Jack Levin's Lecture on "Serial Killers"

Jack Levin's lecture on "Serial Killers" was a surprisingly entertaining and informational lecture that I am thankful for attending despite my previous doubts on how interesting it actually would be. Levin's credibility was immediately established when a student from SCSU introduced Levin, naming all of the books that he had written including "The Functions of Prejudice", "Overkill: Mass Murder and Serial Killing Exposed, Hate Crimes" and many other titles. Levin then introduced himself and mentioned the numerous shows that he had appeared on including "20/20", "Oprah", and even "America's Most Wanted". He established his credibility by mentioning how we was involved in many high profile cases including "Ken Bianchi", "Edward Green", "Ted Bundy", "Columbine", "Virginia Tech", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and "The Gainsville Murders" and he later went into detail about each.

By establishing his credibility initially, this made the presentation much more effective. Personally, the thought of sitting through a lecture with an old guy speaking was painful, but once Levin began mentioning the shows he appeared on and the cases he played a role in, my whole mind set changed. This guy was the "real deal." The audience and I now had a connection to the speaker because we had all heard the interesting details from the media of these cases Levin mentioned, yet we knew hardly anything compared to what Levin obviously knew from visiting crime scenes and meeting several of these serial killers.