“The Dark Passenger”: Dexter, The Disturbing Reality of Serial Killers, and the Complicated World of Legal and Moral Justice

Warning: The following article contains graphic/disturbing content and spoiler alerts.

Tonight is the Night

“Tonight’s the night, and it’s going to happen again and again. Has to happen,” Dexter Morgan says through voice-over, openly addressing his audience. By all appearances, Dexter is a seemingly normal man. He’s handsome, well-dressed, and soft-spoken. He’s also quietly intelligent, and he uses his quiet intelligence to help solve crimes. Dexter works as a blood-spatter analyst at the Miami Metro Police Department in Miami, Florida. However, Dexter lives a double life. At night, instead of using his forensic knowledge to solve murders, he uses it to commit them. In fact, he’s a prolific serial killer. There’s only one caveat, and it’s the one that undoubtedly endears him to his viewers. Dexter only kills other killers.

Showtime’s original, eponymous series (2008–2013)- based on a series of books by Jeff Lindsay- stars Michael C. Hall as the titular character. James Manors Jr. developed the series (which was filmed both on location in Miami, Florida and in Long Beach, California). Clyde Phillips, Chip Johannessen, and Scott Buck became Dexter’s showrunners. Rolfe Kent and Daniel Licht served as the show’s musical composers. Terry Stacey, Romeo Tirone, Martin J. Layton, and Jeffrey Jur provided principal photography, and various companies, including (but not limited to) Showtime Networks, Clyde Phillips Productions, John Goldwyn Productions, and The Colleton Company, produced Dexter.

The show follows Dexter through his day-to-day life. Dexter works alongside his sister and Miami Metro police officer, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter). His other colleagues include Masuka (C.S. Lee), a fellow forensic technician, Angel Batista (David Zayas), Maria Laguerta (Lauren Velez), Joseph Quinn (Desmond Harrington), and James Doakes (Erik King). Dexter relays his private and public world to us, the “mask” he wears to maintain his double life, his sociopathic emptiness, and his traumatic history.

It turns out that when Dexter was only 3 years old, he and his older brother were crammed into a shipping container. They watched as various gangsters butchered their mother with chainsaws. Shortly thereafter, Harry Morgan (James Remar)- who had hired Dexter’s mother as a police informant- adopted Dexter into his loving family. However, as Dexter’s childhood years passed, the young boy showed disturbing urges/inclinations. He then committed various acts of violent, antisocial behavior. While Debra was oblivious to Dexter’s monstrous side, Harry immediately recognized it.

Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall). Image courtesy of the Guardian magazine and Showtime Networks.

Later, both Morgan parents died. When Harry was alive, though, he helped Dexter channel his urges by having him strictly adhere to a “code.” While the first rule in this code is “don’t get caught,” the others address morality. “Do not kill an innocent.” In other words, make sure that your targets are demonstrably guilty of murder, lack any true remorse for their crimes, and have escaped the justice system. The code also urges Dexter to “fake his emotions and normality,” “blend in socially,” “maintain appearances,” “never make a scene,” and “do not get emotionally involved” with people.

The compelling conflicts and challenges of the story, of course, deal with Dexter’s struggle to maintain his double life, avoid capture, and adhere to his father’s code. Dexter becomes romantically involved with Rita Bennett (Julia Benz). Her two children, Astor and Cody (Christina Robinson and Preston Bailey, respectively) later become stepchildren when Dexter and Rita tie the knot. Meanwhile, James Doakes, a mercurial former special op, can see through Dexter’s façade. In the show’s second season, he begins trailing him. And then there are the various other, primary villains who Dexter contends with. These include the “Ice Truck Killer,” Jordan Chase (Johnny Lee Miller), and Arthur Mitchell. The latter- whom actor John Lithgow brilliantly and frighteningly portrays- is perhaps Dexter’s greatest foil and foe. Arthur appears to have the picture-perfect life: he is a volunteering, church-going husband and father. Underneath it all, though, Arthur is the “Trinity Killer,” a prolific serial killer who has traversed the country, brutally murdering 100+ people.

Remember the Monsters

What engages us about Dexter is not just his self-aware charisma and charm, but also his complex inner world of methods and motivations. His methods are very rigorous. Dexter often selects a target by attending court proceedings, visiting active crime scenes, or rifling through criminal databases. After he selects his target, he then stalks them; sometimes breaking into their home(s), tailing them by car at night, or impersonating a stranger to converse with them. He then applies his thorough forensic investigation skills (surreptitiously gathering fingerprints, emails, blood samples, videos, audio recordings, and so on) to confirm their guilt. Once he’s 100% certain they’ve committed murder, he zeroes in on them. Dexter first sets up a remote “kill room,” covering it head-to-toe in plastic. Sometimes, the “kill room” is an abandoned warehouse, an empty van, a cruise-ship cabin, or even the target’s own home (Dexter often links the “kill room” to his target’s own murder sites).

He then ambushes his victims, either sneakily injecting them with M99 tranquilizer or head-locking them into submission. Dexter then fetters his victims to a “kill table” using plastic wrap, rope, duct tape, straps, or other devices, and then covers the “kill room” with pictures of his victim’s own victims. Donning a thick black apron, rubber boots, plastic gloves, and a face-shield, Dexter then wakes up his victims and confronts them with their own crimes. Once the moment is right, Dexter dispatches his victims by stabbing them in the heart, cutting their throat, beating, or strangling them. He then chops them up into nine pieces, chucks the body parts into black garbage bags, and disposes them into Miami’s Bay Harbor. When scuba divers discover the bags at the bottom of the gulf, the case of the mysterious “Bay Harbor Butcher” emerges.

The second aspect of Dexter is more complicated. Dexter is a “vigilante serial killer,” and, therefore, he has often been compared to comic book heroes and anti-heroes, including Batman and Frank Castle (a.k.a. “The Punisher”). His methods of investigation also draw similarities to famous literary detectives such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. While Dexter only targets other murderers, though, his primary motivation isn’t to save people. It’s to satisfy his urges. He enjoys the thrill of the hunt, the catharsis of the kill, and the “cooling off period” that follows every murder. Before dispatching his victims, he even slices their cheeks, collects a “blood slide,” and then keeps those blood slides as trophies.

Psychos vs. Psychopaths

Before delving any deeper into Dexter’s psyche, it’s worth understanding the real world of serial killers. Hollywood classics- notably The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and Se7en- have us generally convinced that serial killers are either evil geniuses or mindless, indiscriminate monsters. While “monster” is certainly an applicable label, most serial killers are neither evil savants nor brainless zombies. The truth is far more disturbing.

The word “psycho” conjures up different meanings. Most of us likely associate it with Norman Bates, the notorious serial killer from Alfred Hitchcock’s famous, eponymous slasher. The movie Psycho (1960) was based on the book by Robert Bloch, who in turn modeled Norman Bates on real-life murderer and grave-robber Ed Gein. “Psycho” usually refers to one of two categories: “psychosis” and “psychopathy.”

Some killers are “psychotic.” Psychosis is defined as a severe mental disorder characterized by some degrees of personal disintegration3. Those suffering from psychosis frequently experience hallucinations. Some see visions, while others are possessed by bizarre beliefs4. The main forms of psychosis are paranoia and schizophrenia, and, while most serial killers are not psychotic, there have been some examples. David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz- who infamously terrorized New York City from 1976–1977- claimed that his neighbor’s dog (“Sam”) ordered him to kill people. He later revealed that this was a lie.

Herbert Mullin, though, was genuinely psychotic. Mullin- born in Salinas, California in April 1947- lived a normal childhood4. He built tree houses, belonged to the Boy Scouts, and played in the Little Leagues4. Years later, though, he insisted that his childhood was anything but normal. Mullin claims that his parents had deliberately tried to ruin his life by sending telepathic messages to his schoolmates, threatening to kill them in the afterlife if they played with him4. After one of his friends died in a car crash, Mullin manifested bizarre symptoms, creating a makeshift shrine in his bedroom4. Mullin would stare at this shrine dedicated to his deceased friend for hours on end4. In March 1969, Mullin attended a family gathering for his parents’ 29th wedding anniversary and robotically imitated every word and gesture of his brother-in-law, Al4. Mullin was then checked into a state mental institution, where psychiatrists diagnosed him as suffering from a “schizophrenic reaction”4. After six weeks, the institution- which couldn’t legally hold him in custody any longer- released Mullin4. Herbert drifted aimlessly, working menial jobs as a dishwasher, gas station attendant, and Goodwill Industries truck driver4. His psychosis grew worse. Voices in his head commanded him to shave his head and burn his penis4. His delusions became extremely dangerous in October 1972, when the voices commanded him to kill4. Mullin believed that Albert Einstein had chosen him to go out and commit murder to prevent a cataclysmic earthquake4. He went on to brutally slaughter at least 13 random people. Despite overwhelming evidence of his extreme mental derangement, on September 18, 1973, a jury found him guilty of eight counts of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree murder5. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole5.

Psychopathy is different from psychosis. Psychopaths are not legally insane. They do not suffer from delusions, hallucinations, or paranoia. They know right from wrong, but they simply don’t care. They aren’t affected by remorse or guilt. Moreover, not only can they be highly rational and intelligent, but they can also be very superficially charming. Though the term “psychopath” wasn’t coined until 1891 by German psychologist Julius Koch, the great American novelist Herman Melville notably created a powerful portrait of a criminal psychopath in his final masterpiece, Billy Budd2. John Claggart- a seemingly friendly man- is wicked to the core, and the author pauses at one point in the novella to contemplate Claggart’s source of villainy:

Though the man’s even temper and discreet bearing would seem to intimate a mind peculiarly subject to the law of reason, not the less in heart he would seem to riot in complete exemption from that law, having apparently little to do with reason further than to employ it as an ambidexter implement for effecting the irrational. That is to say: Toward the accomplishment of an aim which in wantonness of atrocity would seem to partake of the insane, he will direct a cool judgment sagacious and sound. These men are madmen, and of the most dangerous sort, for their lunacy is not continuous, but occasional, evoked by some special object2.

Ted Bundy was a quintessential psychopath. He was infamous for his handsome, “boy-next-door” looks and his surface-level charisma. Ted studied psychology at the University of Washington and enrolled into law school at the University of Utah. He participated in the local political scene. He even volunteered at a suicide hotline. Meanwhile, though, he was stalking, capturing, raping, torturing, and murdering dozens of young coeds. To lure his targets, he’d pretend to be injured (evoking pity from his victims) or pretend to be law enforcement (evoking a primal response of obedience to authority from his victims). Ted Bundy would also keep his victims’ skulls as trophies and even engage in necrophilia. Most serial killers — like Ted Bundy — are indeed psychopaths. According to Harold Schecter (author of The Serial Killer Files):

Indeed, the scariest thing about them is that they seem so normal. Their pleasant personalities, however, are just a show. Underneath their “masks of sanity”-to use the famous phrase coined by psychologist Hervey Cleckley-they are profoundly disturbed individuals. The most striking feature of the psychopathic personality is his utter lack of empathy. He is incapable of love, incapable of caring, incapable of feeling sorry for anyone but himself. Other people are simply objects to be exploited and manipulated for his own profit and pleasure1.

Criminologist Edward Glover further notes in The Roots of Crime that psychopaths are “outstandingly selfish, egotistical, and deceitful.” While some may simply lie and steal and casually sleep around, the worst of the worst harbor “monstrous dreams of torture, rape, and murder that they’ll pursue without the slightest compunction”2. These are devious, cold-blooded predators who hide behind “bland, plausible facades”2. Schechter cites the infamous case of Jeffrey Dahmer. When one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s handcuffed and bleeding victims managed to escape and run out into the street, Dahmer calmly talked the police into returning the young man to his custody. He then led him back to his hellish lair and slaughtered him2.

Classifying Evil Minds

FBI investigator Robert Ressler is widely credited with coining the term “serial killer.” Broadly speaking, a serial killer is defined as someone who kills two or more people, usually with a “cooling off” period in between each murder. The “cooling off” period can last anywhere from a few days to a few months to a few years. However, this definition is rather ambiguous, as it begs the question: “is anyone who sequentially kills two or more people a ‘serial killer’”? What about Al Capone or Frank Lucas or Pablo Escobar? What about those who non-sequentially kill many people (Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold, Dylan Roof, Timothy McVeigh, the 9/11 hijackers, e.g.). Those who kill two or more people during a single slaughter are classified as “mass murderers,” while those who commit mass-murders “on the run” are classified as “spree killers” (e.g., Elliot Rodgers, the 2014 “Isla Vista Killer,” or the 2002 “Beltway Snipers”).

Gangsters may sequentially kill many people. But their motives are what distinguish them from serial killers. Gangsters tend to kill for practical reasons (e.g. business and profit). Serial killers, on the other hand, kill to satisfy deep psychological urges. The urges are often sexually driven and typically involve fantasies of power, humiliation, and control. It is one of the reasons most “lust-killers” sexually assault their victims or kill them in “intimate” ways.

An active crime scene under investigation.

At the tenth triennial meeting of the International Association of Forensic Sciences held at Oxford, England in September 1984, Robert Ressler and John Douglas of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (alongside professors Ralph D’Agostino and Ann W. Burgess) delivered a seminal paper on serial murder6. They had studied 36 jailed offenders, including Edmund Kemper (“The Coed Killer”) and Herbert Mullin6. Their enterprise later inspired the Netflix series, Mindhunter. In their presentation, they listed the following traits as the “general characteristics” of serial killers:

1. Most are single white males6.

2. They tend to be smart, with a mean IQ of “bright normal”6

3. Despite their intelligence, they do poorly in school and have spotty employment records (generally ended up as unskilled workers)6.

4. They come from deeply troubled families. Typically, they were abandoned at an early age by their fathers and grew up in broken homes dominated by their mothers6.

5. There’s a long history of psychiatric problems, including alcoholic and criminal behavior6.

6. As children, they suffer significant abuse. Sometimes abuse is physical and sometimes sexual. Such brutal mistreatment instills the killers with profound feelings of helplessness and humiliation6.

Their findings weren’t entirely accurate. Serial killers have proliferated throughout human history all over the world across different races, ethnicities, and cultures. Samuel Little- who confessed to murdering 93 women across 19 states between 1970 and 2005, Wayne Williams- convicted of the “Atlanta Child Murders” between 1979–1981, and Lonnie Franklin Jr. (“The Grim Sleeper”)- convicted in 2016 for murdering 10 women across Los Angeles from 1985–2007, were all infamous black/African American serial killers.

Aileen Wuornos, who murdered seven men in central Florida between 1989–1990 while working as a sex worker, Lucy Letby, an English neonatal nurse who murdered seven infants and attempted to murder six others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital, and Jane Toppan, an early 20th-century nurse who confessed to poisoning at least 31 patients with morphine and atropine, were all infamous female serial killers. Aileen Wuornos claimed her actions were in self-defense but was found guilty of all six murders and executed in 2002 (South African actress Charlize Theron famously won the Oscar for and portrayed Wuornos in Patty Jenkin’s 2003 film, Monster).

Murderers Throughout History

Late 16th/early 17th century Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was one of the most prolific female serial killers in history. Nicknamed the “Blood Countess,” she and four of her servants were accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of young women and girls between 1590 and 1610.

Liu Pengli (Chinese: 劉彭離), also known as the Prince of Jidong (濟東王), was a 2nd-century BC Han prince and has sometimes been claimed to be the first documented serial killer7. Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian related that, “At the age of twenty-nine, [Pengli] was arrogant and cruel and would go out on marauding expeditions with tens of slaves or young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport”8. Like many nobleman or military monsters (including Emperor Nero, Gilles de Rais, Elizabeth Báthory, or Vlad “The Impaler” of Wallachia) Pengli could use his economic and social status to conceal his true sadistic, murderous persona. One of Pengli’s victims made an accusation to the emperor. Pengli, though, was the grandson of Emperor Wen (r. 180–157 BCE), the nephew of Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE), and the third son of Liu Wu, Prince of Liang8. Therefore, even after he murdered at least 100 people across the kingdom, Emperor Jing was reluctant to execute him. Instead, he made his nephew a commoner and banished him to the country of Shangyong (present-day Zhushan in the Hubein Province).

Other historical serial killers, including Jack the Ripper, who terrorized sex workers in the Whitechapel District of London’s East End in 1888, 15th-century French knight, baron, and military commander Gilles de Rais, who abducted, sexually abused, tortured, and murdered countless young peasant boys who visited his castles, and Dr. H.H. Holmes, a scheming itinerant who prowled the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago for victims, prove that this kind of crime is as varied as it is grotesque. One way in which killers vary is the way in which they collect different “trophies” or “souvenirs” (either to reward their “accomplishments,” or to relive their crimes). Some collect drivers’ licenses, locks of hair, lingerie, polaroid photographs, or even body parts (skulls, e.g.).

The other ways in which serial killers vary are their different hunting grounds and places of attack. Some will prowl a single neighborhood or city, while others traverse countries. A killer might break into a home or abduct someone via automobile. Sometimes they might drug their victims or hit them over the head with a shovel. In the case of Jack the Ripper, his victims voluntarily invited him into their brothels (thinking he was only interested in sexual services).

Serial killers often vary in how much they stand out as evil predators or blend into society- committing heinous atrocities as they hide in plain sight. John Wayne Gacey, who prowled the suburbs of Chicago nearly a century after Dr. H.H. Holmes did so, was just as vile and predatory as Holmes. He was also just as inconspicuous. Gacey was viewed as a pillar of the community. On May 6, 1978, First Lady of the United States Rosalynn Carter gave John Wayne Gacey (then a prominent local businessman and Democratic precinct captain) a Secret Service security clearance pin. The “s” pin meant he was “safe”; something that Gacey was clearly the furthest thing from. Between 1972 and 1978, Gacey secretly murdered at least 33 young men and boys. He’d invite them into his home with job offers at his construction company, show them a “magic trick,” and then bind them. He’d then sexually assault and subject his victims to prolonged torture before asphyxiating/strangling and burying them in the crawl spaces beneath his home. Gacey dumped several bodies in the nearby Des Plaines River. His grisly crimes finally came to light in 1978 when 15-year-old Robert Priest went missing. Authorities uncovered his makeshift cemetery of corpses. Gacey confessed and was sentenced to death. He was executed via lethal injection on May 10, 1994, at Illinois’s Stateville Correctional Facility. What made John Wayne Gacey stand out was that he dressed as a clown in his spare time and thus was nicknamed “The Killer Clown” (a moniker that likely inspired Pennywise, the shapeshifting, sewer-dwelling Dancing Clown from Stephen King’s It).

A similar perpetrator was Dennis Rader. The bland, humorless father, husband, and church leader from Wichita, Kansas surreptitiously burglarized the homes of numerous people — ambushing, binding, asphyxiating, and murdering at least 10 people from 1974–1991. Unlike Gacey, Rader didn’t simply enjoy the private, sexually sadistic thrill of killing people. He also enjoyed taunting the media. When he wasn’t reliving his crimes with the trophies he collected, he was flooding the media with morbid, sensational letters, calling himself “BTK” (“Bind. Torture. Kill.”). He was captured in February 2005 and is currently serving 10 consecutive life sentences.

Grotesque Variations

There are also killers who eat people (cannibals), killers who drink their victims’ blood (vampires), killers who sexually violate their victims’ corpses (necrophiles), and killers who derive pleasure from slashing up, mutilating, and/or eviscerating their victims (rippers). There are killers who enjoy squeezing the life out of their victims (stranglers), and those who enjoy “putting their victims out of their mercy” by poisoning them (“Angels of Death”). Although Aileen Wuornos shot all her male victims, she was an anomaly. Serial homicides- at least those with a sexual component- often mirror the differences in sexual desire and behavior. Most male serial killers enjoy the “thrusting, forceful, and dominating” nature of bullets, knives, bludgeoning, and strangulation, while most female “angels of death” are nurses or caretakers who enjoy the twisted “emotional intimacy” of slowly wasting away their patients/victims.

Some killers- namely shooters and bombers- don’t crave “intimacy.” They don’t need to feel their victims writhe and convulse in agony or watch the light drain out of their victims’ desperate, terror-filled eyes. Hunting down strangers and then surprising them with a bullet sufficiently satisfies shooters. David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”) was one such prime example. Berkowitz, who frequently taunted the authorities with letters, liked to “keep his distance.” His trademark MO was to prowl the different boroughs of New York City at nighttime and then blast unsuspecting couples from hidden locations. His weapon- a .44 caliber “Bulldog”- earned him an appropriate additional moniker- “The 44 Caliber Killer.”

Then there are killers who preferentially target children (Albert Fish and Wesley Allen Dodd, e.g.), pedophilic serial killers (Jeffrey Dahmer, e.g.), juvenile serial killers (Mary Bell and Jesse Pomeroy, e.g.), killers who single out sex workers (Gary Ridgeway, the “Green River Killer”, e.g.), homosexual killers, bisexual killers, serial killers who murder as couples or in pairs (Fred and Rose West, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, e.g.)., killers close to and/or directly associated with the military/law enforcement, and cult leaders. Jim Jones infamously convinced all his followers in Jonestown, Guyana to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and commit mass suicide, while Charles Manson was infamous for instructing his brain-washed followers to commit murder on his behalf. The butchered body of then-pregnant actress Sharon Tate (and others) and the blood-scrawled “Helter Skelter” message inside her home attested to the sadistic, unthinkable brutality of their crimes.

What Drives Dexter?

Let’s circle back to Dexter, though. As we can see, Dexter is unequivocally different from most real-life killers. His urges are not to torment and dominate those more helpless and less powerful than him. His urges are to punish those who think they can do just that and get away with it. In other words, Dexter is what real-life criminologists would call a “mission-oriented killer.” Dexter’s “mission” is to wipe the earth clean of as many evil degenerates as possible. Over the course of the different franchises (including Dexter: New Blood, in which Dexter lives in upstate New York, and Dexter: Resurrection, in which Dexter prowls the streets of New York City), our serial-killing protagonist eliminates numerous types of murderers.

These include (but certainly are not limited to) violent gangsters, “black widows” (women who kill multiple husbands), “bluebeards” (men who kill multiple wives), sexual sadists, snuff killers, “angels of death,” a psychiatrist who secretly tapes sessions in which he convinces his depressed clients to commit suicide, a reckless drunk driver who runs down several people on multiple occasions, and, in one episode, a pedophilic sex offender who photographs Rita’s young daughter. Dexter also kills various people during deadly, impromptu altercations (those “murders,” though, are mostly instances of self-defense).

Jeff Lindsay loosely based Dexter on real life Brazilian serial killer, Pedro Rodriguo Filho (a.k.a. “Pedrinho Matador,” “Killer Lil Pedro,” or “Petey”). Pedro committed most of his crimes as a teenager (14–19 years of age). Although he was sentenced for 71 murders, he claims to have committed over 100. Pedro primarily targeted drug dealers, rapists, and other murderers. He served a total of 34 years in prison before his release in 2007. He was, however, imprisoned again on charges of rioting and deprivation of liberty for crimes committed in prison. During his initially planned release (2003), Jeff Lindsay began writing his series of novels about Dexter Morgan with Filho as the inspiration. Much later (following the success of Dexter as a Showtime series with multiple reboots) Filho was hailed as the “Brazilian Dexter” or the “South American Punisher.”

The show and books focus on the complex dynamic of Dexter’s various relationships. Does Dexter- a clinical sociopath and self-proclaimed “monster”- genuinely love and/or care about his wife Rita, his sister Debra, his son Harrison, and others? Or are those closest to him merely “props” that he can use to bolster an image of “normalcy”? Hervey M. Cleckley’s “The Mask of Sanity” and Robert Hare’s “Snakes in Suits” both speak to this social-cognitive “high-wire act” that psychopaths perform — coldly blending into and mimicking others…keeping their wretched “true” personas hidden just beneath the surface.

Dexter (Michael C. Hall) prepares to kill one of his victims. Image courtesy of Paramount Plus and Showtime Networks.

There is something so compellingly bizarre and unfamiliar about psychopathy to the average person. At least 95% of all people are non-psychopathic/non-sociopathic. In other words, when we do something wrong, we are capable of feeling guilt or remorse for doing so (whether that “something” is violent/criminal or not). We feel a need to reciprocate and play fair with others. And, most importantly, if another person or animal suffers, that suffering can deeply affect us.

The Different Degrees

This “moral landscape” (to paraphrase Sam Harris) is the reason our legal systems carefully distinguish between different types of murder and other crimes. The first division of the general crime of murder was graded into subcategories when the Law of Pennsylvania in 1794 was enacted9. Legal officials explained their desire to narrow the scope of the application of capital punishment in each state. Thereafter, several other states subsequently graded murder into “first” and “second” degrees.

The English common law, which the United States integrated into its own laws, applied capital punishment to many crimes. The United States- a new nation in which dueling and extrajudicial “lynching” practices persisted for some time- evolved quickly, though, and strictly applied capital punishment to first degree murderers10. By 1953, three states- namely Florida, Minnesota, and Wisconsin- had created a subcategory of third-degree murder11.

“First Degree Murder” is defined as any intentional killing that is “willful and premeditated with malice aforethought.” “Felony murder” is a charge that prosecutors may file against a defendant who is involved in a dangerous crime where a death results from the crime (e.g., a bank robbery)12.

“Second-Degree Murder” is defined as any intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned. The killer may have intended to inflict serious bodily harm, knowing that this could result in death but having no specific intent to kill. This type of “depraved-heart murder” is distinguishable from “Third Degree Murder” (also known as “Voluntary Manslaughter”).

Sometimes referred to as a “crime of passion,” murder in the third degree is any intentional killing that involves no prior intent to kill and was committed under “such circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed.” The line between first- and second-degree murder can be tricky. For example, a bar fight that results in a death may ordinarily constitute second-degree murder, while a bar fight stemming from a discovery of infidelity may constitute “voluntary manslaughter”13.

Another variation of manslaughter is “involuntary manslaughter.” Involuntary manslaughter stems from a lack of intention to cause death but an intentional act of negligence that led to someone’s death (whether the act of negligence itself was premeditated or not). Drunk-driving accidents are a common example. Cases involving “gross negligence” or “reckless endangerment” would also fall under the banner of involuntary manslaughter.

Recent Slaughters

On December 4, 2024, University of Iowa accounting graduate and UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson was outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan (preparing to attend an annual investor conference) when 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione brandished a pistol and shot the executive three times in the head. Thompson immediately died. Mangione fled and was later captured at a nearby McDonalds. Inscribed on the three ammunition casings were the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose,” which in turn sparked a massive national conversation about the healthcare and health insurance industry.

On April 2, 2025, a violent confrontation at a high school track meet erupted when Karmelo Anthony, a student at Centennial High School in Frisco, Texas, sought shelter from a heavy thunderstorm. He entered the team tent belonging to rival Memorial High School. When Memorial High School track star Austin Metcalf repeatedly asked Anthony to leave, Anthony refused, escalating the confrontation with verbal insults and threatening Metcalf to “touch [him] and see what happens.” When Metcalf gently pressed on him, Anthony reached into his backpack, pulled out a knife, and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest before fleeing the scene. Metcalf passed away shortly from the two-inch-deep fatal wound that Anthony inflicted upon him. Anthony’s trial commenced a year later, and — despite questionable self-defense claims from the defense attorneys- the jury found Anthony guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

On August 22, 2025, while riding home on the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) Lynx Blue Line, Iryna Zarutska was killed in an unprovoked attack when DeCarlos Brown Jr (sitting behind her) suddenly stood up, brandished a pocketknife, and stabbed the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, pizzeria employee, and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College student three times in the neck. Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene, and, given the explicit surveillance footage and the train-car full of other witnesses, Brown was immediately arrested when he exited onto the next station platform.

None of these incidents (nor Tyler Robinson’s assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at the University of Utah on September 10, 2025) were cases of serial murder. There is no evidence suggesting that Mangione, Anthony, Brown, or Robinson harbored sadistic fantasies of power and control. Mangione’s execution was ideological. Anthony was likely driven by deep-seated, impulsive anger and insecurity. Brown suffered from severe, unmedicated schizophrenia and paranoid delusions, and Tyler Robinson viewed Charlie Kirk as a hateful, transphobic individual.

The Moral Reality of Most People

If Dexter Morgan was real, who would he kill? Who would he spare? Despite his bloodthirsty urges, Dexter greatly values “Harry’s Code,” and one of its rules stipulates that “killing must serve a purpose. Otherwise, it’s murder.” Therefore, on several occasions, Dexter spares the lives of very young killers who show genuine remorse. The opposite is equally true. Dexter’s very first episode opens with the protagonist ambushing choir director Mike Donovan. Donovan had sexually assaulted and murder several young boys. “OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID!” Dexter angrily screams at Donovan (whom he has trapped inside a remote pumphouse). Dexter demands that Donovan take accountability for the grisly murders he committed, unveiling the frozen corpses of Donovan’s victims that Dexter dug up. When Donovan “tearfully” exclaims that “[he] couldn’t help [himself], please, you have to understand,” Dexter gleefully replies, “Oh I understand. See, I can’t help myself either. But I could never ever harm children…. I have standards.” He then knocks out his target with M99, fetters him to a “kill table,” saws off his head, and disposes of his body.

“It starts with blood…trickling behind my eyelids. The trickle then turns into a stream and then a flood…filling all my empty spaces. The blood, though, is no longer red. It’s black. The pressure becomes so intense it feels like my head is going to explode. The only way to relieve the pressure is to open the floodgates,” Dexter relays to Debra, describing his “dark passenger.”

The “dark passenger” is a common feature of many serial killers…the inner voice that ruthlessly encourages evil deeds. When a serial killer’s cruel, fantasy-fueled urges emerge, they don’t fight back. They helplessly give in to them. Reality, however, rarely ever meets their expectations, though. The “itch” that they scratch grows “itchier,” and, like a drug addiction, their cravings expand. Their desires become more depraved. This cyclical pattern- also common amongst many sex predators- is what Dexter describes. Serial murderers often kill people to relive and process some sort of trauma (neglect, domineering mothers, sexual or physical abuse, e.g.). Their victims are essentially “avatars” for a specific person from their past. However, in Dexter’s case, his urges are far more understandable. Dexter craves justice…raw, bloody, visceral and vindictive justice. He constantly relives watching his mother’s gruesome death…lingering inside a dark container knee-deep in her blood.

Though most of us have certainly and thankfully not experienced such horrors, we know that “pressing” feeling/urge for justice. Those who witnessed the towers collapse back in 2001 or read about the Epstein Files and all its perpetrators, for instance, may feel or have felt a blood-boiling desire to see the criminals “get what they deserve.” “Burn In Hell” appeared on the frontpage of many newspapers the day after Osama Bin Laden was killed. The U.S. Constitution’s eighth amendment forbids “cruel and unusual punishment,” but people are people. When they learn about the horrific deeds that some sadistic serial killer or child molester committed, it’s not hard to understand their reactions. “Tie each of his limbs to four horses…Hang him upside down by his *****. Drop him into a volcano filled with mutated, man-eating sharks!”

In the end, though, while we may viscerally support Dexter Morgan (cheering him on as he eliminates monsters who evade justice), most of us naturally “pump the brakes.” Healthy, broadscale social upbringing and our own personal conscience provide strong guardrails against “moral insanity.” Despite the rage and frustration many of us may experience from time to time, if the average person were ever to even slap someone, we’d likely feel immediate remorse. This toggling between the brake and the accelerator…this balancing act of “fairness and vindication” …this ultimately drives any healthy and just legal system. We may keep a “dark passenger” in our car, but we don’t let the “dark passenger” take the wheel!

SOURCES

1. Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers. New York, NY, Ballantine Books, 2003. p. 15.

2. Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers. New York, NY, Ballantine Books, 2003. p. 16.

3. Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers. New York, NY, Ballantine Books, 2003. p. 17.

4. Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers. New York, NY, Ballantine Books, 2003. p. 18.

5. Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers. New York, NY, Ballantine Books, 2003. p. 19.

6. Schechter, Harold. The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World’s Most Terrifying Murderers. New York, NY, Ballantine Books, 2003. p. 22.

7. Wainio, Wade. “Thoughts on Liu Pengli, the Han Dynasty’s Serial Killer Prince”. Criminal.

8. thehistorianshut (13 April 2019). “Liu Pengli — The Serial Killer King Of The Han Dynasty”. The Historian’s Hut. Retrieved 17 February 2022.

9. Brenner, Frank (1953). “The Impulsive Murder and the Degree Device”. Fordham Law Review. 22 (3): 274.

10. Brenner, Frank (1953). “The Impulsive Murder and the Degree Device”. Fordham Law Review. 22 (3): 275.

11. Brenner, Frank (1953). “The Impulsive Murder and the Degree Device”. Fordham Law Review. 22 (3): 278.

12. “First Degree Murder Overview”. FindLaw. Retrieved September 10, 2017.

13. “Voluntary Manslaughter: Definition”. FindLaw. Retrieved September 10, 2017.