Category: Serial Killer

What makes a serial killer? What drives them towards sadistic murder? What are the roots of their cold-blooded brutality? Is it a result of an abusive childhood or were they born with it? This has been a question for hundreds of years. Is a Killer Born or made? Serial killers may appear to be just your average joe, maybe even your next-door neighbor, but they are actually far from it. What all serial killers have in common is a ravenous thirst for murder without remorse. Some of the most infamous serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy; Binding, Torturing, and Killing is their number one motivation. They get gratification from it, a need for control, and a need for dominance.

When the question “ What makes a serial killer?” comes up in our heads the first answer we come up with is “they were just born like that”, but really that is not the case. Research shows serial killers dealt with significant abuse as children spanning from psychological, physical, and even sexual abuse which points to a serial killer being made not born (Mullany, 2018). Why a person is evil is a combination of things and there are many reasons why a person can end up being evil. A study by the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (Brogaard, 2012) shows that psychopathy is 60 % heritable which shows that being a psychopath is more likely to do with DNA than upbringing (IBID, 2012). Another study by the University conducted brain scans that revealed that psychopaths had decreased connectivity between the amygdala and the Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). When the connection between the amygdala and the vmPFC is low, negative emotions aren’t felt which makes sense because serial murderers show no remorse when they kill and if caught they share no guilt (IBID, 2012).

In the 1960s Forensic psychologist, J.M MacDonald came up with the “ MacDonald Triangle” A.K.The “triad of homicidal personality which familiarized three behavioral red flags that serial killers often suffered as children bed wetter, firesetter, and animal abuser/killer. The triangle often applied to most serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy ( Katsavdakis in Serio, 2018). Unfortunately, the research became outdated as research moved on and the population started assuming that everyone that fell into the triad was a homicidal maniac. Unsurprisingly, no one really knows the answer to the famous question “Born or Made? The most reasonable explanation is that the majority of serial killers are genetically born with some sort of “murderous” gene and then are raised in an environment that is toxic and cultivated hate towards a specific group of people.

Ted Bundy; one of the most infamous serial killers, had a healthy childhood but, had a strained relationship with his stepfather and was frequently bullied at school. During his teenage years, he recalled walking down the street looking for any type of pornography or any open windows to peek inside. He was also very antisocial and had a very lengthy criminal record. Bundy eventually turned his life around and graduated from college seeking law but quickly and ironically killed his first victim in 1974 as well as 28 other young women from 1974-1978. Now those 28 victims are the only ones accounted for but it’s estimated that he is responsible for hundreds of young, innocent lives ( Jenkins, 2019). I believe in this situation his environment affected him negatively and lead him to kill.

As well as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer had a similar situation; normal childhood, but as he got older he became “withdrawn and uncommunicative” and began to close himself off from the world and turned to examine dead animals bodies and heavy drinking (Crime Museum, 2017). During the summer of 1978, his parents were in the middle of a divorce and Jeffrey was all alone, he manifested those dark thoughts into the real world and committed his first murder when he was just eighteen ( I.B.I.D, 2017). Whenever Dahmer was killed he drugged, raped, dismembered, and ate his victims. Experts believe he did so in order to remember the experience as much as possible and he wanted his victims in such a powerless state so they could never leave. Eventually, his fantasies became something surreal, at one point he tried to pour muriatic acid in a hole he made in the victim’s head to create a zombie- someone who would never leave him and do as he pleases ( Eloise, 2017). I believe Jeffrey was born with the serial killer trait because he became very distant as he got older, which is weird since he did have a normal childhood but I think something triggered his actions; the trigger which should be his parent’s divorce led him to become an alcoholic and become closed off which lead to those “dark thoughts” being developed and making his fantasies a reality by murdering 17 males.

Another example of a prolific serial killer is John Wayne Gacy. Gacy was abused as a child by a family friend, he grew up in a house with a very strict, totalitarian father. Gacy seems to have wanted to demonstrate to his father that he was worthy

Sexual sadistic offenders tend to exhibit more arousal behavior to control and dominate their victims. Dr. Kostas Katsavdakis ( Serio, 2018) explains that what is most arousing to them isn’t the pain they inflict it’s in fact that they can engage in such violent acts ( Katsavdakis in Serio, 2018). Neuroimaging studies looking at the difference between a normal brain and a psychopaths brain shows that an impulse killer; someone who beat someone up till death has a lot less function in the prefrontal cortex- which controls behavior but, a serial killer actually has a high functioning prefrontal cortex but has a low functioning amygdala which is shrunken by 18 % ( Serio, 2018).

There are 6 phases of a serial killer, the first of the “Aura phase” which starts off as the killer begins to fantasize so much on an idea playing out in their head that they lose grip on what’s real. As they become more and more closed off they become antisocial as the fantasies become violent then he turns to drugs and/or alcohol drawn from a childhood experience. The killer eventually gets to a point where he needs to act out said fantasies and he enters into- The trolling phase, where the killer searches for a victim; someone that specifically matches the very well dreamt up fantasy. During this phase, they will start looking for different locations to find their victim as well as a place to kill the victim and to hold them, hostage, if needed. After that phase the murderer moves into- The wooing phase, where the victim is finally captured and once he has said victim he moves into- The capture phase where the victim is entrapped. Now that he has passed the wooing and capturing the killer reveals who he is and potentially kills, locks up the victim, or makes them unconscious (Inside the Criminal Mind, 2018). Most serial murderers will stay with the body after death and usually may engage in sexual acts with the body after death; necrophilia (Katsavdakis in Serio, 2018). After the victim is killed the offender steps into- The totem phase which basically is that the killer gathers mementos from the victims sometimes even body parts in order to hang on to the feeling of empowerment he had to hold off ( Inside the Criminal Mind, 2018).

Serial murders are the most common form of multiple murder in the United States. It is characterized by the killing of three or more people over a period of days, week, or even years in between them. Research shows that the increase in the amount of serial murders, that has occurred in the second half of the 20th century, was a trend that was destined to continue. Over the years, murders have increased by 300%. This behavior was linked to lots of different issues. Serial Murders in the 2000’s were more centered around men rather than women. Men killed an average of 260 people and women only killed an average of 35 people. Although serial killers are typically stereotyped as men coming from bad backgrounds, Kristen Gilbert proves this claim wrong due to her family upbringing and her previous life before her killings.

When people think about a serial killer, or even just a killer in general, most people tend to focus more towards the men rather than women. According to Katie Bohn, “[..] these behaviors are reminiscent of sex-specific behaviors or assignments in the ancestral environment” this means that the evolution of family has more of an effect on how people will be brought up into the world. It also says that sex can also make an impact on what a person does. This does not mean that one person is born to commit crimes, but it shows more statistics on how a person’s ancestors can affect them. In the article, it also states that, “Male serial killers tend to ‘hunt’ their victims, who are often strangers to them.” and “ Female serial killers tend to ‘gather’ their victims- targeting people around them who they may already know, often for financial gain”(Bohn). This quote proves that men that kill are more likely to do it randomly and women are more likely to know who they want to kill and have a reason for their killings. This is different from the Kristen Gilbert situation because she killed random people in the hospital she worked at. She had no incentive or reward for taking part in these actions.

Kristen Gilbert grew up in Massachusetts in a small family with just one sister. She grew up in a well taken care of home with both a mom and a dad. For the most part, she was a normal kid and was well liked by everyone. She worked very hard at school and “was even member in the math club” (Milne). Her mother and father talked very highly of her and loved their children. As she got older and began dating, she had a few boyfriends who said she was manipulative and lied about stuff to them. After her pre-teen years, she started becoming a little different and had suicide threats and claims were said she had tried to eat glass to kill herself. Due to these actions, she got sent to a psychiatric ward to get some help.

Shortly after she came back and went to get her nursing degree at Greenfield Community College. She landed a job at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts. Montaldo states, “Her superiors rated her nursing as ‘highly skillful;’ and noted how well she reacted during medical emergencies. She also would put on gift exchanges at work for disadvantaged families. Nobody around her noticed anything strange and all saw her as a ray of sunshine at work. She then married Glen Gilbert and they had two children.

After she had her first child and returned from maternity leave, she soon switched her shift to the four p.m. to midnight shift. Almost immediately after her change in schedule, strange things began happening. She met an officer that worked at the hospital and according to Milne, “Gilbert began an extramarital affair with a hospital security guard, James G. Perrault, an Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War.” This officer was on duty for most if not all of the killings that she committed and soon nicknamed her “The Angel of Death” which is ironic. This is ironic because Bohn states, “ Women were more likely to be given nicknames that denote their gender- like Jolly Jane or Tiger Women” This nickname that the officer gave her was because of how pretty she was and how she was always somehow around for all the murders that kept happening in the hospital. According to Document shows Past of VA Nurse, “authorities have charged her with the killings of 3 patients at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital and trying to kill two others.” The incentive they showed behind these murders were to try and impress her new boyfriend Perrault. She used epinephrine which is a drug used to overstimulate the heart and call in Perrault after injecting it and watch as the patients struggled for their lives and play “footsie” with him until they died. After one killing, more and more kept happening and “it was later estimate that she was on duty during half of her 350 deaths in a seven- year span, and the odds of that being an accident are one in 100 million”

Meanwhile after these killings kept happening, her marriage was soon dissolved and according to Milne, “she began to prepare home-cooked meals allegedly laced with a drug to increase her husband’s frequency of peeing.” Her husband told prosecutors that his wife was trying to get him dead and out of the house by the time Thanksgiving came. Soon he got sick and was taken into emergency care by his wife and “she tried to kill him at a different hospital by filling a syringe with a clear liquid and telling him it was saline, but it wasn’t and as soon as it was injected his arm grew cold.” He survived this incident and was soon released from the hospital. By this time their marriage was fully over with and she had left him and her two children for Perrault. The next patient, Stanley J. Jagodowski, was “admitted to the hospital for postoperative bowel obstructions and only required oral medication, but a nurse saw Gilbert enter his room with a syringe and heard the patient crying in pain as she left the room.” He was later found dead after going into cardiac arrest. She was also said to have killed a man who was in intensive care just so she could leave early for a date with Perrault. A man who heard all of the gossip around the hospital refused her treatment after falling ill but was also later injected and found dead. She later quit her job and “was institutionalized for a suicide attempt to the psychiatric ward and called Perrault and declared to him that she was the one who had been killing all of these innocent people by injection.” Perrault called in authorities and told them everything that had happened, and she was put on trial.

She was first put on trial in October 2000 in Springfield, Massachusetts for murder and attempted murder. Typically, if someone committed all of these murders, they would diffidently be on death penalty. But for Kristen Gilbert, this was not the case. According to Goldberg, “Massachusetts is one of the 12 states without the death penalty, but in a rare jurisdictional twist, Ms. Gilbert’s is a capital case nonetheless, the first since the states death penalty was overturned in 1984.” So, with that being said the jury was indeed seeking the death penalty, and if they were to succeed then she would be the first women executed by the government since 1953. This made it very hard for the jury because they had just turned over the death penalty and she was a very rare case of capital murder and hadn’t been quite proven that she had actually committed these crimes. They then started using science to depict what she was injecting into her patients that was killing them and said that this case was “largely going to come down to a battle of scientific experts.” The case took an unexpected turn in January after the government admitted that the results of the tests from a toxicology laboratory, which had analyzed the amounts of epinephrine in the alleged victims were in error. This means that they couldn’t base the entire case off what they found in the labs, because it didn’t show the high levels that were injected into the hearts and so now they needed witnesses and families to come forward with testimony’s on what they knew happened in order to help the trial go smoothly.

This case was going to be a marathon and not a sprint. It was also going to consist of lots and lots of witnesses getting called to the stand to give them more and more information on Kristen Gilbert and what her punishment will be. One testimony was a nurse that Gilbert had worked with and she said “one day she had counted the 3 containers filled with epinephrine in the cabinet around 4 p.m. and about an hour later after an emergency call involving Gilbert she counted them again and found nothing but 3 containers in the needle disposable bucket.” More and more nurses started coming forward after Ms. Rix gave her testimony to say how they started noticing suspicions things during the killings while they were on the job with Gilbert. Most of the testimony’s came from technical issues, but some came from relatives of the veterans she had killed and the loved ones of those who had also been killed. Her boyfriend, Perrault, and Ex- Husband were also called to the stand and they both confessed a similar story that she had told both of them on two different occasions. She had confessed to the murders that happened.

The judge had told the jury to not limit themselves to only 1st degree murder, but to 2nd degree murder as well which meant life in prison, but not the death penalty. “so, after 83 hours of deliberation during the 12 days, the jury had returned to the court and had their verdict ready to present. According to Kristen Gilbert Trial, “on March 14th Gilbert was guilty of first-degree murder in three cases, and second-degree murder in the other; she was also found guilty of assault with intent to kill in two of the three other cases.” With all that being said the jury could not come to a consensus of her punishment and would return in a week to determine what she would get. “On March 26th they announced that they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision and required for the death penalty, so the judge then sentenced her to 3 consecutive terms for life imprisonment with no chance of parole. One quote that stood out while researching said, “women are rarely sentenced to death in the United States and executions of women are even rarer. Researchers have suggested that women who are sentenced to death are often perceived as breaking gender norms” (Death Penalty Information Center). This quote says a lot about society today because as mentioned earlier, men are usually seen as the bad guys in society and are the ones getting caught up in the horrendous crimes that are committed. When a woman commits those crimes, society tends to brush them under the rug and not give them much attention. Women with families that are committing these crimes are often more humanized because they have children and husbands and people just don’t see women doing those things and when it happens everyone is in shock.

During the 2000’s most women weren’t committing crimes involving murder. Typically, men were responsible for this type of crime. Although research has shown that men are more likely to hunt and kill their victims, Kristen Gilbert proves that a woman is just as capable of killing someone as a man is. Kristen Gilbert had a normal childhood and was an average American. Nothing serious in her pervious life lead people to think she would be a murderer. Everyone thought she was normal. Her case shows that even if people grow up in a normal family and have a normal lifestyle, they still can commit murder.

For my paper, I chose to examine the case of Johann “Jack” Unterweger, a convicted serial killer who for a short time gained worldwide notoriety for his crimes but now is barely remembered except by those who were alive during his exploits. Unlike his more famous brethren such as Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, or John Wayne Gacy, Unterweger is no longer a household name, but at one time he was known in Europe and the United States as the former murderer who was rehabilitated to a life of literature and reporting. Only later did the truth emerge that Unterweger had never given up his murderous urges and was in fact continuing to kill while using his supposed rehabilitation as a cover to gain access to potential victims.

I chose Unterweger precisely because he was no longer a “famous” serial killer and because I thought it was fascinating that he was able to fool so many educated people into thinking that he should be released from prison early after his first murder conviction. Many serial killers are often suspected of murder before they are finally apprehended and brought to justice, but it is rare for a serial killer to be caught and convicted after just his first murder only to be released from prison to resume killing again. As the saying goes, “Hindsight is 20/20,” but it seems remarkable to me that the warning signs that seemed to be present in Unterweger’s background were not enough for officials to think he was likely to kill again if released from prison after his first murder. Perhaps the lessons learned from the mishandling of the Unterweger case will help prevent future cases from having such catastrophic results. What also seems remarkable is that Unterweger was apparently somehow able to keep his murderous and sexually deviant urges in check while in prison for fifteen years unless he was released and able to kill again.

Born in 1951 in Austria, Johann “Jack” Unterweger was the son of Theresia Unterweger, a waitress from Vienna, Austria, and an unknown American serviceman she met in Italy who did not stick around to be a part of his son’s life. It was rumored that she was also a prostitute in her spare time. Unterweger’s mother later abandoned him as well, forcing him to move in with his alcoholic grandfather. His grandfather used him to help commit various crimes around Carinthia, Austria, and eventually Unterweger started to branch out to commit crimes of his own. At age sixteen, he was arrested for assaulting a prostitute, and some say this act was caused by his resentment of his own mother.

Unterweger had a few incidents that could be seen as precursors to the murders he later committed. Because his crimes started so early in life, Unterweger not only failed to attend college, but he also didn’t finish high school. Throughout his late teens and early adult years, Unterweger was charged and convicted of several counts of theft and buglary, as well as pimping and sexual assault. At the young age of twenty-six, Unterweger was convicted of first-degree murder after killing a young German woman named Margaret Shaefer by strangling her with her own bra and was sentenced to life in prison. Little did the Austrian police know that this would be his modus operandi for future crimes. While serving time in prison, Unterweger learned to read and write. He began writing poems, plays, and short stories, and he even wrote an autobiography titled Purgatory or The Trip to Prison – Report of a Guilty Man. This book became a best-seller and earned him a great deal of respect from many figures in the literary world. The book was even integral in a campaign to gain Unterweger an early release from prison, and in 1990, that release was granted even though Unterweger had only served fifteen years of his sentence.

After being released, Unterweger was a literary celebrity in Austria and throughout much of Europe. Unterweger appeared on many television and radio shows doing interviews, and he eventually hosted his own show on national television. Unterweger’s autobiography was taught in schools, and the stories he had written for children were performed on the radio. He even worked as a reporter for a public broadcaster, and it was later revealed that he even reported on some of the murders he would later be convicted of committing.

Unterweger’s celebrity status gave his greater access to victims, and he abused his position as a reporter to restart his killing spree. While masquerading as a “reporter,” he murdered seven prostitutes in Austria, one in Czechoslovakia, and three more in the United States, where he had been sent to report on the difference between European and American views on prostitution. All the women had been strangled to death with their own bras, the same method Unterweger had used in his first murder. Many of the murders occurred during the first year after Unterweger was released from prison. By the time Austrian officials began to connect him to the murders there, Unterweger had already fled to Switzerland before traveling to France and eventually the United States.

Unterweger was eventually caught by the U.S. Marshals in Miami, Florida. Even while awaiting extradition and trial, Unterweger freely gave interviews proclaiming his innocence and called on his colleagues in the journalism world for support. Unterweger was extradited back to Austria where he stood trial for eleven counts of murder. He was convicted of nine charges of murder and aquitted on two counts. Unterweger was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole this time. On the same day that he received his life sentence, Unterweger took his own life by hanging himself with a rope made from shoelaces and a piece of cord from his state-issued prison jumpsuit. As further proof of his guilt, the knot in Unterweger’s crude noose was the same as the knot used to strangle the prostitutes.

Serial killers are frequently diagnosed to have serious mental illnesses, and this seems logical in light of their despicable deeds. After all, it makes sense that someone who would have so callous of an approach to the lives of other human beings probably has something dysfunctional with his or her mental state. As it turns out, Unterweger did suffer from a mental disorder, but unfortunately for his victims, this diagnosis did not occur after his serial murders were completed. At his trial, a psychologist testified that Unterweger suffered from narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as well as being a sexual sadist. People with narcissistic personality disorder display a long-term pattern of feelings of exaggerated self-importance, an excessive need for admiration by others, and a lack of empathy for other people. Scientists are not sure what causes narcissistic personality disorder or sexual sadism, but it is easy to make a case that Unterweger chose his victims based on his anger at his own mother, perhaps as a result of his feeling abandoned by her at an early age. Unterweger’s mother sometimes worked as a prostitute, and all of his murder victims were sex workers as well.

Throughout my research, I have learned many things not only about Jack Unterwger, but about serial killers and their tendencies as a whole. Many serial killers have mental problems that affect the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that controls emotional expression, memory, judgement, and sexual behaviors. This could be an explanation for the poor choices they have made throughout their lives. Certainly, any mental problems suffered by serial killers are in no way an excuse for the terrible things that they have done, but it is definitely a contributing factor. For example, Unterweger made poor choices by succumbing to his criminal urges to commit rape and murder, and this could be due to a frontal lobe disorder. I say this because the frontal lobe, if functioning properly, should have made Unterweger realize that the things that he was doing were morally wrong. The frontal lobe should help to control his impulses to act in these ways. He was also diagnosed with sexual sadism disorder. People diagnosed with this also tend to have other problems such as poor impulse control, being anti-social, being dishonest, and lack of empathy. These traits are evident in Unterweger. Though he did confess to the first murder, he denied all allegations to follow, which was clearly dishonest given the amount of evidence against him, the lack of an alibi, the circumstances of the later killings matching his first murder, the verdicts at his trial, and finally the knot in his self-fashioned noose that matched the knot used to strangle Unterweger’s victims. Perhaps the lessons learned from the Unterweger case will help prevent future situations of releasing a serial killer from prison too soon and allowing them to resume their deadly ways.

Works Cited

1. Blanco, Juan Ignacio. “Jack Unterweger: Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers.” Jack Unterweger | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers, murderpedia.org/male.U/u/unterweger-jack.htm.
2. “Jack Unterweger.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Apr. 2019, www.biography.com/crime-figure/jack-unterweger.
3. Oliver, Mark. “This Killer-Turned-Author Convinced Everyone He Was Reformed – Then He Started Killing Again.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 2 Jan. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/jack-unterweger.

Killing another human being is arguably the most cruel and unforgiving crime a person could commit, especially when they plan and execute multiple elaborate murders. When murders are planned out, and the killing continues, a serial killer is born. There are four different types of serial killers. Those who crave power and control, those who are compelled to kill, those who feel the need to kill, and those who kill for pleasure (Author Jennifer Chase). Ed Gein, American alleged serial killer whose sickening crimes inspired several horror films and novels, was the type of killer who felt the need to kill. There have been many scientific studies on why serial killers kill, but many facts about them are unknown. Several serial killers undergo extreme trauma in their childhood, which causes them to develop differently, but this fact is not evident within every serial killer. One thing that is certain, though, is that serial killers often lack empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and feel for another person, which is something Ed Gein must not have understood.

Ed Gein, full name Edward Theodore Gein, confessed to killing only two women, but there are believed to be multiple more, which is why he is considered a serial killer. He shot both of his victims with a .22 caliber rifle, skinned their body parts, and created a “woman suit,” which was a full female body sewn from human flesh. He did not use only these two women’s bodies for the suit, though. He created several more items from flesh, including a belt made of nipples, clothing, household items, and masks. He was known as being a grave snatcher, stealing from at least nine graves in Plainfield Cemetery to complete his fantasy (Murder Mile Walks and True-Crime Podcast). It is believed he wanted the flesh suit to resemble his mother, whom he loved dearly. His two known victims did resemble his mother, which is believed to be why he chose them particularly (Jenkins, John Phillip). He was known as the “Butcher Of Plainfield” and “The Ghoul Of Plainfield” because he was living in Plainfield Wisconsin at the time of the murders.

Ed Gein was born on August 27th, 1906, on his family’s farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin. He was the child of Augusta Wilhemine Gein and George Phillip Gein. His father, George, was an abusive alcoholic who struggled to provide steady income, so Ed tended to favor his mother more, and have a closer relationship with her. His mother, Augusta, was a strict Lutheran who believed all women were no good and sent by the devil to tempt men. He had an older brother, Henry Gein, whom he did not have a close relationship with. Since they were young, they were both expected to work on the farm, which they did. On April 1st, 1940, Ed’s father suffered heart failure as a result of alcoholism and died. This did not affect Ed much, because he was beaten by him constantly. Shortly after, on May 16th, 1944, Ed’s brother died of suffocation, which was believed to be an accident, but Ed may have had something to do with it. There were bruises on Henry’s head, which showed that he was beaten, and left to die in a fire, but it was never proven. After the deaths of his brother and father, Ed was alone in the house with his mother, what he may have wanted all along. As a result of the trauma his mother had gone through, she suffered two strokes, was physically disabled, and needed constant assistance from him. When she died on December 29th, 1945, Ed Gein felt as if he had lost his only source of happiness and his “one true love.” He was not very close with anyone other than his mother, who did not care for him as much as he thought, so he was said to have been very socially awkward. He was never married, or in any other emotional or sexual relationships, mainly because of his mother’s strict rules about “not being exposed to the evil of women.” Gein had an eye droop and a speech impediment, which caused him to be bullied as a child. He never fit in, he was always shy, quiet, and socially awkward. When Ed was 12, his mother caught him masurbating in the bath, and proceeded to grab his genitals and call them the “curse of a man.” His mother may be the reason why he was so antisocial and awkward around women. He was punished by her when he would make friends. He was a babysitter and helped around the house, which shows that he was trusted by people in the town. It is believed that Ed Gein’s father would often shoot and gut deer and pigs in front of him, which may show why Ed was inspired by this, and carried this nature throughout his killings. He was also a taxidermist as one point, which seems fitting, considering his fetish with skin. Gein claimed that “the sight of blood made him queasy” which is ironic, considering he killed two innocent women and skinned their bodies for his own creepy project.

When Gein was arrested, his mental capacity was tested. He was an average student in school, and an excellent reader. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was unfit to stand trial. The length of his career is hard to determine, because he only admitted to killing Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden. He killed Mary Hogan, a local tavern worker, on December 8th, 1954. His second victim, Bernice Worden, a hardware store owner, was killed on November 16th, 1957. These murders were three years apart, which shows he has slight self control, and only killed to fulfill his sick dream. Gein was suspected of killing Georgia Weckler, an 8 year old, and Evelyn Hartey, 15 years old, however, those were never proven to be Gein, and it does not match his motive.

Bernice Worden was killed in her own hardware store, but it is unknown where exactly Mary Hogan was killed. He brought their bodies to his farm, and did the skinning there. He attracted interest from the police when Worden went missing, because he was seen with her before her disappearance and the last purchase she sold was a gallon of antifreeze to Ed Gein. Her son was Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, and he found the blood stains in her store. The cash register was empty and a .22 rifle was missing. On November 18th, 1957, Ed Gein was arrested. Shortly after, they searched his farmhouse. They found the body of Bernice Worden, hung upside down, decapitated, with her limbs tied and her torse cut open, like a deer. They found Mary Hogan’s body, as well as nine other bodies, but Ed Gein did not talk, or confess to the murders until the day after.

Ed Gein’s trial began on November 21st, 1957. He pleaded not guilty on reason of insanity. He spent ten years in the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane before he was declared mentally stable enough to withstand a trial. His trial lasted a week, in which he was found guilty for the murder of Bernice Worden. He never went through a trial for Mary Hogan, though, because of the cost. Ed was spared the death penalty, because he was declared mentally insane, although the death penalty was not common in Wisconsin. He was sentenced to life in prison at Mendota State Hospital, where he was known to be a reasonable and kind patient. He died at the age of 77 on July 26th, 1984, due to stage-three lung cancer.

Ed Gein inspired many characters in television shows, as well as movies. Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is based off of Ed Gein, which is shown through the characters obsession of human skin and the mask the character wore, which was made from real human flesh. Buffalo Bill from “The Silence of the Lambs” was evidently based off of Gein, which is shown through his obsession with female flesh, and making masks from them, similarly to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Norman Bates from “Bates Motel” and “Psycho” is based off of Gein, which is extremely evident if you compare the two. The author of “Psycho” did not intend to make the novel about Ed Gein, because his crimes were just beginning to be released when the author was writing the book, but he was shocked at how similar the fictional character was to Gein (Pak, Eudie.) “Bates Motel” is based off of the novel, but includes more details that are similar to Ed Gein’s life. There are several more characters and movies based off of the flesh-fascinated killer, and probably more to come.

Ed Gein may have committed several more murders, including the death of his brother, but those may never be proven. The lack of resources for the police in this time period may have helped Gein get away with more than he would have in today’s time period. Gein’s childhood may have shaped him into the person he was, due to his strict mother and abusive alcoholic father, but that is no excuse for his horrendous actions. It is fascinating to learn about a killer who did such drastic things, but it seems as if Gein did not love to kill, unlike several other serial killers. He felt the need to kill, or was persuaded to do so by the voices in his head. He robbed graves instead of killing, and only killed two women, although two is too many.

The method in which he killed the women, shooting them and hanging them upside down with their arms tied and torsos cut as if they were deer or pigs, may have originated from his mother’s strict religion. His mother made him believe all women were bad, and only used for men’s satisfaction. Watching his father gut several animals may have given him the idea to do the same to the women. The main reason he committed these crimes was because he had a twisted fantasy to bring his beloved mother back from the dead. She was his only real friend, and he seemed to be extremely dependant upon her, although she did not seem to have the same fascination with him. She pushed him away from everyone else, forcing him to be more emotionally dependant on those around him.

If the death penalty would have been more normalized in the 1960s, Ed Gein would have probably been executed for his actions, despite being declared mentally insane. The justice system gave him the easy way out, keeping him in mental institutions until his death. He will forever be remembered as the psychopath who made items out of human flesh and had a creepy fascination with his mother.

Works cited

1. “Examining Four Types of Serial Killers.” Author Jennifer Chase, 8 May 2015, authorjenniferchase.com/2015/05/07/examining-four-types-of-serial-killers/.
2. Jenkins, John Philip. “Ed Gein.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 23 Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Ed-Gein.
3. “Infamous Murderer & Serial Killer Profiles – #4 Ed Gein.” Murder Mile Walks and True-Crime Podcast – One of the Best ‘Quirky, Curious and Unusual Things to Do in London’ This Weekend, www.murdermiletours.com/blog/infamous-murderer-serial-killer-profiles-4-ed-gein.
4. “Ed Gein Kills Final Victim Bernice Worden.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ed-gein-kills-final-victim-bernice-worden.
5. Pauley, Patti, and Patti Pauley. “Ed Gein: An American Psychopath And His Human Flesh Collection.” IHorror, 24 Oct. 2019, www.ihorror.com/ed-gein-an-american-psychopath-and-his-human-flesh-collection/.
6. Pak, Eudie. “Ed Gein: 7 Horror Movies Inspired the Body Snatcher and Murderer.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 23 Oct. 2019, www.biography.com/news/ed-gein-inspired-horror-movies.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the serial killings of John Robinson. Robinson was known at the first internet killer or “Slavemaster”. The paper will begin by analyzing the killer in serval aspects including criminal patterns, methods, means, modus operandi, and victimology. Robinson’s criminal spree continued for well over a decade filled with gruesome and disturbing killings. A discussion will also be done to include an explanation for Robinson’s actions based on biological, psychological, and sociological influences. Additionally, highlights will be made throughout this paper regarding how intelligence gathering can help in identified such threats to public safety.

Serial Killer

John Edward Robinson is a lesser known serial killer that is also known as “Slavemaster” and the first internet serial killer (McClintick, 2013). Serial killers are often deemed maniac or monster. The crimes are often heinous and disturbing. However, society is often fascinated with these stories. The case of Robinson is particularly interesting for a wide array of reasons that will be discussed. He was committed at least eight murders ranging in time of over fifteen years (Kelley 2017). This paper will provide a full analysis of this serial killer and will include crime patterns, methods, means, modus operandi, and victimology. Additionally, a detailed discussion will be completed regarding John Robinson’s actions based on biological, psychological, and sociological influences.

Discussion

Robinson was an experienced con man and an individual with an extensive criminal background (McAuliffe, n.d.). His criminal history includes embezzlement, forgery, thief, and swindler (McClintick, 2013). This is different from a lot of other serial killers since he did have an extensive background. However, neighbors knew him as a successful businessman (McClintick,2013). He was also active in church, a neighborhood activist, and officer of the president’s association (McClintick, 2013). He ultimately was living two lives. Neither his family or friends was aware of his double life. The next section of this paper will focus on an analysis of Robinson as a serial killer.

Criminal Analysis

While Robinson’s, criminal career began with smaller crimes, it developed quickly to include murder. Robinson was particularly meticulous about choosing a victim. Unlike many notorious serial killers who randomly picked their victim, Robinson carefully chose his victims and got to know them (McClintick, 2013). His murders were driven by money and dominance (Mellor, 2014). His modus operandi was fairly consistent. He typically began communication by responding to ads on Fetish/BDSM websites (Mellor, 2014). Additionally, all of his known victims were females and mostly younger. The crimes he committed were very disturbing. One of the murders was a 19-year-old female who had a small baby girl. After he killed her he then sold her baby to his own brother (McAuliffe, n.d.) Additionally, he murdered a disabled teenager and her mother (McAuliffe, n.d.). He also convinced two women to become his sex slaves and was eventually apprehended when another woman accused him of assault and stealing her sex toys (McAuliffe, n.d.).

Robinson met his victims on the internet and lured them to Kansas with offers of employment and sadomasochistic sex (McClintick, 2013). He exploited the victims financially by getting their life savings and retirement accounts, cashing their disability checks, and even selling one of the victim’s child (McClintick, 2013). His method of killing the women was with a blunt object which was most likely a hammer (McClintick, 2013). The first known victim was Paula Godfrey, who just graduated from high school, and Robinson picked her up from her home after promising to enroll her in a school in Texas (McClintick, 2013). Her family never heard from her again and Robinson was asked about her whereabouts by police and denied any knowledge (McClintick, 2013). A letter was received by family shortly later signed by the victim stating that she was fine and with no other evidence, the police suspended the case (McClintick, 2013). Lisa Stasi was the next victim, who had the infant that was sold, was told by Robinson he was going to send her on a trip to Chicago and had her sign four blank sheets of paper. Again, when her family did not hear from her they contacted the police in Overland, which was he same area as Robinson was questioned in the first disappearance (McClintick, 2013). Robinson’s probation officer called the police about the Stasi case as well and was advised that they had no evidence of wrongdoing and were not pursuing either case at which point the Officer contacted the FBI (McClintick, 2013). Ultimately the FBI found evidence of many other criminal activities but none connected to the two-missing people (McClintick, 2013).

It is important to note the lack of intelligence gathering that was completed. Additional information should have and could have been pursued to try to rule out any foul play concerns. The law enforcement personnel could have made attempts to actually speak to the missing people instead of just dismissing them because of fake letters received in the mail. Had there been a more thorough investigation then the other victims might be alive. Instead, the murders continued for many years later. All in the same fashion with him befriending the victim and then disappearing. When family began looking for them he would use one of the signatures to type a letter and then mail to family. When he was finally caught, the bodies were found in barrels on his property and at a storage building (McAuliffe, n.d.).

Biological, Psychological, and Social Factors

Serial killers typically kill 10-12 times and the murders occurs over a period of several years (Holmes & Holmes 1998). Additionally, they usually maintain a low profile, give the appearance of being social responsible, and live virtually undetected lives for years (Holmes & Holmes, 1998). Holmes and Holmes (1998) further discusses that often when killing, the murderer is releasing humiliation in an attempt to regain lost power. It is also suggested that murder is a learned trait where the individual is instigated toward the behavior (Holmes & Holmes, 1998).

Many factors play a role in the development of a serial killer including biological, psychological, and social factors. It is most likely a combination of these factors that create a serial killer. Some biological aspects of serial killers include things such as hormones or gene influence. While it is difficult to identify these traits in serial killers such as John Robinson, it is plausible that he may have some factors playing a role especially given the fact of his fascination with sexual driven tendencies.

Psychological aspects of serial killers are also important to discuss. Psychopathy (also known as sociopathy) is a common aspect of serial killers (Cook, 2011). This means that the person is sane and know right from wrong but lack conscience and empathy (Cook, 2011). While no clear diagnosis exists for Robinson, he exhibits an astonishing number of characteristics that will be briefly discussed. Some characteristics includes superficial charm and good intelligence, absence of delusions or irrational thinking, absence of nervousness, unreliability, untruthfulness, lack of remorse/shame, poor judgement, pathological egocentricity, sex life impersonal and poorly integrated, and failure to follow any life plan (Cook, 2011). Additionally, they have an answer for everything, blame others, show no remorse or guilt, and they say what is expected and what people want to hear (McDermott & Belafonte, 2013). He found out what women’s desires and dreams were and offered to fulfil those (McDermott & Belafonte, 2013). Many of these characteristics are present in Robinson that have been previously discussed.

Social factors are external things that influence and shape individuals. It can be family, friends, media, and technology just to name a few. Individuals can learn behaviors from others that trigger such unreasonable behaviors such as serial killings. For example, killings being glamorized in the media may influence a person. In this case perhaps it involved technology. Robinson was known as the first internet killer as he relied on BDSM chat rooms to fulfill his fantasies. The lifestyle he lived with BDSM was violent in nature. Perhaps this website helped encourage and condone such behaviors to the point of escalating his fantasies to the level of murder. Robinson was a psychopathic sexual sadist in which financial gain and dominance was his goal (Mellor,2014). He also had a visible aggressive side and some of his neighbors even noted that he could be prickly and mean when upset (McClintick, 2013). Additionally, Robinson very much liked to control his surroundings and neighbors reported him yelling at his wife and kids like a drill sergeant (McClintick, 2013).

Conclusion

Robinson’s killings were calculated and troubling in the fact of how he befriended the women. Intelligence gathering is critical to prevent and end threats and potential threats. In a case as severe as this, it is critical that intelligence gathering be effective as it can be the difference between life and death for the next potential victim. Additionally, an analysis was completed of this serial killer and included crime patterns, methods, means, modus operandi, and victimology. These areas are key elements in intelligence gathering and identifying a suspect. The behavior of a serial killer often leaves many people wondering why and how someone case can exhibit such violent and careless behavior. This paper also evaluated Robinson’s behavior based on biological, psychological, and sociological influences.

References

1. Cook, B. I. (2011). Serial Killer: Evolution, Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychological Interventions. Adlerian Counseling and Psychotherapy. Retrieved from http://alfredadler.edu/sites/default/files/Cook%20MP%202011.pdf
2. Holmes, R. M. & Holmes S. T. (1998). Contemporary Perspectives on Serial Murder. Thousand Oaks California: Sage Publications.
3. Kelley, L. (2017). The Internet’s First Serial Killer “The Slavemaster”. Rebel Circus. Retrieved from https://www.rebelcircus.com/blog/internets-first-serial-killer-the-slavemaster/3/
4. McAuliffe, C. (n.d.). 14 Disturbing Facts about the First Internet Serial Killer, John Edward Robinson. Ranker. Retrieved from https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-john-edward-robinson-first-internet-killer/cat-mcauliffe
5. McClintick, D. (2013). Serial Killer J.R. Robinson’s Sinister Alter Ego. Vanity Fair. Retrieved from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2001/06/jr-robinson-serial-killer
6. McDermott, M. & Belafonte, H. (2013). Booktalking “Anyone you Want me to Be: A true story of sex and death on the internet. New York Public Library. Retrieved from https://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/10/18/booktalking-anyone-you-want-me-be-john-douglas
7. Mellor, L. (2014). John Edward Robinson: The Spider’s Web. Serial Killer Quarterly. Retrieved from https://www.serialkillerquarterly.com/skq-review/welcome

Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes. Behavior is anything an organism does and any action we can observe and record. Mental processes are the internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior- sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings(Myers). The key word in the psychology definition is science. It can help evaluate the mind of a criminal and give an explanation for their actions. As I started my research, I found out very quickly that the causes of psychopathy in serial killers often remains unknown to this day, there is no definite answer that we can point to and say that is the answer. Psychopathy starts at birth and continues to grow through life experiences. There are so many factors that play into each situation that it is impossible to draw conclusions to one definite answer. The factors that are known are usually either pointed at as the answer and not really evaluated.

What is misunderstood about serial killers is the common occurrence with their childhood upbringing: Abuse. People like to believe that even though abuse is traumatic, can we really say its the reason for psychopathy. The answer is no, but it is a factor that contributes to psychopathy. Trauma from abuse explains how early childhood abuse can set a child up for deviant behavior in adulthood. In an article by Tammy Vronsky it explains that the environment that surrounds the child can be a factor that determines whether or not their behavior escalates to homicidal activity(Vronsky).

A serial killer is no different from anyone else who seeks attention from people who are close to them, such as family. The need for approval or attention is what drives individuals at attempting to create relationships with their family or peers, but if rejected, they’re unable to create those relationships. “This can result in lowering of self-esteem and creates a fantasy world in the head of the individual, a world in which they’re in control”(Anderson). Like many people, we often reflect on our childhood and sometimes wonder if a situation would have been different, maybe the outcome would have too. In serial killers, it is common for them to blame their childhood as the reason for their actions. Abuse being the most common, causes trauma to the mind of any individual and causes them to act out, which can result in change of personality or view on life differently. Anger and frustration builds up in the victim and is either lashed out in a moment of time, or is bottled up for years and then taken out on innocent people in a much worse way. For example, a boy who is abused as a child will often take the frustration and experience from his childhood, and use it on his own children because in his head, it’s the only way he comprehends or remembers how he was treated as a child. For a serial killer, the abuse, frustration, or rejection they encounter as a child is commonly bottled up and then once they hit a breaking point, they use that anger to their advantage(Vronsky).

Being abused can have an emotional effect on victims, they will often think “why?” or “it’s my fault” which shows a low self esteem and low value in the meaning of life. This can then explain my earlier question of “why do serial killers want to kill people?” which the answer is because they often have no value of life. Throughout their own life they have had a terrible experience with multiple situations and think they have no purpose. Which is why when they murder another individual, they do not feel bad or guilty about their crime.

Another aspect known among serial killers is social abnormality. Criminals like serial killers often have a hard time fitting in when growing up. This causes them to be excluded from social gatherings and often results in built up frustration or even depression. Those who don’t grow out of this stage, tend to use those emotions as motivation to commit the crimes they become famous for in society. In my survey, less than 10% of responses said that social abnormality was a common occurrence in serial killers. Though, in multiple cases, it is found that when growing up serial killers were always different among others in society they just didn’t understand it at the time or knew how to cover it up.

Some of the most famous serial killers I came to find and research were Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. They both were very different in their upbringing as a child. Dahmer seemed to be this outgoing young boy who began to fall apart as he got older and eventually committed some gruesome murders America has come to know. Bundy was the complete opposite, he was distant and was considered weird as a child. Though with these early signs, he was considered the average joe for most of his life. It was not until his crimes of murder in 1971 that he became known across the U.S. Both criminals had one thing in common, and that was they were successful for so many years before they were caught by law enforcement. Each though, were completely different in certain aspects of their cases. Dahmer was famous for his 14 year murder rate in which he would drug, murder, and then eat the remains of his victims. Bundy had murdered countless victims for 23 continuous years by manipulating his victims into thinking he was a good guy until he struck and they saw the real side of Bundy.

Psychology of the Brain

It is evident that serial killers have an aspect that is different within their head. The damage that is done to serial killers usually doesn’t result from an injury to the head. From birth, an aspect within their brain is underdeveloped and tends to never grow and mature as the individual ages. Damage within the brain influences serial killers to commit crimes such as murder. The most common section of the brain that is damaged or underdeveloped in serial killers is the frontal lobe. AP Psychology teacher, Anton Borchert explains that, “The frontal lobe is related with the association with reasoning, planning, problem solving, and aggression. Damage to this part of the brain can manipulate and result in actions that are often uncontrollable”(Borchert). This can result in an increase of irritability, which may show mood changes in an individual or not being able to control emotions or behavior. Showing that any individual who receives damage to their frontal lobe will tend to have a harder time controlling their behavior, for serial killers this is much more relevant. I compare it to having a boost of adrenaline, the excitement of an event or situation can often be blinding to the actions of any individual. The act of murdering a victim can be a boost of adrenaline for a serial killer, and while their murdering their victim, they don’t realize what has happened until the moment is over. The uncontrollable urges and coping mechanism back be traced back to the frontal lobe being damaged. This does not mean this situation can be used as an excuse, rather it helps psychologists and society better understand how the actions from the killer may not have been consciously acted upon. The use of PET scans helps point out this issue and bring it to psychologists attention.

More within and deeper in the brain lays the Amygdala, which is located in the Limbic system of the brain which is the emotional center of the brain. This part of the brain controls how emotions interact with one another and sends signals to the body on the type of emotion they’re feeling in the moment. Unlike the frontal lobe, this section of the brain does not become damaged at birth, but is damaged through interactions with others at an early age with serial killers. It is common that serial killers were rejected among society as an adolescent which causes them to form hatred or no emotion at all towards other individuals. “When an individual is rejected and excluded from society, they begin to be very intuitive with themselves and begin to fantasize”(Anderson). These fantasies give a serial killer control over their own life, a chance for them to understand what is going on and nobody else. Since there was no control of being accepted early on in life, these fantasies give them a chance to create their own world where everything is in their hands.

When it comes to the emotions of the amygdala, this explains that the lack of emotion that occurs within serial killers tends to result in having no empathy for their victims, but also even themselves. They know that something is wrong but continue killing others in hopes that the damage will go away, but the urges only feed off these actions and continues to grow. “That is why it is typical for a serial killer to not feel bad about their crimes because they don’t have empathy. The murders are solely for the purpose of having power and control over someone, since they don’t have it over themselves”(Raymond).

Abstract

Serial Killers are indeed very dangerous people and fact can be very challenging to catch. It could be people you least expected it to. Killing is already a problem within itself but the big issue is trying to collect evidence on a serial killer to find them guilty and to capture them all at the same time. Serial Killer are meticulous people. There very cleaver and can also be very intelligent at times than the average person. The issue with Serial Killers is the reason they do the things they do. Most individuals just believe that Serial Killer are just “CRAZY” but that’s not the case. People that have killed before and a Serial Killers are two different people. A killer is someone who has killed a person with MOTIVE vs a Serial killer is one who kills more than one person or “a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern”

People often wonders why Serial killers do the things they do… the answer to that is there passed in their life. Most Serial killer have either had something personal dealing with them or their parents that lead them to going after people or their weird obsessions with things. Also, some or most Serial Killer killers are more men than women. Men Serial Killers go after people that they hate and have resentment towards out of hate. They target people who they know they can take advantage of.

For example, the Serial Killer Sam Little he was obsessed with females “Necks” and later on in his killing he killed all his victims by the neck and had a massive hate towards women. Most serial killers are either psychopaths or insane or that what people claim. Serial killers have no heart and don’t care about anything that they do to someone. There are quite a few serial killers that have families such as a wife and kids or a husband and kids. Most of the time their loved ones and relatives don’t realize that there actually facing a serial killer until their caught. They are a few other important signs to look out for in a serial killer such as arson, child abuse in their childhood, alcohol and drug abuse and MOST important TORTURING ANIMALS. The reason for this that a person that been abuse by someone whether family or friends it sticks with the child from when it starts all the way up into the persons adult like and it get the best of them. Arson is very important and is a sign of serial killing because that’s how they start out in the beginning. People think that when serial killers become adults, they start right off killing but that not the case. Most important thing you MUST know is that Torturing Animals. Serial killers start killing and abusing animals no matter what the animal is but mostly cats and dogs are their target at a very young. It could start as young as 10 years of age. They use animals as a test to see what it or how they can hurt it and it becomes power over control fetish. Most serial killers have a passed of torturing animal “70 percent” to be exact.

Some killers have major to no criminal past such as attempted rape, sexual assault and sometimes attempted murder or anything dealing with a deadly weapon or some level of harm in their past. When Serial Killers kill, they go out they go out for victims that are weak and they can manipulate and that they feel like people don’t care about such as a prostitute or someone that’s easy. Half of the known serial killers’ targets prostitute because they know investigators and police officers wouldn’t probably care and the families of prostitutes won’t be reporting them missing because of their lifestyle which that’s how and where some detectives and police officers fail at. A prostitute is still a human and they deserve to heard just like anyone else but you can gain a prostitutes trust in no time and they will go with any man they see to help alcohol, drug or to help their living situation and not thinking about the consequences they may face. Another person that can easily be a victim is a young or middle-aged person who trust easily. Not only that the serial killer may be attractive to most victims and they figure that they don’t seem like their harmful.

Trying to catch a Serial Killer can be one of the hardest things to do and having the proper evidence that will CONVICT them of being guilty. The fist thing that you will need to do in order to catch a serial killer is by tracking each person that gets killed. How you determine that you fist wait until you have two or three murders that have the same similarities in the investigation as the first one because all serial killers leave behind the same things they do the first time which leads to how they get caught. For example if a you find that in the early part of March you have a murder investigation where there was a prostitute found gaged and bound laying on the side of the road with both their legs spread wide open and two weeks after that you discover three more prostitutes that were murdered in that same way, you they are connected. By you tracking where each person got killed you have a way of predicting the area, they might have targeted their victim.

Race is very important in a serial killer investigation and somehow important to the killer as well. The reason why race is important to an investigation because that how most serial killers choose their victims and how you can tie the connection with them. The reason why its important to a killer is because they may have an obsession with a certain race. However not all go after the same race. Some go for any or all races which is challenging because its hard to make a connection with because people die every day and you don’t know who or what you’re looking for or even the race. Not all serial killers go after females, they go after men too. For example, the man named Jeffrey Dahmer.

Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 and was a known sexual serial killer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He brutally killed and dismembered 17 men. Out of the 17 men he killed 2 of them were young teenagers and 13 of them were African American males which he chose them out of gay bars. What started it off was that as a young kid he was outgoing and active with his parents and kids around his neighborhood. As a kid he seen his father collect bones from dead animals in their backyard and from that point on he was interested in dead animals that’s really where it all began. At the age of 13 he found himself being sexually attracted to boys not girls and at the age of 15 he had fantasies of having sexual intercourse with a dead body know as a corpse. Which is very unusual and not normal at all for a human to be doing and is very sickening. While he was in high school, he was well like but had a violent passed of alcoholism and on occasions came to school drunk and was a class clown but preformed well in school and was respectful. He killed his first male victim which was a hitch hiker named Stephen Hick who was 18 years old. Stephen Hick agreed to hang out with Dahmer and drink for a couple of hours but when he got ready to leave that’s when everything hit the fan. Dahmer didn’t want to be alone and that’s when his fantasy of men came to reality. He then knocked him out with a blunt object and then the final blow was when he strangled him and later dismembered his body by cutting his body into pieces just as he seen his father do to animals when he was a kid. He then tried to dump his body by transporting it to a designated location but in the middle of trying to do so he got pulled over and then talk his way out of officers from checking him and then went back to where he killed the man and scattered his body parts behind his home. After that he tried to get his life together by joining the army and that’s where he learned way more human body since he worked in the medical field but was later forced to leave the army. He then dedicated his life to his church and promised that he would never kill or go after another man again. Men threw themselves at him, but he never wanted a man to satisfy him he always wanted to satisfy them and wanted them to pursue his sexual needs. He later stole a male mannequin and used it to masturbate of it until his grandmother convinced him to get rid of it and that’s what started him back to killing but this go round it worst than anyone could have imagined. He then started going to gay clubs to satisfy his pleasures with men and found random men who wanted to anonymous sex with random men he also laced a few men’s drink with medicine such as sleeping pills and waited until they fell out and laid next to them and listened to their body parts another tings move in their stomach and how it reacted. To the victims and others around him he did appear or suspected to be a killer to anyone he then proceeded killing he second victim by also using sleeping to put in his drink to knock him unconscious and later claim that when he woke up the next day he seen his lover for that night bleeding and dead and didn’t know what happened. Just as he did to his first victim, he cut up the man’s body and stuffed it into a suit case. No sooner after that he did a 14 year old the same way and had both performed oral sex to one another by offering home as little as $50 he also strangled him in his basement and then began to have sex with the dead body numerous of time until he got good and ready to get rid or the body. The officers that had been involved with Dahmer’s case did very poor work. The reason this is the case is because they could have prevented Dahmer from committing the last murder which was the 14 year old boy because they assumed he was the appropriate age and was Dahmer’s actual lover even though a lady called and said there was a kid that naked in the street and they took Dahmer’s word without even doing the proper investigation they needed to do besides going off of clothes that belonged to the boy. They didn’t try to look up the boy’s name or information.

The motive behind him killing all 17 men was that he simply didn’t want them to leave he just simply wanted to keep them forever and he couldn’t get his way. When they did put all the pieces together they discovered he was on a 13 year killing spree and after his second killing he kept all his other victims’ bodies preserved and survived off of eating their human flesh and collected and did different things to the body. Then instead of giving him what he deserved which was the death penalty found that he was criminally insane which is a bunch of hockey because he knew what he did was wrong and got sentenced 937 in prison. He’s an example of a real true psychopath and didn’t care or have any remorse for none of his victims and got a kick out of what he was doing. That’s only one a few of the Sexual Serial Killers that were attracted to men. There’s way more you just don’t hear about them.

Another way of catching a killer is to retrace your step and be sure that you gathered all the evidence and to make sure you talk to witnesses periodically. The reason for this is first when gathering evidence it can sometimes be challenging and confusing because some be in a rush to solve a crime and end up not getting strong enough evidence that will stick to the case in order to convict a killer and other times investigators just simply over look evidence and not even realizing that they did.

An example of that is again with the Samuel Little and Jeffery Dahmer cases. Investigators had plenty of evidence towards him such as having proof that he sexual assaulted and raped a woman and a woman that he killed they found proof of sperm that belonged to him in the woman’s rape test kit but guess what? They didn’t test it until he finally got caught which was decades later due to DNA testing was not that effective and they didn’t have a test to detect samples like that but it was circumstantial evidence which should have been good enough but he walked out free on that. Then on top of that they had other missing woman which added up to 93 missing dead women in multiple states that he eventually confessed to.

With Jeffery Dahmer it was almost the exact same thing he got caught on more than one occasion in the act of killing someone when they had good evidence against him before he got caught. There also cases where innocent people have served time in prison for something they didn’t do due to an investigator collecting evidence on that person that didn’t even have nothing to do with crime or who was a innocent person during the time.

Contacting witnesses periodically is also important because that really the important key to capturing a killer and convicting them. The reason this the case because if more than one person can tell and investigator the same story and the exact thing that happened with all the right details then that a huge start but first you have to check and corroborate there story to make sure that it makes sense and that there talking about the right person by having them to pick out the suspect by having a photo line of with suspects with the same gender, race weight and people that look similar to one another and have the witness to chose who they think they saw but there have been some cases that witnesses have lied on someone or misidentified someone and it didn’t even check out and that can be frustrating because the person they lied on or misidentified has most likely gotten time in prison for a crime that wasn’t done by them which means you have to start back at square one and redo everything all over again but when you do have the proper evidence and witness statements against them you them can move forward with an arrest. You must be smart by making an arrest of a sexual serial killer. They can sometimes out smart cops and detectives and make a get away before they show up. The best way to be sure you catch them is by at least have a search warrant in hand to check a person property to find and collect additional evidence and then proceed with the arrest but if not then have the person under surveillance so you can know everywhere their going at all times to catch them.

Interrogating a suspect is good to start out first as well cause you get a chance to see what all the suspect have to say before you accuse of ask any questions and to read the attitude and body language. The suspects body language is key cause it can give you a feel if there lying or not then when you figure out if there lying or not you them try to use reverse psychology on then by making them think that you as the investigator or detective is there friend and that you care so they can open up to you. You may have to even offer to smoke a cigarette or buy them a bite to eat or Drink so they can feel at eased and you might get lucky and they tell you what really happened but if not that’s when you show all the hard evidence to them that you collected of them that way they wont have a choice but to tell you what happened. Then you have them to write down a confession to what it is they said they did and make a proper arrest and paperwork you need to make the case solved. As the trial starts that’s when you need to be on your p’s and q’s together because that’s when you know whether or not the person is going to be found guilty or not guilty. In that moment you still need to have documentation of all the evidence you collected so you wont look stupid if someone calls you out on an error or mistake about some evidence that you collected and you also would need to testify in court. This is the background of sexual serial killers and way of capturing them properly.

REFRENCES

1. Bonn, S. (2018, April 9). Serial Homicide for Power and Control. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-deeds/201804/serial-homicide-power-and-control
2. Chief, E. in. (2015, September 2). 8 Predominant Pros And Cons Of Eyewitness Testimony. Retrieved from https://connectusfund.org/8-predominant-pros-and-cons-of-eyewitness-testimony
3. Jeffrey Dahmer. (2020, February 13). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jeffrey-dahmer
4. Myers, W. C., Husted, D. S., Safarik, M. E., & O’Toole, M. E. (2006, July). The motivation behind serial sexual homicide: is it sex, power, and control, or anger? Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16882237
5. Schlesinger, L. B., Kassen, M., Mesa, V. B., & Pinizzotto, A. J. (2010, June 1). Ritual and Signature in Serial Sexual Homicide. Retrieved from http://jaapl.org/content/38/2/239
6. Rosewood, J. (2018, September 20). 9 early warning signs of a serial killer. Retrieved from https://www.insider.com/warning-signs-of-serial-killers-2018-5
7. Schlesinger, L. B., Kassen, M., Mesa, V. B., & Pinizzotto, A. J. (2010, June 1). Ritual and Signature in Serial Sexual Homicide. Retrieved from http://jaapl.org/content/38/2/239
8. Williams, T., & Zraick, K. (2019, October 7). Samuel Little Is Most Prolific Serial Killer in U.S. History, F.B.I. Says. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/us/serial-killer-samuel-little.html
9. Wrongful Convictions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.prisonfellowship.org/resources/advocacy/sentencing/wrongful-convictions-2/?mwm_id=328601870103&sc=PGNWAAG190104012&gclid=Cj0KCQjwka_1BRCPARIsAMlUmEpCJWVZLDdiO9B_HKEl2257XXWAPmW6JmlQX_zzPU2AHS633NghCi0aAmIEEALw_wcB
10. Number of offenders 10 306 10 306 1 443 1 443 4 586 4 586 Male Female Unknown

Serial Killers are indeed very dangerous people and fact may be very hard to seize. It will be humans you least expected it to. Killing is already a trouble inside itself however the massive difficulty is making an attempt to gather proof on a serial killer to find them guilty and to capture them all at the equal time. Serial Killer are meticulous humans. There very cleaver and also can be very intelligent at instances than the average individual. The difficulty with Serial Killers is the reason they do the matters they do. Most individuals simply accept as true with that Serial Killer are simply “CRAZY” but that’s now not the case.

People which have killed before and a Serial Killers are two different people. A killer is a person who has killed a person with MOTIVE vs a Serial killer is person who kills greater than one person or “a person who commits a chain of murders, often with out a apparent reason and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern” People regularly wonders why Serial killers do the things they do… the solution to this is there handed of their existence. Most Serial killer have both had some thing personal dealing with them or their parents that cause them to going after people or their bizarre obsessions with matters. Also, a few or maximum Serial Killer killers are extra guys than women. Men Serial Killers cross after humans that they hate and feature resentment in the direction of out of hate.

They goal folks that they know they could take advantage of. For example, the Serial Killer Sam Little he became captivated with females “Necks” and in a while in his killing he killed all his sufferers through the neck and had a large hate closer to girls. Most serial killers are both psychopaths or insane or that what people claim. Serial killers haven’t any heart and don’t care about anything that they do to a person. There are quite some serial killers that have families which includes a wife and youngsters or a husband and kids. Most of the time their cherished ones and spouse and children don’t comprehend that there in reality facing a serial killer till their caught. They are some other important signs and symptoms to look out for in a serial killer which includes arson, baby abuse of their childhood, alcohol and drug abuse and MOST crucial TORTURING ANIMALS.

The cause for this that a person that been abuse by a person whether or not family or pals it sticks with the child from when it starts offevolved all of the way up into the persons person like and it get the great of them. Arson may be very critical and is an indication of serial killing due to the fact that’s how they start off in the beginning. People assume that when serial killers become adults, they begin right off killing but that now not the case. Most essential thing you MUST know is that Torturing Animals. Serial killers start killing and abusing animals no matter what the animal is however mostly cats and puppies are their target at a totally younger. It should start as younger as 10 years of age. They use animals as a test to peer what it or how they can hurt it and it will become electricity over manage fetish. Most serial killers have a passed of torturing animal “70 percent” to be exact. Some killers have essential to no crook past including attempted rape, sexual attack and occasionally tried murder or something handling a lethal weapon or some level of damage in their past.

When Serial Killers kill, they exit they exit for sufferers which might be vulnerable and they are able to manipulate and that they sense like people don’t care about consisting of a prostitute or a person that’s easy. Half of the recognized serial killers’ targets prostitute because they know investigators and cops wouldn’t in all likelihood care and the households of prostitutes won’t be reporting them missing because of their lifestyle which that’s how and wherein a few detectives and law enforcement officials fail at. A prostitute remains a human and that they deserve to heard just like all and sundry else but you may gain a prostitutes trust very quickly and they may go along with any man they see to assist alcohol, drug or to assist their residing state of affairs and now not considering the consequences they may face. Another person which could without difficulty be a sufferer is a young or middle-aged person who believe without difficulty. Not best that the serial killer may be appealing to maximum sufferers and they parent that they don’t appear like their harmful. Trying to catch a Serial Killer may be one of the hardest activities and having the proper proof so one can CONVICT them of being guilty.

The fist aspect that you’ll be wanting to do with a view to catch a serial killer is with the aid of tracking all and sundry that receives killed. How you determine that you fist wait until you’ve got two or 3 murders that have the identical similarities inside the research because the first one due to the fact all serial killers leave in the back of the identical matters they do the first time which results in how they get caught. For example if a you discover that within the early a part of March you’ve got a murder research where there was a prostitute found gaged and certain laying on the facet of the street with both their legs spread huge open and two weeks after which you discover three more prostitutes that were murdered in that equal manner, you they may be connected. By you tracking wherein all people were given killed you’ve got a way of predicting the area, they might have targeted their sufferer. Race could be very vital in a serial killer investigation and somehow critical to the killer as well. The motive why race is vital to an research because that how most serial killers choose their sufferers and how you can tie the reference to them. The cause why its important to a killer is due to the fact they’ll have an obsession with a positive race.

However not all move after the equal race. Some pass for all or any races that is challenging because its hard to make a connection with due to the fact people die each day and also you don’t realize who or what you’re looking for or even the race. Not all serial killers pass after females, they cross after men too. For example, the man named Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer became born on May 21, 1960 and turned into a acknowledged sexual serial killer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He brutally killed and dismembered 17 men. Out of the 17 guys he killed 2 of them had been younger teens and 13 of them have been African American adult males which he selected them out of gay bars.

What started out it off became that as a younger youngster he become outgoing and energetic with his dad and mom and children around his neighborhood. As a child he visible his father collect bones from useless animals in their outdoor and from that point on he was inquisitive about lifeless animals that’s clearly wherein it all started. At the age of thirteen he discovered himself being sexually drawn to boys now not women and on the age of 15 he had fantasies of having sexual sex with a lifeless frame realize as a corpse. Which is very unusual and not normal in any respect for a human to be doing and is very sickening. While he became in excessive school, he became well like but had a violent passed of alcoholism and on occasions got here to high school drunk and was a class clown however preformed nicely in school and changed into respectful. He killed his first male victim which turned into a hitch hiker named Stephen Hick who become 18 years antique. Stephen Hick agreed to hang around with Dahmer and drink for more than one hours however while he were given prepared to leave that’s whilst the whole lot hit the fan.

Dahmer didn’t want to be on my own and that’s while his fantasy of guys got here to reality. He then knocked him out with a blunt object and then the final blow become whilst he strangled him and later dismembered his frame by way of slicing his body into pieces just as he visible his father do to animals whilst he was a kid. He then attempted to sell off his frame by using transporting it to a chosen location but within the middle of looking to do so he got pulled over after which talk his way out of officers from checking him and then went again to wherein he killed the person and scattered his body parts in the back of his home. After that he attempted to get his life collectively by becoming a member of the navy and that’s in which he learned way more human body seeing that he worked inside the scientific field but turned into later pressured to leave the navy. He then dedicated his existence to his church and promised that he would by no means kill or cross after any other guy once more. Men threw themselves at him, but he by no means wanted a guy to meet him he always desired to fulfill them and desired them to pursue his sexual needs. He later stole a male mannequin and used it to masturbate of it till his grandmother convinced him to do away with it and that’s what commenced him again to killing but this cross spherical it worst than absolutely everyone should have imagined. He then began going to gay clubs to meet his pleasures with men and located random guys who wanted to anonymous intercourse with random men he also laced some guys’s drink with medicine including sleeping drugs and waited till they fell out and laid subsequent to them and listened to their frame parts some other tings circulate in their belly and the way it reacted. To the victims and others around him he did seem or suspected to be a killer to every person he then proceeded killing he 2d victim by way of additionally the usage of sleeping to install his drink to knock him subconscious and later claim that after he woke up day after today he seen his lover for that night time bleeding and useless and didn’t recognize what came about. Just as he did to his first sufferer, he reduce up the man’s frame and stuffed it into a healthy case.

No sooner after that he did a 14 12 months vintage the same manner and had each accomplished oral intercourse to each other through offering domestic as little as $50 he also strangled him in his basement after which commenced to have sex with the dead body severa of time until he got excellent and equipped to get rid or the frame. The officers that had been worried with Dahmer’s case did very bad work. The motive this is the case is because they may have avoided Dahmer from committing the ultimate homicide which became the 14 12 months old boy because they assumed he become the best age and changed into Dahmer’s real lover even though a lady referred to as and stated there has been a child that naked in the street and they took Dahmer’s word with out even doing the proper research they needed to do besides going off of garments that belonged to the boy. They didn’t try to look up the boy’s call or information. The motive behind him killing all 17 guys turned into that he definitely didn’t need them to go away he just honestly wanted to maintain them forever and he couldn’t get his way. When they did put all of the pieces collectively they observed he changed into on a thirteen year killing spree and after his 2d killing he kept all his other victims’ our bodies preserved and survived off of consuming their human flesh and gathered and did various things to the body.

Then in preference to giving him what he deserved which was the loss of life penalty determined that he changed into criminally insane that is a gaggle of hockey because he knew what he did become incorrect and got sentenced 937 in prison. He’s an example of a actual real psychopath and didn’t care or have any remorse for none of his victims and got a kick out of what he became doing. That’s most effective one among the Sexual Serial Killers that had been drawn to men. There’s manner more you just don’t hear approximately them. Another manner of catching a killer is to retrace your step and ensure that you gathered all the proof and to ensure you speak to witnesses periodically. The cause for that is first while gathering proof it may every so often be hard and confusing because a few be in a hurry to solve a criminal offense and grow to be no longer getting strong sufficient proof a good way to keep on with the case with a purpose to convict a killer and other instances investigators just surely over appearance proof and now not even understanding that they did. An instance of that is again with the Samuel Little and Jeffery Dahmer instances. Investigators had masses of evidence towards him which includes having evidence that he sexual assaulted and raped a lady and a female that he killed they determined evidence of sperm that belonged to him in the girl’s rape take a look at kit however wager what? They didn’t test it till he sooner or later were given stuck which become decades later due to DNA testing changed into not that powerful and they didn’t have a test to come across samples like that but it was circumstantial proof which should had been good sufficient however he walked out unfastened on that.

Then on top of that that they had other missing lady which added as much as 93 lacking useless girls in a couple of states that he ultimately confessed to. With Jeffery Dahmer it became almost the exact equal factor he got caught on greater than one occasion inside the act of killing a person after they had precise evidence against him before he were given stuck. There also cases in which innocent people have served time in jail for some thing they didn’t do because of an investigator collecting evidence on that person that didn’t even have not anything to do with crime or who turned into a innocent man or woman all through the time. Contacting witnesses periodically is additionally essential because that actually the critical key to shooting a killer and convicting them. The motive this the case because if extra than one character can tell and investigator the identical story and the precise aspect that occurred with all the proper info then that a massive begin but first you have got to test and corroborate there story to make sure that it makes feel and that there speaking approximately the proper man or woman by way of having them to select out the suspect by way of having a picture line of with suspects with the identical gender, race weight and those that appearance just like each other and have the witness to chose who they think they saw however there had been a few cases that witnesses have lied on a person or misidentified a person and it didn’t even take a look at out and that may be frustrating due to the fact the individual they lied on or misidentified has most probably gotten time in prison for a criminal offense that wasn’t accomplished through them this means that you have to start again at rectangular one and redo everything all over again however whilst you do have the right proof and witness statements towards them you them can pass forward with an arrest. You need to be clever via making an arrest of a sexual serial killer. They can every now and then out smart police officers and detectives and make a get away before they display up.

The quality way to make sure you trap them is through at least have a search warrant in hand to check someone belongings to locate and gather additional evidence after which proceed with the arrest however if no longer then have the individual underneath surveillance so you can know anywhere their going at all times to seize them. Interrogating a suspect is good to start off first as well cause you get a danger to see what all the suspect have to say before you accuse of ask any questions and to study the attitude and body language. The suspects frame language is key motive it may provide you with a feel if there lying or not then whilst you discern out if there lying or now not you them attempt to use opposite psychology on then via making them assume that you as the investigator or detective is there buddy and which you care that will divulge heart’s contents to you. You may need to even offer to smoke a cigarette or buy them a bite to devour or Drink with the intention to feel at eased and you might get fortunate and they tell you what truely passed off but if now not that’s whilst you display all of the difficult proof to them which you gathered of them that way they wont have a choice but to tell you what came about.

Then you have got them to write down down a confession to what it’s miles they said they did and make a right arrest and paperwork you want to make the case solved. As the trial starts offevolved that’s whilst you need to be to your p’s and q’s collectively due to the fact that’s whilst you understand whether or not or no longer the character goes to be determined responsible or no longer responsible. In that moment you still want to have documentation of all of the evidence you accrued so you wont appearance silly if a person calls you out on an mistakes or mistake about a few evidence which you amassed and also you additionally would want to testify in court. This is the heritage of sexual serial killers and manner of shooting them properly.

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a serial killer’s mind? Why do they do what they do? Serial killers typically have a different functioning brain than an average person’s brain. Everyone should have a full functioning brain, but for most killers that is not the case. Most serial killers are very different from other people. They do horrible things without sympathy or remorse. Some things that may lead them to these horrible acts are some effects of their brain may cause lack of emotion, certain genes they may be born with, lack of behavior skills, and traumatic experiences.

Most serial killers’ brains do not function correctly. They do not have full brain activity, causing the part of the brain affected to be unbalanced; this causes them to have lack of certain abilities. When a serial killer dies, whether it be by execution or natural causes, their brains are usually sent to autopsy to be studied. When tested, most of the brains show issues in the orbital cortex or frontal lobe. Therefore, most of them do not feel guilty for their actions. As you may know, serial killers are very wicked and evil. A normal person feels emotional when they hear of someone being murdered. Serial killers murder people and feel no sadness whatsoever. The University of Wisconsin-Madison did a study and wrote an article of serial killer brains. The article states “The study showed that psychopaths have reduced connections between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the part of the brain responsible for sentiments such as empathy and guilt, and the amygdala, which mediates fear and anxiety.” This illustrates that serial killers do not feel any emotion for killing their victims. Because of the lack of brain activity to the amygdala, the killer lacks the ability to have any emotion or remorse. This makes murdering easy to them. Human beings with an average functioning brain has full ability to feel all emotions, and know when something is wrong. Average humans feel guilty when they have committed a crime, unlike serial killers. Eve Glicksman published an article about how normal brains process guilt and shame. In her article, she claims “In the guilt state, there was activity in the amygdala and frontal lobes but less neural activity in both brain hemispheres.” This describes that humans feel guilt due to the amygdala activity. Since serial killers have lower activity to their amygdala, their ability to process guilt or emotion is not the same as if their brains were average functioning.

Unlike normal people, some serial killers have a gene that make them more likely to be violent. Claire Warner wrote an article about Jim Fallon’s TED Talk, which was a speech he performed informing the public about serial killers. Her article about this states “Genetics also came into play: Fallon goes on to note the existence of a ‘major violence gene’ called MAO-A, which regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin during fetal development. In the past, the gene has been associated with antisocial behavior, which, according to Fallon, could be because it desensitizes babies to serotonin by providing too much of the neurotransmitter in the womb. (Seratonin has been implcated in the perception of morality.) Additionally, MAO-A could explain why the vast majority of psychopaths are men; it’s a sex-linked gene, which means that it’s passed through the X chromosome. Women have two of those, so their psychopathic tendencies might be ‘diluted out’ by the other parent’s chromosome, but men only have one.” This can explain why there is an existing gene in some people that influence them to enjoy violence and perform it. This gene is very rare, but as explained by Claire’s article, has been found in serial killers.

Unlike most human beings, psychopaths have poor behavior skills. Although serial killers can be very deceiving, such as Ted Bundy, they lack behavior skills, which can be noticed by their gory and hideous crimes. However, the lack of these skills can also be caused by their brain activity. The amygdala processes behavior, if this is damaged, the behavior of the person affected will not be the same as a person who has normal brain function.

Lastly, almost every serial killer has experienced some type of traumatic events throughout their lives, including trauma to the brain. When someone has a bad childhood, their outlook on life may become a little twisted. Sometimes they even get so twisted, they choose victims that look a lot similar to the people they associate the traumatic experience with. Most serial killers have a bad background history such as abuse, abandonment, neglect, or taking blunt force so hard it resulted in permanent damage. These can all trigger violence. John Gacy was beaten as a child, and when he grew up, he murdered a lot of boys. Another well-known serial killer, Richard Ramirez, also known as “The Night Stalker”, had an accident as a child causing an injury to his brain. Both criminals mentioned turned out to be horrible killers. Not all people who have a scarring childhood resort to violence, but those who do often feel violence can cure their pain. Humans who do not have these experiences are often average people who do not have urges to inflict pain on someone else.

Serial killers have many different characteristics than normal people. Although serial killers have different brain activity, different genetics, little behavior skills, or traumatic experiences, their crimes will never be justified. They violently committed unspeakable acts that can never be understood, nor forgotten. Serial killers are very different from normal human beings, and hopefully someday these things mentioned will be decreased so there will be less evil in the world.

Works Cited

1. “PSYCHOPATHS’ BRAINS SHOW DIFFERENCES IN STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION.” University of Wisconsin-Madison, 7 Nov. 2017, www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-events/2011/november/psychopaths-brains-differences-structure-function/.
2. Glicksman, Eve. “Your Brain on Guilt and Shame.” Brainfacts.org, 12 Sept. 2019, https:// www.brainfacts.org/Thinking-Sensing-and-Behaving/Emotions-Stress-and-Anxiety/2019/Your-Brain-on-Guilt-and-Shame-091219.
3. Warner, Claire. “What Psychopaths Tend To Have In Common.” Bustle, 11 Oct. 2016, www.bustle.com/articles/188995-what-makes-someone-a-psychopath-jim-fallons-ted-talk-looks-into-the-minds-of-killers.

Abstract

Serial killers in United States are responsible for about 800 murders per year. For the public are scary and fascinating at the same time, but for the psychology serial killers are unlimited resources for study’s. The researches were trying for years to determine what makes a person a serial killer? The bigger question was is it biological or other factors that create a killer. Today scientists agreed that is not only one factor that plays a role in development in a serial killer. The studies shows that all factors and circumstances need to lay in perfect match, then we have a serial killer. Psychological illness, childhood trauma , sexual abuse in early age, absent father, dominated mother, alcohol abuse…even if all those are present that don’t mean the person will became a serial killer usually has some brain anomaly or malfunction of some areas of the brain. Rodney Alcala is one of America’s worst serial killers. He raped, beat and killed young girls, boys and women. What made him a killer? A mental illness, broken home, combination of all or he is just born evil?

Over the years, scientists have studied serial killers and tried to explain the causes that originate it. Despite the studies about the types of serial killers, the dynamics and psychological mechanisms which lead a person to became a serial killer. Mental illnesses have been found in some of the U.S.’s most loathsome killers throughout history, but it’s important to note that most people suffering from these illnesses do not commit any violent offenses. These instances of mental disorders represent only a small fraction of people diagnosed and the majority of people afflicted do not engage in criminal activity, especially if given proper treatment and social support. One of the most common mental illness in serial killers is antisocial personality disorder. Ted Bundy- serial killer and necrophile, confessed to 30 murders in the 1970s.

John Wayne Gacy, known as the “Killer Clown,” raped and killed 33 boys and young men in the 1970s. Charles Manson, leader of the “Manson Family” cult and mastermind behind the 1969 murders at the home of Sharon Tate, Rodney Alcala also known as “Dating Game Killer” is a serial rapist and serial killer, they all were diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. People with antisocial personality disorder have: aggression, antisocial behavior, deceitfulness, hostility, impulsivity, irresponsibility, irritability, lack of restraint, manipulativeness, or risk taking behaviors.They also: Disregard for right and wrong.Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others.Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others.Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure. Ted Bundy, an infamous sociopath, committed crimes ranging from rape and homicide to burglary and sexual acts on corpses.Born to an unwed mother, Ted Bundy lacked positive male role models. Intelligent, handsome and superficially charming, he graduated from college and won admission to law school. One of the most common and disturbing fac- tors found in many serial killers’ histories is their unusual or unnatural relationships with their mothers, which often included sexual and sadistic elements. Gary Ridgeway stated that his mother ‘‘dressed like a whore’’ when she went out (Court TV’s crime library, n.d.). Other historical factors common in serial killers are abuse, trauma, insecure attachment, loss or abandonment of a parent or caretaker, antisocial behavior, head injury, and low arousal levels. John Wayne Gacy, Gary Ridgeway, and Ed Gein were all physically and verbally abused by a parent and most likely endured some type of trauma. The concept of the psychopathic personality however originated in the early nineteenth century with the research of J. C. Prichard, who formulated the notion of “moral insanity” to refer to a number of mental deficiencies that led to violent or undesired behaviors.

According to Prichard’s findings “certain individuals lacked the “natural feelings” of respect and responsibility and therefore lacked the ability to restrain themselves from socially unacceptable behavior” (Genter, 2010). In looking at serial killers in general, they, as a group can be broken into two basic groups—the psychotics—those who are genuinely insane and are the minority among serial killers. They often hear voices or see visions and have difficulty perceiving reality from fiction and murder is a symptom of their illness (Wittington-Egan, 2008). There is currently little known about what actually causes psychopathology and antisocial personality disorder. There has been however, a lot of attention paid to possible biological, social, psychological and environmental factors that may lead to psychopathy, but there are no definitive results to link their causation (Ogloff, 2006). Personality disorders have been found to be central in determining violent recidivism in an offender. With a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, it is found that reconviction rates for attempted or completed murder, manslaughter, assault, robbery or rape were 3.7 times higher for people with this diagnosis than those without. Psychopthy has also been found to have strong correlation to violent recidivism (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011). The General Aggression Model, GAM, draws on current theoretical approaches such as cognitive neoassociation and social learning and unifies them. The model then argues that aggressive acts rarely happen without the convergence of multiple sudden situational factors and predisposing personal characteristics and identifies the various constructs that operate in the current situation to initiate the aggression alongside those who exert an influence over a longer period of time (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011). There have been two kinds of aggression-related schematic content proposed based on the GAM. The first, aggressive behavioral scripts, are acquired through observation of others, and serve to define situations and guide behavior. The process of using, and positive reinforcement of the aggressive scripts cause them to become firmly established as structures and as a consequence they become well-rehearsed and highly accessible to the individual. The second kind of schematic structure influencing aggression is the normative beliefs. These consist of cognitions about the perceived appropriateness of the behavior. These beliefs serve to guide the evaluation of social behavior and help to search out appropriate behavioral scripts in a given situation and filtering out aggression. The GAM was developed in order help explain the differences in aggressiveness and then may help to clarify the relationship between personality disorders and violence (Gilbert & Daffern, 2011). The FBI estimates that at any given time there is between 200 and 500 serial killers at large and they kill 3,500 people a year. Why are people so fascinated by serial killers? A theory posed by Robert I. Simon, is that he has a hunch that people are fascinated by serial killers because of their perceived resemblance to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Most serial killers tend to appear normal on the outside; they can be your neighbor, may hold down a job and pay taxes. From this false outward appearance of “Dr. Jekyll,” comes the dark side of humanity in the form of Mr. Hyde, the murderer (Simon, 2000).

An example of this outward normalcy that people talk about when it comes to serial killers was John Wayne Gacy. He was a building construction contractor, twice married and an active member in the community and joined the Jolly Joker Club where he created the character, Pogo the clown. Gacy himself even once said “A clown can get away with murder,” and he did so, by raping, sodomizing, torturing and strangling thirty- three young men over the course of ten years (Simon, 2000). Empathy is essential in development of relationships. Psychopaths may be able to sense what someone is thinking or feeling, but they do so in order to use it to their advantage. They do not care whether their actions are causing pain or harm to the other person—they are only interested in getting what they want from their victim and will not think twice about taking the other person’s life in order to get what they want or feel they deserve from them. Temporarily suspending empathy for another is essential for someone to intentionally harm others and is usually accomplished by dehumanization and devaluating the other person (Simon, 2000). The abusive and neglectful experiences that the serial killer experienced while growing up contributes to their need to control their victim and their sadistic association between sex and violence. The serial killer has not reached emotional maturity and cannot deal with violent and sadistic fantasies in an appropriate way. “Through the course of his formative psychosexual development, the individual comes to be sexually gratified by deviant means,” states Simon (p. 6).

Rodney Alcala

Rodney Alcala also known as “Dating Game Killer” is a serial rapist and serial killer, who terrorized California from 1977 to 1979. He was sentenced to death in 2010 for committing 7 murders, the investigators believe Alcala is responsible for more murders. Rodney James Alcala is born August 23,1943, he got the nick name “Dating Game Killer” for his appearance in American dating TV show. He was charming, handsome with very nice manners- real gentleman, but deep inside was a monster. Investigators compared him to Ted Buddy, as Buddy Alcala liked to torcher his victims, rape them and strangle them to death. During the investigation the autorotate found hundreds of photos of young girls and boys in Alcala’s possession, they also believe the number of his victims is a lot larger. Alcala’s first victim was 8 years old Tali Shapiro, she was raped and beaten with a steel bar, but miraculously she survived. Alcala left the state and joined NYU film school, he also worked at New Hampshire arts camp for children using a fake name -John Berger. A 23 year-old Cornelia Michel Crilley, was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. On June 20, 1979, Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl disappeared after she left the beach to go to ballet class. Her remains were found 12 days later in Los Angeles . Robin’s friend told police that a man had approached them on the beach, asking to take their pictures. Investigators got a sketch of the man, and Alcala’s parole officer recognized him. After search of Alcala’s house the detectives found pictures and Samsoe’s earrings. Alcala was arrested and churched for Samsoe’s murder, but the verdict was overturned due not proper presentation of Alcala’s previous sex crimes. With DNA coming more in use the police linked Alcala to other four murders form cold cases. Jill Barcomb, 18 yers-old found raped and killed in Los Angeles , Charlotte Lamb, 31 years old , raped, strangled, and left in the laundry room of an El Segundo, and Jill Parenteau, 21years old, killed in her Burbank apartment. All of the body’s were found staged positions- that suggest Alcala was an organized killer, he also was collecting trophies such as earnings from his victims. In 2003, prosecutors requested to combine Samsoe charges with those of the four newly-discovered victims. California Supreme Court allowed the charges to be combine and in 2006 third trial begin. In this trial Alcala acted as his own attorney, he was asking himself questions and answered to them with different voice. Witnesses on the trial stated that he was acting very bizarre. Currently Alcala is on death row in San Quentin State prison.

What make Rodney Alcala a murder? He was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor in San Antonio, Texas. His father abandoned him when he was very young. The psychology’s believe he had Antisocial Personality Disorder, which made him feel unwanted, untrusting and with difficulty to create relationships with others. Because he can’t connect with others , he feel he can violate their rights. The time spent in the military from 1960 to 1964 made him more organized and precise , but at the same time the discharge made him feel unwanted again. He was discharged by the medical unit, who described him as “Nervous breakdown” and was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. After the army Alcala when to UCLA School of Fine Arts in New York. When Alcala appears in the TV dating show his partner from the show rejected him publicly, that brought back the feelings of anger and pain and feeling unwanted. For him killing is a final act, but most satisfaction was the process of killing and full control over the victims. Alcala was strangled his victims, let them come around and strangle them again, the prosecutor stated that Alcala was playing with his victims. All that process gives him power and god feeling – he hold his victims life in his hands. Lack of remorse is in coronation with antisocial personality disorder. In deference with most serial killers Alcala didn’t had specific type victim, he was killing young girls, boys and middle age women. Some sources claimed that the number of his victims is over 130.

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