"Duncan also told the panel that government lawyers helped him victimize the jurors by making them watch and listen to the grotesque evidence that was presented during the two-week hearing.
“I should actually thank the government for helping me get my eye for an eye by showing you the evidence that you’ve seen, the videos,” Duncan said during his closing argument Friday.
Prosecutors showed jurors videos Duncan made in which he molested, tortured and hanged Dylan Groene until the boy was unconscious and nearly dead.
Duncan told jurors that by presenting the evidence, the government was “helping me to take away your heart and your innocence,” Duncan said. “That’s what they have done, and I should thank them but I won’t.”
I couldn’t help but think of threads like this, the American fascination with serial killers, and slasher movies.
It’s easier to destroy than it is to create, so you can easily understand how all these societal losers managed their infamy. For me, they can’t come much worse than Pee Wee Gaskin.
Ah, but… there is a certain difference of… quality? bteween the sort of “cold, vast, unsympathetic” impersonal evil involved in compelling minions to join in and share in carrying out genocides, terrors or Inquisitions, and the intimate, solipsistic, up-close-and-personal sadism (in the classic true-to-The 120 Days sense) that characterizes a Duncan or a BTK. A Pol Pot or Torquemada type would feel that his victims “had it coming” or just were incidental casualties of his twisted “cause”, and their cruel end would be an “example”. A Duncan explicitly wants to inflict maximum pain and suffering for its own sake.
I don’t know. The question was which is more “heinous.” I think that six million dead in a gas chamber after months or years of slave labor trumps the personal aspect of killing a couple of dozen.
Ed was only convicted of killing two women, both with shotgun blasts, tho there is reason to believe (based on human remains they found) he may have killed at least two others. Most of his materials tho came from grave-robbing. They did find a few materials that don’t match anyone who had been buried during his spree, but may have matched a couple of women who had disappeared. There is also no evidence Gein tortured anyone.
A 'most heinous killer" thread cannot go by without a mention of Kenneth McDuff, initially sentenced to death for the rape-murders of three Texas teenagers, later paroled after the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. He went on to commit additional murders (he’s believed to have killed up to 14 people) and was finally executed.
He’s also one of those serial killers whose upbringing offers no explanation for his later behavior. By all accounts he had a normal and loving family. He was just evil.
Most memorable quote: “Killing a woman is like killing a chicken…they both squawk.”
Ted Bundy was particularly heinous but I haven’t heard of an agreement as to how many women he killed. Is there some clue that attaches a number to the extent of his murderous ways?
As for the number that can be directly attributed to him he’s lower on the list but if he did what some seem to think he did, then he is near the top.
Serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan III, who was facing execution after being convicted for the 2005 kidnapping and killing of Dylan Groene, a 9-year-old Idaho boy, died Sunday morning, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho.
Duncan, 58, had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer before his death.
They removed Harold Shipman from the top serial killer, his count being 218 confirmed, because he was a medical professional. However, the full top would be this one, who is eligible for parole in 2023. Doesn’t seem likely to get it though. 138 kills confirmed though.
Not to mention that the key OP line was “convicted”. Almost all the ones Contrapuntal mentioned died with no court convicting them, Pol Pot was the only one arrested after a coup, but his “conviction” for his crimes was done in a show trial, and before he died there had been reported moves to get him to confront an international court. He probably killed himself even before those reports were confirmed because he believed on them, such was his paranoia in the end.
I think its about trust and opportunity. Other people would have to blitz or charm or sneak up on their victims. He just does his job, and so badly in a culture of trust that nobody thinks any different and no need to dispose of bodies either. His victims were old and in the age group of sudden death, and he picked his prey as ones who might not last long anyway. It seemed as if it worked for a very long time, it was just greed and trying to steal from his victims families which got him caught. I don’t think he always did steal though.
It’s a lot different from luring someone back to your flat to kill them like Nielson.
But that reminds me of one of my favourite jokes from the UK humour magazine Viz, on a joke advert for the made up book “Fred West’s guide to Feng Shui” from the Gloucester serial killer/builder who buried his victims in parts of the house. It has quotes of recommendation and one is:
“If I’d read this I’d have never have blocked all the drains” - Dennis Nielson.