Killers with Cameras: How to Understand Murderers Who Video Record Their Crimes

• In Event: Rare Homicide Types

Abstract

The rational murderer is expected to hide their crimes. Without privacy, the murderer surely knows that they will be caught in the act, charged with breaking the law, and then punished. We conclude that concepts like privacy, secrecy, invisibility, anonymity, represent some of the murderer’s primary resources. While these conclusions are technically sound in some cases, they do not account for a different genus of murderers who are interested in killing while in view. Contemporary examples of this murderer include the killer with a camera who video recorders their crimes with a smartphone camera. The result of this murderer’s exhibitionism is raw footage which allows viewers to see, from a murderer’s point of view, actions like the aiming of a gun and the pulling of a trigger. In order to expand our understanding of crime and its relationship to visibility, killers with cameras require study. This paper contributes to this study as it analyzes murders committed by Vester Lee Flanagan II. The result of this analysis are insights into the motivations of killers with cameras, their decision to record their own crimes, and what a killer’s footage reveals about the relationship between surveillance, visibility, and crime.

Author

• Ajay Sandhu, University of Alberta