What do you think of when you think of a serial killer? The thought that comes to most people's heads at first is a middle aged creepy guy with bad clothes and a moustache. That may be true in some cases, but in most cases they can be an average person, or even someone really attractive. Serial killers have been apart of every generation and will continue to be a prevalent issue people face through time. Serial killers are all related because they have attractive personalities to their victims of there time period and they know how to use it to their advantage, like Arnold Friend in Joyce Carol Oates' story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" and in real life cases, such as Charles Schmid and Ronald Dominique. 

In the story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" the character that represents the "serial killer" is a man named Arnold Friend and the girl he is trying to persuade to get into his car is Connie. It is ironic that his last name is Friend because serial killers like to come of as friendly and personable so they can get into the life of whomever they are going after. Arnold was a "bad boy" for the generation this story was written in, being described as wearing "tight faded jeans stuffed into black scuffed boots, a belt that pulled his waist in and showed how lean he was, and a white pull over shirt that was a little soiled and showed the hard small muscles on his arms and shoulders" (Oates 5). His looks, the way he presented himself, and the way he acted helped him initially lure Connie in, which shows all serial killers aren't ugly and creepy. Arnold had a great personality and was really smooth with her until he started stating facts about her life that no one would know unless they were in Connie's family. Connie started to get turned off by his stalker knowledge when he says, "He ain't coming. He's at a barbeque"(Oates 8) about her father, because it was a little too much for him to know without being apart of her family. Arnold knew about Connie's rough family life which helped him smooth talk her because he knew she was looking for a way out. Connie "wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead" (Oates 2) because her mother was verbally abusive to her and would pick on her even though Connie was a really beautiful person. Connie was the least favorite child and she "had to hear June praised all the time by her mother and her mother's sisters"(Oates 1). June was Connie's older sister. All of this lead to Connie listening to Arnold and going with him because during that time period the "nuclear family" was really close and if you did not have your parents looking out for you, you would look for an out, which would sometimes be a "bad boy". 

Charles Schmid was also an attractive man with a good personality just like Arnold Friend. "On the surface, Charles Schmid, just like many psychopaths, was good-looking, intelligent and well-mannered" (Bizarrepedia) which is surprising because most people think serial killers look deranged.  "He was an accomplished athlete" and he was also "able to sing and play guitar" so "his peers admired him" just like any other high school all around star would be receipted at his school (Bizarrepedia). During every time period looks, personality, athleticism, and talent are things girls look for in a man that why the "ladies loved" him. Little did girls know he had a psychotic side and he would say things like "I want to kill a girl"(Bovsun) and that he did. Charles knew what girls to kill because he knew which ones were crazy like him and would help him out in his conquest. The first girl was the neighbor of his girl friend who was convinced to go onto a double date with Charles and his friend and was driven "into the desert, where the men raped her, and then cracked her skull with a rock"(Bovsun). His other two murders were two sisters. He was dating the older sister because she "was a troublemaker in her private school, where she scared her teachers. Wild parties, drinking, and stealing were among her favorite pastimes"(Bovsun). Charles invited his girlfriend's younger sister along with them to a movie, where after neither of the sisters ever returned home. It wasn't a coincidence Charles choose the girls he did because he could recognize they were just as crazy as him and would never see it coming and would even support him in his murders. 

Ronald Dominique's case is very similar to both the story of Arnold Friend and also Charles Schmid's. "Although Ronald Dominique was a serial murderer he was loved by his family and friends and liked by many in the small community"(Forsyth) just like Charles was. His peers remembered Ronald as either the man "who was helpful to his neighbors in the small trailer parks where he lived" or the guy "who cross-dressed and did bad impersonations of Patti LaBelle at the local gay club"(Forsyth). The difference between Ronald, Friend, and Schmid was that he was gay and even at a young age his "classmates remembered Dominique be ridiculed about being homosexual during his teen year"(Forsyth). Like every kid at his age that is bullied, they would not want to go to school and would hold a grudge for being tormented for how they were. This led him to commit his murders on men who "were either gay or hustlers who were willing to have sex with gay men for money"(Forsyth). During his life he "raped and murdered at least 23 men over a 10-year period"(Forsyth) and said there were probably more accounts, but didn't remember them. Probably because the culture of being afraid of gay people led to Dominique to be embarrassed about how he was so he felt the need to kill the men he slept with. He also would kill the men after he raped them because he didn't want them to go to the police and tell because it happened to him before and he had to serve time in jail so out of fear "he began killing his victims because he never wanted to leave a witness who could send him to prison"(Forsyth). Ronald was a serial killer out of the fear of going to jail again and if the culture in our society wasn't to shame gay people maybe he would've never killed to innocent men he did. 

The time periods these men were put into aided them in committing murder because it would allow them to easily identify their prey. In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" the killer Arnold Friend is an attractive man who lured Connie by being the "way out" she needed to leave her abusive family. In the case of Charles Schmid he was also an attractive guy that would look for the girls who were just as wild and crazy as him to murder. For Ronald Dominique he was also handsome and personable and would seek out other gay men and murder them after rape because he was afraid. In all of these cases the victims would be attracted to the killers because of their looks and good personality, that would be usually attractive in their generations, and the killers would acknowledge the norms of their time periods and would use them to their advantage. 

 
