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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Serial Killer test

This past Friday's post on fashion identified some of the "models" only by their first names. Read that first, then see how many references did you recognized.

"That Ted must be a real lady-killer." -- Ted Bundy was known to have killed 36 young women, and is suspected of killing many more.

"In the wonderful tradition of Patch Adams, John has made it his life's work to befriend young boys who didn't necessarily have a strong father figure around." -- John Wayne Gacy killed at least 33 teen-age boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, and buried most of them in the crawl space beneath his home in Cook County, Illinois. (That was actually him dressed up as a clown.)

"Don't you just want to eat Jeffrey up?….all the finer things in life a sophisticated man has a taste for." -- Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men between 1978 and 1991, and cannibalized many of them.

"This is one competitor with a killer instinct!" -- Andrei Chikatilo murdered (and eviscerated) at least 52 women and children in the Soviet Union between 1978 and 1990. He reportedly wanted to become the most prolific serial killer ever.

"All the more reason to project peace and love in order to gain people's trust -- especially when you offer them a ride. Smart move, Edmund -- your mother and grandparents must be proud!" -- Edmund Kemper killed his grandparents when he was 15 (because he "just wanted to see what it felt like"). After being released from a youth facility, he killed six female hitchhikers, then murdered his mother and one of her friends. He had sex with his mother's severed head, then placed it on a mantle and threw darts at it for a couple days.

"Some people are simply night owls! All we know is, with that sexy look, Mr. Ramirez must have a devil of a time with women stalking him all over Tinseltown!" -- Richard Ramirez terrorized Los Angeles as the Night Stalker, an avowed Satanist who killed 13 people, raped 11 women, and committed numerous burglaries between 1984 and 1985. 

"Son of a gun -- David certainly doesn't dog it when it comes to fashion…Note that David is wearing cotton -- like any true animal-lover….he'll even let the animals have their way! In fact, David has such a highly developed moral sense he even disapproves of public displays of affection!" -- David Berkowitz was the "Son of Sam," who between 1976 and 1977 killed six victims and wounded seven others. He later claimed he had been obeying orders from a neighborhood dog. Most of his victims were couples necking in parked cars.

"Richard is obviously a nice boy, not the type to nurse a grudge." -- Richard Speck killed eight student nurses in the summer of 1966 in Chicago.

"Who says that fashionistas have a stranglehold on style?!….Like any stylish man, Albert wears his tie nice and snug -- but not too snug!" -- Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler, who murdered 13 women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. (There's some question as to whether DeSalvo was actually the Strangler, but for purposes of this post, we'll ignore that.)

"But even though he's moved beyond fashion, he still pays attention to his grooming, never letting his hair go helter skelter…..How many guys can claim to be both a family man and a style icon?" -- Charlie Manson thought that the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" was a call for a race war. His group of misfits and murderers was known as "the Manson family."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recognized most of the serial killers. Because looking at some of their faces literally turned my stomach, I declined from commenting, although I did think your post was a clever one.

-birdie

John Craig said...

Birdie --
Thank you. I think describing what they did, as I did in this post, was a lot more stomach-turning than just putting their pictures up. It occurred to me that younger people might not recognize some of the killers from the 1970's, so I put in this "answer key."

Anonymous said...

Recognizing some of their faces and knowing their history turns my stomach, literally speaking (crimes are too gruesome, especially the one killer who are his victims).

-birdie

Anonymous said...

Correction: "...especially the one killer who ate his victims." Yuck! I guess you could say pictures of serial killers trigger me, causing me to feel queasy. I don't know if this happens with other people, but it does we with me.

-birdie

John Craig said...

Birdie --
Don't worry about typos, I knew what you meant. I never proofread my own comments.

Anonymous said...

I got them all except the Russian guy.

I always thought that if Kemper had done his mother first instead of last, he still wouldn't have been a hero, but at least I'd have understood.

My own mother was a sociopath and very abusive but everyone thought she was a saint, because she was a master manipulatrix. She died of old age some time ago and while I have no desire to kill anyone, to be honest, I wish I'd taken Dad's old Gravely starter belt and dealt her a good hiding when she was still strong enough to have made it a somewhat fair struggle.

John Craig said...

Anon --
Kemper's mother was an abusive alcoholic who made him sleep locked in the basement from the time he was 10 or so. He was evidently terrified by the boilers down there, but forced to sleep down there anyway. And if you've ever seen a picture of her, she looked nasty, too.

And yes, that's the thing about sociopaths: they're good at convincing people that they're good, and crave that "saintly" label in a way that non sociopaths never do. Personally, I think Mother Teresa was a case in point, as i've written about on this blog.

Anonymous said...

In your post about serial killers and their clothes, the Russian serial killer looked physically ugly, also coming across as mad, insane, devilish.

-birdie

John Craig said...

Birdie --
There are pictures of him when he was younger, and he looked more normal. The picture I posted shows him with a very twisted expression, which he seems to be making on purpose.

Paulie said...

I've read about Dear Old Mother Teresa and her predilection to not use her millions in donations to actually care for the sick. Preferring instead they suffer before God. Meanwhile making sure she got the best of care. I wrote once in a college paper there is no such thing as truth altruism, referencing Mother Teresa. Even the best of us do it because it feels good. Knew every single one of these references. Read many true crime books on them and others since I was a kid. Ah, the evil mind of man.

John Craig said...

Paulie --
You have a good feel for them. Mother Teresa, once you've looked at her closely, is unmistakeable:

http://justnotsaid.blogspot.com/2010/07/mother-teresa.html

The problem is, if you tell most people that she was a sociopath, they'll look at you as if you're crazy, and the explanation for why she is takes half an hour or so, so I usually don't bother.