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The Zodiac Killer claimed to have murdered 37 people. The killings, which paralyzed Californians with fear for years, began in 1968, and soon after mysterious letters were sent to news outlets, many featuring cryptograms.
From this point on, the killer started communicating via letters and greetings cards. Each of these messages was concluded with the crossed-circle design pictured above. Later it became known as the Zodiac signature. These letters as well as some coded messages were sent by the killer to different, well-known newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times Herald.
Many of these notes still haven’t been decoded, and the murders have yet to be solved. See the coded messages at Environmental Graffiti. Link
In 1920s, mutilated bodies of murdered children turned up in the streets of New York City. The crimes were so horrific that they were quickly attributed to a boogieman.
The truth was more mundane but much more disturbing – the murders were perpetrated by a man named Albert Fish, who aptly earned the nickname of the Vampire of Brooklyn:
At this time, Albert H. Fish was working at the nearby YMCA and the center for mentally challenged children. He was fired when “things about these children came out”. He was quoted as saying he “liked killing disabled and black boys because no one would miss them”.
February 11, 1927 Billy Gaffrey was snatched from a hallway in an apartment building. A witness said “it was the Boogieman that got him”. Albert Fish had taken the boy back to the boarding house he was staying at and got right to work. Using a saw, knife, and cleaver he dismembered and drained the blood of Billy Gaffrey. He drank the blood and saved the meat for food. He took the ears and face and made it into a stew with carrots and onions and his behind was roasted in the oven.
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Researchers using a criminology method made an interesting observation about great white sharks. It turns out the hunting habits of the great whites were similar to human serial killers.
The scientists adapted geographic profiling, a mathematical technique used to track down serial criminals, to investigate the hunting habits of great whites.
They observed the location of 340 shark attacks and used the data to locate the sharks’ “anchor points”.
In criminal investigations, a series of linked crimes – usually murder, rape or arson – is used to determine the rough location of the perpetrator’s “anchor point”. Most often this is a home or place of work.
Serial killers or rapists tend to operate within a confined area around the anchor point, so knowing its location allows police to avoid being swamped with suspects and prioritise those who live or work in certain areas.
The shark scientists linked the “crimes” of great whites off the South African coast – attacks on seals – and found that the sharks had a well defined search base.
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The Nazis at Buchenwald concentration camp did it. And so did serial killer Ed Gein. Now, Andrew Krasnow is making sculptures and lampshades out of human skin, all in the name of art:
His works include human skin lampshades – a direct response to the belief that similar items made from the skin of Holocaust victims were found at Buchenwald concentration camp.
Using skins from white men who donated their bodies to medical science, he has created freak versions of mundane items including flags, boots and maps of America – in effect using skin like leather. His work, he says, is a commentary on human cruelty and America’s ethics and morality. [...]
Gallery owner Robert Devcic said Krasnow uses only white skin because much of the suffering in the Americas has been caused by white people. "He uses skin to make the point that suffering is universal," he said. "It is tanned using the same process that you’d use for an animal skin."
