The a to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (36 page)

M
ASS
M
URDER

Although some people use the terms “mass murder” and “serial killing” synonymously, there are major differences between the two types of homicide. These differences have to do with matters of
time, place,
and
manner of killing.

Serial killers typically commit their atrocities over a considerable span of time—sometimes years. Between each killing there is an emotional
Cooling-off Period
, similar to the sated lull that follows sex. Having satisfied his blood lust, the serial killer subsides into a more or less ordinary existence—at least for a while. Eventually, his monstrous cravings begin to grow again until they build into an unbearable need. At that point, he sets out in search of a fresh victim.

Though some serial killers limit themselves to a favorite hunting ground (like the prostitute killer who haunts a particular red-light district), others range freely over a wide territory. Earle Leonard
Nelson
, Ted
Bundy
, and Henry Lee
Lucas
, for example, all murdered women from coast to coast. Once he manages to capture his prey, the serial killer often subjects the victim to unspeakable acts of
Sadism
.

By contrast, the mass murderer is a man or woman who suddenly goes completely berserk, slaughtering a large number of random victims (at least four, according to an
FBI
criterion) in a single eruption of violence that takes place in one location (like a post office or fast-food restaurant). In short, if the most apt image for a serial killer is the “hunter of humans,” the appropriate analogy for a mass murderer is the “human time bomb.” He detonates without warning, destroying everyone in the vicinity (including
himself, since most mass murderers either kill themselves to avoid capture or are gunned down by police in climactic shoot-outs).

The “classic” case of mass murder is that of Charles Whitman, the twenty-five-year-old architecture student who barricaded himself in a bell tower at the University of Texas in August 1966 and began firing at everyone within rifle range, slaying twenty-one people and wounding another twenty-eight.

As Whitmans case shows, mass murderers often claim more victims than serial killers (Jeffrey
Dahmer
, for example, slew seventeen people as compared to Whitman’s twenty-one). And yet, the serial killer is an infinitely more terrifying figure. This is largely because we tend to perceive the mass murderer in human terms—as a deeply disturbed individual who snaps because of a crisis at home or on the job and goes on a wildly destructive rampage.

By contrast, the serial killer—the
Jekyll/Hyde
monster who coolly stalks his prey and derives his deepest pleasure from torture, mutilation, and butchery—seems like something straight out of a nightmare. Something hardly human.

M
EDIA

See
X-Rated
.

M
ODELS

At least one notorious serial killer—Harvey Murray Glatman, who enjoyed taking pictures of his terrified victims before killing them—specialized in preying on photographic models (see
Photographs
). But that’s not the kind of models we mean. We mean the plastic, assemble-it-yourself kind. Yes, for those hobbyists who wish to add handsome serial-killer figurines to their collection of hand-painted polystyrene airplanes, automobiles, and battleships, a company called Von Then Productions (497 Westside Avenue, Suite 140, Jersey City, NJ 07304) offers both Charles
Manson
and Ed
Gein
model kits.

Anyone inclined to condemn these products as a symptom of the total breakdown of moral values in this country might keep in mind that back in the 1960s the Aurora company—America’s premier manufacturer of model kits—put out a line of monster figures (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Mummy) that proved enormously popular. In fact, these kits were so successful that Aurora followed up with a line of do-it-yourself torture and execution devices (starvation cages, gallows, guillotines, etc.), provoking so much parental outrage that the company was forced to withdraw them from the marketplace—much to the distress of horror-happy boomer boys everywhere.

Advertisement for Charles Manson model kit

(Courtesy of Damon Fox)

The Moors Murderers

Myra Hindley and Ian Brady; from
52 Famous Murderers
trading cards

(Courtesy of Roger Worsham)

The most shocking crimes in modern British history were committed by a pair of perverted lovebirds named Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, aka the “Moors Murderers.” Not since Saucy Jack prowled the backstreets of Whitechapel had a series of killings provoked such outrage and horror in England.

A child of the tough Glasgow slums, Brady (whose young, unwed mother had little time for him) was in trouble with the law by the age of thirteen. His sadistic tendencies also showed themselves early on. One boyhood acquaintance recalled the time that little Ian dug a deep pit in a graveyard, tossed in a live cat, then sealed up the opening with a stone. Brady wanted to see how long it would take the animal to die of starvation.

In his early twenties, Brady developed an obsessive fascination with Hitler and the Marquis de Sade. Before long, he was collecting Nazi paraphernalia and indulging in fascistic fantasies and sadistic daydreams. Only
one thing was needed to make those daydreams come true—a slavish, masochistic follower.

He found her in Myra Hindley, an attractive twenty-four-year-old working girl who—until she fell under Brady’s sway—had showed no signs of deviancy. Soon after they started dating, however, her puppy dog devotion turned into complete emotional submission. In obedience to Brady’s needs, the quiet, seemingly well-adjusted young woman transformed herself into a Nazi fetishist’s wet dream, a jack-booted dominatrix/sex slave who loved to wield—and submit to—the whip and to strike pornographic poses for the delectation of her führer. Brady’s pet name for her was “Myra Hess” (an homage to Hitler’s henchman Rudolph Hess), and he fondly compared her to Irma Grese, the notorious female guard at Belsen concentration camp who took keen delight in torturing inmates.

But acting out Nazi-inspired sex fantasies wasn’t enough for Brady. He had other—and far worse—things in mind.

For several years from the early to mid-1960s, the depraved couple abducted and killed at least four children, ranging in age from ten to sixteen. Generally, it was Hindley who lured the victim into her car. Exactly how much she participated in the actual killing remains a matter of debate, though Brady clearly took the more active role. Their final murder was, in many ways, the most appalling. After snatching a ten-year-old girl named Lesley Ann Downey, they brought her back to Hindley’s house, bound and stripped her, compelled her to pose for pornographic pictures, and then—before killing her—tape-recorded her heart-wrenching screams, cries, and pleas for mercy. Like their other victims, Downey’s corpse was buried on the moors.

The “Moors Murderers” were finally caught when Brady attempted to recruit a second follower, his teenage brother-in-law, David Smith. In the fall of 1965, Brady picked up a young homosexual, brought him home, and bludgeoned him to death in front of Smith. In effect, this was an act of ritual slaughter—a blood initiation intended to bring Smith into Brady’s murderous fold. But the plan backfired. Smith was so horrified that he notified the police.

At their 1966 trial, Brady and Hindley had to sit behind bulletproof shields to protect them from an outraged public. When the tape recording of Lesley Ann Downey’s final moments was played in court, not only the jury and spectators but hardened police officers as well wept openly.

The “Moors Murderers” were sentenced to life in prison, where Hindley died of respiratory failure in November, 2002, at the age of sixty.

M
OTIVES

In Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece
Othello,
the villainous Iago sets out to destroy the noble hero for no apparent reason. After all, Iago has nothing to gain from wrecking Othello’s life. And he isn’t really acting out of either envy or revenge. In attempting to explain this character’s vicious behavior, one famous scholar coined the memorable phrase “motiveless malignity.” Iago does terrible things for one reason only—because he’s the embodiment of absolute evil.

Some people tend to see serial murder in the same way—as pure, unprovoked malignity. And indeed—in terms of such traditional, easily identifiable causes as jealousy and greed—serial killing does appear to be a “motiveless” crime.

In actuality, however, there is no such thing as a motiveless murder. Everyone has his reasons—even if those reasons are not immediately obvious. What drives the serial killer are dark psychological impulses—perverted passions and monstrous lusts. The twisted needs that dominate his psyche are every bit as real and compelling as more “objective” motives, such as the coveting of wealth or the desire to punish an unfaithful lover.