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  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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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.”

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    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.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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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

  3. #3
    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/

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