The macabre collectors’ items commissioned from serial killers

ERIC Holler has forged friendships with some of the world’s worst serial killers. One of them even asked him to marry her.

ITEMS once owned by serial killers including Ivan Milat are being peddled online by a company that profits from the sales of macabre memorabilia and collectables.

American Eric Holler, formerly known by his “stage name” Eric Gein, told news.com.au he started his business Serial Killer Ink because of a lifelong fascination with some of the most depraved humans to have existed.

The site caters to those with a special interest in the worst of humanity: “necrophiles and cannibals ... satanic killers ... mass shooters ... serial killers”.

Mr Holler typically contacts the killers in prison and requests drawings, hand tracings, hair samples and personal effects from them to sell.

He has acquired some of the items — including convicted murderer Joseph Druce’s “non-operational ... personal flat screen TV” — from private collectors.

“The large part of our stock comes directly from the inmates themselves,” he said.

“We offer letters, artwork, signed photographs and craft items by many notorious serial killers and or mass murderers.

“We take great pride that we are the premier true crime collectables company worldwide — we offer a direct insight into the darkest minds in modern history.”

‘ITEMS OWNED BY AUSTRALIAN KILLERS ARE IN DEMAND OVERSEAS’

Among the items that have been listed for sale on Serial Killer Ink are letters from Australian serial killers including Ivan Milat and John Bunting, known respectively as the Belanglo backpacker and Snowtown murderers. Mr Holler said the infamous killers were “very popular” with “true crime” collectors overseas.

Ivan Milat’s letters are in high demand.

A letter from Milat.

According to Mr Holler, there is international demand for handwritten letters from Milat and Bunting, which he has previously sold for about $US350 each.

“I’d say I’ve had four or five Milat letters over the years. Bunting was just one letter,” Mr Holler said.

“I would absolutely love to obtain more items from either of them.”

Milat was convicted of murdering seven young backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney between 1989 and 1992.

They were abducted, shot, stabbed and one was decapitated while she was still alive, her head was never found.

Bunting, along with close friend Robert Joe Wagner, committed a selective killing spree in low socio-economic suburbs north of Adelaide between December 1995 and May 1999.

To inflict torture, Bunting and Wagner used an array of items, including an electric shock machine, hand and thumb cuffs, cigarettes, garrottes, pliers, sparklers, syringes and hammers.

They even cooked and ate the flesh of one of their victims, a court was told.

Killer John Bunting was convicted of the Snowtown murders.

The eight victims found encased in the barrels had been de-fleshed and dismembered.

“I’ve read there is a small gift shop in or near Snowtown that sells little barrels as keepsakes,” Mr Holler said.

“That would not go over well here in the USA.”

There are many “true crime collectors” with a penchant for serial killer related material in Australia, according to Mr Holler.

“We have a decent number of repeat customers from Australia,” he said.

“It’s undoubtedly harder for collectors across the ocean to score items directly from US inmates themselves which leads to a good number of overseas orders for us.”

Mr Holler insists he isn’t glamorising the horrific murders of innocent victims by profiting from them.

“I have been intrigued by true crime since an early age,” he said.

“I was always reading true crime books and learning about the latest serial killers.

“I soon began writing infamous men and women and collecting and selling their artwork and signed items.”

A drawing sent from prison to Eric Holler from convicted killer Joseph Druce.

MY FRIENDS, THE SERIAL KILLERS

Mr Holler’s interest in all things horrific, dark and twisted has led to friendships with several notorious criminals including Hadden Clark, an American cross-dressing cannibal who was convicted of the murders of six year old Michelle Dorr, and Laura Houghteling, 23.

“I don’t condone what they’ve done ... (but) I don’t view them in a way that someone watching a documentary on them would view them,” Mr Holler said.

“Getting to know them over the years I see a different side of them. I was very close with Richard Ramirez. We had a great friendship.”

The ‘Night Stalker’ Richard Ramirez displays a pentagram symbol on his hand inside a Los Angeles courtroom in 1985. Picture: AP /Lennox McLendon.

Mr Holler said he “missed” Ramirez — an American convicted serial killer, rapist and robber — who died in 2013.

But he’s found other serial killers to fill the void, exchanging letters with and paying visits in prison to the likes of Eugene McWatters, otherwise known as ‘The Salerno Strangler’. Mr Holler has a photo of himself smiling with McWatters on a prison visit. McWatters is a three time convicted killer and rapist.

Eric Holler, owner of Serial Killer Ink, pictured with the Salerno Strangler.

Mr Holler has also met convicted killer Roderick Ferrell, who was convicted for the murder of an innocent American couple as part of a fantasy vampire game that “mushroomed into a role-playing cult”.

Ferrell was at the time one of four teenagers who slit their wrists and drank eachother’s blood before bludgeoning the Florida couple to death in 1996.

Convicted killer Roderick Ferrell and Serial Killer Ink owner Eric Holler, who visited the inmate in prison in 2012.

‘I DATED A KILLER AND SOLD HER PANTIES’

Mr Holler once went as far as dating convicted killer Christa Pike to gain profitable material from her after she was convicted of murder.

Pike subjected Colleen Sleemer, 19, to a torturous attack, taunting her, beating her, slicing her with a boxcutter, carving a Pentagram on her chest and, finally, repeatedly bashing her head with a brick. Pike even took a souvenir — a piece of the teenager’s skull.

“We were very close friends for a very long time,” Mr Holler said of Pike.

“When she dropped her appeals and wanted to die she asked if I would marry her to give her somewhat of a normal life before she was to be executed.

“It would also be a media stunt and I would have rights to her life story.

“She eventually asked for her appeals back and they were granted which in turn meant I would cancel out on the marriage plans which I did.”

Mr Holler recently caused a stir when he sold a pair of Pike’s “panties” for an undisclosed price and a lock of her hair for $50 USD via his site.

The advertisements and subsequent sales caused the victim’s mother to slam Mr Holler, but he was unapologetic.

A hair sample from convicted killer Christa Pike for sale on Serial Killer Ink.

SADISTIC KILLER IS ‘KIND ... GORGEOUS’

South African convicted killer Chané van Heerden is “very kind ... and quite gorgeous”, according to Mr Holler.

He is referring to a woman who stabbed, dismembered, decapitated and skinned the date she lured online. Mr Holler has sold signed photographs of van Heerden and a tracing of her hand.

“When Chané was at trial, authorities stated that if she was ever to be set free she would kill again and become one of South Africa’s most brutal serial killers,” Mr Holler said.

“We got to know Chané pretty well, I’d actually known her on Facebook before her crime, and I can say that the authorities probably nailed their assessment of Chané.

“She’s been very kind to us and is quite gorgeous but I would not want to be on the business end of a knife that she was brandishing.”

A signed photograph of South African convicted killer Chane van Heerden that was sold on serialkillerink.net.

Van Heerden and her accomplice Maartens van der Merwe killed, dismembered, then removed both eyes of their victim. After the killing, Van Heerden used skinning techniques she had learnt while hunting with her stepfather as a young girl on the victim’s face.

A hand tracing artwork by convicted killer Chane van Heerden was sold on serialkiller.net.

The couple then buried various parts of the remains in a local cemetery as well as in their back yard garden. According to the Independent Online, victim Van Eck’s facial skin, with the mouth stitched closed, and his eyes and ears, were found in the couple’s fridge.

‘THE LINE I WOULDN’T CROSS’

Unsurprisingly, Mr Holler’s connections with killers and his business have been labelled inappropriate and distasteful, many times over. But he’s not put off by it.

“I really don’t have a direct response to criticism,” he said.

“To each their own. If what I do is something that offends someone they have all the right in the world to voice their opinion without fear of reprisal as that is what makes living in the civilised world so great.

“Yes, it’s dark history, but it is in fact history. “There is something about peering into the abyss that is exciting and perhaps even a little bit of a rush.”

Mr Holler said there was a line he wouldn’t cross.

“I have never seen anything from the Orlando massacre online for sale,” he said.

“I am not looking for those items. I would not list anything from the Orlando terrorist attack on the site.”

Mr Holler suspended his site when the mass murder, killing 50 people, took place in June last year. He offered an explanation as to how he ranks the significance of one mass murder or killing against another.

“The Orlando attack is off limits to me because of how close the attack was,” he said.

“I live in Jacksonville, Florida, a stones throw away from Orlando.

“I also have sympathy for the victims in that massacre and while I am not gay I do have a few friends who are gay and or bi and it just hit a little too close to home for me.”

Eric Holler owns Serial Killer Ink, a website that sells items once owned or created by some of the most depraved humans to have existed.

Originally published as The macabre collectors’ items commissioned from serial killers