Thank you very much for this essay on Kürten. This was, again, a great read.
Gennat's (false) assumption that the murderer must be mentally ill was certainly influenced by the Zeitgeist, according to which many things sexual which were out of the ordinary were considered mental illnesses or symptoms of such (including homosexuality, masturbation, prostitution, etc.).
By the way (since I have written about geographic profiling before): The murders described in Gennats article are a good database for practicing GP. Kürtens adress is known, and can be used to evaluate the geographic profile. This is particularly interesting since Gennats article does not contain all crimes commited by Kürten. Of course, a few crime sites can only be approximated, as the urban environment changed since then. But it is a nice practice.
Shocking story about this man. I think in trying to portray these individuals as monster as clearly deviant whether inside/out we also seek to distance ourselves from the randomness of life. If my neighbor can be a serial killer then I am never safe -- if killers are monsters then we can more easily identify them, we can more easily remain safe. Conversely, if killers are just like the rest of us -- then any one of us could engage in such activities... and that may also be hard to grapple with.
The finishing detail about his curiosity of his own death is really rather dark.
Thank you very much for this essay on Kürten. This was, again, a great read.
Gennat's (false) assumption that the murderer must be mentally ill was certainly influenced by the Zeitgeist, according to which many things sexual which were out of the ordinary were considered mental illnesses or symptoms of such (including homosexuality, masturbation, prostitution, etc.).
By the way (since I have written about geographic profiling before): The murders described in Gennats article are a good database for practicing GP. Kürtens adress is known, and can be used to evaluate the geographic profile. This is particularly interesting since Gennats article does not contain all crimes commited by Kürten. Of course, a few crime sites can only be approximated, as the urban environment changed since then. But it is a nice practice.
Shocking story about this man. I think in trying to portray these individuals as monster as clearly deviant whether inside/out we also seek to distance ourselves from the randomness of life. If my neighbor can be a serial killer then I am never safe -- if killers are monsters then we can more easily identify them, we can more easily remain safe. Conversely, if killers are just like the rest of us -- then any one of us could engage in such activities... and that may also be hard to grapple with.
The finishing detail about his curiosity of his own death is really rather dark.