The Allure of Human Monsters

Have you ever considered why people read true crime?  I am not surprised if you haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it, but if you enjoyed the tales of monsters as a child (Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, etc), there’s likely a connection. We all share a common bond on some level as to why we do it. I discovered my “why” when I was just a ten-year-old kid, when I read my first true crime book. Here I found stories of murder, all kinds of murder, and some occurring completely without motive (the most difficult to solve, detectives remind us). Without question, this first book boggled my young mind and left me wanting to know more. But why?  What was drawing me to learn more about this very dark subject?  The monsters of our youth were only fiction, and as we grew up we could dismiss them. But this was not something I couldn’t dismiss or wish away. “It’s only a movie” wasn’t going to work here.

When the Monsters of Youth Become Reality

The only thing I knew for a certainty as I turned that last page, is that somewhere within my thinking, I was fascinated by such horrific tales, and slightly embarrassed to admit it. And it wasn’t long before it all began to make sense: the two factors driving my interest were first, the nature of those committing these awful acts and why were they doing it, and why were their victims so easily led to their deaths? I also realized my interest in true crime would be life-long, and I wasn’t wrong.

Finding Answers Where We Can

Whether folks realize it or not, one of the main reasons we’re fascinated by true crime, is because we know that, as horrible a thought as it might be, murder can happen to anyone given the right set of circumstances. It’s not pleasant to contemplate, of course, but in the back of our minds, our brains are making personal comparisons between our lives and the lives of the victims; that is, what happened in each case, and how could we, given a similar set of circumstances, avoid such a terrible outcome.  This is how the human mind works.  And it works this way so that we can survive to a ripe old age and die naturally. After all, survival is in our DNA.

A Pivotal Moment Lasting a Lifetime

As an adult, I would go on to write many books about murder, including, Through an Unlocked Door: In Walks Murder, published in 2018. The point of the book was to raise awareness to the dangers of not locking doors come nightfall; after all, we’re the most vulnerable when we’re asleep. And as most of you know, I’ve made a career out of writing about serial sex killer, Ted Bundy, who led so many young women and girls to their deaths.  And again, the dynamics of what made murder so easy for Bundy to commit, and how so many succumbed to his wiles, are on display in all six of my Bundy books, including my latest, The Enigma of Ted Bundy, where I tackle a number of questions and controversies about the killer. I learned long ago that the more we know about these things, the better off our society will be. Looking at it this way, it’s easy to see that our interest in true crime is far more personal than most of us realize. For when it comes to life and death, it doesn’t get any more personal than this.