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Diane Downs, the mother who shot her children, killing one of them, pleads to her parole board via video conferenceo for her release after nearly 25 years in prison in December 2008, in Salem. She was denied parole. Her next hearing is in 2020.

(Rick Bowmer/ The Associated Press)

A bill moving through the U.S. Senate would punish infamous murderers such as Oregon's Christian Longo, Kip Kinkel and Keith Jesperson if they knowingly profit from the sale of their letters, artwork or other memorabilia.

Their mementos and those of at least five others – a who's who of the state's most savage killers – have found their way onto the online industry known as "murderabilia."

Thirty bucks will buy a set of letters from Ward Weaver III, serving a life term for killing two middle school girls in Oregon City, and his father, Ward Weaver Jr., who has been on California's Death Row since 1985.

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It's not entirely clear who is profiting – other than online dealers – from the correspondence of such killers as

, who shot her three children, and Jesperson, the "Happy Face Killer." But $175 fetches a Downs kiss-off letter to a would-be pen pal.

The Stop the Sale of Murderabilia Act of 2013, introduced last September, marks the third attempt by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to pass a law that imposes additional years in prison on violent prisoners who sell their mementos.

Cornyn's bill, introduced with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., would not punish the thriving industry promulgated by websites such as serialkillersink.com and murderauction.com. The bill also does not target people outside prisons who sell letters they receive from the likes of Randy Woodfield, a former Portland State University football star known as the "I-5 Killer."

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas

The Texas senator's attempts to pass such a law in 2007 and 2010 died in committee. But he and Klobuchar's efforts to downsize the murderabilia trade gained traction recently, when a letter by Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan recently sold on one of the sites.

Eight states – Alabama, California, Florida, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Texas and Utah – have passed laws that prevent inmates from profiting from the sale of their mementos.

Some Oregon prison officials find the murderabilia trade ghastly, but they have little power to prevent, say, Ward Weaver, from creating paintings and other work in prison – some of which has found its way on online.

Colette Peters, director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, plans to meet with her legislative and policy staff, along with the governor's office, to take a position on the bill, said Betty Bernt, her chief spokeswoman.

"It is of upmost importance to us at ODOC that we do everything within our power to prevent further victimization and trauma to crime victims and their families," Peters said in a written statement to The Oregonian.





Andy Kahan, who coined the term "murderabilia," has fought for 14 years to end the macabre trade. His crusade met with an early success: eBay booted the products off its online auction site.

Here's what Kahan would tell Oregon officials: "You have individuals in your penitentiary who have committed some of the most cold-blooded and diabolical crimes in your state's history. They just simply shouldn't be allowed to operate a business – which is what this is – and make money off of (their) infamy."

Kahan, who serves as crime victims advocate for the city of Houston, hopes the Senate Judiciary Committee finally holds a hearing on the subject.

"We're hoping the third time will be the charm," he said. "If I can get a hearing, and show senators exactly what's going on in this industry, then I think we'll be successful."

Kahan, a former parole officer in Texas, has much to show.

Over the years, he has purchased a small but ghastly collection that includes a swastika fashioned from the hair of Charles Manson. He uses the items for shock value, much like a prosecutor gripping an ax in a murder trial.

Kahan's quest began in the fall of 1999, when he learned about what was then a fledgling online industry for crime memorabilia. He would eventually find serial killers' personal effects – including fingernail clippings, hair samples and bodily fluids – on sale.

Christian Longo, who killed his family on the Oregon Coast in 2001, was caught shortly after he was added to the Most Wanted list.

He estimates that more than half of the mementos sold online put money in inmates' prison accounts; profiteers outside prisons sell the rest. Example: Someone writes an infamous killer, gets a handwritten response, and sells it on an online murderabilia site.

Kahan took a novel approach to figuring out how serial killers felt about the trade. He wrote to 20 of the most notorious killers in America to tell them about the trade, and a dozen responded.

He came up with two unconventional allies: David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam serial killer who terrorized New York in the 1970s, and Susan Atkins-Whitehouse, a member of the Manson Family, which murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, in 1969.

Berkowitz's memorabilia was lampooned in a 1995 episode of the sit-com "Seinfeld," in which the character Kramer used a mailbag belonging to the Son of Sam as collateral for a gambling debt. But the real Berkowitz, behind bars for decades, joined forces with Kahan, sending him come-ons from collectors hoping to profit from his mementos.

Kahan acknowledges that he and Berkowitz make an odd alliance. After all, talk of publishing houses offering Berkowitz big-advance book deals prompted "Son of Sam" laws that forbid criminals from profiting from their crimes.

Atkins-Whitehouse wrote Kahan a letter in January 2000 saying she had never authorized anyone to sell her likeness or signature. She noted that the sale of murderabilia encourages unscrupulous people to steal her personal property and prison records.

"Would you please write to me and tell me if there are any legal means of putting an end to this type of reprehensible practice," she wrote. "It makes me look callous and unremorseful, which I'm not, and is disrespectful of those who lost their loved ones."





The American Civil Liberties Union takes a dim view of efforts to stifle freedom of speech. But the ACLU's public comments about murderabilia have been somewhat restrained.

David Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon ACLU for more than 20 years, wondered about the aims of murderabilia foes. If the goal is to deter serial killers and other high-profile murderers from selling their mementos, he asked, would another 10 years in prison mean anything?

Most of the inmates whose wares end up online already sit on the nation's death rows, or are serving long prison terms or life without parole.

The Cornyn-Klobuchar bill would punish offending inmates by fining them and stacking prison terms of six months to 10 years on their sentences.

Oregon Department of Corrections rules allow inmates to create artwork and other crafts in prison hobby shops, and they are allowed to sell them in consultation with prison officials. But prisoners are forbidden from conducting business transactions by mail without written consent.

State law is clear that when an inmate profits from, say, a book or movie re-enactment about his or her crime, money goes into an escrow account to satisfy their judgments and restitution of crime victims.

Ward Weaver at the time of his sentencing, listens to his defense attorney, Peter Fahy, left, during the reading of the charges against him by Clackamas Couty Circuit Judge, Robert Herndon. He sentenced Weaver to 2 life terms.

It's not clear how colored-pencil drawings of a skull and Confederate flag by Ward Weaver III ended up for sale on the website of Dark Vomit's Macabre and Outsider Art Gallery, with an asking price of $75. What is clear is that the site hawks the work with a 400-word summary of Weaver's life and crimes, credited to Wikipedia.

Also for sale on murderabilia websites: A 2003 prison photo of Dayton Leroy Rogers, the Molalla Forest Killer ($30); a letter and envelope from Kip Kinkel, who killed his parents in Springfield before embarking on a shooting rampage at Thurston High School ($50); and a letter from Christian Longo, who murdered his wife and three children on the Oregon coast ($40).

Jerome "Jerry" Brudos, known as the "Lust Killer," died in an Oregon prison in 2006, but his letters still fetch up to $85.

Kahan's murderabilia investigation shows that prisoners who sell mementos through dealers find sneaky ways to distance themselves from their businesses. They often send artwork and other mementos to intermediaries on the outside, who funnel the goods to dealers.

Profits, Kahan said, often end up on prisoners' "books" – accounts they can draw from to purchase such items as toothbrushes, writing tablets and TVs.

"I'm a firm believer in free enterprise and capitalism," he said. "But I think you have to draw the line somewhere. You just shouldn't be allowed to rob, rape and murder, and then turn around and make a profit off of it."

-- Bryan Denson