The “banality of evil”, the idea that evil does not have the Satan-like, villainous appearance that announces itself to the world; that it can live among us, fly under the radar for decades and go undetected even by people in the intimate circle.
The historian Hannah Arendt coined it in her 1963 work, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil” to apply to those that perpetrated the Holocaust, but the notion can apply even better when we think of serial killers like Rex Heuermann, now known as the Gilgo Beach killer, whose family and neighbors had no clue about who he really was. It is only after having been unmasked that they call him “a monster”.
“You don’t know anyone, not even the people you are close to” rightly says a user on Youtube.
Psychopaths have been called “social chameleons,” they do not stand out in a crowd and can therefore continue to kill with impunity until they make a small mistake. It is this characteristic that may be the most fascinating and frightening of all. Your husband, brother or son could be a psychopathic serial killer and you might not know it until the FBI comes knocking on his door (only 8.6 % are women). This is precisely what happened in the Heuermann case.
The Suffolk County police and the FBI already had a raft of evidence in their possession, including that his wife’s DNA was found on three of the victims’ bodies and that one of his own hairs was found on one of the victims’ bodies. The investigation was not even finished yet, but because of a confluence of observations and events, they felt they had no choice but to move in for the arrest.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told the court that his teams intended to follow Heuermann, whom they have been watching since last year, for longer, but clues pointed to the possibility that he was about either to flee the country or kill another sex worker.
Later, at a press conference, Tierney elaborated that, “We had the FBI surveilling the defendant, this individual that continued to patronize sex workers at all hours of the night, continued to use fictitious identities, burner phones, as we worked through the case and got closer and closer, suddenly the balance tips in favor of public safety.”
“We wanted to continue,” he added, “but we felt it was time to take him off the street.” A psychopathic serial killer doesn’t know when to quit and for better or worse, it is usually this fact that gets them caught. If not for their inability to curb their evil urges, they might continue to hide in plain sight.
Sadly, it is not only the criminal who astonishes us with “unnatural” behavior, but the seemingly normal, law-abiding and “moral” citizens who all of a sudden turn into vultures and want to peck at the carcass. Outside of the Heuermann house on 1st Street in Massapequa Park, the carnival atmosphere has been building, as large crowds flock to satisfy their morbid curiosity.
Mackenzie Richards, 29, from Boston, said she and her pig Stella were on their way to visit her mother in New York when she heard about the killer’s arrest, and she immediately began “looking, looking, looking to rush to his home. Next thing you know, here we are,” she said while dozens of beer-swigging gawkers and ghouls caroused on the street around her.
No doubt the party will continue and the house will become another stop on the pilgrimage of grisly sites to visit, as happened for the “Amityville Horror House” where Ronald De Feo murdered his family in 1974.
What is it that so fascinates human beings about evil?
According to psychologist Colton Scrivner, “learning about dangerous situations lies at the core of our morbid curiosity, our love of violent thrillers, and our fascination with serial killers. We thirst for knowledge about the killer. Why does he behave as he does? How does he act around others when he isn’t hunting? What are his motivations for selecting his victims? Perhaps most importantly, what are the signs that someone might be a killer? Questions like these intrigue us because they strike at something deep in our animal nature—the need to avoid predation.”
That may be true, but there must be another side that explains why people are fascinated by the freakish and the so-called abnormal. Why do people tune in to watch “My 1000 lb. Life” or “Little People”? In the 19th century “freak shows” in circuses and carnivals were big business. The two-headed boy or the bearded woman were huge attractions.
Maybe human beings need to get close to the tragedy to experience the secret relief that they were lucky enough not to have become one of the victims of the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer. We may not take pleasure in the misfortune of others–known as schadenfreude–but we’re happy it’s not ours.
Not to mention the chance to bask in a little second-hand celebrity. “I was there, I knew him, He was my neighbor.”
