As I have posted this week a couple of times, The Show today will focus on Belle Gunness. Belle was one of those Hoosier "success" stories that did not quite make it to the commercials they ran during timeouts of IU and Purdue basketball games in the 1980s. Belle croaked quite a few people, and was unique amongst serial killers who have been caught or otherwise identified. She did not have a "type" or category of people whom she targeted. Ted Bundy killed women with medium-length brown hair parted down the middle. Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy killed gay young men. The Green River killer picked out women who were prostitutes or were unlucky enough to walk down streets in areas known for prostitution.

   Belle Gunness killed men, women, and children. True, part of her motivation was money. Part of her motivation also was to cover up her acts. But Belle truly was non-discriminatory in the area of homicide.

   As I read about the Gunness cases (or perhaps "cases" would be a more accurate word), I thought about our preconceptions of serial killers. It is said that, at any given moment in the United States, 50 serial killers are out, engaged in what they do. Authorities do not capture or otherwise identify that many individuals as serial killers. That means a lot of those people get away with---literally---murder. Perhaps one way in which they are able to do so is by varying they style of their killings. Maybe they choose a variety of victims or change modus operandi. Whatever may be the case, the math would indicate they are at large. Given standard so-called profiles of these people,they are above average in intelligence. Bundy appears to have been fairly intelligent. He referred to himself as one who had earned a degree in serial killing. I think that could be corrected. He might have been in the doctoral program, but he flunked the orals. He was caught and fried in Florida. The people who are experts in this nefarious field still walk the streets. As Wednesday Addams said in the first Addams Family movie, when asked why she hadn't dressed in a costume for Halloween, "I'm a serial killer. They look like everybody."

   The Show today should be fun. We'll be at Perk Up at 6536 Cornell. Cornell runs parallel to the Monon Trail. Perk Up is north of the Brew Pub. We shoot from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.