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I-Team Investigation: Cashing In On Killers

MIAMI (CBS4) ―

Hadden Clark was a killer as twisted as he was evil – a cross-dressing child-killer who ate his victims' flesh. But today, his greatest crime may be the simple fact the man doesn't sell.

Among those who collect serial killer knickknacks, he has been relegated to the bargain bin of history.

There is no shortage of Hadden Clark items for sale on the internet. A prison pillowcase upon which he once rested his head, a pair of his old sweat socks, a soiled jockstrap he once, well, for lack of a more tasteful description, soiled, have all been available for months without any bidders.

It is a classic case where supply has clearly outstripped demand.

"There is a lot of Hadden Clark stuff out there, and not a lot of people interested," offers Tod Bohannon, founder of MurderAuction.com, one of the largest websites for what is known as murderabilia. "He keeps sending it to me, so I just post it."

So goes the strange and macabre world of serial killer collectibles.

In addition to Murder Auction, there is also Serial Killer Central, Super Naught, and Daisy Seven, whose motto is "Where Crime Pays Everyday."

On these sites you can find artwork by John Wayne Gacy and Danny Rollings; handwritten poems by Richard Ramirez, or the fingernail clippings and tooth brushes of a half dozen other killers. All available for a price.

A 13-inch lock of Charles Manson's hair, formed into a noose, is available online, with bidding now up to $1,800.      

Miami Dade prosecutor Abby Rivkind, who has spent the better part of three decades putting killers in prison, had the same reaction a lot of people do when they first see one of these sites, which on this particular day was featuring Hadden Clark's used dental floss for the marked down, sale price of just $11.

"Ewwww," Rivkind said. "That was my  first reaction. You really can't get over the ick factor. My second reaction is, what kind of people would buy this stuff. And my third reaction was, what kind of person does it take to sell this stuff."

Bohannon said he became interested in killers after he saw the movie, Helter Skelter. He was 13 and kept pestering his mother with questions about Charles Manson.

"My mom just got tired of answering all my questions, so finally she just said, `Why don't you write Charles,' and so I did," he says. "I wrote Charles a few times and I never got an answer. And then finally, after four or five letters, I got Charles to answer me."

Bohannon started writing to other killers and many responded as well. Overall, he says he has corresponded with more than 300 killers.

"There aren't many of them that you could name that I haven't written to at this point," Bohannon says. "I've never really had a bad experience with any of them." Bohannon, who is now 30, has traveled to various prisons around the country to meet many of them.

"I've grown a great friendship with them," he says. "Me and a lot of them have corresponded for years and years now."

Sometimes, he says, they send him items they think he would like, including autographs and paintings.

"Arthur Shawcross did this," he says, showing off a painting in his North Georgia home. "He's the Genesee River Killer from New York. He killed about twelve prostitutes."

Paintings are nice, but it's the personal items he likes best. One killer even sent him a tooth. Another sent him fingernail clippings.

"The inmates generally know about the collectors and the collectors know about the inmates, so you don't have to ask for the odd things such as foot scrapings or fingernail clippings," he said. "A lot of times if they cut their fingernails and they know you are a collector, they know you are involved in true crime, you hadn't got to ask for it. When they cut their fingernails, they'll think it's funny and they'll tape them to a piece of paper and send them."

Bohannon believes there is nothing unusual about collecting these sorts of items. He doesn't like the term murderabilia. He calls them "true crime artifacts."

"It's not much different to me than collecting comic books or World War II memorabilia or Klan memorabilia," argues Bohannon. "It was part of history and people tend to collect that so they don't forget."

But fingernail clippings?

"It's just strange," he said.

He estimates he owns about 10,000 items, which he proudly displays throughout his house. (And yes, he is single.)

He started his website three years ago after Ebay, under intense public pressure, banned the sale of murderabilia on its site.

"I just thought [MurderAuction.com] would be a good place to have an arena to get everybody who was involved [in collecting] together, meet new people, and bring new people into the hobby," he says.

He collects a $10 annual registration fee from anyone who wants to post or buy items on his site. He says he has about 800 active members on his site and doesn't take a percentage of any sale.

Bohannon says he doesn't pay inmates for the items they send him. But he will, from time to time, send an inmate some stamps or place a few dollars in their commissary accounts.

No one is getting rich from buying, selling or trading these items, he says. He argues it is the media that creates the demand for these items and it is the media – through newspapers, magazines, movies, and television shows – that exploit serial killers for profit.

"I don't feel bad about my site," he said. "I didn't glamorize any of these people. The world wouldn't know who any of these people are until the media put them out there. They turned them into household names. I didn't do that, I just kind of picked up on it."

Rivkind, the Miami Dade prosecutor, says sites such as MurderAuction.com turns the killers into idols.

"The problem that you have is that you are making them more important in history than they actually should be," she says. "They should not be important in history. Their crimes should make them infamous, their crimes should make them the kind of people you want to avoid, that society wants to put in the past. And by selling them and making a profit off it, you are making them important."

And lost in all of this are the victims of these killers and their families.

Congress has entered the debate on murderabilia. One member of Congress, a former detective who once headed up the Green River Killer investigation in Seattle, has introduced a measure called the Stop The Sale Of Murderabilia To Protect The Dignity Of Crime Victims Act, which would make it a felony for inmates to mail items to individuals for resale on the internet.

The proposal does not make it illegal to buy or sell any of the items.

Experts do not believe the law, if passed, would slow down the trade of murderabilia.

Except, of course, for Hadden Clark's soiled jockstrap. It's hard to imagine anyone ever wanting that.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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