Five horrific serial killers who are free right now

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.cracked.com/article_16998...right-now.html

Ignore the black humour of the article for a moment, and focus on the point being made. These people all killed in horrific ways (personally, I would have put Metal Fang and Pedro Lopez as 2 and 1, but that's just my opinion) and are out there, free. It still happens, even today; a lot of killers convicted have killed before. If Arthur Shawcross hadn't been released from prison after his murder of two children, there are a lot of women who'd still be alive today.

[DesignFox]

Please tell me they made this up?

[IDrinkaRum]

DesignFox - you can find Pedro Lopez, Mr. Sagawa, and Karla Homolka all written about at Crime Library. The articles there are much more in detail and they go through the trials and any updates if there are any.

Also, there is the serial killer index (can't remember the website). If you type in serial killers, you can find a whole slew of websites dedicated to and just about serial killers. It's fascinating if you're into that sort of thing.

[Slytovhand]

Well, now you see, that's this thing called the 'justice system'. While you don't have a death penalty, and 'life' sentencing has a maximum value... any criminal is likely to get out at one stage or another...

[Bloodsoul]

They never did find the Zodiac, did they?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Nope; just think, next time you serve a customer... it could be him. O.o

[Flyndaran]

Hypothetical rehabilitation could help most criminals. But serial killers are almost all incapable of controlling themselves and that sounds more like mental illness than willful disobedience of laws.
I really wish the human governments were more about fixing problems than revenge punishments.

[DesignFox]

I don't know. Seems like a pretty simple solution with regards to serial killers- dispose of them.

If we don't have the balls to dispose of them, at least lock them up permanently.

Why are these monsters out walking the streets?

[Greenday]

I really wish the human governments were more about fixing problems than revenge punishments.

You really sound like my criminal justice teacher. I never really thought about it quite so much until this class. Look at how we still judge people from over a century ago for their actions. 100 years from now, they could quite possibly be looking at how we are dealing with criminals and they'll say, "Wtf were they thinking?" Sticking people in jail isn't doing crap. Rehabilitation needs to occur to actually make a difference.

[AdminAssistant]

Rehabilitation needs to occur to actually make a difference.

How do you rehabilitate Jeffrey Dahmer? The BTK killer? And IF you could rehabilitate them and release them back into society, they will not live long. A family member or loved one of one of their victims will likely see to that. That's one of the reasons that the Westside shooters (the 11 and 9 year old who committed the premeditated murder of 5 people and were both released at 18 with clean slates and new identities) were ordered upon their release to leave the state and never come back. One of them was stupid enough not to follow that advice and now whines about how nobody will hire him.

Sorry, back on topic. Can these people be changed or cured? I doubt it, honestly. Killing dozens of people, saving their heads, eating the rest...if that's not justification for the death penalty I don't know what is.

I'm more concerned about how the prison system affects non-violent offenders.

[anriana]

I kind of think that celebrity is the best status for a serial killer to have, in terms of public safety. I'm sure that most people in Japan know what that serial killer looks like and as he's so much in the public eye it would be much harder for him to kill someone again unlike a serial killer who fades into society after release.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Issei Sagawa isn't technically a serial killer (he only ever killed one person) so he's not really as dangerous as the likes of Metal Fang and Pedro Lopez.

I don't really know why cracked.com put him in the number one spot; I'd have picked Pedro Lopez cuz his crimes were worse. He raped and murdered several hundred young girls; and he's walking around free. O_o

[Sylvia727]

Jeffrey Dahmer, if I'm remembering my criminology classes correctly, was cracked from the beginning. As a teenager, he fantasized about knocking out a jogger so he could cuddle with the unconscious person. His cannabilism and lobotomies were crude attempts to have another human being stay with him. All of his pathologies were rooted in a desire for human contact that had no healthy way to express itself. Sad and horrific, yes, psychologically broken, yes, but I can't say that he's evil. Pure evil, in my mind, is the person who kills to see what it's like, just to watch their victim die. Perhaps in one hundred years, society will pick up on the symptoms of the next Jeffrey Dahmer and fix him before he injures others. Unfortunately, no one was able to help Dahmer when he was younger, and people died for it.

[Boozy]

I don't think every criminal can be rehabilitated. Hell, maybe most criminals can't be rehabilitated. I don't know.

But I don't understand why you'd kill someone when throwing them in prison for life solves the problem. How is someone in a super-maximum security prison a continued threat to society?

I suppose capital punishment is done for revenge. That's a disturbing thought to me; that a supposedly unbiased and rational justice system is swayed by emotion.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The primary concern must be to protect the public from these people. I cited Arthur Shawcross in my first post; he murdered two young children for sexual purposes, was convicted and put in prison. Years later, he was released; only to start murdering prostitutes. Had he been kept in prison for his first murders, he wouldn't have been able to do this.

Several serial killers have severe trauma in childhood; for example, sexual abuse, and/or blows to the head. I think, if I remember rightly from the book I read about Shawcross, that he was found to have a genetic problem; XYY chromosome.

If we're citing serial killers who were doomed from the start, I'd mention Carl Panzram. If you're interested in this kind of thing, you could read his autobiography. It's pretty disturbing in parts, but is a real eyeopener as far as delving into the mind of a serial killer goes.