There is no single, black-and-white answer as to why some serial killers get more attention than others, but there are several things to consider.

What separates Unknown Serial Killers of America from the rest is the examination of killers whose names and monikers — like the Sunday Morning Slasher or the Chameleon Killer — didn’t make as many headlines.

In discussing recent times, Giacalone said, “All crime is local.”

“For instance, the Long Island Serial Killer case developed virtually in my backyard from where I lived, so it was front and center,” he said.

He surmised that the public devours local news more than national headlines when crimes occur close to home. “The rise of true crime enthusiasts, however, may change all of that.”

Newland-Davis said much of why some serial killers grab more attention than others, generally speaking, lies with the victims.

“No one wants to talk about dead girls in ditches. Add in that those girls were leading high-risk lifestyles, and then really no one wanted to talk about it; it’s not polite conversation for company,” she said. “People are pretty content to sit in their upper-middle-class lives and point fingers at victims, rather than the killers.”

It didn’t help when people used derogatory terms to highlight victims’ lifestyles, sexuality, and race to suggest they deserved to be victimized above others.

But, on the other side of the token, the media often pandered to the fears of people whose lives were more relatable to the victims. Newland-Davis pointed to the still-unidentified Zodiac Killer, who targeted lovers’ lane couples in the San Francisco Bay area in the late ’60s by shooting them in parked cars.

“Using The Zodiac, for example, the people killed during those murders were clean-cut and pretty much all-American,” she said. “Plus, the idea that someone in nice and safe areas was murdering young couples in love? That’s a media frenzy right there.”

The elusive killer gained widespread attention for sending ciphered messages to major media outlets and forcing them to publish his messages under threat of reoffending.