Peter Sotos - Pure Magazine

Pure Magazine

In 1984, while the day care sex abuse hysteria phenomenon was sweeping the nation and while attending the Art Institute of Chicago, Sotos began producing the controversial magazine Pure, notable as the first zine dedicated to serial killer lore. The original publications are now collector's items.

In addition to offering many details about the crimes of serial killers and Nazis, the text in the magazine praises them, describing them using such terms as "genius", "glorious", "exemplary", and "illustrious". The text is juxtaposed with pictures and newspaper clippings relevant to the crimes discussed, showing that the media also abuse the victims. A short manifesto introducing the first issue says the magazine "satiates and encourages true lusts."

A photocopy from a magazine of child pornography was used as the cover of issue #2 of Pure. This cover led to Sotos's arrest on charges of obscenity and possession of child pornography. The charges of obscenity were later dropped, but Sotos pleaded guilty to the possession charge, receiving a suspended sentence. Despite his early legal troubles, and the seemingly fatal stigma of being falsely labeled a pedophile, Sotos continues to garner support for his ideas and literary output.

Read more about this topic:  Peter Sotos

Famous quotes containing the words pure and/or magazine:

    God cannot be seen: he is too bright for sight; nor grasped: he is too pure for touch; nor measured: for he is beyond all sense, infinite, measureless, his dimension known to himself alone.
    Marcus Minucius Felix (2nd or 3rd cen. A.D.)

    The intent of matrimony, is not for man and wife to be always taken up with each other, but jointly to discharge the duties of civil society, to govern their family with prudence, and educate their children with discretion.
    Anonymous, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. Weekly Visitor or Ladies Miscellany (June 1807)