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Serial killers

Kyriakos

Kyriakos

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At some time i decided to look at some youtube documentaries about various serial killers. I was under the illusion that it could be so that a person decides to kill for some intellectual reason, ala Raskolnicov. However what i found from those videos was very different.

It appears that none of the prolific serial killers was intelligent. Moreover almost all of them had sexual motives in their crimes, something which made me feel repulsed. I think that only "the chessboard killer", a russian who had as an end to surpass the most famous serial killer of his country, appeared to not have any sexual motive at all.

But he was dumb as well.

What about you? What do you think of serial killers? And have you ever felt any interest to look into them? I, for one, feel robbed out of a couple of hours of my life for having done so :)

munch16.jpg
 
Yeah, uh, you need help.
 
Bill3000 said:
Yeah, uh, you need help.
Click to expand...

That is just shortsighted ;) IT is far better to have dismissed something out of knowledge of it, rather than to not have looked at it at all and have a view based on pretty much only your own fantasies :) And my point was that serial killers are dumb, i did not like them or idolise them, so i must say you sound as if you didnt even bother to read the op...
 
I agree J-man. And fiction has not yet shown us what is so different in the mental state of a killer so as to enable him to not feel any vast obstacle inf front of him when he tries to kill. I suppose that the vast majority of people could never kill, due to this obstacle, which is a positive thing :)
 
Gustave5436 said:
Primitivists are by definition idiots, unless the only reason he held such beliefs was because of his schizophrenia.
Click to expand...

He was a professor of mathematics at Berkeley at the age of 25, and he has an I.Q. of 167. He is brilliant when it comes to mathematics, but that doesn't mean he's an expert in everything necessarily. He certainly has very poor people skills but he doesn't have schizophrenia.

On a side note, his mother taught at my high school well before my time.
 
Why'd you relate Raskolnikov to serial killers? Assuming I'm thinking of the same Raskolnikov......nor did he really "kill for some intellectual reason." Sure, he tries to justify it intellectually, but he was crazy, incoherent, claustrophobic, and overall in poor health.

Also, why would you be surprised that they aren't sexually motivated? I mean, they majority of real serial killers appear to be men preying on prostitutes (and this can include serial killers who killed gay prostitutes).

edit- to answer the question, serial killers actually are interesting in a way. At least to me.
 
Varwnos said:
At some time i decided to look at some youtube documentaries about various serial killers. I was under the illusion that it could be so that a person decides to kill for some intellectual reason, ala Raskolnicov. However what i found from those videos was very different.

It appears that none of the prolific serial killers was intelligent. Moreover almost all of them had sexual motives in their crimes, something which made me feel repulsed. I think that only "the chessboard killer", a russian who had as an end to surpass the most famous serial killer of his country, appeared to not have any sexual motive at all.

But he was dumb as well.

What about you? What do you think of serial killers? And have you ever felt any interest to look into them? I, for one, feel robbed out of a couple of hours of my life for having done so :)

munch16.jpg
Click to expand...

It was, in fact, my reading of "Crime and Punishment" that convinced me that real serial killers are not that interesting and are, in fact, mentally ill. Real murderers will usually kill for some gain, such as to eliminate a (perceived) threat or to take their possessions. Raskolnikov only did it to prove to himself that he wouldn't feel guilty about it afterwards, which he couldn't even pull off. That sounds pretty disturbed to me and about summarizes the mental state of serial killers -- warped. It is also the reason that I was not in the least bit impressed with the book.
 
Raskolnikov killed two people, but was also thinking of killing Svindrigailov, and three murders would make him a serial killer ;)

Well i found Crime and Punishment to be very interesting, but i doubt that Raskolnikov has any connection to real killers. Their motives seem less refined. I mentioned sickened sexual drive as a motive because it really makes me feel repulsed, since sexuality should be about creating something, not destroying it.
 
I find serial killers absolutely fascinating. I was writing up a sizable post about the extent of my fascination, but having reread it I realized that it sounded totally creepy. So I simply say that I appreciate and empathize the enigmatic workings of the mad mind. :)
 
I think they're often people who have lost and given up on everything else in life, so they just want to do something with it. I think their motivation is partly revenge on the world and people that didn't help them enough, and just some chance to be important and show some absolute power over other people. Kinda like the people who do school shootings, just that serial killers use longer time. When a serial killer is about to kill an innocent tied-up woman after raping her, I imagine him thinking: "Who's laughing now"?
 
Varwnos said:
Raskolnikov killed two people, but was also thinking of killing Svindrigailov, and three murders would make him a serial killer ;)

Well i found Crime and Punishment to be very interesting, but i doubt that Raskolnikov has any connection to real killers. Their motives seem less refined. I mentioned sickened sexual drive as a motive because it really makes me feel repulsed, since sexuality should be about creating something, not destroying it.
Click to expand...

I definitely liked Crime and Punishment. But acouple things about that (spoilers):

Raskolnikov to me seems like a run of the mill killer, and definitely not refined. Raskolnikov even comments early on how he thought criminals were sloppy and unrefined- only to be sloppy himself. He leaves plenty of evidence, and kills the woman he was trying to save from the pawnbroker.....for his "month" of planning, he certainly was quite incoherent and not concrete in his agenda. And the entire novel- to me- has realistic portrayals of the characters (granted that they are exaggerated and some are hyperboles, but still). Raskolnikov certainly seems like a real killer- unstable, at times bipolar (he is described by Razu as being two different people, and his name is from rasko, or the russian term for schism), yet not completely detached or insane. He has panic attacks and doesn't have a clear coherent plan for his murder.

Svidrigailov himself is the more typical serial killer. He is a middle aged white male who kills his wife Marfa for sexual easons, so that he can be with Dounia. He is intelligent, but came from debtor's prison. He has clear sexual fetishes, including wanting young women, drinks plenty, and even commits suicide (serial killers often have high suicide attempts)- all these fit with Wikipedia's and others' lists of traits of a serial killer.

Now, as for real serial killers and the thread, I certainly find serial killer interesting in that they so often fit a pattern. I mean, the vast majority of them share the same characteristics, even from their childhood behaviour. Same with arsonists (I believe arsonists are almost all young white 17-30 males with sexual frustrations, or so I've heard). It's just so odd that there seems to be a formula behind most serial killers, from Jack the Ripper to the modern day ones.
 
Varwnos said:
At some time i decided to look at some youtube documentaries about various serial killers. I was under the illusion that it could be so that a person decides to kill for some intellectual reason, ala Raskolnicov.
Click to expand...

Raskolnikov killed for money. He justified it with elitism, or more specifically, ubermench ethical relativity.

Upon seeing the BS of his claims to ubermench status, regret, fear and ultimately remorse becomes his over-riding emotions as his woman waits years for his release from the gulag. To his credit, she is there upon his release IIRC.

He may have used an "intellectual" rationale for his actions, but his motive was simple theft. He's a commoner; it's a tragedy.
 
It has been quite some time since i read it, but iirc Raskolnicov didnt use the money he took, and took those jewels just so that he would make the murder appear to be the result of a theft. But, like i said, i read it when i was 18, 12 years ago... :)
 
J-man said:
The image of intelligent serial killers is because of the media.

Every one needs to remember that Dexter is fiction.
Click to expand...

Dexter was my first thought when I saw the OP.
 
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