In contrast to the FBI consensus on serial killers, this is an opinion on the aetiology of sex crime and serial killers from the point of view of a writer, someone that the FBI would regard as a self appointed ‘expert’.
In his book The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence. Wilson notes that sex crime and motiveless murder has been on the increase since the 1960s. He disagrees that sex crime goes back to ancient history, and says it is a fairly recent phenomenon, beginning with the JtR murders in 1888, and Joseph Vacher in the 1890s, when he considers that the age of sex crime began.
He then contradicts himself and says the age of sex crime began with the pornography of the Marquis de Sade in 1791. Sade advocated total selfishness, even if this involved inflicting pain and sexual assault on others. Sade ended up in an asylum, where he died in 1816. Wilson notes that as prostitutes were cheap and plentiful in Victorian times, ‘rape of adult women was superfluous’, and most sexual assaults were carried out on children who were ‘forbidden’. Wilson then discusses ‘Walter’ a sadist who used violence for sexual gratification, in his wish to have power over women. Wilson sees the advent of the typewriter as a cause of the Whitechapel murders. Women with steady jobs had become ‘unavailable’ and rape became more common. He also blames Victorian prudery.
Wilson maintains that the killings were all sexually motivated and calculated. The ripper may have been a moral avenger, who had a problem with prostitutes. Wilson quotes figures saying that a very high percentage of sex murderers had been sexually abused in childhood. Most admitted having ‘sexual problems’ and 70% said they felt sexually inadequate, and relied heavily on pornography. They favoured bondage type pornography. ‘That’s what appeals most to the sexual sadist’. They like to see a woman who is bound and gagged, looking terrified as she is threatened with a knife. The sexual sadist is looking for dominance and control over women. Ted Bundy blamed pornography for his killing sprees.
Wilson seems to adopt a misogynist tone in his book. He calls the Ripper’s victims ‘whores’ and seems to have a white male supremacist attitude to misogynistic violence. He discusses things from a male point of view, and does not show any empathy for the victims in his writing.
Serial killers in reality are callous psychopaths. They lie and they blame anything or anybody rather than taking responsibility for their actions. Wilson seems to tacitly admire them.
In his book The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence. Wilson notes that sex crime and motiveless murder has been on the increase since the 1960s. He disagrees that sex crime goes back to ancient history, and says it is a fairly recent phenomenon, beginning with the JtR murders in 1888, and Joseph Vacher in the 1890s, when he considers that the age of sex crime began.
He then contradicts himself and says the age of sex crime began with the pornography of the Marquis de Sade in 1791. Sade advocated total selfishness, even if this involved inflicting pain and sexual assault on others. Sade ended up in an asylum, where he died in 1816. Wilson notes that as prostitutes were cheap and plentiful in Victorian times, ‘rape of adult women was superfluous’, and most sexual assaults were carried out on children who were ‘forbidden’. Wilson then discusses ‘Walter’ a sadist who used violence for sexual gratification, in his wish to have power over women. Wilson sees the advent of the typewriter as a cause of the Whitechapel murders. Women with steady jobs had become ‘unavailable’ and rape became more common. He also blames Victorian prudery.
Wilson maintains that the killings were all sexually motivated and calculated. The ripper may have been a moral avenger, who had a problem with prostitutes. Wilson quotes figures saying that a very high percentage of sex murderers had been sexually abused in childhood. Most admitted having ‘sexual problems’ and 70% said they felt sexually inadequate, and relied heavily on pornography. They favoured bondage type pornography. ‘That’s what appeals most to the sexual sadist’. They like to see a woman who is bound and gagged, looking terrified as she is threatened with a knife. The sexual sadist is looking for dominance and control over women. Ted Bundy blamed pornography for his killing sprees.
Wilson seems to adopt a misogynist tone in his book. He calls the Ripper’s victims ‘whores’ and seems to have a white male supremacist attitude to misogynistic violence. He discusses things from a male point of view, and does not show any empathy for the victims in his writing.
Serial killers in reality are callous psychopaths. They lie and they blame anything or anybody rather than taking responsibility for their actions. Wilson seems to tacitly admire them.
Colin Wilson, The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence, ( London: Virgin Books Ltd, 2007)
The Stranger Beside Me' is a book written by true crime writer Ann Rule who personally knew Ted Bundy. They met in 1971 at a Seattle crisis clinic, where they shared the late shift answering a suicide hotline. Their subsequent conversations, meetings, and letters spanned the rest of Bundy's life as he evolved into one of the century's most notorious serial killers. It's been 20 years since Rule first penned this chilling account. One review of the book felt that she was like a protective mother shielding us from horrors too awful to mention, Rule seemed to avoid delving too deeply into crime scene descriptions. She devoted one paragraph to her discovery that Bundy engaged in necrophilia and returned to the scenes of his crimes to "line dead lips and eyes with garish makeup and to put blush on pale cheeks." She writes that John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan, and David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam Killer, traded prison correspondences with Bundy. Rule also hints that Bundy's insatiable killer instincts may have started when he was a 14-year-old paperboy. (Ann Marie Burr, an 8-year-old girl on his route, mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night and has never been found.)
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