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Have you ever watched TV shows or documentaries about famous crimes or serial killers for hours? Why does the mention of them make crime reports especially disturbing? Why do these frightening people so attract our attention?
“As a child, I was simply fascinated by crime stories and biographies of homicidal maniacs. Surprisingly, many of them at first glance seemed smart, charming, interesting and attractive people,” says psychologist Tarra Bates-Duford.
The stories of serial killers amaze and fascinate us, and this is due both to the inhuman cruelty of their crimes and to the attention that the media pays to them.
In the United States, for example, according to statistics, no more than 1% of murders are committed by maniacs *. Nevertheless, great attention is riveted to them, seemingly inconsistent with the scale of the real danger.
Many of them seem to be normal people
Despite the enormity of their crimes, maniacs often do not seem like monsters at all, you can’t even call them “strange”. Often they give the impression of completely ordinary people.
“Sometimes they are so charming that we secretly want to be like them – until we realize their true nature,” explains Tarra Bates-Duford.
Many of them are able to be the soul of the company, they can have families, friends, their own housing, a good job. From the outside, they seem to be respectable members of society. They can demonstrate good acting skills and are able to be very convincing, able to arouse sympathy. For example, the psychologist suggests recalling three well-known serial killers.
- Rodney Alcala
Serial killer and rapist serving a life sentence for 5 murders committed in California between 1977 and 1979. Journalists nicknamed him “The Dating Game Killer” because in 1978 he participated in the TV show of the same name. Alcala seemed the most ordinary guy, he could be someone’s neighbor, and that was what scared him the most.
- John Wayne Gacy
The serial killer and rapist, whose victims were at least 33 boys and young men, was nicknamed “Killer Clown”. He regularly performed at children’s hospitals and at charity events in the form of clowns, whom he called “Pogo” and “Patches”. Funny numbers and tricks helped him gain the trust of others. In addition, he was involved in raising funds for charitable purposes. The contrast between the harmless clown and the murderous rapist was especially stark.
- Ted Bundy
One of the most famous serial killers, who was considered by many to be handsome, successful and very attractive to the opposite sex. 36 women who became his victims voluntarily got into his car.
It is noteworthy that, according to statistics, strangers usually become victims of male maniacs, and female serial killers more often kill people they know.
Maniacs have always attracted the attention of the public
“Human nature is such that we like to collectively resent, expose “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, watch the struggle of good against evil. We are trying to understand why we failed to recognize the latent criminal nature of the killer in time, ”explains Tarra Bates-Duford.
Realizing that a maniac can look like a completely ordinary person, we find ourselves at a loss.
“We want to know as much as possible about him in order to understand where such monstrous criminal tendencies come from. It seems to us that if we thoroughly understand his biography, childhood and family history, we will finally solve the mystery and, perhaps, we can even prevent this from happening in the future. But, alas, often everything turns out to be much more complicated and far from always controllable, ”the psychologist sums up.
* https://www.yourtango.com/experts/dr-tarra-batesduford/heres-why-serial-killers-and-true-crime-stories-are-so-fascinating