Chris's Crime Forum

One thing I like about living near Chapel Hill, which is the home of UNC, is getting to meet so many well educated people who are willing to share their knowledge.

One such person was a visiting professor from Germany, who gave a lecture on the theory that serial killers have an unknown mental illness. Throughout human history, up to today, people have had a hard time understanding mental illness. For a long time people believed it was due to evil spirits that caused certain people to behave as they do. It is regrettable that scientists have lost the opportunity to study the brain of Jeffrey Dahmer, due to a court decision. (His mother was opposed to it.)

I was lucky enough to engage this man in conversation. I mentioned that I am a fan of Bram Stoker, the author of 'Dracula.' This man then proceeded to impress me with his knowlege of Slavic Folklore, and told me something I'll always remember. (Although I have already forgotten the man's name.)

In some eastern European country (probably Romania) villagers found a badly mutilated corpse of one of their neighbors. It was absolutely inconceivible to the villagers that a human being could do this to another human being. People of reasonable mental health could never understand such behavior, and so they reasoned it must have been some kind of animal. But what kind of animal kills for reasons other than food? The body was torn up, but it was not eaten.

No doubt, the killer continued to live among the villagers, as all outward appearances showed him to be just as human as the rest of them. As the killings continued, people came to believe there was a werewolf. As often happens in human history, people find supernatural causes to explain what they don't understand.

This man believes that serial killers have been around for a long time, but it wasn't until more recently that we have become more aware of them.

So are werewolves really serial killers? It makes sense to me. As for vampires? Well, that's another story.

And now for something funny.

We have all been reading and writing about such terrible crimes. Perhaps some comic relief is in order.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the spirit of the Halloween season, please allow me to present...

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30832