SKCentral.com Innovator Uncut and Upfront

While searching the web for some information on murder and serial killers for a research that I was doing I came across a site that had everything I wanted or needed to know and much more. The name of this site is Serial Killer Central. Today I will be talking to Joe the owner and administrator of this site. First I would like to thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your site SKC.

Joe this is the first site that I have found that has all this information on so many serial killers,

What was your inspiration for this site and how hard was it to build this from a idea or dream to a reality?

In 1997 I started writing to a few killers. A friend of mine named Kyle, who's passed away now, said I should make a site and show the things I've gotten from the killers. I told him I'd do the content if he made the images for the site. With that, SKC was born. For about 7 years it was a basic Angelfire website, then I bought a domain name and changed the format of the site to a more user interactive site...comments, submissions, forums...Since then the site has gotten bigger and bigger and given me more inspiration to work on it.

So have you dug up all this info or do you allow members and visitors contribute to the site as well? If so how do you find time to keep up with it all?

Both. A lot of the stuff is original stuff that I've put online from documents I've gotten through trades or bought from other people. A lot of time members will submit news articles, photos, and biographers to post, I try to read through them before adding them though.

Who are some of the serial killers that you have written and if you don't mind letting us know what did they send you ?

In the past 10 years I've corresponded with around 300 different serial killers, mass murderers, or other notorious killers. One of the strangest items is from Jeremy Jones...it's a tracing of his dick on a sheet of paper, covered in semen.

Who has been the most insightful sk that you have written and can some of the letters, poems and art be viewed on the site?

Michael Ross was pretty interesting. He wrote a few good articles you can read on the site. He had a monthly newsletter as well, the whole archive of those are on the site as well. Joe Roy Metheny gave a full confession, and there's a few other confessions as well.

In the shops do you sell some of what the sk's send you?

Nah, I don't sell that kind of stuff anymore. You can find it on MurderAuction or DaisySeven if you're looking though..

It seems like Serial Killer Central has been on the web forever, so many of your members have built a bond of some sort or another that links to more than just serial killers; how long has the site been active and how have you built is to be so successful?

It's been online 10 years this year. On the off-topic message board there have been a bunch of SKC Meet-up/Gatherings where members will all meet at a certain place and have fun. If it weren't for the regular visitors here, I wouldn't have the desire to keep the site going.

About how many new visitors do you get a day and how many become new members?

The site gets around 1000 hits a day. I don't really know how many new members there are daily though...there used to be 5 or so new members, but only once a week or so someone will sign up and stick around a while.

From being on the site so often I have seen that several of your members do have a facination for serial killers, murder, necrophilia. Do you share the same facination and if so what is your draw?

My fascination is more along the lines of stuff from the killers themselves. Bio's and case histories don't do much for me. I like the artwork, poetry, short stories..things like that. I think it gives a better insight into the mind of the killer than reading a news report or book.

For those who have no idea about SKC give us an overview of what is offered to your members...

Just about anything you need to fill your serial killer fix. Biographies, artwork, bookstore, shops, trivia, classifieds, message boards, blogs, photo galleries, full length movies, downloads, up to date news...I'm working on adding a myspace like site for crime fans, and a instant messenger for users to chat with each other.

What are some of the full length movies that others might be interested in and are they hard to come by?

Anubis does a good job of adding rare and/or hard to find movies. There's the old TV movie Hunt For The Nightstalker, another old TV movie about Wayne Williams called Atlanta Child Murders. There's a movie about Ricky Kasso called Ricky 6 which was never released, the only thing we could find was a work print. He's got a few more good movies coming up in the future as well.

If someone wanted to contact a serial killer how would your site be beneficial to them?

For $20.00 you can get the address list with over 300 up to date addresses.

What is the time frame you are looking at for the myspace type deal?

I've got all the files for it ready, I just need to edit the look and texts. It should be ready in a month or so.

Can you tell us about some of your members and what makes them so unique and how they contribute to the site?

There's some strange characters, but for the most part they're all pretty normal. There's always going to be a few that want you to think they're a hardass, but it usually comes off pretty campy. There's a few of them that are pretty good writers on the blogs. Some do some decent artwork. Others are just really insightful. One of the main things I like about the site since it became more interactive, is getting to hear points of views from people I wouldn't have had the chance to hear from before. There's some pretty smart people on there.

Thank you again I have greatly enjoyed both speaking with you about serial killer central as well as visiting the site. It has been a true pleasure and I welcome everyone to check out the site at the link provided.