Myth and Murder: Serial Killer Panic Philip Jenkins

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Myth and Murder Serial Killer Panic Philip
Jenkins

• Population Pressures or Fear? Increases in Prison
  Capacity in Texas, 1849-2003
• //texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/html/just/feature
  s/0505_06/newprisons.html

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• every few years a particular form of immoral or
  criminal behaviour becomes so dangerous as to
  threaten the foundations of society
• --dope-fiend white slavers satanism
• While scares have basis in reality
• does media exaggerate scale and prevalence?
• In mass killings, widely publicized cases
  involve
• large numbers of fatal/wounded victims
• stranger victims, and older offenders
• public locations, or workplace violence
• assault weapons
• interracial victim-offender relationships

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• 1946-89, executed
• Male, White, Straight
• Serial killer, blamed pornography
• Officials cite a rise in killers who roam USA
  for victims, NYT 1984
• --FBI said serial murder an epidemic
• --accounted for 20 of murders annually
• --with 4000 victims
• --exposure to pornography a trigger
• Newsweek law-enforcement experts say 2/3 of
  5000 unsolved murders committed by serial killers

Ted Bundy
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Lucas case

• Convicted murderer, arsonist
• --gave plausibility to 1000s/year
• --4000/yr by serial killers orthodox opinion
• --placed idea of killer as wanderer
• --claimed 100s of victims, including Walsh
• --child victims increased fear
• --under investigation claims collapsed
• Americas most prolific serial killer?
• mother was prostitute beat him, forced him to
  watch her with clients, told him he was evil
• first killed at 14, victim waiting at bus stop
  tried to rape her and then strangled her
• confessed to 500 murders, convicted for 10
• crimes included rape, necrophilia, bestiality,
  molestation and murder

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The Reality of Serial Murder

• Reports not more frequent after 1983
• Lack of epidemiological evidence
• Using NYT articles gt1960
• Excludes mass murder, for profit murder
• Probs, eg. False confessions, linkage blindness
• Underestimate offenders, over victims
• Serial murder, maybe 3-400/yr, 3/yr
• Generally dont roam
• Nov 1980 - July 1981, a number of children were
  missing, later found dead
• Olson killed 11 children in British Columbia
• Under police surveillance
• 2000, in a Vancouver Sun article called
  Ex-Mounties Deny Olson Case was Botched,
• Olson Was Paid to Locate Bodies was a
  front-page headlines on January 14, 1982,
  Vancouver Sun.

Clifford Olson
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Explaining a Panic

• Official view flawed
• Misuse of UCR data motiveless murders
• 1966-5.9, 1982 17.8, 1984 22
• -- why increase in motiveless?
• Alternative reasons for motiveless?
• Scare helped justify FBI NCAVC
• Newer conservative image of offender
• --environmental replaced by rational cause
• --retribution replaced rehabilitation cure
• beaten to death by prison inmate in 1994, was
  convicted in deaths of 17 young men and boys
  whose bodies he mutilated and cannibalized
• Linkage blindness, role of police?

Jeffrey Dahmer
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Barbie and Ken pairmet in Scarborough, 1987
already unknown perpetrator of series of rapes
being investigated by FBIearned life sentence
for murders of Tammy Homolka (15), Leslie Mahaffy
(14), and Kristen French (15)Homolka became
focus of public outcry
Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka

• BSU establishing profiling, mind-hunting
• --kidnapping, organized crim, bank robbing
• --serial murder enhanced as authority
• Complex reln bet police, public, media
• Serial homicide portrayed as legal issue, not
  health issue, or social dysfunction
• Public willing to accept this definition
• Therapeutic model rejected for crime cont

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problem construction is cumulative

• Claims-makers must compete for attention. Social
  problems drop from view when they no longer seem
  fresh or interesting. New waves of claims-making
  may depend on the claims-makers ability to
  redesign an issue, to focus on a new form of an
  old threat or to find other wrinkles Best 1989
• --questionable stats served interest groups
• --eg. minorities, feminists, child advocates
• --eg. liberals vs. conservatives
• Myth of 20 distracts attention from reality
• --families, nursing homes, medical
• Myth reinforces police investigation
• Topic reinforces cap pun advocates
• Reality, 1/10000 deaths

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Allan Legere"Extremely Dangerous"CONVICTED
KILLER ESCAPES May 4, 1989 Moncton Times
Transcript

• Police searched wooded areas on Moncton's
  western edge with dogs and armed teams until dark
  Wednesday as an intensive search continued for
  escaped federal inmate Allan Legere. ... but
  searches came up empty. Legere escaped from the
  Dr. George Dumas Hospital. According to
  officials, Legere was in leg shakles and his
  wrists were chained to a leather and metal belt
  when he asked to go to the washroom. He was
  unaccompanied and 5 minutes later he emerged
  without the restraining equipment and armed with
  a 'shiv', a home made knife made from a
  screwdriver. Brandishing the weapon he escaped
  from the building, hijacked a car and sped off.
• Annual serials lt Detroit murders
• Issues perception vs reality catering to public
  perception role of media
• Sensationalism, manipulation, shift in public
  attitudes
• Role of claimsmakers?

Conclusion
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