Federal Bill Would Ban ‘Murderabilia’ Sales

Prisoners would be barred from using the mail to sell personal items and criminal artifacts under legislation introduced Tuesday in the U.S. House.

Five major Web sites sell "murderabilia." Items up for bid range from a hubcap from Ted Bundy's 1968 Volkswagen Beetle to a Zodiac killer wanted poster, the Contra Costa Times reports. Some prisoners like to contribute items for sale while others are tricked into answering letters written by dealers who don’t disclose their identities.

A similar bill is pending in the Senate, Time magazine reports. Five states—Texas, California, New Jersey, Michigan and Utah—already ban the sale of such items.

“I’m of the opinion you shouldn’t be able to rob, rape and murder and make a buck off of it,” a sponsor of the Senate bill, Andy Kahan, director of the Houston Mayor’s Office Crime Victims Assistance Division, told the Tex Parte blawg.

CORRECTED 12:01 p.m. CDT to attribute quote to Kahan.