“All serial killers are white” is a myth.
According to the Radford University/FGCU Serial Killer Database, only 58% of all serial killers since 1900 have been white - disproportionately fewer than their historic share of the population.
Yet most Americans seem to be under the assumption that all serial killers are white.
The significance of this reality lies in the fact that this occurrence in a twisted way exemplifies the suppression that minorities face in American media. Unlike the “brute” crimes of non-serial murders, thefts, and assaults, for which minorities are overrepresented in media (MediaMatters.org), serial killers are considered more as celebrities, and thus reflect pop culture acceptance more than damaging crime associations.
Case 1: White serial killers are more marketable in American News Media. I cannot name a single minority serial killer, yet I am able to compile a list of the following white serial killers off the top of my head:
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- John Wayne Gacy
- Ted Bundy
- Gary Ridgway
- Ed Gein
- The BTK Killer
- Son of Sam
- The Zodiac Killer
- Aileen Wournos
The reasoning behind this is that white serial killers are heavily over-represented in American News Media due to their consumer appeal. Although minority leads are gaining traction, the preference for white leads is still apparent in mainstream sitcoms, movies, dramas and reality TV – and the same principle applies to these killer celebrities.
First page of Google Images search for "famous serial killers":
Case 2: A driving factor for white serial killers’ marketability is that their victims are disproportionately white. Killers tend to choose victims that are of the same race. According to criminal behavior expert Dr. Scott Bonn, nothing breaks American hearts more than the death of attractive white females, who are more likely to be covered than any other demographic group, and especially minority victims. This lack of American media coverage for crimes against minorities has notably been the subject of recent outrage.
Case 3: The real life misrepresentation of serial killer demographics has in turn perpetuated itself in fictional media. In film and television, serial killers reliably fill the trope of clever, white male antagonist. According to Radford, real serial killers are indeed nine times out of ten male, but again span all races. Yet delve into pop culture and it is quite apparent how whitewashed the serial killer genre has been for decades. For instance, infamous (white male) serial killer Ed Gein has become deeply ingrained in pop culture as the model for characters spanning across film [Leatherface/The Texas Chain Saw Massacre], literature [Buffalo Bill/The Silence of the Lambs], and television [Norman Bates/Psycho], unheard of for minorities. The occasional minority serial killer will appear in shows such as "Criminal Minds," but house hold names – think Hannibal Lecter – are almost always white.
It is thus that racial inequality in modern American media, driven by a still flawed societal perception of race, has preserved the timeworn myth that all serial killers are white. Strangely enough, mainstream minority serial killers could well be an indicator of minority acceptance in America.
