Murderabilia, also known as murderbilia is a term identifying collectibles related to murders, homicides, the perpetrators or other violent crimes. The term, a portmanteau of murder and memorabilia, was coined by Andy Kahan, director [1] of the Houston Police Department's Crime Victims Office. [2] [3]
Buyers typically seek collectibles that are either artifacts used or owned by murderers or items (often artwork) created by them.
Virtually anything once owned or created by mass murderers or serial killers can be marketed, such as vehicles, artwork and weapons used in crimes. Clothing is also in high demand, [4] particularly clothes worn during crimes themselves.
In 2007, Wayne Lo, the convicted perpetrator of the 1992 Bard College at Simon's Rock shooting, caused controversy after it was found that he was selling his artwork on a website. [5]
In June 2011, the United States Government auctioned off personal items which belonged to Ted Kaczynski which were found in his Montana cabin upon his capture in 1996. [6] The auction took place entirely online. The proceeds went to victims and victims' families of Kaczynski's crimes. [7]
In 2005, serial killer Alfred Gaynor's artwork was sold online in Massachusetts. State lawmakers proposed to block the activity, setting off a debate on free speech rights of prisoners. [8]
Andy Kahan, director of the Houston-based Mayor's Crime Victims Office, has lobbied strongly against the sale of murderabilia material. In May 2001, eBay banned the sale of murderabilia items. The sale of such items was banned in five states: Texas, California, New Jersey, Michigan and Utah. [9] In 2010, Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota teamed up to introduce a bill in Congress that would have outlawed the sale of murderabilia on the federal level. The bill was called the "Stop the Sale of Murderabilia to Protect the Dignity of Crime Victims Act of 2010," and came after several individual fights over the issue. [10] The bill died in committee. [11]
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two.
A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders in a short time, often in multiple locations. There are different opinions about what durations of time a killing spree may take place in. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics has spoken of "almost no time break between murders", but some academics consider that a killing spree may last weeks or months, e.g. the case of Andrew Cunanan, who murdered five people over three months.
The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history and has become both a fixture of popular culture and a focus for efforts by amateur detectives.
Harold Schechter is an American true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He is a Professor Emeritus at Queens College, City University of New York where he taught classes in American literature and myth criticism for forty-two years. Schechter's essays have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and the International Herald Tribune. He is the editor of the Library of America volume, True Crime: An American Anthology. His newest book, published in September 2023, is Murderabilia: A History of Crime in 100 Objects.
A Son of Sam law is a law designed to keep criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, for instance by selling their stories to publishers. Such laws often authorize the state to seize money earned from deals such as book/film biographies and paid interviews and use it to compensate the criminal's victims.
Bible John is an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Nazi memorabilia are items produced during the height of Nazism in Germany, particularly the years between 1933 and 1945. Nazi memorabilia includes a variety of objects from the material culture of Nazi Germany, especially those featuring swastikas and other Nazi symbolism and imagery or connected to Nazi propaganda. Examples are military and paramilitary uniforms, insignia, coins and banknotes, medals, flags, daggers, guns, posters, contemporary photos, books, publications, and ephemera.
A lovers' lane is a secluded area where people kiss, make out, or engage in sexual activity. These areas range from parking lots in secluded rural areas to places with extraordinary views of a cityscape or other features. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the phrase "lovers' lane" from 1853.
Robert Christian Boes Hansen, popularly known as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer active in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1972 and 1983. Hansen abducted, raped and murdered at least seventeen women, many of whom he may have hunted in the wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a Hunting Knife. Hansen was captured in 1983 and sentenced to 461 years' imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He died in 2014 of natural causes at age 75.
Altemio C. Sanchez, also known as the Bike Path Rapist, was a Puerto Rican serial killer who is known to have raped and murdered at least three women, and raped at least 9 to 15 girls and women in and around Buffalo, New York, during a 31-year span from 1975, though perhaps earlier, to 2006. He was apprehended in 2007 through DNA evidence and sentenced to 75 years-to-life, serving 16 years before dying from apparent suicide in 2023.
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle.
Internet homicide, also called internet assassination, refers to killing in which victim and perpetrator met online, in some cases having known each other previously only through the Internet. Also Internet killer is an appellation found in media reports for a person who broadcasts the crime of murder online or who murders a victim met through the Internet. Depending on the venue used, other terms used in the media are Internet chat room killer, Craigslist killer, Facebook serial killer. Internet homicide can also be part of an Internet suicide pact or consensual homicide. Some commentators believe that reports on these homicides have overemphasized their connection to the Internet.
Anthony Edward Sowell was an American serial killer and rapist known as The Cleveland Strangler or The Imperial Avenue Murderer. He was convicted in 2011 of murdering 11 women whose bodies were discovered at his Cleveland, Ohio, home in 2009. After being sentenced to death for the murders, Sowell died in prison from a terminal illness.
Serial Killers Ink is a website dedicated to selling "murderabilia" and serial killer art, interviewing convicted serial killers and also serves as a meeting place for those interested or involved in the murderabilia industry.
David Groves, better known by his birth name Patrick David Mackay, is a British serial killer who is believed to be one of the United Kingdom's most prolific serial murderers.
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons over a certain period of time.
Francisco Antonio Laureana was a young Argentine killed by the Buenos Aires police, who believed him to be a rapist and serial killer called The Satyr of San Isidro, who for a period of six months - from 1974 and 1975 - raped women, of whom he murdered 13. He killed most of his victims on Wednesdays and Thursdays near 6:00 P.M.
The Łódź Gay Murderer is an unidentified Polish serial killer who operated in Łódź from 1988 to 1993. He murdered seven men, all of them homosexuals.
Alfred J. Gaynor is an American serial killer and rapist who committed a series of nine murders in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts from 1995 to 1998. For these crimes, Gaynor was subsequently given four sentences of life imprisonment without parole.