Why Bureaucracy, Hollywood, and the NRA Helped Serial Killers Thrive
Why does America remain the global epicentre of serial killers? In Part Two of Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories, Simon Ford and Jacques Morrell uncover how bureaucracy, pop culture, and gun culture shaped the rise of American serial murderers.
From the FBI’s behavioural profiling to the National Rifle Association’s influence, from Hollywood’s romanticisation of killers to the chilling question of whether Millennials and Gen Z will break the cycle, this episode digs deeper into America’s darkest shadows.
We examine cases where red tape let killers roam free, the dangerous glamorisation of Bundy and Dahmer, and how easy access to firearms made serial murder uniquely lethal in the United States.
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Transcript
What if the system that's meant to protect you is the very thing that lets a killer slip through the cracks? What if the weapons are legally bought and the warning signs ignored? What if Hollywood's obsession with serial murder isn't just entertaining, but prophecy? In Part Two of 'Why Does The United States Have More Serial Killers Than Any Other Country On Earth?' we ask: has America created the perfect breeding ground for serial murderers and psychopaths? And as we race towards 2030, is there still time to stop the next one? But before we dive in, a quick shout out to our friends at Podcast Today, that's podcast dot today. They featured our Ian Huntley episode, 'A Psychopath at School', in their Quick Listens category. If you love discovering new true crime stories, head to podcast dot today and see what else they've lined up. It's free, it's daily and it's curated just for you. Welcome back to Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories. I'm Simon Ford and I'm Jacques Morrell. If you haven't heard part one yet, hit pause and listen to that first. We explored the growth of suburbia, the aftershocks of war, and the cracks in American policing. Today, in part two, we widen the lens. Bureaucracies that enable killers. Pop culture that glorifies them, guns that empower them, and a generation that might just change everything. Welcome to NBC News Daily. This Tuesday, we're going to start with breaking news. Quadruple murder suspect Austin Drummond is in custody after an intense days long manhunt in Tennessee. Drummond was wanted for the killings of four people, all members of the same family. We've talked about fragmented law enforcement. We've examined the challenges of jurisdictional chaos and under-resourced police departments. But there's another, less visible force at play in the story of America's serial killers. Something deeper, something colder. Bureaucracy? Yeah. Killer bureaucracy. It might sound like the title of a dystopian novel, but in real life, it's one of the quiet enablers of mass murder. Behind many of America's most notorious cases, you'll find crucial opportunities missed, not through lack of intelligence or even intent, but because the gears of the system ground too slowly or didn't turn at all. I think Mr. Little will get his final judgment. Before he died at 80 year old Samuel Little sketched the faces of the women he killed. And I'm sure these jurisdictions will go and try to connect the dots to deal with what he's come to. Take Samuel Little, for example. Officially recognised as America's most prolific serial killer. 89 confirmed victims, possibly over 90. He operated across state lines from the 1970s into the 2000s, murdering vulnerable women, mostly women of colour. And yet, for decades, law enforcement agencies failed to connect the dots. Why? Well, part of it is what we've already discussed decentralised policing. But even what agencies did have the information, there was no unified system compelling them to share that information in a usable way. For much of Little's killing spree. His victims weren't even being recorded as linked cases. And here's the irony. In 1985, the FBI launched ViCAP, the violent criminal apprehension program designed specifically to catch serial offenders by identifying patterns in unsolved cases. But ViCAP was optional. Local departments weren't required to use it. Many didn't. There are 60 confirmed victims so far. Authorities will continue the hunt for the dozens of others. It won't stop, even though little is dead. You know, you just take in for what it's worth. And people like me live with that. And that's bureaucracy for you. A powerful tool. Locked in a cupboard. Because nobody mandate the key. The FBI is still actively searching for information to connect the dots in several of Little's murders. If you have any information, call this number one 800. Call FBI. The weekend I picked up a woman backpack, I weighed. And Matthew was next to me in the seat, and she hopped in. And then two and three. And my son was there, and I killed her. They'll. Sure my son didn't see it, but that only happened one time. So why didn't you do it again? I didn't want my son to see it. And that brings us to something that should chill. Anyone listening to this? In the case of Gary Ridgeway, the green River killer, dozens of women died while multiple police departments worked in silos hoarding information. Detectives even suspected Ridgeway early on. But internal politics and procedural rigidity meant he slipped through their fingers. He kept getting interviewed, kept passing polygraphs. He even gave a cheek swab DNA sample in 1987, but they didn't have the resources to process it properly. Not until the early 2000. That delay. It wasn't because no one was working the case. It was because the system was working exactly as designed, just too slowly. And there's something tragic about that. These weren't rogue officers. This wasn't corruption. This was paperwork. Process. Budgetary constraints. Misalign and incentives. In short, bureaucracy. Now, let's be fair. There have been improvements. ViCAP is more widely used now. DNA databases are better integrated, but there's still no national mandate for data sharing in violent crime investigations. You've still got over 18,000 separate law enforcement agencies in the United States, and no centralised leadership structure. Compare that to the U.K., where a single body like the National Crime Agency can operate across the country. Or Canada's RCMP. In the US, you've got sheriff's departments, city police, state bureaus, federal agencies all working side by side, just not always together. And it's the gaps in those seams where monsters slip through. The killer may be holding the knife. But too often the system is holding the door. So what can be done? That's the million dollar question. Reform, decentralisation, improved training, cross-agency collaboration. These are all part of the conversation. But until bureaucracy becomes more nimble, more coordinated, and more accountable, serial killers will keep finding places to hide. And we'll keep digging into the stories. The stories that reveal just how much damage can be done when no one is steering the ship. It's a firearm in the course of that murder, which is a violation of Penal Code section 12-0-22.5. Do you admit or deny that? I admit. It is further legend in counts 2 through 13... Now we're going to talk about the elephant in the room. The Second Amendment. It's just 27 words long and ratified in 1791. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. At the time, the fledgling United States didn't have a standing army. The founders feared tyranny from without and within. The idea was that every able bodied citizen could take up arms to protect the Republic. But here in the 21st century, bearing arms has morphed into something far more removed from that original context. You don't need to be in a militia. You don't need to register your guns. In many states, and in some places, you don't even need a background check at a gun show. That's not what George Washington had in mind. And if you think we're anti-gun, then hold that thought, because there is an irony here. In a country with a disproportionate number of serial killers, maybe owning a .38 revolver for home defence is, well, just plain common sense. Let's get forensic. Do serial killers actually use guns? Statistically, no. Most serial killers prefer up close and personal methods. Strangulation, blunt force knives. Because for many of them, it's not about killing. It's about control. Exactly. Ted Bundy used a crowbar. Jeffrey Dahmer drugged his victims, then strangled them. John Wayne Gacy, he used rope, torture and pain. A lot has happened in just the past 24 hours as the sniper manhunt literally went nationwide. It began with a task force phone tip from someone claiming responsibility for the sniper killings. One of the few exceptions was the D.C. sniper case. In 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. They used a Bushmaster .223 rifle hidden inside the trunk of a blue Chevy Caprice. Random, distant, terrifying but isolated. Don't forget that most serial killers want that proximity. They want intimacy. And that's what makes them so disturbing. They're not looking to pick off targets at a distance. They want to look you in the eye. Police in Nashville are releasing this chilling surveillance video showing the terrifying moments the shooter blasted their way into the small, private Presbyterian school. But while serial killers themselves rarely rely on guns, the wider epidemic of gun violence in America is impossible to ignore. The video also shows the armed person entering a church office and later stalking the halls with an AR-style weapon drawn.
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