ABSTRACT
One does not have to view the media coverage of unusual and serious offences for long, before the interest patterns of the offenders are commented on. In February 2001, David Mulcahy and John Duffy (‘The Railway Rapists’) were convicted of the rape and murder of three women. In their background, it was noted that ‘Neither boy had girlfriends at school and they shared a fascination with martial arts, watching kung-fu films, collecting knives and books on how to maim and kill’ (Bennetto, The Independent, February 2001). Also in February 2001, it was feared that some high-school students in Kansas were about to massacre members of their school in the same way Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had carried out the shooting at Columbine High School in April 1999. The raid on the homes of the students revealed pipe-bombs, knives, white supremacist literature and an animal skull daubed with swastikas. Detective Steven Rupert of Jackson County Sheriff's Office stated ‘We don't know how serious they were. We can't delve into their minds, [but] we just couldn't wait.’ In October 2002, a white racist bodybuilder with a large arsenal of weapons and explosives (and plans to use these in an attack on a mosque) was convicted for 12 years (Morris 2002). At the end of that month, the Washington DC–Baltimore conurbation was plagued by a serial-killing sniper who killed at least 12 persons and taunted the police with a message on the tarot card depicting death.
