Excellent article! I agree wholeheartedly — too many killers are able to skate by either because they themselves have privilege (i.e., middle-class or higher white guys) or because their victims aren’t considered worthy enough to believe or be fully investigated. Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial rapist of gay men in Milwaukee for years before he started killing — he would drug men and rape them when they were unconscious. It’s unclear if any of the victims went to the police, but it’s very likely they didn’t, considering how the police treated them.

And then there are the creeps who assault women in various ways, and either get off with a slap on the wrist or absolutely no punishment at all, then escalate their violence into murder. Scott Beierle, who shot up the yoga studio in Florida, is a prime example.

BTW, Gary Ridgeway may have a challenger for the title of America’s most prolific serial killer. In December, Samuel Little confessed to murdering 90 women across the US. I wrote about it earlier: https://medium.com/@delanirbartlette/the-top-12-murders-and-crimes-of-2018-pt-2-437467aeab78