A UK criminologist and true crime writer has revealed the perfect 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 murderers, says the web has turn into a robust tool for criminals to discover victims.
“A number of men [are] just like the serial killer John Edward Robinson, the primary killer to make use of the web for serial killing purposes,” Berry-Dee told The Sun of Robinson, who has been linked to the murders of eight women from 1985 to 2000.
These killers typically go into online chatrooms “as another person,” masquerading as a businessman, for example, to lure “lonely women back to his place” and strike.
“People underestimate the web. It becomes a trawling hunting ground for predators,” Berry-Dee said. “Whether it’s scammers or men who prey on lonely hearts [of] women…it goes way back.”
Before dating apps, there have been “lonely hearts” columns in newspapers, where people could advertise they were available in the market for love.
Harvey Carignan, generally known as the “Want-Ad serial killer,” used paper adverts to seek out victims in need of assistance. He died earlier this month in prison, where he was serving time for murdering three women in Minnesota and Alaska nearly 50 years ago.
The “Lonely Hearts Killers,” Raymond Martinez Fernandez and Martha Jule Beck, found their victims from newspapers that advertised singles, and are believed to have killed 20 people — though the pair were only convicted of 1 murder.
They were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Latest York in 1951.
From print to pixels, the “MOs” have remained consistent through the many years, Berry-Dee claims.
“The web is de facto just an extension of that, it hasn’t modified. It’s just the tactic of doing it’s electronic now,” he said, calling the web a “dangerous place.”
Chase Seneca used Grindr, a well-liked dating app for gay men, to locate victims, mirroring the gruesome crimes of notorious serial killer Jeffery Dahmer.
Seneca pleaded guilty last yr to kidnapping and attempting to murder a gay man, and he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Authorities say he intended to eat and preserve the bodies of his victims, as Dahmer had done.
John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted of killing 33 young men and boys within the Chicago area within the Nineteen Seventies, targeted male prostitutes, teenagers who desired to work for his company, and hitchhikers.
“Gacy knew where to look,” Berry-Dee said.
“He knew where these weaker individuals are.”
Despite technological advancement, the approach serial killers take has remained consistent, finding their “hunting ground like an animal” where they know “prey” might be, Berry-Dee said.
Lying in wait, the killers are “patient” until it’s time to “strike.”
“They know where their intended prey swim in shoals, they sniff it out they usually’ll watch they usually’ll wait,” he continued, “after which they’ll select the weaker certainly one of the herd or the one who has left the group, the one who’s walking to a taxi within the rain and he’s waiting.”
