Murderabilia, also known as murderbilia, is a term identifying collectibles

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

 related to murders, murderers or other violent crimes, coined by Andy Kahan, director of the Houston Police Department's Crime Victims Office.

Serial killer art

Serial killer art is defined as artwork created by serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

s while in prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

. Often, this process is used as a therapy device

Art therapy

Because of its dual origins in art and psychotherapy, art therapy definitions vary. They commonly either lean more toward the ART art-making process as therapeutic in and of itself, "art as therapy," or focus on the psychotherapeutic transference process between the therapist and the client who...

, or for further understanding a particularly disturbed psyche, while in other instances it is purely a method of time spanning entertainment for imprisoned individuals. The artists usually vary dramatically in skill and themes covered.

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was an American serial killer, rapist and clown who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home, buried three others elsewhere on his property, and discarded the...

, Richard Ramirez

Richard Ramirez

Ricardo "Richard" Muñoz Ramírez is a convicted serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison...

, and Henry Lee Lucas

Henry Lee Lucas

Henry Lee Lucas was an American criminal, convicted of murder in 189 cases and once listed as America's most prolific serial killer; he later recanted his confessions, despite professing information only the assailant would know and flatly stating "I'm a liar" in a letter to researcher Brad Shellady...

 are a few of the better known American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 serial killer artists. Perry Smith

Perry Smith (murderer)

Perry Edward Smith was one of two ex-convicts who murdered four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.-Family and early life:Perry Edward Smith was born in Huntington,...

, the mass murderer known from Truman Capote

Truman Capote

Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

's famous work In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by Truman Capote.In Cold Blood may also refer to:* In Cold Blood , a 1967 film and 1996 miniseries, both based on the book* In Cold Blood...

, was also a prolific artist.

Collectors typically must have direct contact to obtain and authenticate this art. The actual pieces can sell for large sums of money depending on the individual artist, and their notoriety through serial killing.

Controversy

Murderabilia is a controversial area of the collecting world, as evidenced by the public backlash to the idea of selling or profiting from violent crimes.

In 2005, a serial killer's artwork was sold online in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. State lawmakers proposed to block the activity, setting off a debate on free speech rights of prisoners. In 2007, American school shooter Wayne Lo

Wayne Lo

Wayne Lo is a Taiwanese-American murderer who perpetrated the shooting at Simon's Rock College of Bard on December 14, 1992 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He killed one student and a professor, and wounded four people before he surrendered to police...

 caused controversy after it was found that he was selling his artwork on a website.

In 2010 Sen. John Cornyn

John Cornyn

John Cornyn, III is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress....

, R

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

-TX

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar

Amy Jean Klobuchar is the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. She is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the Democratic Party...

, DFL-MN

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, have teamed up to introduce a bill in Congress that would outlaw what supporters view as a disgusting industry. The bill is called the "Stop the Sale of Murderabilia to Protect the Dignity of Crime Victims Act of 2010," and comes after several individual fights over the issue. Eric Gein, whose murderabilia website Serial killers ink

Serial killers ink

Serialkillersink.net is a website dedicated to selling murderabilia and serial killer art, interviewing convicted serial killers and also serves as a meeting place for those interested or involved in the murderabilia industry....

 is often in the news for selling items belonging to serial killers, is an outspoken opponent of the bill and has enlisted the help of the ACLU to help combat and expose the bill as an anti-civil liberties bill.

In June of 2011 the United States Government auctioned off personal items which belonged to Ted Kaczynski which were found in his Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

cabin upon his capture in 1996. The auction took place entirely online. The proceeds went to victims and victims families of Kaczynski's crimes.