Since a dramatic peak in the 1980s, serial killers in the U.S. like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have been in decline for three decades. Experts have a few theories that can help explain why.
lot of comments in here talking about how they're just doing their kills some other way: cops, mass shootings, not getting caught (this one is the most braindead). But everyone is ignoring how we've largely eliminated regular lead exposure that used to be the norm. that shit makes you go fucking insane.
I don't like the way policing has turned many first world countries into semi-police states ... being a person of colour (like me) automatically makes you questionable with the law no matter what you're doing. I know from experience.
But after saying all that, mass murderers and killers are probably lesser now because of better policing, mass surveillance, intercommunications, mass data collection, profiling, forensic science and monitoring. It's a lot harder now than in was in the 60s, 70s or 80s for a random stranger to wander from place to place committing murders and not getting caught. It doesn't mean it's not possible ... it's just that in our day in age of technology, it's a lot harder.
Leaded gasoline production and learning about the butterfly room in the lead producing part of the factory was fucking terrifying. That shit was so dangerous to workers.
[...] House of Butterflies—a building for tetraethyl lead synthesis—so named because its workers were known for brushing hallucinated insects from their bodies.
Absolutely chilling. The rest of the article is good too. A great example of how championing for positive change, though difficult and frustrating, can have huge huge positive effects. So glad to have heroes like Needleman in the world.