I’ve never been a reader of detective stories or, indeed, of much fiction at all in my 60 years of reading life, say, 1951 to 2011. I’ve made up for the dearth of crime fiction in my life by watching who-dun-its by the truck-load since TV came into my life circa 1950.

A week ago this evening, on 27 March 2011, I watched a 1995 television movie entitled The Stranger Beside Me.1 In 1995 I was making my initial plans to take an early retirement from the teaching profession, assume a lower profile of activity in the Baha’i community, and take what is called a sea-change in Australia. I did not see that movie back then but, rather, 16 years later during these years of my retirement.

I write about this movie after making some notes and reading about this film. This film about a famous American serial killer between 1974 and 1978 raised in my mind some questions about: the nature of evil, violence, abnormal psychology, psychiatry, deviant behaviour, serial killing, fantasy, motivation, history, popular culture, the media, sadomasochistic pornography, torture, psychopathology, and antisocial personality disorder, inter alia.2-Ron Price with thanks to 1 “The Stranger Beside Me,” 1:10 to 2:50 a.m., GO! TV, 28 March 2011“ and 2Serial Killers,” Wikipedia, 3 April 2011.

I never heard of you Ted Bundy.1
I was busy teaching in colleges &
universities between 1974 & 1978
fighting my own psychopathology.

My autobiographical & biographical
work is nothing like Ann Rule’s who2
was into crime-fiction, true crime &
stuff that made this movie possible.
I don’t think there will be a movie
about me: no psychopathology, no

sadomasochistic pornography, torture
and violence, although I could provide
some content for: psychiatry, abnormal
psychology and some deviant behaviour.

That book came out just as I was at
last getting stabilized on lithium and3
could look forward to some peace &
tranquillity and much less of that sad
eccentricity associated with abnormal
psychology and personality disorder.

1 The serial killer in this movie
2 The author of the book about him
3 1980

Ron Price
3 April 2011

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married for 48 years, a teacher for 32, a student for 18, a writer and editor for 16, and a Baha'i for 56(in 2015)