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Does Northwest Draw Out Serial Killers?
Seattle Times ^ | 1/15/03 | Alex Tizon

Posted on 01/15/2003 1:18:25 PM PST by marshmallow

Can we blame it on the rain? Do the dark green forests that blanket the land bring out the monster in a few of us?

These questions might seem frivolous if the facts were not so damning: Police continue to unfold the grisly details of three of the nation's most notorious serial-murder cases, all within a 280-mile radius of Seattle, the emerald hub of the region.

In the universe of serial killings, the Pacific Northwest, if only in public perception, may be one of its capitals.

It's an impression not new and not based solely on data. Many experts dismiss it as misinformed, fueled by a hyperactive news media and a prolific troupe of true-crime writers who've chosen — perhaps because of the rain and the dark green forests — to live and work in the Northwest.

But even the region's defenders must have paused at the steady stream of news over the past two years. Take one 72-hour period last fall:

• On Oct. 2, Canadian authorities charged Port Coquitlam, B.C., pig farmer Robert William Pickton with five more counts of murder, raising the number of women he is accused of killing to 15. He is a prime suspect in the disappearances of as many as 63 women in the Vancouver area. Investigators believe Pickton's victim pool will eventually spill over into Washington. A preliminary hearing in his case began this week in Port Coquitlam.

• On Oct. 3, Robert Lee Yates of Spokane was sentenced to death for the murders of two Pierce County women. Yates has confessed to 15 slayings, but investigators believe his actual victim count may be twice that high.

• On Oct. 4, the Green River Task Force announced it would spend another weekend scouring a wetland near Kent for more victims of the Green River Killer. Gary Leon Ridgway, an Auburn truck painter, has been charged with four of the 49 Green River killings.

There's no consensus on the number 49. True-crime writer Anne Rule says the Green River killer (or killers) could easily have slain another 25.

These amount to stunningly high body counts, even in the ever-expanding universe of serial killings. In any previous era, such clusters of killings discovered in such close proximity would have been considered a horror.

Today, such cluster-killings and the investigations that follow and drag on for years have come to seem routine.

Vancouver, though on the other side of an international boundary, is a mere 140 miles from Seattle, and is in culture and topography more a part of Washington than of the more populous regions of the Canadian East.

Few from the Northwest like to call attention to this more nefarious side of the region's lore — except cops, especially cops-turned-authors, such as Rule and former Los Angeles detective Mark Fuhrman, who lives in Idaho.

Though thoroughly discredited in the O.J. Simpson case, Fuhrman has gained some credibility as a true-crime writer. He says it plainly in his latest book, "Murder in Spokane."

"There's something about the Pacific Northwest that seems to breed serial killers. John Douglas, the famous FBI profiler, once called the region 'America's killing fields,' " he writes.

"The weather — weeks on end of dreary rain punctuated by rare, brilliant days — probably has something to do with it. Or the fact that this is where the frontier ends and America literally runs out of room."

Looking for bodies

The sharpshooters accused in the deaths of 10 people in the Washington, D.C., area last fall likely were, in the lexicon of criminologists, "spree killers" who kill in an outburst. Lee Boyd Malvo and John Muhammad were seen as being on an extended rampage that may have included killings in Tacoma, Alabama and Louisiana.

By contrast, a serial killer kills strangers, usually women and girls, in different locations and at different times over long periods: months, years, even decades. They tend to be white, heterosexual males with above-average intelligence. Very often they are sexual psychopaths who hunt and kill for the thrill.

A lot of them end up in or near coastal cities.

Many of what Rule calls the "old school of serial-killer watchers" ascribe to this notion that serial murderers subconsciously gravitate to the geographic extremities as a form of fleeing — fleeing from authorities, and perhaps even from something in their own psyches.

This partially explains, Rule says, why most serial killers have been captured on the edges of the continent: the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Pacific Northwest — and by extension most of British Columbia — represents in many ways the outermost edge. It is still largely wilderness, still wild.

It might not be coincidence that Canada's most prolific serial killer before the Pickton case came along — Clifford Olson, who murdered at least 11 in the early 1980s — also lived and operated near Vancouver, B.C.

The Northwest also offers an ideal topography, says criminologist Steven Egger, whose book "The Killers Among Us" is a standard for students of serial murder.

"It allows a killer to move from an urban area to a rural area in a fairly short period of time," Egger says. "You have pockets of wilderness, lots and lots of pockets, where bodies can be dumped, and where they would be very difficult to find."

It isn't that the region actually creates killers; rather, says Fuhrman, who grew up in the Tacoma area, someone with a predisposition for these kinds of crimes would simply find more temptations, more opportunities to strike and not be caught.

"Living here doesn't make you a serial killer," he says, "Living here just makes it easier."

The terrain certainly made it easier for Ted Bundy to commit his crimes in the mid-1970s. The handsome law student from Tacoma usually abducted his victims from cities and then raped, killed and buried them in the countryside or mountains.

Bundy admitted to 22 murders, but experts say he probably killed more than 50 women, most of them in Washington and Oregon. He was eventually convicted and put to death in Florida.

Though he was never tried for the murders in this region, Bundy was the man who first put the Pacific Northwest on the serial-killer map. He began the tradition carried on by men with names like Ken Bianchi, Westley Alan Dodd, Olson and Yates, and if they are convicted, Ridgway and Pickton.

A lowbrow subject

Whether more serial killers operate here is not provable by data because, all the experts will tell you, the data don't exist.

There has never been a comprehensive study done on the per-capita incidence of serial murder. Government agencies have shown no interest in funding such lowbrow, potentially prurient, sensationalistic research.

"Now, if you tie serial murder to Homeland Security, you'd get a whole lot of money," says Bob Keppel, another local cop-turned-crime author.

Tomas Guillen, a former Seattle Times reporter and co-author of the New York Times best-seller "The Search for the Green River Killer," has said he doubts the Northwest is any different from any other region.

Keppel, though he acknowledges the bewildering coincidence of the three ongoing investigations, says it's ludicrous to make such generalizations about any region because there's no way to empirically confirm it.

The reason so many killers end up in coastal cities is simply because the most populous urban centers tend to be along coastlines, he says. By virtue of sheer volume of people, there will tend to be more killers near large cities.

Seattle has a relatively low homicide rate; the Northwest states rank among the nation's lowest: fewer than three homicides per 100,000 people a year.

New Mexico's murder rate is three times higher; Louisiana's nearly four times as high. The murders in those states tend to be the garden-variety robberies or crimes of passion, although New Orleans now suspects a serial killer is on the loose in the city.

Keppel says the more plausible reason for the Northwest's reputation has more to do with experts, like him, who write and speak on the subject of serial killers.

For some reason, as unanswerable as the questions about serial killers, a vibrant community of true-crime writers has formed in the region. TV shows such as "Twin Peaks" and locally filmed movies like "The Vanishing" may send out the message that the Northwest is a creepy place.

The believers

Keppel's voice of reason doesn't convince all his colleagues. Experts like criminologist Maurice Godwin are convinced the Northwest does indeed have more, or at least more prolific, serial killers than other regions.

"There's no doubt in my mind," he says.

A former cop, author and professor at Methodist College in North Carolina, Godwin studied unsolved murder records in the Northwest as part of his doctoral dissertation.

He says there are unsolved murders in Washington and Oregon from the 1970s — "pre-Bundy" — most likely committed by serial killers, but the slayings were not connected because police didn't have the experience or know-how to detect the patterns.

A criminal-justice Web site recently published a serial-killer atlas that located investigations on a U.S. map. White dots represented possible serial killings, yellow dots suspected ones. The red dots showed where serial killings were confirmed.

Washington was the only state in the nation with two red dots. If the map had included Vancouver, B.C., there would have been another red dot next to Seattle, so close they would almost touch.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: Washington
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 01/15/2003 1:18:25 PM PST by marshmallow
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2 posted on 01/15/2003 1:19:11 PM PST by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: marshmallow
The Northwest attracts a lot of envirowacko, anarchist and other extremist groups. I am NOT dissing the large conservative crowds in Oregon and Washington...but methinks the search for serial killers ahould begin with wacko friendly local governments and the wackos they pander too.
3 posted on 01/15/2003 1:34:55 PM PST by cake_crumb (REFUSE TO BE ASSIMILATED INTO THE COLLECTIVE! DONATE TO FR!!)
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To: marshmallow
This partially explains, Rule says, why most serial killers have been captured on the edges of the continent: the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico.

Or it may be becaue most people live near the coasts.

4 posted on 01/15/2003 1:41:26 PM PST by Restorer
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To: cake_crumb
Bundy was an active worker in the Republican Party. The Mohammad sniper was ex-military in Tacoma. That Spokane guy was either reserves or National Guard, as memory has it.
5 posted on 01/15/2003 1:45:39 PM PST by per loin
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To: marshmallow
"By contrast, a serial killer kills strangers, usually women and girls, in different locations and at different times over long periods: months, years, even decades. They tend to be white, heterosexual males with above-average intelligence."

I don't agree that serial killers are disproportionately hetrosexual as indicated here. Dean Corril, John Wayne Gacy, Larry Eyler, Randy Kraft, Wayne Williams, Robert Burdella and Jeffery Dahmer were all notorious homosexual serial killers. In fact I would bet the homosexuals constitute a greater percentage of serial killers then their percentage of the population at large.

6 posted on 01/15/2003 1:56:11 PM PST by joebuck
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To: cake_crumb
I agree. Too many liberals.

I have a theory that human empathy is based, or strengthened by the ability to communicate and share a perception of reality. When you are surrounded by other humans who spout non-thinking BS, our nature is to stop seeing them as be equal or even human.

Kip Kinkle is a good example of this, one only needs to watch the published home videos of the kinkle family to see a homicide waiting to happen. His sister was the only family member to relate to the kid on "the level".

This is in no way to make the criminal a victim, but a factor in why liberalism breads criminals.

7 posted on 01/15/2003 1:58:04 PM PST by Dead Dog
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To: joebuck
Bump
8 posted on 01/15/2003 2:00:38 PM PST by CyberCowboy777 (Extremism in the Pursuit of Liberty is no Vice!)
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To: per loin
"Bundy was an active worker in the Republican Party. The Mohammad sniper was ex-military in Tacoma. That Spokane guy was either reserves or National Guard, as memory has it."

Him....but all were obviously interested in far more bizarre things then the one apiece you use to describe them.

9 posted on 01/15/2003 2:47:46 PM PST by cake_crumb (HELP KEEP THE LIGHTS ON! DONATE TO FREE REPUBLIC!!)
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To: cake_crumb
Him....but all were obviously interested in far more bizarre things then the one apiece you use to describe them.

Of course. Those items were in response to post #3.

10 posted on 01/15/2003 2:52:27 PM PST by per loin
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To: joebuck; spatzie; MistyCA
In fact I would bet the homosexuals constitute a greater percentage of serial killers than their percentage of the population at large.

Having been personally involved with investigations in two of the examples you named, I'd say based on that and other experience that you're probably right, up to a point. But too, the habits and inclinations of homosexuals for engaging in impulsive risk behaviour and a mindset that ignores social attitudes as to norms and aberrance constitutes a handicap for their chances of long-term success. I'd bet that a larger proportion of homosexuals are both undeterred by legalities or moral strictures against killing, but they're probably caught in larger numbers as well.

The quiet guy who kills those unknown to him and usually in a location where he's transient or unknown has all the chances in his favour for continued success, whatever his sexual inclination may be. And the women who engage in such activities almost always manage to slip between the cracks of investigations, so long as they keep their mouths shut.

-archy-/-

11 posted on 01/15/2003 3:26:46 PM PST by archy
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To: archy; MarMema; sodpoodle; bgill
Thanks Marmema for linking to this fasinating thread from 2003, absolutely AMAZING --- isn't it peculiar that no one is looking at anyone other than stepmom teacher with a masters degree, Terri Horman?

I had NO idea about any of this....

12 posted on 08/14/2010 10:37:38 AM PDT by hennie pennie
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To: joebuck
I don't agree that serial killers are disproportionately hetrosexual as indicated here. Dean Corril, John Wayne Gacy, Larry Eyler, Randy Kraft, Wayne Williams, Robert Burdella and Jeffery Dahmer were all notorious homosexual serial killers. In fact I would bet the homosexuals constitute a greater percentage of serial killers then their percentage of the population at large.

You left out Herb Baumeister, among at least a dozen other murderous notables. And many of those who prey on females- Tom Schiro and Bill Benefiel come to mind- are homesexuals whose prediliction for female victims is seated either in contempt or hatred, jealousy of real females, or simply because their potential victims are less of a physical threat.

And then, of course, there's Aileen Wuornos. I don't know exactly how you'd characterise her preferences, but a study of the blood trail suggests that it was not pretty.

In the smallish southern Indiana town where I plyed the trade of newspaperman from 1988 to 2001, we had no fewer than twelve serial killers whose paths crossed here, some related, some not- and probably more.

13 posted on 08/15/2010 8:11:37 AM PDT by archy (I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!)
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