September 18th 2014
Amanda Gifford
ENC 1101 Muti-media Narrative
The Real Life Criminal Mind
When I was fourteen years old, my freshman year of high school, I began to get into the
television series Criminal Minds. It had been on television for a few years, three or four seasons
had already been made. I had watched a few episodes and really began to enjoy it, but the fourth
episode I had ever watched is one I would never forget.
Fayetteville, New York is a small suburb outside the city of Syracuse. The local high
school combines two villages, Fayetteville and Manlius, the town I call home. FayettevilleManlius is a decent size area but a very close knit area. The town is based around a sense of
community. The whole town would gather every Friday night for the Hornets football game on
pride field. On Saturdays the bars were packed with people cheering on the Syracuse
Orangemen. Every Sunday the majority of people gathered at Saint Ann’s Catholic Church for
Mass. It is a very friendly yet sheltered community. Walking around town in the wee hours of
the morning isn’t frightening in a town like ours. Yet there’s one story that shook our
community. That is the story of John Jamelske.
My father would always take me on errands when I was a little girl, wherever he was
going I was by his side. My favorite place to go was Wegman’s, the massive grocery store in the
next town over. My dad would load me up in the front seat of his red pickup truck and we would
take off down Highbridge Street, passing Mott Road Elementary School on the right and what I
would later find out to be the home of John Jamelske on the left. In 2003 the earthshattering
news struck the town and the demon was caught. John Jamelske was arrested and convicted for
the abduction and rape of five women. I was only five years old when this happened but the story
of what this man did to these girls will stick with me forever.
John Jamelske also known as the Syracuse Dungeon Master was a serial rapist/kidnapper.
He kidnapped his first victim in 1988 and was not caught until 2003. For fifteen years Jamelske
treated them as his sex slaves. He created an intricate concrete dungeon underneath his home to
which only he had access too through a small crawl space behind a hidden door in his garage.
Jamelske had a wife and three boys and an obsession with young women. His first victim was a
fourteen year old teenage girl who he kept for two years and then released her after she was
subjected to daily sexual indecencies, he threated to kill her brother so the young girl had told her
family she simply ran away from home. All this occurring while his wife, ill with cancer, was
just a floor above. This was only one of the several young women who fell victim to Jamelske.
The story of what this man did to these women sits like an unwelcome fog around our
town. For weeks people were in a sort of daze. So many emotions ran through so many people.
People didn’t know what to do, how to react. I specifically remember speakers coming into our
schools focusing on awareness and safety. Stranger danger was obviously emphasized. Our
community took pride in what we had built to be a safe, loving home for the families and
children to grow up in. For something this repulsive to occur filled the town with anger, rage,
sorrow and confusion. For the longest time growing up the question that ran through any kids
head ran through mine, why? Why did this happen to those girls? Why did it happen here? Why
did he do this not only to those poor girls and their families but to our whole community? Why?
Those questions will never be answered. There is no telling why a tragic situation has
affected us or why it happened in the first place. All there is to do is move on. I was very young
when this incident occurred. It didn’t quite seem real to me, more of a playground story. But
several years later the reality of what happened would finally sink in.
After school on a rainy afternoon I plopped down on the couch to watch an episode of
Criminal Minds. A series I was just beginning to get interested in. As I was watching I began to
think of those five girls who suffered from Jamelske. So many aspects of this episode reminded
me of everything I had grown up hearing about Jamelske. About halfway through the episode
Agent Gideon, one of the main characters described the killer they were looking for in this
episode. Every word out of his mouth sounded like he was in my living room telling me about
John Jamelske. He stated “Predatory abductors prepare a nest prior to the abduction, a remote
cabin, an underground bunker, a secrete secure place only he has access to. Designed to confine
and conceal his prey once his hunting is done.” Chills ran through every inch of my body. An
image of a man who looked exactly like Jamelske came across the screen, an old, scrawny,
partially bald man flashed across the screen, my hand flew to the remote, hitting the pause button
as fast as I possibly could. Am I seeing things? Am I reading too much into this show? Calm
down Amanda it’s a crime show, there’s no way their talking about Jamelske. All these thoughts
racing through my head. I hit play and about twenty seconds later I found out I was right.
Spencer Reid another main character states “For his nest predatorily abductor John Jamelske
built a sophisticated dungeon complex under a suburban Syracuse home where he documented
every detail of the torture he carried out upon the victims that he kept there for up to three years.”
My heart dropped. How did a national television show know about the rapist from little old
Fayetteville-Manlius? Why did they pick him? Doesn’t this sort of thing happen in cities? Is
someone listening to the story of these poor girls? As if Jamelske didn’t make me ask enough
questions growing up, here he is again, except this time I’m going to find out some answers.
Turns out episode seven in season two of Criminal Minds is based on the serial rapist
John Jamelske from Fayetteville New York. The thought never occurred to me that this crime
show had a sense of validity, that day I found out Criminal Minds bases its episodes off of real
life serial killers. The writers of these shows are taking situations that have occurred in the real
world and making them known in a sense. Granted this show is not a documentary, the stories
are altered but they have some basis of reality.
My perspective on television had changed from that point on. All television shows were
made up sitcoms created to entertain us when we’re bored. Criminal Minds is an incredibly
fascinating show, but I become a thousand times more interested in it know there was some base
of reality. Not only did it spark my interest in a whole new variety of shows including
documentaries and real life reports but it also sparked my interest in research. What aspects of
these shows were actually valid? Several times after watching an episode I was interested in I
would research that episode and the true story that inspired it.
After watching the entire fourth episode I did some research and watched this episode
over and over. The plot was different then the story of John Jamelske, but the similarities are
crazy. I can tell exactly what aspects they took from John Jamelske. The setting takes place in a
small town in Pennsylvania, one very similar to my own. A town where if something happens,
everyone knows almost immediately. Jamelske kept these women in an intricate dungeon he
built under his house. The dungeon in the episode is practically identical. It is dark, unsanitary,
and has an entrance the size of a small box approximately eight feet from the ground. In the
episode the local police would not believe the parents when they say their daughters are missing,
in the story of John Jamelske the local police didn’t believe multiple women when they stated
they had been abducted and raped for years. The local police dropped every case until the last
girl he abducted used a telephone at the local bottle return center while Jamelske was inside. The
bottle return is about a mile and a half from my house, I jogged by it almost every day and every
time I think of those girls.
The fact that this show does take situations from real criminals hit hard with me. It made
me realize what’s really out there beyond the lines of our small town. Continuing to watch this
show made me realize how many psychopath’s are truly out there. If our small town story made
it too the big screen what’s happening in the big cities where crime is a regular thing? If little old
Fayetteville-Manlius isn’t safe then what is?
The reality of what had happened in my small town didn’t quite hit me until I watched
this episode. My behavior definitely changed. After this realization I paid much more attention to
my surroundings. I would never say I was paranoid, but I was aware. My social interactions
changed as well. I was always known as the responsible one out of all my friends, they called me
the “mom” of the group. I truly do believe the realization of this incident made be grow up quite
a bit. When I read about similar stories I don’t just skim the headline, I genuinely what to know
what happened, I want the victim to be heard. My heart goes out not to just those directly
involved, but the entire community. What happened in my town I thought made me a bit stronger
as an individual. I thought having experienced such an event, if another tragedy occurred I would
know how to handle it. My first semester at Florida State University I experienced a school
shooting. No television show or previous tragic event will ever prepare you for another tragedy.
You can watch it on TV but one never thinks such a thing could happen to them, to their town, to
their school until it does.
This show has opened my eyes to what is truly out there in a way. I feel it is a good thing.
It has taught me to be extremely cautious in certain situations. Coming into college I am aware of
the dangers that are out there. I am a young women, the dangers for me are relatively high. I
would never walk anywhere at night alone, it may seem like common sense but after watching
this show I would never take the chance. John Jamelske isn’t the only disturbed person out there,
in the world we live in there are people who have some serious issues and do some scary things.
I feel the best way to protect yourself is to be as knowledgeable as possible. I understand
everything in criminal minds is not one hundred percent true but those scenarios are plausible
and do take basis from an actual serial killer. The show has definitely had a large influence on
me.