Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers

Dr. Scott Bonn

Why-We-Love-Serial-Killers-9781629144320

 

Chapter 1
The Strange Allure of Those Who Kill and Kill Again

A serial killer is frequently an unassuming everyman or everywoman who could easily be a next-door neighbor or co-worker. Such was the case of the late John Wayne Gacy, a prolific and psychopathic serial killer born in Chicago in 1942. He was named after his mother’s favorite Hollywood movie star, the legendary John “The Duke” Wayne.

As a young adult, the outgoing and sociable Gacy became a successful building contractor, husband, and father. He was well known and respected in his suburban Chicago community. He became heavily involved in local politics and was named a Jaycee ( Junior Chamber of Commerce) “Man of the Year.” He even escorted President Jimmy Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, on one of her visits to Chicago.

John Wayne Gacy was also a ruthless predator who tortured, raped, and strangled thirty-three young men between 1972 and his arrest in 1978. He buried twenty-nine of his victims in a crawl space under his house. Gacy was caught after a surveillance detective assigned to the case noticed a suspicious smell emanating from a heating duct in Gacy’s home.

The floor boards of Gacy’s house shook as forensic anthropologists attempted to excavate the twenty-nine bodies buried in the crawl space due to millions of worms that were feeding on the corpses. Gacy pled not guilty by reason of insanity but was determined to be legally sane by the court. He was convicted of the serial rape and murder of his victims and sentenced to death on March 13, 1980.

Gacy became known as “The Killer Clown” because his favorite pastime when he was not killing involved entertaining children at parties and hospitals dressed in a clown costume and full-face makeup. His clown alter ego was named Pogo. The late FBI profiler Robert Ressler, who interviewed Gacy after his conviction, said Gacy told him that his victims were “worthless little queers and punks.”

Ressler challenged him on that statement, asking “Aren’t you a homosexual, too?” Gacy responded that his victims were young runaways while he was a respected and successful businessman. Gacy also explained that he was too busy at work to date and romance women following his divorce, so he settled for quick sex with transient young men.

Unremorseful until the end, Gacy’s final words before being executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994, were, “Kiss my ass.”

Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers Description:

In the business of murder, serial killers are a rarity. Yet they make an indelible mark on the public conscious, attracting relentless media coverage, and sparking fictional characters that are some of the entertainment industry’s most memorable. Scott Bonn’s examination of the titular question—“Why do we love serial killers?”—will leave readers fearing not just savage murderers, but the dark corners of their own minds.

In Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers (Skyhorse Publishing; October 14, 2014; $16.95; ISBN: 9781629144320), Dr. Scott Bonn, a New York criminologist and former media executive—whose expert commentary has appeared in print in the New York Times, Forbes, the Huffington Post, The Atlantic and network television on CBS, HLN, Discovery, A&E, and more— presents his disturbing study on why serial killers endure in the public consciousness.

Never has an examination of our fascination with the macabre been more relevant. October 1974 marks the 40th anniversary of “The Year of the Serial Killer”—1974, when Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy (“The Killer Clown”), Dennis Rader (“Bind, Torture, Kill”), and Coral “Eugene” Watts—some of the most terrifying serial killers of all time—launched their careers.

In his book, Bonn argues that the media, criminal justice system, and public perception work in lockstep to transform lethal predators into pop culture figures; and his expertise in both criminology and the media make him uniquely positioned to defend this shocking thesis. In addition, Bonn presents new research gleaned from intimate correspondence with notorious predators Dennis Rader and David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), offering insight into the killers’ troubled minds and shocking new revelations about their crimes.

Though the number of active serial killers has markedly decreased since the 70s, our fascination with them has not. Doc Bonn’s accessible, important, and terrifying examination will have readers double bolting their doors, worrying not just about the killer next door—but our own unshakeable fascination with them.

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