Roaring trade in serial killer mementos
Monday, August 8, 2005 at 07:37 JST
LOS ANGELES For sale: Hairs from the head of Charles Manson $100,
boasts an online ad, offering a prurient peek at a roaring U.S. trade in
"murderabilia," items linked to history's grisliest killers.
The growing business of peddling murder memorabilia came to light after
a U.S. judge last month ordered that prosecutors sell personal items
belonging to the "Unabomber," Ted Kaczynski, to the highest bidders to
help pay off the $15 million in restitution he was ordered to pay his
victims.
Among the memorabilia, once owned by the man who killed three people and
wounded 23 with 16 parcel bombs he sent during his 18-year reign of
terror, were dental braces, shoes, a typewriter and rambling letters.
Items from the court-ordered sale are likely to quickly find their way
into the hands of collectors fascinated by some of the most horrifying
crimes in modern history and ready to pay big bucks to get hold of them.
"I'm a collector and I wanted to see what other collectors had," said
Tod Bohannon, 28, telling how he ended up launching the website on which
items including letter s written by cult leader Manson are offered for
sale.
Around 800 murder souvenirs are offered for sale on "murderauction.com",
the website started and run by 28-year-old Bohannon, a manager of a
logistics company in the southeastern state of Georgia.
Bohannon quickly realised there was a huge market for the ghoulish items
which he said were obtained from inmates, their families and friends.
"People are interested in murder, otherwise we wouldn't have CSI" he
said, referring to the U.S. television crime show "Crime Scene
Investion." "But it's like a taboo, like when people take a sneak peek
to a car crash when they drive on the freeway," he said.
Half a dozen "murderabilia" websites have sprung up since online
auctioneer eBay stopped selling such items following complaints from
victims' families.
The star of Bohannon's site is a painting by John Wayne Gacy, a suburban
U.S. building contractor and family man who killed 33 men and boys in
the 1970s and was executed in 1994. The painting sold for $10,000.
But Manson, head of a "family" of disciples convicted of involvement in
the August 1969 killings of seven people, including movie star Sharon
Tate, in Los Angeles remains a murder memorabilia favorite.
A sketch signed by the bearded Manson, who is serving a life sentence in
a California jail, is being offered for sale on the website
"supernaught.com" for a whopping $800.
Also up for grabs is a copy of a Polaroid photograph of Manson with
several of his hairs attached to it for $100, while a letter signed by
him is priced at $300.
"These websites are upsetting, especially when you're used to working
with victims' relatives," fumed Terry Thornton, of the California
Department of Corrections.
"I don't think criminals should be allowed to take advantage of their
crimes," conceding that prisoners can write letters, and while they are
not allowed to have bank accounts, they can open trust accounts that can
be used to receive the proceeds if the sale of their "works."
Since 2001, four states, including California, have adopted laws barring
convicted criminals from benefiting from their notoriety.
"As a crime's victim's relative there's nothing worse than seeing
criminals taking financial advantage of the fame they got in killing
your loved ones," said Andy Kahan, Director of the Mayors Crime Victim
Assistance Division in the Texas city of Houston of the trade he
dismissed as "immoral."
But the items belonging to "Unabomber" Kaczynski, who was arrested in
1996, are not affected by such laws as proceeds from that sale will
benefit the victims and their families.
While such commerce in items linked to some of the most horrifying
crimes of our times is chilling, it is also inevitable, said Robert
Thompson, head of the Institute for Television and Popular Culture at
New York state's Syracuse University.
"First of all you would say it's creepy, but it's logical," he said. "In
our society, there's an obsession of celebrity stuff, just like the old
days when Elvis wiped his sweat and threw towels to the audience."
The vendors of "murderabilia" are meanwhile pursuing their quest to find
the Holy Grail of violent death. For Bohannon, that is items that once
belonged to killer Gari Heidnik.
"He abducted women, had a torture chamber and he killed two of them.
Items linked to him are really scarce and sought after," he said. (Wire
reports)
--
PAUL EDWARD ZUKOWSKI "PEZ"
AS Eastern Conn State Univ. 1992 BA Trinity College 1996
PEZMANS WORLD at http://pez63.freeyellow.com
CLEO of ALPHA CHI at http://www.cleoax.org/
See me at http://www.allexperts.com/displayExpert.asp?Expert=33682
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