You don’t have to be a good person to create good art. In fact, some of the most celebrated artists in history had some pretty nasty traits. Yet their negatives are often overlooked in the face of their incredible talent.
The pieces we’re examining today are notable in that there really isn’t that much in the way of artistic prowess behind them. In fact, the images themselves almost don’t matter. Rather, it’s all about who made them. These were all created by some of the most brutal, violent people ever apprehended by law. Strangely enough, some collectors will pay top dollar for these pieces of “murderabilia.”
John Wayne Gacy
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John Wayne Gacy’s day job was entertaining people as “Pogo the Clown” at children’s parties and charitable events. However, he moonlighted as a serial killer and murdered 33 teenage boys, burying 26 of them in the crawlspace of his home. He earned the nickname “The Clown Killer” and was executed in 1994, but not before he produced a number of clown-themed drawings. He also really liked drawing the seven dwarfs from Snow White.
Herbert Mullin
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This serene scene hardly seems like it could come from the mind of a killer, but it does. In the early 1970s, Mullin, a former scholar-athlete and rather religious, committed 13 murders in California. He believed he was preventing a devastating earthquake by providing human sacrifices. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and the condition was worsened by drug use. He is currently serving a life sentence.
Henry Lee Lucas
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After enduring an abusive childhood at the hands of his mother, Lucas became a serial killer. He may have killed as many as 600 people–beginning with his mother. He “worked” with fellow serial killer Ottis Toole. Because of his changing stories, his exact number of victims is unknown.
Ottis Toole
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Partner of fellow killer Henry Lee Lucas, Toole was also an arsonist, and was sexually aroused by fire. He’s also considered responsible for the death of six-year-old Adam Walsh, whose father, John Walsh, would go on to create America’s Most Wanted in an attempt to prevent further tragedy.
John Edward Robinson
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Already having a long history of embezzlement, Robinson began murdering women in 1984. During the 1990s, he used Internet chatrooms, then a new phenomenon, to lure victims into what they thought was a BDSM relationship. He is thought to have killed eight women. From prison, he creates these single-image cartoons that express his feelings of injustice. If you’d like to stay out of prison, we suggest not killing people.
Charles Manson
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Charles Manson is one of the most well-known serial killers in recent history, but he never actually personally killed anyone. Instead, he got a gang of satanic hippie followers to murder seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
Wayne Lo
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In 1992, Wayne Lo opened fire at Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Massachusetts, killing one student and one professor while wounding four others. He is currently serving life in prison without parole.
Arthur Shawcross
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Shawcross was initially jailed for two murders (both children) and paroled after 14 years. This was a mistake; after being released, he went on to kill 12 more people in the late 1980s. His parole is considered one of the worst mistakes in criminal justice.
Keith Hunter Jesperson
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Demonic faces like Lucas’ might be disturbing, but this cartoonish duck is far creepier. It was created by the man known as the “Happy Face Killer,” so called because of the smiling faces he drew on his taunting notes to the press. By the time he was caught, Jesperson had strangled eight women, including a girlfriend. He claimed to have killed 160 people.
Charles Bronson
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Not the actor. Bronson is known as the most violent prisoner in the U.K., and most of his crimes have been committed behind bars. In prison, he’s attacked and wounded guards and fellow inmates alike, held rooftop protests, and once held an art teacher hostage for 44 hours because of a critique of his work. His original prison sentence was only seven years, but his repeated acts of violence have managed to earn him a life sentence. Lately, he’s been apparently trying to be more peaceful.
Artwork is a commonly used therapy technique in prisons. It can provide an outlet for aggressive inmates, making them more manageable. If it keeps them from acting out, prison personnel are happy to let even the most notorious of prisoners make art. However, when it comes to these inmates making money from their work, there’s some controversy. Many are outraged at the idea that the killers’ art can turn a profit, and some have even demanded legal action to stop the sales of the artwork. There’s also some distaste that comes when you consider that the art is only desired by the public because of the name attached to it–and all its gruesome implications–rather than for any artistic skill.
Whatever you might think about sales of this material, these pieces of personal expression can offer us a glimpse into the minds of some of the scariest minds on the planet. Be glad that these “artists” are kept far away from any gallery or public place.
