Why Spyderco and serial killers?

R

RickdelM

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Jan 22, 2000
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I just got a book Saturday called 'Over the Edge' by Jonathan Kellerman. The cover consists of a full sized picture of a partially serrated Delica, with the edge of the page appearing to have been sliced off with a knife. I assume this is going to be the typical serial killer novel.

My question is what is there about Spydercos that makes them such a favorite for authors and moviemakers who want to arm a serial killer. Of all the knife companies I think Spyderco has gone out of its way to portray their knives as tools. So why don't these folks use MOD's or some of the really wicked looking Microtech blades? Why the poor little Delica? All I can think of is that there must be something about the hole that makes them distictive enough to stand out. What else could it be?

Of course if I were to become criminally insane and start cutting people up I would probably use a Spyderco, after all I already own 12 of them:)

Regards,
Rick
 
Good question.... maybe the serrations.... or as you said, probably the hole. I have no idea why though. In an old thread I posted on these forums, I asked a non-knife person to rate my different knives on how scary she thought they were. She said the hole made my Spydercos look more like weapons, but she couldn't give any reason why.
 
I think it is probably because all these authors and moviemakers have really good taste and when a knife is called for in the story, they use what they use. Spydercos.
 
How else would they justify having a knife to all their liberal knife hating friends? If they just say that they got it for the picture than everyone would be real cool about it.:) And of course they only want the best.
 
Originally posted by mschwoeb
How else would they justify having a knife to all their liberal knife hating friends? If they just say that they got it for the picture than everyone would be real cool about it.:) And of course they only want the best.
Click to expand...

Good theory...
 
If I look at my Spyderco Knives, I often think they look like sweet, small alligators with the hole and the serrations.
Knives with personality.;)
 
Because semtex is to freaking loud. If that stuff was able to be detonated quieter than they would use that, but as it is too loud, Spyderco knives.
 
I saw this book at B&N a few days ago. If you're going to be a serial killer, AUS-8 should not be your first choice in knives...lol I was wondering if the author had to ask Spyderco for permission to use the picture. Now all the idiots of the world are going to associate Spyderco with psycho killers...this is particularly bad for me since all I carry are Spydercos.
 
Hell, this book will give Spyderco infinitessimal coverage compared to what they got from the Hannibal book and, especially, movie! If you want to twit about something, twit about that.
 
To answer the question, I suspect that Spyderco knives are so distinctive, what with the hole and the serrations, that they are a natural for illustrating fictional stories, whether good or bad. Does anyone remember Oz flicking out a Delica to strip the insulation off of some wires in one of the old BTVS shows?:) :)
 
Oh, yeah. When I first saw that episode, my wife had taped it for me, as I had to work that night. Rewound that part several times.;)

Flinx
 
Not only Spydercos are used on books and in movies as serial killers' weapons. The Buck fixed blade hunting knives with black phenolic (sp?) handles are often portrayed that way as well.

As for Spydies, they look "exotic" with the hole, black handles (or SS) and serrations. An "exotic" looking knife, to sheeples, looks much scarier. It would not be scary to show an ordinary boy scout knife, though in real life, there have been people stabbed to death with typical non-locking scout knives or Barlow pocketknives, given their longer history, certainly more than by Spyderco knives.

Jim
 
Writers do research or have people do it for them on certain things. They also have little books that you can sometimes find at Waldenbooks that have various tidbits of knowledge about medical things, death due to poisoning and firearms...general to sometimes in-depth. Not always correct either...

Writers that know nothing about a particular subject oftentimes use these when writing.

Might be the serrations, might be something else.

TOTC,

I hate someone who is an "Internet Psychologist," but I'll wear the hat for a moment.

The reaction might have been because in some primal way, it reminds some, totally on a gut-level, of the business end of something that smokes when it goes off. Re: Hole.
 
Originally posted by Don Rearic
TOTC,

I hate someone who is an "Internet Psychologist," but I'll wear the hat for a moment.

The reaction might have been because in some primal way, it reminds some, totally on a gut-level, of the business end of something that smokes when it goes off. Re: Hole.
Click to expand...

Hmm....

I see what you're saying, and it's a valid point.... but let me put the hat on for a second.

I would say, on some primal level, it makes the blade look more animal like. The hole could be the "eye" and the blade being its "fangs" or "teeth" (which is a word used quite often around here for serrations). An animal like tool might conjure up thoughts of animal like actions, which no doubt include violence. Maybe other knives without the hole look less animal-like and simply more subdued to sheeple.
 
Personally, I always thought they looked like mini-Pterodactyls. What is more surprising is, when I ran that through spell check which I do on oddball words, I spelled it right the first time. :D

Maybe it is just The Flintstones and Johnny Quest fan in me. I dunno. But, you are right, references to all manner of reptiles and whatnot have been observed.

Maybe just lifetimes of exposure to Case XXs and SAKs have made the look of anything out of that realm of real or perceived "normalcy" suspect in the eyes of some...
 
Could it be that when writer Thomas Harris had his villain Hannibal Lector using spydies in this book, that it started a fashion?

Here in Singapore sometime back, we had one british guy befriending and cutting up tourists into pieces after stealing their money and credit cards. He had trained as a butcher in a british prison and used several SS police models to do the job. After that, he bagged the body parts and kept on throwing them into the Singapore river, where they floated up and were unfortunately found.

I have always felt that spydies are friendly and gentle knives, designed mainly for working and not for "fighting".

Regards
 
The first use of a Spydie that I can recall was on the old TV show, "Murder She Wrote", where an ss Police with a plain blade was the murder weapon. But, then, they even had a Gatling Gun used as a murder weapon on one of the shows! It was during the filming of a western movie. In any case, that long preceded either the book or the movie, Hannibal. An ss Police that had been engraved was used to great effect in the film, "The Client", some years back, and I have seen another ss Police used in a scene from a Stephen King movie that my son was watching as I walked through the room. I don't remember the name of the film, but it was being used to skin a dog, perhaps? Nasty! I swear that I have seen Delicas used for normal things in more that the famous BTVS scene, but I cannot place any just now. Sorry, I guess nasty sticks in the mind better than normal.

I think that they are popular for fiction writers both of movie scripts and of novels as they are exotic looking and they do have a sort of reptilian appearance to one who is unfamiliar with the practicality and ergonomics of the design.
 
That King movie would be "Needful Things", I believe that was the title. Satan enticing people to do nasty things for items they wanted in this life. I can remember him opening up the Police Model...

Indeed, Police Model in "The Client" with Susan Saranwrap...the "Baddy" flicking it open and closed...

Jennifer Eight (8), serial killer flick too...Police Model.
 
Imagine if you are one of the makers of one of these death knives. You know the ones; tanto blades, paracord handles, steel spike on the end, brandished in the ads by some guy with black face paint on. Yet when a publisher pick a knife to feature on the cover of a serial killer book, they pick a little ol' Delica. These makers would probably love to feature in their advertising;'as used by Hannibal':)

Rick
 
Don't forget when in Fight Club when Edward(?) Norton almost gets castrated by Police officers with a serrated SS Police, and of course, Denzel Washington pulling his own SS serrated Police on a perp in an alley, and to open a stash of money.
And the Avengers, where a guy does the Spydie Drop to flick open his (G-10?) Police against Uma Thurman.
The Police is a classic knife, unfortunately in movies it's a favorite "baddie" knife. I once saw a movie villain even pull out a SS Rescue (Mariner?) on Lindsay Wagner in a parking garage in a TV movie.

Jim
 
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