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Hello and welcome to the True Crime Podcast, Beyond the Ferns, with your host Susie. Buckle up, things are about to get a little scary. today I will iconic fictional serial killer, the Jigsaw Killer. who is the main character in the American horror franchise Saw. The Saw series was created by Australian filmmakers James Wan and Lee Winnell, and it consists of 10 movies, soon to be 11. This episode will not be diving into the series complete storylines and movies, but instead I will be dissecting the character of John Kramer. I really tried on that verb choice. Also known as the Jigsaw Killer. I have to say this fictional character is my absolute favorite due to how multi dimensional he is. My interest in this character lies in the fact that his mind is his biggest threat and most defining attribute. Unlike most horror killers, the main focus of this character's breakdown is not purely the physical act of killing victims. but rather a highly psychological one. Now let's get into what makes John Kramer the Jigsaw Killer. Now John Kramer's mind takes the driver's seat when it comes to leading his victims to their demise, such as a pivotal change in their life or death. To fully understand John Kramer, I will take you back through what we know about his early life. which ultimately led him to become the Jigsaw Killer. John's early life is largely unknown. But what we do know is that he was a successful engineer. His career in engineering allowed him to become an expert in invention, paying meticulous attention and precision to detail through all of the work that he did. Now throughout his career, he was highly esteemed for his work. And, he could have been considered a prodigy in his field if he continued down that career path. What's interesting about John is that, in addition to being an engineer, he had a deep passion for social justice and social activism. He was a well rounded individual with diverse talents and interests. His love for invention went hand in hand with John's. with his love for humanity, which he demonstrated through a partnership with Art Blank. Together, they founded a company called Urban Renewal Group with the tagline, four walls build a home. The company focused on renovating real estate, often abandoned properties, and transforming those into low income housing. John's life was driven by purpose. As he worked for the greater good of the community. He used his intelligence to build a mission that aimed to help people with fewer opportunities thrive. I personally love the way he marries his love for engineering and invention with his love and passion for his community. Now, John married a woman by the name of Jill, who held the same outlook on life. She gave back to her community as well, and the more vulnerable populations. Jill founded the Homeward Bound Clinic that offered services to individuals recovering from drug addiction, and Jill shared John's view tagline, Cherish Your Life, for her clinic's mission. During a Homeward Bound event, John met with a man by the name of William Easton, an insurance executive at Umbrella Health. Now they're just talking during this event, sharing what work they're doing, and as William's discussing his company, he specifically talks about his approach to serving the community. Now, John finds out very quickly that that William's department was less about the individual requesting services and instead followed a complex formula, oftentimes turning away severely ill people despite paying their monthly premiums. John felt that William's plan lacked empathy and was overall corrupted. He believed that William did not care who lived or died, John completely shunned humanity, favored money over a human life, and disregarded someone's will to live. John was passionate about the human will to live, considering it as one of the most important aspects of life, perceiving William's attitude as callous. John's resolve and purpose in life was strengthened. This fact became the driving force behind what would later become the Jigsaw Killer. Now there's two life events I need to mention that marks the beginning of a downward spiral in John's once promising life. First, John's wife, Jill, became pregnant with a son whom they planned to name Gideon. Now working at the Homeward Bound clinic, Jill had an altercation with a patient named Cecile Adams. And Cecile was upset, due to his own life struggles and things going on, that he ended up pushing Jill into a door handle, causing her to hit her stomach, and resulting in a miscarriage. This traumatic event had a lasting impact on Jill and John's lives. I mean, how could it not? You lost a child, and that's a lot to go through in general. So John, because of this, fell into a deep depression. And the traumatic reality of his son's death was something John had a very hard time moving forward from. This formed a wedge between Jill and John, and contributed eventually to the couple's divorce. Now, that's enough to handle, have to figure out, alone. But then he has another life event that adds even more stress. The second life event was John's unfortunate health decline. Now, John went to see a doctor to check in on some complications he was experiencing, and while he was there, an x ray was performed. The x ray results were mixed up and John was given a completely different diagnosis. The diagnosis fielded less advanced results. And John continued on not giving much attention to treatment. He thought he had an endless amount of time and that his, you know, diagnosis wasn't that big of a deal. But after some time went by, another doctor reviewed the files and found that the x rays had been mixed up, given to the wrong patients. So he had to do the task of notifying John. That is, cancer was indeed more progressed. At this point, the colon cancer diagnosis had developed into an inoperable frontal lobe tumor. And John reacted to this diagnosis, taking next steps to seek treatment. Now a lot of time had went by, and so he wasn't sure what his options were. But he decided to consult William Easton, requesting, or asking, If he could possibly cover, through his insurance company, an experimental cancer treatment. William denied assisting him, given the laden stage of his cancer and his age. Now obviously, this is another hit, and John was at the end of his rope. He felt there was truly no way out besides to end his own life. He simply felt that if he didn't end it on his own volition. So, he got in his car, and he drove off a cliff, but shockingly, the suicide attempt was unsuccessful, and John crawled from the incident with more clear headed than ever before. Now, both of these life events, We're huge, we're monumental. And both life events led him to take a closer look at life and just how precious it was. He no longer wanted to take it for granted and wanted to live every day like it was his last. Only when he came closest to death was he able to truly value his own life to its full extent. I find this character so interesting because on one hand, you have a man that creates a business around enriching someone's life with a low income housing and increasing opportunity for people who aren't as fortunate. Then the life events take off, and he has the lowest point of his life, making him turn on everything he believed. Because the grief and loss was just too hard to bear. And this makes total sense. John had went through a lot in such a short amount of time. And felt his options were limited. Or that he truly had none. But after failed suicide attempt, the event alone is the ultimate catalyst for relinquishing his will to live. He is now at the precipice of figuring out how he is going to transfer this newfound appreciation to his family. So what now? What was next for John Kramer? His business and marriage was dissolved, and he had a major loss of his unborn child. The one thing that wasn't lost was this energy for change. Perhaps one would start a non profit, right? Or one would decide to volunteer at an animal shelter. Literally anything else besides the option of being a serial killer. But John decided to pick the latter. He picked his path through his own reality and his own perspective. There were people out there squandering their lives through deceiving and lying to others. And he was living a life of Unfairly, because he was matched with this diagnosis, and that ultimately was enough for him to choose his first victim, Cecile Adams, the individual who attacked his wife and caused her a miscarriage. Now quick side note, this was his first victim alongside a long, long list of victims. It's a compelling and obscure way to look at things. But John focused on people that were guilty of major deceit or sin. I will now on be referring to John as Jigsaw. Now after Cecile Adams, he continued his serial killer tendencies to the ones he believed deserved what they were getting. Jigsaw was an expert at espionage. Once he found a victim he deemed worthy of punishment and a life lesson, he would center in on spying. He would follow their every move for weeks leading up, their routine, their behaviors, gathering movements and habits, ultimately taking notes on the decisions they made. The behavior is a huge factor here. Jigsaw was not only highly intellectual, but emotionally intelligent. He would read a person and understand their thought patterns and decisions made from those thoughts. And being able to peel back the onion of the person was something that Jigsaw mastered throughout his victims. He accurately would read the mind and hearts of the individuals after he was able to obtain enough details about them in their personal life and get a very good read on him. He would plan the kidnapping. Jigsaw was so stealthy at stalking and being incognito that not even one of his victims suspected they were being followed and watched. After kidnapping them, he would present the victim with a game. The game would test their will to live. Jigsaw designed a game that methodically mapped out what decision the victims would make based off their behavior. He had every action accounted for. He knew what they would go for, but just in case, he had a plan B. It's as if he knew what the person was to do before they even had done it. Then he would use his knack of inventing to make mechanical contraptions that would be a major point to the game. The reason behind this? Each test was made to reflect the part of the human soul that John believed to be damaged. Then to inflict a level of torture and harm that the person had caused other people. He wanted to provide the person who needed it the most to find within themselves the revelation, the opportunity to reset and live a better life, to cherish the life they had, and end the evil cycle. The ones he felt were desperately in need of the lesson, in a sense, being at the brink of death and rising from the challenge, would gift that person with a second chance at a better life. Now, Jigsaw believed the victims that were living a life filled with sin either had to one, die, or two, reclaim and cherish their life by the ultimate rehabilitation, which was getting through his games alive and with a clearer mindset. For example, if he had discovered someone had committed murder, the options for this person were to go through one of his games, at the chance of making it out alive and joining him as an accomplice on his mission, giving him a second chance to turn his life around, or, the alternative, death. It was literally their choice. Now the games had a time sensitive component, a physical and psychological act of torture. The scheming and planning was multifaceted. Every detail was thoroughly thought of in great lengths. Nothing was ever left up to chance or spontaneous in the moment. Everything was accounted for. The symbolic representations of the problems within the victim's life were seen throughout the games. The idea is to complete a task before pain is inflicted or the pain doesn't stop until a task is completed. Let's look into some games played out within a couple of the Saw movies, shall we? My personal faves, a contraption of four sharp metal rods would be inches away from a person's throat and face. The only way to stop this from happening is by retrieving a single key from the other person's stomach with a fishing line and hook. In addition, both parties needed to remain as quiet as possible because any type of sound triggers the device to spin the rods faster. Another of the most iconic games in the franchise was the reverse bear trap. It sounds as bad as it is, for sure. How it works is the device is locked around your head on a timer. If the timer goes off before you're able to unlock it, it will snap like a bear trap, but in reverse. To put it simply, and sorry ahead of time, it would absolutely rip your skull apart. Your head would be Gone. The problem always is, is where's the damn key? Honestly, I'll pick losing a game of Pictionary and having to sleep outside in my underwear in single digits to appreciate my life and do better rather than finding the damn key. Or I'll just pay 30 for an escape room where I can just choose life every single time. One of Jigsaw's biggest character traits was his manipulation. Jen. He was highly proclaimed to manipulate his victims by persuading them to see his view and own it as their own. You'll see this most through his accomplices. His goal was to convince everyone of the righteousness of his cause. Can you say cult vibes? The majority of his accomplices always stayed loyal to Jigsaw and played out the game as designed. Let's remember, they were just helping the next person understand the importance of life. Right? When it came to Jigsaw's feelings and reactions, they were rarely anchored and always measurable. His demeanor had an underlining confidence. He was either engulfed in a sense of hope or that of dread. And although those emotions are polar opposites, They were never met with any type of erratic behavior or reactions. His face always remained neutral, with sometimes a little droop of his lip or a crease of an underdeveloped smile. And the question we have all been waiting for. Why was he referred to as the Jigsaw, you may ask? Some would think it only had to do with the game, or the puzzle he was preventing to his victims, but it was much more. Jigsaw was known to cut out a piece of the deceased victim's face in a puzzle piece shape. Anyone that had died during the game, he would take a chunk out of their cheek and Take it with him as a reminder of someone that could not escape death to find the will to live. And the media referred to John as the Jigsaw Killer because of this fact alone. However, he hated the name and never referred to himself as such. I could not possibly conclude this episode without mentioning Billy the Puppet, his companion throughout the Saw series. It is. Saw series mascot. Wherever you see John, you see Billy and vice versa. Billy the puppet is a ventriloquist dummy that appears frequently in the films. Jigsaw uses this puppet to communicate with his victims by sending televised messages or describing details of sadistic traps in person, instilling fear into his victims. The original Billy the Puppet was made out of a clay paper mache and black ping pong balls, but as the Saw series continued, the puppet evolved into a more sophisticated, remote controlled version, capable of movement and speech. Some people believe that the puppet symbolizes Jigsaw's son in some way. Serving as a doll like representation of a part of Jigsaw's experiences and mission. Another possible connection to honoring his son's life is the pig mask, seen in the Saw movies. Now through developing this series, the writers really wanted to have some kind of symbolization, something kind of creepy that held some kind of moral weight to it. And Jigsaw always wished for his son to be born under the zodiac sign of the pig, which represented good luck. Throughout the series, you will see an evolution of the masks meanings. And one of the meanings throughout the series symbolizes Jon's view on the world and the disease he was rotting from. Now, although, spoiler alert, Jigsaw does end up dying in one of the franchise movies, I do believe that he felt he did more good than harm for humanity, having pushed people to the brink of death or beyond, but for a purpose. Of course, I don't condone murder or torture or the like. I do think Jigsaw was another kind of fictional Dexter of his day. Doubling down on the shitheads of the world, hoping that through misery of their own they could turn over a new leaf. Perhaps the new age jigsaw, 2025, can recommend therapy instead. Just an idea. And because I didn't want to leave y'all with Maybe 2025 will get a Jigsaw who will respect the art of therapy. I was looking into quotes and I was like, hmm, I wonder what quote I could end with. But all of the Saw series quotes are very anticlimactic. It's Let's play a game. Are you ready to play a game? Do you want to die? And although those, you know, portray a very important light of the movie, I thought to do away with those and just leave you with this. I hope that you truly got a greater picture of the character of Jigsaw. He is a multifaceted. He's not your typical carry around a chainsaw and chase people. Although that's fun too, I do think that he ultimately carries this multifaceted view on life and whether it's a little obscure or wild or crazy, which it is, I do think it makes him very unique as a fictional Halloween esque character. So I hope you enjoyed it. I am currently sitting under a rain cloud for the next six months in Oregon, so even more reason to make you more episodes. This is what I live for. I absolutely love it, and I hope that along the way of this episode, you know, coming to fruition, this new podcast coming into fruition, I hope everyone has enjoyed it. and has been listening in and sharing it, liking it, really that it's brought you joy in our lives that can be very, very fast paced. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you next week for even more Halloween month fun. I hope everyone has a beautiful week ahead and that you take care. I am going to go, as always, probably watch some trash TV, eat a little bit of snacks, cause snacks are life, and ultimately just enjoy this rainy day and the next six months of rain. And I hope that anybody has sunshine can gift me that because I'm going to need it. So, bye. Thank you so, so much. And I hope everyone takes care. Bye.