When I was getting into the shower, I thought about the time someone said I have really nice skin. And at the time, my first thought wasn’t "Wow, what a nice compliment" it was "Are you a serial killer? Are you thinking about skinning me?" And as always, that makes me think of Buffalo Bill from "The Silence of the Lambs" movie with Jodie Foster. (I have never read the book series. Sorry.)
So when I got in the shower, I was half-thinking about the movie. And it came to me, that if Buffalo Bill had been more discerning about his choice of victims, he never would have been caught.
It was only because he grabbed the daughter of a senator that the FBI bothered to get serious about him serial killing all those women.
If he hadn’t grabbed her, and instead had chosen a different victim, he would have been able to make his woman suit, and maybe a woman jumper and a woman romper and maybe a couple of blankets and who knows what else.
He was in it to skin it.
And if he hadn’t taken the senator’s daughter and brought all the official attention on himself, Hannibal Lecter never would have had the chance to escape from prison. Because it was only because of the senator trying to butter him up that Hannibal was moved to the less maximum security prison where he was able to escape.
That poor guard wouldn’t have had his face ripped off if it wasn’t for Buffalo Bill.
And yeah, yays to Clarissa Darling (lol) for catching Buffalo Bill… But Hannibal Lecter was let out on the loose, and I think that’s a net negative when you really think about it. Because Buffalo Bill was staying local to the United States, and Hannibal was happily traveling from country to country and back again, leaving a bunch of newspaper serial killer names in his wake.
I guess it was a big shock when they realized like 5 big serial killers all turned out to be Hannibal Lecter.
And him being on the loose was because of a senator abusing her position to get special treatment for her daughter’s abduction case.
Buffalo Bill could have saved himself a lot of trouble and dog worry if he had simply chosen a "better" victim. And she would have been better off if she hadn’t been so kind to a "struggling" stranger.
Seriously: I was a little kid the first time I watched "The Silence of the Lambs" and I was like "No, don’t do it!" toward the screen when SHE CLIMBED INTO THE TRUCK.
Even as a kid, I realized that was a very big mistake. That all he had to do was close the door and now he’s got a girl trapped was like "Oh. No. Now you get to live in a well like in ‘The Ring’ but without superpowers."
Anyways, my big realization about "The Silence of the Lambs" is that it’s a movie about the abuses of power. That until the victim was someone "important," the police and the FBI and everyone else didn’t care. They would find another body, realize the victim was a nobody, and just shrug off their murder because it didn’t matter.
It wasn’t until someone rich and powerful was intent on getting their person back that all of a sudden a serial killer being on the loose became Serious Business.
And it’s a movie, and it was the early 90s, but it’s still pretty much the same now. And there have been multiple historical instances where basically the same situation has happened and nobody has cared until someone "important" became involved.
One of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims escaped and was running down the street naked, and the police came and Dahmer went up to them and spun some story and the police gave the victim back to him. A naked teenaged boy with marks on his body and terror in his eyes, and the police were like "Here, trustworthy looking white man, here’s this person of color. Do with him as you will." And Jeffrey Dahmer ate him.
It boggles the mind.
Like, historically speaking, serial killers are not smarter or smoother or more charming or more manipulative than other people. They were able to get away with their crimes because of systemic stupidity in law enforcement.
"You’re a white guy. You can’t possibly be the child eating monster terrorizing the city." And when they have a family and a house? "Wow. There’s no way it could be you. You have a kid. A wife. A job. You wouldn’t be able to have any of those things if you were the guy abducting people off the street and chopping them into little pieces after you’ve done terrible things to them for days and days. Like, how could you possibly have the time to do all those terrible things when you have a family you largely ignore and leave to your wife to care for? I mean, you come home every night at 8 o’clock and you leave at 7 in the morning. When could you possibly have the time to be a serial killing madman? Naw. You look innocent to me. Here, take back this terrified looking 14 year old that you’ve obviously drugged to incoherence. Keep a better watch on him next time."
Ah. It’s terrible being woke.
~Harper Kingsley
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