Serial killer. Who do you think of? Ted Bundy? Jeffrey Dahmer? Perhaps Ed Gein or John Wayne Gacy? What thoughts does that term invoke? Murder, mayhem, atrocity? These prolific killers have made their heinous marks on society. Their carnage sparked intense, palpable fear in those within their vicinity.
Bundy was purported to have slain twenty-plus women in three or more states. Dahmer drugged, molested, murdered and kept the dismembered bodies in various places throughout his small apartment. Gein started out by digging up fresh graves and altering the remains; he created lamp shades of human skin and bowls made from human skulls. He eventually graduated to murder to satisfy his growing needs and is the inspiration for the popular Hitchcock movie “Psycho”. Gacy employed, enticed and murdered an upwards of thirty young men, burying their tortured bodies in the crawl space located beneath his home.
But those mentioned do not begin to tell the story of serial killers, a term not even coined until the 1970’s. But these atrocious murders occurred many years ago. With the exception of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, who senselessly murdered around forty women, have any recent serial killers captured our attention?
Surely they are still out there. Hunting, calculating and planning their next thrill; their next kill. Someone in authority knows about them. Why don’t we? Are they a thing of the past? Or a closely guarded secret? Should we be allowed access to the knowledge that they are still currently on the prowl and actively committing multiple murders? Would we even want to know about them should a few exist?
A recent online search indicates there are serial killers purported to be out there. In fact, in Long Island, NY police now believe the mutilated remains of ten victims, six of which were discovered only a few months ago, may be the work of two serial killers. Whether they are working in tandem is unclear as all reports seem to suggest that a few of the latest bodies found are the work of a new, separate serial killer.
Obviously, they are still out there. For centuries they have hunted; and for centuries they will haunt our dreams and prickle our fears. From the infamous, still unidentified Jack the Ripper, to the two most recently active serial killers reported in New York, the patterns may be strikingly different; but the end results are always the same. Death. Innocent lives lost at the hands of beings inhuman.