Caroline Fraser is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and editor. Her most recent book is "Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers." www.carolinefraser.net https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741809/murderland-by-caroline-fraser/ This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Thanks for doing this.
Thank you for having me.
So I've read about the premise of your book online and immediately I'm like, I got to talk to this lady. That sounds crazy. Please tell people what the premise is just so we can get started with this.
Yeah, well, I started thinking about this a long time ago. The book's called Murderland. Yeah, the book is Murderland. And I grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s around the time when there were a lot of you know, serial killers beginning to pop up. And there always had been this question, why are there so many serial killers in the Pacific Northwest?
And so that was the question I was really thinking about. And the premise as it emerged from the research that I did and from some of the facts that I learned about what was happening in the Northwest in this run up to the 1970s is that there may be a connection between the lead pollution that was prevalent in the area because of smelters and leaded gas
and serial killers because lead, of course, as we I think most people now know, has a connection to heightened aggression and violence in the people who've been exposed to it. So that was what emerged to me gradually over the years. I mean, I didn't know a lot about this when I started. I knew about the serial killers, but I didn't really know about the whole lead story. And that came about...
you know, I learned about it in part because of some murders. I mean, I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is a lovely place. Unfortunately, New Mexico has a high rate of homicides. In part, it's because it's a poor state and doesn't have a big tax base and has, you know, some issues with drug and alcohol addiction.
And a few years ago, maybe 2008 or something like that, some people, a couple of people were murdered down the street from me. And I live in a very peaceful neighborhood. And that was something that really made me start thinking about the issue of maybe, you know, it might be a good idea to think of moving back to the Pacific Northwest, which I wanted to do anyway because I have family up there.
And a few years later, because of that, I was up in the Northwest and looking at real estate ads. And at this point, I didn't really know anything about the smelter or the the lead issues. But I was looking at property on Vashon Island, which if you know anything about the Pacific Northwest is in Puget Sound. It's right across from West Seattle. Beautiful little
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