ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the first of three case studies in this project. The legend of the snuff film alleges that films, videotapes, and now Internet webcasts of real murders, usually sex-related murders, circulate in underground social networks. Most versions of this legend include some profit motive attached to these recordings and to the violent actions of the filmmaker murderers. However, in some cases, it is alleged that such recordings are merely passed along for the sexual excitement of clandestine viewers. In most versions, the killers are men and the victims women-women who thought they would be making a conventional pornographic film.
