"He was the nicest guy."
When the reporters interview the neighbors, the friends, sometimes even the spouse of a killer, that is often the most frequent quote.
Why would those who are in the best position to suspect, indeed the best position to know, miss such obvious signs of a killer's misdeeds? Dahmler's neighbors could not miss the stench that wafted from his apartment. Nor could they fail to wonder why a white man who was obviously middle class would chose to live in an all black neighborhood.

And then there was John Wayne Gacy, neighbors didn't even complain when the smell of decomposing bodies blew through his Chicago suburb. Many of the victims were last seen in his company, but no one noticed until thirty three young men had been killed.

While the urge to dismiss friends and neighbors of a serial killer as naive is pretty strong, one must remember that Dahmer's neighbors lived in a high crime area and many were either crime victims or were close to a crime victim. Even those who have seen crime first hand do not recognize the killer in their midst.

The first part of the answer deals with the social structure of humans. By himself, a man is an easy target for animal predators such as bears, tigers, lions, and other assorted creatures. Most predatory animals have much keener senses and killing equipment. And prey animals have keener senses and sharper reflexes. By ourselves, we would eventually either starve or be killed. However, collectively we rule the world. By our extreme need to include others and be included, we have assured our surivival and our success.

However, in order to keep our cohesion, we must trust the people around us. Without that basic trust, we cannot function as a group. We must trust that others are not out to harm us, at least those in our immediate proximity. A serial killer is a violation of our basic trust in our fellow man. Here is a person who kills randomly again and again, he may choose his victims by appearance, by personality, by availibility, by vulnerability, the list is endless.

And here is the second part of the answer, people will suppress memories of serial killers which disturb them while the killer is in close proximity. As long as Dahmer lived in the appartment building, his neighbors accepted that the smell was merely meat that had rotted in the refrigerater. They may have thought a white man living in their neighborhood as strange, but as long as he kept a low profile, they didn't worry about him. However after he was imprisoned, Dahmer's neighbors suddenly remembered all of his bizarre behavior.

Suppression is a form of psychological defense. When the conscious mind decides that something is just too much to comtemplate, the person suppresses the memories of the event. Every one does this in one form or another. For example, a student will remember his better grades and "forget" the worse ones when taking a class. Bad grades have surprised many a student who had "forgotten" the F that he received on the pop quiz.

Thus when a serial killer settles down in a neighborhood, the other people will suppress memories of suspicious behavior in order not to speculate on the meaning of that behavior. Our instincts tell us to trust those in our immediate proximity, to surpress their bad qualities in our minds so we can function as a group.

Serial killers use and abuse all aspects of human nature, so it is not surprising that they should live on the edge. The neighbors are not to blame for their lack of suspicion, nor should they be discounted because they recall bizarre behavior six months after the killer's incarceration.

If you liked this java, I found it at The Omega Factor