Jack the Ripper and other serial killers

Serial killers fascinate people. Take the Jack the Ripper case - never solved but still actual. How many books have been written about these Whitechapel murders? How many films made?

The thing is, serial killers are mostly very intelligent. Yeah, I guess I could be a serial killer if I wanted too, as my IQ is high enough. I must admit I sometimes dream I am killing people (especially those against whom I bear a grudge) in the most slowly and painful way, for instance by cutting them into little pieces - but it never goes further than that. I am quite satisfied by killing them in my dreams and I find some solace and retribution in it.

Another imortant thing about serial killers is that they are not easily recognized in ordinary life. I know, as I've met two of them already. (That is as far as I know, perhaps I've met more...)

The first serial killer I met was Andras Pandy. That was at the end of the 1980's, beginning of the 1990's. Pandy was a teacher of orthodox religion and he taught some pupils at the school where I was doing secretarial work at the time. I always was alone on Friday afternoons, and Pandy dropped by to drink coffee with me and have a chat.

He was a very intelligent man, who talked about cultural events, opera, good books... Little did I know he was slowly murdering away his entire family at the same time! He got rid of the bodies by dissolving them into acid and were it not for his daughter Agnes, who was his accomplice in these murders, the police would never had found a clue. But Agnes became overwhelmed with guilt and made a full confession.

The second serial killer I met was Ronny Janssens. Not so long ago, his murders dominated the headlines in our national newspapers. He started out as a serial rapist, then became a serial killer.

I met Ronny at another school, where I taught Dutch and English to 17 and 18 year olds. One of the teachers needed an operation and Ronny came to replace him for a couple of weeks. He was quite a nice guy too, and also the students liked him. He was a good teacher. The only thing was he complained about his wife a lot, but how many men don't do that??? He seemed quite normal and behaved appropriately. But in his weekends he drove around deserted roads and raped young women and even came to killing some of them.