Serial Killer

Tropes and genres
Related tropes/genres	True Crime Community, Murder Husbands
See also	Evil AU, Case Story, Assassin AU
Related articles on Fanlore.

Serial Killers often appear in fictional media and in true crime documentaries. Fan created works including them are often based on source materials featuring serial killers. This includes criminal dramas, or source materials featuring canon serial killers or assassins.

Real person fiction based on serial killers is rare. However the portrayal of real life serial killers in fictional media can lead to fanfiction featuring that character. For example, American Horror Story is an anthology series that includes real life killers as characters, like Richard Ramirez. This leads to fanfiction featuring Ramirez that is not tagged as RPF. Some fic authors also use tags to make it explicit that they are basing their work on a fictional character.

A serial killer AU is a type of alternate universe in which characters who are not serial killers in canon are serial killers. Visual serial killer AU fanworks, such as fanart or manips, commonly involve showing a character looking bloodied and/or sadistic.

Fandom

Fiction

Many books and TV series also have canon serial killers in their source material. For example:

• Dexter Morgan, the protagonist of Dexter is a serial killer.
• Hannibal Lecter, a cannibal who is the central character of the Hannibal book series and adaptations such as The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal (TV series).
• American Horror Story includes fictional killers as well as fictional representations of real like serial killers.
• Killing Eve's main character Villanelle is an assassin and a serial killer.

Example Characters:

• Penn (Buffyverse)
• There are fan theories that Dennis Reynolds of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a serial murderer or rapist.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Vids

• West of Her Spine - a controversial vid that mixed a romantic song with graphic violent imagery from Dexter.

Fanfiction

Serial Killer AU

• Flesh Mechanic - "the Justin Timberlake serial killer fic"
• The Long Hunt by Esteliel (Les Misérables) - The Marais was a ghostly labyrinth of houses that suddenly loomed out of the fog. Every now and then, the dark shape of a carriage would clatter past before being swallowed by the veil of white once more. The further Valjean walked, the thicker the fog became.
• beautiful and afraid of nothing by lady_ragnell (Les Misérables) - "My best friend is here, and well, she's a little shy, but we do everything together", Éponine is saying, purring. This is where the target dies, and he doesn't even know it.
• Catch Us If You Can by Tra (Supernatural) - It started off slow. A body or two along a highway a little carved up. Each one had a D carved on them. In other states at the same time, one or two bodies killed by the same, circular blade. The police identified these bodies as the works of two different people. Two different killers.
• The Remains of a Fine Woman by Theobule (Saathi1013) (Criminal Minds) - Her name isn't Allison; this is not the first time she's changed her identity. She was supposed to die; instead she ran into a familiar face. She's not sorry about what happened after that. She probably should be, but she's not.
• A morning breaks without bread or fresh-poured milk by tigriswolf (White Collar) - Neal Caffrey is a thief, a forger, and a con-artist. (Neal Caffrey is a liar and a lie.)
• this is my day and I, for this I will not pay by tigriswolf (White Collar) - Peter thinks Neal is a gentleman thief.
• anything but fair by Lilaciliraya (Criminal Minds and Dexter crossover) - And Spencer... Spencer would be a mercy killer.

Controversy

• Romanticization of Violence and Serial Killers

Resources

• Serial Killers works on Ao3
• Historical Criminals RPF works on Ao3 include several Serial Killer RPF fics
• Serial killer at Wikipedia
• Serial Killer at TV Tropes