America's Fascination with Serial Killers

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America’s Fascination with Serial Killers
Serial killing is one of the most debated crime topics in the United States of America (USA). Many individuals are enthralled and fascinated by serial killers. Some of the most-watched American crime documentaries on Netflix include Extremely Wicked and Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. The unfathomable actions of serial killing are appealing to the public since numerous people want to understand what causes and motivates individuals to engage in this type of crime. Humans always try to comprehend things or situations in the world, but serial killers attract more attention since they are perceived as monsters. Individuals conceptualize criminal acts based on what drives people to perform them, which might be caused by rage, jealousy, or fear. The majority of serial killers are mentally ill and do not understand how they commit murder or choose their victims. Some of the renowned serial killers in the USA are Ted Bundy, Edmund Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, and Richard Ramirez (Schmid). Serial killers are fascinating in the USA since individuals want to understand what motivates people to engage in such heinous actions without remorse.
Julie Beck argues that serial killers become fascinating in the American culture as individuals try to comprehend the darkest extremes of people’s behaviors that turn them into murderers. For example, Gacy was known as the Killer Clown. The individual used to wear a clown costume and entertained children. Gacy usually dressed normally when he knew that he was going to kill someone. His clown costumes are exhibited at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment (NMCP) alongside his black leather jacket. According to Rachael Penman, NMCP’s event and exhibit manager, the serial killer’s attire is preserved to show Gacy’s divided nature (Beck). Gacy was the best clown in entertaining children and one of the worst evils when killing his victims. Before his death, he had murdered thirty-three victims. Based on a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), about 1% of murders per year in the USA are committed by serial killers (Beck). As a result, the fascination of serial killers in the USA contributed to preserving Gacy’s attire so that he can be remembered in American history. 
Although stories about other types of crimes are aired in the news, they do not stick for a long time compared to serial killers. The public’s attention to serial killers is fascinating. American pop culture keeps referencing serial killers in almost all facets of life. For instance, when it comes to music, some artists refer to serial killers by names when they want to show violence or heinous crimes. The song Dark Horse by Katy Perry and Juicy J. says that “She’ll eat your heart out/like Jeffrey Dahmer” (Beck). In particular, Dahmer was well-known for cannibalizing the people he killed from 1978 to 1991. Dahmer was killed in 1994 while in prison. In that case, the serial killer is remembered even today, which is about two decades ago. Serial killers are part of the American culture, and their stories are fascinating to individuals who want to know how they think, select their victims, and murder them without remorse.
The interest in serial killers is interminable in the American culture. People are fascinated to read books and watch documentaries that reveal how celebrity serial killers murder their victims. Some public galleries display pictures of mutilation and injury, women in explicit positions of intimacy, skulls in different colors and configurations, and folkloric landscapes (Wyatt). These pieces of art are displayed since serial killers paint them after mutilating their victims. John Schwenk, an art collector who lives in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, keeps artifacts and artworks of serial killers. For instance, he has a portrait of the Killer Clown, and a skull drew by Richard Ramirez, “the Night Stalker” who murdered and sexually assaulted his victims between 1984 and 1985 in California (Bond). Schwenk says that he has many letters sent to him by serial killers before their death row. Some of them had a prison shirt, false teeth, and locks of hair. He makes it clear that he befriended some serial killers since his primary interest was knowing how someone becomes possessed or is motivated to murder numerous times. Schwenk admits that listening to some stories about how serial killers murder their victims is very scary. 
In American pop culture, morbid crime is a fasci...