Why We Love Serial Killers (5 page)

The reality of serial homicide has been hidden from the public because serial killers are presented inaccurately by state officials and the news media. Popular stereotypes and misinformation have obscured the tremendous diversity that exists among serial killers in terms of their demographic profiles, personalities, motives, and behavioral patterns.

The Reality of Serial Homicide in the US

By now, it should come as no surprise that the public typically over-estimates the number of serial killers operating in America. As measured by opinion polls, the general public believes that serial killers are responsible for about 25 percent of all murders in the US. In reality, serial killings account for no more than 1 percent of all murders committed in the US. Based on recent FBI crime statistics, there are approximately fifteen thousand murders annually, so that means there are no more than 150 victims of serial murder in the US in any given
year.
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The FBI estimates that there are between twenty-five and fifty serial killers operating throughout the US at any given time. If there are fifty, then each one is responsible for an average of three murders per year. Serial killers are always present in society. However, the statistics reveal that serial homicide is quite rare and it represents a small portion of all murders committed in the US. Stated differently, serial killers are not nearly as prevalent or prolific as they are believed to be by most Americans.

Persistent misinformation, stereotypes, and hyperbole presented in the media have combined with the relative rarity of serial murder cases to foster a number popular myths about serial murder. The most common myths about serial killers encompass such factors as their race, gender, intelligence, living conditions, and victim characteristics. The FBI examined a number of such myths in its 2005 report
Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators
. Expanding on that critique by the FBI and offering new insights, I examine and debunk the most popular myths about serial killers in the pages that follow.

Myth #1: All Serial Killers Are Men.

Reality:
This is simply not true but it is understandable why the public would hold this erroneous belief. As late as 1998, a highly regarded former FBI profiler said “there are no female serial killers.” The news and entertainment media also perpetuate the stereotype that all serial offenders are male and that women do not engage in horrible acts of violence. When the lethality of a femme fatale is presented in book or film, she is most often portrayed as the manipulated victim of a dominant male. This popular but stereotypical media image is consistent with traditional gender myths in society which claim that boys are aggressive by nature while girls are passive. In fact, both aggressiveness and passivity can be learned through socialization and are not gender specific.

The reality concerning the gender of serial killers is quite different than the mythology of it. Although there have been many more male serial killers than females throughout history, the presence of female serial killers is well documented in the crime data. In fact, approximately 17 percent of all serial homicides in the US are committed by women.
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Interestingly, only 10 percent of total murders
in the US are committed by women. Therefore, relative to men, women represent a larger percentage of serial murders than all other homicide cases in the US. This is an important and revealing fact that defies the popular understanding of serial murder.

Female serial killers share certain common characteristics with male serial killers but they also differ from them in significant ways. For example, female serial killers are far less likely to torture their victims before killing them or to practice necrophilia or cannibalism than male serial killers. This is because the psychological motives of female serial killers are generally very different than their male counterparts. As it applies to popular mythology, the news and entertainment media focus on and sensationalize the acts of violence and torture perpetrated by male serial killers. The gory tales of atrocity committed by men provide enticing entertainment content to the public. The shocking and stereotypical depictions of male serial killers serve a large consumer market, so their sensationalized stories are good for business profits. At the same time, however, media distortions do a disservice to the public. Although the graphic images of male serial killers sell countless books and movie tickets, they also perpetuate the myth that all serial killers are demented men.

Nevertheless, there are some similarities between male and female serial killers. Most female serial killers act alone, similar to males, and they are just as effective in the business of killing as their male counterparts. In fact, based on the definition and behavioral criteria of serial homicide used in this book, females actually outperform males in terms of the average length of their killing careers. As reported in a 2011 study, the killing careers of females average between eight and eleven years while the average for male serial killers is two years.
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In terms of their number of victims, the same 2011 study reported that female serial killers have an average of nine victims which is identical to their male counterparts. Therefore, although their average death toll is comparable, female serial killers typically claim their victims over a much longer stretch of time than males.

There are important reasons why the length of the killing career of a female serial killer is so much longer than that of a male. Chief among them is the fact that female serial killers tend to operate under the radar of law enforcement—that is, they are less likely to have a criminal record. In addition, they tend to kill individuals who are emotionally and physically closest to them such as spouses, lovers, or parents.
These killings often stretch over lengthy periods because they are carefully planned. Moreover, the “modus operandi” or method of killing employed by a female serial killer is typically very different than that of a male serial killer. Female serial killers tend to use quieter and less messy methods of murder, such as poisoning and smothering, than their male counterparts. Male serial killers, on the other hand, are much more likely to employ a more violent and messy method such as a stabbing or shooting. Because female serial killers normally use more subtle and less gory methods of murder than their male counterparts, their killings are more likely to go undetected and unsolved for longer periods of time. Also, it is important to recognize that the killing methods selected by female serial predators are linked to their motives which, as mentioned, tend to vary significantly from male serial killers. In chapter 5, the significant differences in serial killer motives by gender are discussed in detail.

Perhaps the most infamous female serial killer in US history is Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who killed seven men in Florida during 1989 and 1990. She is a unique exception to the typical profile of female serial killers. Wuornos was driven to kill men out of rage and a desire for vengeance. She sought retaliation for a lifetime of being raped and beaten by men, so she killed clients who picked her up along Florida highways. She used a gun to kill her male victims which is atypical of a female serial killer. Following her conviction, Wuornos was sentenced to death and she was executed by lethal injection in 2002. She rose to infamy after the release of the 2003 blockbuster Hollywood film
Monster
in which she was played to great critical acclaim by actor Charlize Theron.

I believe that Wuornos rose to infamy because she was atypical of female serial killers. Ironically, she became a celebrity monster and popular culture icon because she killed like a man.

Myth #2: All Serial Killers Are Caucasian.

Reality:
Contrary to popular mythology, not all serial killers are white. Serial killers span all racial and ethnic groups in the US. The racial diversity of serial killers generally mirrors that of the overall US population. There are well-documented cases of African-American, Latino and Asian-American serial killers. African Americans comprise the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total. Significantly, however, only white and normally male serial killers, such as Ted Bundy, become popular culture icons. Although they are not household names like their infamous white counterparts, examples of prolific racial minority serial killers are: Coral Eugene Watts, a black man known as the “Sunday Morning Slasher,” who murdered at least seventeen women in Michigan and Texas; Anthony Edward Sowell, a black man known as the “Cleveland Strangler” who kidnapped, raped, and murdered eleven women in Ohio; and Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, a Mexican national known as the “Railroad Killer,” who killed as many as fifteen men and women in Kentucky, Texas, and Illinois.

Aileen Wuornos in court. (photo credit: Associated Press)

The myth that all serial killers are white is related to another commonly held myth that most murders, including serial murders, are inter-racial in nature—that is, that the perpetrator and victim are from different races. The reality is that homicides of all types in the US are generally intra-racial in nature. By a wide margin, most murder victims, including serial murder victims, are from the same race as their killer. In approximately 90 percent of all homicides the killer and victim are from the same race. This is the reality of race and homicide in the US.

The myth that all serial killers are white is routinely fueled and reinforced by the entertainment news media. This situation persists because the major news outlets, particularly television networks such as
HLN
, are far more likely to provide coverage of homicides and missing person cases involving white victims than incidents involving racial minority victims. This biased reporting practice is most acute when a white victim is female. Crime news stories that become major media events almost always feature an attractive white female as the victim. Nicole Brown Simpson is the quintessential example of this phenomenon. It is hard to think of a recent, high-profile case that did not follow this pattern. The highly publicized disappearance of Laci Peterson, a beautiful, young white woman, who was killed by her philandering husband, Scott Peterson, in 2002 is a another classic example of this reporting trend. Also, the disappearance of high school senior Natalee Holloway in 2005 is another crime story that became a global media event because it involved an attractive, young, white, female victim. The biased news reporting practice of selectively covering missing person cases involving young, white females is known as “missing white woman syndrome” (MWWS).

Unbalanced reporting by the news media sends a message that white victims, particularly females, are more important and deserve more consideration than racial minority victims. The biased pattern of news reporting holds true for serial murder victims just as it does for solo victims. The news media, therefore, are far more likely to cover serial homicide cases involving white, female victims than serial murder cases involving racial minority victims. Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, who both killed young white women and had tremendous coverage of their crimes by the news media, provide powerful examples of this. As previously explained, white male serial killers normally target young white women as their victims. The myth that all serial killers are white is promoted and perpetuated by the news media when they selectively cover serial homicide cases involving white female victims, which they almost always do. Moreover, the myth that all serial killers are white is also fueled by the entertainment media in films like
The Silence of the Lambs
which stereotypically depict attractive white female victims and demented white male killers.

Coral Eugene Watts at his sentencing. (photo credit: Associated Press)

State authorities, including law enforcement officials, also perpetuate the myth that all serial killers are white due to their prioritization of cases and allocation of resources. Serial murder investigations are complicated, time-consuming, and very expensive operations to undertake because serial killers are cunning, efficient, make few mistakes, and leave few clues for investigators to pursue. Not only are serial homicide investigations complicated and require tremendous resources to solve, but even determining that a serial killer is operating in a community requires well-trained personnel, sophisticated equipment, and significant financial resources. The reality is that vital law enforcement resources are not allocated equally across the US. State authorities disproportionately concentrate important but limited financial resources, equipment, and personnel in affluent white neighborhoods. Although it may not seem fair, affluent white neighborhoods are given priority over poor, black, or Latino neighborhoods by state officials in the assignment of valuable policing resources. This negatively impacts the ability of law enforcement personnel to pursue serial murder cases in poor racial minority communities.