An eerie display named “Serial Killer: The Exhibition” opened its doors to the public in Chicago on Sept.5.
As the world’s largest private collection of its kind, the exhibition features over 2000 artifacts connected to the lives of serial killers from around the world. Many of the exhibits are the personal belongings of the killers (such as the glasses of Jeffrey Dahmer), while others are evidence used in investigations and murderers’ original artworks.
Chicago’s infamous serial killer, Gacy, is also featured in the exhibition. During the 1970s, Gacy worked as a birthday party clown and killed at least 33 young men and teenage boys. After being sentenced to death in 1980, he kept appealing the decision for 14 years. On death row, he started painting mostly clowns and skulls on his canvases. Through the sales of his paintings, he made more than $30,000 until his execution in 1994.
Prior to its arrival in Chicago, the exhibition had toured other major European cities, like Berlin, Paris and London. The first stop on the United States branch of the tour was Atlanta, where it extended its stay because of increased attendance and interest. According to organizers, many visitors in Atlanta spent approximately three hours at the exhibition, despite the advertised time being 90-120 minutes.
Organizers emphasize that the exhibition isn’t meant to glorify or glamorize serial crime. By displaying real objects and historical analyses, the exhibition serves as an educational tool and deconstructs misunderstandings created by popular media. The organizers hope that audiences will realize the severe societal consequences of crime during their visit.
However, despite its well-meaning intentions, the growing number of visitors shows how deeply true crime is embedded in American culture. In a study published in 2024, Edison Research found that 84% of U.S. adults aged 13 and older consume true crime in some form. Another study in the same year found that 41% of Americans consume such content through TV, which helps explain how series like Netflix’s anthology “Monster” have gained popularity among audiences. More specifically, the first installment in the anthology series titled “DAHMER-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was in the Netflix Global Top 10 seven weeks after premiering in 2022, while every subsequent installment in the anthology (“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”) took over Netflix charts soon after its debut.
Whether audiences attend an exhibition based on serial killers or consume media exploring real-life cases, true crime gains a lot of attention from audiences. Nonetheless, it is difficult to ignore the controversies and ethical issues surrounding the genre’s dark nature. A lot of the time, true crime media and exhibitions have been criticized for their exploitative nature and the ways in which they make victims and their families go through traumatic experiences again, this time with the weight of everyone’s attention on them.
Therefore, this begs the question: should the public continue consuming true crime media despite its harmful impacts on a smaller number of people?
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