The Smiling Compulsion

I know I am not the only one... although many would shy away from the subject, acting repulsed or disgusted. What am I talking about... serial killers. I absolutely love reading about them and thinking about the thoughts that went through their minds. I will admit, my fascination goes a bit to the extreme in some cases, but I doubt I am the only one smiling when they read about them... at least I will admit my arousal. Some people just like to read about them, others have their favorite... personally, I have a rating system. What makes a five star serial killer? It's not the body count... no, no, no. It's the details... stepping outside of the box. What went on in those cozy little rooms? So who makes the cut, or incision perhaps, on my rating system? People like John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Albert Fish, Ted Bundy and Ed Gein (I know, technically Gein isn't a serial killer because he didn't have the numbers, but he had other things that brings him to the table). Gacy lived in a house with 28 rotting corpses under his floorboards. He used to quote scripture while he strangled and raped his victims, often stopping briefly to offer them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches... nice follow through, aren't we comforted now. Dahmer, Fish and Gein all practiced cannibalism, but Dahmer's reasoning behind this surpasses the others by leaps and bounds. Dahmer ate people to fill the emptiness inside himself. He believed that once he digested them, that he would never be alone again... I find this terribly romantic. Gein had furniture made out of body parts and kept a shoe box of vulvae to pleasure himself sexually. Which leads us to necrophilia... Dahmer, Gein, Bundy and Fish all took part in this forbidden pleasure. While Bundy and Fish just enjoyed it, Dahmer and Gein had their severed heads and shoe box to keep them company on those cold, lonely nights. These examples are what sets them apart from the rest of the serial killers... at least in my mind. It was something more than just killing people... it was an art form. And they did it with a smile on their face... the same one that lured those victims to their haunting end. A smile, much like the one I wear while I think of them... much like the one you may be wearing now.