SOURCE: "The New Founding Fathers: The Lore and Lure of the Serial Killer in Contemporary Culture," in Journal of American Culture, Vol. 13, No. 3, Fall, 1990, pp. 1-12.

[In the essay below, Caputi discusses the place of serial killers in contemporary culture.]

Jack the Ripper

He was the first.

               —cover blurb from a 1988 collection of stories on the Ripper

Ted Bundy—A Man With Vision

—A Man With Direction

—A Prophet of our Times

               —flyer advertising a student program on Bundy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, April, 1989

Freddy's [from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" Series] fame—make that notoriety—was confirmed by the National Coalition on Television Violence, which in a recent survey found that children ages 10 to 13 are more familiar with Freddy and his Paramount counterpart Jason of "Friday the 13th" than with such famous historical figures as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King, Jr. Jason was...