A British criminologist and true crime author has revealed the right hunting ground for serial killers – and it’s closer to home than you may think.
Christopher Berry-Dee, who has come face-to-face with notorious killers, says the web has turn out to be a powerful tool for criminals to discover victims.
“Many men [are] like serial killer John Edward Robinson, the primary killer to make use of the web for serial killings.” – Berry-Dee said The Sun Robinson, who was linked to the murders of eight women between 1985 and 2000.
These killers typically enter online chat rooms “as another person”, posing as a businessman, for instance, to lure “single women back to their place” and attack.
“People underestimate the web. It becomes a hunting ground for predators,” Berry-Dee said. “Whether or not they are scammers or individuals who prey on lonely hearts [of] women… it goes back a good distance.”
Before dating apps, there have been “lonely hearts” columns in newspapers where people could advertise that they were in the marketplace for love.
Harvey Carignan, often known as the “Wanted List Serial Killer,” used paper ads to search out victims in need of help. He died earlier this month in prison where he was serving time for murdering three women in Minnesota and Alaska nearly 50 years ago.
“Lonely Hearts Killers” Raymond Martinez Fernandez and Martha Jule Beck found their victims in newspapers promoting singles and are believed to have killed 20 people – although the couple were only convicted of 1 murder.
They were executed in Sing Sing Prison in Recent York in 1951
From print to pixel, Berry-Dee says the “MO” stays consistent for a long time.
“The web is actually just an extension of that, it hasn’t modified. It’s just that the strategy of doing it’s now electronic,” he said, calling the web “a dangerous place.”
Chase Seneca used Grindra popular gay dating app for locating victims, reflecting the gruesome crimes of notorious serial killer Jeffery Dahmer.
Seneca pleaded guilty last 12 months to the kidnapping and attempted murder of a gay man and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Authorities say he intended to eat and preserve his victims’ bodies as Dahmer had done.
John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of killing 33 young men and boys in the Chicago area in the Nineteen Seventies, attacked male prostitutes, teenagers who desired to work for his firm, and hitchhikers.
“Gacy knew where to look,” Berry-Dee said.
“He knew where the weaker people were.”
Despite advances in technology, serial killers’ approach stays the identical, finding their “hunting ground like an animal” where they know there may very well be a “victim,” Berry-Dee said.
While waiting, killers are “patient” until it is time to “strike”.
“They know where their intended prey is swimming in the shoals, they are going to sniff it out and watch and wait,” he continued, “after which they are going to pick the weaker of the herd or the one who has left the herd. group, the one who goes to the taxi in the rain and waits.