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Charlie don’t surf
Charles Manson. Charles Starkweather, Jeffery Dahmer, Leopold and Loeb, John
Wayne Gacey.
The Zodiac Killer, The Green River Killer, The Hillside Strangler, The Night
Stalker.
Serial killers. Big news, big entertainment. The media love to talk about them,
authors and film makers love to fictionalize them. And the public loves to hear
about them. What's the attraction? I think there are a number of different
reasons why a large number of people are drawn to these stories, both real and
fictional.
For the media the attraction is simple. It draws viewers and readers. Which
would also explain the interesting and clever names given to these killers. It
gives them a chance to dig into someone’s past and interview hundreds of
people to add color to the story. So even on days when there is no new news,
they have “Breaking Information”!! A local station here in Milwaukee
interviewed Jeffery Dahmer’s Garbage man!!!!!
It spawns songs, not necessarily about a certain killer, but about serial
killers in general, kind of a gene ric
psycho. AC/DC wrote a song called Night Prowler, The Talking Heads sang a song
called Psycho Killer, Warren Zevon wrote Excitable Boy about a crazy killer.
There were folk songs and ditties made up before radio. “Lizzie Bordan took an
ax and gave her mother forty whacks”.
In fiction the killers usually seem to be very intelligent and clever. They want
to match wits with the people hunting them. They taunt and leave clues. This
type of fiction is almost always resolved with the killer being brought to
justice and jailed or killed. When we read it or watch it, we know that by the
end, everyone will be ok, and the killer will be stopped. Much more satisfying
than real life.
But, why are we the public drawn to these things? Now, I realize not everyone is
fascinated by this type of story, but a lot of people are. I don’t have the
final answer, but I do have some ideas. I think part of it is a natural
curiosity in other humans who appear to be so different and yet so normal. Ted
Bundy lead a very normal life and didn’t draw much attention till the very end
of his freedom. So I think that maybe part of why this is so fascinating is
wanting to know what makes these people tick. On the outside a lot of them give
every indication of being well adjusted. They go to work, they shop. They do
normal things. But somewhere along the line something inside takes a different
path. It’s been studied by smarter people than I, so I won’t go into what
kind of things can make a person a serial killer. What I’m interested in is
why we are so drawn to it.
On a personal level, I quite enjoy a good book or movie about serial killers.
And I admit to being drawn to stories in the news. Especially cases like the
Zodiac Killer, unsolved and unresolved. And killers, more than typical
criminals, have a totally different motivation. It’s very rarely done for
money or revenge or other motives most people can relate to, or at least
comprehend. So while I read about a man stealing money and jumping out of a
plane and never being found, part of me is thinking “ Wow, that could be a
perfect crime”. But with serial killers, I wonder what is different inside
their heads. What made them make the leap? I’d be lying if I said I never
thought about how a murder could be committed and not discovered. But I read a
lot of crime fiction. So while I’m reading and thinking, no... he’ll get
caught, I’m also thinking, but if he did it this way.....
That being said, I would never actually go and follow through on these thoughts.
But there are those who do. And being a basically normal rational person, I can’t
understand why they do it. So I think part of my fascination with it is my
trying to understand why they do it. And also wondering how they get away with
as long as they do. And quite honestly, why do they kill in the ways that they
do? Why do some try to hide the bodies and others don’t care who finds them?
Even stranger are the team killers. Groups of two or more that kill together. It
just  boggles
my mind that people can think like that, and then find others to go along with
them.
Another aspect of my fascination is the fact that the killers go as long as they
do. In the here and now we’d like to think that the law enforcement people
would be a little more in tune to some warning signs. But are they? And can they
be? I really wonder how many serial killers are out there now, and operating
completely under the radar of law enforcement.
No matter what the reasons, Serial Killers have become a part of our culture.
Pop Icons almost.
Which brings me back to the image of a rock star wearing a shirt with Manson on
it that said “Charlie don’t Surf” that got me thinking about this whole
thing to begin with.
Jon in Milwaukee...... wondering....
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 A
good book on this subject is The
Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Michael Newton
$19.95 Checkmark Books
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