"SABRINA, DON'T JUST STARE AT IT - EAT IT" Ok brace yourselves, I am about to praise America... Thay have better serial killers than we do. Don't worry - I'm not a big fan of serial killers, I don't subscribe to any glossy 'true crime' periodicals and overall I don't give a shit about the few people who make it their business killing a lot more people but when it comes to serial offing you'be got to admit that the Yanks have us beaten hands down. Look at Manson, Ed Gein, Ted Bundy and then take a look at, oh I don't know, Harold Shipman. A mousy man looking about as threatening as a comfy arm-chair with his badger like beard and slow Nothern practice... yep he killed 215 (maybe 250) but all old people and in their own homes at that - nobody batted an eyelid until he started to rip off the odd will here and there and he'd probably be still getting away with it now with his slow but steady approach. How boring. I watched some of the reports tonight on the news and they all featured footage of these sleepy Yorkshire towns and all featured old people shuffling around market stalls in their carpet slippers - its as if Shipman had never been there - Yorkshire is full of elderly old dears, Shipman could have killed 1215 (maybe 1250) and no one would have really noticed the difference. Look at Ed Gein - he used to make masks and lampshades out of his victims where as Shipman probably stole the odd Old Werthers Original sweet from the table of his latest already cooling sagging bag of bones but that was as far as his panache went. Ed Gein inspired Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for fucks sake where as the best Shipman could do was a dull courtroon drama with ex-likely lad James Bolam. Can we do better? Lets hope that the next serial killer who comes to light is found fornicating with the corpses of his victims, jabbering in his own filth and in the process of building Anthrax bombs to send to children's hospitals - we need a killer who can get the bigwigs in Hollywood interested so that we can get Tarantino on the next flight over - fuck, if Shipman had had a little more style and ambition maybe FilmFour wouldn't have had to fold. Mike is blogging to: Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges