If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of your time listening to or watching true crime content. Being in the top 4% of “Dateline” listeners on Spotify Wrapped last year was not on my 2023 bingo card, but it seems that something about these morbid stories fascinates me, like it does for lots of other people nowadays. Why is it that we as humans are inherently drawn to violence and death—if not to satiate our macabre impulses, like the subjects of these shows and podcasts—than to satisfy our curiosity?
According to a BBC article, the answer may lie in our evolutionary past as humans. Going back to our hunter-gatherer days, we as humans (especially women) have a strong sense of self-preservation. Understanding why people do what they do and what signs to look out for was life-saving for our primordial ancestors, and is often the difference between life and death today. As children, my generation was taught never to leave with a stranger or accept candy from one; we’ree taught to be wary of the world from a young age. The same cannot be said for our parents, who were sent outside to play and whose locations couldn’t be tracked with the push of a button. Over time, we as a species have become less and less trusting of one other—especially as technological advancements have changed the media game— and we are exposed to more and more horror stories like that of John Benet Ramsay or the Black Dahlia. However, where there is fear, there is also curiosity.
The average person does not feel the need to extinguish the life of another, this is something we all know and accept. It is also why we are so fascinated when we hear of someone who does feel the need to take a life—we wonder what sort of person would commit such a foul act as murder, what drove them over the edge, and what led them down such a dark path. We are afraid of them, of becoming the prey of such a monster, but we are also curious. We yearn to understand the killer’s thought process, their reasoning for doing it, to know about their past and what may have made them the way they are. This curiosity, despite the fear that accompanies it, is a very human thing.
However, there is certainly a line between innocent curiosity and obsession. A typical true crime fan might take interest in the event itself, how it occurred, what led the killer to commit the murder, etc. But for those with an unhealthy obsession, it may be deeper than that. Some take it so far as to idolize the killer, defending their innocence or even professing their love or attraction to them. According to an article from The Columbia Chronicle, “convicted serial killer and cannibal Jefferey Dahmer received $11,000 from pen pals, despite confessing to the 17 murders for which he was tried.” The crimes committed by people like Dahmer become so sensationalized that people begin to admire them and even treat them like celebrities. The article also mentions that serial killer Ted Bundy received “daily bags of fan mail: declarations of love and photographs from fans.” The more public a case became, the more popularity it gained and consequently, these sadistic killers gained something of a fanbase. An article by Vocal Media states that Richard Ramirez, also known as the “Night Stalker”, reportedly “gained a host of female admirers who wrote him letters and visited him in prison.” But why would someone be a “fan” of a serial killer? I believe the answer lies in the media. The development of the internet and social media has made news stories such as those pertaining to serial murders widely available, which has also made it easy to become desensitized to the content. If you see enough coverage or read enough articles about a case, it becomes less real and it feels less likely that the same could happen to you or your loved ones. Once you remove the emotion from the situation, looking at everything factually can lead to forming opinions about a case, which can then lead someone to “take sides”, as if the matter of taking a human life is a debatable topic.
While I am an enjoyer of true crime podcasts and shows, I cannot say that I sympathize with the “Bundyphiles” as the article calls them. The matter of murder is an intriguing topic to be sure, but it is important to recognize that although they are “celebrities” of a sort, these people are killers who remorselessly murdered several people—30, in Bundy’s case, according to his biography linked above. They are not to be celebrated and while their names will live in infamy, it is really the victims whose lives should be remembered.