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Investigative reporter, author and former federal agent Chuck Hustmyre has seen the ugly side of life, from A to Z. Here he gets the last word on politics, crime, local government and pop culture.

Is there something in the water here that breeds serial killers? Maybe it's the Spanish moss. Maybe it's the scent of magnolias hanging in the air.

I'm not sure what it is, but something is going on. In recent years we've had more serial killers per square mile than even California. And they don't call that state the land of fruits and nuts for nothing.

Since I moved back to Baton Rouge in late 2002, we had Derrick Todd Lee, who murdered at least seven women. We had Sean Vincent Gillis, who admitted to killing eight women. Gillis even kept track of Lee through newspaper reports, and I think after the cops nabbed Lee, Gillis went out and notched one more victim just to beat Lee's record.

For a while it seemed like Baton Rouge was hosting the serial killer Olympics.

An hour and a half south, in Houma, Ronald Dominique killed as many as 23 men, most of them by tying them up and strangling them.

And those are just the ones who've been caught. In a 2007 story for 225 called Baton Rouge's other serial killer I describe an as-yet-uncaught serial murder who operated in and around North Street Park and was likely responsible for the deaths of at least 11 women and as many as 20, according to a homicide detective who worked many of the cases.

Unless he's dead, I suspect he will strike again.

There have been others who got away. Detectives say that in the 80s there was a serial killer working near LSU who killed several women, but he was never caught.

Now we have an active serial murderer in Jennings, 30 minutes on the other side of Lafayette. Less than a month ago, the body of 26-year-old Necole Guillory was found dumped beside the road. She was the eighth woman found murdered in Jennings since 2005. The sheriff has formed a task force, though law enforcement officials in Jennings still refuse to use the term "serial killer."

One of the most ridiculous lines I read after the eighth body was discovered was this one from the Alexandria Town Talk: "Although all the dead women used drugs -- most commonly crack cocaine -- and sometimes traded sex for drugs, spent time in jail, knew each other and were disposed of in similar ways, authorities hesitate to say a serial killer is responsible for their deaths."

Hesitate to say a serial killer is responsible ...

What? Are the "authorities" smoking crack too? Eight dead women, all involved in drugs and at least part-time prostitution, all in and out of jail, all of whom knew each other, and ALL DEAD.

Just how many women does this guy need to kill before he picks up his own serial killer sobriquet?

To be fair, Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff Ricky Edwards is treating the cases as linked and as a serial killer investigation. He's just not saying it.

But that brings me back to my original point. Why do we have so many serial killer cases in south Louisiana? Is it the food, the cayenne, Tiger football ...

What do you say?

Chuck out.