You found Wisconsin's local music authority. This is magsync radio. We are local music. Hey,
everybody. Welcome back to magsync radio. I'm rocker here with Jane. Hello.
On the phone with us. We have a very special guest. You know, Halloween is coming.
And of course, you know, everybody dresses up like one of their favorite Syria colors, right?
Criminal criminologist producer bestselling author and serial killer expert Dr. Scott Bond has
profiled, corresponded with and interviewed some of the most infamous killers of all time,
including Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Scott provides insights into the motivations,
fantasies and compulsions of infamous serial killers and explains the differences between
psychopaths and sociopaths. It's something I really need to know, right?
On the phone with us right now is author bestselling book Why We Love Syria Killers. The curious
appeal to the world's most savage murderers is Dr. Scott Bond. Scott, welcome to magsync radio.
Well, thank you for having me on. It's great to be here. Did you get off the road? Okay.
Yes, I did. I pulled over on the side of the road. Yeah.
Oh, for me. I'm all yours. Where are you right now in the world?
Well, I'm in peak skill, New York. I'm actually doing my one man show serial killers with Dr. Scott
Bond here tomorrow night, right here in peak skill, New York. Awesome. I will be talking about that in
a minute. Scott, did you grow up watching horror movies on Saturday nights? Yes, and not just
Saturday night, sometimes Friday night and Thursday night too. I knew it. It had to be that way.
Well, Scott, tell us your backstory. I mean, who is Scott Bond and how did he get started as an
author and an expert on serial killers? Well, I sort of, you know, it's interesting because I come
at this from both the criminal logical perspective as well as the media perspective and my dad was a
radio DJ. He's passed away, but he was also involved in television in the news. He was a
local audio engineer in Cleveland, Ohio. And so I sort of grew up, you know, in and around media,
in and around news. And I was always fascinated by broadcasting. I was always fascinated by human
behavior, why people did what they did. And yes, to answer your question, I love monster movies.
And I was always drawn to the monsters who seemed to have some sort of a human appeal.
And would have wanted a man to be like, I'm sorry, I had a distraction. And who had some sort of
a human aspect to them and human characteristics that you can identify with. Like, for example,
King Kong, the misunderstood gorilla, Dracula, the misunderstood vampire. And I just thought that
I thought that these individuals, these, you know, monsters, but with human qualities were
fascinating. So later on, I got into media myself initially in New York City. And I was involved
with the news operation for a while at NBC Television Network in New York. And during the 90s,
and it was there that I saw how cases like OJ Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Johnny Versace
murder, and of course, Jeffrey Dahmer, became larger than life and how these individuals that I
came to call celebrity monsters would just dominate the airways. And after 9-11, I left the
advertising field. And I went on a personal journey, interested in studying justice and criminology.
Got a PhD. And I became a college professor. And it was there that I, I began studying serial
killers. And the whole thing just sort of came together for me because as I saw how Jeffrey Dahmer,
Ted Bundy, and some of the individuals that we've been talking about have become these like
iconic symbols of evil in our society. And I was fascinating by why they did what they did.
And I was also fascinated by why we seem to be compelled by them.
Now, Ted Bundy, Ed Gehn, Jeffrey Dahmer, what's the biggest myth about serial killers that you
debunk? One of the things that I do in my presentation, as you said, is I debunk a number of myths
about serial killers. And the one that stands out as probably the most important and profound
is the fact that serial killers are not one size fits all. They are not all the same. They do not
all look and act like the Buffalo Bill character in Silence of the Lambs. That's often a stereotype
that I get. They come in every race, ethnicity, gender, IQ, social status, you name it. But there
is one and only one thing that unites all of them. And that is a fantasy based obsession to kill
that becomes a visceral hunger inside of them, spit beckons. And after years and years of nurturing
it and fantasizing about it, only a killing of a complete stranger will safeiate that hunger,
that need. And that is the only thing that unifies them. And so the popular myth is always sex,
sex, and more sex. And they all look and act the same. That's just absolutely not true.
Wow. Is there a story that comes to mind as fascinating that you learned about some of our
homegrown serial killers here in Wisconsin like Ed Gehn or Jeffrey Dahmer?
Well, Jeffrey Dahmer, certainly. Well, Ed Gehn, he was really better known, I would say,
as a body snatcher. Technically, he was a serial killer. Technically, he was because he killed two
women. Oh, I thought he only killed one. Who's two? Two women, two women. Yeah. And so technically,
according to the FBI's definition, at least that would make him a serial killer. But as we said,
he's really better known as a grave robber and body snatcher. But what I was going to say to answer
your question is really more about Dahmer. And Dahmer falls into a particular type of
category, subcategory of serial killer, which is known as a hedonist lust killer. And in Jeffrey
Dahmer's sadly twisted mind, he truly believed that he loved these 17 young men that he ultimately
killed. And his goal was try to actually keep them alive. He's experimented with also bizarre,
terrible ways of trying to keep them alive, including drilling holes in their head and filling
their head with detergent and bleach and things like this. But he was trying to create a sex
weight. He was trying to actually create a living sex zombie. But in his mind, once again,
he actually believed he loved these men. So when they ultimately died and they did die,
he thought to himself, is there a way that I can possibly keep them with me forever because they
mean everything to me. And that's where he came up with the cannibalism. He believed that if he ingested
them, digested them, that they would become part of him and be with him forever. So that was truly
his motivation. And that was his motivation both in killing as well as in cannibalism.
Why does Wisconsin have so many? Well, you know, it's they have several of the most well-known.
But in terms of just per capita, probably Long Island New York as well.
Pizza California, huh? Yeah, that's what I was thinking California, but I guess I was wrong.
You got you got Robert Schulman, you got Joel Rifkin, you got the Long Island serial killer that
I was very involved. In that case, profiling the you know, the unknown killer at that point,
who now allegedly at least is Rex Schulman. So yeah, Long Island actually has more than its fair share.
So, but yeah, Wisconsin certainly does have a couple of the, you know, if there was a mount
Rushmore, probably a couple of them would be up there. Oh, man. Why is the public fascinated with
the killer killers? Why do we make them famous? I mean, is this like shot in fraud? Yeah, well,
you know, this, this, this why I'm hoping people when I, we know I do come to your area now.
It's March 4th of next year that people will come out and see the show because I spend probably
the most of the time in the evening talking about this. And serial killers, what I believe,
is they appeal to our empathy. I believe that that we humans are empathetic creatures and we
are drawn to both the good and the bad and the world, the dark and you know, the light and the
good and evil. But it seems so many times that we're particularly drawn almost like moths to the
flames, the things that are larger than life and could do us harm and even kill us. And there are
people who are drawn to, you know, following storms and tsunamis and then earthquakes. Others
are fascinated by great white sharks. We have, we have a shark week on the Discovery Television
network every year. Well, that's what we also have a serial killer week on the oxygen network every
year. And so I actually say, and there's some right out of my, my, my presentations, but I believe
that a serial killer like Jeffrey Dahmer actually has three things in common with another predator
in nature, the great white shark. And the three things are that they are both extremely rare,
extremely exotic and deadly. And in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, he also ate people. So that's four
things. Oh, wow. Oh, that's, that's crazy. Who's the bigger demographic of followers of
serial killers, men and women? By far women, 75 to 80% of my audience everywhere that I go to
speak is comprised of women. And my friends at the various television networks that that program
only true crime like investigation, discovery, and oxygen tell me that the audience is exactly the
same, 75 to 80% women. And I think a lot of it has to do once again with the empathy factor,
emphasizing with the victims, also seeking to understand the predator. And in most of these
shows, 48 hours, 2020 date line, and all the podcasts more often than not the, the abductee
or the murdered victim is a woman. And I think that women identify with that fact there, but for
the grace of God, go eye, you know, in the victims shoes, and they want to understand the mind of
the predator. And in order to feel safe and secure, I had a woman just the other night actually,
in Clayton, New York, say to me, Scott, you know, the last thing that I want to do is become a victim
of the next pet Bundy, but I certainly don't want to date him or marry him either. So give me some
red flags, you know, tell me what I should be looking for. So I think that need for safety and
security is particularly strong for women. Now, Dr. Scott Bond, author of the best-selling book,
Why We Love Serial Colors, the Curious Appeal of the World's Most Savage Murderers. Where can we
find your book? Well, two ways. One is you can go just to amazon.com and you know, type in the
title, Why We Love Serial Colors, or go to my website, which is dot bond dot com, boc bon n dot com.
And it has information about about my book, about my I do a podcast periodically, and I am touring
the country, you know, with my one man show, and we'll be right there in medicine on March 4th.
Well, you know, one crazy thing that we realized is that if we switch your name around,
Barnes Scott, that's the singer of AC DC, and they did a tune about a serial killer called Nightstocker.
How do you like happen? Yes, and they also did dirty deeds under chief.
Wow, that's awesome. It's so true, you know, and I was, you know, and still am, the big AC DC
fan. So yeah, fine, bond Scott. Perfect. Dr. Scott, fine. Thank you so much for taking the time
to speak with us tonight. We really appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. We'll try and
get you back on right before your show comes in March and we'll go through this again and have some fun.
Sounds good. Sounds good. Thank you so much. All right, Scott. Thank you. We really appreciate it.
Well, hey, let's check out a song by the Sunspot Mike Hubert. You know, he leads ghost tours around
Madison. Oh, that's also my high school band teacher's band, Ben Yeager. Yes, Ben Yeager.
That's correct. And they did the song called the strangest frequency. And you might remember that
the frequency bar, which is now the gamma rebar, that's wanted. I know for sure. Oh, I've been in that
green room plenty of times. And I'm telling you strange stuff happens down there. Let's listen to it
right now, Sunspot, the strangest frequency. You're listening to Maxing Radio. We are local music.
Yeah.
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