Criminals: an American obsession.

• Author: Hyatt, Ralph

WHAT IS GOING ON in this topsyturvy world? The mad charge to yank the National Enquirer or The Star off the racks in order to digest the story of a Montana man eating his own leg or the status of a newborn three-headed baby is one thing, but to experience a cardiovascular rush with each and every tabloid expose of the latest serial killing, parricide, or bludgeoning murder is another.

Americans are preoccupied with violence. The most recent obsession happens to be O.J. Simpson, but there also are the Menendez brothers, Amy Fisher/Joey Buttafuoco, and Jeffrey Dahmer, as well as Ted Bundy, "Son of Sam" David Berkowitz, Joel Rifkin, Charles Manson, et al.

Surely, there is a precedent for all of this, as reflected in the recurrent films about Bugsy Siegel, John Dillinger, Al Capone, and Jessie James, as well as anything to do with the Mafia. However, accompanying the voyeuristic fascination for violence today is the exaltation of the villain or accused villain. Gawkers can't get enough of Frank Potts' Alabama house, where it is suspected he murdered around 15 people. Huge amounts of money were spent dialing 1-900-622-GACY (at $1.99 a minute) to listen to serial killer John Wayne Gacy's diatribe against his death sentence. Fans even are swapping trading cards of their preferred murderers.

Is the devil on a final offensive? Are his foes of goodness and nobility on the verge of being vanquished? Is the definition of "hero" significantly changing before our very eyes? Will historians in the next millennium pinpoint the word's altered meaning to this century?

Typically, adoration is reserved for God and divine-like beings. We revere parents, siblings are held dear, spouses loved, and friends admired, but adoration, which connotes a quality of worship, is the emotion set aside for the supernatural--or those, like heroes, who seem to approach the supernatural.

Saints present fewer problems since an exhaustive examination of their lives has validated that they have risen above mortal weaknesses and frailty. Our current heroes, except for particular events and situations, could not pass such scrutiny. What is most interesting, if not bothersome, is that not only have our examinations in these matters been watered down embarrassingly, but the most unqualified--namely criminals--indiscriminately have been elevated to the status of hero.

Such homage bares a glaring national weakness since, in a large sense, we are who we worship. This idea has been addressed eloquently by poet Robert Penn Warren: "For if the hero is the embodiment of our ideals, the fulfillment of our secret needs, the image of the day-dream self, then to analyze [the hero] is likely to mean, in the end, an analysis of the hero-makers and the hero-worshippers, who are indeed, ourselves." Moreover, if our heroes reflect the depths of who we really are, we shall "come to know ourselves even better than we had ever wanted to."

When I was a youngster, it was simple to target heroes: baseball star...