Coveted Serial Killer Collectibles

In My Humble Opinion
1

Would you buy a comic book of Jeffery Dahmer? How about oil paintings from John Wayne Gacy? How about sock puppets made by Charles Manson? How about trading cards of serial killers?

A company called Grindhouse Graphics sells serial killer collectibles.

They also sell polaroids of David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy’s autograph, the high school diploma of the Hillside strangler and all sorts more.

So does The Catalogue of Carnage put out by Foxx Enterprises (located in Tempe Arizona).

This is a veritable Spiegal home shopping catalog for the gorehound set. The cryptkeeper himself coulnd’t ask for a wider selection of ghoulish objects to decorate his vault. They sell candy dishes from a genuine human skull, (I think made by Ed Gein) a hyper realistic severed arm made of lifelike, hand painted latex and even T-shirts of Charles Manson.

What would posess people to collect such things? What is the thrill of wearing a T-shirt of a killer? I read in a fashion magazine that we tell people who we are by what we wear. What does wearing a T-shirt of a serial killer say?

2

That I have an irrestible urge to puke on his T-shirt?

3

I seem to remember quite a stir a while back in the news. Jeff Dahmer’s victims’ families seemed to feel that they should be repatriated in some way for Dahmer’s crimes.

The argument was made that Dahmer was not rich. What sort of payment could be expected?

At least one of the victims’ relatives insisted on being given Dahmer’s stuff. This led to a public discussion on whether or not it was moral or ethical to be auctioning off Jeff Dahmer’s tableware to the highest bidder…

4

Holy shit.

5

Yeah, that’s what I said. There was also a thingy about how someone was buying up all John Wayne Gacy’s clown paintings so he could burn them.

My immediate thought was, “Well, that’ll certainly drive up the price of the remaining ones.”

My second thought was, “What kind of a loon wants to have some of Dahmer’s tableware around to show people? Or, for that matter, one of Gacy’s clown paintings?”

6

I got a catalog of Columbine-related merchandise as a “prize” from a radio contest. Maybe I can find it around here somewhere…

7

Ohhhhh shit!!!

Can you imagine being a parent of a kid who was killed there, and a radio station is awarding Columbine memorabilia as prizes?

Don’t know if I could react in a rational manner.

8

Ohhhhh shit!!!

Can you imagine being a parent of a kid who was killed there, and a radio station is awarding Columbine memorabilia as prizes?

Don’t know if I could react in a rational manner.

9

To sell the possessions is distasteful and disrespectful of the victims and their families, IMHO. Especially if the serial killer benefits from the proceeds. I remember reading once there is a law against this (I could be wrong and am sure someone will correct me if I am) but I don’t know if it applies to every state.

As for the trading cards, I remember when they were first made available to consumers. There was quite a bit of controversy about it. Personally, I’m not bothered by them. A friend collected them and I found them to be informative.

10

These goods interest me. Must find out how much the tableware will cost.

11

Elaella – Most states have so-called “Son of Sam Laws” that divert the proceeds from criminals’ media activities to the state. As the link shows, there have been constitutional challenges to this.

The story of Dahmer’s victims’ relatives and the auction of his property was particularly appalling to me, given my impression that most of his victims were young gay drifters whose families had probably disowned or otherwise written them off, but now suddenly felt such a desperate need for “compensation” as to gladly exploit their memory (my apologies to any next-of-kin out there who are an exception to that generalization). This was one of the first incidents to really raise the questions in my mind of what “compensation” is supposed to mean in civil litigation – Does suffering some misfortune necessarily entitle one to wads of cash? If we don’t want to place a value on human life (exclusive of such obviously calculable issues as earning potential) then why is so much of our legal system built on the practice? Etc. The recent 9/11 “compensation” wrangling just played out the same themes on a larger stage.

Regarding the OP, my interest in history is such that I’d have a certain interest in owning an actual serial killer artifact, though I’d definitely feel squeamish about paying a sizable amount of money for one, and especially about buying one from someone specializing in such things.

Serial killer merchandise, on the other hand, I think is mostly just another device for saying “Look what a badass/nihilist I am!” though I’ve seen some items that I can appreciate the sick humor of – e.g., a T-shirt I saw advertised in the Fortean Times bearing a picture of Charles Manson, with the caption: “He’s not the Messiah… He’s a very naughty boy!”

12

I had a T-shirt with a huge picture of Charles Manson on the back, and on the front, it said:

BUY ONE GET ONE
FREE CHARLES MANSON!

I tried to sell it on eBay, but they cancelled the auction because they don’t allow sales of mass-murderer stuff (so they said.)

13

I’d have to put that right up with buying Nazi memorabilia at a gun show.

14

I recently posted in my LJ about why I have the portrait of (not by) a serial killer hanging on my wall, so I’ll repost it here:

A sister-in-law of mine has been seeing this one guy for years now. He’s really nice, and an excellent painter. He’s shown his works at art shows, that sort of thing. He has an impressive range of styles that he’s worked in. He’s just really creative and does all of this interesting but not always easily “accessible” stuff, and does make some decent money selling it as well.

So my husband and I had gone to his place to help him out at one of these shows a number of years ago. We gave to him a stereo of ours that we’d just replaced, since we knew he just had a radio to play music on, and he was thrilled.

While we were hanging out with him, one of his pieces caught my eye. It was an old newsprint photograph of an older man, blown up and mounted on wood. Paint was smeared in places around the wood, and the photo itself was somewhat brightly “colorized” in an odd manner. Lips painted red, cheeks overly blushed, eyes with blue above them, etc. We discussed it for a while, then he explained it was part of a series he was doing on American “heroes and anti-heroes”. That happened to be one of the latter, Ed Gein. The colorization was to imitate inexpertly done makeup, as Gein was so fascinated by the “power” of women that he made a suit out of their skin (among other things). He offered us the painting, and though it didn’t exactly fit with our décor (such as it is), we accepted it, honored that he’d give away something like that to us. It went up on the living room wall.

Fast-forward to a year ago, and my father-in-law is selling off his little hunting lodge, so he’s cleaning out his possessions. He offers to my husband the three mounted deer heads that were from his (my husband’s) kills. He’s not a trophy hunter, hunting for meat, but those were just good heads to mount so they did it. I know it’s meaningful to him, so I say one can go in our living room and one in the stairwell. (The third went to his parents’ home.)

The perfect spot to hang it ended up being such that the deer head faces you as you enter the living room from the front hallway, as the deer’s neck curves slightly to its left. It is also right next to the Gein portrait. Considering Gein’s, erm, taxidermy efforts and that the police at first glimpse thought there was a deer carcass hanging in his house, I found that darkly amusing and think the pairing is perfect.

15

An old college friend of mine had a JW Gacy painting. It was especially rare because it wasn’t one of the clown face ones. As I recall, it was of birds on a branch. He said he bought it as an investment and was thrilled that that guy was burning all of the other ones he could find.

Haj

16

There’s certainly a line to be drawn between serial killer merchandise (the Manson shirts, trading cards, and Dahmer comic books mentioned above) and actual serial killer artifacts, what I’d consider the Gacy paintings or Dahmer’s possessions. I don’t see anything inherently wrong–other than piss-poor taste–in wearing a Manson shirt or buying the trading cards (I have some a friend gave me), and even the art doesn’t bother me that much, but I’d never be able to even entertain the thought of owning Dahmer’s tableware. Master Wang-Ka, do you have a cite on the Dahmer auction? I’m just curious; I’d think things like that would dwell in a sort of evidence purgatory for years on end.

Also, how does this differ from the auction of the Lennon album owned by Mark David Chapman?

17

Umbriel, thank you for the information. I knew I had read something about it but it was some time ago so I wasn’t sure if I was correct or not.

I can see how a history or crime buff would be interested in the memorabilia. However, I disagree with the sensationalists who want the items for shock value.