Something I have always thought about doing, have had some “how to get away with it” conversations with friends. I have some major stumbling blocks. They would be A) I would only want to kill “bad” people, and I don’t feel I can decide if someone deserves to die, like even if someone is this asshole to me, maybe he is a great dad. I don’t mean I feel all life is precious, I eat pork, it’s just I don’t trust my judgment on something so important, what if you screw up and kill someone really nice? (I know, seems like a pretty obvious hindrance to serial killing) and B) probably couldn’t handle blood, or seeing someone’s face when I killed them, their dying expression would haunt me. I thought sniping might work, but now that seems really shitty, considering what happened in Maryland. Last but not least C) I am a giant fuckup, wouldn’t get to work with my pants on if my wife wasn’t there to say “where are your pants?” I would do stuff like always leaving my wallet at the crime scene, send messages to the cops on personal stationary (not that I have personal stationary, but you get the idea). Needless to say, I am not going to be going on a spree anytime soon, just wanted to know what is keeping YOU from becoming a serial killer. I bet there are at least 15 people in the tri-state area you want to bury in a shallow grave near a highway/river. So what’s the hold up? Is it moral? Logistical? Spiritual? Dental?
What makes you think I haven’t started yet?
Interesting topic.
Killing on a momentary impulse suggests a lack of self-control (not to mention intelligence), while killing as a result of detailed planning magnifies (psychologically speaking) the risk of getting caught; i.e., you realize during the planning process that you CANNOT plan for every eventuality, and there is no certainty of getting away with it. Since MY life and freedom are far more important to me than any statisfaction I might gain from from being a self-appointed avenger of evil.
Not that I’ve ever planned a murder. But I’ve thought about planning murders.
The serial killers that have gotten away with the most murders tend to have one or both of these characteristics:
Mobility-- they don’t stay in the same place for very long, OR they live in one area and select victims from another area.
And/Or Victim Selection – serial killers that kill transients, prostitutes, or other “peripheral” members of society tend to escape notice for longer periods of time than serial killers focusing on children, say, or college students. ***
If you kill a family member, someone you had a feud with, or someone you had a relationship with, by virtue of that association you will be a suspect. The serial killers who get away with their crimes tend to pick random victims, so there’s no immediate association between victim and killer.
***I don’t believe or mean to imply that transients, the homeless, prostitutes, etc are less valuable members of society – but many times, less law enforcement effort is given to solving cases of murder involving these groups of people, so their murders may go unsolved or unnoticed.
For all I wanted to know about serial killing (but was afraid to ask) I went to The Chopping Block.
note: the first/previous/next/last buttons are little blue circles near the lower right corner of the comic panel.
-AmbushBug
It’s the legal and moral aspects that keep me in line. I wouldn’t be a serial killer though, I only know one person who "needs killin’ " (or however they say it in Texas). Anyway, I leave it up to Karma. It is an interesting OP.
They don’t say this in South Carolina?
I read in another thread that "Some folks just need killin’ " was at one time a suitable defense for murder in Texas (joking, I’m sure).
South Carolinians (or at least the ones I know) don’t seem quite that feisty. Maybe I should move to Texas. 
And no, cornflakes, I haven’t heard anyone say that in South Carolina - but I agree with the general sentiment.
If assault rifles and 50 round magazines were legal, I’d be all over it…but, alas.
To be a REAL serial killer, you have to go by your full name (first, middle, last). Bonus points if your middle name is Wayne.
RugBurn… you mean the legality of serial killing aside, right? <chuckles>
And 10x bonus points if your middle name is Lee.
Being from the great state of TX - believe it or not at one time (though of course I’m sure this is no longer true) it WAS a defensible position (he just needed killin’). Now we hide the bodies like everybody else!!
If you’re genuinely interested in the subject, have a look at John Douglas. He’s co-written 4 or 5 books on the subject. Fascinating (if potentially disturbing) stuff.
Oh, it might help if I mention that he was a big cheese for the FBI for quite a while, in the area of profiling and tracking serial killers and other such party animal types.
According to Douglas, you ought to drive a gold VW Bug, too.
[sub]No, seriously.[/sub]
I have killed 17 people who blatantly refused to use the carriage return in their posts, forcing me to struggle reading through their posts. (it’s on the right-hand side of your keyboard, above the “shift” and below the “backslash” keys.)
I will hereby express my views/opinions as a self-procaimed FBI profiler (not) who has never actually worked for any government agency or in any other criminal justice field with no qualifications whatsoever.
Most serial killers (without a cite) share the commonality of (to address your OP):
A) preferring to kill “good” people. Innocents seem to usually be the target (children, college students, nurses, etc…), except for cases involving prostitutes, and from what I’ve seen/read, that’s usually because of the ease and anonymity - rather than the immorality of their vocations.
B) enjoying mutilation and therefore the sight of blood. Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, et al…
C) don’t have wives who’d notice their missing pants.
All of the above.
But most significantly, we have been raised and conditioned to NOT CONSIDER such heinous acts.
Actually, there isn’t a single person I want to do this to, but even if there were, it wouldn’t fit my definition of serial killer because of the lack of anonymity.
I have read all of Douglas/Olshaker’s book’s!!! He changed my perspective on the death sentence thats for sure especially with crimes of passion. Douglas could tell you by looking at a untainted crime scene if the guy stutters! One thing he leads us to in his books (esp obssesion) is that aside from the fact that 99.9% of the time when a killer is profiled and yes we know what kind of person your are…now is to figure out what made you what you are. Many factors involved. Douglas went on to say that he has no respect for any of the 125-some killers he has played an outstanding role in apprehending but that he was one of the last people to have a discussion with those people in the last hours/days of their lives at which point they are aware that it doesnt matter cause they are being put to death by their peers. But one serial killer he said he actually did have some respect for as far as admittance and reasoning (and mind you douglas has heard alot of lies and pleading and bullshit) is Ed Kemper. He said he was the most intelligent serial killer he has come across in his years in the FBI’s behavioral science unit. Kemper taught him more in days than most of the killers combined. Kemper’s crime were a perfection as if he was in a professional role and at his game probbaly one of the best. He was the Joe montana of serial killing in its sport. you should definatelly read John Douglas and Mark Olshaker’s Books … I recomend starting with mindhunter because it babbles the politics but keeps you knee deep in plenty of gore then when you move on to his other reading you have a full understanding of his logic to the politics.
http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/couch.gif
Taboo
Yeah, why is it that ‘Waynes’ tend to be overrepresented in the deviant population?? Surely parents, wanting to spare their kids the self-fulfilling prophecy stuff to do with Waynes, would choose a different, more socially acceptable name for their offspring?
(apologies to any law-abiding Waynes on the board!!)
Well, most serial killers are male (as are most criminals). The average female criminal is more socially and psychologically deviant than a male who commits similar crimes. I’m female and am not socially deviant. That’s enough excuse for me. There’s also the fact that I harassed my parents into getting live animal traps so the mice wouldn’t die. When I was little, I was so afraid that our baby calves would get cold at night that I would take blankets from the house and cover them up. I was a strange kid, to say the least. Just seeing another person stub their toe gives me sympathy pains. How could I kill someone else?
Ummm, s’cuse me?? How do you measure ‘deviance’ apart from the nature of the crimes that are committed? If the crimes are the same, how can a fem. crim be considered MORE deviant than her male counterpart?
Because chicks are weird?
What’s keeping me from being a serial killer?
I die too easily. Everyone knows that a good serial killer can get burnt, stabbed, electrocuted, shot, mangled in machinery and fall from great heights, yet still leap up with the knife for that final jump cut.
One decent blow to the head and I’d be down, meaning there’d be no sequel.
Of course, should I change my mind, the blonde cheerleader gets it first.