Serial Killers

[poliphilo]

Silence of the Lambs was OK. Se7en was passable. But since then the weirdo serial killer has been done to death.

As a genre, the serial killer murder mystery is as artificial as Agatha Christie. Real life serial killers don't take their inspiration from the Book of Leviticus (or whatever.) They don't pit their enormous intellects against the police.

Real life serial killers are demented low-lifes. Psychopaths as brilliant as Hannibal Lecter is supposed to be don't go on killing sprees; they set up their own businesses or go into politics.

Comments

[happydog.livejournal.com]

Psychopaths as brilliant as Hannibal Lecter is supposed to be don't go on killing sprees; they set up their own businesses or go into politics.

Truly. What serial killer can match Don Rumsfeld or Henry Kissinger?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[methodius.livejournal.com]

I think there is a distinction between a serial killer and a mass murderer.

Perhaps it would be clearer if we called the latter "parallel killers", by analogy with the cable.