John Wayne Gacy’s paintings. Ed Gein’s Ghoul Car. Serial killer memorabilia is nothing new- nor are the legion of men and women who ply them, dating back to carnival shows in the 1940s and 1950s. But in the age of eBay and Pay Pal, access- to say nothing of the thousands upon millions raked from the enterprise- has made them more visible, even if the general public disapproves of them and the entrepreneurs who sell them.
Meet James Gilks. The part owner and proprietor of the Serial Killer Calendar website has made a profitable, if unusual business out of distributing a plethora of video tapes, T-shirts and other merchandise devoted to individuals like Gacy, Gein, and Jeffery Dahmer (the most popular are a series of jailhouse interviews with Charles Manson and the Manson family). Yet Gilks doesn’t think of himself as a ghoulish businessman, as much as a hobbyist with an entrepreneurial bent.
“I have always been interested in serial killers,” he said in an email interview. “I think most people are whether they like it or not. They [the serial killers] are our Ids and are the very real manifestation of our darkest nature. It’s like staring at a fire.”
Despite being in a niche market, Gilks has managed to do well for himself. He’s recently done business with the creators of NBC’s Law and Order, as well as inked a deal with distributors to have the Serial Killer Calendar distributed to chain stores across the country. A series of serial killer trading cards have also hit the street.
The same couldn’t be said of him two years ago. Although there were plenty of web sites devoted to criminals of various persuasions- mobsters, femme fatales, etc- very few were devoted specifically to serial killers. It frustrated him.
“To me, it seemed strange that there were no companies producing serial killer themed merchandise,” he said. “Personally, I find them more interesting than lighthouses or puppies.”
Partnering with Kris Saunders of The PURPLE, Inc, Gilks decided to take the initiative and create a website of his own. And thus, Serial Killer Calendar debuted on the web. Since then, Gilks has branched out into other topics as well, such as the occult- there is a section devoted to Marshall Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate- but more importantly, the site has become a hub, not just for folks like him but criminologists, artists, and even academics hoping to keep up with the latest research in serial murders. Not surprisingly, the site has created a lot of interest–to say nothing of controversy.
For his part, Gilks is adamant in defending his business.
“The killers on our site and in our products are horrific and their deeds inexcusable,” he said. “We are simply offering a form of information and artwork. There are enough books written on the subject. What we do is offer customers a medium that is not so overdone.”
While there are few laws restricting the sale of such material over the Internet other than the Son of Sam law, the matter reignited a general interest among media scholars and academics as to what role, if any, the media plays in glorifying horrific acts.
For Jody R. Roy, a professor of communication at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, the issue of the media’s role is incidental to the public’s desire to know why serial killers are who they are.
“The media is a business,” she said in a phone interview. “They don’t put stuff on TV that doesn’t sell. And that includes the nightly news. And we have to look beyond the media- the media is simply delivering the content that we prove by our behavior that we will watch over and over again.”
As the array of mediums devoted to graphic violence- especially serial killings- mushroom, few can deny that shows like Dexter and the Saw movies aren’t having an effect on the general population, especially teenagers and young adults. Yet as the line between attraction and repulsion blurs, the question of whether graphic programs have a deleterious effect has largely become one of context.
According to Roy, one of the few studies to look at the issue impartially took place several years ago. So long, in fact, that Roy doesn’t remember the exact date it was published. An academic at the University of California Riverside, Ellen Wartella decided to investigate why young children responded more to aggressive images from television or video games.
She took a representative sample of children and split them into three groups. The control group got to see the nonviolent material- Barney videos, Ghost Writer episodes, etc. The others got to see somewhat more violent material, PG-13 movies, for instance, and still another got to see hardcore material.
What she found was surprising. Despite having been exposed to some of the most violent material imaginable- shootings, stabbings- some of the children in the hardcore group displayed less aggression than their peers in the PG-13 group. Startled by her findings, Wartella wondered why that was so. What she discovered was that the kids were not reacting to the material itself, but to its context.
“There is a big difference between a video game which depicts an act of killing, or a first person video game which puts you in the role of the serial killer with people laughing and cheering you on.” Roy said.
While there is little research examining the role of serial killer merchandise, Roy expects the findings to be the same. Yet Hollywood isn’t waiting up- according to Gilks, Law and Order contacted him in part because they wanted to display his products in an episode featuring a serial killer who is inspired by the Serial Killer Calendar. Despite working two sides of a gruesome issue, Roy and Gilks agree that even though many of the culprits Gilks profiles are either dead or imprisoned, as long as interest in them continues, their deeds will live on.
“Any story about a serial killer reads like a novel,” Roy said. “The thing is not true about a bike theft.”
–John Winn