Tbh, I'm not that surprised. At least back when I was in middle school, sadistic serial murderers and stuff like that was "cool." Not in the sense that we all wanted to go torture and kill people but they tended to be popular subjects for reports and such. I can't tell you how many current events about the Beltway Sniper were presented. In hindsight, that may explain some things... Well now mass murderers aren't really "cool" in any of the schools I've been to (in middle school atm) and i would say that about half the kids in my grade would not recognize the name Charles Manson, or even the Beltway Sniper. Also our class was discussing To Kill a Mocking Bird and somehow we got into mass murderers, and our teacher brought up Timothy Mcveigh. I think three people (including myself) out of our small class of fifteen knew his name, and I was the only person who could say what he did. The reason why all the middleschoolers here do know who these people are simple shows what kind of people post on these forums.