I have never known quite what to make of the wise philosopher Hannah Arendt's term "banality of evil," which she applied to brutes such as the Nazi, Adolf Eichmann. It is a term that journalists are now applying to Rader's banal explication of his grisly acts. Arendt wrote insightfully on a wide range of topics, but on brutes who torture and kill, she was particularly compelling. She wrote, "The concentration camps, by making death itself anonymous … robbed death of its meaning as the end of a fulfilled life." In a way, Rader turned his victims' homes into little concentration camps. He robbed their lives of meaning. Perhaps by putting a noose around his head, meaning might be returned to his victims' lives.
His testimony in pleading guilty to these murders was televised all over the country. I am not sure that televised testimony was a good idea. My prosecutor friend shares my premonitions. Television tends to glorify almost anything it broadcasts. I can imagine evil minds, sitting before their television sets envisaging Rader as a celebrity serial killer, a man who made history. There is such a thing, my prosecutor reminds me, as the "copycat criminal." Rader not only explicated the tactics of his pastime for the uninitiated, but he also got plenty of airtime to make his unspeakable offenses speakable.
On the other hand, Rader's appearance on television does unhorse one of the great myths held by many members of the intelligentsia, namely, that there is something fascinating about a murderer. For generations, certain easily bored writers have been finding "interesting" facets to crime and to criminals. The murderer was for them perhaps the most fascinating of criminals. I have always thought these writers were naive and frivolous for the most part, occasionally even evil themselves. Rader's appearance in that Wichita court ought to put an end to any fascination a writer might have with such a lout.
There was nothing fascinating about him. He was too obtuse to be fascinating and too dull. Finally, the horror of his deeds overwhelmed any inchoate fascination. Whether he is locked away for the rest of his years or hung by the neck, his name will soon be forgotten. If copycat criminals get an idea in their heads from watching Rader on television, it will not be because he had style or presence. It will only be because he was given a chance to speak the unspeakable.