Why Are We So Obsessed With Murderers?

 by Claudia Bishop

Last year in England and Wales around 600 people were murdered. Whilst murderers make up such a small percentage of all offenders, they tend to take up a disproportionate amount of media attention. Infamous murderers such as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are key examples of this. Despite making up such a small part of the population (it is estimated that only 1% of murderers repeat their killings.), Serial killers have a notoriety for big “fan bases” and obsessed fans.

For example, Ted Bundy created a lot of media attention for himself during his life. This led to a lot of viewers of his actions hating him. This was shown as when he reached death row and his date grew closer, crowds accumulated to celebrate his death date. Signs were made to show peoples anger towards Ted saying, “Burn Bundy Burn.”. This outrage is very justified due to the countless women Bundy has murdered and raped including a 12-year-old girl.

 It is this information in mind that makes the “Ted Bundy Fandom” so shocking. Throughout his time on death row, Ted Bundy accumulated a lot of following from “fans”. Interviews of the public at the time were laced with young girls gushing over Ted’s looks and hoping he was innocent. It is commonly known that Ted had a charismatic personality which often attracted his victims to him. Carol Ann Boone is the most well-known woman in this category, during the trials she moved to Washington State to be closer to Bundy and eventually married him.

In 2019 this was prevalent when the film “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” was released, with Ted Bundy being portrayed by Zac Effron. This romanticised Ted’s character, only making the fanbase stronger.

So why does this happen? Isenburg, an interviewer who studies women in love with incarcerated males made this conclusion that the women involved “have a deep need to love someone with whom they can’t enjoy an easy, comfortable relationship. I would assume that the challenges of a difficult relationship may be more exciting to some people. The obstacles might make it more thrilling.”. Relationship dynamics like this have been developed from a young age. As a young girl grows up she is often told that if a boy pushes her or is mean to her it implies that he likes her as is often the case with children who are coming to terms with relationships and how to act in them. As this develops over time it normalises violent actions being synonymous with liking someone. This could be why the domestic abuse rate is so high. It is human nature to hope that people like you despite how they act as we all hope to feel validation. This is very clear in this strange phenomenon.

Evolution may be used to explain this, as women historically have sought after a male who will protect them from harm. In this sense brutality has been confused with masculinity and hence women find an obsession in this.

Overall, this is a strange trend and one that can be justified with psychological explanations.