Tacoma’s toxic past: ‘Murderland’ author links smelter plumes to serial killers

What creates a serial killer? Caroline Fraser, author of “Murderland,” has linked toxic fumes to the brain development of some of the most notorious criminals.

Fraser told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio Thursday that the Asarco Company’s Tacoma copper smelter—which released arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals into the air, according to the Washington Department of Ecology—may have been a culprit. The smelter, once the tallest smokestack in the world, ran for nearly 100 years before it was demolished in 1993, Northwest Public Broadcasting reported.

Scientists came up with the lead-crime hypothesis, Fraser explained, which suggests children who are exposed to lead can develop aggression, instability, neurosis, and even violent tendencies.

2 serial killers grew up next to toxic Tacoma plumes

Where did Ted Bundy, one of the most infamous serial killers, grow up? In Philadelphia—known then as the “City of Smelters”—before he moved to Tacoma and lived just across the bay from the smokestack.

Fraser said Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, also lived near the smokestack and was exposed to toxic air from I-5 vehicle emissions and airport traffic.

But, obviously, not everyone in the area became a serial killer, Fraser noted. Scientists are also exploring other factors that might contribute to the development of serial killers, such as physical or sexual abuse, poor diet associated with poverty, and head trauma.

Fraser, who grew up in the area during Bundy’s era, said she was frustrated that the media focused on the crimes but overlooked the deeper social issues behind them.

“There were headlines and newspapers and a hysteria about the topic, but the institutions that are responsible for dealing with crime, like the FBI and so forth, they were just kind of shrugging their shoulders,” she told “The John Curley Show.” “They were trying to figure out how to profile these guys, which was helpful, but I think the wider social questions just weren’t being asked at the time.”

If it were women attacking men, Fraser said the circumstances would have been different.

“If it were a series of women who had been dragging men off into the forest and attacking them and killing them, that would have occasioned all kinds of debate about what was going wrong with women, but we didn’t really see that about men or male violence,” she said.

Listen to the full conversation below.

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