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:

    We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave, devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak adequately to his condition and experience.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The ease with which problems are understood and solved on paper, in books and magazine articles, is never matched by the reality of the mother’s experience. . . . Her child’s behavior often does not follow the storybook version. Her own feelings don’t match the way she has been told she ought to feel. . . . There is something wrong with either her child or her, she thinks. Either way, she accepts the blame and guilt.
    Elaine Heffner (20th century)