April 29, 2008
"Smiley Face" serial killers
Criminal profilers say that the typical serial killer works alone -- the pathology doesn't seem to lend itself to turning it into a social event.
On the other hand, sometimes the experts allow themselves to be blinded to the possibility that a killer -- or killers -- elect to play by their own rules.
For instance, a couple of retired New York City homicide detectives are convinced that the Feebs (aka the FBI) are wrong, dead wrong, about the gumshoes' theory.
According to the detectives, more than 40 young men have been murdered in 25 cities -- across 11 states -- by a gang of killers roaming from New York to the Midwest, the slayings staged to look like suicides, the only clue that they're not what they seem to be: a smiley face drawn at the scene of each crime.
But the experts at the FBI think the theory is just a bunch of bunk.
[Kevin] Gannon and [Anthony] Duarte have done something that no other law enforcement agency has ever done in this case -- they looked at the big picture and visited each site where the young men disappeared.
While most local investigations focused on where a body was recovered, Gannon and Duarte tried to figure out where the body went into the river.
City after city, when they'd find the spot where the body went in, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face.
"It's very disturbing," Duarte said.
The paint color and size of the face varies, but the detectives are convinced that it's a sick signature the killers leave behind.
They found one eight years ago in Wisconsin and then others in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Then most recently, they believe they've found one in Iowa.
In Michigan, they found something strange among the group's graffiti: the word 'Sinsiniwa.' They couldn't figure out what it meant until a few months later when they arrived in Dubuque, Iowa to investigate the death of Matt Kruziki.
His body was found on Sinsiniwa Avenue. Plus, they've discovered the nicknames of people in the group at more than one location.
It sounds like something out of a Hollywood thriller -- or an episode of Law & Order, but I'm not surprised; the existence of evil is a given to me, its handiwork visible in bodybags the world over.
Mull over the fact that child molesters prey upon kids, steal their innocence. Not content to destroy a youngster's psyche, some molesters then graduate to serial killer, murdering their victims. Once you ponder that fact, that evil men willing prey on the most defenseless members of society, nothing is surprising, no depravity beyond the realm of what is possible.
What does make the heart sink is the nature of the symbol present at the murders, the smiley face. It speaks of soul-deadening irony, the snarkiness of a generation that finds humor in everything, sneering hipsters who take nothing seriously, laugh at conventional morality, snort in disbelief at middle-class conventions.
I think I've just described most of the audience of The Daily Show and Bill Maher's series on HBO.
How long before these killings are the punchline to some wink-wink, nudge-nudge joke? I suspect the laughter's already begun, the too-cool-for-school crowd yucking it up over the drawing technique of the killers.
Happy Tuesday.
Posted by Mike Lief at April 29, 2008 06:42 AM
| TrackBack
Comments
A truly terrifying story. The retired detectives have mortgaged their own homes to finance their investigation. While my instincts tell me that a murder conspiracy of this scope and magnitude would be very difficult to carry off without detection, the facts seem compelling enough to justify a serious look by federal agents.
Posted by: Bill H at April 29, 2008 09:30 PM