I bet you also didn't hear of the Rocky Mount murders. Ten women were missing. Since 2005 nine women's bodies turned up near bridges and woods in a small area with a population of around 60,000. Sounds like big national news, right? You would think this would be a case covered daily on the crime shows. Alas, few have heard much about it. Why? The victims have been poor, African American females who fit the profile I created in 2007 of ignored crime victims. President of the local NAACP chapter Andre Knight pointed out that if the victims had been Caucasian, that it would not have taken so many victims before a pattern was recognized. And he is absolutely right. The women had known each other and resided in the same areas. To anyone in law enforcement, this should have raised a giant warning flag. There has been one conviction in a single murder, yet the others remain open. Even with so many dramatic homicides, there has been little in the way of national news coverage.

This is a pattern. It isn't just in Rocky Mount. In the summer of 2006, news programs continually ran the stories about two serial killers operating in the Phoenix Arizona area. Serial shooters were targeting hapless victims who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the Baseline rapist turned into a boogeyman who sexually murdered his victims. Two serial killers were murdering at once, and people were caught off guard. Invariably, it was common to hear that this was the first time such a thing had happened. However this was far from true. While the Phoenix cases grabbed big headlines, I quietly worked with police in the Atlanta area where several serial predators were claiming victims. These included murders and rape/murders, but they were serial in nature. That is, more than one serial rapist/killer was killing in the Atlanta area. In one serial case, a man has been charged, and we were pleased to get one of the killers off the streets. But there are still those other cases which remain open. It is unlikely that the general public is aware because the victims were primarily African American.

Likewise, in Chicago in the late 1990's, there were four serial sexual killers hunting in the dangerous South Side. Four unique signatures (patterns of killing) emerged, and police were very forthright about the dangers. One offender, Andre Crawford, used a very simple rouse to acquire his prey: drugs. He would promise down and out females cocaine in exchange for sex. The desperate victims were then lured into abandoned buildings with no one around to hear their screams. Then Crawford would rape and strangle the women. Their bodies were left in the buildings which served as their tombs. In some cases, the killers return to rape the corpses as they decompose. Another offender, Hubert Geralds, seemed to take joy in putting his victims in trash containers. Serial killers enjoy disposing of victims in 'no dumping' areas or in trash piles or trash cans. It is their way of giving the victim, the police, and the general public a big symbolic middle finger.

As heinous as this sounds, chances are that most people in the general public have not heard of these cases.

In St. Louis, there have been several predators in the run down areas of the city. In East St. Louis alone, eight women were slaughtered in a small area within two years in the late 1990's. The areas where the victims were abducted and found were full of crime. Prostitution and drug use were common in the crime scene areas. And the victims were degraded even in death. Typically the victims were stripped, raped, strangled, and then left in public view. In some cases, the women were partially placed in trash bags, a poignant and symbolic staging. In essence, the killer was saying that the victims were garbage. Though several serial predators were apprehended, chances are most people never knew.

At the same time, in New Orleans and New Jersey, female victims turned up dead in dangerous areas. In each city, the patterns were unique, and it was clear that serial killers were roaming the streets. Because there were so many homicide victims, task forces were formed, but many cases remain unsolved. It was estimated that there were six serial murderers in the New Orleans area in the late 1990's. On the plus side, police in the New Orleans area have been successful in apprehending such offenders, but after Hurricane Katrina, they are stretched thin. The murder rate is extremely high.

With such astounding situations, one would expect that news shows would have covered these ad nauseum. But even though these crimes were those of the serial killers, and they occurred in large cities, the average person never heard of them. Whereas the Caylee Anthony case, Natalie Holloway and other cases grabbed the national spotlight, these serial cases in Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere were seemingly ignored.

Why?

Victimology can help answer that question. These victims were mostly poor and African American. In each locale, female victims were quietly snuffed out, and though law enforcement worked diligently to do its part, very often, there just was never the interest in the victims that one sees in other cases continually run on every news program.

One day I was talking with an African American gentleman on my way to be on a news program. Upon learning what I do for a living, he asked why the national news showed little interest in cases where African American females were killed. He spoke of endless programs featuring the death of a lone Caucasian female, but he said that he could not remember any such shows dedicated to a lone African American female (let alone, several victims). I immediately thought about the cases around the country, and I tried to think of shows that focused on them as much as they had centered on Caucasian victims. They just were not there. Most people had no idea that several serial killers had preyed at one time on African American women in Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New Jersey. The women were seemingly invisible. This low profile actually aids the killers as they do not fear high levels of scrutiny. In essence, an alert public can help a criminal investigation.

With that in mind, I wanted to highlight some of the characteristics of the women who died in the aforementioned cities. First, the majority of African American victims in these cases were of a lower socioeconomic status. These victims struggle to make ends meet. Often they lived in high crime areas, and many had low education levels. Several had been trying to better their lives, whether it is through more education or working long hours. Others had fallen into prostitution and drug use. This made them extremely vulnerable. In high crime areas, social networks are loose, and it is more likely that predators can move in and out of these areas undetected. Such areas are very unstable, and those who are permanent residents prefer to stay away from law enforcement for fear of criminal retribution. In other words, talking to police can get a person killed. So anonymity is the rule. This reinforces the safety for the offenders. They do not fear witnesses.