Serial Chic

America's romance with real-life mass murder is going mainstream. Two years ago, serial-killer trading cards sparked national outrage. Now Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Manson co-star with Diane Sawyer and Jane Pauley. Even eggheads have got the bug, thanks to a serial-killer cover on the New York Review of Books. Hey, there's gold in them thar psychos:

MansonWear

Charles Manson has earned some $600 in royalties from a line of caps, surfer pants and T shirts adorned with his image and such studiously ironic slogans as support family values and charlie don't surf. Sales took off after Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose began wearing the T shirts in concert and covered a Manson song on a recent album.

Dial-G-for-Gacy

The John Wayne Gacy Interview Line, a 900 number, offers a recording of the bland-voiced killer of 33 pinning the crime on unnamed others, who then took the trouble to bury the bodies under his house. Cost of the 12-minute call: $23.88.

My Son the Driller Killer

In the tastefully packaged A Father's Story (William Morrow; $20), Lionel Dahmer spends 255 pages pondering the source of son Jeffrey's antisocial urges. Sample scapegoat: Mrs. Dahmer, because she disliked breast-feeding.

Manson the Typeface

Cutting-edge typographers in California produced a typeface dubbed Manson. For $95, art directors can set their serial-killer Zeitgeist essays in Manson Regular, Manson Alternate or Manson Bold (all officially redubbed Mason after criticism).