Are there still serial killers today?

[frogswimming]

I'm just watching the Yorkshire ripper documentary. All the famous serial killers seem to be 1960s-1980s, Dennis Nielsen, moors murderers, Ted bundy, zodiac. Are modern ones just not publicised the same?

Birmingham’s got a gay quarter near the canals, how many young men drown there?

Dunno. Big o can tell you of cities in three other countries that have their own pusher rumors.

*but I

@notafanoftheman

if you were going to do that would you not chose a less traumatic end for your spouse

Not necessarily. Dementia / elder spousal abuse can include high levels of violence.

😲. Maybe this is why single women live longer.

Yes absolutely there are
Crossbow cannibal in Bradford
Steve Wright in Suffolk
Levi belfield
There was Steven Port recently

Most are mostly caught after a few heinous crimes now so not to the level of the wests, Sutcliffe etc but they are out there sadly

@Fluffycloudland77

There’s probably more than you’d think. There’s a road in Canada where indigenous Canadian girls hitch hike into town & loads have gone missing and no arrests.

The Highway of Tears

It’s so sad

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Tears

Levi Bellfield is genuinely terrifying. Like the Criminal Minds type.

Also this in Canada
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon_freezing_deaths

There is a good podcast about it, seems the police are in on it too in Canada, up in Manitoba
Canada is quite sinister when you dig deep

@Nikhedonia

Levi Bellfield is genuinely terrifying. Like the Criminal Minds type.

He’s a vile piece of scum One of a few prisoners to get a whole of life sentence

@MissDollyMix

I wonder what role the internet has to play in satiating the sick and twisted minds of would-be killers. It may be that those who would previously have stalked the streets looking for real life victims, now do so online.

And people with any sort of sexual desire that deviates from man and woman in a bed can find something and often someone to scratch their itch online. That’s not to say for a single second that people who enjoy anything other that opposite sex vanilla sex are serial killers you understand.

@Bairnsmum05

PeterTobin springs to mind. I dread to think how many more women he would have killed if not caught. There were several women killed in Glasgow on the 90s I'm sure, alll working as prostitutes. Unsure if they think it's the work of one person though.

There's no way Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol were his first victims. He absolutely had killed before for decades. But you're right, he would have carried on. Both him and Angus Sinclair.

It’s a fascinating question. Do we maybe pick up on “weird” characteristics in children earlier, and treat them differently? Would things like hurting animals or other children be picked up on earlier these days?
Agree, also, fewer “unwanted” children as there is less societal compulsion to keep unwanted pregnancies.
Better parenting? Fewer violent fathers using harsh punishments on their sons? People are happier to come forward now and tell people about child abuse that they’re suffering?
It’s a really interesting question; are there fewer serial killers, do we stop them earlier, do we prevent them ever taking the first step?

@grassisjeweled

Was going to say the Manchester Pusher and the fella killing old couples up North.

Sorry for being vague

Was just about to post this.

Are you talking the deaths of the elderly couples around greater Manchester?

There was James Fairweather who committed two murders in Colchester in 2014. He was caught the next year while looking for his third victim.

There's probably 2-3 serial killers currently active in the UK at any one time. They just haven't been caught yet.

A lot of killers choose victims who nobody cares about, so... homeless people, asylum seekers, prostitutes, drug users and young people who've been involved in the care system are 'easy' targets, as nobody notices they're not 'there' anymore. And, even if somebody does report somebody from such a 'group' as missing, police do not generally waste too much time trying to locate them.

According to 'The Independent' (2017), 270,000 people go missing in the UK each year. According to 'Missing People' (2016) that figure is 180,000.

A good proportion of those people are either 'wanted' people, such as criminals, or 'illegal immigrants/asylum seekers without status': and they simply 'disappear' into kebab shops, sweatshops, cash-in-hand jobs, use a new name, stay under the radar.

But what happens to the rest of them?

Nobody knows. And, as most of them are 'just' drifters and junkies, nobody really cares.

@Thehogfatherstolemycurry

Also this thread has reminded me how much I miss Criminal Minds

Me too

I think as previous posters said the USA have the most due to the size. . easier to kidnap/kill, get rid of body and avoid being caught.

Bruce McArthur - bumping off men in the Toronto gay scene and hiding the bodies using his residential landscaping/ gardening business. Canada has a whole bunch of psychos.

I find this obsession with serial killers and crime, fuelled by salacious documentaries really unpleasant.

@Frenchdressing
Women who educate themselves about how men are trying to kill them, it might be unpleasant but unfortunately necessary.

I doubt all women are simply educating themselves. I don’t just mean this thread. I mean the endless stream of true crime programmes that are churned out. People that eat up serial killer books, those who say ‘ooh I love a true crime doc’. This isn’t education it is Crime as entertainment Are men not watching these documentaries too? I expect so.

@Frenchdressing

I find this obsession with serial killers and crime, fuelled by salacious documentaries really unpleasant.

And yet you clicked on the thread and read it.

Agree that some are salacious but some are an attempt to understand the pathology, pychology, sociology or history. One of the recent docs about Yorkshire was a study of mysogyny in society and the police at the time. It is often women who are most interested in knowing about crime and who write crime fiction and the possible reasons for this are well discussed. I mean, people study this stuff at university don't they?

It's like anything really. You have to apply your critical thinking

Yes I clicked on it to say what I said.

I’ve worked for over 20 years in a related field. Bit weary of ‘oooh your job must be so interesting’. Generally it’s grim and depressing yet Netflix keeps churning out true crime documentaries and people love them. I just wish people would ask themselves why?

I am sure there are some people who have virtuous reasons for their interest but it’s rather naive to think a large proportion don’t have a salacious interest. Or else how is there such a huge market in crime as entertainment.

I love it when they solve cold cases because they do a dna sample on someone they’ve arrested and it links them to either a crime they committed or to a relative who has committed a crime decades ago.

Levels of incest in those dna tests was nearly twice as high as police records suggested too. There’s a family on my road where you would not be surprised if the dad was also the grandfather. There’s something not right about them.

I saw a statistic that said one in a million!