My Favorite Monsters

   

 If I was to name a ‘favorite’ killer based on the weight of their deeds, then it would make sense to pick the best of the worst. For his overall monstrosities, and unbridled bloodlust, I would have to put at the top of the list, Peter Kurten, the ‘Vampire of Dusseldorf’. . . . .  .

 The ‘quiet man’ was as dapper and gentlemanly as they come, but in viciousness he stands alone. Whereas most serial killers derive sexual gratification from the people they kill, thus having a certain preferred ‘type’, Kurten derived ecstasy from the very act alone rather than from his victims, therefore his crimes were much more indiscriminate. He did engage in sexual activities with his female victims, yet he still attacked men, couples, and children randomly because he, as he put it, ‘Derived sexual pleasure from watching the blood flow’. His M.O. varied a great deal, as far as his methods/times of attack, his bloodlust being so severe that it demanded the mindset of a strictly opportunistic killer. If there is such thing as a natural born killer, no one fits the title more.

At nine years of age, Peter drowned two brothers as the trio played by a river!!! He later then began to kill consistently using a manner of methods: stabbing, strangulation, bludgeoning, whatever means would suit his diabolical appetite at any given time, taking the lives of any who crossed his path during one of his fits of bloodlust, his victims ranging from age 8 to 41. Interwar Europe was actually in a near panic, especially in and around Germany, due to the presence of several killers nearly equal to Kurten in their atrocities, but Kurten, being such a soft-spoken, well-dressed gentleman utterly confounded society. He was in fact the first serial killer to be interviewed by a psychiatrist, who was quoted as describing Kurten as being "A king of sexual perverts" and a "narcissistic psychopath".

 It is not uncommon for serial killers to relish in their own execution, but Peter Kurten, upon being sentenced to death by beheading, gave these last words:


“Tell me, after my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?  That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.”

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. . . . .

 My own personal favorite murderer, however, as far as understanding his motives and mindset, thus, as bad as it sounds, being able to ‘relate to’, would have to be Ted Bundy. Bundy was by all accounts a pretty normal American kid reared on true crime stories and detective magazines.

 One trait that unites All true serial killers is the ‘fusing’ of sex and violence at a young age, creating an impression on their psyche whereby the two are nearly inseparable. There is an age old argument that violent material can or cannot produce aberrant behavior when young minds are exposed to it. Most serial killers have a highly-developed IQ, therefore it would stand to reason that, as children, they would take in more influences from their surroundings than their peers, and the nature of minds as inquisitive as these is objective, thereby their direction is independent of the structure of society’s prescribed morals.

 Ted Bundy had a highly-developed sex drive which began early, alongside this, there was his fascination with crime and horror, the 50s and 60s being saturated with pulpy publications, full of images of attractive females in peril, their antagonists invariably being the archetype ‘Sex Maniac’. Having an extremely high sex-drive, coupled with a fascination of the murder media of his day, and maybe complicated by less-than legitimate parenting, albeit far from having a troubled childhood, Bundy simply chose his path of murder, to become the ‘protagonist’ of the types of drama that were his teenage passion. This is what ALLLL the debunkers seemed to have missed! His conscious willing, brought on by years of fantasy, to become the self-styled monster he was is also evident in his impeccable tastes in victims. Whereas many killers rely more on the prey that opportunity affords them, such as Gary Ridgeway, their victims thereby often coming from the fringes, varying in their appearance, race, and age, Bundy invariably chose the high-school beauty queens and girls next door, as he was again consciously emulating pulp murders that he saturated his mind with during his teens. Ted Bundy’s victims all fit right on the covers of Inside Detective and True Crime Stories. Bundy, fully cognizant, chose to take on the lifestyle of a ‘real life monster’, the ‘sex crimes killer’ who was the leading character of his pulp-filled fantasies.

 When Bundy said that he had an ‘entity’ inside, he didn’t mean so in the way of possession by any outside force. He was instead referring to the ‘compartmentalized’ portion of the serial killer’s persona, which allows them to detach from their crimes when it is time for normal, everyday life. This type of killer then goes through a ‘shift’, or donning of this alter-ego, which is the entity that the serial killer becomes when carrying out his crimes. In the very end, Bundy, who until that point was a highly organized killer, unraveled into a state of psychosis whereby his ‘entity’ in concentrated form, took complete control. Consumed by it, he lost the ability to carry out his crimes in a ‘rational’ manner. He was the perfect example of Jekyll and Hyde.

In the beginning, Bundy often got drunk so he could carry out these acts, and those were his most successful times of flying under the radar, thus evading capture. In the end, however, he was pure animal, purely ravenous, which is why he then lost all control of his actions, resulting in the highly unorganized, ‘blitz-attack’ at the Chi Omega house, and then the out of character, barbaric killing of 12 yr old Kimberly Leach, these final killings being far from his M.O. Keep in mind that all of this was happening while Bundy was already on the run for murder. So whereas most killers might lay low once their identity is known, Bundy’s bloodlust spun out of control. He escaped from a courthouse in Oregon while being tried for murder by jumping out of a second-story window. He was then captured a second time and was able to escape by starving himself for a week so that he could squeeze into the air vent and walk right past the jailer as he slept, through the front door of the jail. He then made it to Florida, and was able to completely blend in to campus surroundings under a new name. And after all this, rather than lay low, like any rational criminal would do, he spiraled into uncontrollable bloodlust. And then, when it was time for his trial, Bundy became Dr Jekyll again in the form of the fiery, trial lawyer, putting up a wrangling, yet desperate defense until the very end, like a wolf in a trap, a true predator. At his trial, Bundy had more courtroom groupies, women from all walks of life, than any killer in history.

Highway to Hell

 My second favorite Monster, and rightfully so:

 I was reared on Metal during the early 80s, particularly Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, my buddy Marc and I were obsessed with demonic horror and the idea of producing our own low-budget slasher films, and we were constantly toying with the idea of having some teen, satanic metalhead, someone like us, as the killer in our scripts. The first rock album I owned was Back in Black by AC/DC- The Night Stalker wore an AC/DC cap during the early days of his crime spree, until it was left at a murder scene. And as sick as it sounds, the idea of victimizing old ladies fit right in with Marc’s sick, talk-show satanic sense of humor. The whole ideology of the Night Stalker is nearly identical to about 80% of the lyrics I wrote when Marc and I had our first Metal band, influenced by bands like Venom and Mercyful Fate, haha! That was in 1983…..And then, a year later, He struck.

 He was the poster boy for our angst-inspired visions of the perfect teen slasher film, i.e. ‘Suburban, Satanic, Teen on Drugs Goes On Rampage, Sacrificing Victims To Satan While Listening To Heavy Metal Music’. . . . .

 It is for these aforementioned reasons, for tastes in music, for timing, and for unyielding philosophy, that my second favorite serial killer of all time is: Ricardo Munoz Ramirez, aka the ‘Valley Intruder’, aka Richard Ramirez, BKA, ‘THE NIGHT STALKER’…..…Ah, the 80s!

Richard Munoz Ramirez began his killing spree on June 28, 1984. Aimlessly cruising around listening to Heavy Metal and high on cocaine, Ramirez found his way to the home of a 79 yr-old woman named Jenny Wincow, who, to escape the humid summer heat, had left a window open to allow a breeze. This would be the pattern that Ramirez would repeat, dressed in black to blend in with the night shadows, he slipped in and out of the homes of L.A. residents, and in his wake, he left pools of blood. For his particular M.O., the press aptly dubbed him 'The Night Stalker'. To add to the fear of a predator indiscriminately entering homes at random and slaughtering it's inhabitants, which included women and men, young and old, who were dispatched by a variety of methods- shooting, stabbing, choking, , , ,was the philosophy that not only accompanied Ramirez's crimes, but inspired them: The Night Stalker was a Satanist, and left a reminder, by way of a bloody inverted pentagram, smeared on the walls of his victims homes with their blood.

After a six-month, speed-induced crime spree, aided by the sounds of metal, 14 people would fall victim to Ramirez before he was caught. In court and throughout his trial, the unrepentant Ramirez never showed an ounce of remorse, and when sentenced to death, his final words to the court- "Big Deal, Death Always Came with the Territory....See You in Disneyland!"