By John Wisniewski
I chose to loosely base my book, "To Hear Mozart", on the Leopold and Loeb case for several reasons. At the time, in the 1920's, the L&L case was the crime of the century. Of course, now, you have Manson, Jim Jones, Columbine, but the L&L case in it's time, was notable. It was a crime of passion, one of which was strange because of it's very nature- a Folie a Deux, "a madness shared by two." That term had not been seen much at that time. Leopold and Loeb were also having a homosexual relationship, which at the time was somewhat appauling. The psychology of the case is fascinating down to the little details; Bobby Franks hat, the acid used to disfigure his body, the horn rimmed glasses found at the site of the murder. The fact that neither Leopold or Loeb would ever admit to killing the Franks boy is intriguing. It is a case that will never be solved, all of the lawyers, judges, and Leopold and Loeb themselves long dead now.
I named my book "Serial Killer: The Human Being" because that was the point I was trying to convey throughout. I believe in humanity. If there are indeed "souls", even serial killers have them. Every person has the right to life, and that includes serial killers- people who cut off other people's heads, people who eat the tongues of their victims. Murder has been happening since the dawn of time, and will occur long after you and I will die. It's a fact of life and whether or not you lose a friend to murder or to natural causes- People will die. It's a circumstance, nothing more, nothing less. It's not cold-hearted or glib. It's a fact.
I believe the public likes to read and watch movies about serial killers because sex and violence draws a crowd. People are starved for it. Sex and violence sells; it's a fact. Perhaps people like to know that blasphemy and murder happens outside of their own lives and it makes them feel safer knowing it's happening somewhere else. As long as it's not happening in their homes, they are sated. Hannibal Lector is so popular because he is so abhorrent, so grotesque, we must see just how disgusting he is. How far can he push the barrier? How awful can he make us feel? We like to be afraid. We enjoy torture when it's happening to someone else. Perhaps some people relate to the Hannibal Lector character, feel empathy for him, and trust him.
The element of sex in the Leopold and Loeb case did in fact exist. Leopold and Loeb constructed a pact that whenever they committed a crime, they would have sex with each other, as a sort of twisted perversion. But did Leopold and Loeb have sex with Bobby Franks, the young boy they murdered? No. The coroners report stated that no sexual act had been performed.
I believe my first article, about Leopold and Loeb, was featured in the summer of 2009 if I'm not mistaken. Since then, I have contributed 40 other articles- and more to come. You are welcome to contact the owner of the mag at any time. I have regrettably never met a serial killer. The closest I got was the time I was trying to track down an interview with a cellmate and enemy of Diazen Hossenkopft, Albuquerque native. But as emails and blogs usually work, I may have been talking to a crazy person. Hossenkopft wasn't even a real serial killer. He was supposed to have murdered his wife Girly, but she just vanished. Diazen claimed that he scattered her body here in the Albuquerque desert. Her remains were never recovered.
It's difficult to say why these serial killers do what they do. What we have seen, case by case, is that the majority of them have grown up with mental and physical abusive households. A shocking amount of these killers have had frontal lobe damage, which can affect the way a person thinks. There is no impulse control, no right or wrong ideals, no "correct" judgement, etc. Henry Lee Lucas, Edmund Kemper, and Richard Ramirez are perfect examples of this. Can a serial killer be made? It's possible when you look at the three I've just listed. However, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer did not have troubled childhoods, and they are two of the most prolific serial killers in modern history. Sometimes a person is good, sometimes they are bad. It all depends. I tend to believe that early childhood trauma and frontal lobe damage is the reason serial killers exist, but no one will ever truly know.
There are many serial killer cases that fascinate me- but I'll try to limit my response. Leopold and Loeb were always interesting to me- any Folie a Deux is magnificent. The fact that one persons "craze" can be transferred to another is so interesting. Leopold and Loeb went to their graves with the secret of who actually killed Bobby Franks. That, is the mystery right there. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, Bonnie and Clyde, Pauline Parker and Juliette Hume- all of them are excellent examples of Folie a Deux's. But as far as serial killers go? The definition being "serial" as in many- not just one murder. Jeffrey Dahmer's case was very intriguing because I honestly believe that he was remorseful and felt badly for what he had done. He knew he was sick and he apologized for it. Albert De Salvo's case always seemed unsolved to me because of mental illness and lies, so I really don't know how to look at the Boston Strangler. Lizzie Borden, though only allegedly having killed her father and stepmother, is a good one as well. It certainly seemed on the surface that Lizzie did the deed, but upon closer inspection, it's hard to tell if she really did hack her parents to death.
Some of my upcoming projects are exclusive work with James Gilks with Serial Killer Magazine. I am currently interviewing Paul Von Stoetzel about his documentary "Snuff: A documentary of killing on camera." I will also be doing some articles on Erzebet Bathory, Jeffrey Dahmer, Kevorkian (a look at euthenasia), and possibly the Boston Strangler. In addition to my book "To Hear Mozart," I am working on another fiction novel called "The Last Twenty Minutes, " a story about a cult that finances the church by making snuff films- and the many horrible things that occur as a result. I think it should be an interesting read into the occult and the seedy underbelly of cinema and what makes money in this world.
Editor's note: this interview ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as published, with the questions set as headings. The opinions in it are the subject's. Two of her answers are worth reading against the record. On the frontal-lobe argument, and on the claim that Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer had untroubled childhoods, both are contested rather than settled. Bundy grew up believing his grandparents were his parents and his mother his sister; Dahmer's parents separated acrimoniously and he was left alone in the family house at eighteen. The link between frontal-lobe damage and serial murder has been argued for decades and has never been established as causal. She hedges it herself in the same answer, which is more than most writing on the subject does. On the Boston Strangler, this interview predates the resolution. She says the DeSalvo case seemed unsolved to her, and in 2013, after her interview, DNA from exhumed remains was matched to the killing of Mary Sullivan, the last of the thirteen. DeSalvo confessed but was never tried for any of the murders; he was killed in prison in 1973 while serving a life sentence for unrelated offences, and this archive records him as never convicted with up to thirteen suspected. Three names as spelled elsewhere: Juliet Hulme, who as Anne Perry later became a crime novelist, is given here as Juliette Hume; Diazien Hossencofft, the Albuquerque man she mentions, appears as Diazen Hossenkopft; and Erzsebet Bathory as Erzebet. Her judgement on Hossencofft is right and worth keeping, since it is the distinction this archive turns on: he was convicted of murdering his wife Girly Chew Hossencofft in 1999, her remains were never found, and one victim does not make a serial killer. He has no entry on this roster for that reason. Her two projects, the novel “To Hear Mozart” and the interview with Paul Von Stoetzel about his documentary on filmed killing, are named as forthcoming at the time. Neither appears on this site.