The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (3 page)

Court described existing death-penalty statutes as Similar motives are seen in cases of bodies left in burn-

“cruel and unusual punishment.”

ing cars (though torching a car is not legally classified as arson).

Profit-motivated arson is a favorite pastime of cer-ARSON and Serial Murder

tain BLACK WIDOWS and other serial killers driven by Often labeled “fire-setting” when committed by juve-desire to collect insurance payoffs. BELLE GUNNESS and niles, arson is ranked by all experts as a major child-Virginia Rearden both collected insurance payments hood WARNING SIGN of future violent behavior. It is also from multiple fires before they turned to killing for a crime unique in itself, and some serial killers pursue profit. (Belle also faked her own death, leaving another sidelines in arson throughout their adult lives. As with woman’s headless corpse in the ashes of her Indiana homicide, the FBI’s Crime Classification Manual (1992) home before she fled to parts unknown.)

divides arson into various categories by motive, several Extremist-motivated arson, in FBI parlance, is subdi-of which apply to known serial slayers.

vided into arson as a tool of terrorism, discrimination, The first category, vandalism-motivated arson, is or riots and civil disturbance. A prime case in point is most likely to be seen in children or adolescents, though racist nomad JOSEPH FRANKLIN, who torched syna-adults are by no means immune to the urge. The subcat-gogues between his deadly sniper attacks on blacks and egory most applicable to serial stalkers in this field is interracial couples.

willful and malicious mischief, often targeting schools, Serial arson rates a category of its own in the FBI churches, and similar institutions.

manual, once again defined (as with SERIAL MURDER) as The next category, excitement-motivated arson, is

“three or more firesetting episodes, with a characteristic subdivided by the FBI into groups labeled thrill seeker, emotional cooling-off period between fires.” Pre-attention seeker, recognition (hero),
and
sexual perver-dictably, the cooling-off period remains undefined but sion, all of which apply to known serial killers. DAVID

“may last days, weeks, or even years.” No allowance is BERKOWITZ kept a detailed log of fires he set and false made in the FBI’s taxonomy for arsonists arrested after alarms he telephoned to New York City fire stations. In their second fire, but again, those deemed to act with-England, BRUCE LEE could only reach orgasm while out the undefined hiatus are dubbed spree arsonists.

lighting and watching residential fires, a quirk that Finally, mass arson is defined by the Bureau as the set-claimed 22 lives before he was captured. Serial arsonist ting of multiple fires at a single location, as on several John Orr, himself a captain and arson investigator with floors of a high-rise hotel. No explanation is offered for the Glendale, California, Fire Department, was con-how this may differ from, say, the profit-motivated victed and sentenced to prison in 1992 for setting vari-burning (with multiple ignition points) of a large build-ous brush and house fires around the Los Angeles area ing torched for insurance.

during 1990 and 1991, including one fire that

See also BOMBING; MOTIVES; PARAPHILIA destroyed 67 hillside homes; six years later, in June 1998, Orr was convicted of setting the 1984 blaze that killed four persons in a Pasadena hardware store. Curi-ARTWORK and Memorabilia Related to Serial

ously, Orr set fires most often after attending seminars
Murder

with fellow arson investigators.

Considering the celebrity status conferred on infamous Revenge-motivated arson may include fires set for criminals in modern society, it comes as no surprise that personal retaliation, societal retaliation, institutional some of them become “collectible” through such media retaliation, group retaliation (as by gangs and cults), or as portraits and autographed photos, personal memen-intimidation.
David Berkowitz once tried setting fire to tos, model kits, trading cards, comic books, and sundry the apartment of a total stranger whom he thought was other items ranging from tawdry curiosities to the somehow “plotting” against him. David Wayne

bizarre. This fascination with felons in general—and Roberts killed three persons when he torched the home serial killers in particular—is viewed by some critics as of a salesman who reported him for stealing auto tires.

a symbol of societal decadence (even imminent apoca-Crime-concealment-motivated arson is another type lypse), while others dismiss it as a passing fad. On bal-that fits some serial offenders. In New York, sadistic ance, given the apparent declining interest in such items slayer Richard Cottingham set fire to a hotel room since the mid-1990s, the latter view would seem to be where the headless corpses of two women he’d killed correct.

were recovered from the ruins. Russia’s ANATOLY ONO-Serial killer art, as noted by authors Harold

PRIENKO, with 52 kills charged against him, massacred Schechter and David Everitt, may be conveniently
5

ARTWORK and Memorabilia Related to Serial Murder divided into two categories: art
depicting
serial murder-While Gacy hogged headlines in the war of words ers, and art created
by
the killers themselves. The for-surrounding killer art, other notorious predators were mer category includes everything from formal portraits quietly at work, including Richard Speck (wildlife and life-sized sculpture to weird, abstract sketches on watercolors), “Night Stalker” RICHARD RAMIREZ (ball-cheaply produced trading cards and the sometimes point doodles), MANSON “FAMILY” alumnus Bobby

graphic scenes depicted in various comic book “biogra-Beausoleil (paintings), and Charles Manson himself phies” of notorious slayers. The several sets of trading (sketches and toy animals fashioned from socks).

cards and comics sparked heated controversy in the

“Quiet” hardly describes the case of “Gainesville Rip-early 1990s, as parents and conservative religious lead-per” Danny Rolling, whose pen-and-ink drawings were ers blamed them for “corrupting” modern youth. Pro-sold by his publicist and one-time fiancée, Sondra Lon-ducers of the cards and comics countered with

don, until the state of Florida filed suit to shut the busi-reminders that their goods were plainly marked “for ness down. Elmer Wayne Henley, accomplice and slayer sale to adults only” and were not intended for a of Houston’s DEAN CORLL, has emerged as another younger audience—an argument which critics viewed as prison artist of note, his paintings displayed at two somewhat disingenuous. (Nassau County, New York, Texas galleries in 1998. Predictably, the showings drew legally banned the sale of one card set to minors; by the more anger than acclaim, picketers at one gallery arriv-time that law was voided on appeal, the company in ing with signs that read “hang Henley, not his art.”

question had gone bankrupt.)

New York inmate Arthur Shawcross sparked a similar Generally speaking, collectors of serial killer art are furor in September 1999, when prison administrators more interested in work produced by the murderers learned that he had retained agents to sell his paintings themselves, and there has been no shortage of product on the Internet auction site eBay. Shawcross spent nine from the 1980s onward. Prison inmates have tons of months in solitary confinement for that transgression of spare time, and some unlikely artists have emerged prison policy and lost all art privileges for an additional from America’s captive population of recreational five years. On May 16, 2001, eBay announced a ban on killers. JOHN GACY was easily the most famous, known further sales of “murderabilia.”

worldwide for his paintings of clowns, skulls, and other Other collectible items in the serial murder genre subjects, sold from death row in a marketing scheme so include T-shirts emblazoned with portraits of various controversial that the state of Illinois would later sue killers, autographs from sundry slayers, a scale model Gacy’s estate, seeking to recover room and board of EDWARD GEIN (complete with shovel and lantern, expenses for the years he spent in prison. As with many preparing to rob a fresh grave), and similar items. An other artists, Gacy’s work has grown more pricey since Internet website markets scores of “killer fonts,” allow-his death in 1994, one outraged critic purchasing a ing persons so inclined to print computer-generated block of paintings and burning them publicly, to pre-documents in the (simulated) handwriting of various vent them reaching “the wrong hands.”

psychopaths ranging from “JACK THE RIPPER” to more recent specimens. By 1995, several mail-order catalogs offered a wide range of murderous memorabilia and accessories—fake skulls and severed limbs, etc.—for collectors with money to burn. An easy winner in the poor-taste category (and impossible to authenticate without DNA tests) was the offer of fingernail clippings from LAWRENCE (“Pliers”) BITTAKER, awaiting execution at San Quentin. In February 1999, the Back Bay Brewing Company named a new brand of ale for

alleged “BOSTON STRANGLER” Albert DeSalvo, declaring: “It’s probably one of our best.”

As with FICTION AND FILM treatments of serial murder, the sale and collection of killer art and memorabilia invites protests that vendors and buyers alike are somehow “glorifying” human monsters, transforming them into “heroes.” And, while it is undeniable that certain infamous killers—notably Manson and Ramirez—enjoy literal cult icon status with some pathological characters on the lunatic fringe, most casual collectors of mur-One of John Wayne Gacy’s clown paintings (Wide World API) der memorabilia seem slightly eccentric, at worst. As
6

ATLANTA “Child Murders”

the majority of baseball card collectors never pitch a On September 4, Milton Harvey, age 14, vanished big-league game, so there has been no case to date of during a neighborhood bike ride. His body was recov-any “killer art” collector emulating Gacy, Speck, or ered three weeks later, but the cause of death remains Manson with a series of atrocious crimes. The contro-officially “unknown.” Yusef Bell, a nine-year-old, was versy surrounding such items generates income for ven-last seen alive when his mother sent him to the store on dors and critics alike (as when religious groups hold October 21. Found dead in an abandoned school

rallies and sell pamphlets or collect donations to oppose November 8, he had been manually strangled by a pow-the latest “sinful” fad), but otherwise, the impact of ser-erful assailant.

ial murder collectibles on American society seems no Angel Lenair, age 12, was the first recognized victim more significant or lasting than the Nehru jacket or the of 1980. Reported missing on March 4, she was found hula hoop.

six days later, tied to a tree with her hands bound In September 1999, French authorities suggested behind her. The first female victim, she had been sexu-that art might be a motivating factor in a series of ally abused and strangled; someone else’s panties were unsolved murders around Perpignan. The first victim, extracted from her throat.

19-year-old Moktaria Chaib, was found stabbed to On March 11, Jeffrey Mathis vanished on an errand death and mutilated near Perpignan’s railway station in to the store. Eleven months would pass before recovery December 1997. Police arrested Dr. Andres Barrios, a of his skeletal remains, advanced decomposition ruling Peruvian-born surgeon whom reporters quickly

out a declaration on the cause of death. On May 18, dubbed “a Latin JACK THE RIPPER,” and detectives 14-year-old Eric Middlebrooks left home after receiving linked him tentatively to the 1995 disappearance of 17-a telephone call from persons unknown. Found the next year-old Tatiana Andujar in the same vicinity. Then, day, his death was blamed on head injuries, inflicted with Barrios still in custody, the slayer struck again in with a blunt instrument.

June 1998, killing 22-year-old Marie-Hélène Gonzalez, The terror escalated that summer. On June 9,

escaping with her severed head and hands. Barrios was Christopher Richardson, 12, vanished en route to a then released on bond, while officers compared the neighborhood swimming pool. Latonya Wilson was mutilations suffered by Chaib and Gonzalez to por-abducted from her home on June 22, the night before traits of disfigured women painted by surrealist Sal-her seventh birthday, bringing federal agents into the vador Dalí. The link was strengthened, some said, by case. The following day, 10-year-old Aaron Wyche was the late artist’s comment that he “sprang to attention reported missing by his family. Searchers found his with joy and ecstasy” when he passed Perpignan’s rail-body on June 24, lying beneath a railroad trestle, his way depot. The crimes in France remained unsolved neck broken. Originally dubbed an accident, Aaron’s when this work went to press.

death was subsequently added to the growing list of
See also
GROUPIES

dead and missing blacks.

Anthony Carter, age nine, disappeared while playing near his home on July 6, 1980; recovered the following
ATLANTA “Child Murders”