If You Were a Serial Killer, What Would Your Name Be?

According to this website, mine would be ‘The Muffin Man’. I’m imagining my modus operandi would probably involve chopping my victims up into tiny little pieces, baking delicious, nutritious human chip muffins and then feeding said muffins to the victims’ unsuspecting family members, Titus Andronicus-style.

Of course, I can comfortably discuss this M.O. on the internet because I have absolutely no intention of becoming The Muffin Man anytime in the future. In fact, there are numerous forums dedicated to seeing who can develop the most inventive, hilarious and horrific serial killer ‘alias’ or pseudonym. Browsing these forums, I think my favourite so far would have to be ‘The Potato Head Killer’, who removes the fingers, toes, eyes, ears, lips, noses and tongues of their victims to add to their personal collection.

Referring to the glossy coffee table book I received for Christmas, A History of Australian True Crime (Samuelson & Mason 2008), the significant role serial killer pseudonyms play in establishing the notoriety of perpetrators is apparent. Most people can remember ‘The Kingsgrove Slasher’, ‘The Mutilator’, ‘The Granny Killer’ and ‘The Butcher of Wollongong’, but how many can connect the names David Scanlon, William MacDonald, John Wayne Glover and Mark Valera to their murders? Outside of Australia, the nicknames ‘The Acid Bath Murderer’, ‘The Giggling Granny’, ‘The BTK Killer’ and ‘The Vampire of Sacramento’ are undoubtedly more instantly recognisable than the perpetrators’ real names; John Haigh, Nannie Doss, Dennis Rader and Richard Chase.

This got me thinking:

a. How are pseudonyms attached to serial killers?

AND

b. Exactly what role do they play?

Most pseudonyms are developed whilst serial killers are still at large and have not been identified. However, so much a fundamental part of crime discourse do these pseudonyms become that they generally remain in use regardless of whether or not the true identity of the serial killer is ever discerned.

The Alligator Man/Joe Ball

For the most part, serial killer pseudonyms are invented by the news media in their reporting of cases. These pseudonyms may be related to the M.O. of the perpetrator, such as ‘The Alligator Man’ (Joe Ball) who in Texas in the 1930s fed the bodies of his victims to alligators. Conversely, they may be developed by reference to news values, such as the ‘threshold’ or perceived importance of an incident (Jewkes 2004, p. 41). This was exemplified by the name ‘The Granny Killer’, given by the news media to John Wayne Glover who murdered six elderly women in Sydney between 1989 and 1990. The name placed significant focus on the victims of Glover’s crimes, who may be considered to fit within the framework of an ‘ideal victim’ due to their vulnerability (Christie 1986).

The Zodiac Killer's
signature

On occasion, the news media may be assisted in the naming process by the serial killers themselves. This typically occurs through interaction between journalists and a serial killer, as in the case of the never identified ‘Zodiac Killer’, who used this name in a series of letters sent to the local press. This could also be seen in relation to ‘The Happy Face Killer’ (Keith Jesperson), who drew a smiley face on the numerous letters he sent to the media complaining about the lack of publicity his crimes were receiving.

The active role some serial killers play in the development of their own pseudonyms is indicative of the significance of pseudonyms in the construction of the ‘celebrity identity’ of a serial killer (Haggerty 2009, p. 174). The news media’s development and proliferation of a singular, original, easily-recognisable serial killer pseudonym may be seen to serve the purpose of garnering a public response to a case. Pseudonyms regularly come to symbolise an entire case, allowing for a simplified, mediated image in which ‘a complex reality is substituted for a simple, incontestable’ message which effectively captures and maintains the public’s attention (Jewkes 2004, pp. 44-45; Chibnall 1977, p. 207).

Furthermore, according to Warwick (2006, p. 553), the news media’s utilisation of pseudonyms may function to obscure the distinction between fact and fiction, allowing the identity of a serial killer to be abstracted from reality and transformed into something entirely different. The pseudonym of a serial killer may therefore develop its own folklore, often bearing little resemblance to the actual individual and their actions.



The real Martha Beck



Salma Hayek as Martha Beck. Really



 This is particularly evident in the numerous television series and films which, despite claiming to be based on real events, significantly alter the nature of serial killers to make them more appealing to an audience. Perhaps the greatest example of this is the 2006 film Lonely Hearts, directed by Todd Robinson, which is based on the series of murders committed by ‘The Lonely Hearts Killers’ (Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck) in the 1940s. In reality, Martha Beck’s role in the murders has been attributed to her anger and insecurity surrounding her severe weight problems and imperfect physical appearance. In the film, she’s played by Salma Hayek.      



It can therefore be seen that the pseudonyms for serial killers invented by the news media play a significant role in the generation of a popular culture obsession with the individuals and their crimes.

If you need to feed your serial killer obsession, head on over to Serial Killer Central where you can purchase serial killer memorabilia (including a board game and colouring books for the younger members of the family), send serial killer greeting cards, read the latest serial killer news and view serial killer related images and videos. Also, to test your serial killer knowledge, feel free to try my ‘Can You Match the Serial Killer to a Distinctive Aspect of Their Crime?’ quiz.

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Chibnall, S. 1977, ‘Press ideology: The politics of professionalism’ in 2010, Crime and Media: A Reader, ed. C. Greer, Routledge, London, pp. 203-214.

Christie, N. 1986, ‘The ideal victim’ in From Crime Policy to Victim Policy, E. Fattah ed., Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Jewkes, Y. 2004, Media and Crime, Sage Publications, London.

Samuelson, S. & Mason, R. 2008, A History of Australian True Crime, Ebury Press, North Sydney.

Warwick, A. 2006, ‘The scene of the crime: Inventing the serial killer’, Social & Legal Studies, vol. 15, no.4, pp. 552-569.