by Erin Allen

Created on: January 21, 2009

Darkness has always lain in the hearts of men. Every human being, from the loftiest king to the lowliest beggar, has a part inside them that is capable of the unspeakable. Any man who says that they've never thought of killing someone is a liar. It is those that have crossed that boundry...those who have taken that step into the heart of darkness that fascinate us.

Jack the Ripper is especially appealing not only for the darkness he represents, but for the mystery that appeals to all of us. Here is a monster, lurking in the darkness, preying upon women of questionable moral character. He slaughtered them, left them, and disappeared back into the shadows without so much as a by-your-leave. He left no traces of himself. No clues as to who he was, where he came from, or where he was going. He became a cultural "bogeyman" during the nineteenth century, and his appeal hasn't waned simply because he was never caught. He will always be the unanswered question in the minds of all who know of the horrible crimes he committed.

But serial killers who are caught are just as fascinating to us. Many people, while the thought may have been there, would never kill one person, let alone many. It is simply against our moral nature to take the life of another human. So when we hear that a person has killed many, we watch in fascinated horror and ask ourselves how this could be. Is there something about this person that drove him to it? Is that thing, that darkness within ourselves? We look for clues not only to identifying what could be in others, but what could be lurking beneath the surface of our own skins.

People also have a deep seated need to make sense of horrible things. We try to justify, to rationalize, to make excuses for unimaginable horrors. And what is more horrible than a person who repeatedly takes the lives of others? We want to make sense of the senseless. We want to reassure ourselves that this could never happen to us. To show ourselves that we are normal, that this type of behavior is a fluke. So we watch, over and over again, praying that we never see ourselves in these killers.

Finally, people have always been drawn to the shadows. The allure is the mystery. The ladies in the backyard gossiping over the fence are no different than those who chase the ambulances. Whether we like to admit it or not, we like to see the seedier parts of the world. We are drawn to the horrors like moths to the flame. We slow our cars down at the scenes of traffic accidents, hoping for a glimpse of blood, fascinated by the chaos that once was order. We see these things, and immediately feel better about our own lives. No matter what horrors are occurring around us, one glimpse of someone else's suffering makes our troubles not so bad. It's human nature.

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