TV

All The Real Life Serial Killers Featured In ‘Mindhunter’ Season Two

There's some real monsters in this season.

by Joseph Earp  30 August 2019
Mindhunter Season 2 trailer

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The second season of Mindhunter, one of the best shows of the last ten years, is here. And you know what that means: time to become unnervingly obsessed with the lives and crimes of prominent American serial killers!

Yep, the astonishingly detailed and grim true crime extravaganza, helmed by noted auteur David Fincher, is back for another go-around.

Netflix was bizarrely quiet on details about the show leading up to its release (the nervous amongst you might worry that means this very expensive show is facing cancellation.) It’s not clear why. Really, Netflix had no reason to be gun-shy: Mindhunter‘s second season is as good, if not better, than its first; a thrilling, mature and oddly moving treatise on obsession and regret.

If the streaming service does decide to pull the plug, this season will be a hell of a way to go out.

But hey, till that inevitable cancellation date comes around, let’s bask in the show a little while longer. And what better way to do that than to submerge ourselves in the crimes and killers that show up in season two, and the key facts you need to know about them.

Atlanta Child Murders

The main thrust of season two is the Atlanta child murders, a series of spree murders that Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) finds himself mired in while trying to solve the mystery of the BTK killer (more on him in a minute).

A string of high-profile killings targeted against the African-American community, the murders took place over a period of two years, from 1979 to 1981. During that time, police strongly suspected that the murders were racially motivated — hence all of the Ku Klux Klan talk that the show quickly descends into.

The killer — or maybe even killers — abducted children, teens and adults seemingly indiscriminately, leaving their bodies near wooded areas. 28 victims were killed in this way, throwing the Atlanta community into chaos.

Before long, the murders reached the echelons of Hollywood. When accepting the Best Actor Oscar he nabbed for Raging Bull, Robert DeNiro wore a green ribbon in solidarity with the victims. A cache of singers including Frank Sinatra and The Jacksons even threw a benefit concert to raise money for the families of those taken.

If you haven’t watched Mindhunter yet, it’s probably sensible to go into it without knowing how this particular story ends. But it’s safe to say, those expecting a nice, neat conclusion to the arc should best prepare themselves for disappointment.

Charles Manson

The spectre of Charles Manson hangs heavily over any period-set crime show, and the first season of Mindhunter is no different. After all, for many viewers, the cult leader is the archetypal serial killer — an unnerving mastermind who had grand plans to prompt total societal collapse.

In actual fact, Manson was an acid-addled schizophrenic, less a genius manipulator than someone who managed to catch a culture in exactly the way needed to commit a high-profile murder.

Given that realism has always been the name of Mindhunter‘s game, it’s unsurprising that when the show’s version of the character does finally turn up, played by Australian actor Damon Herriman, falls he closer in line with the truth of Manson, not the myth. Manson cameos more than he features, popping up for one tense showdown with Holden and Bill.

But even then, he’s a strange, unnerving sociopath, not a moustache-twirling villain.

The BTK Killer

All of you true crime obsessives know that the first season of Mindhunter involved a lengthy and elaborate tease. That mysterious, knot-obsessed man peppered throughout the show — the one who can be seen in the show’s final shot, burning a series of disturbing drawings? Well, that’s The BTK Killer (that gruesome moniker stands for ‘Blind, Torture, Kill’), and despite racking up a lot of screentime, he never really actually did anything in the first season.

Not so in the second. Though the BTK killer is isolated from the main thrust of the story, existing on his own narrative island, separate from the exploits of Holden and Bill, he’s no less terrifying. Slowly, we see him become the murderer that would eventually hit the headlines, as his friends and family ostracize him, and his pleasures become more perverse.

In terms of their depiction of the killer, the show is stunningly accurate. BTK Killer terrorized the Kansas metro area for almost 20 years, during which time he killed ten victims and sent multiple taunting messages to the police. Indeed, the murderer’s identity was only revealed in the early thousands, after many years of inactivity on his part, making him that rare example of a cold case finally closed decades after the murders were committed.

Son Of Sam

David Berkowitz, AKA Son Of Sam, is one of the rare liars in the second season of Mindhunter. While the show’s other criminals are practically gagging to tell their stories of torture and mutilation, Berkowitz sends Bill and Holden in circles, spinning them a tale of demonic posession and madness. Of course, before long that artifice falls away, and Berkowitz reveals the truth that Holden already knows: that he killed because he wants to.

That depiction of Berkowitz is unnervingly close to the truth.

In reality, the killer — who shot eight victims in New York city over the span of a single summer — went back and forth on his motivations all the time. First blaming an ancient demon, then alleging that he was part of a cult, then calling his prior confessions a hoax, Berkowitz relished the attention that each new story got him. Indeed, he’s still alive, behind bars, and updating his story. Wonder what he thinks of Mindhunter?

Mindhunter season two is currently streaming 0n Netflix.