[ Credit to  Djbarrett Photographer and Graphic Artist  for photo of Amanda Howard in this episode’s header image ]

Remember the first time you saw  The Silence of The Lambs ? I do. I was fourteen years old and I went to go see the movie with my dad at the local budget theater in Milwaukee in June of 1991. I remember the day well because I’d just picked up the latest issue of my favorite guitar magazine because I wanted to learn how to play “Bohemian Rhapsody”. But I also remember it because that movie blew my frickin’ mind. It was behind only  Ghostbusters and  Total Recall  (and both films we discussed this summer on the podcast, funny enough) in my mind as what I thought were the greatest movies of all time.

Silence of the Lambs

And there were lots of movies of which to compare it to. Serial killers became the villain of the decade. Even  The X-Files has  Silence of the Lambs  in its DNA. Fox Mulder was originally a serial killer profiler that was allowed to pursue his weird research on the X-Files because he was such an ace profiler. That’s right, in the 90s, being a serial killer profiler was a viable employment goal.

Here let me save you some profiling time. Single. White. Male. Usually have been picked up for a sex crime in the past.

Scream 

Kiss The Girls, 

Se7en

Copycat 

Demolition Man 

There was even a reaction to all these serial killers as villains with the switcheroo of them becoming the protagonist instead. While some works, like Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho  are meant to be completely satirical, others like  Dexter have the audience rooting for a vigilante murderer like he’s Batman. Indeed, they made a special action figure out of his “Dark Defender” alter ego.

We were lucky that Amanda was willing to join us at 5am Sydney time for the interview to share her expert knowledge on the history of serial killers and provide an insight into the reasons that as a culture, for some reason, we just can’t get enough of serial killers. One of the most interesting cases that she shares with us is Fred and Rose West, a British couple who many in the US are unfamiliar with, and their grotesque story shocked me.

Amanda has been a pen pal of some of your favorite crazies, from Family Man Charles Manson to Night Stalker Richard Ramirez and her exhaustive research has given her a unique perspective into why these people fascinate us, and she even makes some paranormal connections as well!

More information about Amanda Howard and her books can be found at her website,  amandahoward.com.au. If true crime isn’t your thing, she’s also written the Ritual  series of fiction books about an investigator named Kate Reilly who probes serial killers in a city called Somerset, which if the books are any indication, is the most dangerous place in Australia!