Serial Box Crime

I would like to thank Payned and Magnolia for sending in a guest post.  SouthernSassOnCrime was one of the first true crime blogs I stumbled upon when I decided to start blogging.  I frequent their site often.  They both do a great job, always give out as much factual information as they can and follow up on past posts.   Please take the time to check them out and you’ll be glad you did.

True Crime has always been a bit of an obsession for me. I can remember freaking my step-father out repeatedly with my library book selection, as far back as when I was eleven. I once over-heard a conversation he and my mother were having about this very thing. He was worried that my reading these horrible, “blood-bath” books, would turn me into a raving maniac, and he might wake one night to find me standing over his bed with a knife in my hand. I’ll be the first to admit, there was no love loss between me and this guy, but I never dreamed of killing him, just moving out of his house.

The summer of my 13th year, I came to Murfreesboro (a little town outside of Nashville then, not so little now) to visit my best friend. Her mom is/was the greatest. She loved that I read as much as I did, and like most adults, helped to foster my love for reading even more. She took us girls on a special trip to Nashville to buy me my first copy of “In Cold Blood”. I still have that copy, bought so many years ago. It has been duct taped several times, and finally I had to put it in a plastic baggy and pack it way. The thing was just plain worn out.

On the interweb, I have found many like minded souls with the same half-obsession. The majority of them are as sane as can be, and would come no closer to actual murder then your Granny Ruth would. They are like me, just interested in the mental make up of someone who COULD murder. There are some folks out there though, that down right worry me!

Collectors of murderabilia upset me. I am sure some of them are the nicest people in the world, but I just can not understand the fascination with having something belonging to a killer or from a crime scene in your home. It would feel to much like inviting evil into my house to purchase one of these seemingly prized possesions. Maybe it’s my Irish grandma’s superstition drilled into my head, or maybe, it’s just weird. Letters written by a killer, boards from BTK’s home , serial-killer trading cards, t-shirts, actual weapons have been for sale at some time or another. Autopsy photos, you name it, someone has tried to sell it at one time or another. And the amazing thing is, they have been successful! Who in there right mind would want the a drawing by Charles Manson warming their front hallway? And let’s be honest, if you walked into your neighbor’s home and saw John Wayne Gacy’s self portrait hanging over their fireplace you wouldn’t high-tail it out the front door quickly?

I don’t know, maybe I am being too hard on these folks, but I can not possibly see how having the ‘proposed’ axe that Lizzy Borden allegedly used to chop her family up is going to make my life more fullfilling. Am I missing something? Do others think this practice is acceptable? I have to wonder how the victims’ families feel. Do they mind having autopsy photos of their loved ones hanging in someone parlor as a conversation starter?

Clue me in….

SouthernSassOnCrime