Craigslist: A Serial Killer Incubator

Image via CrunchBaseYou have to wonder if the guys that started Craigslist are starting to rethink the whole site. Let's face facts, it is not all that great to begin with. Sure, it is a place to buy and sell crap without having to pay but the chances of actually selling something are minimal at best.

What you will most likely get is some Nigerian sitting in front of an outdated computer trying to convince you that he wants to buy your broken lawn chair for $10,000 if you will accept a cashiers check for $300,000 and send the rest of the money to his shipping company in Europe via Western Union. Sounds completely plausible doesn't it? After all, Nigeria is a third world country and they probably have a really hard time getting their hands on broken lawn chairs.

Anyway, Craigslist has been dealing with bigger problems. First came the realization that sex slaves, some as young as 10, were being bought and sold through the site. After fighting the good fight for about a week the site agreed to take down their Adult Services sections throughout the site. However, this did little to stop the slave trade as they have simply moved to the dating sections of the site.

Then came the Craigslist Killer. This guy just had a serious problem. One the day he is supposed to be married to his presumed high school sweetheart he decides to get himself a little on the side action from a massage therapist on Craigslist. Well evidently things did not turn out the way that he had hoped and he ended up killing the girl. He had just one victim and ended up killing himself in jail before he went to trial. Of course such a crime sparked 2 Lifetime channel movies.

Now there is the Craigslist Ripper, a serial killer that is using the site to target hookers that advertise through the website and then killing them. He has been dumping their bodies on the beach  around New York and it seems that every day there are more remains found. The police are baffled to say the least but they have said that they believe that the ripper may have been a police officer or could be a current police officer considering the fact that he knows so much about police procedures.

So one has to question the idea of why Craigslist is still in operation. Maybe its time that the site was taken down because let's face facts, this will not end and when one killer is caught there is likely going to be another waiting in the wings.