Serial Killer vs. Serial Killers

On January 21, 2021, the CDC reported the one-year anniversary of the first case of the coronavirus in the United States. Over the past 12 months, the impact of the coronavirus has been exponential and has affected virtually every aspect of our lives, especially our interactions with and relationships with each other. Which is worse, we worry — catching a potentially fatal virus from someone we care about or killing that person by giving it to him/her? Every social encounter is burdened with the knowledge that the coronavirus could turn any of us into an accidental serial killer.

We have plenty of evidence of Covid-19’s deadliness, especially among the elderly and those of us with pre-existing health conditions. Put those individuals in close quarters and you have a recipe for disaster, as evidenced by the astronomical infection rates and elevated death tolls in nursing homes and prisons. In fact, for at least five serial killers, the coronavirus has done what juries, judges, death row, and/or years of incarceration could not: kill them.

• Notorious for having committed more serial murders [he confessed to 93; over 60 have been confirmed] than anyone else in the United States, 80-year-old Samuel Little succumbed to COVID-19-related pneumonia on December 30, 2020. He was serving three consecutive life terms in California, having bargained his way out of the death…