A New Book Might Just Explain Why So Many Serial Killers Came From One Part of the Country

Caroline Fraser's new book, Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, explores a theory of why Seattle and Tacoma were a hotbed of infamous serial killers.

The lead-crime hypothesis is the theory that lead exposure to lead in childhood is linked to violent crime.

The author of the book won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for her biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder .

Caroline Fraser grew up in Tacoma , Washington , and was exposed to lead exposure from a lead smelter.

She says the government was too slow to recognize the danger of lead exposure being minimized by industry.

Fraser : "The thing that we’re still facing here is not the primary smelters like the ones in the U.S. but all this recycling has got lead in your car battery.

The first victim of the D.C. sniper duo was in Tacoma , where Ted Bundy committed some of his more notable crimes.

The behavior of the serial killers is just so monstrous that there's always the temptation to think that there’s nothing about them that could have ever been normal.

The community of Ruston that was right around the smokestack had developed the sense of, Oh, this is a wonderful thing, and the jobs are so well-paying.