MY FANCINATION WITH SERIAL KILLERS Written by Sarah Morris
I absolutely love true crime; I am a sucker for really bad crimes, like murder and serial killers. I have a morbid sense of curiosity and I like to know what nutters are out in the world. I only got into it when Sky TV became more accessible and popular around 17 years ago, although Sky TV has been around since 1989.
Having access to hundreds of American channels and not having to be forced to watch Coronation Street and Neighbours was something I could only dream of. So as the channels progressed, I found the Crime Channel and that was me hooked.
I recorded every programme available, to binge watch of an evening, when my son was in bed and it was dark. I got into the world of serial killers. Gory and frightening, I found it completely fascinating and more thrilling than any horror film. What lurks in the real world is far more disturbing than, ‘Friday the 13th’ film, or ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, (although the first one was really good!).
I would learn about Ted Bundy, The Green River Killer, The BTK, The Killer Clown and then I discovered we had a few of our own in Britain including, The Wests (Fred and Rose) and Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Of course, we are famous for Jack the Ripper and then later on the Yorkshire Ripper.
My interest did become an obsession, because just when you think you’ve heard and seen the worst types of killer, the following week there was another one to make you gasp and your eyes water, and a few nightmares to follow.
So much so, it has turned into a bit of joke about me, because I can give great details on many serial killers that seems bizarre to some and yet fascinating to more.
People fear killers and murderers, and rightly so. I like to see interviews with some of the lucky few who survive the likes of serial killer Carl Eugene Watts, who killed around 80 woman and young girls and was only caught because of his last victim faking unconsciousness and she managed to slip out of the window to raise the alarm.
He as dubbed the ‘Sunday Morning Slasher’ in the USA.
He was clearly mentally disturbed from adolescence when he was fantasying about killing and raping young woman at the age of 12. He started to stalk young girls and woman by the age of 15 and then progressed to sexual assault before he was 20 years old.
His actual killing spree began in 1974 and he wasn’t caught until 1982. In this time, he had completely mastered his kidnapping methods and using strangulation, stabbing, and drowning was his favourite way to kill his victims.
This case is unusual because according to serial killer profilers from the FBI, he rarely engaged sexually with his victims, so discovering any DNA was near on impossible to find at that time in history. He ‘was’ arrested once in 1975, but due to lack of evidence, he was able to go on murdering young white woman from the ages of 14 to 44, for another 7 years!
His mental health was questioned in his younger years, but he was found to be highly intelligent and with his memory and attention to detail, the psychologists were impressed. He even got married and had one child between 1979 and 1980. He was finally arrested and sent to jail for life, he died from cancer, at the age of 53.
Above is Carl Watts Mugshot
This is just one example of hundreds, and even thousands of serial killers across the world and from that one person you can learn a lot about human behaviour and people’s deadly obsessions.
For me it beats watching reality programmes like, ‘The only way is Essex’, or ‘Big Brother’, to me they are hardly reality and make humans look less intelligent than they really are.
There are clearly some very warped and dangerous predators out there, seeking their next victim, or taking their chances, but equally there are some amazing people such as the police forces, detectives and forensic science that are just as determined to arrest them and get them off the streets.
CSI the American TV drama makes a mockery out of the investigative processes, because again in reality it is ‘never’ that easy, finding, and successfully convicting murderers, or rapists of any kind. If only life was as easy as it is portrayed in every episode!
So as morbid and strange my chose of TV maybe. I am actually learning about life and humans and the world around me. Keeping me aware and alert that not everyone who smiles is a nice person and not everyone who offers you help out of the blue is going to actually help you.
Learning about serial killers, got me into true crime books and authors such as Martina Cole, a fictional writer mostly, but still really good from her research into true crime, or Colin Sutton, a former detective chief inspector who caught Levi Bellfield, a sick and twisted serial killer from England who was the person responsible for killing three beautiful young woman, including Milly Dowler, who was only a young teenager when she suddenly disappeared in March 2002 on her way home from school.
It turned into one of the biggest man hunts to stop him killing again, and written in Colins own words you read about the urgency to catch him and the pure evil that Levi had inside of him and also the courage of witnesses, including his ex-girlfriend, who called crime stoppers after seeing an E-fit of him.
For me, my interest is honest, because you get to see the good and bad in everybody and that is what makes us humans unique from each other. Mostly I believe there is more good people in the world than evil, but it certainly isn’t a bad thing knowing that wolves come in all sorts of sheep’s clothing and not all heroes wear tight lycra and can fly.
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