By Philly Assenmacher
My next guest for Serial Killer Magazine is a prolific writer, a New England police officer, and a friend and colleague of our own Tressa Graves, the distinguished Shawn William Davis. Shawn has 9 titles available on Amazon. They range from Witches, Vampires and Mad Scientists to Bounty Hunters, Futuristic Rebels and Serial Killers.
His latest work is a group project called Cap’n’Creepy's House of Shame with other famous authors such as Tressa Graves and Jason Wolfgang Gehlert.
Hello Shawn,
A: As Tressa Graves’s Facebook ‘friend,’ I always got a kick out of her flashy, innovative marketing techniques, which drew me and many other readers in to check out her great horror books and short stories. Several months ago, I joined a horror short story contest and I thought I’d take a chance and send her my story to see what she thought about it. The next day, she e-mailed me back and said, “That story rocked!” She told me she was organizing a group of talented horror writers to create an innovative, highly-original horror anthology based on a psychotic horror character created by actor/writer/director Stephen A Eiland of Albuquerque , New Mexico. I told her I enjoyed collaborating with other writers, especially horror writers, so she sent me a few of the stories to read and I was blown away by their high quality and originality.
I told her I wanted in, and she conditionally accepted me as a writer for the Cap’n’Creepy’s House of Shame collection of horror short stories pending on the quality of the story I submitted. I was pretty excited because I had a good idea about a writer, who became rich and successful from his creation of a serial killer character, but something dark in his past was about to emerge to turn his life upside down and threaten everything he loved. So, I got to work and submitted my story. Tressa asked me to make some changes, which I did, and the final product was added to the anthology. The variety of writers, stories, and styles in this anthology is what made it interesting to me.
A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think writers are always taking things from their real lives and inserting it into their stories. The writer in my story basically represents my alter-ego after I have been corrupted by fame and wealth (I wish!) I don’t think I would behave as arrogantly as the writer, Nick Blaisdale, in my story if I achieved the kind of success he achieved in fiction, but it was fun to play with the idea of a horror writer becoming arrogant and cocky after his serial killer series became a horror franchise and was picked up by a studio to become a series of movies.
A: Tressa Graves’s current sponsors, Bud Light and Dick’s Last Resort restaurant chain, have agreed to support the Cap’n’Creepy’s House of Shame horror short story anthology. I think horror fans and serial killer aficionados will be blown away by the quality and innovation of the stories.
A: It’s enjoyable and enlightening to connect with other horror writers. As we exchange ideas, we learn from each other. Each writer in the anthology has a distinctive personality and style that separates him or her from the rest. The sheer variety of stories and characters are fascinating to me. In addition to being a horror writer, Stephen A Eiland works as an actor, director, and producer of the popular New Mexico web shows “Meet the Eilands” and “Cap’n’Creepy’s House of Shame.” He has also acted in such popular shows as “Breaking Bad.” Jason Wolfgang Gehlert is the author of the paranormal horror novel, The Ferrymen, which features a secret organization of detectives who investigate supernatural crimes. Christian Simmons, is an original horror talent who is sure to make a name for himself in the future. Queen of Darkness, Tressa Graves, is fast becoming a horror icon like Elvira, The Mistress of the Dark. In addition to being beautiful and sexy, Ms. Graves has what it takes to terrify a seasoned horror fan like myself with her ultra-creepy and incredibly gory novels and short stories.
A: They were both phenomenal. I don’t want to give too much away, but Jason’s story takes place during a vampire/zombie apocalypse and features his team of Ferrymen detectives, while Tressa’s story introduces a family of serial killers that make the family in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre seem like lightweights by comparison.
A: Oh absolutely, Tressa Graves and I already have plans to collaborate on a serial killer book based on the real-life ‘Chicago Rippers’ also known as the ‘Ripper Crew,’ a criminal organization and satanic cult consisting of four violent psychopaths who were ritualistic satan worshippers and practicing cannibals in addition to being vicious serial killers.
A: I’ve been obsessed with horror since I was six or seven years old and used to watch the old black-and-white Universal horror movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf-man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. From there, I bought horror magazines and comic books where I studied the genre relentlessly. As a teenager, I still loved the classic monsters, but I also gravitated to the 80’s slasher flicks like ‘Friday the Thirteenth,’ ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ and ‘Nightmare on Elm Street.’ At that time, I was still grossed out by blood and gore so I took it as a challenge to see how much I could take watching on-screen. I soon cured myself of that phobia. By my late teens and twenties, I became fanatically devoted to horror books by writers like Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Dean Koontz.
I didn’t become interested in researching true crime until age forty when I met my wife, Laurie; she got me into shows like 48 hours and other true crime documentaries. From there, I started researching serial killers and serial killer profilers in books and documentaries. Finally, I became inspired by Patterson’s fictional Detective Alex Cross, a bad-ass serial killer hunter who used his brains as well as firepower to overcome a variety of violent psychopaths. I saw the way Patterson successfully violated traditional storytelling by alternating chapters between Detective Cross telling his story in the First-person perspective and alternating with chapters about the killers told in the Third-person perspective. Historically, English teachers have told students that switching perspectives in a novel is a “no, no,” but I realized that was bullshit because it worked so well in Patterson’s Alex Cross novels. I said to myself, “What if I changed it up and told the story from the point-of-view of a serial killer in First-person perspective and alternated it with the Third-person perspective of the cops who were hunting the killer and some of the victims? So that’s what I did in the first two books of my Serial Killer Series, Diary of a Serial Killer and Diary of a Serial Killer
II: Ice Man; horror fans and serial killer aficionados have responded very positively and enthusiastically to both books
A: Oh, you know it’s the fall! The entire month of October is an ominous and exciting build-up to the penultimate dark holiday on the thirty-first!
A: The killer in Book I of the Serial Killer Series, Diary of a Serial Killer, is based on the first serial killer I researched and one I think is still one of the most interesting: Ted Bundy. Bundy was fascinating to me because of the extraordinary façade of charm and charisma he was able to project while sadistically torturing, raping, killing, and engaging in necrophilia with victims. He charmed everyone he came into contact with, including true-crime writer Ann Rule and the Florida judge who presided over his capital murder case.
The killer in Book II of the Serial Killer Series, Diary of a Serial Killer II: Ice Man is based on the ruthless mafia contract killer, Richard Kuklinski, known as the Ice Man. I became fascinated by the Ice Man because he was the polar opposite of Bundy. While all of Bundy’s crimes were sexually motivated and all his targets were attractive women, Richard Kuklinsky only targeted men and considered women and children off limits. I thought it was ironic the Ice Man despised sexually sadistic rapists like Bundy and would have killed him slowly if he ever got his massive hands on him. Unlike most serial killers who have a sexual component to their murders, The Ice Man didn’t have even a hint of a sexual component in his killings. He was such a prude he wouldn’t even go to strip clubs or cheat on his wife. The Ice Man killed for the feeling of power and omnipotence it gave him. He also killed for vengeance when he felt he was treated poorly, unfairly, or unjustly by anyone, which I think is a potent fantasy for all of us. Eventually, he found out he could make a ton of money by doing contract hit jobs for the Mafia, and he became an expert with every kind of weapon imaginable, guns, knives, ropes (as garrotes), tire irons, clubs, grenades, poison, and even his bare hands.
The Ice Man received his training in violence as a child when he was beaten mercilessly by his psychopathic father, Stanley Kuklinsky. The author, Philip Carlo, described the phenomenon best in his comprehensive biography, The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer: “The young Richard had all the empathy and compassion beaten out of him by his father, Stanley Kuklinski.”
When Richard was five, his father beat his older (7 years old) brother to death. Imagine how that must make a kid feel. Then, from age 6 to 11 the person who Richard would later only refer to as “Stanley” beat Richard mercilessly for any infraction, no matter how minor. When Richard was seven, just seeing his father would make him pee his pants. Of course, Stanley beat Richard for peeing his pants. At age eleven, the family caught a break when Stanley moved out of the shitty, low-rent apartment in the rundown neighborhood to move in with one of his slut girlfriends across town.
By age 12, Richard was taking out his rage by killing all the neighborhood pets. Neighbors couldn’t figure out why all the local pets were disappearing. Then, ironically, after Stanley moved out, neighborhood bullies took over Richard’s training in violence where Stanley left off. Five bullies who lived nearby began beating Richard from age 12 to 16 whenever they encountered him on the streets. This continued until Richard beat the leader of the bullies to death at age 16 with a club (his first kill). So you see, Richard Kuklinski was trained to be a killer from age five.
People have argued the Ice Man is not a serial killer because he only killed for money, but this is completely false. The Ice Man is a serial killer in addition to being a contract killer because he killed for pleasure and to reduce his anxiety. The first person he killed was the neighborhood bully who tormented him relentlessly and it was only logical he would move on to homeless people who gave him a bad attitude and people at bars and clubs who insulted or humiliated him. It wasn’t long after he was killing for sport, retaliation, and big money contracts.
A: The killer in Diary of a Serial Killer II: Ice Man, Robert Brzezinski, possesses all the aforementioned qualities of the real Ice Man, Richard Kuklinski. He is a virtual clone of the real Ice Man except for where he lives. The real Ice Man lived in Jersey City and operated there and in New York City, while his fictional alter ego lives in the fictional town of Farmington and operates in the Worcester area of Massachusetts.
Similarities between the real-life serial killer, Ted Bundy, and the sexually sadistic serial killer, Eric Blackburn, in the first Diary of a Serial Killer are more subtle. Both killers target attractive women of a certain look and age. They both harbor immense rage against women for past injustices, real or imagined, combined with warped sexual desires, which is realized in violent action by committing sexual assault and murder, not necessarily in that order. Eric Blackburn sexually assaults his victims, tortures them for hours, and brutally kills them. Bundy was known to sexually assault his victims and kill them or kill them and sexually assault them. Bundy would often return to the scene to molest the corpses of his victims, which Blackburn does not do. In his own words,
Blackburn says, “I’m not one of those sick necrophiliacs.” However, he has no problem using a chainsaw to cut off a victim’s limbs while they are still living.
A: The characteristics of the serial killer based on Ted Bundy are subtle and understated, but the traits of the serial/contract killer based on the Ice Man, Richard Kuklinsky, are more in your face. There are many sexually psychopathic serial killers like Bundy, but none like Kuklinsky. He was an extremely rare and fascinating phenomenon. As far as I know, there has never been a killer in existence who was even remotely like him. The premise in my book, Diary II, is a unique set of circumstances and abuse, similar to the ones Kuklinski experienced in Jersey City, were also experienced by another boy in the Metrowest area of Massachusetts, resulting in similar personalities and modus operandi.
A: Tracey Randall is based on the quintessential strong twenty-first century woman. They are all around us, but my mother and wife are good examples. My mother is a nurse and my wife is a high school department head; both are professionals who will figure out a way around, over, or through any obstacle in their way and both will not allow anyone to treat them badly without some form of non-violent retaliation. Also, there is a strong female police officer on my department who is a bad-ass who can do anything the male officers can do, fight, wrestle, shoot, handle a baton, issue commands, conduct investigations, whatever police work needs to be done to keep the public safe.
A: I co-wrote the non-fiction WW II novel, Never Surrender, with my Great Uncle Earl Anderson during the summer of 2005. Earl was a Navy sailor who fought the Japanese in the Philippines during WW II; after several months of intense fighting, Earl was captured and survived for three and a half years as a POW in Yokohama, Japan. He was an ordinary sailor, but he showed extraordinary heroism while confronting multiple threats to his life in the Philippines and later as a POW. He is the only truly courageous and heroic person I ever met, so he has inspired me to write about courageous protagonists who appear to be ordinary people, but always step up to accomplish extraordinary things like my Great Uncle did during WW II.
A: ‘The Lady in the Back Yard’ audio book was fantastic. The quality of the reading and the well-coordinated sound effects blew me away. I’ve listened to thousands of audio books during my hour-long drives to and from work, but I have never listened to an audiobook with such perfectly timed music and sound effects. In addition, your son did an impressive, professional job and would make a great narrator for other audio books. Also, I believe other audio books, especially horror novels, would benefit from your expert creation of sound effects and music similar to the effects you used for Lady in the Back Yard. The story itself was exciting and horrifying, but the music and sound effects put it over the top.
A: Only that I am working on Book III of the Serial Killer Series, Diary of a Serial III: Assassin, which is going to ratchet up the action and violence a couple notches as the killer engages in vengeance-motivated political assassinations in addition to other interesting kills. That’s all I can say about it right now so I don’t reveal any spoilers.
Also, I am very excited about the release of the Cap’n’Creepy’s House of Shame anthology that popular horror writer, Tressa Graves, has organized with me and several other talented writers. I think horror fans and serial killer aficionados alike will enjoy the visceral thrills they will experience from the collection. Three out of the five stories focus on highly original serial killers who wreak incredible havoc on the world. I think it will be an intense experience for readers.
Thank you Shawn Davis.
Once again this is Philly Assenmacher of Creep Theater and Assenmacher Productions for Serial Killer Calendar that's www.serialkillercalendar.com. Be sure to pick up the latest Serial Killer Magazine, join their mailing list, and look for Cap’n’Creepy's House of Shame. For more information about the authors mentioned in this interview or to purchase the innovative new horror short story anthology Cap’n’Creepy’s House of Shame, please go to www.tressagraves.com.
This interview ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as Philly Assenmacher conducted it. One spelling was corrected, the true-crime writer Ann Rule, and the questions have been set as headings for the web. Nothing else has been altered, including the closing plug, which is how the piece ended in print.
One caution on the material about Richard Kuklinski. The account given here of his childhood, that his father beat his seven-year-old brother to death, that he killed neighbourhood pets at twelve and beat a bully to death at sixteen, comes from Kuklinski’s own statements and from Philip Carlo’s biography, which is built on them. Very little of it has been independently corroborated, and researchers and former investigators have disputed a great deal of what Kuklinski claimed about himself, including his victim count. It is a killer’s self-description, repeated in good faith by a novelist who used it as source material, and it should be read that way rather than as established biography.