ed Gein and Ted Bundy.  Ed Gein inspired so many fictional serial killers, of course: Norman Bates, Jame Gumb, Leatherface.  Norman Bates is compelling enough on his own; I love knowing the real story behind the fiction. 
And Ted Bundy was kind of a class all his own, if you ask me; his "Dr. Jekyll" persona was so clean-cut and far removed from his "Mr. Hyde."  Who he was during the day was so sexy, and who he became at night was so terrifying in comparison.
I must admit I share your fascination with those who remain uncaught, especially Jack the Ripper. I mean, he was on a roll, and he just stopped.  I'm dying to know the story behind that.

[ErikHolmes]

If you ask me, they don't get much worse then the Night Stalker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez

It always amazes me that someone so stupid could murder so many people in such stupid ways before he was caught. I don't know what makes me more upset, the fact that this guy hasn't been put to death yet or the fact that some idiot actually married him after he was captured and convicted.

[Silk]

... or the fact that some idiot actually married him after he was captured and convicted.

That seems to happen quite a bit, for some reason. The mind boggles.

[ryos]

I must be the odd man out, because I have absolutely no interest in serial killers. If I happen to know an SK's name, it's because I absorbed it through cultural osmosis, and not because I sought to know about them.

I read IANASK because people told me it was awesome.

[Shivertongue]

If you ask me, they don't get much worse then the Night Stalker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez

It always amazes me that someone so stupid could murder so many people in such stupid ways before he was caught. I don't know what makes me more upset, the fact that this guy hasn't been put to death yet or the fact that some idiot actually married him after he was captured and convicted.

Ramirez is one of the badder ones, but my friend... there are some that top him. And I was mistaken in my earlier post - Ramirez was not the cannibal I was thinking of. That was Richard Trenton Chase, 'The Vampire of Sacremento,' who believed his blood was turning to powder and he needed to drink the blood of others to replenish it.

One worse that I can think of off the top of my head was John Wayne Glover, of Australia. Also known as 'The Granny Killer'. Murdered old women with hammers for, among other, psychological reasons, their pocket change to feed his slot machine habit. And then there is Robert Hanson, who kidnapped, brutalized, and then released women from his isolated cabin so he could hunt them down like animals.

And as DiesIrae said above, Ted Bundy is a truly fascinating case to read. Gein, technically, by the 'standard definitions' was one victim short of being a serial killer (and that's only if you believe he killed his brother, which I think he did).

[DiesIrae]

If you ask me, they don't get much worse then the Night Stalker. . .

He was a bad one, but he's got nothing on Albert Fish, aka "the Brooklyn Vampire" or the "Boogeyman." He preyed on children, most famously Grace Budd, whom he cooked in a stew and ate.  Afterward, he sent a letter to her mother describing what he had done to Grace.   He claimed (probably untruthfully) that he had "had a child in every state." Not only that, but he had almost every sexual perversion known to man.  Fish enjoyed being whipped, drinking urine, eating poo, sticking needles into his urethra, cannibalism, and voyeurism.  When he was sentenced to death, he said he looked forward to such a "supreme thrill."

As for Gein, I'm pretty sure he killed exactly three: his brother, Mary Hogan, and Bernice Worden.  Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

[ErikHolmes]

I guess the reason the Night Stalker seems so bad to me is that he didn't seem plagued with tons of mental illnesses or sexual problems like a lot of serial killers. I don't think he was ever actually diagnosed with any mental illnesses at all. He isn't a psychopath, sociopath, schizophrenic,  bi-polar or even a pedophile.

The guy is just an asshole.

He would randomly pick people and just beat them, rape them, kill them and steal their stuff. He wasn't intelligent, charismatic, and didn't have any neighbors that were surprised to find out what he'd done. The guy was just a loser through and through. A serial rapist that beat and killed anyone weaker then him. The times he tried attacking someone under the age of 60 he usually got his ass beat and had to run away. (Except of course for the 16 year old girl he beat with a tire iron for no reason).

And twenty years later this guy is still breathing, living a better life than your average gang banger doing time for a drive by.

Thanks California....