By Seamus McGraw

April 24, 2006

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PURCELL, OK. (Crime Libarary) —  In so many respects, the brutal murder two weeks ago of little Jamie Rose Purcell, whose body was found partially decapitated and stuffed into a Tupperware tub in a neighbor's apartment, is a classic American horror story, rife with tales of depraved fantasies and shot through with sordid stories of planned cannibalism.

In its deeply disturbing details, the case brings to mind all the other killers whose seemingly demonic crimes have placed them in the pantheon of modern American monsters, men like Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker; Jeffrey Dahmer, the cannibal killer; Dennis Rader, the self-proclaimed BTK Killer who stalked the suburbs of Wichita for three decades, killing 10 women; and others

But if everything we've been told about Kevin Underwood, the 26-year-old failed supermarket stock boy accused of raping and murdering the 10-year-old girl in his Oklahoma bedroom, is true, it is possible that we are witnessing the emergence of a new paradigm for evil, one that in many ways is more frightening because it is much more prosaic. In essence, if his alleged confession to authorities proves to be true, and if all the details about him that have appeared on the Internet hold up to scrutiny, Underwood may be the among the first predators to have bought his identity on the Internet, as if he were bidding for it on Ebay.

Richard Ramirez

Certainly, the allegations against Underwood underscore some similarities between him and the infamous killers of recent decades. But unlike Richard Ramirez, who lusted as deeply to be known as almost the personification of evil as he did for the savage volcanic release of murders, unlike Dennis Rader, who tried to prove his intellect by taunting authorities after his murderous, sexually driven rampages, and unlike Jeffrey Dahmer, who in the depths of his twisted soul linked his killings and cannibalism to some perverse idea of love, Underwood seems to have been motivated by a desire to be something — anything.

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Contact Seamus McGraw at seamusm@ptd.net