# Is there such a thing as a healthy fascination with serial killers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2002, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952 "2002-07-14T22:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952/21 "2002-07-17T08:10:59Z")
I’m not very fascinated with serial killers. To me, they all seemed far too much like slaves to their impulses to find interesting. Hell -regular people are slaves to their impulses. And inevitably every serial killer always has the same past… Abused bla bla bla… schizophrenia bla bla bla… It’s boring and pathetic. I am more deeply interested with mass murder and genocide. If you’re going to kill, KILL BIG I say. ---
**Author:** ![Tir\_Tinuviel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952/22 "2002-07-17T21:07:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eternal \* > \*\*I’m not very fascinated with serial killers. To me, they all seemed far too much like slaves to their impulses to find interesting. Hell -regular people are slaves to their impulses. And inevitably every serial killer always has the same past… Abused bla bla bla… schizophrenia bla bla bla… It’s boring and pathetic. > > I am more deeply interested with mass murder and genocide. If you’re going to kill, KILL BIG I say. \*\* Well, Genocide requires a little more “planning”, but are you suggesting that Mass Murderers are not subject to “impulses”? Yes, there is a general trend in Serial Killers, but a lot of the same sypmtoms are also seen in Mass Murderers, they just lack the “refinement” to get away with it more then a couple of times… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952/23 "2002-07-18T06:05:15Z")
Mass murderers are certainly subject to their, impulses as are serial killers. I’m just saying mass murder is more interesting to me. Spree kills also tend to end with lower body counts than serial killers, but I don’t like the idea of a downtime between killing. Fast and furious, that’s how it should be done. ---
**Author:** ![Tir\_Tinuviel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952/24 "2002-07-18T10:48:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eternal \* > \*\*Mass murderers are certainly subject to their, impulses as are serial killers. I’m just saying mass murder is more interesting to me. Spree kills also tend to end with lower body counts than serial killers, but I don’t like the idea of a downtime between killing. Fast and furious, that’s how it should be done. \*\* Heh, well, whatever blows ya hair back! How about when Serial Killer Henry Lee Lucas teamed up with Ottis Toole… on a few occasions they killed several people in the same day. Some of the killings were similar in style to those portrayed in “Natural Born Killers” (eg, gunning down people mid robbery, or random shootings on the highway). Also Lucas’ “downtime” was generally remarkably short, he normally killed every few days. (although a lot of his claims were never verified). [details here](http://crimelibrary.com/serial2/lucas/index.html) Or how about Gilles De Rais, Marshall of France in the 15th C, apparently killed over 200 children, (although I’ve heard some reports mention much higher figures), sometimes multiple victims in one night. [details here](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial10/derais/index.htm) (We could also consider Elizabeth Bathory, who did similar things) In your view, what makes a Mass Murderer? Do they need to have killed a significantly large amount of people in one go? (Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols), or is it more the style of killing? (Michael Ryan & the Hungerford Massacre). Is it a case of you like the “Big Bang” rather then the “Slow Fizzle”? As said above, Lucas was primarilly a Serial Killer, but also induldged in episodes of Spree killing, so would he be one to interest you? Just curious 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tir\_Tinuviel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952/25 "2002-07-18T10:57:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ross \* > \*\*Half of me wants to see people get their brains pulled out with fishing hooks… \*\* Well, you could always see if your video shop has any [Egyptian Mummification Practices](http://members.aol.com/egyptart/mummy.html) on film! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952/26 "2002-07-18T16:17:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tir Tinuviel \* > \*\* > > Heh, well, whatever blows ya hair back! > > How about when Serial Killer Henry Lee Lucas teamed up with Ottis Toole… on a few occasions they killed several people in the same day. Some of the killings were similar in style to those portrayed in “Natural Born Killers” (eg, gunning down people mid robbery, or random shootings on the highway). > Also Lucas’ “downtime” was generally remarkably short, he normally killed every few days. (although a lot of his claims were never verified). [details here](http://crimelibrary.com/serial2/lucas/index.html) > > Or how about Gilles De Rais, Marshall of France in the 15th C, apparently killed over 200 children, (although I’ve heard some reports mention much higher figures), sometimes multiple victims in one night. > > [details here](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial10/derais/index.htm) > (We could also consider Elizabeth Bathory, who did similar things) > > In your view, what makes a Mass Murderer? Do they need to have killed a significantly large amount of people in one go? (Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols), or is it more the style of killing? (Michael Ryan & the Hungerford Massacre). > Is it a case of you like the “Big Bang” rather then the “Slow Fizzle”? > As said above, Lucas was primarilly a Serial Killer, but also induldged in episodes of Spree killing, so would he be one to interest you? > > Just curious 🙂 \*\* The FBI drew these sort of arbitrary boundaries between serial, spree, and mass murder. I’m trying to find a good cite that my computer will let me access, but I seem to recall that serial murder is characterized by three or more separate events with an emotional cooling-off period between them; according to profilers the serial murder is also distinguished by the presence of a signature by the killer and the murder is prompted by the killer’s violent fantasies. The definition of mass murder I think also uses the three or more rule but takes place as a single event, in a single location. Spree murder is like mass murder, but with two or more separate locations with no emotional cooling-off period between each event. So technically, I think it’s both the number of people murdered and the “style” in which it’s done; “style” in this sense connoting the presence or absence of the cooling-off period, or the killer’s signature. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-healthy-fascination-with-serial-killers/118952.md?page=1)