Online Sites Where Crime Does Pay

by Dean Terry
Convicted murderers can still make a killing - on the web.

Online, you can find Items like oil paintings, signed hand prints, pastels and poems by some of histories most notorius serial killers up for sale or bid. These gruesome collectors items are known as murderabilia.

Artwork produced by convicts such as cult killer Roch Theriault can be found at websites such as http://www.murderauction.com and http://www.supernaught.com

Theriault is serving a life sentence after being convicted of brutal murder in 1993. He was the charismatic leader of a tiny religious group near Burnt River, Ontario between 1977 and 1989. Theriault chopped off the hands of one of his concubines and killed his wife by disemboweling her.

Theriault appeared to have a grand vision of himself as a religious leader. From 1977 to 1989, he led 38 people, including more than two dozen children, at a commune near Burnt River, Ont. The children were likely his offspring from nine women.

Theriault was accused of a number of other abuses. He once used a meat cleaver to chop off a cult member’s hand and part of her arm. Another woman said he ripped out one of her teeth with pliers.

Theriault is still visited regularly by some of his former cult “wives,” who have moved to New Brunswick to be close to him and have borne him more children following conjugal visits.

The art being auctioned is abstract or contains inoffensive images such as flowers, and dates from October and November 2007. Minimum bids range from $20 to $500.

In the olden days, convicts made license plates. But now convicted felons like Lee Malvo, the sniper who terrorised motorways around Washington, DC, whiles away the hours sketching self-portraits that he sells on the web.

The schizophrenic cross-dresser, serial killer and self-proclaimed human-blood drinker Hadden Clark sells drawings of Bugs Bunny.

One collector of these morbid artifacts boasts of having commissioned the killer-cannibal John Wayne Gacy to draw a portrait of his own two-year-old son.

 

And if you are interested in such sicko souvenirs, you can find them on the internet. There are websites which cater to a specialized class of collectors who are looking for crime memorabilia, which has generally been banned from mainstream sites such as EBay.

MurderAuction founder Tod Bohannon makes no apologies, saying it’s merely a branch of the well-established hobby of collecting celebrity autographs.

Bohannon’s fascination with serial killers started at age 13 when he saw Helter Skelter, the TV movie chronicling the serial murders perpetrated by Charles Manson and his followers.

“I was really intrigued by the power that Charles Manson had over people,” says Bohannon. “After watching that, I’d seen him do an interview with Geraldo Rivera. I was amazed by him, and his power that he had over people.”

In response to his questions about Manson, Bohannon’s mother, a criminal attorney, and father, a police detective, suggested their son write to the convicted murderer. Manson eventually replied, and Bohannon was hooked.

“The hobby, for me, has evolved,” says Bohannon. “I started getting autographed letters and then art work.” His personal collection now contains thousands of pieces, including, he says, artwork from numerous serial killers, grave stone rubbings, photos, and fragments of murderers’ fingernails and hair.

Bohannon refers to the pieces in his collection as “true crime artifacts.”

“I just try to get to know the inmates. To me, it’s neat. But it’s not like I am glorifying it,” he said. “I consider some of these people my friends.”

Ask him to scan the curio cabinet where he stores his collectibles, and he’ll tell you he’s got “a lot of hair, a piece of Ed Gein’s headstone, the last letter Manson sent me, a radio Gacy had in jail.”

Other items, his most cherished, he won’t disclose. Though Bohannon will say this: He hopes to be buried in his pair of Hillside Strangler Kenneth Bianchi’s cuff links.

Bohannon says serial killers are akin to other public figures, people we can relate to in some way but who also live in a separate moral universe and do things that most of us could never consider doing.

While the sale of items closely associated with individuals who are notorious for committing murderous acts is deeply offensive to the families of victims, Bohannon says, “If my site’s hurting you, just don’t go to it.”

If you don’t like it, he says, don’t visit.

Murderabilia’s devotees defend their fascination by pointing to the countless TV shows and movies about crime and killing. Collecting, they say, is just an extension of a natural interest in the infamous, who are undeniably compelling.

Copyright © 2008 Our Strange World

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