EBay Item 260051441470 -- serial killer John Wayne Gacy souvenir 1978 from civic event.
The item up for bid is a ballpoint pen with Gacy's name printed on the shaft -- one of presumably thousands of cheap writing implements given away at an annual Chicago-area event Gacy hosted in his role as an upstanding member of the community, before he was identified, arrested and ultimately executed as one of last century's most notorious serial killers.
But the grim curio -- acquired in Chicago by this reporter years ago -- won't be for sale on eBay. The giant online trading post booted my auction listing within 12 hours after it went live, with a polite scold that eBay doesn't do "murderabilia."
"The sale of items closely associated with individuals who are notorious for committing murderous acts is deeply offensive to the families of victims. Items and item descriptions that graphically portray such acts may be removed," the e-mail states.
Which begs the question: Where does one go to unload a serial killer artifact or, for that matter, the ersatz confession of a former sports hero?
EBay's policies have evolved as the website has grown, explains spokeswoman Catherine England. The site has more than 6 million new items listed every day, so its operators don't really know how many they've kicked off. But the murderabilia policy lets owners sell murder-related items only after 100 years have passed.
"One world event really made us focus the policy: Sept. 11, when there were a lot of photos and items coming out," says England. "We decided there were a lot of graphic and personal items that may be historically relevant some day, but it's not appropriate for us to sell them now."
EBay wrestled with a similar issue last month when copies of O.J. Simpson's book, If I Did It, showed up for sale on the website. They were quickly pulled off, although the murderabilia policy never came into play. "We were contacted by the publisher, who owned the rights to the book," says England. "It was an intellectual property issue for us, and we never got around to asking if it was murderabilia or offensive material."
But it turns out there is a marketplace for macabre merchandise, spread across a bone yard of niche sites with names like Supernaught.com and Serial Killer Central. Todd Bohannon started the popular site Murder Auction after eBay booted him about three years ago.
"There's a large number of collectors who know each other and once we were off, it was harder to trade," Bohannon says. "I wanted there to be a place where you wouldn't be ridiculed or threatened."
Bohannon bristles at the word "murderabilia."
"It's a term coined by anti-collectors," he says. "People collect war memorabilia, they collect dead rock star memorabilia, things from the Nazis. These are historic artifacts and people are allowed to collect them."
Fascination with murder isn't an internet phenomenon, though the web helps people find each other. Jean Murley, a professor at Queensborough Community College, wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on true crime novels, and says the books are just a step away from murderabilia -- if that.
"True crime novels always have a section of crime scene photos and evidence photos, and scenes from the killers' and victims' lives," she says. "There's always been an incredible fascination with people beyond the pale, the extremes of human behavior and violence."
For many collectors, serial killers are akin to other public figures -- people we can relate to in some way but who also live in a separate moral universe and do things that most of us could never consider doing, says Murley.
And many collectors share the same drive to collect items tied to historic moments, whether it's Mick Jagger's autograph after a concert, a World War II gas mask or Ted Bundy's license plate. "It's just another aspect of our American desire to have stuff, to document our lives with stuff," Murley explains.
At Murder Auction, collectors are most interested and most willing to pay for stuff that touched Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer or Gacy. Bohannon says he heard of a Gacy painting selling for $100,000.
"Manson will always be on fire," says Bohannon. "He makes a lot of crafts out of hair, so there's plenty to choose from. Gacy flooded the market with his stuff before he was executed. Dahmer didn't write to anybody and there's not a lot of stuff, so his collectibles are valuable."
But, he says, the site is a hobby -- not his paycheck. "I don't make a living from this -- I work 60 hours a week at my job," he says. "It's never been about the money for me, it's about collecting."
Money or not, I'm not quite ready to be on Murder Auction. So my pen is going back in the drawer, where it's languished for years.
