Are US serial killers harder to catch?

[OldClothes]

Had a random creepy thought today that Peter Sutcliffe might have never have been caught if he had been committing his crimes in a remote part of America rather than (mostly) northern England.

This of course could apply more generally - logically, serial killers operating in big, empty areas (e.g. Wyoming) would be harder to catch than those in well-populated areas such as, for example, West Yorkshire or Greater Manchester. But, do the stats support this?

Dunno about stats, but the police forces aren't as joined up in data sharing as Britain, I'd wager. there's this whole scandal about police who commit abuses being fired and moving from one force to another because their bad personel records don't follow them.

@lljkk Scary! Makes me wonder how many major criminals are actually police who move about a lot.

I have seen a few programs both real and fictional that suggests all the different agencies are very territorial around whose case it is - particularly if state lines are crossed.

One of the very serious issues of 9/11 was a failure to adequately data share between CIA and FBI in the months beforehand.

Yeah that's interesting - another thing when you look at a lot of criminals in the US is that they can move over state lines and basically are hardly tracked. There was a famous one in one of the north states, possibly Seattle? But basically a guy was committing the same crimes in Seattle and Oregon and Idaho for instance and it wasn't picked up until he was caught by Seattle police and then the other police in other states were like "ahh yeah we've been trying to solve the same case!"

If you mean a Peter Sutcliffe type killing spree between 1975 and 1980, yes it would have been much harder to catch him in remote USA. Similar to the U.K. the surveillance technology didn’t exist then. DNA forensics didn’t start until 1980s, so it would not be likely any evidence could be tested. I know back then the individual States had separate crime databases, so a US Peter Sutcliffe could easily cross State borders and start over if things got a bit hot wherever he was. The FBI didn’t even pursue serial killers then, it wasn’t in their remit.

Today, I don’t think it would be any harder in the US vs the U.K.

Lovetogarden - interesting, you'd think neighbouring states would co-operate more, especially in the digital age.

@Discovereads Thanks for the info 👍

? They have for decades now. There’s a National Crime database and reporting system. The State police from different States always coordinate with each other and the city/local/tribal police…they prefer that to calling in the Feds (FBI), because they want the collar. There’s the N-DEx that any police from local, city, state, tribal or federal can access and everything is shared. Specialised crime units at the city or state level can also access the Interpol international criminal databases too.

I think just from a geographic pov it must be so much easier to hide a body in America than here.

I was thinking along these lines also.

Bumping - Any other thoughts ?

In recent years a few cold cases have been solved using genetic genealogy which is controversial but has resulted in some being killers being caught and victims being identified.

Agreed. But also to go into hiding as well. There are still some very rural and remote parts of the US where someone could very easily disappear if they wanted to.

American here, I think in the US there is just so much more violent crime that the police forces are overwhelmed in a way they aren’t here. I think we also have more serious crimes than most places so realistically a lot of them may go unsolved or unconnected to others. There are also huge gaps in mental health services unlike anything we would see here in the UK, so realistically probably more ‘serial killers’ per capita.

That said, in the parts of the US where I lived, there was definitely not the wilderness that I easily find on my doorstep here. A lot of it is suburban sprawl. It’s really only the quite remote areas, same as the UK, where you could legitimately hide a body and mist Americans live nowhere near these areas.

If they went completely off grid, yes. If they even have a cell phone…not a chance you can be found easily.

@mindutopia Thanks for your input. I suppose I was thinking in terms of people who either lived in really remote areas or travelled a lot. I'm intrigued that you're closer to the wilderness here.

It was the horrific incompetence of West Yorkshire police that allowed the Yorkshire Ripper to murder so many women. Their stubborn refusal to listen to the women and girls who had survived his attacked and gave very good descriptions of the same man with the black beard and the Yorkshire accent.
They refused to deviate from the Wearside Jack narrative. A young police constable approached a senior detective to point out that several women had given information which led straight to Sutcliffe but he was told to go away.
A very dark time for British policing

Wasn’t it Long Island where they reckon a serial killer has been operating for years? Men going missing after answering Reddit adverts, bodies been found buried. But it took ages for the police to say/realise there was a serial killer. Don’t think he’s been caught.

Just googled, it was women not men. But some of the remains are Jane Does. So I guess that’s more likely to be an issue in such a big country.

@Georgeskitchen It's before my time but it was a very odd business. Didn't they suspect a police officer had made the tapes?

There was a famous one in one of the north states, possibly Seattle?

There have been several, the most famous was probably Ted Bundy.

The Zodiac killer was in Northern California.
John Joubert was a serial killer in Maine
There was the New Bedford killer in Massachusetts that would kill women in service area toilets along the motorway.

I just read the U.S. FBI estimates that at any one time there are 30-50 active, not yet caught serial killers in the US

@Discovereads 30-50 😬

Law enforcement over there is really fragmented, and they seem to prefer getting into pissing contests over jurisdiction and don’t share information.

Municipal
County
State
Federal

Most colleges have their own police too.

Terrible miscarriages of justice occurred. Anthony Steel was falsely imprisoned for the murder of Carol Wilkinson who was almost definitely a victim of Peter Sutcliffe.

FYI the victims’ families have requested them at Sutcliffe is referred to by name not YR as it’s offensive reminder of how his victims died.