Abstract
One of the key arguments of this work is that the reporting and later media responses to the crimes of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley form a template for the modern mediatised serial killing. Features of this template include giving the killers a nickname or nom d’guerre, a focus on the motivations of the killers, an examination of the killer(s)’ childhood to find some explanation of their crimes, the marginalisation of victims and their families and the fact that killers are afforded celebrity status. These themes are examined in more depth in subsequent chapters. This chapter provides an overview of serial killing as a phenomenon of modernity (Haggerty, Crime, Media, Culture, 5(2), 168–187, 2009).
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Cummins, I., Foley, M., King, M. (2019). Serial Killing: A Modern Phenomenon. In: Serial Killers and the Media. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04876-1_5
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