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The Serial Killer on the Rise

The Representation of Serial Killers in American Popular Culture

from the 1970s to the 2000s

Evgenia Nikolaevna Shelepov 1683152

Supervisor: Dr. Kees de Vries Word Count: 16898

14 April 2014

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ii Dedication

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Table of Contents

Dedication --- ii

Introduction --- 1

Chapter 1: The Zodiac Killer --- 12

Chapter 2: David Berkowitz “Son of Sam” --- 20

Chapter 3: Ted Bundy --- 30

Conclusion--- 39

Bibliography --- 42

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1 Introduction

Ted Bundy, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history, married his former colleague, Carole Ann Boone, while she was on the stand during his trial. Only moments before the jury had come back with the verdict: Guilty of murder (Rule 498-500). For years women have been infatuated with serial killers; they attend their trials, write them letters and even declare their love to them (Schechter 400). Some women believe they can help or even cure them. This fascination with serial killers is not limited to the female population; the online sale of murderabilia items is astounding and countless movies, television shows, documentaries, books and articles have appeared on the subject (Schmid 1). Moreover, serial killer investigations and trials are followed closely by the media and often, highly sensationalized (Hickey 1). “In a culture defined by celebrity, serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer are among the biggest stars of all, instantly recognized by the vast majority of Americans” (Schmid 1). However, “is it possible that much of what we know about serial murder is based on misinformation and myth construction?” (Hickey 1) That is exactly what this thesis will examine by focusing on the representation of American male serial killers in American popular culture from the 1970s to the 2000s.

The History of Serial Killers

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her skills of making deadly poison. Seven murders are contributed to her, but the number of victims might be in the hundreds. She poisoned people for personal gratification, but also on request of others (Gibson 122-125). These people were not contemporarily identified as serial killers; in the past, serial murderers were not recognized as such and were sometimes dubbed creatures of the night, devils, witches, vampires or monsters (Hickey 32).

From the beginning of the 20th century, law enforcement in America and elsewhere began documenting and compiling serial murder cases and creating an overview of serial killers known to them at that time (Hickey 13). While Jack the Ripper was terrorizing the city of London, H.H. Holmes – the first well-documented serial killer in the United States – was active in Chicago, Illinois. He built a hotel with traps and torture rooms where he killed countless unsuspecting guests who came to town to visit the Chicago fair. He was eventually hanged in 1896 and the exact number of victims remains unknown (Schechter and Everitt 118).

Statistics

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of known serial killers soared in the 1970s and 1980s. Different sources have different opinions about this escalation of serial murderers. Some say that the amount of serial killers did not increase at all and that simply the documentation of them improved: Before the 1970s, law enforcement and the FBI did not know of the existence of these killers and only in the 1970s were they distinguished from other killers and seen as a separate group. This could have had an influence on the number of known serial killers. Others believe that

a new kind of predator has emerged (Hickey 134). However, Dr. Donald T. Lunde, an expert on mass murder, has another explanation: The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act. “This act was passed in 1967 and determined that a person can be detained only if he is a danger to himself or others. The reduction of 50,000 psychiatric beds in California in 1960 to 5,000 today deposited patients in local communities ill prepared to handle them” (Graysmith 259). Thus, before 1967 people could be committed to a psychiatric facility if someone only suspected them of being dangerous, but nowadays, it is much harder to have someone committed; substantial evidence of violence or suicide is required (Graysmith 256-259).

Defining the Serial Killer

The FBI responded to the increase of serial killers by taking a more active stance in capturing them and the first step was to find the right definition and distinguish them from other killers. Robert Ressler, a former FBI agent, brought the phrase “serial killer” from Europe to America in the 1970s. (Schechter 5-7). The FBI defines serial murder as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events” (Morton, par. 2). There are different types of serial killers depending, for instance, on their modus operandi (M.O.), their behavior and the

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choice of their victims. Some serial murderers get sexual gratification from torturing and killing people, while others feel the need to exert dominance over their victims (Hickey 22). Regardless of their motivations, most serial killers “hide in plain sight within their communities; the majority of serial killers are not reclusive, social misfits who live alone. They are not monsters and may not appear strange. Serial murderers often have families and homes, are gainfully employed, and appear to be normal members of the community” (Morton, par. 1).

Serial Killer Myths

Serial killers “comprise less than one percent of all murders committed in any given year. However, there is a macabre interest in the topic that far exceeds its scope and has generated countless articles, books and movies” (Morton, par. 1). Serial killer John Wayne Gacy stated: “There have been 11 hardback books on me, 31 paperbacks, two screenplays, one movie, one off-Broadway play, five songs and over 5,000 articles. What can I say about it?” (Berry-Dee ch. 1 par. 2) The relatively new and uncommon phenomenon of serial killing combined with the sensationalized accounts of these killers caused myths to arise surrounding this subject. It is often believed, for instance, that serial killers are not capable of functioning within a society and that they most often kill for sexual gratification. They are perceived as socially awkward loners who cannot stop killing and are either insane, sick or evil masterminds (Morton, par. 1).

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nonfictional biographies? Are serial killers misrepresented in American popular culture and if so, how?

Serial Killers and the Media

“The serial killer subgenre, most strictly speaking, dates from the late 1970s or early 1980s with the coinage and widespread dissemination of the term serial murder” (Simpson, Psychopaths, 14). Philip Jenkins argues that it is during that time when the serial killer panic began and that the popular culture fueled this panic by producing countless serial killer movies, television shows and documentaries (Schmid 15). Table 1 shows the

sudden increase in serial killer movies in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. “Are story lines created to heighten the interest of audiences, rather than to accurately portray serial murder? By focusing on the atrocities inflicted on victims by deranged offenders, the public is captivated by the criminals and their crimes. This only lends more confusion to the true dynamics of serial murder” (Morton, par. 1). Thus, most of what the public knows about serial killers mainly comes from American popular culture and the offenders and their crimes are often highly sensationalized.

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Paul Dinas, a true-crime book editor, states the centrality of serial killings to popular culture: “Crime committed for money or revenge without sex is much less commercial, so I look for the sex angle, for murder, adjudicated killers and increasingly for multiple bodies. The manner of death has to be very violent, very visceral” (qtd. in Schmid 176). The media usually gives serial killers nicknames, which only increases the public’s fascination with them. The nicknames often reveal how or where the killer attacked his victims; the Cleveland torso murderer, for example, killed and dismembered his victims in the Cleveland Area and the Green River Killer dumped the bodies of his victims in the Green River, Washington (Schechter 351). “Sensational coverage of crime has always had a prominent place in American popular culture, from the earliest forms of colonial popular literature through the yellow journalism of the nineteenth century, to the true-crime book and slasher movie of today” (Schmid 13). However, in the late 1980s, objective reporting made way for sensational reporting of half-truths, because “newspapers and television news broadcasts lowered their editorial standards in order to compete with tabloid media. This tabloidization of the mainstream media has had an especially damaging impact upon the reporting of crime” (Schmid 13-14). Objective reporting was replaced by the sensational portrayal of the most horrific murders and the most dramatic trials.

Sensational journalism breaks the press’ ascribed guidelines of ethical practice with the intention of attracting attention in order to sell more papers. In this process, journalism’s audience – its public – is reconstructed as a mass, undifferentiated and irrational. The “sensational” occurs within journalistic discourses that are also bounded by cultural, historical and political practices that in turn position the ethical guidelines around different types of content. (Becker 84)

Thus, credibility and accuracy take a backseat and attracting attention becomes the primary goal. Newspapers use engaging photographs and appealing headlines to attract the public’s attention. The topic becomes less import; it is the way this topic is presented to the public “which appeals to the emotions and thereby creates the sensation” (Becker 84).

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sensationalized content that would guarantee high ratings. Annalee Newitz, an American journalist, argues that the American public is addicted to sensationalist reporting of violence and murder and that Americans display a profuse “love of exploitation and sensationalism” (65). Additionally, the media often uses specific tactics to attract the maximum amount of viewers, such as broadcasting interviews using experts and pseudo-experts to acquire information on a particular serial killer and his background. Experts can be researchers, scientists, psychiatrists and even retired police officers who have general knowledge of serial killers (Morton, par. 10). Pseudo-experts, however, are “self-proclaimed profilers and others who profess to have an expertise in serial murder, when, in fact, their experience is limited or non-existent” (Morton, par. 10). The FBI, for example, calls these experts or pseudo-experts “talking heads” and states that these people are in no way connected to the real investigation of the serial killer and that they simply give their own opinion on the matter. The media uses them to appear more trustworthy and often provides the public with unauthorized reports, with misleading theories that drives the public imagination into frenzy (Morton, par. 10). American’s fascination with serial killers can also be explained through Mark Seltzer’s definition of a wound culture. This can be defined as “the public fascination with torn and open bodies and torn and opened persons, a collective gathering around shock, trauma and the wound” (Seltzer 1). The serial killer is considered to be the superstar of America’s wound culture (Seltzer 2).

Film Theory

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the large number of people who watch them suggests that the public is drawn to violent scenes just as they are drawn to violence in the media (Hanich 85-86). “Horror movies and thrillers deliberately put the viewer into contact with moving-images that normal life – fortunately – withholds to a large degree making them both alluring and threatening. [These moving-images include] the immoral shooting, burning, stabbing, raping, piercing, slicing, smashing, torturing, opening-up, tearing-apart, fragmenting, mutilating, exploding of the body” (Hanich 86).

The serial killer movie genre emerged in the 1980s and its popularity soared in the 1990s with movies such as Silence of the Lambs, Se7en and Natural Born Killers. Mark Seltzer states that “serial murder and its representation … have by now largely replaced the Western as the most popular genre-fiction of the body and of bodily violence in our culture” (qtd. in Simpson,

American, 119). Nowadays, it is widely agreed upon that serial killer movies can be categorized

as a separate genre and in her book, Young argues that the “modern serial killer genre draws on three cinematic genres: The “old dark house” genre (Amityville House, The Haunting), the “slasher” film (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th

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viewers are moved from their world into the world created by the director and they identify themselves with the main character(s). “In order to produce an emotional response to a film, the director carefully develops both plot and character through precise camera work. Editing creates a visual and acoustic gestalt, to which the viewer responds. The more effective the technique, the more involved the viewer” (Wedding, Boyd and Niemiec 1). Moreover, the sets, locations, camera placement, characters and the mise-en-scène also contribute greatly to the quality of a movie. Film critics study these elements when analyzing films and they initially focus on the narrative structure of the movie and from there move to the analysis of the main characters, the setting, camera placement and the mise-en-scène. The following questions are often considered: How does the movie create a realistic scene? What can be said about the sets and locations where the movie is filmed; are they realistic? Do the objects and characters within the setting have a particular significance? How are the characters represented and do they fit the setting of the story? What is the point of view of the camera and how does this add to the plot (Corrigan 44-49)?

People are drawn to violent movies not only because they are fascinated by the violence, but they indulge in violent films, because they are drawn to the feeling of pleasurable fear (Hanich 99-100). In his book, Hanich argues that fear can be pleasurable and that people around the world spend tremendous amounts of time and money to experience fear; as a few examples he names dangerous sports, roller-coasters, haunted houses and of course, watching horror movies (Hanich 4). “Since time immemorial people have craved spectacles permitting vicariously to experience the fury of conflagrations, the excesses of cruelty and suffering, and unspeakable lusts – spectacles which shock the shuddering and delighted onlooker” (qtd. in Hanich 81). One can identify different kinds of violent portrayals in films and they are known as “fearful effects of the films or aesthetics of fear” (Hanich 77). One of the most common effects used in horror films is the direct horror portrayal, which is a violent and explicit portrayal of violence. “The viewer experiences direct horror as a frightening, engrossing and potentially overwhelming confrontation with vivid sound-supported moving images of threatening acts of violence or a dangerous monster” (Hanich 82). The viewer is both afraid and fascinated when confronted with direct horror scenes.

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knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world” (Albert Einstein: 15 Quotes on his Birthday). If violence is only suggested and not actually shown, the audience is left to imagine what the director purposely left out (Hanich 109). Another way to shock the audience is by means of a startling or an unexpected scene, also called cinematic shock: “Brief, highly compressed type of fear” Hanich explains (127). The director can achieve cinematic shock by, for example, rapidly increasing the volume during a shocking scene or by a sudden change of a shot. In a violent movie, the anticipation of direct horror is often more thrilling and horrifying than the actual deed itself; this is called cinematic dread or a fearful expectation. Most often, the viewer anticipates a threat that the movie character has not yet encountered (Hanich 133-156). The different kinds of portrayals of violence and horror will be analyzed in the later chapters of this thesis; which portrayals are most common in the serial killer movies and does the depiction of violence contribute in any way to the representation of serial killers?

Stanley Kauffmann, an American author, editor and film critic once said: “The best critic is one who illuminates whole provinces of an art that you could not see before” (Pramaggiore and Wallis 270). A good critic does not start writing out of the blue: To be able to critically analyze a film it is necessary to organize all the ideas and come up with a clear argument. However, the first step is to determine the audience and subsequently watch and analyze the films that will be discussed in the paper (Corrigan 9). Most often, the films need to be watched two and sometimes even three times to be able to critically examine the most significant shots and scenes. Since it is impossible to discuss an entire film from beginning until the end, it is advisable to focus on three or four major scenes and analyze them as thoroughly as possible (Corrigan 25 - 27). When it comes to film analysis there are countless ways to critically watch and review a film depending on a multitude of factors including the audience, one’s goals and the argument one is trying to make. There are different elements one can focus on, such as major themes of the movie, construction of the narrative, representation of the characters, camera placement and an analysis of the mise-en-scène (Corrigan 74). Depending on these factors and the set goals there are different critical approaches to film analysis; one can focus on film history, formalism, auteur theory, an analysis of a genre or the national character of a movie (Corrigan 80-87).

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structure, style, camera techniques and the mise-en-scène without any influences from the outside. However, it is uncommon to have a strictly formalist paper and this type of analysis is often used to strengthen an argument about film history or genre (Corrigan 91). Genre theory is concerned with the analysis of “similar themes, characters, narrative structures and camera techniques [that] link movies together” (Corrigan 84-85). When analyzing a particular genre it is also wise to examine how this genre was received by the audience; this is known as reception theory. However, the reception of a film or a group of films is difficult to examine, because every person might respond differently to a film depending on the type of movie, type of audience and the level of identification, the mise-en-scène and even marketing strategies (Dick 368-369).

In film writing, it is often inevitable to use two or more approaches to make a strong case and that is why this thesis will use two approaches, film genre and formalism, to analyze the filmic representation of serial murderers within the serial killer genre (Corrigan 91). Questions that this thesis will aim to answer are: How are serial killers represented in American popular culture and what can be said about the serial killer movies as a genre? It is intriguing to analyze the serial killer genre, because of the ever-growing fascination with these killers and their varying representation in countless films, series and documentaries. In his book, Corrigan argues that the same events or characters can have contrasting portrayals in different movies:

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Chapter 1: The Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac killer is one of the most infamous American serial killers of the modern times, not only because he murdered at least five people, but mainly because of the arrogant messages and cryptograms he sent to various newspapers in the Bay Area, California. He also made a habit of calling police stations right after the murders to confess to the killings and tell the operators where the police could find the victims (Graysmith 75). In total, he sent 21 taunting letters and postcards to different newspapers, sometimes including a piece of bloody clothing from one of his victims. In one of his last letters he claimed 37 victims, but officially, there are only five known Zodiac murders (Graysmith 312). Throughout the course of the investigation the police had “more than 2,000 potential suspects” (Graysmith 197). However, until this day no one has officially been charged with the murders, but a general profile of the Zodiac killer did emerge: In an interview with Graysmith, Dr. Donald Lunde, an expert on mass murder, stated that the Zodiac killer most likely was a “sadistic sociopathic killer [who] did not suffer from hallucinations, but selected his victims for the purpose of venting certain deeply rooted sexual and sadistic urges” (Graysmith 257).

Robert Graysmith

Graysmith’s book, Zodiac, is here compared to two movies depicting the Zodiac killer. The goal is to determine whether the movies misrepresent and sensationalize Zodiac and his attacks. Graysmith was working for the San Francisco Chronicle during the Zodiac murders and witnessed the arrival of all the letters, postcards and cryptograms; this case became a mystery Graysmith wanted to solve and in his book he puts together all the evidence ever collected on this killer. The first part of the book is an informative and thorough account of the case and in the last part Graysmith discusses possible suspects for which he uses pseudonyms. His main focus is on a suspect called Arthur Leigh Allen, in the book referred to as Robert “Bob” Hall Starr (Graysmith 305).

The Victims and the Letters

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known as a lover’s lane. Less than an hour later, the killer pulled up his car next to theirs and, after shooting David, turned to Betty Lou, who had managed to get out of the car. He shot her in the back five times, killing her (Graysmith 1-12). Benicia police officers were at a loss: “There were no witnesses, no motives and no suspects” (Graysmith 12). Zodiac struck again on July 4, 1969; Darlene Ferring and Mike Mageau were driving out of Vallejo when they realized that they were being followed. Darlene eventually parked the car in a well-known lovers’ lane and when a car pulled up next to theirs, they first assumed it was a police car, because the person approached them holding a flash light (Graysmith 26). However, it turned out to be the killer; Darlene was shot 11 times and Mike three times. Darlene was dead on arrival at the hospital, but Mike survived the attack (Graysmith 25-31). Several hours after the murder, the Vallejo Police Department received a call reporting a double murder.The caller also confessed to the murders of December 20: “I also killed those kids last year” (Graysmith 33). Police later found out that the call was made from a phone booth across the street from Vallejo Police Department and in close proximity of Darlene’s house. Until this day, it is believed that Darlene might have known her killer; on multiple occasions, a man resembling Zodiac had visited her house and her work and she had told her friends and family she was afraid of him (Graysmith 14-22).

On July 31, 1969, Zodiac sent his first letters and cryptograms to the San Francisco

Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times-Herald. In the letters he took credit for

the two attacks, gave details only the killer and police would know and included a cryptogram (every paper received a different one), which the papers had to print. If they would not obey he threatened to go on a killing spree. The ciphers were eventually solved by a couple from Salinas, California (Graysmith 47-51). Zodiac killed again in September 1969; this time he approached a couple who was having a picnic holding a gun and wearing a black hood resembling a hood of an executioner. At first, the couple thought that they were being robbed, because the man asked for their money and car keys, but he stabbed them both, killing the girl (Graysmith 62-72). A fisherman heard their screams and called the police. Approximately an hour after the stabbing, police received a call about a double murder. The caller said, “I am the one that did it” (Graysmith 75).

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his shirt” (Graysmith 84). Several teenagers saw a suspicious man walking around a cab and they called the police. However, when they were giving a description of the assailant a catastrophic mistake was made: “The man was mistakenly described as NMA – Negro Male Adult: A black man” (Graysmith 85). A police car stopped a white man near the crime scene to ask him whether he had seen anything suspicious and the man admitted seeing a man running away holding a gun. Without realizing it at the time, the police officers might have come face-to-face with the real Zodiac killer (Graysmith 86).

On October 13, 1969, Zodiac sent another letter to the San Francisco Chronicle taking credit for the last murder and including a piece of the bloody shirt as proof, but what worried police officers most was Zodiac’s threat: “School children make nice targets. I think I shall wipe out a school bus some morning. Just shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out” (Graysmith 102). This attack never happened, but the letters from Zodiac continued for almost ten years, until April 1978. He kept contacting the police, making threats and demanding that people wear buttons with the Zodiac sign on them (Graysmith 312). In the meantime, the police found two other possible Zodiac victims, one of whom managed to survive, but was never able to positively identify her assailant (Graysmith 134-141).

The Zodiac Killer in Popular Culture

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film is one of the very best” (Mayo 384). Currently, two Zodiac movies are being filmed to be released in 2014 (Zodiac) and 2015 (The Zodiac Legacy) (IMDb).

Countless television shows and documentaries featured the Zodiac killer in one of their episodes, including Criminal Minds (2005), Nash Bridges (1996), America’s Most Wanted (1988), Forensic Files (2000) and Cold Case Files (1999) (IMDb). In addition, numerous books have been published over the years claiming to reveal the true identity of the killer and several people have come forward insisting that one of their family members is the real Zodiac killer. It is safe to say that the public is fascinated with this case and the still unknown identity of the killer. Given the space restrictions of this thesis it is not possible to analyze all of the above mentioned movies, television shows and documentaries, so the focus will remain on The Zodiac

Killer (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971). The following paragraphs will examine how the Zodiac

killer is represented in these two films in comparison to the description of the killer and the case provided by Graysmith.

The Zodiac Killer (1971)

The movie aired in April 1971 in San Francisco, California and starts with a notification from Paul Avery that is displayed in Figure 2. Avery worked as a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle during the time of the murders and Zodiac had contacted him personally by means of a postcard, which read: “From your secret pal. I feel it in my bones, you ache to know my name, and so I will clue you in… But then why spoil our game! BOO! Happy Halloween” (Graysmith 158-159).

Assuming this was a death threat and, more importantly, mentioning this in the opening credits can be considered to be overblown and misleading to the public.

Avery’s stated goal is to “create an awareness of a present danger”. The movie is supposedly based on known facts, but this statement is drawn into question within the first two

Fig. 2. The Opening Credits of the Movie. The Zodiac Killer. Dir. Tom Hanson. Perf. Hal Reed, Bob Jones and Ray Lynch. Audubon Films, 1971.

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minutes of the movie, which show a man being shot and killed in what looks like a police car and a subsequent scene depicts a girl being randomly attacked and stabbed in a suburban street in broad daylight; the killer jumps on top of her and starts stabbing her uncontrollably. In these scenes, the horrifying actions of the killer are portrayed directly in order to shock and fascinate the audience (Hanich 82). A voice over says: “You walk around like everything is alright. Do you not know that people like me exist?” These two victims are not based on published Zodiac facts. The movie continues with the killer attacking people every chance he gets and the scenes follow each other in quick succession: Throughout the course of the film the killer shoots two teenagers at a lovers’ lane and an elderly woman in a car in front of a diner. He stabs two teenagers at a lake and knocks out a woman and leaves her for dead. He then stabs an elderly man in the elevator and cuts off his ear; stabs a hitchhiker; shoots a cabdriver; pushes a hospital patient in a bed down a road and kills a woman who tries to repair her car by jumping on the hood like a maniac while her body is stuck between the hood of the car. Out of ten attacks portrayed in the movie, only three are correctly represented: The two teenagers at a lovers’ lane, the stabbing of the two teenagers at the lake and the shooting of the cabdriver. All the other attacks are not based on known facts. Fabricating the other attacks and showing that all kinds of people – young, old, male, female, black or white – can be murdered by the same serial killer is arguably not a way to make people aware of the current danger – it might instead cause a full blown panic.

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calls the killer made to the police department after the attacks were not accurately portrayed; in the movie, the killer is laughing while talking to the police, but in reality it is said that he sounded calm and did not show any sign of emotion (Graysmith 33).

In his book, Graysmith mentions this movie saying: “I went to see a low-budget film about Zodiac at the Golden Gate Theater. The film ends by hinting that Zodiac may be the man behind you in the theater” (Graysmith 179). People who saw the movie could win a motorcycle if they managed to originally finish the end of the following sentence: “I believe Zodiac killed because…” (Graysmith 179) All the cards were later analyzed by the police to make sure that the real Zodiac had not participated in the game (Graysmith 179). The movie ends in a voice over:

Well, now you know I exist. What are you going to do about it? I will tell you… You will not do anything. You will go about things the same way you always have. I am sick you say. I need medical help. I should be put away. I am dangerous. Yes, that is right, but I am still loose am I not? Me and a lot of guys like me. What do you expect me to do? Turn myself in? Are you kidding? I like what I am doing.

Then the public hears maniacal laughter and they read: “This is not the end”. The narrative of the movie mainly focuses on fabricated killings that were never reported to be the work of the Zodiac killer. The crimes seem random and motiveless and the killer is depicted as a born monster (McCready 44). This movie presented the public with mostly fiction and only a few facts; the killer was portrayed as a compulsive maniac that spent day after day attacking and murdering people. The slightest look or gesture would set him over the edge. However, Graysmith described Zodiac’s attacks as methodical, well-prepared and calmly executed (Graysmith 265).

Dirty Harry (1971)

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in Scorpio’s letters to the Chronicle” (Graysmith 180). The handwriting of the letter that Scorpio left at the scene is indeed remarkably similar to Zodiac’s handwriting. However, the content of the letter is entirely different: In his letter Scorpio demands $100,000 and threatens to go on a killing spree if he does not receive the payment. Whereas Scorpio is motivated by money, Zodiac was driven by his thirst for power and control. After he is nearly caught by Inspector Callahan Scorpio sends another letter now demanding $200,000. He has kidnapped a 14-year-old girl and has buried her alive; he says that if he does not receive the money in time the girl will die of oxygen deprivation. She is eventually found dead and the director used a wide shot to show how her naked body is being pulled out of a well. The scene is confronting and shocking; it can definitely be categorized as a portrayal of direct horror that is used to shock the audience.

Besides the obvious differences between Scorpio and Zodiac, such as the name of the killer, his choice of weapon and his choice of victims there is one fundamental difference between the representation of the two killers: Scorpio’s method of hunting and killing his victims is random and not as meticulously planned as Zodiac’s attacks were. For instance, one of the shots shows him firing his gun randomly, killing a police officer. It is a “high-angle shot [which] gives emphasis to character control, power and strength” (Wedding, Boyd and Niemiec 4). However, in reality, when Zodiac was asked by two police officers whether he had seen anything suspicious he calmly pointed them in a wrong direction and walked off.

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At the end of the movie, Scorpio hijacks a school bus, just like Zodiac threatened he would do, but instead of being calm and in control, he is even more unstable than before. He is screaming uncontrollably and he does not have his emotions under control. He runs a car off the road and looks mentally disturbed. It is nothing like the letter Zodiac sent where he threatened to “shoot out the front tire and then pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out” (Graysmith 102). When he is eventually cornered by Inspector Callahan he takes a young boy hostage while laughing uncontrollably. After Callahan shoots him the first time, wounding him, he refuses to listen and reaches for his gun, still laughing and thus, in the end, Inspector Callahan does not have any other option but to kill him. Scorpio’s portrayal in Dirty Harry differs drastically from Graysmith’s extensive account of the Zodiac killer. While Zodiac is categorized as an organized killer who not only planned and executed his attacks carefully, but also managed to evade capture until this day, Scorpio’s attacks are crimes of opportunity and passion; he is driven by rage and insanity. Thus, Scorpio’s characteristics could not have been more different from Zodiac’s modus operandi.

Conclusion

The Zodiac killer was not only misrepresented in aforementioned movies, but also highly sensationalized; he was portrayed as an insane individual who was only characterized by his desire to kill. In reality, Zodiac was an expert at blending in, because he managed to remain undetected until today and this might be even more frightening than the disturbing killers depicted in the movies. “What we find scarier than the archetypal monster who jumps from behind the bush is the monster who is closer to home, blurring the distinction between us and them. That is when the distinctions between normality and monstrosity break down” (Tucker).

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Chapter 2: David Berkowitz “Son of Sam”

David Richard Berkowitz, also known as Son of Sam or the .44 Caliber killer, shot 13 victims in 1976 and 1977, wounding seven and killing six innocent people. His reign of terror lasted for 13 months and not only gripped New York City, but the entire nation (Hickey 29). After his arrest, he claimed insanity and Dr. Abrahamsen was one of the psychiatrists appointed to decide whether Berkowitz was mentally fit to stand trial (Abrahamsen viii). With 40 years of experience in the fields of psychiatry and criminal psychopathology, Dr. Abrahamsen has taught at several major universities and hospitals and has written 13 books (Abrahamsen). Intrigued by this case, he wrote the book, Confessions of Son of Sam, about Berkowitz’s life, crimes and the motivations behind his crimes (Abrahamsen viii). On the basis of his close experience of the matters, Dr. Abrahamsen’s account will be used as a framework for this chapter and his findings will be compared to the portrayal of Berkowitz in a movie and a documentary.

Berkowitz’s Upbringing

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in those parked cars with Klineman. Greedy, wild-tempered Klineman. It was that bastard who I took after – his temper, his impatience. He hated crowds and probably people too” (Abrahamsen 83). “Anger and rage that in the past he had been able to control through suppression and creative fantasy now had nowhere to go” (Abrahamsen 85-86). This thesis does not suggest that Berkowitz’s childhood and upbringing are in any way connected to him becoming a serial killer; it simply provides background information on Berkowitz and his early life.

The Victims

The first attack happened on July 29, 1976, shortly after Berkowitz had met his birthmother. He shot two girls that were sitting in a car in the Bronx, killing one of them, Donna Lauria (Abrahamsen 2). During one of the interviews Berkowitz said, “After I killed Donna I felt happy. I felt some peace. Sang songs on my way home after killing Donna” (Abrahamsen 100). On October 23, a couple was also attacked in a car; the man was shot in the head, but the girl remained unharmed (Abrahamsen 3). Berkowitz later confessed that he had assumed the girl would be sitting in the passenger seat and that the man had not been his intended target (Abrahamsen 101).

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22 The Arrest

Berkowitz was apprehended after he had received a parking ticket and was positively identified by a witness in the vicinity of the last crime scene. After the police traced the ticket back to Berkowitz, they began to unravel the strange happenings surrounding his residence. Sam Carr, who lived close to Berkowitz’s apartment building, received several letters complaining about his dog, Harvey. Several days later, Harvey was shot. Other people, including another neighbor and Berkowitz’s previous landlord, had received disturbing and even threatening letters. This was all reported to the police, but initially, investigators did not believe Berkowitz to be dangerous, let alone be Son of Sam. However, once the parking ticket came to their attention, law enforcement began investigating Berkowitz. He was eventually arrested on August 10, 1977 in front of his house without resisting arrest (Abrahamsen 5-8). He was calm and perceptive and said, “Well, you got me. How come it took you such a long time?” (Abrahamsen 9) He later told Dr. Abrahamsen that he knew that “it was standard procedure for the police to check for traffic violations given out in the neighborhood of a crime scene” (Abrahamsen 9).

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23 Media Coverage

The media coverage of Berkowitz’s crimes was massive, not only in New York City, but also nationally and even internationally. The public was fascinated by this killer who had eluded capture with an entire task force looking for him. The media fed this fascination by daily printing Son of Sam stories, speculating about his identity and his reasons for killing. “The apparently random selection of victims and the lack of clear motive led the media to depict him as a mindless beast, a demented creature totally out of touch with reality – a portrait that the public was ready to accept” (Abrahamsen 4). “A month before the arrest, a psychiatrist had described Son of Sam as “neurotic, schizophrenic and paranoid … preoccupied with religious and demonic ideas. And the general public had already made up its mind: Berkowitz was crazy. Case closed” (Abrahamsen 13-14). However, after his arrest people saw a shy, quiet young man and not the monster the media had portrayed him to be, “but his story satisfied [the public’s] wildest fantasies. He had killed, he declared, at the behest of his voices. The demons in Sam Carr’s dogs had made him do it. He was helpless to resist their demonical commands” (Abrahamsen viii). This revelation and the strange letters received by the police and his neighbors made this killer seem mentally unstable, believing in demons with a disturbing fascination with dogs: A deviant who no longer could separate reality from fantasy (Abrahamsen 12). In this respect, “the serial killer becomes an animal or force of evil” and this is how the society sees these killers; as born monsters for whom the society is in no way responsible, but at the same time the public is still fascinated by them (Tucker). Until this day, Berkowitz gives interviews for newspapers, documentaries and books; in some ways he can be considered as a celebrity. There is even a law named after him: The Son of Sam law, which prevents criminals “from profiting from their crimes by selling their stories to publishers” (Miller). Arguably the media turned Berkowitz into a celebrity.

David Berkowitz in Popular Culture

Another Son of Sam, a movie that came out right after the murders in 1977, is about an escaped

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with Martin Sheen playing the lead detective. In 2008, Son of Sam, another film portraying Berkowitz’s crimes, was produced by Ulli Lommel. The miniseries The Bronx is Burning from 2007 also touches upon Berkowitz in several of the episodes. Moreover, countless documentaries devote an episode to Son of Sam including: Taff (1994), Behind Bars (1994), Our Generation (2006), Born to Kill? (2005), Serial Killers: Profiling the Criminal Mind (1999), Summer of

Terror: The Real Son of Sam Story (2001) and Biography (1987) (IMDb).

Summer of Sam (1999)

Spike Lee is known for creating films that most often spark debates among the viewers and

Summer of Sam is no exception. Some might even say that Summer of Sam is Lee’s most

controversial movie, because it caused an uproar, in particular from the families of the victims (Palmer). “Some parents of young people killed by Berkowitz are enraged by the movie. They accuse Lee of callously cashing in on their misery” (Harden). A mother whose daughter was killed by Berkowitz does not want her “daughter to be remembered all bloody and shot by a lunatic” (Harden). Ironically, even Berkowitz himself had something to say in the matter during one of the interviews: “This madness, the ugliness of the past is resurfacing again – all because some people want to make some money” (Harden). The movie has also been largely criticized for its sexual and profane content (Palmer).

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death by his former friends, because he dresses as a punk. They believed that he was Son of Sam, because he was different from everyone else (Palmer). “The characters struggle with a problem (the incredibly varied human capacity for violence and self-destruction) they can never fully grasp, much less resolve” (Palmer).

The first scene of the film shows Berkowitz, only wearing underwear and socks, screaming in agony in his apartment. The setting is depressing with low-key lightening, garbage strewn around the apartment and sinister background music. Outside, a dog is barking loudly and Berkowitz keeps yelling that he wants for the dog to “shut up”. He looks absolutely mad, but in the next scene he calmly walks up to a car pulls out his gun and shoots two girls while Abba’s song Fernando plays in the background with its famous line “there was something in the air that night” (Palmer). This sudden transition between the two scenes is never explained in the movie and “what that “something in the air” might be is never identified. … Berkowitz is accorded no moment that reveals him in any meaningful sense as human rather than demonic. Lacking a history, a voice, or familial connections, he is simply there” (Palmer).

The barking of his neighbor’s dog drives Berkowitz out of his apartment and onto the streets of New York to hunt for more victims. The barking keeps tormenting him throughout the movie; it looks like he is in terrible pain as he is throwing household items through his apartment. Even after he has shot and killed the dog, it keeps haunting him, now appearing before him and ordering him to go out and kill (McGowan 183-184). Berkowitz is depicted as a “loner, crazed and obsessed individual” (Gregoriou 163). As mentioned in the introduction, serial killer movies often deal with the darker and more sinister side of life and their main goal is to shock the audience (Street). By using a mixture of images, sinister background music and low-key lightening Spike Lee portrays Berkowitz as a psychopathic villain the audience is so fascinated with (Wedding, Boyd and Niemiec 72). In reality, during and after Berkowitz’s arrest he was calm, perceptive and responsive. It is as if he had been waiting to be arrested saying to the arresting police officers: “Well, you got me. How come it took you such a long time?” (Abrahamsen 9)

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psychologized. With no establishing shot of back story provided, the camera simply finds Son of Sam as a barely human, howling presence seemingly trapped in a room filled with waste and garbage, where he suffers bitterly from the barking dog that later comes to play such a large role in his increasingly elaborate delusions” (Palmer). Spike Lee should have paid more attention to Berkowitz’s background instead of representing him as a barely human monster. “Son of Sam is represented either by the symptoms of his presence (the shattering blasts from his large-caliber handgun) or, like the monster in a horror film, by fleeting glimpses of his partially visible body” (Palmer).

The end of the film offers no explanation to why he attacked and killed his victims. “In the end, all that seems to matter is that Berkowitz is apprehended, tried, convicted and imprisoned, restoring the community’s sense of safety” (Palmer). The reason why Berkowitz had claimed insanity, but eventually decided to plead guilty is also not explained to the audience. Thus, the movie provides an overly simplistic account of events instead of offering a more complete picture of Berkowitz and his crimes. In reality, it has been publicly announced that he had faked insanity in order not to stand trial and when it was decided that he was, in fact, fit to go to trial he decided to plead guilty. In February 1979, Berkowitz confessed that the “Sam Carr and the demons… was all a hoax, well planned and thought out” (Abrahamsen viii). He had made up the story and never expected the public and the media to believe him. If Berkowitz had admitted to fabricating the story, why had Spike Lee based the entire character on that statement? In his book, Dr. Abrahamsen explains that Berkowitz’s story of hearing demonic voices satisfied the public’s wildest fantasies when it comes to serial killers and Lee was feeding this fascination with the highly sensationalized account of Berkowitz’s crimes (Abrahamsen viii).

Documentary: Biography (1987)

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different form of attention from the kind that is usually reserved for the consumption of fictions” (Kilborn and Izod 9).

Over the years, documentaries have received many different definitions in which “the non-fiction component” remained unchanged (Kilborn and Izod 12-14).

Some conventions used in realist documentary depend on enriching our sense of being there. These include such occurrence in front of the lens as location shooting, following the action and having the presenter talk directly to the camera from the scene of the events. Another device that is frequently used to encourage a sense of being there is the on-camera interview in which witnesses or participants directly relate their experiences. The overall impact of these devices is to heighten the effect of realism for the viewer. (Kilborn and Izod 35)

The use of a voice-over can also add to the feeling of reality, because most often, the viewers automatically assign authority and credibility to the voice-over (Kilborn and Izod 36). Other dramatized elements that are used in documentaries to enhance the feeling of reality are “key-lightening”, background music and other sound effects (Paget 75). The use of the abovementioned elements does not only make the documentaries more interesting to watch, but also extremely persuasive (Kilborn and Izod 5). Thus, even though documentaries depict real events and real people, they still need to be sensationalized to attract as many viewers as possible. For instance, this documentary, as so many others, plays out graphic reenactments and dramatic reconstructions to enhance the thrill of the episode and to add some flair to the story (McCready 38). This is called dramatization of the events and that is why these documentaries are referred to as “drama-documentaries or docudramas” (Kilborn and Izod 136). Docudramas are usually created to portray (inter)national events, prominent individuals or widely discussed issues. However, over the past years, more documentaries began to shift their focus on “ordinary citizens who have been thrust into the news because of some special experience” (Paget 61). Serial killers are an exemplar of these newly produced documentaries.

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and even Berkowitz himself. Interviewing a serial killer for a documentary makes the documentary more engaging and more sensational to watch. There are also other sensational elements used, such as gripping background music and chilling reconstructions of parked cars with broken windows, dark alleyways and a possible killer moving away from a crime scene. The setting and the atmosphere of these reenactments are threatening and the directors often use cinematic shock in order to increase the thrill of these scenes. The director can achieve cinematic shock by, for example, rapidly raising the volume during the reenactment or by a sudden change of a shot (Hanich 127). On several occasions actual crime photographs are shown in order to sensationalize the episode and to increase the sense of reality. “The emphasis always has to be on dramatic reconstruction and the major objective is to produce gripping entertainment” (Kilborn and Izod 160).

The entire documentary deals with Berkowitz’s demons, paranoia and his fixation on the barking of Sam Carr’s dog. The commentator says: “In his tormented mind the barking of the dogs became unbearable. The demons inside David Berkowitz were driving him to hunt the dark streets of New York City in search of a woman to kill – only that would free him from his torment”. Words such as monster, animal, evil and demons keep resurfacing throughout the episode. Only at the end of the episode is it mentioned that Berkowitz had recanted his statement and confessed to lying about hearing voices and acting on the command of his neighbor’s dog. Why, then, does the entire episode still focus on Berkowitz’s concocted story? Since Berkowitz had confessed to faking insanity in 1979 and the episode aired in 1998, the directors had plenty of time to create an episode that would examine Berkowitz’s true motivations behind his crimes. However, they explicitly choose not to, because, as mentioned before, “his story satisfied [the public’s] wildest fantasies” (Abrahamsen viii).

Conclusion

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Chapter 3: Ted Bundy

Ann Rule, a former police officer and a crime writer, was working as a volunteer at the Crisis Clinic in Seattle in 1971 when she met the charming, young and ambitious Ted Bundy. Not only did they become colleagues, but they also became close friends, often working long nights together (Rule 26-27). At that time, Rule was a struggling crime writer working closely with law enforcement and when the first young woman disappeared in Washington she was asked to help with the investigation (Rule 53). As time passed and more girls went missing, she decided to write a crime book about the abductions and murders, but her story took a disturbing twist when the killer turned out to be her former colleague and friend Ted Bundy (Rule 175). In her book,

The Stranger Beside Me, she says that she never wanted to be a sensational writer, seeking out

the bloody details of the crimes and she is proud that she never became one (Rule 86). Rule’s book is a thorough account of Bundy’s life and will be used as a frame of reference in this chapter to which Bundy’s representation in two films will be compared.

Ted Bundy’s Upbringing and Early Life

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matter of weeks they were engaged, but by the end of 1973, Bundy turned cold towards her and bluntly dumped her a few days later. She was never to hear from him again. It had been all planned out; he had wanted to hurt and humiliate her just as she had humiliated him (Rule 22- 53). It is not suggested that Bundy’s upbringing and early life are in any way connected to him becoming a serial killer; this section merely provides background information on Bundy and his college life.

The Victims

Ted Bundy picked his victims thoroughly; looking at all the missing girls it can be stated with certainty that he had a particular type. All girls were Caucasian, young, beautiful and slender. They all “had long hair, parted in the middle” (Rule 91). Most of them had brown hair, but some of the girls were blondes. All women were smart, cautious and came from good families (Rule 91). “The victims were all prototypes of Stephanie. The same long hair, parted in the middle, the same perfectly even features” (Rule 485). The first and only woman he had ever desired had crushed his confidence and his soul and “he had to keep killing her over and over again” (Rule 486). Ted Bundy had a distinctive modus operandi: In almost all the cases the women had received blows to the head with a crowbar or with another heavy object. Subsequently, they were strangled, often with nylons, and in some cases raped and/or sodomized (Rule 132-133). Once he had dumped the bodies, he would revisit them, sometimes applying make-up to their faces and staying with them for hours. “He was a voyeur, rapist, killer and a necrophile” (Rule 618).

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for the media who pounced on the incredible disappearances it was something to headline” (Rule 104).

After the summer, the disappearances continued, this time in Utah and Colorado: Bundy had quit law school in Washington and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in September 1974 (Rule 119-122). During the course of the investigation several of the victim’s bodies were found in remote wooded areas, others had disappeared forever. Some remains raised more questions than answers: After an examination of several of the remains it became clear that only the victim’s heads had been dumped in these areas. No one knew what had happened to the rest of the bodies (Rule 157). Until this day, it is unknown how many victims Ted Bundy claimed.

Bundy’s Arrests and Escapes

Over time, Bundy’s girlfriend, Meg, grew suspicious of his behavior and decided to call the police; she filed a police report in December 1974 (Rule 135-136). The murders in Colorado stopped in August, because Bundy was arrested on August 16, 1975 for evading a police officer and for having burglary tools in his car. After his arrest, detectives came across the report filed my Meg and realized they may have caught the man who was responsible for the abduction of a girl in Utah who had managed to escape. Carol DaRonch was called to the police station to identify her assailant and she picked Ted Bundy out of a line-up. The detectives now believed he was also responsible for the other disappearances and murders in Utah, Washington and Colorado and they were working around the clock to uncover direct evidence that could be used against him in court (Rule 166-210).

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killing two of them. On February 9, before Bundy was captured for the last time, he drove a stolen van to Lake City where he abducted and killed a 12-year-old girl (Rule 315-353).

Ted Bundy was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle on February 14 while he was trying to flee the state. At that point, the police did not know who they had arrested and only after several days did they realize that Ted Bundy was an escaped prisoner from Colorado (Rule 362-369). He was interrogated for hours, but he kept proclaiming his innocence. Eventually, he was charged with the three murders he had committed in Florida and was found guilty and sentenced to death in two trials (one for the murders and the assaults of the sorority sisters and the other for the murder of the 12-year-old girl). After countless appeals, the execution date was set on January 24, 1989 (Rule 582).

Ted Bundy in Popular Culture

Numerous films were made about this prolific serial killer, including Ted Bundy (2002), The

Stranger Beside Me (2003), based on Ann Rule’s book and Bundy: An American Icon (2008). In

1986, a popular television miniseries aired called The Deliberate Stranger (IMDb). The movie

Riverman from 2004 focuses on two serial killers; Ted Bundy and the Green River killer. Lesser

known Ted Bundy movies are: Mass Murder (2002) and The Horror Fault (2008). He also appears in several documentaries including Conversations with a Serial Killer (2008), The Serial

Killers (1995) and Biography (1987) (IMDb). Even on death row, numerous interviews were

conducted for documentaries, magazines, newspapers and books. Throughout the years, Ted Bundy is still considered to be “the celebrity serial killer” (Rule 530). “Hannibal Lecter’s character was a composite of various real serial killers: Part Ted Bundy, part Ed Kemper, while Harris himself told that he got the idea of Lecter from a little known serial killer called William Coyner” (Gregoriou 2). Ted Bundy served as an inspiration for many other fictional serial killers including Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

The Deliberate Stranger (1986)

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was as strong as ever and Mark Harmon [who played Ted Bundy] was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance” (Roberts 86).

The miniseries are over three hours long and make good use of that time; all the major points of Bundy’s life are portrayed thoroughly and with a careful eye for detail. The story begins halfway through the Washington murders with the abduction of Georgeann Hawkins, who disappeared after leaving her boyfriend’s house and walking the 90 feet to her sorority house through a dark alley (Rule 80). The setting is dark and ominous and the actual abduction or the killer are never shown, only his shadow; it is a scene of suggested horror and the audience is left to imagine what the director purposely left out. As mentioned in the introduction, suggested horror scenes can sometimes be more thrilling and captivating than direct horror scenes (Hanich 109).

The content of the series strictly sticks to the known facts and pays close attention to the chronology of the events. First, the viewer learns about Bundy’s life in Washington; besides being a psychology major he has a political job as an assistant of the chairman. He also spends a great amount of time with his girlfriend Cas and her daughter. The Lake Sammamish State Park abductions are also elaborately portrayed and this is when the audience learns how he lures the victims to his car. The abduction of Carol DaRonch in Utah (Susan in the movie), is also depicted in accordance with the truth. His arrests, his escapes and the time he spent in Tallahassee are also dealt with elaborately. The movie also attaches great importance to the portrayal of the correct dates of the abductions and the murders. However, not all disappearances and murders are depicted for the simple reason that there were simply too many of them. The Florida trial is also not thoroughly discussed, although at the end of the movie it is said that Ted Bundy was sentenced to death in two different trials and that he petitioned for a review of his convictions. Additionally, Bundy’s upbringing and the time before he started killing are not portrayed; if the director had touched upon Bundy’s past, the depiction of this serial killer would have been complete. However, it should be noted that the facts that were included in the series are portrayed in accordance with the reality. In the movie, Bundy is depicted as a functioning human being who attends college, has a job and a steady relationship and not as a barely human monster.

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fledgling lawyer and politician, and the other, a charming schemer, a man who could manipulate women with ease, whether it be sex or money he desired” (Rule 205). The third Bundy was a man who had deep-seated hatred for women and everything they represented (Rule 205). Throughout the movie there is a perfect balance between the three personalities and the viewers see how he attempts to deal with all three of them. After watching The Deliberate Stranger Ann Rule commented on the portrayal of Ted Bundy who was played by Mark Harmon:

Harmon was a good choice, but he played Ted Bundy as confident from the beginning, as a young Kennedy clone. ... He could not have known that Ted Bundy had begun his twenties as the man I knew, the socially inept man, the man who felt he did not fit into a world of wealth and success. It was the latter-day infamous Ted who was smooth and charismatic. (546-547)

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36 Ted Bundy (2002)

Ted Bundy, produced by Matthew Bright, mainly focuses on the abductions and killings that

were committed by Bundy. According to a review in The New York Times, even for a serial killer movie it is “still disturbingly superficial in its approach to the material” (Kehr). Bright scrambled bits and pieces of Bundy’s life and attempted, somewhat unsuccessfully, to make a coherent story out of it; the movie is merely a succession of graphically filmed abductions, tortures and killings (Kehr). These scenes depict the horror in the most direct manner possible, which is used to shock, repulse and horrify the audience. “The viewer experiences direct horror as a frightening, engrossing and potentially overwhelming confrontation with vivid sound-supported moving images of threatening acts of violence or a dangerous monster” (Hanich 82). Thus, the movie consists of a sequence of extremely explicit scenes and does not provide the audience with any nuance on Ted Bundy – he is depicted as a monster that is programmed to kill over and over again (Simpson, Psychopaths, 14). Moreover, the last 20 minutes of the movie show how he is prepared for the execution; the only goal of these scenes is to shock the audience.

Ted Bundy, who is played by Michael Reilly Burke, bluntly approaches and attacks women every chance he gets. In one of the scenes, he attacks a girl in the middle of the street and as she starts screaming he snatches her purse and runs away. As he jumps back into his car he starts cursing and hitting the steering wheel; it is clear that he is acting on his emotions instead of being meticulous and methodical as Ted Bundy was. Bundy’s attacks were always carefully thought out and he approached women without attracting attention; the women he approached did not perceive him as a threat and came with him willingly.

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about Bundy and is merely used to shock the audience. Moreover, in one of the scenes where Bundy is still in the Colorado jail he proclaims: “They are asking for the death penalty”. In reality, he was facing life in prison for the murder of Caryn Campbell. He received the death penalty in Florida after killing two sorority girls and a 12-year-old girl. These kinds of inconsistencies, unnoticed by people who are not familiar with the Bundy case, keep reappearing throughout the narrative. This makes the movie less reliable and provides the public with incorrect and incomplete information.

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raped corpses” (Atkinson). The main goal of the movie is to be as vulgar and disturbing as possible and while Rule’s book deals with the facts and tells Bundy’s life story, the movie only depicts and sensationalizes the most heinous pieces of a much larger puzzle. “In the end, Ted

Bundy's only justification is the director's common, but unexplored fascination with the

frustrated maniac; there is no larger point and little social context” (Atkinson).

Conclusion

Until this day, Ted Bundy is considered to be a celebrity amongst serial killers and during the Florida trial he had attracted quite a fan base: Every day the court was filled with girls and young women who adored him (Rule 430-431). He plays an important part in American popular culture with characters such as Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill based on his personality and his crimes.

The miniseries The Deliberate Stranger thoroughly lays out Ted Bundy’s life, not only paying attention to the abductions and the murders, but also to his everyday life in Washington and Utah. However, even though the movie does not sensationalize Bundy’s crimes, Mark Harmon’s performance in the series definitely glamorizes Bundy and his appearance. In the movie he is depicted as a true gentleman; handsome, sophisticated and smart. The second Ted Bundy movie solely focuses on the most gruesome details of Bundy’s case and simply depicts him as a “cold-blooded and senseless killer” (Hickey 3).

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39 Conclusion

“Serial killers comprise less than one percent of all murders committed in any given year. However, there is a macabre interest in the topic that far exceeds its scope and has generated countless articles, books and movies” (Morton, par. 1). This thesis has argued that serial killers are often misrepresented and sensationalized in American movies, series and documentaries. To support this statement, the portrayal of three American prolific serial killers (the Zodiac killer, David Berkowitz and Ted Bundy) was analyzed in American popular culture. The focus of the analysis was mainly on the serial killer movie genre and the depiction of these killers within this genre. During the examination of the films, close attention was paid to the narrative structure, the setting and the depiction of different horror scenes. Three biographical nonfiction books were used as a framework in this thesis and the writers’ accounts and findings were compared to the representation of the three serial killers in American popular culture.

The two movies about the Zodiac killer portrayed him as a monster and a deviant who randomly attacked men, women and children. In reality, however, Zodiac’s attacks were always meticulously planned and executed; he left no evidence and the witnesses that saw him were never able to positively identify him. David Berkowitz is represented in the movie and the documentary as a paranoid schizophrenic who follows the commands of a demonically possessed dog. Even though he had admitted to lying about hearing voices shortly after the murders in 1979, he is still represented as an insane individual in American popular culture. The only sophisticated portrayal of a serial killer came from the miniseries about Ted Bundy: The

Deliberate Stranger. These miniseries took the time and effort to represent Bundy, not as a

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