When I speak at schools, one of the most popular subjects I discuss is, of course, serial killers. And I usually start off by talking about some serial killer fun facts (well, as fun as they can be!) that I discovered during the course of my research for I Hunt Killers.
It occurred to me the other day that I’ve never written these down. So now here they are, for you, my newsletter audience!
1) According to law enforcement, you can only be defined as a serial killer if you have at least 3 victims over an extended period of time. Both of those elements are important! Kill two people? You’re not a serial killer! (You’re still not someone I will invite to my house, though.) Kill three or more people all at once or in a brief period of time? Still not a serial killer — you’re a spree killer in that case. You have to have many victims and have breaks in between to qualify.
(Look, I don’t make the rules…!)2) Between 1920-50, serial murder was rare in the United States. Then, from 1982-89, there was suddenly a massive, 270% increase! What the heck happened in the eighties? Was it MTV? The hairspray? Those shoulder pads? Or heck — maybe it’s just that the rate was always really high…and in the eighties, the reporting got better. Doesn’t that put you at ease now?
3) The last estimate that I saw guessed that there are about 35 serial killers active and hunting in the U.S. at any point in time. Which isn’t nearly as many as TV would have you believe…but still a lot, right?
4) Serial killers come in all shapes, sizes, races, and genders…but they are overwhelmingly white men in their thirties and forties. (I have now aged out of that demographic, but believe me, when I was giving these talks a few years ago, I got a LOT of mileage out it!)
5) 76% of the world’s serial killers…are in the United States. More than three-quarters! If there was an Olympic event for serial murder, the U.S. would take the gold every single time. Make America Great Again???
6) Everything we know about serial killers — every book you’ve ever read, every TV show or movie you’ve ever watched, every true crime podcast — comes from interviews conducted with serial killers in captivity. Interviews conducted with the ones willing to talk, that is. And here’s the thing: Serial killers lie. They lie compulsively. Inveterately. Obsessively. So…what I’m saying is that we may not understand them as well as we think we do.
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