Tuesday, August 10, 2004

So Maybe It's a Bit Politically Incorrect

I was watching one of those Bill Kurtis documentaries last night on A&E about a serial killer who lived in Indiana. The killer was a family man, seemingly happily married, who may have killed as many as 50 young men, some of whom he buried within 15 feet of the back door of his home.

My wife came in and sat down and said "This isn't really too uplifting...why are you watching this?"

"Because I'm waiting for the part where they tell us he had a homosexual secret life," I said. I had never heard of the guy (Herb Baumeister) before, but I was confident it was coming. Sure enough, Bill Kurtis eventually informed us that yes, Baumeister was in the habit of picking up homosexual prostitutes for sex, many of whom he then killed.

Never having heard of Baumeister, how did I know there would be evidence of a homosexual life? Because homosexuality is almost always involved in the lives of serial killers.

Think about it--list the names of famous serial killers. Jeffrey Dahmer. John Wayne Gacy. Donald Harvey. Andrew Cunanan. Aileen Wuornos. What do they all have in common? If you don't believe me, try the "wait-for-it" test I used above. Flip on a true-crime program about a random serial killer and see if they just happen to mention homosexual behavior on the part of the perpetrator.

Of course, this link is never pointed out because it's more than a little politically incorrect. Does homosexuality cause serial killings? I have no idea. But it's interesting that homosexuals, who make up 2-3% of the American population by any reasonable estimate (the commonly cited 10% figure being a completely made-up number with no empirical support), comprise such a disproportionately large segment of the serial killer community.

Is it at least worth asking the question? If a significant portion of serial killers professed to be evangelical Christians, do you think the media would examine that link?

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