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Thread: Death Row Artwork/Poetry/Books

  1. #1
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    Death Row Artwork/Poetry/Books



    Paintings by serial killer John Wayne Gacy are going up for sale in Las Vegas.

    The pictures show other paintings by Gacy, but not the ones going in the charity auction.

    But the exhibit: "Multiples: The Artwork of John Wayne Gacy" is under fire.

    The charity that it's supposed to benefit, the National Center for Victims of Crime, says it did not agree to be a beneficiary of the sale.

    The organization told CNN that it sent a cease-and-desist letter to the gallery owner.

    Among the paintings expected to be displayed is a self-portrait that Gacy gave to pen-pals.

    Gacy, known as the 'Killer Clown,' was convicted of raping and killing 33 boys and young men.

    He created the 74 pieces of art while he was on death row awaiting his 1994 execution.

    http://www.todaysthv.com/news/articl...e-in-Las-Vegas

  2. #2
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    US State Marshals sell ‘Murderabilia’

    The ‘Murderabilia’ Market

    The Smith Corona typewriter went for $22,003. The hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses fetched $20,025. The 20 personal journals were a steal at $40,676.

    ltogether, in an online auction that ended Thursday, the United States Marshals Service sold 58 lots of property that belonged to Theodore Kaczynski, a k a the Unabomber, who during a 17-year terror spree sent package bombs that killed three people and injured 23. The sale, ordered by a Federal District Court judge in Sacramento, Calif., yielded $232,246.

    The items put to auction were the latest high-profile examples of “murderabilia” — artifacts of notorious killers that end up in private hands. In the case of the Unabomber, the auction’s proceeds will go to his victims and their families.

    But that is not typical. Almost always, the sellers are in the business for their own profit. And that makes for some strong feelings.

    “It’s a sick and despicable industry,” said Andy Kahan, director of the Crime Victims Office for the City of Houston and the individual who coined the word murderabilia to describe it.

    Acquiring the physical artifacts of convicted killers is nothing new. In 1958, a carnival barker paid $760 for the 1949 Ford sedan of Ed Gein, the inspiration for the Norman Bates character in “Psycho.” In 1991, Anthony Pugliese III, a Floriday real estate developer, plunked down $200,000 for the .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver that Jack Ruby used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald.

    But these were rare, isolated examples. Now, propelled by the Internet, the murderabilia market is growing. Mr. Kahan estimated that there were perhaps half a dozen murderabilia vendors in the United States who advertise online. They include serialkillersink.com, murderauction.com, and supernaught.com.

    Just type in the address and behold: A holiday card signed by Joel David Rifkin, convicted of the murders of nine women in New York City, available for $350. A shirt worn by Richard Ramirez, a k a the Night Stalker, can be yours for as little as $1,400. Paintings by the executed serial killer John Wayne Gacy are especially popular and pricey; a portrait of his alter ego, Pogo the Clown, is currently going for $19,999.

    Why would anyone want this stuff?

    “Each piece tells a story,” Joe Turner, a British collector who owns a Gacy painting and a lock of Charles Manson’s hair, wrote in an e-mail. “At some point these killers were normal people who were children and were loved by people, then somewhere along the line they changed.”

    The families of murder victims are generally appalled by this ghoulish trade. “I’m totally against it,” said Harriett Semander of Houston. In 1982, her 20-year-old daughter, Elena, was murdered by Coral Eugene Watts, a confessed serial killer . Years later, she discovered that a letter written by Mr. Watts was being sold online.

    “It glorifies the criminal,” she said. “It brings back the grief.”

    For the moment, however, survivors can do little to combat the trend. So-called “Son of Sam” laws are designed to prohibit criminals from profiting directly from the sale of their personal effects or stories. But there are few prohibitions against vendors who sell murder-related material on the secondary market. According to Mr. Kahan, only eight states — Texas, California, Utah, New Jersey, Florida, Alaska, Michigan and Montana — forbid the vending of murderabilia. An anti-murderabilia Senate bill sponsored last year by John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, is languishing.

    That’s fine with Eric Gein of Jacksonville, Fla., who is the proprietor of serialkillersink.com. Mr. Gein (a nom de plume in “an homage to Ed Gein”) disputes the notion of a difference between the court-ordered Kaczynski auction and private vendors.

    “I believe in this business there is no gray area, only black and white,” he said. “It’s O.K. for the government to sell this stuff but we can’t? I don’t understand anyone who would say, ‘Well, these proceeds are going to the victims’ families.’ They’re going to be sold and sold and resold.”

    Mr. Kahan acknowledged the problem. “This is the ultimate catch-22,” he said. “Yes, it’s going to happen. The murderabilia industry is growing by leaps and bounds despite attempts to clamp it down. But as long as it’s going to happen, let it be done with the primary benefit of it going to the victims.”

    Source


    I can´t believe that they did it. The murderabilia industry shouldn´t be fueled by the state. It´s a shame that private persons earn money with crimes, but the state shouldn´t do it. If they don´t know what to do witht he items they should give it to museums or destroy it.

  3. #3
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    A Killer Business Comes at a Price


    The entrepreneur behind "murderabilia" site SerialKillersInc.com is selling dirt from the yard where Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell buried his victims.

    Entrepreneur Eric Gein makes money by selling “murderabilia”—objects associated with various slayings and those who commit them—online. But to protect his family, and his company, he has to use a fake name while conducting his business dealings.

    The businessman is catching fresh hell this week for his latest notorious memorabilia offer: $25 per gram of dirt recovered from the home of serial killer Anthony Sowell, who was convicted last month in the killings of 11 women, whose remains were dumped around his property in Cleveland, Ohio.

    Gein is selling the soil on his website SerialKillersInk.net, where browsers are invited to buy a piece of "true crime history." The dirt is valuable by virtue of the fact that Sowell’s victims were buried in it, Gein told The Plain Dealeron Tuesday. “We live in a sick world,” he said.

    Yes indeed, said Denise Hunter, a sister of one of Sowell's victims. She told WJW TV that Gein “has no morals,” and added she hoped people wouldn’t buy the dirt that Gein’s associate dug up and placed into bags, according to a report.

    This isn’t the first time that Gein’s unsavory business model has made news. In June, an auction for the belongings of Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, brought in more than $200,000, with the proceeds going to the families of his victims. His 17-year package-bomb spree killed three people and injured 23 others.

    Andy Kahan, director of the Crime Victims Office for the City of Houston and the person who first dubbed homicide-related goods “murderabilia” told the New York Times that there is demand for goods such as Kaczynski's hoodie, which went for more than $20,000. The article points out that besides Gein’s site, there are at least two others: MurderAuction.com and SuperNaught.com.







    “The murderabilia industry is growing by leaps and bounds despite attempts to clamp it down. But as long as it’s going to happen, let it be done with the primary benefit of it going to the victims,” Kahan said.

    In the Times article, Gein is quoted as saying that the items are going to get sold and resold, and he doesn't see a real difference in who is doing the selling.

    In an interview last summer with Folio Weekly, a Northeast Florida magazine, Gein, who wore a Charles Manson T-shirt and an armful of pentagram, goat's head and skull tattoos, explained that he adopted his pseudonym to pay homage to the real Eric Gein, whose crimes inspired the characters of Norman Bates in Psycho and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

    He said that the act of reaching out to people on death row and selling what they have—like the silky red thong with a saucy note from death row convicted killer Christa Pike (which was selling $350) and the letter from Gaineseville serial killer Danny Rolling on how to control mood swings through bicycling and jogging ($100)—didn’t bother him much.

    But he uses a different name when he speaks to the press because he wants to protect his family and he doesn't want upset family members of murder victims who may want to come after him.

    “It’s not the serial killers I’m afraid of,” he told the magazine. “It’s the victims’ families.”

    Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs...#ixzz1W2o2jcSP

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death Row Artwork


    The entrepreneur behind "murderabilia" site SerialKillersInc.com is selling dirt from the yard where Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell buried his victims.

    Entrepreneur Eric Gein makes money by selling “murderabilia”—objects associated with various slayings and those who commit them—online. But to protect his family, and his company, he has to use a fake name while conducting his business dealings.

    The businessman is catching fresh hell this week for his latest notorious memorabilia offer: $25 per gram of dirt recovered from the home of serial killer Anthony Sowell, who was convicted last month in the killings of 11 women, whose remains were dumped around his property in Cleveland, Ohio.

    Gein is selling the soil on his website SerialKillersInk.net, where browsers are invited to buy a piece of "true crime history." The dirt is valuable by virtue of the fact that Sowell’s victims were buried in it, Gein told The Plain Dealeron Tuesday. “We live in a sick world,” he said.

    Yes indeed, said Denise Hunter, a sister of one of Sowell's victims. She told WJW TV that Gein “has no morals,” and added she hoped people wouldn’t buy the dirt that Gein’s associate dug up and placed into bags, according to a report.

    This isn’t the first time that Gein’s unsavory business model has made news. In June, an auction for the belongings of Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, brought in more than $200,000, with the proceeds going to the families of his victims. His 17-year package-bomb spree killed three people and injured 23 others.

    Andy Kahan, director of the Crime Victims Office for the City of Houston and the person who first dubbed homicide-related goods “murderabilia” told the New York Times that there is demand for goods such as Kaczynski's hoodie, which went for more than $20,000. The article points out that besides Gein’s site, there are at least two others: MurderAuction.com and SuperNaught.com.







    “The murderabilia industry is growing by leaps and bounds despite attempts to clamp it down. But as long as it’s going to happen, let it be done with the primary benefit of it going to the victims,” Kahan said.

    In the Times article, Gein is quoted as saying that the items are going to get sold and resold, and he doesn't see a real difference in who is doing the selling.

    In an interview last summer with Folio Weekly, a Northeast Florida magazine, Gein, who wore a Charles Manson T-shirt and an armful of pentagram, goat's head and skull tattoos, explained that he adopted his pseudonym to pay homage to the real Eric Gein, whose crimes inspired the characters of Norman Bates in Psycho and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

    He said that the act of reaching out to people on death row and selling what they have—like the silky red thong with a saucy note from death row convicted killer Christa Pike (which was selling $350) and the letter from Gaineseville serial killer Danny Rolling on how to control mood swings through bicycling and jogging ($100)—didn’t bother him much.

    But he uses a different name when he speaks to the press because he wants to protect his family and he doesn't want upset family members of murder victims who may want to come after him.

    “It’s not the serial killers I’m afraid of,” he told the magazine. “It’s the victims’ families.”

    Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs...#ixzz1W2o2jcSP

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    A killer exhibit: John Wayne Gacy’s artwork is now on display

    Convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy, community socialite that he was, would have loved the exhibit opening this week at the Contemporary Arts Center space. His own artwork, which he created while on death row, is being featured in a solo show that’s touted as the largest exhibition of the killer’s work. Additionally, visitors will pay $5 on opening night in a space that typically hosts free shows.

    If Gacy hadn’t been executed 17 years ago, for raping, torturing and killing more than 30 teens and young men, he might also appreciate that proceeds from sales and entry fees will benefit the nonprofit Contemporary Arts Center. Imagine the thank you notes he’d receive from this community were he alive. Imagine the outrage from his victims and their families.

    Advocates of the show, coordinated by Arts Factory owner Wes Myles, defend the exhibit as something good coming from something bad, a point not easily digested by critics. The CAC’s exhibitions committee resigned, believing it to be a wholly inappropriate, if not sickening, fundraiser. There was the embarrassment when Las Vegas Weekly reported that the National Center for Victims of Crime refused to accept funds from the exhibit—after organizers promoted the group as a major recipient. There was the phone call I received from a woman identifying herself as the sister of one of Gacy’s victims, wanting to know what, if anything, she could do to stop the exhibit. Nothing, apparently. Gacy’s big night in Las Vegas is unstoppable.

    http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2...rk-now-displa/

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    A killer exhibit: John Wayne Gacy’s artwork is now on display

    Convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy, community socialite that he was, would have loved the exhibit opening this week at the Contemporary Arts Center space. His own artwork, which he created while on death row, is being featured in a solo show that’s touted as the largest exhibition of the killer’s work. Additionally, visitors will pay $5 on opening night in a space that typically hosts free shows.

    If Gacy hadn’t been executed 17 years ago, for raping, torturing and killing more than 30 teens and young men, he might also appreciate that proceeds from sales and entry fees will benefit the nonprofit Contemporary Arts Center. Imagine the thank you notes he’d receive from this community were he alive. Imagine the outrage from his victims and their families.

    Advocates of the show, coordinated by Arts Factory owner Wes Myles, defend the exhibit as something good coming from something bad, a point not easily digested by critics. The CAC’s exhibitions committee resigned, believing it to be a wholly inappropriate, if not sickening, fundraiser. There was the embarrassment when Las Vegas Weekly reported that the National Center for Victims of Crime refused to accept funds from the exhibit—after organizers promoted the group as a major recipient. There was the phone call I received from a woman identifying herself as the sister of one of Gacy’s victims, wanting to know what, if anything, she could do to stop the exhibit. Nothing, apparently. Gacy’s big night in Las Vegas is unstoppable.

    http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2...rk-now-displa/

  7. #7
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    Convicted Baton Rouge serial killer sells artwork from prison

    BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -

    South Louisiana serial killer, Derrick Todd Lee's artwork has somehow slipped from behind his cell at death row. It is now on sale to the public and the mother of a victim he is suspected of murdering is outraged.

    Lee's drawings are listed for sale on a website that advertises and sells inmate artwork. Angola Prison Warden Burl Cane says he was surprised to hear Lee's work was posted there.

    Derrick Todd Lee, a.k.a. the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, was born November 5, 1968 in St. Francisville, LA. He was linked by DNA to the deaths of seven women in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas. Lynn Marino, whose daughter Pam Kinamore was one of the seven murdered, says the website creators have gone too far.

    "Look at this, original water colors, done by serial killer Derrick Todd Lee," said Marino.

    Marino and her friend Audrey Sanchez are in utter shock over the inmate artwork displayed on serialkillersink.net. One of Lee's pieces has grabbed Marino's attention, a painting of a panda bear eating bamboo, signed Derrick Lee. "I tell ya, the Panda looks like him. Look at those eyes, Really?" said Morino.

    Lee was convicted in 2004 for the murders of Geralyn DeSoto and Charlotte Murray Pace. When tried for DeSoto's murder in August of 2004, because she had not been sexually assaulted, he was only charged with second degree murder. He we convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Then in October, he was convicted for the rape and murder of LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace. Lee was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

    The panda picture is listed for sale at $25. There is also a second drawing on the site by Lee which depicts two swans. According to the site, it is out of stock. "He's using our tax money to draw these drawings, which infuriates me," said Sanchez.

    "How did he manage to get this done in a secure cell, 24 hours a day?" said Morino.

    Angola Prison Warden Burl Cain says the people who run the website tricked Lee into sending them his artwork. "They conned him out of it because they sent a picture of a pretty little girl who said she wanted to be his pen pal. She sent $20. He sent artwork, never realized it would be on the internet," said Cain.

    Serialkillersink.net cofounder, Erin Gein, says that is not true. He claims Lee sent his partner, Jessika Miller, a letter soliciting them to see his artwork.

    "They just ought to stop it. Why does anybody need any bit of memorabilia from a killer. It's insane!" said Sanchez.

    The people behind the website claim it is just business. To Marino, it is heartless. "Unless something affects you, you think you understand and can be compassionate. But unless you walk in that person's shoes, you have no idea," said Marino.

    Cain says the prison has now put some extra measures in place to keep inmate art from being sold. For example: Cain says all money wired into the inmates' expense accounts will be traced.

    By the way, there was a bill introduced to Congress last year that would prohibit the sale of inmate art, but it didn't pass. Marino says she is going to put pressure on our state lawmakers to do something like that here.

    Most of the murders connected to Lee were committed in the area around LSU, and two of the victim's bodies were discovered at the Whiskey Bay boat launch, about 30 miles west of Baton Rouge, just off I-10.

    During the manhunt for Lee, John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, named the Baton Rouge Serial Killer to his Top 10 Fugitives of 2002 at #3.

    http://www.wafb.com/story/16635022/c...rk-from-prison

  8. #8
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    Condemned Murderers Turn their Crimes into Cash

    In Texas, death row inmates are locked up 23 hours a day. But that doesn’t stop some of them from publishing books behind bars.

    FOX 26 News has found two condemned murderers selling their poetry online, with a little help from European pen pals.

    The latest is Gerald Marshall, whose books are offered for sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, among others.

    In 2003, Marshall tried to rob a Whataburger restaurant in northwest Houston. He ended up shooting to death Christopher Dean - a 38-year old employee with a mental disability - because Dean was unable to open the safe.

    Marshall and his accomplices left without stealing a dime and Christopher Dean was laid to rest wearing his Whataburger uniform.

    Dean’s mother is disgusted by the thought that her son’s killer could be profiting from his prison prose.

    “I can't even go past Whataburger no more,” says Rose Barton. “I can't even go. I pass by there, I close my eyes. I even get queasy in my stomach knowing it's there.”

    In November, FOX 26 News reported on Texas death row inmate Tony Medina, who had just published a single book of poetry.

    But Gerald Marshall’s online offerings far overshadow Medina’s.

    “He's got books, he's got poetry, he's got artwork, he's got a very prolific website,” says Houston victims’ rights advocate Andy Kahan. “So he's a one-man capitalistic enterprise on death row.”

    In Texas, condemned inmates are not allowed to run a business from their cells.

    But unless they receive money from book sales, their published works are simply considered free speech.

    Read more: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news...#ixzz1mYScvIgp

  9. #9
    missymiss
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    Hey everyone! I know y'all have missed your very fave crazy girl!

    Ok, so yes, Todd Lee's artwork was being sold online -- what I love about this whole thing is that the victims family is outraged and surprised that he has been able to draw or paint in his cell but.....every year, Angola has a rodeo. Yep, a rodeo where inmates are the cowboys and people come from all over to go to this thing! In addition to that, any inmate who wants to sell something (woodwork, artwork, etc) can put it out at a booth (the Correctional Officers obviously facilitate this) and they can sell their stuff to the public! And yes, they get paid....and guess who else gets paid? The Warden! Right -- he gets like a 40% cut of everything to pay for prison stuff. Which, I think, is a good thing so that means it's less that the tax payers have to pay!

    Here's my deal though --is the prison freaking out because Todd Lee was selling artwork online, and therefore not giving the Warden his cut? Because in every article I've read, Burl Cain makes it seem like he's just so sorry that any of his inmates were ever allowed to sell anything anywhere and he's going to make sure it's stopped asap! Sorry, but that sorta sounds like a hypocrite to me. Cain has been letting his boys sell anything they want for 14 years at the rodeo....

  10. #10
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    Death Row Artwork

    Serial killer’s origami artwork up for auction

    Paper origami butterflies made by a serial killer are being sold for £57 on a macabre murder website.

    Charles Ng, formerly from Longton, near Preston, is currently awaiting execution by lethal injection on death row in California after butchering two baby boys, six men and three women in 1983.

    A notorious website called Dark Vomit - Serial Killer and True Crime collectibles - is selling a set of two autographed origami butterflies made by Ng in his cell.

    Each butterfly includes his signature and they come with the envelope in which he sent them, on which Ng has written “To My Best Friend Ever.”

    On the back of the envelope he writes: “From: Charles Ng, P-46001, San Quentin, CA 94974”

    Ng, born on Christmas Eve 1960, was raised in Hong Kong by a Chinese family, but came to school in Lancashire in 1977.

    A pupil at Bentham Grammar School near Lancaster, he spent holidays with his uncle Rufus Good and his wife Bernie at their home in Station Road, New Longton.

    It is 13 years since Ng was convicted of murdering 11 people in a death and torture spree in America with the help of accomplice Leonard Lake.

    Ng, now 51, met Lake in 1983. They filmed themselves raping and torturing their victims at Lake’s remote log cabin 150 miles east of San Francisco.

    The crimes hit the headlines again in 1985 when Lake committed suicide after being arrested, and Ng was caught shoplifting at a hardware store in Canada.

    Ng was charged and subsequently convicted of shoplifting, felonious assault, and possession of a concealed firearm. He was sentenced to four-and-half-years in a Canadian prison.

    After a long extradition battle, Ng was handed over to the U.S. and was convicted of 11 murders in 1999. His $14m trial was one of the costliest in California’s history at the time.

    Ng is being held at California’s San Quentin prison.

    http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/seri...tion_1_4264684

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