Warning: Some material in this blog may be disturbing to sensitive readers.

Do serial killers or murderers exhibit common behaviors? Based on the hundreds of crime dramas I've watched, I believe they do.

Now, I'm no expert, but I thought it might prove interesting to see if convicted serial killers and murderers ever disclosed their interest in pornography. I did this because one of Net Nanny's goals is to block Internet porn and pornography addiction is top of mind at our company.

Viewing pornography doesn't necessarily cause violent behavior; however, I believe that if someone has aggressive or violent tendencies, viewing violent pornography may exacerbate those tendencies by giving the viewer the idea that fantasies might be "normal."

The following is a summary of direct quotes or information about various convicted serial killers from the past.

• Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer of Wisconsin, speaking of his routine before hunting for a victim said, “Just…using pictures of past victims…the pornography videos, the magazines…” Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 boys and men.
• Ted Bundy, convicted rapist and mutilation murderer of Washington, said that hard-core pornography had a "crystallizing effect" on his violent tendencies and his acting out during the 1970s.
• Arthur Gary Bishop from Utah, executed for raping and murdering five boys in the 1980s, said pornography's "effect on me was devastating."
• Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer, murdered at least 53 women and children. "…with pictures of naked women in his prison cell, he blamed pornography as the cause of this troubles."
• Wisconsin resident Ed Gein, the first serial killer, aka The Butcher of Plainfield, and inspiration for movies such as Psycho, Maniac, and The Silence of the Lambs "accumulated a library of anatomy books, porn magazines, horror and adventure novel…" in the 1950s.
• John Wayne Gacy's wife filed for divorce in 1976 because "Gacy's moods had become erratic, and [she] had found Gacy's pornographic magazine collection which was all centered around young boys." Gacy killed at least 33 young men and boys in Chicago, Illinois.
• The nickname BTK (bind, torture, kill) was given to Dennis Rader, a Kansas native, who killed 10 people. "He kept meticulous records of his fantasies and crimes in what he called his 'mother lode' collection of pornography."
• David Berkowitz killed over a dozen people in New York. He joined a cult and was introduced to "drug use, sadistic pornography and violent crime." The cult also created and distributed child pornography.
• Richard Ramirez was exposed to explicit pictures of his cousin "raping Vietnamese women and severing the heads of Vietcong soldiers." He in turn killed at least 13 people in California.
• Edmund Kemper, a California serial killer and necrophile known as the Co-ed Killer, used pornography and detective magazines for erotic stimulation; he picked up women who were hitch-hiking, then killed, and raped them post-mortem.
• Ottis Toole from Florida became obsessed with gay pornography. He "committed his first murder at the age of 14." During his killing spree, accompanied by Henry Lee Lucas, he killed 108 people.
• The Grim Sleeper, Lonnie Franklin Jr., "had a penchant for prostitutes and pornography." A resident of LA, he would pick up prostitutes, take pornographic pictures of his victims, then strangle them to death. His killing spree included 11 murders.
• In the 2013 murder case of Tia Sharp, a 12-year-old girl from the UK, the judge declared to murderer Stuart Hazell, "the records of your internet searching on your mobile phone make abundantly clear that you were looking out for pornographic pictures of pre-teen girls."
• In 2013, on the day Mark Bridger, a UK native,abducted April Jones, he "viewed online photographs of a young girl and a pornographic cartoon depicting...rape."

The use of pornography likely will not result in the casual viewer to commit violent acts; in the cases cited above, their behaviors included pornography use. I believe pornography can have serious and lasting affects on behavior.

Note: Opinions expressed in this blog are my own.