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When searching the Web, a person can find just about anything.
In need of a new computer hard-drive? That’s easy, just click over to eBay and see what’s on auction. Looking for an autographed Hartford Whalers banner? The best bet would probably be some sports site. How about flowers for the girl you secretly admire? Well, you get the idea.
But where do you go to get in touch with a suspected serial killer?
For James Gilks, a fifth-year sophomore at the University of Maine, that was the question that needed answering more than two years ago. After looking at Niko Claux’s artwork for nearly two years, the Bangor native contacted the convicted murderer and suspected serial killer via the Web.
Instead of finding tulips for a lady friend, Gilks used the Internet not only to contact Claux, who is also called the “Vampire of Paris,” but to change his life forever.
See, Gilks enjoyed Claux’s artwork, in this particular case his “Human Predators” collection, which vividly captured the images of more than 50 notorious serial murders. Inside Claux’s collection are drawings of John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer and Ted Bundy to name a few. According to Gilks, his first attempt to contact Claux was led by nothing more than sheer curiosity.
“I had seen Niko’s work online for about two years and last year I contacted him because I figured he could use a better Web site,” Gilks said.
However, having been out of jail for only four years, Claux couldn’t afford the costs that would come with keeping up a Web site. Instead, he proposed an offer to Gilks.
“He didn’t have the money to pay me for the Web site, but he said he would pay me with the copyrights to his human predators collection,” Gilks said.
The offer was one Gilks could not refuse. Since that fateful day, the decision to obtain the copyrights has been extremely beneficial for Gilks and business partner Kris Saunders, an alumnus of UMaine.
After receiving the copyright, Gilks and Saunders began repackaging the drawings in the form of a calendar. After nearly a year of conceptualizing the collection, the 2007 Serial Killer Calendar was ready.
“It turned out to be way more profitable than getting the $500-600 for a Web site,” Gilks said.
The calendar, which was released to the public early this year, has sold 1,700 copies domestically and 3,500 copies globally. By all means, the dark art of Nico Claux has proven to be an instant hit with the public. For Gilks and Saunders, the financial aspect of it couldn’t have gone any better.
At the center of Gilks and Saunder’s calendar though lies an important, moral issue. Is their decision to circulate the convicted murderer’s work the right one?
In the opinion of Gilks the answer is an empathic yes.
“There are a lot of people interested in different things,” Gilks said. “Some people are interested in old War World II documentaries and some people are interested in serial killers. Just because a certain portion of society finds the idea of serial killers to be obscene or taboo, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a giant cross-section that is at least interested in true crime.”
As far as Gilks sees it, the idea of not doing the calendar because Claux is a killer is inexcusable.
“The idea of censoring ourselves and not creating a product just because a certain portion of society would find it offensive is the worst kind of censorship,” Gilks said. “If we are going to have a true sense of freedom of speech, then that has to apply to things that some may come off as morbid or offensive.”
Saunders, a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus, responds to any negativity with a simple retort.
“There is nothing in the calendar that is beyond PG-13,” Saunders said. “It’s really toned down. It’s really flavored like a Hollywood presentation. It’s a movie basically. It would be a mistake to judge a book by its cover, it would be a mistake to burn a book before you actually read it.”
However, during the process of building the calendar Saunders experienced his own tiny transformation.
“I was critical of him when I first began talking to him and building a basic friendship,” Saunders said. “Now my best guess is we will know each other more personally and socially in the future years.”
Saunders’ change of mind may seem surprising, because, afterall, Claux is a convicted murderer. To understand why, the facts of Claux’s case just need to be briefly gone over.
In the summer of 1994, Claux was arrested in front of the world famous Moulin-Rouge in Paris after a series of random homophobic .22 caliber shootings. He was recognized after someone remembered seeing him in a photograph of a forged driver’s license. The fake ID belonged to murder victim Thierry Bissonnier, who had been shot to death in his apartment. While in custody, Claux confessed to the murder after being shown ballistic evidence. It was later released that he had shot Bissonnier five times in the head before smashing it with a piece of furniture. The mystery of Claux quickly grew more intense and morbid. After searching his apartment, the French police discovered that he had been robbing graves since he was 17 and scattered throughout his house were bone fragments, human teeth, vertebrae, and leg bones. There was more. Littered across the shelves and floors were funeral jars with human ashes, blood bags, surgical instruments, bondage magazines and handcuffs. In court, it was later fournd that Claux, as a mortuary assistant, had cut strips of meat from rib cages and eaten them. In regard to Claux’s apartment, the responding police said the place reeked of death.
Claux, however, would only confess to the one murder of Bissonnier, and not to the rest of the shootings. Due to the lack of evidence connecting him to the other murders, he was charged with one count of premeditated murder and six counts of grave robbing. In 1997, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Just seven years later though, he was set free.
“He doesn’t deny anything,” Saunders said. “He says the reality is that ‘I was convicted of a single homicide.’ He said, ‘if you want to, you can represent that I was suspected of committing of doing other things,’ but he doesn’t go beyond that.”
Despite the horrific depictions of the apartment and the brutal nature of the crimes, both Saunders and Gilks feel Claux has done his time.
“He is very comfortable with who he is and what he has done,” Saunders said. “He did in fact end a human life and he did pay a debt for it.”
With their own personal opinions of the crime resolved, the two had to put themselves in the position of their audience.
“When James and I started talking about this we thought: What makes this guy so interesting?” Saunders said. “My perspective was that he really seems like a real-life Hannibal Lecter.”
Both Gilks and Saunders feel comfortable in dealing with Claux at this point in time because of how he has evolved as a human.
“Now he is a decent guy, he’s a Marilyn Manson character,” said Saunders. “He is just really bright, really strong, really smart and really solid. As soon as he began serving his time, he began learning his art and his trade. He has done nothing but adjust since that time. He’s paid his debt to society and become a valid artist.”
Gilks believes Claux has been nothing but polite in their encounters.
“He’s always been extremely polite whenever I’ve talked to him via e-mails,” said Gilks. “He comes across as a really pleasant guy if you can ever possibly think of a reformed killer as being pleasant.
“Most people are interested in serial killers because they are so extremely different from other people and society,” said Gilks. “They represent the dark side of our minds.”
The overwhelming interest from the public has allowed Gilks and Saunders a chance to build on their own dreams. In 2008, the pair hopes to release their own horror film. In the same year they’re also eyeing another Claux release, this time an “outlaws and legends” calendar with Jesse James and Al Capone, amonng the notables.
Like Thomas Harris’ star villain, who has spawned five movies, this Hannibal story is not over by a long shot.
