Ivan Milat’s letters sell for hundreds as true crime collectors seek serial killer keepsakes
True crime fans are shelling out hundreds of dollars for serial killer keepsakes as bizarre as pubic hair and death scene dirt in a growing online marketplace dominated by names such as Ivan Milat, Charles Manson and Snowtown murder accomplice Mark Haydon.
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Letters penned by backpacker killer Ivan Milat are being sold for hundreds of dollars online.
A signed letter and envelope set written from inside Milat’s solitary confinement cell in Goulburn Supermax, where he is serving seven consecutive life sentences, has appeared on US website True Crime Auction with an asking price of $US265 ($369).
It’s considerably more than the cost of a letter from Snowtown murder accomplice Mark Haydon, convicted of helping killers John Bunting, Robert Wagner and James Vlassakis dispose of the bodies, eight of which were found dismembered and stuffed into barrels of acid inside an abandoned bank building rented by Haydon.
A letter from Haydon retails for a comparably measly $US69 ($96).
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It may seem bizarre anyone could want to own letters written by violent killers but the sale of “murderabilia” — a category which includes the artworks, former possessions and documents of criminals — is a thriving marketplace, where sees collectors sell and trade items across the globe for thousands of dollars.
Forensic psychologist Tim Watson-Munro has spent 40 years getting inside the minds of Australia’s most dangerous inmates and believes the desire to own such artefacts is about achieving an exciting brush with danger … from a safe distance.
“They get a vicarious thrill out of it,” said Watson-Munro.
“They want to connect with fame. These killers are historically significant, even though they’re evil. And people probably think it’s an investment for the future, they might be able to sell the stuff to other troubled souls — in many ways it’s no different to people collecting Nazi memorabilia.
“People have a fascination with the dark side and the growth in true crime books and podcasts — it’s been about 20-30 per cent in recent years — shows that.”
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Mainstream e-commerce portals such as eBay have banned the sale of “items closely associated with violent criminals within the past 100 years” since 2002, making space for numerous alternative marketplaces.
Eric Holler, 49, of Florida, US, has been running Serial Killers Ink.net, the “most popular true crime collectibles company worldwide”, since 2008, and estimates he’s sold 20 letters from Milat, each for around $US350 ($492). “His handwritten letters sell very well here in the States,” said Holler.
Holler used to be a collector but is now in the industry purely for profit and does his best to make his ecommerce site user-friendly by allowing shoppers to browse through easily marked categories, “black killers”, “deceased killers”, “mass shooters” and “necrophiles and cannibals”.
But murderous letters are the least odd of the oddities on offer.
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A credit card once belonging to OJ Simpson, famously acquitted in the criminal courts and found guilty in the civil for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, is on sale along with a signed school release form for his son Jason, for $US1050 ($1466).
A lock of Charles Manson’s hair retails for $US2400 ($3351), while a tuft of pubic hair from teen killer Dustin Lynch, who stabbed his friend to death after playing violent video game Grand Theft Auto in 2002, can be bought for $US100 ($139).
But with the growing demand comes the avenue for fakes, which is why Nick Violante, 33, of Michigan, US, launched his business True Crime Authentication (TCA), to help certify true crime relics. His team analyses handwriting, postage stamps, wax seals and artworks but draws the line at evaluating dirt.
A vial of dirt supposedly collected from the crawl space where serial killer clown John Wayne Gacy buried 26 of his victims usually retails for $US25 ($35), Mr Violante explains.
“The industry gets a really big stigma because you do have people out there digging up dirt at grave sites and trespassing and you’ve got people out there who collect these types of things. That’s where TCA comes in, we don’t want it to be black market thing, we want it to be respectable so that these things are certified,” said Mr Violante.
He has spent over $US10,000 ($14,058) on his personal collection of true crime relics.
“It’s interesting to think about people who’ve done these horrible things and why would they do that. And when you hold something like that in your hand the first couple of times, there’s a real dark feeling, like, ‘boy, these hands that wrote this murdered so many people’.”
Originally published as Ivan Milat’s letters sell for hundreds as true crime collectors seek serial killer keepsakes
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