Did Lead Poisoning Create a Generation of Serial Killers? “Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and many other notorious figures lived in and around Tacoma in the sixties. A new book argues that there was something in the water.”
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 8
thread
latest
popular
I remember reading about this in Freakonomics years ago!
Kevin Drum has assembled an impressive array of evidence showing that lead is very likely a cause of violent crime. See https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/an-updated-lead-crime-roundup-for-2018/
I miss Kevin. Like KDO, it was one of my everyday reads until he died earlier this year.
I read the book, and it's a heckuva piece of writing. It's a profoundly literary exercise in persuasion, and at times verges on snuff porn. The most persuasive thing in it (for me) is a graph - showing an incredibly strong correlation between lead levels in soil/atmosphere and violent crime rates 23 years later. Dips beget dips, ups beget ups. Nothing else (to my mind) has a more persuasive explanation for the overall rise and drop in violent crime last century.
On Bluesky, Sean Howe shared a Radiolab episode about "a pioneer researcher into levels of lead (and so much more)".
Pardon just leaving the relevant lyrics chorus snippet...
(Let's not debate the credentials of one Doctor Octagon)
There is also a gripping review by Joyce Carol Oates of this book in the July 24th 2025 edition of New York Review.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/07/24/death-in-the-air-murderland-fraser-oates/
Late to this discussion, but there is a terrific Howtown video on generational lead exposure that was released concurrently: https://youtu.be/vm_1XLKtGpI
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
This thread is closed for new comments & replies. Thanks to everyone for participating!