GOLDEN AGE OF SERIAL KILLERS - PART 2
Last week in Part 1, we explored some fundamental circumstances surrounding the extremely
unique time and space that is, what we now call, “The Golden Age of Serial Killers”… The
collision course of the post-world war 2 era and the distracting Pollyanna image that America
was so desperate to portray, along with dark, deeply guarded secrets lurking within families
was only the beginning of a nightmare we wouldn’t wake from for 30 years.
What we will see as we play host to the many guests this evening, is that there is an undeniable
commonality between the vast majority.
Its unfortunate that what America projected was not the reality of the times… On the surface, a
perfect family – mom with her coiffed hair wearing a charming dress, making dinner in her
heels … Dad coming home at a predictable hour every day, because he was a good provider and
the company he worked for still cared about its people… Conversation at the dinner table about
how everyone’s day went and a recap of schoolwork or, the occasional ever-valuable lesson
learned from an “Awe Shucks” kind of mistake that little Johnny made.
Whenever I look back to this period in America, while most of these upcoming Serial Killers
were kids in the 1950’s and 1960’s I often do so through a nostalgic and ideological lens. But it
was anything but ideal for some …. and the afore mentioned dream we were sold, was about to
implode.
It was a contradiction in culture that could not stay dormant forever….and as we well know
violence begets violence and these wars shaped the minds of the soldiers who were in them –
some so young that they lied about their age in order to serve their country, only to grow up
themselves, amidst terror, atrocity and death. So much so that some of their sons would go on
to become vicious sadists, rapists and murderers.
There is no simple answer here and, we are not experts but its worth delving into the twisted
and often convoluted worlds to connect the dots as to why this Golden Age of Serial Killers
happened when and how it did…. As one of our favorite authors, Katherine Ramsland says, ‘it’s
more about the puzzle – the interesting labyrinth of human emotions and human motives’….
This is episode 37, PART 2 of Homicide Worldwide