The search for finality: Serial killing, the narration of sexual injury, and the promise of consolation

Abstract

This article explores the search for finality that arises in response to crime. Its focus is not simply upon how this search for finality functions, but on both the centrality of narrative within this and the question of consolation that arises when such cases officially remain unresolved. Examined by reference to one particular case - specifically, the deaths of five males in the South Australian city of Adelaide between 1979 and 1983 - the article explores the central role of cultural anxieties or phobias that often underpin infamous or iconic crimes. It examines the way in which the narrative of this case reveals particular anxieties associated with homosexuality and paedophilia as a mean..