Dealing From A Crooked Deck

JEFFREY DAHMER. TED BUNDY. DAVID ("SON OF Sam") Berkowitz. Collect 'em, trade 'em, memorize their stats. It's hard for a mere baseball card to compete with the latest offering in candy stores and comic-book shops: "killer cards" that feature notorious mass murderers, complete with gory drawings and graphic descriptions of their crimes. Some New York State legislators, with the support of victims' rights groups, are seeking to crack down on the unsavory trading cards. Their bill, which parallels proposed legislation in a handful of other states, would make it a misdemeanor to sell such cards to minors. Argues sponsor Alan Hevesi, an assemblyman: "Where there is excessive violence in a film, children are barred from admission, and that's constitutionally protected." But Dean Mullaney, a Forestville, Calif., publisher of a line of cards featuring fbi agents and crooks, insists that such products do not exalt criminals. "Silence of the Lambs won the Academy Award," he says, "but it's not a glorification of cannibalism."