The scariest thing here is how ordinary this music collection is.
Most record store owners don’t get calls about buying a serial killer’s vinyl collection. But that’s exactly what happened to Dylan at Noble Records, as he shared on his YouTube channel last October 2024.
He jumped at the chance, thinking he would find a collection of dark and extreme metal music. Instead, he found something far more unsettling: a surprisingly normal collection with Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters, and six copies of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
How Dylan Got the Collection
Dylan never expected his regular day at Noble Records to include a phone call about buying a serial killer’s vinyl collection. As someone who makes upbeat YouTube videos about record collecting, this dark turn wasn’t his usual content. But when that call came in 2021, his curiosity got the better of him.
The caller’s question was direct: “How would you feel about buying a serial killer’s record collection?”
Being a collector who often found rare items in strange places, Dylan replied, “Absolutely. I’d love to,” thinking the collection might hold some unique finds.
When he shared the plan with his wife, however, she wasn’t as excited as he was.
“I tell my wife absolutely everything, and told her, ‘Hey, I’m going to this serial killer’s house to buy a record collection.’ She’s like, ‘Excuse me, what?’” he shared.
“I explained, ‘The guy’s not going to be there; he’s in prison for life.’ But she said, ‘No, absolutely not. You will not be going over to a serial killer’s house. Are you insane?’”
After this conversation, Dylan backed out of the deal, thinking that was the end of it.
But a few weeks later, the seller had other plans. He showed up at Noble Records with a truck full of records, leaving Dylan with an offer he couldn’t easily refuse.
“He kind of bamboozled me a little, but since I didn’t have to go to the house, I felt okay buying the records.” he shared.
“He also brought in a bucket full of knives and asked if I’d be interested. I was like, ‘No, I draw the line at that.’”
What Was (And Wasn’t) in It
As a record store owner, Dylan had high hopes for this collection. And, since this came from a serial killer, he expected to find stacks of dark music like Slayer or Danzig, or maybe some horror movie soundtracks.
“The weirder the person, the better the records,” he claimed.
But when he started going through the records, reality hit different.
Instead of finding anything extreme, Dylan found himself looking at Barbra Streisand albums. The Carpenters. Johnny Cash. And oddly enough, six copies of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
“It was just so normal!” he said, reflecting on the disappointment.
“It was stuff that you see every single day. Nothing rare, nothing cool.”
The closest thing to heavy metal was one Exciter album, which Dylan found “not particularly weird and not even really that exciting when it comes to metal.”
This disappointment was not only due to his unmet expectations but also as a collector’s letdown.
Collections from niche or unusual backgrounds are often highly sought-after for their exclusivity or rare items. But Williams’ records were mostly mainstream and standard.
Dylan did keep one album though, the Preserve Wildlife album by Mama Lion, which is a psychedelic blues rock band from the 1970s. He picked it as the “coolest” record in what turned out to be a surprisingly standard collection.
Brief Background on the Killer
While the record collection proved surprisingly ordinary, the story behind it wasn’t. The records came from Scott Williams of Monroe, North Carolina. In 2006, he was arrested and later sentenced in 2008 to three life sentences without parole for his crimes.
Court records and police reports detail the severity of his actions, which led to the deaths of three women between 1997 and 2006.
Each victim was shot and mutilated, with autopsy reports showing an escalation in the severity of the attacks over time.