Sadie
Bluelight Crew
It's always gonna be Jack the Ripper for me. I get so drawn in.
I'm more interested in cults than serial killers, but one where there's some overlap that I have a lot of interest in is Jim Jones and the Johnstown massacre.
It bugs me a lot that the public consciousness often imagines it as a mass suicide, which is total crap. Jones might not have been a serial killer in that apart from not conforming to the established conventions of what defines a serial killer, his murders were all at once rather than in series, but virtually all of them ARE murders and not suicides.
Almost none of them killed themselves per se, but they did contribute in creating an environment where the murders could take place. It's understandable in a human nature kind of way when you consider cult susceptible personalities, but still, Jones and his most immediate few followers bare the responsibility for the deaths of the near thousand other people who died.
It fascinates me how susceptible the human mind is to coercion. And Jones himself is certainly fascinating putting aside the horrible crimes he's responsible for.
Manson of course is another one that straddles the serial killer cult line.
absolutely, i hate it when people call that a mass suicide, because you're right - it was a massacre. several massacres. bloody horrible.
i don't like serial killer stuff at all, but i do find manson really interesting, with his links to so many incredible musicians and stuff.
his music really is quite fascinating, and i have to admit i kinda like the demo he cut before he went back to jail.
read some interesting stories since his death, and theories about what was really going on with the manson family.
besides charlie being a pimp, it seems like they maybe were hired killers. some speculation the cops let them get away with a fair bit, because they thought charlie was going to attack the black panthers or something. at least, that's one article.
very fucked up, but fascinating. also scientology and possible mk ultra links.
the beach boys recorded manson's songs, neil young raved about him in interviews (before the murders), dennis hopper, all kinds of people were apparently charmed and impressed by charles manson.
The government doesn't need MK ultra science fiction style mind control. You can control people just find simply by exploiting the flaws in most people's reasoning skills.