Film and TV Dramas Regarding Real-Life Serial Killers Do Not Honor the Victims

**THIS ARTICLE COVERS HEAVY TOPICS SUCH AS MURDER AND RAPE**

It’s been nearly 35 years since the execution of mass murderer and rapist Theodore Bundy. You’d think that after that much time, his name would have died out along with him, but he’s still often a talking point for many in the true-crime community and those with an interest in the macabre. They say it’s to honor his victims by paying attention to the way they died and understanding why it even had to happen in the first place.

That might be the public reason, but deep down, it truly isn’t. Bundy’s case is fascinating, yes, but by giving him the attention all these years later, he’s getting exactly what he wanted.

In the months prior to his execution, Bundy was interviewed by Stephen Michaud in an effort to clear his name. Things went poorly initially- the man refused to get into any of the actual details that would spare him from a public execution- but eventually, Michaud got him to talk.

Once Bundy started, he would not shut up.

Bundy essentially confessed to all of his murders in the third person, referring to himself as a potential psychiatric patient instead of the real, breathing Theodore Bundy. His narcissism shone through to the extreme as he described in detail how he murdered and defiled over thirty women. Experts, years later, have estimated that the actual death toll was closer to one hundred.

When interviewed for an extensive documentary on Netflix, Michaud detailed the experiences he had while speaking to Bundy in prison. In his interview, he made one thing clear- Bundy didn’t care what was going to be in the book. All he wanted was the attention.

“Last time I talked to Ted I said, we’re going to publish a book,” recounted Michaud, “He said, 'I don’t care what you say as long as it sells.'”

With this information readily available to the public, one would rationally assume that giving Bundy attention now is just giving him what he wants. Yet, somehow, the media and community centered around his crimes refuse to acknowledge that.

In 2019, Netflix released a movie drama called Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron as Ted Bundy. The movie focused on the relationship Bundy shared with his ex-girlfriend, and while the intention was not outwardly stated to be romanticizing his behavior, the effects it had on the general public fit that motivation fairly well.

By casting a conventionally attractive man such as Zac Efron to play Ted Bundy, Netflix unintentionally formed a connection for many that associated Efron’s former charismatic, heroic portrayals with a serial killer and necrophiliac. And, instead of tarnishing Efron’s reputation, it did quite the opposite. Bundy’s manipulative charisma and conventional attractiveness were amplified and returned to the spotlight, causing more people to sympathize with him.

Now, everybody deserves the chance to be heard and seen. Everybody deserves the opportunity to right their wrongs and correct their behavior.

Bundy was given that opportunity several times.

He refused to take it, and he has no right to reclaim the attention that he so desperately sought after all these decades following his death.

The argument that this kind of behavior lifts up the victims and their families is also fundamentally flawed- Netflix released another drama recently regarding Jeffery Dahmer, another serial killer, rapist, necrophiliac, and this time, cannibal. Dahmer drilled holes in the heads of his victims to make them dazed and complacent, he drugged them and kept them hostage until they tried to leave, and his youngest victim, Konerak Sinthasomphone, was fourteen when he was held hostage and murdered.

The Dahmer case was arguably more controversial than the Bundy case. While Bundy had public support due to his charm and appearance, Dahmer was able to get away with his crimes due to being a white man in a predominantly black neighborhood.

During Konerak’s kidnapping, Dahmer drilled a hole into the boy’s head and drugged him heavily after taking sexual pictures. He was so confident that the boy would remain satiated that he drove to a bar and went to grab a drink- Shortly after Dahmer left, Konerak ran out into the street completely naked and in a drugged state. He was discovered by two African-American sisters, who called the police and reported a potentially displaced child. When the police got there, they refused to acknowledge their concerns and willingly returned Konerak to Dahmer after the man claimed Konerak to be his boyfriend.

As stated before, Konerak Sinthasomphone was fourteen years old.

He died shortly after.

Dahmer’s case in particular sparked much controversy due to him being a gay man taking advantage of a community that had already been taken advantage of by the system. When he was sentenced, the victims’ family members were given the opportunity to speak out against him, one of whom experienced a full-on breakdown and threatened to murder Dahmer in revenge for the loss of her relative. This was publicly televised, and her maddened grief was available to be nitpicked by the entirety of the United States.

Now, almost exactly thirty years from that sentencing trial, those wounds have been violently reopened by Netflix’s drama series, Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, as her struggles were portrayed by an actress and shown to a new generation of Americans who most likely would not have remembered her suffering.

None of the families was consulted due to Dahmer’s trial being considered public record.

Imagine spending the past thirty years grieving the horrific loss of your beloved family member, only for a multi-million dollar company to make even more money off of their (and your) suffering.

Clearly, this is unacceptable. Yet, Netflix has continued to get away with this.

There is nothing respectful about tearing open the emotional wounds of a victim’s family to make a profit. Konerak Sinthasomphone was the brother of Somsak Sinthasomphone, one of the only victims of Dahmer to make it out alive. The fact that the two were siblings was purely coincidental, but the public reminder of the abuse and murder of the Sinthasomphone’s sons would have no real words to describe how painful the experience would become.

The series attempted to give insight into Dahmer’s home life and provide reason for sympathy towards the mass murderer- While everyone deserves a chance at retribution, some people should just die out from the public eye in respect to the people that they hurt so horribly.

Last year, several people dressed up as Dahmer for Halloween, almost as if he were like Patrick Bateman or Ghostface. Jeffery Dahmer raped, killed, and cannibalized seventeen real men (some of which were too young to gain the title of man); real, breathing human beings that walked the same Earth that we walk today.

Jeffery Dahmer and Ted Bundy are not fictional characters who can have their actions justified by their backgrounds and physical appearances. Ted Bundy was not a troubled man who didn’t know any better about what he was doing- Jeffrey Dahmer was not a confused, gay baby who just wanted to be loved- Their mental illnesses did not excuse their behavior and the pain and trauma they inflicted on so many people. Large companies like Netflix need to stop treating them like sob stories and treat them like the real killers they were in real life.

However, Netflix has redeemed itself slightly by releasing their docuseries, The ___ Tapes : Confessions of a Killer. Three different series focused on three different mass murderers (John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, and Ted Bundy) in a way that not only honored the victims, but provided evidence in a way that did not glorify the killers’ actions. Those who were interviewed gave full consent and recounted their stories to the best of their abilities.

It was respectful. It was unbiased.

It was fitting to tell the tale of these three men who hurt the world so badly.

Netflix should be able to continue telling these stories in ways that honor the victims- At the end of the John Wayne Gacy tapes, the series implores families who could have potentially lost their sons to Gacy to talk to the police and see if they could identify their sons’ bodies with the leftover remains discovered in the man’s property. All three series feature tributes to the known victims, as well as tributes to the bodies discovered or implied, yet never identified.

That is how you honor a victim. Not by creating a false narrative that glorifies the behavior of their aggressor, but by presenting the information factually and in a way that requires consent from the victims’ family.

There’s still hope to turn this around. Documentaries and TV or Movie Dramas are different, after all. If people make it clear that they want nothing to do with the romanticization of these vile killers, then these companies will be less likely to violate the victims and their families further.

How do we do that, exactly?

Protest. Protest, protest, protest. Make a big deal about it online. Refuse to watch the content they produce, boycott, cause a fuss, and make it excruciatingly clear that this kind of behavior is unacceptable. It’s possible to bring positive change, but it will take a lot of work to get there.