Bazaar Bizarre: The Strange Case of Serial Killer Bob Berdella (2004)

[DirtyLopez]

I wouldn't call myself a "fan" of serial murder or murderers, but since my mid-teens, I was an avid reader of the subject matter. I can recall when my interest surfaced, around the age of 9 or 10. My sisters brought home Dahmer: The Secret Life from our local independent video store(BTW, damn Blockbuster's monopolization and censorship!). They wouldn't let me join in spectacle, but they didn't spare any of the grisly details for me, either. This is where the seed was planted, and I was hungry for more.

Well, with that out of the way, I read about Bob Berdella in a few of my acquired books. I do not own any material solely based upon his gruesome acts and disturbing lifestyle. He was also a serial killer of the homosexual sort. I performed a search in a private tracker recently, and this documentary title was amongst the results. Naturally, I quickly snatched it.

I was in the frame of mind that this was going to be a very informative and serious attempt, with sympathetic witnesses, victims, and so forth. No, not entirely close. I found myself amused(even laughing out loud?) by the commentary and the brief interludes in which a rock band plays and dances around to tunes with incorporated lyrics to Berdella themes. Ok... This was just plain surreal.

Everybody seemed quite satisfied to give their take on the Berdella experience. The reporter who pretty much covered the case gave her insight with a giant smile. The doctor who surgically replaced Berdellas penis 3 times, in surgery, gleefully spoke about it, with an ear-to-ear grin on her face. It's safe to assume he tried to force men to suck his dick but only had it bitten off.
He held a section at an antique shop entitled Bazaar Bizarre. He was famous for his homemade chili, and of course it's speculated that human meats were the ingredient that made it so delicious. The townspeople in interviews would laugh and make jokes about this. Even his hairstylist joked about the gay boys. Berdella would take them to her for haircuts(pre-mortem). She would jokingly refer to them as "the little future corpses." The only people who took this opportunity to tell their side of the story in seriousness, were a fellow antique hobbyist, who ran his store next to Berdella's, a reverend, and Bob's last victim, who fortunately(?) had managed to escape. After being bound and gagged, injected with drano, raped repeatedly with foreign objects, he came around and took an opportunity to jump out of the two story house window, breaking his leg. He then ran down the street nude, in hysteria. This is the first scene of reenactment that the film starts off with.
There is footage of Berdella within the doc. You can just sense that he is a pompous, chronic lying, axehole of the worst variety.

Anyways, all-in-all... This was one of the most queer documentaries I have ever sat through. I know that the victims of Berdella's were street trash in the eyes of many but they don't get very respectful treatment here. If you're sick like me, you may get a chuckle out of this here and there. I didn't want to, but I did.