So, with that in mind...
Who is your favorite serial killer?
And I do NOT mean "favorite" as in "Ohmigod I'm a serial killer groupie sicko fuckhead who would, like, TOTALLY marry the guy!"
(cough - Doreen Lioy stupid bitch - cough)
I have two "faves":
#1 - The Zodiac.
I was a Bay Area schoolgirl who took the bus to school in the early 1970s, some years after the Zodiac had made his famous threat against school children: School children make nice targets, I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the frunt tire + then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out. I was terrified, reluctant to go to school for fear that the Zodiac would shoot me. That was my first experience with evil and it had a profound effect upon me.
#2 - The Night Stalker.
Richard Ramirez found his way north in the summer of 1985, when I was fifteen years old and living just half an hour drive away from San Francisco. It was an insufferably hot summer, unusual for NorCal. After Ramirez attacked a 16 year old Arcadia girl (who miraculously survived) mild concern turned into all out panic, and we spent the rest of that summer sweating in the miserable heat, our windows nailed shut. Usually, one hears about a serial killer after the arrest has been made, but The Night Stalker felt personal to me. We knew he was out there, in our own backyards so to speak, and we lived in honest to god terror of him until he was arrested and given a face and a name.
So who are your "favorites" and why?
I just can't use the term 'favorite' under any circumstances for this topic, the closest I can get is that historically, Jack the Ripper is the most mysterious to me.
ReplyDeleteOn another note- Even as a kid I well remember names like 'the Manson Family' and 'the Zodiac killer' used as the 'boogie man' term in those days.
My oldest daughter was born in the Summer (August) of 1985- in the middle of a record heat wave. In the weeks before her birth the fear was such that no one could leave their windows open for cool night air. We lived in an over garage apartment at the time, with one crappy air conditioner in the bedroom. A few days after she was born, Richard Ramirez was caught.
I guess my "favorite" would have to be the one who lived across from my house in El Paso, Texas when I was 17 years old. His name is David Leonard Wood. While not being one of the more famous serial killers, he terrified our neighborhood. He killed 6 young girls (we lived next to a middle school) and buried them down the road from our house in the desert. He was caught when he took a prostitute to the same location as the buried bodies of the young girls and tried to rape and kill her. She managed to get away. He was arrested not long after that.
ReplyDeleteEdmund Kemper is a fascinating one. He did atrocious things, killed his mother and ground her vocal chords in the garbage disposal, then threw darts at her decapitated head. However, prison interviews with the man after his arrest and conviction reveal a thoughtful, mild-mannered and self-aware person. He also wears cool glasses.
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