Free Serial Killers

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Recommended: Impact of media on public opinion

Angela Baik
Professor Angela Allen
Writing 1: Monsters
11 Dec. 2015
America: Land of the Free… Killers?
Murder. The word itself is taboo while committing the actual act is considered immoral. While creating a life involves a long process consisting of nine months before it can even begin, taking a life away can take less than a second. We are taught to cherish life and to live it to the fullest- to respect life and the many people that we meet. But why is it though, that this very society that preaches of life and its beauty, promote the very thing that is condemned? Beginning with the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, the media’s unnatural fascination with serial killers hasn’t waned. Our films, television shows, and even music seem to focus …show more content…

Media coverage of Ted Bundy’s escape from prison and first arrest allowed for him to be caught (Murderpedia)]. However, the media should know its boundaries when it comes to where they can report and where they can not. More often times than not, the media interferes with actual police investigations and make it more difficult to either catch the perpetrator or to go through the process of arresting them. In regards to serial killers and serial killer cases, it is common for the media to directly distract law enforcement so that they are unable to do their work properly. Media coverage of serial killers may instead, be motivation for them to commit their crimes in the first place- as they wish to be recognized. In addition, the fact that so many people will be exposed to this information allows for individuals to try and do drastic things such as emulating the crime, or being influenced to commit their own. The media may be motivation for serial killers to commit their crimes, and can act to be a disturbance during serial killer cases. Reporting of such cases can also influence audience members so that they may also be “inspire” to either commit copycat crimes or create work that embodies the act. This creation of a serial killer culture stems from the media reporting of serial killers in a way that may create sympathy or pity. By giving them exposure to the rest of …show more content…

The movie Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, was based on the novel of the same name in 1959 by Robert Bloch. An early example of the slasher film genre, this film followed a psychologically unstable man named Norman, who murdered his mother and her lover out of jealousy ten years prior. After feeling guilt, he adopts his deceased mother’s persona and exhumes her corpse, killing any woman he feels sexually attracted to because he hears his mother telling him to. This film is now considered one of the greatest films of all time, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the US Library of Congress- deeming it culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The fact that such a violent film has been considered significant to the history of the United States and therefore preserved proves a lot about our bloodthirsty society. Hitchcock’s film also inspired the television show Bates Motel, which is currently shooting its fourth season. The inspiration for all of this was a man by the name of Ed Gein, an American killer who not only killed, but exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies out of them. Another example, the popular television show, Hannibal, was inspired by the popular film Silence of the Lambs, in which an F.B.I. agent relies on an incarcerated killer in order to catch

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