Where’d All the Serial Killers Go?

Musings on the decline of lethal degenerates.

By
125
Picture via Getty Images.

This newsletter has spent too much time lately on the state of Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign. Topical though it may be, it’s relentlessly dreary fare for a fun summer month like August. We should spend Friday discussing a subject that isn’t as grim.

Let’s talk about serial murder.

I’m a true crime junkie, a habit to which I was driven by the professional demands of my last job. I wrote twice as many words daily in that gig as I write for The Dispatch, if you can imagine it, and on six or seven topics each day instead of one. By the end of a 12-hour shift, I felt like an overheated CPU. There was no mental energy left to engage with television programming that was the least bit challenging.

Thank heaven for true crime TV, which isn’t the least bit challenging.

This content is available exclusively to Dispatch members
Try a membership for full access to every newsletter and all of The Dispatch. Support quality, fact-based journalism.
Start Your Free Trial
Already a paid member? Sign In
125
By
Comments (125)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Angie

    Loved this piece ( sorry I am late). I am fascinated with serial killers, as in why they do what they do, or contributing factors, the psychology in other words...

    I have done a great deal of reading about them, ( going back to the Countess Bathory in the 1300s). And I even have some video biographies. And I love fictional ones, like Criminal Minds.

    Looking back I think I might have tried for the BSU as a profile, think I would have been good at it, and enjoyed it.

    Collapse
  2. Clark.Monson

    This piece reminded me of a darkly comic joke my friend’s teenage son told recently:

    What are a kidnapper’s favorite shoes?

    White Vans.

    Sorry, couldn’t resist.

    Collapse
  3. Stuclayton

    Not to take it too far off topic, but on your point that pornography may be sending would be serial killers towards less (obviously) destructive paths, I have often wondered if social media has done the same for would be political assassins. It is easy to imagine a political zealot being distracted by the constant political echo chamber of Twitter. Of course, this is the sort of theory that is true until it isn’t.

    If anyone knows of any work around this idea, I would love to read it.

    Collapse
  4. Gry.Solingen

    I think I’d say “brown-haired” for a man, rather than “brunette.”

    Collapse
  5. Deleted Comment

    This comment has been deleted

  6. Avatar photo
    Collin

    Another factor is that background checks are common. A lot work and other activities such as coaching children require background checks. If you do a county level check, you will find any crime that person has been convicted of in the counties you query. Granted, this might be hard for people who are really itinerate (you’d have to check a lot counties). However, background checks are another way for would be serial killer to pop up on people’s radar.

    Collapse
  7. Borydeng

    On the number of serial killers being American it's also possible that some countries avoid serial killers by catching them earlier before their second kill. I've heard that theory for the scarcity of Danish serial killers. Just a few month ago a guy got caught after having abducted a girl he was likely going to kill before he did. He is credibly linked to an earlier abducted and murdered girl, meaning he might have been hours from becoming a serial killer.

    Collapse
  8. Jeff.Oster03

    There is one more element that Nick didn't discuss, and maybe I just notice it because I'm a gay man.

    A whole lot of the more prolific / famous serial killers of the 20th Century were repressed gay men who raped and killed male victims. This would be John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Dean Corll (The Candyman Killer), Dennis Andrew Nilsen (one of the most deadly British serial killers), the list goes on. In every case, they repressed their homosexuality, never had any proper love or dating life, often married women, and their sexual urges seemed to have warped them into twisted directions. This same type of guy in the 21st Century wouldn't have to deny or pretend not to be gay, and that might result in there being fewer examples of this type of man. I do know sexual shame can do a number on someone's psyche, and in some of these cases, that might be a big part of the story.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Azlefty

    You left out the explanation proposed in the book Freakonomics based on Stephen Levitt's research: easier access to contraception and abortion resulted in fewer unwanted and ultimately mistreated children beginning in the 1970s.

    Without commenting on the moral or utilitarian implications of abortion access, I suspect that this and all of the reasons you suggested all have contributed.

    Collapse
    1. Goatprairie

      The homicide per 100,000 jumped dramatically from 1970 to 1990. Exploded really. More serial killers too during that time.
      How does that fit in with the easier-access-to-abortion-impeding-violent crime theory?
      Shouldn't the numbers have decreased during that time period if the theory was sound?

      Collapse
      1. 632.8

        I would point out that the effect stated here would likely have a 20-year (or more) latency in taking effect, since it based on the presumed reduction of the number of abused youth as a contributor to later adult criminality. That latency would fit the graph pretty well.

        Collapse
        1. Goatprairie

          Put me down as extremely doubtful. I think the reduction in homicides is the result of better detection methods as described in AP's article and keeping violent criminals in prison longer.

          Collapse
          1. 632.8

            That’s reasonable. Most of these reasons are speculative, and separating causalities is difficult, and prone to allow different people to favor different narratives.

            Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    Stephanie

    I can’t begin to imagine almost 800 active serial killers in the 1980s. WTF? (Pardon my French)

    Collapse
Load More