Elizabeth McCafferty

The cult of true crime 

Most people understand the intrigue, but sometimes it goes too far

  • From Spectator Life
Jeffrey Dahmer’s 1991 mugshot (Milwaukee Police)

‘I love serial killers,’ explained Megan, 29, from Kent. ‘People think I’m weird; my sister thinks I’m going to kill someone.’ She travelled to London for the weekend for CrimeCon, a convention dedicated to true-crime lovers. Here, for the eye-watering price of £700 for the two days, strangers can come together to meet the survivors of the UK’s most disturbing crimes, delve into unsolved cases with psychologists, criminologists, police detectives, and speak to victims’ families.

At 9 a.m., within 30 seconds of arriving, I was in a talk on blood spatter analysis. People in hazmat suits stood in front of a 10 ft photographic banner depicting a kitchen covered in blood. A cup of tea was thrust into my hand as I was shown images of crime scenes dripping with blood on a large screen. The forensic team explained how each pattern of blood is analysed, giving us a whodunnit scenario about a woman who had been found attacked and left for dead inside her home.

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