Getting Away With Murder

One of the enduring mysteries of the late 20th century is the emergence of the serial killer.

There was a few decades between the 1970s and the 1990s where completely random victims got murdered by the same suspect over and over and nobody could catch them. It didn’t happen before the 1970s and it stopped after the end of the 90s.

“Of 2,604 identified serial killers in the United States during the twentieth century, an astonishing 89.5 percent (2,331) made their appearance between 1950 to 1999, with 88 percent of those appearing in just the three decades from 1970 to 1999—the ‘epidemic’ peak years"

Homicide happens all the time. But the motive is usually involves business, gang warfare, romantic, or jealousy. The victims are usually known or the motive has some logic. The serial killers from the 70s-90s usually killed at random. This sparked panic at the time.

But what’s interesting is that people today in 2023 are still fascinated by this era and it’s been decades later. Netflix recently released a documentary on Ted Bundy along with a feature film on him. They also released a film on Dahmer. It’s not just Netflix, Peacock aired a John Wayne Gacy documentary as well. True crime in general is popular, and serial killers are one of the biggest stars of the genre. Netflix’s output in the true-crime genre for 2021-2022 has spent 232 days in the streamer’s top 10—a total that covers nearly half of the days.

The Mass Shooter

Today we have our own version of killers that didn’t exist before, the mass shooter. There seems to be one every week in America, and they’ve been a normal occurrence for a decade or two. But they aren’t interesting. No one wants to keep talking about them after the initial news of their massacre. It’s this very depressing trend that doesn’t elicit curiosity on the part of the spectator. I posed this observation on Twitter and people had a variety of good replies to it.

There is one difference between the serial killer and the mass shooter. The mass shooter knows he will be dead or in jail forever for his act. The serial killer has no intention of getting caught. He probably wouldn’t do it in the first place. Getting away with it is a material difference between these two categories.

That brings us back to why the serial killer era even happened in the first place. There was a period of 3-4 decades in history where you could walk around and murder random people and get away with it. And do it again. One of the distinctive characteristics of serial killers is the so-called "cooling-off period," a time of inactivity between the murders. This period can last days, weeks, months, or even years. It's during this time that the killer returns to his or her normal activities until they are triggered to kill again.

Other people have proposed theories about the lead content in gas or indoor areas during that time period. While this argument may seem persuasive at first, lead was also prevalent in Europe as well and the patterns of crime and decline do not match.

In This Newsletter

In this Newsletter I will argue:

1) Getting away with murdering random people in a community only existed for a few decades in history. This led to a surge in Serial Killers. Not Lindy

2) America in the 1940s America does not resemble America in 1970s or 1980s. The massive change in environment allowed a few decade space for serial killers to operate without getting caught.

3) The Serial Killer era ended because technology brought us back to a pre-Serial Killer wave era. It takes a lot of technology to get us back there.

4) The artistic legacy of the Serial Killer era influenced the modern horror film and changed it forever.

Where are all the Serial Killers?

If you try to search for serial killers in the ancient times, middle ages or even industrial era up to 1950, you don’t see a lot of names. Sure, there are a few like H.H. Holmes or Elizabeth Bathory. But to be quite honest, the sources are thin on the ground. There’s a reason for that.

In most places people were born, grew up and died in the same community. If you were a murderous sociopath you’re going to have a hard time repeatedly killing people in the community without someone noticing.

There is even a famous meme about how hard it is to get away with murder in places where everyone knows each other.

The older women doing surveillance on the street isn’t just a Slavic phenomenon. Older Americans (even Donald Trump) or people who were born outside of America still recognize the truth of this meme. This was the reality of every country in the world at almost the entirety of history. Jane Jacobs’ Eyes on the Street

As Jacobs states, her neighborhood in New York City, was very accessible for people, and that almost all people knew one another’s daily activities, which created a sense of social cohesion and security on the street. This is Jacobs’ example of East Village in 1961, where she knew most of her neighbors and activities taking place throughout the day.

Many current cities lack this friendly congenial atmosphere that Jacobs’ neighborhood. She suggests that living in high density neighborhoods increases the social character of public space because it makes it more convenient for people to get to know one each other. Jacobs gives the example of Boston’s North End neighborhood, which was a small “slum” but had very well used streets where the residents felt safe to use the streets on a daily basis, creating a vibrancy in the area. She suggests we need more neighborhoods like North End where people’s activity and close proximity to one another is important.

Even after people fled to cities en-masse they still maintained close ties with each other. Think of the ethnic neighborhoods in Gangs of New York in the 19th century. Or the early 20th century places like this. You’re not going to get far killing people here without someone noticing you or the victim is gone and talking about it.

People self-segregated based on ethnic origin or income. Knowing everyone around you was normal. Today that is not the case.

Many of the murders committed by serial killers were basic. Walk into someone’s home, kill them and walk out.

It wasn’t like that they were criminal masterminds. They just happened to live in an extraordinary time where you could get away with murder over and over again due to a unique historical anomaly that no one knew who lived near them.

How did that happen?

America in 1940 and America in 1980

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