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Although the grisly exploits of iconic serial killer Jack the Ripper<\/a> have been a staple \/ inspiration for writers and filmmakers in written, film, and TV forms, as a child, my first exposure to the legendary saga was the Yorkshire Ripper<\/a>, aka Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women and was treated by the media as a contemporary incarnation of JTR – perhaps the first serial killer to be exploited by 1880s media in a manner that hasn\u2019t changed much in the passing decades.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As sensational criminal figures, serial killers came into their own courtesy of increasingly sophisticated media outlets whose timing and reportage met the needs of a curious general public that may have wanted to look away from graphic images, but absorbed the unfolding details as they became more frequent, more grotesque, and gained more attention, especially on TV.<\/p>\n The biggest star among the pantheon of ill ghouls is\u00a0Jeffrey Dahmer<\/a> (arrested in 1991) \u2013 once caught, his near-victims, associates, and supposedly certified criminologists popped up on talk shows like Geraldo<\/strong> (1987-1998), and perhaps it’s no surprise the frequency of reported cases not only inspired the serial killer genre in film, but spawned shows where the worst in human cruelty was reduced to weekly incidents akin to hit & run mysteries.<\/p>\n The Oscars awarded to Silence of the Lambs <\/strong>(1991) legitimized the serial killer film from exploitive to an intelligent, provocative, grisly sub-genre of the thriller & suspense genres, and made ephemeral stars of behavioral scientists who penned books of their intense work (Robert Ressler\u2019s Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI<\/strong>) and brought classics like Elliott Leyton\u2019s Hunting Humans<\/strong> back into print.<\/p>\n This was a really clever and fun night – pity DARK SKIES was axed after a season.<\/p><\/div>\n Documentaries and recurring talk shows kept the genre active, and TV\u2019s Millennium<\/strong> (1996-1999) gave viewers weird and disturbing tales of torment, while NBC\u2019s Saturday night \u201cThrillogy,\u201d which included\u00a0Dark Skies\u00a0<\/strong>(1996-1997) and\u00a0The Pretender<\/strong> (1996-2000), ended with Profiler<\/strong> (1996-2000) and a weekly murder \/ investigation \/ resolution template, somewhat normalizing the existence of the serial killer to another bogeyman who existed in large urban, suburban or even small towns (or farms, like quiet, weird, and depraved Ed Gein, the inspiration for the novel & films in the Psycho<\/strong> franchise).<\/p>\n Even the first season of\u00a0Black Book<\/strong>\u00a0in 2012 padded its main storyline of a mysterious know-it-all bartering his freedom for a list of wanted international goons by taking sudden right & left turns, and subjecting the heroine to the odd serial killer.<\/p>\n You could argue JTR has gotten lost among the more prolific killers in real reportage and vivid films, notably Se7en<\/strong> (1995), in which the seven deadly sins are dramatized as horrific murders; or the idiotic Saw<\/strong> franchise, which made torture porn another new sub-genre.<\/p>\n JTF has appeared in B&W and colour films, but perhaps among the best was the 1988 Michael Caine true crime drama, a 2-parter that purported to have been drawn from the latest assessment of facts, and promised the most up-to-date guestimate of the killer\u2019s identity. If the mini-series’ resolution didn\u2019t match later findings, the filmmakers evoked the carnage of the case, as in one fast zoom-in on a cadaver that was patterned after an especially gruesome crime scene still. Anchor Bay U.K. released the mini-series on disc with a commentary, but recent Blu-ray editions seem to have ignored that tasty extra (perhaps due to licensing fees).<\/p>\n In spite of the striking graphics, this moment never happens. Utter bullshit.<\/p><\/div>\n The 1959 rendition<\/a> has perhaps faded from discussion because it\u2019s in B&W, and without major stars, it became a footnote among other film adaptations, with its score co-composed by The Fugitive<\/strong>\u2019s Pete Rugolo retaining modest longevity among jazz, soundtrack collectors, and fans of RCA\u2019s magical Living Stereo recordings on LP and subsequent CDs.<\/p>\n Directors Monty Berman and Robert S. Baker may be unfamiliar to crime and horror fans, but screenwriter Jimmy Sangster is very much known for a string of classic Hammer shockers, spanning the revival of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy, and tales of pirates, paranoia, terrible Tongs, maniacs, and near the end of his career, contributing to the CanCon ordure that is Phobia<\/a><\/strong> (1980), John Huston\u2019s worst mortgage movie of the 1980s.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/FamousCrimes.jpg\")
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