About this blog. About notorious killers.

About the author:

Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Barbora, but everyone calls me 'B'. Three years ago I moved away from a small town in the Czech Republic and started studying at the University of Essex. You might ask why I wanted to study in England, well... Long story short, once upon a time I visited Brighton and fell in love with this amazing city. Ever since I dreamt about moving to Brighton and living the best life. But, of course, our plans do not always work out the way we would like them to. So instead of getting into university in Brighton, I got accepted to the University of Essex. And to be honest, probably the best "failed" plan, which could possibly happen. That brings us back to today when I am starting to write this blog about notorious killers as a part of my criminology studies. 

About the topic:  

Why would anyone want to write or read about notorious killers? Don't act surprised, we all do.  

Criminologist Scott Bonn explains this fascination: "The euphoric effect of serial killers on human emotions is similar to that of roller coasters or natural disasters." There is even an entire network, the Investigation Discovery, devoted to crime documentaries, mostly focused on killers and murderers. Netflix is full of series such as Making a Murderer  (IMDB: 8,7; Roten Tomatoes: 84%) or The Staircase (IMDB: 8; Roten Tomatoes: 93%). There are many books, news articles and academic writings about notorious killers. Moreover, crime dramas based purely on fiction became widely popular commerce since the 1970s. There is a tremendous amount of crime investigation series on television, such as Bones (IMDB: 7,9), the CSI including CSI Miami, CSI Las Vegas, CSI New York (IMDB: 7,7), Criminal Minds (IMDB: 8,1) and many others. Movies such as Zodiac, Sweeney Todd, Cannibal, Freddy vs. Jason or Saw are all fictions about psychopathic serial killers, and yet all very popular. 

Why are we so obsessed with murders? I explain my fascination as a curiosity. My fascination stems from the desire to understand. To understand how does someone become a murderer? How come that serial murderers usually kill over a period of time without being caught? Are they just evil people or is there some sociological, psychological or biological explanation? Why do we always hear just about male killers? Are there female killers? Maybe they are just better at killing? .. Many more questions pop out in my head. I really like the way Scott Bonn explains our fascination in his article in Psychology Today: "The total disregard for life and the suffering of others exhibited by serial killers shocks our sense of humanity and makes us question our safety and security. I believe that we try to humanize the serial killer to make him less scary but we also try to dehumanize him to create a moral boundary between good and evil."

About the blog:

So, now that we established, why are we here, reading about serial killers. I would love to consider this blog as an encyclopedia of killer fascination. Each post will tell a short story about a serial killer and movies, books, musicals made about them (hopefully all, however, we are so obsessed with killers, that stating every piece of art made about them might as well be impossible!). 

If you read up till now, I applause you. Now make yourself a cup of tea and read about notorious killers...