Category: Biography

Ted Bundy And The Stranger Beside Me By Ann Rule

I have read the book called, “The Stranger Beside Me” by Ann Rule. This book was her first published biographical true crime book about a person she knew by the name Ted Bundy. She knew him personally before and after the murders, he committed in the 1970s. This book was both difficult and heart-wrenching for her to write about. In the next few paragraphs, I will tell you about Ted and what he did throughout this time of his life. Also, what Rule knew and thought during the time she knew of him and after he was convicted. Along with a few medical aspects of those that have been hurt by Ted after his beatings. Mrs. Rule had a very good friendship with Ted starting in 1971 when they worked together in the crisis center. He told her about his family and past with a girl he liked but seemed never good enough for her. The rule also was a writer and worked closely with the police department with missing girls that started to come up missing or dead. The friendship seemed like any other and she trusted him to even watch her children, thankfully he never did. Ted went to the University of Washington to study psychology and law. He seemed nice, kind, and empathetic. That made him a good fit for the crisis center to help take calls of those contemplating suicide. When they fell out of contact in 1973 when he moved, she still seemed conflicted about the accusations made about him killing women. The killings starting in 1974 in the Seattle area, that shocked the city people. The killing seemed to go on almost monthly and this gained a lot of attention in the news. It was then that Ted was almost caught at Lake Sammamish State Park one summer by a few witnesses. They saw him talking with a few women that had later disappeared and showed up dead. He had his arm in a sling asking them to help him with a boat on his car. He tried to get them into the car and take them away. One of those witnesses was able to help with a sketch that was later used.

When Rule saw the sketch for the first time she was in denial and thought, “no it must be someone that looks like Ted”. But something that summer made her feel like she needed to put his name in and hope that she was wrong. Ted then moved to Utah for law school and tried again with a girl that escaped and flagged down a car. He was then prosecuted in Colorado for more women that were found dead. He then escaped prison and tried to convince Rule that he was not guilty, and he would never do something like this. When he moved to Florida, he attacked again this time with a dorm full of sleeping girls. All but two survived and were rushed to the hospital. As a health care professional, I could only imagine what the doctors and staff saw that day. We need to be very careful when we receive patient that comes from trauma. There are both seen, and none seen things to consider. In this case, they were able to see the trauma from the beating. But they don’t know if they were sexually abused on top of the seen trauma. If those girls were sexually abused, then we need to be careful about how we approach the subject to help the patient heal. These patients were abused by Ted and they may be fearful of a male doctor or staff. It may be in the patient’s best interest to have an all-female staff and doctor. For the future of these patients, I could only imagine it would be hard to recover from. They may have a fear of sleeping alone or being out alone and in the night. These girls may even have trust issues and may never want to be alone or only trust a select few people. These girls may always never be out in public without someone being with them. Their interaction with other people may be limited, due to running into Ted out in a public place. These girls may develop an OCD of locking the doors and windows double checking them all through the night.

That is if Ted came for them in the night like those that survived the dorm incident. Thanks to Ted their life has forever been altered but I hope they can grow stronger from this. Throughout Ted’s trials, he defended himself and tried to convince the world that he was not the person they were looking for. He was charged for murders in 4 states and sentenced to death via electric chair at the Florida State Prison in January 1989. Some families still to this day have no idea where their girls are or what had happened to them. Rule despite her original disbelief agrees that he did do this and wished she knew or saw the signs a long time ago. She thinks that maybe she could have saved some of the girls from this tragic fate.

Ted Bundy And His Noticeable Victims

He was known as a serial murderer, rapist, psychopath, and necrophiliac. Bundy confessed to kidnapping, raping, and murdering 30 women throughout six states (Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Florida) during the 1970s. Theodore Robert Bundy was born on November 24th, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. He was one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. Although, the actual count of the people he murdered remains a mystery to this day. After more than decades of denial, he confessed to 30 homicides that he had committed right before he was executed in Raiford, Florida on January 24th, 1989 using an electric chair.

His mother (Eleanor Louise Cowell) was shamed upon as he was the illegitimate birth that humiliated her deeply religious parents. To hide the fact that he was an illegitimate birth, Bundy was raised as an adopted son of his grandparents. He was told that his mother was his sister. Bundy grew up in content, working-class family. However, his childhood can be explained as troubled and disturbing. He showed unusual interest in the gruesome at an early age. Around the age of 3, he was already fascinated by knives and other dangerous weapons. His violent acts affected everyone from cats, dogs to employees to even family members. He was shy but a bright child at school but did not go well with his peers. By his teens, he would start peeping in windows. Then he got himself into shoplifting and petty crimes. I believe that Bundy did not choose to become a serial killer. He started out as a normal child, a lonely child who found enjoyment in fantasy. Psychopaths are not born but are created.

Washington January 1974: Karen Sparks, Bundy’s first victim. The first of Bundy’s victims are believed to be 18-year-old Karen Sparks. She was a student at the University of Washington. Sparks was attacked in her sleep on January 4th, 1974 by Ted Bundy. Bundy achieved this by sneaking into her basement bedroom and proceeded to beat her with a metal rod from her bed frame. She was one of the lucky ones that survived Bundy’s harsh attacks. She spent ten days in a coma and suffered from permanent brain damage. Karen Sparks woke up with no memory of the brutal beating.

Washington February 1974: Lynda Ann Healey, Bundy’s first documented murder. Lynda Ann Healey was the first victim who died from Ted Bundy. Aged 21, Healey was a popular student at the University of Washington and gave weather and ski reports at the local radio station. Lynda was loved by her peers. Police found blood on Healey’s bed sheets and pillow, not enough to indicate that she had bled to death and no indication of where she could have gone. Her colleagues found her disappearance extremely suspicious. Three days after her abduction, according to ‘The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule,’ a male voice called 911: “Listen. And listen carefully. The person who attacked that girl on the eighth of last month and the person who took Lynda Healey away is one of the same. He was outside both houses. He was seen.” Police never got a caller’s name. Fourteen months after her disappearance, her skull and jawbones were found on Taylor Mountains.

Florida February 1978: Kimberly Leach, Bundy’s Last murder. After 23 documented murders Ted Bundy killed one last time. Bundy broke his murder pattern, in which he would engage in sexual intercourse after he murdered the victim. Murdering 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. Bundy kidnapped Leach around her school in Lake City, Florida on February 9th, 1978. “It was a raining, drizzly, very dreary day,” said childhood friend and classmate Lisa Little. “I went to our designated spot to meet up to go to our class together and she wasn’t there”. Police found no evidence of Leach anywhere. Two months later, her body was found 35 miles away in the Suwannee River. She had been assaulted and murdered and then placed in a little shed in a wooded area. However, no sexual conduct was performed by Ted Bundy.

Ted Bundy went on trial in Florida on June 25th, 1979. He was trailed for the murders of the sorority women of Florida. The trial was televised, this made Bundy feel important and less lonely. Occasionally, acting as his own attorney. Shortly after, he was found guilty on both murder charges and given two death sentences, the execution of an electric chair. Execution in Florida is a capital punishment that is a legal penalty.

From Ted Bundy’s mistakes, we can learn that psychopaths are not created but shaped after many events that happen in the person’s childhood. Bundy became whatever he thought he needed to be. He convinced and deceived many people. His ability to lead such a normal life outside of his different extracurricular activities is just one of the examples of how serial killers can easily blend in with the rest of society. Bundy went on to go to university, Bundy was normal, Bundy was successful, but nobody knew that he had dark secrets.

Ted Bundy And His Crimes

Intelligence is the key factor which drives the constant advancement that defines our country, the United States. Our nation is full of deeply intelligent, bright, talented and skilled individuals. These people have led to discoveries and technological advancements that have benefited the world in many ways. However, not all intelligence leads to a positive impact, and a clear example of this is Ted Bundy.

Theodore Bundy was a serial killer from the 1970s that committed violence, physical abuse, and crimes against women. He was born to Eleanor Louise Cowell, a 22 year old unmarried woman, in Burlington, Vermont on November 14, 1946. He was born at a home for unwed mothers, as his life started as a secret because it was unethical for his mother coming from a religious family to have a child before marriage. He lived there for 2 months, and his mother wanted to put him up for adoption but his father, Sam Cowell, decided it would be best to take him as part of Eleanor’s family, having Ted apparent to be Eleanor’s brother rather than her son. “However, in The Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule notes that Bundy had told her he’d seen through the lie: ‘Maybe I just figured out that there couldn’t be twenty years’ difference in age between a brother and a sister, and Louise always took care of me. I just grew up knowing that she was really my mother.’, Biography states. Even if they tried to keep the truth about Eleanor to him, his common sense told him she was actually his mother. Him and his mother then moved to Tacoma, Washington when Ted was 6, where his mother married John Culpepper Bundy. John and Eleanor had 4 other children apart from Ted, so the transition from being an only child and having all the attention to being a sibling of 4 others was a big one for him. He grew up with a very violent grandfather which Ted might have experienced physical or psychological abuse from, strangely not affecting their relationship. Even as a child he would cause disturbance. At least once, his aunt was awakened by him putting knives along the outline of her body… something a child doesn’t quite do. When growing up he also became a Peeping Tom, spying on strangers, which again is something quite disturbing.

For many people, Bundy was categorized as a socially awkward person. Growing up, he lacked social skills, and was teased for having a speech impediment. Ted was an athletic boy, he grew up playing football, track, crosscountry and even baseball, but would never shower in the presence of the other boys in the team. His behavior went further on than just being socially awkward; he began having violent tendencies and doing illegal activity. He was part of the boy scouts, and one of his friends claimed that he would set up tiger traps so people would trip and fall; another time he went up to another of his friends from behind to hit him on the head with a stick. Some ways he began breaking the law were shoplifting, theft, and burglary. Apart from these details of his childhood, he still lived a very normal one; he had friends, a few but he had some, he would work, but he never had a girlfriend.

After high school, Ted assisted college, which just aided him in becoming a serial killer. He attended many schools as an undergraduate, and the variety of schools gave him many opportunities on studying habits of women, which were his main targets. In his college career, he dated Stephany Brooks, a girl from California which had a mutual connection with Ted. She later broke up with him, which hurt him for a long time; it was seen that many of his victims later had a similar appearance to Stephany. He graduated with distinction from the University of Washington with a psychology degree, and then moved on to study law at the University of Puget Sound. His degree in psychology helped him understand ways on how to capture victims. Some ways Ted would abduct people was by putting on fake casts or crutches, and dropping things, as women would pick them up in sympathy for the “injured”, and he would also dress up as a police officer for most people obey authority figures. He was also helped by his physical attractiveness, charming voice and way of talking to women.

Ted Bundy’s first known murder, Lynda Ann Healy, was killed in February of 1974. “Disappeared Feb. 1, 1974, from her basement bedroom in Seattle. Body found (with Susan Rancourt, Roberta Parks, and Brenda Ball) in March 1975 on Taylor Mountain, 20 miles east of Seattle. Forensic indication: bludgeoned.”, shares Orlando Sentinel. All of those girls were sexually assaulted, decapitated, and their bodies were mutilated. It was also indicated that the bodies were engaged in necrophilic acts. Meanwhile, Bundy was studying law and working with the Republican party, which to officials, never made him a serious suspect.

Another of his victims was Melissa Smith, she disappeared on October 18, 1974 in Midvale, Utah.“Wounds indicated that she had been beaten on the head and strangled with a pair of her nylons. Acid phosphatase (an enzyme found in semen) was in her vagina. The pathologist believed that she had been dead 48-72 hours. Someone had freshly re-applied her make-up before her death. (James 1991, p. 249)”, explains Janet Mclellan. Melissa’s body was found 10 days later in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains, a few miles from Salt Lake City. Ted Bundy’s actions were taboo in every way possible, but despite all of his atrocious crimes, there was no doubt of his intelligence.

There were several times when Ted Bundy was represented by himself when it came to court cases. When he murdered Caryn Campbell, a 23 year old nurse, he decided to use his knowledge on legal and law related events. Officials gave him permission to the law library because of his position as a lawyer, but when allowed to go to the court library during a pretrial, he jumped out of a window and escaped. He was recaptured eight days later in Florida, and in the span of eight days he managed to kill three women and hurt other three. He was put on trial in Florida and represented himself again, but this time this case didn’t go as he expected; Bundy was found guilty of three murders of two different trials and was sentenced to death. Although he had a great education, he never finished law school, which made his knowledge limited to certain topics and didn’t make him a great lawyer. Instead of carrying capital punishment, Ted Bundy turned down a plea deal with Florida prosecutors that resulted in a life sentence. He was put on death row and his execution was postponed for many years for an exchange of information about committed murders he had made in the past, but eventually his time was up, and Ted Bundy was executed in the electric chair on January 24, 1989.

Ted Bundy Psychology: Profile, Analysis, Traits

Theodore Robert Bundy, born on the 24th of November, is one of the most notorious criminals of all time. He is an American serial killer who is responsible for the murder of at least thirty six women. It goes without saying that there is something insanely wrong with someone who has the capacity to commit murder, however, in the case of Ted Bundy, there were many things wrong with him.

What was Wrong with Ted Bundy?

Psychologists have studied the infamous rapist and murderer for decades. What’s fascinated them most? His ability to carry on a double life, having a long term relationship, attending college, building a political career, all while secretly murdering women in cold blood.

Ted Bundy Personality Disorders

Here’s exactly what psychologists have speculated that Bundy may have had over the years:

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A group of 73 psychologists got together in the University of Kentucky to study Ted Bundy’s mental health, and the majority of them agreed that he had antisocial personality disorder. In fact, nearly 80 percent of them believed that Bundy was a perfect example of the disorder, checking off all of its criteria in the DSM-5: egocentrism, acting on personal gratification (as opposed to the law and social norms) , lacking empathy, antagonism (manipulative, deceitful, and hostile), disinhibition (irresponsible and impulsive).

Psychopathy

Psychopathy is not the same as ASPD, though it it does fall under its umbrella. Hervey Cleckley, a psychologist who pioneered the concept of psychopathy, defined it with a “Psychopathy Checklist.” That includes: superficial charm, untruthfulness, insincerity, lack of nervousness, inadequately motivated antisocial behavior, pathological egocentricity, lack of remorse, and an inability to follow a life plan. According to clinical and forensic psychologist Darrel Turner, PhD, Ted Bundy is literally the textbook definition of a psychopath.

“There are certain traits that we tend to see: a lack of empathy and being out for one’s own interest even though the interests of other people get trampled under foot. But with Bundy, we do see a lot of the other traits of psychopathy, like pathological lying and the being very superficially charming.”

So it would be hard to insist that Bundy, who used his charm to lure women into his car, who brutally killed at least 36 women, who bounced from college to college and never finished law school (his murder spree inevitably got in the way), didn’t show psychopathic tendencies.

Ted Bundy’s words, verbatim: “I am the most cold-hearted son of a ***** you will ever meet.”

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

About 95 percent of the psychologists in the University of Kentucky study believed that Bundy showed signs of narcissistic personality disorder, which is defined by the following characteristics in the DSM-5: excessive reference to others for self esteem regulating and/or setting goals based on one’s approval, impaired ability to recognize the needs and emotions of others, largely superficial relationships that exist for self-esteem regulation or personal gain, feelings of entitlement and superiority, excessive attempts to attract attention from others, and admiration seeking.

Was Ted Bundy a Narcissist?

For someone to have narcissistic personality disorder they have to have at least five of those nine qualities. The team believes that he had that many, if not even more.

Bipolar Personality Disorder

Dorothy Lewis, MD, a psychiatrist who specialized in “understanding the brain chemistry of violent men” tried to save Bundy from death row. She said that Bundy suffered from bipolar personality disorder, a mental disorder characterized mainly by extreme mood swings.

An investigator had told Lewis that in the middle of a conversation that Bundy suddenly, “became weird on me, did a metamorphosis, a bit of body and facial change, and almost an odor emitted from him.”

Lewis allegedly noted that he would, “switch from euphoria and compulsive talking to anger followed by long periods of sullen silence”

Whether he was actually bipolar or not didn’t matter as Lewis’s attempt failed, Bundy’s appeal was denied, resulting in his execution on the 24th of January in 1989.

Borderline Personality Disorder

The majority of the same group in the University of Kentucky study said that Bundy was “above the diagnostic threshold for borderline.”

A person with borderline personality disorder usually has unstable relationships, acts impulsively, behaves in self-harming ways, goes through periods of intense depression, and experiences changes in self-image. People with borderline personality disorder tend to feel emotions intensely, which may be why Bundy didn’t fall into this category of mental illnesses.

Schizoid Personality Disorder

More than 50 percent of the experts in the University of Kentucky study labeled Bundy as having schizoid personality disorder, which is basically antisocial personality disorder but to the extreme. Someone with schizoid personality disorder “has a lifelong pattern of indifference to others and social isolation.”

It’s possible that schizoid personality disorder was attributed to Bundy because of his inability to show emotion and act appropriately. But another important symptom of schizoid is a lack of interest in sexual relations, which obviously didn’t apply to Bundy since he was a serial rapist.

Machiavellianism

Several experts noted that Bundy showed signs of an extreme form of narcissism, called Machiavellianism. This disorder was named after a Renaissance Italian political philosopher named Niccolò Machiavelli. It describes someone who will deceive and exploit others in order to achieve his/her own personal goals. “they see people as objects for manipulation, they will have normal amounts of empathy unless they have traits of psychopathy.”

Ted Bundy was in complete denial of having any kind of mental illness, in fact, when his attorneys tried to delay the death penalty by proving that he was not mentally competent to stand trial, he said: “I knew I wasn’t crazy, insane, or incompetent, or anything else. I was insulted by even the suggestion by my attorneys that we should consider the defense. They knew damn well I wasn’t crazy.”

Stephen Michaud, the journalist who interviewed Ted Bundy while on death row, said : “Ted stands out because he was quite an enigma. Clean-cut, good looking, articulate, very intelligent, just a handsome, young, mild-mannered law student. He didn’t look like anybody’s notion of somebody who would tear apart young girls.”

Ted Bundy was sick and twisted, however, he is unlike any other sick person I have ever read about. His charm is fascinating, women kept claiming that they love him, want to marry him and bear his children. He was able to convince the judge to make him co-counsel on his own murder trial, even though he didn’t graduate law school. He killed women for 4 years without getting caught. Even though I think that Ted Bundy sick and got what he deserved, I think that his personality is unprecedented, and probably one of a kind. As a result, research should be conducted on the symptoms and actions that might indicate or foreshadow that kind of gruesome behavior so that law enforcement can execute effective programs for at risk children, which will result in a reduction in crime rates and make this a safer world to live in.

Life, Crimes And Trial Of Ted Bundy

In the United States there are roughly 2,625 serial killers known to history (Stebbins & Frohlich, 2015). Theodore Robert Bundy was one of them. Theodore Robert Bundy, better known as Ted Bundy, is one of America’s most dangerous serial killers. In this paper we will discuss Ted’s early life, the crimes he committed, and his trial process.

Many serial killer’s issues start as a young child; this may have been the case for Ted. On November 24, 1946 he was born in Burlington Vermont. Ted was born at a home for unwed mothers and he would stay at the home until two months after his birth. Ted’s grandmother was a victim of depression and agoraphobia, a fear of big crowds. Ted’s grandfather was known to have a terrible temper; it is even thought that his grandfather would oftentimes abuse Ted. Ted’s father remained a mystery. When Ted was 3 years old he and his mother moved away from his grandparents in Philadelphia and to Tacoma, Washington. Ted’s mother, Louise, changed his last name to Nelson before the move due to him being illegitimate. The move upset Ted because he did not like the area. During their time in Seattle his mother met Johnnie Bundy and he then became Ted’s stepfather. Ted angered and jealous of the relationship he threw a fit at Sears, peeing himself. Johnnie still decided to adopt Ted even after this incident. Growing up, Ted wanted expensive things but his family could not provide them, which made the relationship between Johnnie and Ted very tense. Adding to the tension, Ted would sometimes feel unloved by his mother because he did not get much attention since she had four other children. When Ted was in school he did not fit in with his classmates very well because he had a speech impediment and could not keep up with some of the boys in Boy Scouts. However, Ted did have a few good friends. Ted tried out for basketball and baseball but did not make the cut. During his high school years Ted only went on one date with a girl. Ted said, ‘It wasn’t that I disliked women or were afraid of them, it was just that I didn’t seem to have an inkling as to what to do about them.’ Academics was more of Ted’s thing. Although he never was ranked at the top of his class, he still did well in school. Ted would go to church with his family and became Methodist Youth Fellowship’s vice president. Although Ted is known today as a serial killer, when he was young he saved a friend’s niece from drowning. However, even at that time Ted was obsessed about reading stories about rape and murder. During school hours he would often sneak into a closet to masturbate; the kids would sometimes catch him doing this and would throw water on him (Kettler, 2019).

Ted did not start committing his crimes as an adult, he started when he was young. At first the crime consisted of stealing. Skiing was something Ted enjoyed but he was unable to afford equipment and lift tickets, so he would steal equipment and forge the lift tickets. Also, as a teen he committed car theft, but he was let off with a warning. Eventually Ted started spying on strangers. In 1974 Ted found his first known victim, although he could have been tied to other crimes. It is suspected that he is responsible for the murder of a young girl named Ann Marie Burr who lived not too far from Ted. Ann went missing from her house on the night of August 31, 1961. When Ted was in prison Ann’s mother wrote to Ted hoping to receive closure but he denied doing so (Kettler, 2019). Ted went after young college women in the states of Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Florida. Ted lured girls to his car with tricks, often times he would pose as someone from a trusted profession, such as a police officer. Also, he would fake a disability so the girls would help him carry his books to the car. Once the girls got to his car he would hit them over the head with a crowbar or pipe. Then he would handcuff them and forcibly put them in his vehicle. In his car, it was very easy to hide the victims because he had taken his passenger seat out and stored it in his trunk so the women would lie on the ground where the seat would have been. Ted would drive somewhere and rape the women then kill them after, often decapitating their bodies. After they were dead he would do disturbing and inhuman things to their bodies. Ted was arrested on August 16, 1975 because he fled a patrol car. When police searched his car they found masks, handcuffs, and rope but there was nothing linking him to crime, so he was released. A few months went by and he was arrested for kidnapping and assaulting one of his victims. After a year of being in custody, on June 7 while he was allowed to research his case in the library, Ted escaped through a library window. After about a week of Ted being free he was caught and put in higher security cell. That did not stop Ted from escaping again, he cut a hole in the ceiling on December 30, 1977. At this point Ted fled to Florida and started killing again (Ted Bundy: Serial Killers: Crime Library. n.d.)

Ted went to trial in three states during his trial process. Ted first underwent trial on February 23, 1976, in Utah for the abduction of Carol Daronch. In this trial, the jury found Ted guilty and sentenced him to a 15 year sentence. Investigators in Colorado found evidence that could tie him to the killing of Caryn Campbell. On October 22, 1976, Colorado filed charges against Ted. In April 1977, Ted was then handed over to Colorado. During his time in Colorado he escaped, fleeing to Florida. On June 25, 1979 Ted had his second trial in Miami, Florida. This trial was for the killing of five sorority girls at Florida University. On July 30, 1979, the jury reached a verdict of guilty and sentenced him to the electric chair. No matter how many trials he had, Ted still claimed innocence. On January 7, 1980 Ted had his third trial for the killing of Kimberly Leach. By the time this trial came around, Ted had lost a lot of lawyers because his case was becoming harder and harder to solve. Once again, Ted was found guilty to the crime (“Ted Bundy,” 2017). On the day of his death sentence many people lined up outside chanting, “Burn, Bundy, Burn.” Ted refused to pick his last meal so steak, eggs, hash browns, and toast was prepared for him but he did not touch the food because of all the nerves he was feeling at the time. There were 42 witnesses that came to watch Ted get his death sentence. Before Ted’s death, he confessed to 30 murders but it is suspected he’s responsible for more. Ted died hungry on January 24, 1989 at 7:16 am with the last words of “I’d like to give my love to my family and friends” (Margaritoff, 2019).

In this paper we discussed Ted’s early life, the crimes he committed, and his trial process. Ted Bundy was and still is one of America’s most dangerous serial killers.

Ted Bundy: Personality, Charactristics, Psychology Essay

The Enigma of Ted Bundy: A Complex Criminal Mind

The man who violently stole the lives of more than forty women, Ted Bundy, does not easily fit into any compartment of criminal theory. Bundy’s killing spree went unchecked for years because his personality and lifestyle did not fit any previously established serial killer profile. In fact, Bundy’s life story could have provided a fascinating and valuable resource for criminal and psychological studies today and had he lived out his life in prison, may have provided the world with extraordinary insights into one of the most perplexing criminal minds in American history. Regardless, since his death in 1989, the fields of science, medicine and psychology have made astonishing progress in understanding criminal behavior, as well as in methodologies of reprogramming and healing mental illness. Finally, his death by electrocution is regrettable, and makes a profound statement for the elimination of capital punishment.

A Troubled Childhood: The Early Years of Ted Bundy

Born in Burlington, Vermont in 1946, Bundy was the illegitimate child of a woman whose family was so ashamed of his mother’s unmarried status that when she gave birth his grandparents claimed him as their own. They led Ted and others to believe that his mother was his older sister. It was not until he was thirteen, that a cousin proved to Ted that his “older sister” was actually his mother. As a result, Ted later admitted to being angry at his mother for withholding the truth all of those years, however, if he experienced or was imprinted with the deep shame that was extended toward her in his infancy, one will never know. What is known is that he experienced a deep confusion as a small child with respect to his identity. Moreover, one can assume that Bundy’s mother, having to play the role of an older sister, was more emotionally removed from him than she might have been if she had openly been able to mother him. As a result, perhaps this had an impact in building his serial killer characteristics.

The Role of Family and Early Influences

As a small child, the grandfather who served as his father figure was Ted’s beloved role model from whom he was involuntarily separated when his mother moved him to Washington State. Being torn from this father figure he loved at the young age of four, may have affected Bundy’s ability to socialize properly. This quote suggests that:

From ages of 8 to 12, all the negative tendencies present in their early childhoods were exacerbated and reinforced. In this period, a male child really needs a father, and it was in just this time period that the fathers of half the subjects disappeared in one way or another. Potential murderers became solidified in their loneliness first during the age period of 8 to 12; such isolation is considered the single most important aspect of their psychological makeup. (Swiss Criminal Profiling, Childhoods of Violence?)

Although Ted focused on his love for his grandfather, the family’s church described him as an “extremely violent man who generally terrorised everyone he lived with” (libertus.net). But it was not until his incarcertaion, that Dr. Dorothy Lewis found, through interviews with the Bundy family, that Ted’s grandfather may have influenced Bundy far more than Ted ever realized.

Grandfather was an extremely violent man who tortured animals and behaved brutally to family members. The little boy who would become a serial murderer began sticking butcher’s knives into his bed and demonstrating other behaviour that worried some family members enough for them to think he should be removed from the environment. (lilbertus.net)

Bundy’s stepfather, with whom he spent the majority of his childhood, was not known to be violent and was fond of and supportive of his stepson, but Bundy never felt a close connection with him. Perhaps what happened at a very early age had more of an impact on his development.

Bundy was not insane, nor was he evil. In fact, Anne Rule, who had met Ted while they were operating a suicide hotline system in Seattle, stated that she watched Ted “save” lives, and describes him in glowing terms as a responsible, caring young friend. For years prior to his arrest, this good friend of his, went on to further say that: “Ted seemed to embody what was young, idealistic, clean, sure, empathetic” (Rule, 396).

In fact, after learning of his mother’s true identity, Bundy had decided to be the best, to achieve everything he could, so that she could be especially proud of him. She had remarried Johnnie Bundy and had several other children, and Ted grew to feel that he needed to stand out among his siblings for her sake. Now, a person who is criminally insane is generally incapable of fitting into society, however, Ted maintained a high grade point average in college, socialized with some of the wealthier and more influential people in his community, skied, and pursued politics and the arts. In a sense, he wrote his own role and cast himself as the actor in the chosen play of his life. He wanted to become wealthy and hold status among his peers, and carefully studied the traits of those whose characteristics he would emulate.

The Dual Nature: Bundy’s Public and Private Lives

Ted Bundy was also not biologically inferior, at least to the extent that it could be measured at the time. He was physically fit, his body toned and athletic. He was extraordinarily handsome, and did not outwardly fit into William Sheldon’s criminal body-type theories. Bundy was gregarious, not particularly depressed (although he occasionally cried when he was sad), and seemed to love good food, affection and being with people. He was fairly even-tempered, although extremely shy. However, it became clear in later interviews that Bundy was not capable of feeling love toward people, but could only relate well to things; but, his well-practiced behaviors belied that. Similarly, his crimes cannot be written off to anomie. Bundy knew, to an extreme degree, exactly what was expected of him and what to expect from others. Finally, Bundy does not fit Enrico Ferry’s four positivist categories of insane, born criminal, occasional criminal and criminal by passion.

Bundy knew the difference between right and wrong. In fact, Bundy told his girlfriend, ‘I don’t have a split personality. I don’t have blackouts. I remember everything I’ve done. The force would just consume me.I’d try not to, but I’d do it anyway” (Kendall 176). However, one would argue that Bundy’s crimes, still, were not done on his own free will, but were almost epileptic responses to the residual forces of shame, rage and guilt born in his childhood, and persisting throughout his life. Thus, positivism, is a theory that could be applied to Ted Bundy’s criminal behavior. This force is the missing element in the conclusions that have been drawn about Ted Bundy.

The Psychological Underpinnings of Bundy’s Crimes

Another potentially drastic problem for Ted was that he felt that he was personally more sophisticated, genetically, than his stepfather. He was not willing to surrender to a life of financial or social mediocrity, which was how he perceived his stepfather. Hence, it was neither a relative deprivation nor poverty, but a social inequality force that drove Ted Bundy to steal luxurious possessions and to act out violently upon victims who resembled a well-to-do woman who at one time rejected him.

Now, if Emile Durkeheims’s concepts and ideas were to be applied to Ted Bundy, then it would have been important to preserve his life in an ongoing attempt to understand him and in order for Bundy’s crimes to provide any redeeming value to society. This is so because, Emile Durkeheim felt that crime provided an “indirect utility” for understanding the need for changes in our laws and values. Durkeheim proposed that, “If there were no crime, it would be evidence that change was not possible: To make progress, individual originality must be able to express itself” (Durkeheim 874).

The Lasting Impact: Ted Bundy in Popular Culture

Today, literature on Ted Bundy and his crimes is widely available. In addition to the true-crime narrative written by Anne Rule in 1980, other crime writers investigated the murders and Bundy’s life in detail. Meg Anders, who uses the alias of Elizabeth Kendall in her book entitled The Phantom Prince, provides an insider’s look at Bundy’s nature, the face he showed to the world and the occasional private tears he shed in her presence. Other books, such as True Crime, published by Time Warner, give an overview of the facts that have already appeared in numerous articles in the press.

I do not include details from Bundy’s last interview, granted to the extreme evangelist, James Dobson, for several reasons. In his self-fabricated personality, Bundy appeared to love the limelight and was charismatic, charming. Bundy used the interview with Dobson to blame pornography for his deeds, still unable to track within himself the psychological demons that led him to do what he did. From serving as his own attorney and playing legal games with the Court, to planning elaborate cat-and-mouse prison escapes, Bundy was a brilliant actor. Watching violent pornography may have provided Bundy with ideas about how to perform his vicious acts, but the self-professed pornography “addiction” was simply another symptom of the pain Bundy carried with him from childhood, and it provided the evangelist with fuel to further his own personal beliefs. In fact, Bundy’s demeanor during that interview was one of a polished, skilled and sophisticated performer, pulling the wool over the eyes of his curious followers just one more time, and giving his fans what they wanted. Again, Bundy was lost in the roles he created, and he played them to the hilt. The personality he had painstakingly crafted for himself was debonair and smooth, and he was loath to abandon that personality, even when his life was on the line. This interview clarified, again, that the true cause of Bundy’s mental illness was buried so deeply in his psyche that it was never excavated.

The only obvious mention of Bundy’s state of mind when he made the decisions to murder his victims was when he told his girlfriend, in a conversation he later refuted, about the force that overtook him when he went on a killing spree. I am inspired to learn what cutting edge conclusions the field of criminology has uncovered about dissociative personality disorders and childhood post-traumatic stress disorders, and their consequences in connection with the profiling of murderers. New therapies using ancient techniques are now addressing the damage done to our physiological and electromagnetic bodies as children, and are discovering effective methods for healing from early childhood trauma. People who would have otherwise been morally and emotionally crippled throughout their lives are being helped to become productive citizens. Ted Bundy was brilliant and vivacious, and did show a great deal of compassion and love. The positive aspects of his personality showed through his selfless work on the suicide hotlines, saving a little girl from drowning and chasing a purse snatcher. His final words expressed love to his family and friends, and, according to his former girlfriend, he loved and cared for her deeply. His hidden demons and their consequences presented a puzzle that would have been worth solving had he been allowed to live.

Albert Fish: Notorious Child Serial Killer

Early Life and Traumatic Childhood of Albert Fish

The serial killer that I have chosen is Albert Fish, also known as “The Boogeyman,” and many other nicknames. Born on May 19, 1870, in Washington, D.C, United States. Growing up his name was actually Hamilton Howard, but he later changed it to Albert to honor one of his deceased siblings. Fish’s parents were Randall and Ellen Fish and had four children in total, Annie Fish, Edwin Fish, Walter Winchell Fish, and Albert Fish. His parents were of various descents, his father was of English Ancestry, while Fish’s mother was of Scots-Irish American. (Montaldo, 1) His childhood was not the ideal childhood that a kid would want, it was full of emotional and physical pain. Fish’s parents eventually deserted him, at a very young age. Since they abandoned him, he was taken to an orphanage and was there until he was about seven-nine years of age. His journey at the orphanage was not pleasant, to say the least. He and the other children in the orphanage were receiving beatings on a regular basis, causing much pain. As the beatings went on and Fish received more of them, he began to “find great pleasure” in the pain that was caused by them. (Montaldo, 1)

Disturbing Behaviors and Early Signs of Psychopathy

In 1880, Albert Fish was taken out of the orphanage that his mother placed him in at an early age. He eventually got removed from it by his mother, Ellen Fish, because she had a government job. After getting out of the terrible conditions of the orphanage, Fish did not truly know what to do because he was used to getting beatings and did not have an education. Shortly after getting free of the “home” that his mother placed him in, he became friends with another little boy, who he ended up learning disturbing ways from. While hanging around this other boy, he began to drink other’s urine and eventually took part in consuming other’s feces as well. (Montaldo, 1) Due to Albert Fish’s relationship with this telegraph boy, he began going to as many public places that had restrooms and would watch the males. Fish would not only watch them use the bathroom but as well as watching them undress. Everything went downhill from there for Fish, and he became a monstrous serial killer. (TheFamousPeople, 1)

Descent into Monstrosity: Fish’s Crimes in New York

Albert Fish did not have many very pleasant experiences growing up, which did not benefit him in his future actions. In 1890, Fish moved to New York, New York, where he began to start up his monstrous crimes against little, innocent children. Whenever Fish first moved to New York, New York, he had to make a profit somehow, so he became a prostitute which is when he began to molest males. (Montaldo, 1) Albert began to take children of all ages from their own homes and would act upon his criminal ways towards them. He would not only molest them and harm them sexually, but he would also torture them in horrific ways. He would torture his victims because he became obsessed with the feeling that it would bring to him. His ”most favorite” way of torture that he would perform to his victims was giving them beatings using a paddle that was covered in sharp, pointy nails. (Montaldo, 1) Following after these brutal beatings to all of his victims, Fish would rape them and eventually kill them as well. Albert Fish was not only a murderer, but as well as a cannibal. After he would brutally beat his victims, then rape, murder them, he would eventually eat them. (Montaldo, 1) Fish was so well at luring his victims to himself because he always presented himself as “a sweet and harmless man,” they never saw his true self until alone with him. Whenever he would pinpoint someone he wanted to victimize, he would go up to them and introduce himself to them, but not always with his real identity. He would then proceed to talk to them about a topic, Fish would never fail to be anything but kind to them. He would then continue on the conversation and they would eventually just think that he was this nice, “everyday” man, which then is what would always lead to their abduction. As he continued to do these criminal, monstrous acts and as time went on, his “sexual fantasies” with children increased and became worse and worse every day with the crimes that he committed.

Fish’s Family Life and Further Criminal Activities

Even though Albert Fish was a serial killer and a terrible person, he still got married and they had children of their own. In 1898, Fish got married to Estella Wilcox who together had a total of six children. Their children were Albert, Anna, Gertrude, Eugene, John, and Henry Fish. (Buchanan-Dunne, 1) Albert and his wife, Estella, were married for a total of nine years together. While he and Estella were married, Fish was arrested for embezzlement and was thrown into prison. While being held in prison in 1903 for embezzlement, he was having sexual intercourse with the other men that were with him in prison. (Blanco, 1) After getting released from prison for embezzlement and his wife leaving him for another man, his children’s lives changed. Since Estelle, his wife, had left him for another man and was not there anymore, he would make his children play brutal games with him. One of his favorite games that he would play with his children was where they would have to “paddle” him with a paddle that was completely covered with nails until they could see the blood running down him, and until he could feel it. Another “game” that he would make his children play with him was pushing needles down deep into his skin because he felt pleased with the pain it brought him. After his marriage with Estella came to an end, he then wrote vulgar messages to women that he saw in the newspapers. These messages were very descriptive in what he wanted to do to these women sexually. He sent out various messages to these women that were in the newspaper, but Fish claimed that not a single one of the women who revived a message ever answered him. Even though Albert Fish was married for a total of nine years and did not bring harm to his wife, Estella, he still wrote these vulgar and nasty messages to many, many women. Because the messages that he wrote to these women were so detailed and sexual, they were never released to the eye of the public because not everyone should see them. However, these messages were later used in court for evidence. (Montaldo, 1)

The Abduction and Murder of Grace Budd

In 1928, Fish went by the name of “Mr. Howard.” He had seen an ad from an eighteen-year-old, Edward, that was looking for a side job to help with his family’s bills and costs. Fish decided that he was going to meet with Edward and his family to get the job settled and when he would start. The meeting went very well with Edward and his family, so he took the job because they thought that “Mr. Howard” was just a casual, kind, and trustworthy man. At the end of the meeting, Fish told the family that he would be back the very next week to get Edward to start his work for him, but he didn’t go through with what he told them. Fish sent a message apologizing to the family and set a new date to start with Edward. After showing up on the new date, he then told them that he had a birthday party to go to for a kid that he knows. After telling them about this party, he then proceeded to ask them if their oldest daughter of ten years, Grace could go with him. Grace Budd went to the birthday party with “Mr. Howard,” Fish and was never seen again.

Trial, Conviction, and Execution of Albert Fish

Nobody knew what had happened to Grace, and the investigation of the case went on for a total of six years until they even had a break in the case. Grace’s mother, Mrs. Budd, received a letter in 1934 on November 11 from an anonymous person that told her where her daughter had been taken and what had happened to her. The police tracked the letter that Mrs. Budd received all the way back to where Albert Fish lived and he was arrested. After being arrested, Fish admitted to murdering Grace Budd and other children. While in court, confessing to all of his crimes that he had committed, he was smiling the whole time. (Montaldo, 1) Fish’s trial began on March 11, 1935, and during his trial, he tried to plead not guilty by the reasoning on insanity. But the jury declared him sane and guilty in conclusion to a 10-day trial. His punishment was not to be thrown in prison, but to be killed by electrocution. Fish was electrocuted on January 16, 1936, at the Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York.

Conclusion: Albert Fish’s Legacy as a Notorious Serial Killer

While researching Albert Fish I came to the conclusion that he is one of the worst serial killers there was. He had many nicknames from other people. He was known as “the Boogeyman, the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, and the Moon Maniac.” Serial killers always have their own ways of doing their crimes. Albert Fish had his own way of doing things. He would lure his victims in by acting like this kind and trustworthy old man. He would pick out a victim and then talk to them, and eventually abduct them. After abducting then he would then beat them brutally, then rape them, then he would murder his victims, and as if that was not enough he would then eat them. Fish and his whole family were all insane and had various mental illnesses. It was not only his immediate family that had mental illnesses. He grew into a serial killer and his ways because of how he grew up and his family history. His childhood was gruesome and he did not have a role model to look up to whatsoever. Since he was always getting beatings at such a young age and began to take pleasure in the pain that they would give him, he would give out beatings to his victims too because he believed that they would feel the same way. He was so messed up in the head that he had “sexual fantasies” about little, innocent children and he would eventually act upon those fantasies that he would have. Every time that he would act upon one fantasy he would have another one that would be even worse than the one before. Albert Fish was not a good person at all and whenever he finally got caught after being a serial killer for a total of eight years, he got what he deserved. He was punished by getting killed by the electric chair, but that does not do justice for all of the acts of crime that he committed and all the terrible things that he did to little children.

Works Cited

1. Montaldo, Charles. “Biography of Albert Fish, Notorious Child Serial Killer.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 17 Oct. 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/serial-killer-albert-fish-973157.
2. Blanco, Juan Ignacio. “Albert Fish: Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers.” Albert Fish | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers, https://murderpedia.org/male.F/f/fish-albert.htm.
3. “Albert Fish.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Dec. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish.
4. Herrera, Lisa, et al. “Everything You Need To Know About Albert Fish.” Serial Killer Shop, 18 Mar. 2019, https://serialkillershop.com/blogs/true-crime/albert-fish.

Gary Ridgway – A Serial Killer

Introduction to Gary Ridgway: The Serial Killer Profile

A serial killer is often thought of as someone “who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern.” “Serial killers tend to be white, heterosexual males in their twenties or thirties who are sexually dysfunctional and have low self-esteem.” The requirement to be considered a serial killer is to have killed more than one person. Taking one’s life is a huge crime as each one makes a large difference in the world. Gary Ridgway claimed to have taken 70-80 lives, although only 49 of these have been confirmed and sentenced.

Childhood and Early Signs of Violence

People’s lives are always influenced by the environment of their childhood. Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a hard time in school growing up due to having dyslexia and an IQ in the low eighties. At 11 years old he moved to Washington. This could have affected his personality, leading to when his friends and family stated he was “quiet and forgettable.” He peed in his bed until age 13 and afterward his mom would wash his personal area by hand, which aroused him, causing him to have sexual and violent fantasies about her. This was a precursor to his killings and sex crave. Gary Ridgway grew up as the middle child of three kids and his parents often had violent arguments. At age 16, Ridgway took a six-year-old boy into the woods and stabbed him through the ribs and into the liver. The boy survived and said that Ridgway walked away laughing and saying, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.” This could have been his way of releasing his violent fantasies about his mother, or it could have been symbolic for him defending his mom against his dad in one of their fights.

Ridgway’s Marriages and Disturbing Behaviors

As Ridgway grew older, he finished high school and married his girlfriend when he was 21. He then joined the Navy and got sent off to Vietnam. While there, he started sleeping with prostitutes and contracted gonorrhea. This did not bother him, and he continued to have unprotected sex with prostitutes. His first marriage ended because both of the partners slept with other people, and it ended within its first year. Ridgway’s second marriage was when he was very religious. He would cry at sermons and read the Bible out loud wherever he was, however, he continued to sleep with prostitutes. He would also make his wife have sex with him in public and inappropriate places, such as the woods where his murder victims were later found. They had a child, Matthew, together in 1975. She claimed that he had placed her in a chokehold, after all of the strange things that happened during this marriage, it ended in divorce because both partners cheated. He married his third wife in 1988 after he was already a suspect in the killings. Gary Ridgway had sex several times a day in every relationship, in public or the woods. He had a love/hate relationship with sex workers because he hated them being in the neighborhood but he called on them for sex a lot. He painted trucks for 30 years although he later stated that murdering young women was his career.

The Psychological Profile: Suspected Disorders

Society typically deems serial killers as mentally ill people to try to somewhat justify or try to understand what and why they did what they did. Although Ridgway was never officially diagnosed, many specialists have observed him and suspect that he has Antisocial Personality Disorder, psychopathic personality traits, and atypical paraphilia, meaning he has high gratuitous and sadistic violence. He has never been officially diagnosed, meaning that it is unknown, but unlikely, that he has received treatment for it. This may make it easier for some to comprehend why he felt the need to do what he did.

Methodology of Murder: The Green River Killer

“Beginning in 1982, young runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from Washington State Route 99 in South King County, Washington.” Ridgway picked up women and would attempt to gain their trust by showing them an image of his son. He would have sex with her and then strangle her from behind, this often occurred in his house, truck, or a secluded area. He would strangle her with his hands and any wounds he had from the girls would be covered up by excuses about work, etc. Sometimes he would have to switch to using ligatures. He would then leave them in a woodsy and remote area and would return later to have sex with the corpse until it began to rot. He explained later that he did not find necrophilia sexually satisfying but this merely decreased his need to have sex with someone living, therefore reducing the risk of him being caught. The first few bodies turned up along the Green River, leaving the media to deem him the “Green River Killer.”

Capture and Conviction: The End of Ridgway’s Reign of Terror

Ridgway was arrested on November 30, 2001, for four murders of women whose cases were linked to him through DNA evidence. The first officer on the case decided to re-examine evidence using new DNA technology, and after the match was confirmed between Ridgway’s saliva collected in 1987, and evidence off of the victims, he was charged with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder. He had a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty if he agreed to share the locations of missing women, but Ridgway continued to have life imprisonment without the chance of parole. He eventually pleaded guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder between the confirmed years of 1982-1998 but potentially until 2001. Ridgway confessed to 70-80 murders along Route 99 in South King County, Washington, but pleaded guilty to 48, he stated that at some point he had killed so many that he lost count. Most of the murders occurred between 1982 and 1984 coming to 42 murders over 3 years, the majority of which were prostitutes or runaways and left naked.

Ridgway was first brought in for questioning in 1983 because one of the victims was seen in a truck that looked like his before she was discovered, but was cleared when he passed a polygraph test in 1984. Police collected hair and saliva samples in 1987 from Ridgway, and semen, saliva, and spray paint off of the victims. The DNA test was a match and the spray paint composition matched Ridgway’s special spray paint from his job. He was also arrested in 1982 and 2001 in relation to prostitution. While being interviewed, Ted Bundy suggested that Ridgway could be revisiting the bodies for sex, which turned out to be true, and if they found a fresh grave they should stake it out and expect him to come back.

Congressman Dave Reichert was assigned to the first Green River Killer’s murder. When he showed up to the site, he was only 45 minutes behind Ridgway, however, it took them 19 more years to be able to catch him. Ridgway was apologetic and cried but was just found to be filled with arrogance and hatred, therefore, able to withstand trial. He was eventually convicted and had 48 life sentences without the possibility of parole with one consecutive life sentence added in 2011. Along with the murders, he tampered with evidence for 48 murders, adding 10 years each for a total of 480 years onto the pre-existing 49 life sentences. Ridgway is now 70 years old, in USP Florence in Colorado. He will no doubt be spending the rest of his life in jail.

Reflections on Ridgway’s Personality and Impact

In conclusion, Gary Leon Ridgway had a low IQ but somehow managed to outsmart the police for 20 years and 70-80 murders. He moved a few of the bodies to Oregon to try to confuse officials. Ridgway was the classic serial killer type, he was in his early thirties when he started killing, he had a violent and embarrassing childhood, and he was sexually driven. He is a white, heterosexual male and was described as being quiet. Being quiet can sometimes be perceived as having low self-esteem, which is another classic serial killer characteristic. The ages of the victims ranged from 13-38, however, most of the victims were in their early twenties.

Ridgway did turn out to be apologetic and sorry for what he had done but he kept going for 20 years. This shows that not all serial killers are stone cold and have no emotion, however, this was planned out over the years and not one impulsive time. The fact that he killed young women could have been him projecting his feelings about his mother toward others that he did not feel emotionally attached to.

Ridgway was not solely focused on murdering women. Although he did consider it to be his true career, he loved his child and third wife. He would show women a picture of his son to try to gain their trust but part of him must have thought it was a good idea because he was proud of his son. He knew in his heart that they would love his son, just as he does. He had murdered a lot of people but while he was married to his third wife, he only killed 3 people. Ridgway was married to her for 17 years and she never saw any signs that would show her he was not authentic. This shows how scary the world can be. We could be in classes with these people or even married to them for years, and never know that they are not who they say they are.

References

1. Gangitano, Alex. “Reichert on the Police and the Green River Killer Case.” Roll Call, 13 Dec. 2019, www.rollcall.com/news/dave-reichert-police-tough-green-river-killer-case-serial-killers-ted-bundy-gary-ridgway-congress.
2. “Gary Ridgway.” Crime Museum, www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/gary-ridgway/.
3. Goad, Jim, and Jim. “Gary Ridgway: The Gruesome Story Of The Green River Killer.” Thought Catalog, 10 Oct. 2018, thoughtcatalog.com/jim-goad/2018/05/gary-ridgway-the-green-river-killer/.
4. Harden, Blaine. “The Banality of Gary: A Green River Chiller.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 Nov. 2003, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/11/16/the-banality-of-gary-a-green-river-chiller/2d9575c7-6843-4ec3-9517-72cd3ecdd9b0/.
5. Kamb, Lewis. “Reichert Touts Law Record, but Critics Don’t See It His Way.” Seattlepi.com, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1 Apr. 2011, www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Reichert-touts-law-record-but-critics-don-t-see-1216577.php.
6. “November 30, 2001: Green River Killer Caught!” History and Headlines, 30 Nov. 2013, www.historyandheadlines.com/november-30-2001-green-river-killer-caught/.
7. O’Sullivan, Joseph. “State Changes Story on Why Green River Killer Gary Ridgway Was Moved.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 21 Nov. 2015, www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/state-corrections-chief-changes-story-on-why-killer-ridgway-moved/.
8. “Police Identify Remains, Look for Link to ‘Green River Killer’.” CNN, Cable News Network, 16 Dec. 2009, www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/16/green.river.killer/index.html.
9. Pulkkinen, Levi. “Green River Killer Gary Ridgway: Photos from the Archives.” Seattlepi.com, 4 Nov. 2013, www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/slideshow/Green-River-Killer-Gary-Ridgway-Photos-from-the-73393/photo-5414982.php.
10. “Serial Killer: Meaning of Serial Killer by Lexico.” Lexico Dictionaries | English, Lexico Dictionaries, www.lexico.com/definition/serial_killer.
11. staff, Seattle Times. “Green River Killer Back at Walla Walla Prison.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 24 Oct. 2015, www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/green-river-killer-back-at-walla-walla-prison/.
12. Tikkanen, Amy. “Gary Ridgway.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 14 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Gary-Ridgway.

The Peculiarities Of Marcel Petiot As A Serial Killer

Introduction to Marcel Petiot: France’s Infamous Doctor of Death

Serial killers have been around for thousands of years, as far back as ancient Rome. However, Herman Webster Mudgett, also known as H.H. Holmes, was believed to have been early America’s first serial killer. This event dates all the way back to 1861-1896. The definition of a serial killer according to the FBI is someone who commits at least 3 murders for over a month and has “cooling off” periods where they do not murder anyone in between. It is thought that most serial killers have a sexual motive when choosing their victims such as Gary Ridgway, Ted Bundy, and Jefferey Dahmer. However, some killers are driven for other reasons, for example, revenge, trauma, or mental illness. Sexual reasoning behind some serial killers murders only mostly describes male killers, while female serial killers mostly have this twisted type of love or caring. Although their motives have remained the same, the way they have killed has changed to various types of ways. From a hammer to guns, killing for “fun” has always been around. Serial killers have been psychologically proven to start showing signs at a young age, as young as 5. From hurting animals to tearing apart dolls, this fantasy of killing and having control will stay with them. This fantasy gets more and more violent as they get older. They start to want more than just a fantasy, they want it to be a reality. Catching these killers has luckily become easier as we grow our technological advancements. We now use DNA samples, crime scene investigators, fingerprinting, and more. We also now have the internet, which can be used to pick targets nowadays. While serial killers are rare and are less than one percent of all murders in a year, they are real and very dangerous. As serial killers don’t change their targets, which is most of the time people that our society looks down among, and serial killers can be hard to stop if they don’t stop themselves. One notorious serial killer thought to have killed over 60 jews, Marcel Petiot, the French doctor killer.

Early Life and Signs of Psychopathy

Marcel Petiot was born in France on January 17, 1897. His parents were Felix and Marthe Petiot and his sibling was Maurice Petiot. He could be considered a rebel as he was expelled from multiple schools in France before graduating at a special academy at the age of 18. Some examples contain him as an eleven-year-old bringing his dad’s gun to school and trying to shoot it, as well as asking a girl to have sex with him. As a teenager, he robbed a post box and was charged with theft and damage to property. However, after a psychological evaluation, he was considered to have mental illness and the charges were dropped. After graduating he was drafted into the French army during World War One but was then injured on the front in 1917. He was once again proclaimed to be mentally ill and was sent for treatment. He then was caught stealing army blankets, morphine, and other army supplies and was once again charged for theft, he was then sent to a jail in Orleans. But the charges were again dropped because of his mental illness, which doctors described as “mental disequilibrium, neurasthenia, mental depression, melancholia, obsessions, and phobias.” He was then sent to a psychiatric ward for treatment for his illness. However, his diagnosis for this mental illness was not enough to keep him out of the war, as he was sent to the front again the following year, 1918. This time though he did more than steal blankets, he shot himself in the foot, earning himself yet another psychiatric evaluation. This time he was finally discharged from the army and even got a recommendation to go to an asylum. However, he went to an accelerated education program made for veterans, this is where he completed medical school and began his path to becoming a physician. He had joined a mental hospital in Evreux as an intern. After earning his medical degree he then moved to the small town, Villeneuve-sur-Yonne in 1921. Here is where he would murder and trick what is believed to be 60 jews. He earned money not only from his patients but also from the government for his services as a physician. He became a corrupt doctor as he would prescribe addictive medication that wouldn’t even help his patients. He got addicted to narcotics, consuming an illegal amount, and also got back into thievery. He became famous for this throughout the town. This is believed to have been when he had his first victim, Louise Delaveau, a patient’s daughter Petiot had an affair in 1926. When people realized she had been missing for a while, they grew suspicious of Petiot. The cops searched Petiot’s house and car, which supposedly some saw him putting something large in his trunk. But eventually gave up and said she had just run away. However, this same year he ran for mayor. He hired someone to disrupt his opponent’s speech. While in office he had spent all of the town’s funds. In 1927 he got married to Georgette Lablais and then had a son the following year. His thievery had not stopped and was accused of stealing taxpayer money as well as cans of oil and more. He was sentenced to three months in prison, but it was then overturned. He stayed in office even after four months of suspension and was accused more and more of thievery. Finally, in 1931 he was kicked from office, but about a month later was then on the general council for the Yonne district. Being Historically one of the youngest in that office. He was charged with the theft of electric power and was then fined and lost his seat on the council.

The Murderous Scheme: Preying on Jews During WWII

He then moved to Paris and sought to make a strong and successful medical practice. He accomplished this goal and made a reputation as an amazing doctor in Paris. But all broke loose when he stole and harassed a police officer. He was sent to a sanitarium but was again released although his doctor said not to. Throughout the next years, he added more and more to his criminal record and psychiatric list. This is when he set up a false escape line for jews and criminals which was set up in Paris. He told them that he would transport them to South American countries in exchange for 25,000 francs. He took on the name Dr. Eugène and had a few people that helped him with the crime. He would then tell the escapees that the Argentinian government required them to get a shot to not bring in outside diseases. However, that shot was full of cyanide which would kill the victims. Petiot would then take all of his victim’s belongings and money then burn, dump, or bury the bodies. His neighbor then reported a horrid smell coming from his practice chimney. When the police arrived they found ten bodies in his basement. However, they believed Petiot’s story about the bodies being those of traitors and Germans. As soon as they released him he hid at his friend’s house and took on the name ‘Henri Valeri’. He had also joined the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) and had gotten to captain. A story then came out about Petiot working with the Germans, he was then being searched for once again. They then put captain “Henri Valeri” on the search, shortly after he was recognized and arrested. Petiot’s attorney could only say he was a resistance fighter and Petiot claimed to not have known about the bodies buried in his yard. However, the judge and jury did not believe him and he was charged with twenty-seven murders but claimed to have killed over sixty. He went onto trial on March nineteenth, 1946, having 135 criminal charges and walked out in cuffs with the death penalty. He was destined to be killed by the guillotine and his last words before placing his head down into the guillotine were, “Gentlemen, I ask you not to look. This will not be very pretty.” On May 25, 1946, this killer doctor was stopped before anyone else could be hurt.

Conclusion: Petiot’s Legacy and the Psychology of a Serial Killer

When doing this research about Marcel Petiot I learned so much about serial killers and Petiot. Before this project, I had never heard of Marcel Petiot before and was quite curious to see who this famous serial killer was. When I learned that he has tricked Jews to get their money I was shocked. I have heard of someone murdering for money, but never of a serial killer murdering for money. You always hear serial killers murdering for sexual desires, or the feeling of control or they have some twisted brain that tells them it’s okay. But rarely do you hear them kill for only money. I was shocked that even after multiple diagnoses of mental illnesses, he was still sent out to the army and even was allowed to become a physician. I found it interesting to learn about how Petiot used a different name when he thought he was about to get caught. I would’ve thought he would’ve left Paris, but instead, he stayed and even became captain of the FFI, which was brave and insane of him to do. I wondered how they didn’t actually know how many people he killed, because when researching I never saw anything say that it was confirmed he killed 60 people or more. I learned that these jews would do anything at this point to escape the Germans, even pay a ridiculous amount of money and trust anyone to help them. What Petiot did made me very upset because he took advantage of these helpless families and killed them. I read where families of the victims were able to recognize their luggage and that was used as evidence against Petiot. I had also read that his wife helped him do it, I was never able to find out if she got arrested or was sent to death by guillotine. But I am sure that their son felt horrible because of what his parents did. I feel that Marcel Petiot was an interesting serial killer as his motives and techniques were different from others, and he is said to have killed the most people ever.

Citations

1. List of serial killers before 1900. (2020, January 3). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_before_1900.
2. Meghan, Reveron, S., Spyros, & Ackerman, D. (2019, October 24). Dr. Satan: The Unbelievable Story of Serial Killer Dr. Marcel Petiot. Retrieved from https://cvltnation.com/dr-satan-the-unbelievable-story-of-serial-killer-dr-marcel-petiot/.
3. PeoplePill. (n.d.). Marcel Petiot: French criminal (1897-1946) – Biography, Life, Family, Career, Facts, Information. Retrieved from https://peoplepill.com/people/marcel-petiot/.
4. Who was Marcel Petiot? Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/marcel-petiot-26238.php.
5. What Defines a Serial Killer? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201705/what-defines-serial-killer.
6. Barcella, L. (2018, August 31). How Serial Killers Have Evolved Throughout History. Retrieved from https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/history-of-serial-killers-evolution-of-killers-technology.
7. Serial Murder. (2010, May 21). Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder.
8. H.H. Holmes. (2019, April 13). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/hh-holmes.
9. Norman, A. (2018, October 19). Meet The Despicable Serial Killer Who Preyed On Jews Fleeing The Nazis. Retrieved from https://allthatsinteresting.com/marcel-petiot.

Serial Killer: Harold Shipman

Introduction

Harold Frederick Shipman, known by his friends as Fred or Freddy was the son of Vera and Harold Shipman and was born on January the 14th 1946 in the city of Nottingham, England in a middle class working family. Just an average man, a pillar for the community, such a nice man, those were some of the phrases that people would use to describe the friendly family doctor; however, this so-called friendly will later on in life get the nickname “Doctor Death”. Not knowing the reason why he became an angel of death it is a problem for the experts who try to analyze his behavior but this family doctor is thought to be the worst serial killer the world had so far.

Shipman had a strong bond with her mother since the beginning, he was obviously the favorite, this influence from her mother will prove to determine most of Shipman’s actions as I will discuss later. If his mom was the beginning of the problem, what activated, what cause the sweet Shipman to commit such a terrible act as taking someone’s life.

Body

What went wrong with young Shipman’s life for him to become a serial killer, well we have to look at possible traumas to determine this. As he grew up his mother pushed him hard in school, she worked hard to get him into a special school in which a few poor boys attended, Shipman also worked hard to please his mother and he passed the entrance exams. His mother instilled in him a sense of superiority over all the other kids and even over his brothers, this caused him to have a few if any friends at all. He was isolated during most of his childhood.

Usually, for most serial killers we can found trauma in their early days and if we look at Shipman’s life this would be the death of his mother when he was only seventeen years old. She fought lung cancer for years, Fred was a devoted son and wanted to take care of her but she refused, he ended up watching different doctors come constantly to relieve his mother pain using morphine, this will later become his modus operandi also known as the way he killed. He was delighted by the efficiency of the drug in decreasing her suffering, this was a critical point in his life since his interest in medicine started at this moment. After his mother’s death, he decided to become a doctor to help other people with their pain just as the doctors helped his mother.

He decided to attend Leeds School of Medicine and after getting out he served as an intern in many hospitals before starting to officially work as a physician in 1970, and even though he was a loner for most of his life he met and married his wife Primrose Oxtoby when he was 19 and she was 17 and pregnant. In 1974 he had two children and entered medical practice in Todmorden, Yorkshire where he would become addicted to the opioid known as Pethidine, he would forge prescriptions for large amounts of the painkiller but he ended up being caught and he had to leave the facility. After the event, he joined a rehabilitation program and had to pay a fine for forgery.

After the incident, Shipman decided it was time to get a new job so he started working at Donnybrook Medical Centre located in Hyde in where he decided to work hard to gain the trust of his co-workers. He would stay at the institution for almost 20 years, patients love him for his good way of treating them, and by now he was one of the most recognized doctors in the place, it seemed as if Shipmans was living the perfect life.

It is hard to determine when the sweet “Doctor Death” started killing his patients since he was always hiding behind his job, but the truth is that Shipman went for a long time killing his patients without anyone noticing, It was not until a local undertaker started noticing that Dr. Shimans patients were dying at a higher rate, in fact, Dr.Shipman’s rate was ten times higher than the other doctors, also all the bodies had the same circumstances, for example, the posture of the body was the same for most of the cases, the victims were fully clothed in a sitting/ reclining position. He approached Shipman about the problem but he reassured his colleague that there was nothing to worry about and that everything was fine. Later on, another of Shipman’s co-worker would also find the similarities in all the deaths, the police were finally alerted about a possible serial killer in the town. An investigation finally started but there was only one problem, Shipman was all clear, all his records were in order, they fail in checking criminal records, these mistakes would give free to Shipman for a while since without evidence of wrongdoing the doctor seemed innocent.

Shipman went for 2 straight decades killing without leaving any evidence that could relate him to the crime scene but he made a crucial mistake at one point, he let his ambition take over his actions. He decided to kill a wealthy patient named Kathleen Grundy and forge her will so he got all the money. On June 24, 1998, Kathleen was found dead at her residence after a few hours of Shipman’s visit, he told the daughter that an autopsy was not necessary and Kathleen was buried. Kathleen’s daughter was a lawyer who managed all of her mother’s documents and she knew all the heritance was going to her; however, she was really surprised when she found out there was a second will in which her mother left all her money to Mr. Shipman himself, this convenience her that the second will was a forgery made by the doctor and that he killed her mother to get the money. She alerted the authorities and the body was exhumed in order to realize an autopsy which finally revealed that she had died from a morphine overdose administrated within the last 3 hours which match the time Dr. Shipman visited her.

After finding the truth about the death of Katheleen Grundy the police charged at Shipman by looking at his house for medical records, they found the typewriter in which the fake will was forged. The police knew that this would extend to more than one death, they look at other cases in which the victim received medical attention from Shipman himself. After the exhumation of several bodies, Shipman was charged with 15 murderers on September 7, 1998. When his trial started he faced three different types of crimes, the one with physical evidence, the ones without and the forgery case which got him caught.

At the end of the trial, Shipman was sentenced with fifteen life sentences and another four-year sentence for forgery, he would spend the rest of his life in prison. The investigations kept going while he was in jail, they were trying to determine how many the nice doctor killed. They ended up finding Shipman hanged in his jail cell on January 13, 2004, at about 6 am, he used his bedsheets tied to the window to take his own life and end the suffering, one of the worlds most sinister killer was finally dead.

Conclusion

Shipman took advantage of his status as a friendly family doctor to commit murder, his final number of victims is still being disputed to this day but the approximate number is around the 200’s which would make him one of the most destructive serial killers the world has ever seen. Today we really don’t know the exact reason why Shipman started to kill, what started his desire to kill; however, some experts said he enjoyed the feeling of being god, having power over someone’s life gave him the motivation to keep his killing streak, it was obvious that the sense of superiority that her mother put in his mind stayed with him as he grew up.

Shipman went through two decades without getting caught killing hundreds of people, in an occasion, he killed six people in the same neighborhood and in another he killed eight of his female victims in the space of one month. He could have easily gone away with all those murderers and maybe even commit more but his ambition ended up getting caught, he saw an opportunity to get a considerable amount of money from the wealthy patient; however, this desire for money was the cause he was brought to justice.

Works Cited

1. “Harold Shipman.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 June 2019, www.biography.com/crime-figure/harold-shipman.
2. “If You Can’t Trust Your Own Doctor, Who Can You Trust?” Bizarrepedia RSS, www.bizarrepedia.com/harold-shipman/.
3. Jenkins, John Philip. “Harold Shipman.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-Shipman.