September 18th 2014
Amanda Gifford
ENC 1101 Muti-media Narrative
The Real Life Criminal Mind
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. 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?
When I was fourteen years old, my freshman year of high school, I began to get into the
television series Criminal Minds. 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. 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, 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? 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.
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 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?
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.