Death on Display

Location where the bodies of Kristina Nelson and Brandy Miller were found.

By Paul D. Dail, SRK Podcast Associate Producer

For some serial killers, the urge to kill is just that: an urge, an impulse, an acting out. For them, the act is a release and can sometimes be followed by feelings of guilt or shame. Snake River Killer podcast host Brandon Schrand hinted at this when discussing the manner in which Kristin David’s remains were found. The murder itself was brutal, but it has been speculated that the method of disposal was meant to hide the act.

But for others, the killing is clearly a show, a statement, a performance. And not unlike artists and performers, these killers crave an audience. For some, seeing the results of their actions after the fact is enough, their atrocities spread across the pages of newspapers or television screens or the internet. Others, however, want to go beyond the anonymity.

The as-of-yet unidentified Zodiac killer is perhaps the most notorious example. The Zodiac killer has been connected to the deaths of at least five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969. There may be more, but I’ll come back to that shortly. What’s relevant here in the immediate is the killer seemed to have enjoyed taunting both the police and the public. After an attack on a couple (the second such attack) in 1969, the killer reportedly phoned police to not only alert them to the crime and to take responsibility for the 1968 murders.

The killer also sent numerous letters to police and media from 1969 to 1974, that typically began with the phrase: “this is the Zodiac speaking.” Some of these letters included ciphers or cryptograms, and along the lines of wanting to be in the public eye, the Zodiac killer threatened to kill again if the letters weren’t published. Decoded messages of interest included things such as “I like killing people because it is so fun,” and “I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me.” In one particular letter sent to the San Francisco chronicle, the killer further taunts law enforcement by including a sentence that starts “My name is” followed by a cipher that has obviously not yet been solved.

Although unique in the use of ciphers, the Zodiac killer is obviously not alone in the desire to be in the public eye. David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, left a letter to the NYPD near one of his victims and was reportedly pleased that it was published by newspapers. Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, also sent numerous letters to the media, going so far as to even suggest several monikers for himself. And while investigative techniques were crude during the time of Jack the Ripper and police received hundreds of letters from people claiming to be the killer, most scholars believe at least some of them came from the actual killer.

So what about the idea that whoever killed Kristin David and dumped her body parts into the river was trying to hide the act? While that may be true, perhaps it’s not so cut and dried between those who want the hide the results of their crimes and those who want to flaunt the deeds themselves. After all, there is also a difference between feeling shame and simply not wanting to be caught, and leaving physical evidence of a crime versus sending very carefully crafted clues to the media or police are two different things. Or being front and center in the investigations themselves.

Brandon has hinted that the primary suspect in the Snake River killings on two occasions put himself directly into the investigation, both in the initial searches for Christina White and later when he thought his stepson, Clint, was also missing, going to the police and then leading “a convoy” of law enforcement on his Harley.

Then there are the interesting details about Lance and his proclivity for playing darker roles, such as the character of serial killer Jonathan Brewster in “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

Actor Jonathan Frid playing Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic & Old Lace

There is no question that a number of serial killers have enjoyed the attention they received after being caught, so it stands to reason that a certain type of personality would like to play that role when it was still relatively safe to do so (as in, before they were caught).

These two examples also play into the overriding them of the dual nature of Lance, which Brandon has spoken of numerous times. In one instance, he is the hero leading the brigade on his all-American motorcycle, and the next minute, he is playing the role of a serial killer on the stage of the very theater where he very well might have killed three people.

A few final observations:

There has been discussion about the different possible modus operandi of the killer of Kristin David and the killer of Kristina Nelson and Brandy Miller. While this could be explained away, as Brandon has said, by the fact that the killer of Nelson and Miller was perhaps interrupted or rushed and forced to dispose of the bodies (also keep in mind that two possible victims have yet to be found), it’s also interesting to note that the murders allegedly connected with the Zodiac killer included both stabbing to death and shooting. One could say that these aren’t as drastically different as the possible victims in the Snake River case, but in my mind at least, there is a wide gap between shooting someone and repeatedly plunging a knife into their body.

Additionally, in another letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Zodiac killer, seemingly frustrated with the police’s lies, wrote:

“I shall change the way the collecting of slaves. I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I comitt (sic) my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc.”

Besides the admission of changing up his M.O., these last words are especially interesting to me considering some of the other possible victims in the Snake River case with “official” causes of death such as drownings and suicide.

Also of note along these lines is Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, who alternately shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, or strangled his victims.

Final note: there will be an entire episode on the Zodiac killer and the intersections between Lance and that case. So stay tuned.