redlovebloodandserialkillers

[redlovebloodandserialkillers]

Presents from Prison?

While it may seem hard to believe, Richard Ramirez would constantly receive mail while in prison. Most of it was from women who would send him nudes photos and love poems. This picture is a response from Ramirez himself, asking questions about their sex lives. He asks if they would want to receive gifts and feeds into their actions.

Source: Serial Killer Sink 

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Pining Over Killers?

This video is from the Ted Bundy trial and shows how he had groupies. There are women that simply do not believe that a “normal” looking man is capable of brutally murdering people. The news interviews some of these women to discuss their adoration of Bundy and why they feel this way. I believe that this video is vital to show, because it truly shows the extent of what women would do during his trial.

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Fake Drama can Lead to Real Problems

When watching TV shows, specifically shows that are targeted towards teenage girls, I repeatedly notice how all the relationships are portrayed as toxic. As the main girl is falling in love with the bad boy, so is the audience. I know that I am the first person to always want the goody two-shoes girl to end up with the cold-hearted bad boy. While it does make for an entertaining show, it makes young girls think that is what a healthy relationship looks like. TV shows also make it that the toxic male lead has a tragic backstory, making it “understandable” as to why he acts in a certain way.

My all time favorite show, The Vampire Diaries, is a prime example of this. Elena Gilbert, the good girl, ultimately falls for the vicious killer Damon Salvatore. I can go on and on about how Damon is a kind loving person, but in reality he is a murderer. Although my friends and I always joke about how we would want to date Damon Salvatore, I would tell them to run away if they met a guy like that in real life. Young girls continuously fall for these types of people in TV shows and it is not really healthy. It teaches them that they should like the gaslighters and manipulators, but they should not. When watching TV shows, I am always rooting for the redemption of the toxic male character and not wanting the female lead to end up with the good guy.

I wanted to take a different approach on my research topic when writing this post: Why do we romanticize serial killers? I felt like it was interesting to see society romanticize serial killers, even in the land of fiction. TV shows, movies, and books never miss the opportunity to have the good girl, bad boy trope. Although this is all for entertainment purposes, it makes people want to be in an unhealthy relationship. This leads to society turning to actual killers and wanting to be with them. It is known that women showed up to the trial of both Richard Ramirez and Ted Bundy, simply because they were attracted to them. They would send them pictures, letters, and poems expressing their attraction and how they did not believe they did the crimes. Even today in the media, specifically Tiktok, young girls are always saying they would “willingly get into Ted Bundy’s car” because they think he is attractive. This appauls me, because most people know of the countless, brutal murders he committed. 

In the book Natural Born Celebrities by David Schmid, he dives into the world of why society is so fascinated with serial killers. He uses essays, such as “Critique of Violence” by Walter Benjamin, who answers the question quite easily. Benjamin states that society and young women are drawn to serial killers simply because they “stand outside the law, to make [their] own law.” I never thought of it that way, but it makes complete sense. Women could find criminals thrilling, doing something so inhumane that it is fascinating. This does not only catch the eye of young women, but also the media. When the media feeds into the serial killer and starts to give them nicknames, such as “Lady Killer” for Ted Bundy and “The Night Stalker” for Richard Ramirez, the killer themselves like the fame. This leads them to kill more and draw more attention to them. Serial killers go against the law in the worst way possible, in a way that sane people would never. He also states that most of the responses to these killers are “fear and attraction.” I feel like this was the best response to my research question and truly answered it.

Source: Pride 

[redlovebloodandserialkillers]

Abuse can lead to murder

In “A Behavior Sequence Analysis of Serial Killers’ Lives: From Childhood Abuse to Methods of Murder” by Abbie Jean Marono, Sasha Reid, Enzo Yaksic, and David Adam Keatley, the way that childhood abuse plays a key role in how a killer may murder their victims is described. This article was published on February 5 of 2020 in Psychiatry, Psychology and Law journal. It dives into the various forms of abuse, including sexual, physical, and psychological abuse. 233 male serial killers were sampled by the researcher and discussed their childhood abuse. They then explained their first and last kills and additionally the amount of people they killed. These killers were then broken down into the type of abuse they had experienced and how they would kill. This revealed how serial killers may be more inclined to kill someone in a specific way, due to the abuse they encountered in their childhood. 

The second article is “FBI Law Law Enforcement Bulletin.” This article was used to go into further detail about the abuse serial killers experienced in their childhood. I found the full article through Google Scholar, which came up very easily. There were multiple male serial killers interviewed, like in the first article, about their childhood. The similarities between all of the people interviewed were that one or both of their parents were missing when growing up. They were all abused physically, psychologically, or physical and also were extremely sexual. It discusses how they would fanatize about a fake life when committing their murders, which ties back to their abuse in their early life because they would also fantasize when being abused.

These two articles both jump into the idea of how abuse can lead to violent behavior in the future. These articles were very useful for my research. While I am researching why serial killers are romanticized, I think it is important to know and understand why they act in a certain way. It shows what leads them to commit their murders, but it is not an excuse. I also thought that it was essential to know that different types of abuse lead to different actions. I was not surprised to learn this information, but it was interesting see what abuse is most likely to lead to the different types of murder and it may explain the motive.

Source: Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law 

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The Walk-In Killer

“The Night Stalker” is a four-part documentary on Netflix that explains the killing spree by Richard Ramirez. I felt like this documentary would be beneficial to my question: why do people, specifically young women, romanticize serial killers? Why are they so fascinated by them? I believe that the four-part series does a good job at steering away from the glorification of Rameriez and truly focuses on the horrific actions that were done.

The two detectives that were working on the case during this time, Frank Salerno and Gil Carillo, were interviewed and explained how they caught this vicious murderer. They examine how he would kill almost anyone and how he was the only killer who used ‘thumb cuffs.’ This documentary makes the audience trust the detectives and feel an emotional connection to them, especially by including scenes of them crying. I liked how it did not focus on Ramirez himself, but rather how the victims’ family were affected. That is what makes the audience feel hatred towards him and not look at him like he is a normal person. The people being interviewed, like new reporters, described Ramirez as having “dark eyes” and that there was “evil in him.” I do not think this is biased, I believe that it is factual. Most killers are known to be described in this manner because it is the best way to show how they acted.

While this documentary turns the audience away from the killer, it still includes how women during this time period felt about him when he was caught. The detectives and news reporters explain how Ramirez would receive notes, poems, and nude photos of women while in jail. The poems and notes were mostly about how they wanted to be with him sexually. Even though he was being charged for 43 crimes, 13 of those being murders, women were drawn to him. The documentary does a good job at answering the question of “why?” It was said that these girls were drawn to him because he was famous, he had sex appeal, and simply because of “badboy syndrome.” Everyone is drawn to serial killers, they are fascinated by them, but I always wondered why women would want to be with someone who is violent and evil. Although that was not the point of the documentary to answer that question, I believe that it does a good job at answering it.

The role of everyone in this series was to make Richard Ramirez out to be the bad guy, which he was and is currently. It does not try to give him a tragic backstory, like other films or documentaries about serial killers. It simply tells the story of exactly what happened.

 Source: Rotten Tomatoes 

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Opinion or Fact?

When looking for news articles, I tried to keep in mind that most articles about serial killers are going to be about one specific killer. It will most likely revolve around the victims and how they were killed. I wanted to stay away from that area because I want to dive into the way murders think and what may possess them to do such evil actions. I chose an article from The Atlantic, which is considered more of a “left leaning” site. While this could potentially be biased, I feel like it gives a well written explanation on why serial killers may act in a certain way.

The author of the article, Lane Wallace, is known to be a writer for The New York Times and The Atlantic. Both of these sites tend to stay “left leaning,” which I think influences how Wallaces approaches her stories. In the article that I chose, Wallace does not include her own opinions, but rather uses others’ research to examine the mind of murders.

The news article is “Are All Murders Mentally Ill?,” by Lane Wallace. She evaluates different sources to help explain how mental illness might play a key role in a killer's motives. Wallace uses an article from The New York Times which included a psychiatrist stating that most serial killers they had studied, experienced childhood abuse. Wallace also includes others to explore different angles. She states that most serial killers are unaware of what they are doing and lack empathy. Wallace concludes that although a mental illness might impair them, it does not excuse a serial killer's actions. I believe that Wallace did a good job on not being opinionated, but stayed with more factual evidence. The information given was not biased and included multiple different credible sources to back up her thesis.

Picture Source 

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Library Scavenger Hunt

When doing research for my blag, I have found several resources, such as books and documentaries regarding serial killers, that I felt answered my question of why society romanticizes serial killers pretty well. I never truly wanted to do in depth research, but this experience has made me realize how important it is to get reliable information. I did find a physical book relating to my topic, “Natural born celebrities: serial killers in American culture.” This book dives into the phenomenon of why society is so fascinated by killers, even when we are horrified by their actions. Finding books that relate to my topic is never something that I would have previously done, but I know that the information is more reliable than Google and it provides more information.

I also found a small documentary, “The Mind of a Killer: Case Study of a Murder,” which tries to explain what leads serial killers to kill. These resources were extremely helpful and I will be using them more often. I was unable to find articles relating to my topic, because they did not go in as much depth as I would like. I feel like the topic of serial killers requires books, articles, and documentaries that will explore more areas other than a specific murder. If there are any limitations in the library, I will try other resources that will help me find what I may need. I want to continue using the library to do research, because I found it very helpful. I will also use the internet to do further research, such as finding more credible articles surrounding my topic.

[redlovebloodandserialkillers]

Lady Killer

Serial killer. The Oxford dictionary defines the term ‘serial killer’ as “a person who comitts a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic behavior pattern.” There are many famous killers who most people know, such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Something that they have in common is that society loves to romanticize and idealize them, especially when there are movies written about them. These roles are typically played by attractive men, which is intentional. It draws in more viewers, but it also makes people, usually young women, attracted to these killers. While this does happen with real life murders, it also happens with in the fictional world of tv shows. The writers create a horrible backstory for these characters, choose an attractive person to play them, and the audience ends up falling in love with the character: a serial killer. So I pose the question: why do we do this?

I want to start this off with the most famous serial killer in my opinion, Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy has always been described as “handsome” and “charming,” which is why women were so willing to approach him. In documentaries and movies, they always make sure to emphasize his looks and easy going personality. In June of 1979, Ted Bundy was put on trial for his murders. The questioning part of this is the amount of young women that attended his trial. They were fascinated about the fact that a man as good looking as Bundy was capable of such terrifying acts. They could not believe it. In the movie “Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile,” Zac Efron plays Ted Bundy. Having a former Disney star play such a malicious character is questioning. It draws in an audience that knows him from “High School Musical” and the character does not change how they feel about him. They are still going to be attracted to him, even if he is just playing a character. But he is portraying a real person, not just a made up character. This leads to Ted Bundy being more idealized, even after his death from the electric chair in 1989.

Source: The Wrap