The Gates of Janus- Analysis of serial murder or a platform to rationalise serial murder?
When I first discovered that notorious serial killer Ian Brady (the Moors Murderer) had written a book from his prison cell offering an insight into the phenomenon of serial killing and its analysis, I thought this can offer a fresh insight into the mind, motive and methodology of a serial killer, through the lens of a serial killer himself. The book within itself holds so much room for critical analysis and interpretation, it is incredibly challenging to pinpoint one particular finding. This blog aims to explore in smaller parts, numerous findings throughout the book- “Gates of Janus”. The book is broken into three significant chapters. The first chapter explores the contextualisation and social construction of serial murder with ties to morality, hedonistic nihilism and the social constriction of murder, and the ways in which the phenomenon of murder has been commodified and romanticised, this is explored through the lens of the media, and produces a cultural criminological narrati...