this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If people are wondering how someone can get away with killing so many people. Serial killers hunt inside their own communities almost exclusively. Otherwise they would not be able to blend in. What do you think American law enforcements reaction is to 60 dead or missing people in black communities?

[–] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Serial killer: exists

Cop: we need to stop this animal!

Serial killer: kills only black people in impoverished black community

Cop: oh never mind, it's someone else's problem

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

They typically victim blame and then don't investigate.

[–] numlok@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

93 confessed/admitted to, not 38.

[–] JayDee@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Reminder about Henry Lee Lucas, who would just confess to any murder because he kept being provided amenities in prison for doing so.

Do we have any significant evidence that Sam Little definitely committed these murders? To be clear, Little is definitely a serial killer. I just have my doubts that he isn't just being used as a scapegoat since HLL.

From Oxygen

The FBI confirms Samuel Little is “the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history,” and says he has been “matched to 50 cases” of the 93 murders he claims he has committed. The FBI also releases a timeline of Little’s life and crimes in hopes of identifying more of his victims.

So half are still unconfirmed, and the other 50 are 'Matched' to him by some unknown criteria, which involves sketches

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This list of serial killers is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Gotta catch em all!

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What is the difference between confirmed kills and admitted kills?

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

Evidence versus a confession.

[–] Bougie_Birdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago

Just because a killer confesses to killing someone, doesn't necessarily mean they did the deed.

If a serial killer is into notoriety and self promotion they might be willing to confess to anything. The police might want to shut a bunch of cold cases and the killer will happily admit to them, whether or not they were involved.

This famously happened in the case of Henry Lee Lucas

[–] Atin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] slickgoat@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I feel like he is stepping on a classic white dude's crime. Way to break the glass ceiling!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Maybe my brain is just really fucked up, but 60 seems really really low........

Feels like you could walk into any overly crowded place like a concert, or a sports game and beat that number in about 20 seconds with the right gun.

I would have expected the number to be in the hundreds, or even thousands. I thought it was going to be Timmothy McVeigh. Assuming we're disqualifying the 9/11 terrorists due to being not a singular person.

[–] i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 50 points 2 months ago

That would be a mass killing (many murders in one session) not serial killings (many murders spread out over time).

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

Those would be parallel killers rather than serial killers.

[–] c0smokram3r@midwest.social 11 points 2 months ago

I’d count OKC bombing & 9/11 as mass casualty events. Same as how opening fire in a public place is a mass shooting.

This piece of trash killed 60 women (iirc), mostly by asphyxiation, over decades. He would torture them by strangling them to near-death then let them breathe & do it again, not to mention the sexual assault.

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 8 points 2 months ago

Serial killers are ones who do it over a period of time in different locations. Mass murders do it all at once. The 9/11 hijackers weren't serial killers.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

It's just not the same thing at all.

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee -2 points 1 month ago

Yeah we know that americans are fucked in the head.

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are several serial killers that are in the hundreds, so no. No they are not.

[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He’s the most prolific in the US.

I’m sure that’s what OP meant but there are more prolific serial killers in South America, Asia, and Russia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_number_of_victims#Serial_killers_with_the_highest_known_victim_count

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They did say "in America". Perhaps he's towards the top for confirmed kills, though if we include credible suspicions, there are many terrible people that didn't deserve even the concept of freedom.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

"America" is a very common term for "The United States of America", particularly in Canada and the U.S.A.