About

crimeZZZ was created by Elisabeth Wetsch (1956–2021), known online as “eliZZZa”. She researched and compiled its contents herself, and the pages have been online for more than twenty years. Elisabeth Wetsch died in 2021. Since then the site has been maintained by .kloos digital GmbH in Vienna, so that her archive stays available. What follows is her own statement of what the site is and is not, lightly edited for spelling.

What crimeZZZ tries to be

A fact-driven site and a serious resource for universities, law schools, profilers, forensic experts, authors and, of course, all the private visitors of the site.

What crimeZZZ is not

If you are in quest of bloodthirsty details or pictures, you are in the wrong place; there are hundreds of such sites out there. Details are written about, as factually as possible, where they are essential to describe a crime.

crimeZZZ will not paint killers as “genius” or “brilliant”, and will not make them heroes. It is not meant as entertainment.

It tries to take a look into the mind of criminals and to understand the “making of criminals”. Most attention goes to neither hurting the dignity of the victims nor the feelings of their families. It is often forgotten that not only killers but also victims have names and faces, so the victims’ names and pictures are researched wherever possible.

For these reasons the site has always been restrictive in linking to other “serial killer sites”, and equally restrictive in allowing other sites to link to it.

Research and resources

It is tempting to collect information from the numerous sites on the web that deal with the topic. Elisabeth Wetsch preferred to do her own research and to rely on serious sources. For every case she usually started with basic information from various sources, then went deeper: corresponding with news agencies and journalists, reading trial documents, writing to authorities, forensic experts, universities and well-known authors.

The author

crimeZZZ is a private project of eliZZZa, who, in her own words, was not half as bloodthirsty as the site may let you fear. She was a rather peaceful person, teaching screen design, web production and everything PC and Internet, while privately growing orchids and living with her cat Stiefel (“boots”) in the middle of Vienna.

The impetus to collect serial killers struck her when she researched for a job on the topic. She was left frustrated by so much humiliation, perversion, contempt for humanity and neglect of victims that she immediately started building a site with a different approach. “I always re-invent the Internet whenever I am not content with what I find out there.”

Funding and contact

The site is funded by advertising and by affiliate links to books and films. Affiliate links are marked and never influence what we write. See the affiliate disclosure. To report an error or add a source, use the contact page. Operator details are in the imprint.