Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time (a "cooling off period") between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Other sources define the term as "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone" or, including the vital characteristics, a minimum of at least two murders. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings, but the FBI states that motives for serial murder include "anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking." The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common; for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group. Author Ann Rule postulates in her 2004 book Kiss Me, Kill Me that the English-language credit for coining the term "serial killer" goes to LAPD detective Pierce Brooks, creator of the ViCAP system.

Characteristics

The racial demographics regarding serial killers are often subject of debate. In the United States, the majority of reported and investigated serial killers are white males, from a lower-to-middle-class background, usually in their late twenties to early thirties. However, there are African American, Asian, and Hispanic (of any race) serial killers as well, and, according to the FBI, based on percentages of the U.S. population, whites are not more likely than other races to be serial killers. Another study has shown that 16 percent of serial killers are African American, what author Maurice Godwin describes as a "sizeable portion." Anthony Walsh writes, "While it is true that most serial killers are white males, white (Anglo) males are actually slightly underrepresented in the serial killer ranks in terms of their proportion of the general male population" and that "[w]hatever the true proportion of black serial killers in the United States is or has been, it is greater than the proportion of African Americans in the general population."

Compared to South Africa and the United States, Australia has a much lower incidence of known serial murders. While South Africa has no known motive for sexual killing, Australia and U.S. share the motive of "lust killing," as well as childhood sexual abuse, drugs, and animal cruelty.

Other typical characteristics of serial killers include:

Intelligence, with IQs in the "bright normal" range. The FBI, however, states, "Serial murderers often seem normal; have families and a steady job." More than 60 percent wet their beds beyond the age of 12. Dennis Nilsen was an ex-soldier turned civil servant and trade unionist who had no previous criminal record when arrested. Neither were known to have exhibited many of these signs. Vlado Taneski was a career journalist who was caught after a series of articles he wrote gave clues that he had murdered people. Ironically, he was a crime reporter. Colonel Russell Williams was a successful and respected career Canadian Air Force Officer who was convicted of the murder of two women, along with fetish burglaries and rapes.

Psychopaths lack empathy and guilt, are egocentric and impulsive, and theoretically do not conform to social, moral and legal norms. Instead, psychopaths often follow a distinct set of rules which they have created for themselves. They may appear to be normal and often quite charming, a state of adaptation that psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley called the "mask of sanity". In the DSM-IV, psychopathy is listed under Axis II Personality disorders NOS. It is a disorder mainly defined by traits of both antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic. In the near future, the concept of psychopathy requires revision because the new version of the DSM (DSM-V) no longer includes narcissism. Robert Hare created a checklist to differentiate psychopathy from antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), known as the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The questionnaire scores people on Axis I interpersonal/affective and Axis II Behavioral traits.(anti- social). His test found that while 50–80 percent of criminals were diagnosed with ASPD, only 15–30 percent scored as primary psychopaths on the PCL-R test.

The Macdonald triad — animal cruelty, pyromania, and persistent bedwetting (also known as enuresis) past the age of five — is often exhibited by serial killers during their childhood. Subsequent research, however, found that bedwetting is not related to psychopathy.

Development

Many serial killers have faced similar problems in their childhood development. Hickey's Trauma Control Model explains how early childhood trauma can set the child up for deviant behavior in adulthood. The child's environment (either their parents or society) is the dominant factor in whether or not the child's behavior escalates into homicidal activity.

Family, or lack thereof, is the most prominent part of a child's development because it is what the child can identify with on a regular basis. "The serial killer is no different than any other individual who is instigated to seek approval from parents, sexual partners, or others." This need for approval is what influences children to attempt to develop social relationships with their family and peers, but if they are rejected or neglected, they are unable to do so. This results in the lowering of their self-esteem and helps develop their fantasy world in which they are in control. Hickey's Trauma Control Model clearly shows that the development of a serial killer is based on an early trauma followed by facilitators (porn, drugs, and alcohol) and disposition (the inability to attach).

Family interaction also plays an important role in a child's growth and development. "The quality of their attachments to parents and other members of the family is critical to how these children relate to and value other members of society."

Wilson and Seaman (1990) conducted a study on incarcerated serial killers and what they felt was the most influential factor that contributed to their homicidal activity. Almost all of the serial killers in the study had experienced some sort of environmental problems during their childhood, such as a broken home, or a lack of discipline in the home. It was common for the serial killers to come from a family that had experienced divorce, separation, or the lack of a parent. Furthermore, nearly half of the serial killers had experienced some type of physical and sexual abuse and even more had experienced emotional neglect. When a parent has a drug or alcohol problem, the attention in the household is on the parents rather than the child. This neglect of the child leads to the lowering of their self-esteem and helps develop a fantasy world in which they are in control. Hickey's Trauma Control Model supports how the neglect from parents can facilitate deviant behavior especially if the child sees substance abuse in action. This then leads to disposition (the inability to attach), which can further lead to homicidal behavior unless the child finds a way to develop substantial relationships and fight the label they receive. If a child receives no support from those around him or her, then he or she is unlikely to recover from the traumatic event in a positive way. As stated by E. E. Maccoby, "the family has continued to be seen as a major — perhaps the major — arena for socialization."

Fantasy

Children who do not have the power to control the mistreatment they suffer sometimes create a new reality to which they can escape. This new reality becomes their fantasy that they have total control of and becomes part of their daily existence. In this fantasy world their emotional development is guided and maintained. According to Garrison (1996), "the child becomes sociopathic because the normal development of the concepts of right and wrong and empathy towards others is retarded because of the child's emotional and social development occurs within his self-centered fantasies. A person can do no wrong in his own world and the pain of others is of no consequence when the purpose of the fantasy world is to satisfy the needs of one person" (Garrison, 1996). Boundaries between fantasy and reality are lost and fantasies turn to dominance, control, sexual conquest, and violence, eventually leading to murder. Fantasy can lead to the first step in the process of a dissociative state, which, in the words of Stephen Giannangelo, "allows the serial killer to leave the stream of consciousness for what is, to him, a better place."

Criminologist Jose Sanchez reports, "the young criminal you see today is more detached from his victim, more ready to hurt or kill . . . The lack of empathy for their victims among young criminals is just one symptom of a problem that afflicts the whole society." Lorenzo Carcaterra, author of Gangster (2001), explains how potential criminals are labeled by society, which can then lead to their offspring also developing in the same way through the cycle of violence.The ability for serial killers to appreciate the mental life of others is severely compromised, presumably leading to their dehumanization of others. This process may be considered as an expression of the intersubjectivity associated with a cognitive deficit regarding the capability to make sharp distinctions between other people and inanimate objects. For these individuals objects can appear to possess animistic or humanistic power while people are perceived as objects Before he was executed, serial killer Ted Bundy stated media violence and pornography had stimulated and increased his need to commit homicide, although this statement was made during last ditch efforts to appeal his death sentence.

Organized, disorganized, and mixed

The FBI's Crime Classification Manual places serial killers into three categories: organized, disorganized, and mixed — offenders who exhibit organized and disorganized characteristics. Some killers descend from being organized into disorganized behavior as their killings continue.

Organized nonsocial offenders usually have above average intelligence, with a mean IQ of 123. They often plan their crimes quite methodically, usually abducting victims, killing them in one place and disposing of them in another. They will often lure the victims with ploys appealing to their sense of sympathy. For example, Ted Bundy would put his arm in a fake plaster cast and ask women to help him carry something to his car, where he would beat them unconscious with a tire iron, and carry them away. Others specifically target prostitutes, who are likely to go voluntarily with a stranger. They maintain a high degree of control over the crime scene, and usually have a solid knowledge of forensic science that enables them to cover their tracks, such as burying the body or weighing it down and sinking it in a river. They follow their crimes in the media carefully and often take pride in their actions, as if it were all a grand project. The organized killer is usually socially adequate, has friends and lovers, and sometimes even a spouse and children. They are the type who, when/if captured, are most likely to be described by acquaintances as kind and unlikely to hurt anyone. Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are examples of organized serial killers.

Medical professionals

Some people with a pathological interest in the power of life and death tend to be attracted to medical professions or acquiring such a job.}}}}}} These kinds of killers are sometimes referred to as "angels of death" or angels of mercy. Medical professionals will kill their patients for money, for a sense of sadistic pleasure, for a belief that they are "easing" the patient's pain, or simply "because they can." One such killer was nurse Jane Toppan, who admitted during her murder trial that she was sexually aroused by death. She would administer a drug mixture to patients she chose as her victims, lie in bed with them and hold them close to her body as they died. They tend to murder men for material gain, are usually emotionally close to their victims, They commit killings in specific places, such as their home or a health-care facility, or at different locations within the same city or state. Other methods used by female serial killers include shootings (used by 20%), suffocation (16%), stabbing (11%), and drowning (5%). Though most female serial killers murder for money or other such material gain In describing murderer Stacey Castor, forensic psychiatrist Dr. James Knoll offered a psychological perspective on what defines a "black widow" type. In simple terms, he described it as a woman who kills two or more husbands or lovers for material gain. Though Castor was not officially defined as a serial killer, it is likely that she would have killed again. The most prolific serial killer in all of history is allegedly Elizabeth Báthory. Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, August 17, 1560 – August 21, 1614) was a countess from the renowned Báthory family. After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80. Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted. In 1610, however, she was imprisoned in the Csejte Castle, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later.

An article which addressed some of the misperceptions of female criminality has appeared in the forensic literature. The Perri and Lichtenwald article addresses the current research regarding female psychopathy and includes case studies of female psychopathic killers featuring Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy, Cesarean Section Homicide, Fraud Detection Homicide, female kill teams, and a female serial killer.

Hedonistic

This type of serial killer seeks thrills and derives pleasure from killing, seeing people as expendable means to this goal. Forensic psychologists have identified three subtypes of the hedonistic killer: "lust", "thrill" and "comfort".

Lust

Sex is the primary motive of lust killers, whether or not the victims are dead, and fantasy plays a large role in their killings. Their sexual gratification depends on the amount of torture and mutilation they perform on their victims. They usually use weapons that require close contact with the victims, such as knives or hands. As lust killers continue with their murders, the time between killings decreases or the required level of stimulation increases, sometimes both.

Kenneth Bianchi, one of the "Hillside Stranglers", murdered women and girls of different ages, races and appearance because his sexual urges required different types of stimulation and increasing intensity.

Jeffrey Dahmer searched for his perfect fantasy lover — beautiful, submissive and eternal. As his desire increased, he experimented with drugs, alcohol and exotic sex. His increasing need for stimulation was demonstrated by the dismemberment of victims, whose heads and genitals he preserved. He experimented with cannibalism to "ensure his victims would always be a part of him".

Thrill

The primary motive of a thrill killer is to induce pain or create terror in their victims, which provides stimulation and excitement for the killer. They seek the adrenaline rush provided by hunting and killing victims. Thrill killers murder only for the kill; usually the attack is not prolonged, and there is no sexual aspect. Usually the victims are strangers, although the killer may have followed them for a period of time. Thrill killers can abstain from killing for long periods of time and become more successful at killing as they refine their murder methods. Many attempt to commit the perfect crime and believe they will not be caught. Robert Hansen took his victims to a secluded area, where he would let them loose and then hunt and kill them. In one of his letters to San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, the Zodiac Killer wrote "[killing] gives me the most thrilling experience it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl". Coral Watts was described by a surviving victim as "excited and hyper and clappin’ and just making noises like he was excited, that this was gonna be fun" during the 1982 attack. Slashing, stabbing, hanging, drowning, asphyxiating, and strangling were among the ways Watts killed.

Comfort (profit)

Material gain and a comfortable lifestyle are the primary motives of comfort killers. Usually, the victims are family members and close acquaintances. After a murder, a comfort killer will usually wait for a period of time before killing again to allow any suspicions by family or authorities to subside. They often use poison, most notably arsenic, to kill their victims. Female serial killers are often comfort killers, although not all comfort killers are female. Dorothea Puente killed her tenants for their Social Security checks and buried them in the backyard of her home. H. H. Holmes killed for insurance and business profits. Professional killers ("hitmen") may also be considered serial killers. Richard Kuklinski charged tens of thousands of dollars for a "hit", earning enough money to support his family in a middle-class lifestyle (Bruno, 1993).

Some, like Puente and Holmes, may be involved in and/or have previous convictions for theft, fraud, non payment of debts, embezzlement and other crimes of a similar nature. Dorothea Puente was finally arrested on a parole violation, having been on parole for a previous fraud conviction.

Power/control

The main objective for this type of serial killer is to gain and exert power over their victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy as adults. Many power- or control-motivated killers sexually abuse their victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is not motivated by lust but as simply another form of dominating the victim. Ted Bundy traveled around the United States seeking women to control.

Theories

Biological and sociological

Theories for why certain people commit serial murder have been advanced. Some theorists believe the reasons are biological, suggesting serial killers are born, not made, and that their violent behavior is a result of abnormal brain activity. Holmes and Holmes believe that "[u]ntil a reliable sample can be obtained and tested, there is no scientific statement that can be made concerning the exact role of biology as a determining factor of a serial killer personality." The "Fractured Identity Syndrome" (FIS) is a merging of Charles Cooley's Looking Glass Self and Erving Goffman's "virtual" and "actual social identity" theories. The FIS suggests a social event, or series of events, during one's childhood or adolescence results in a fracturing of the personality of the serial killer. The term "fracture" is defined as a small breakage of the personality which is often not visible to the outside world and is only felt by the killer.

"Social Process Theory" has also been suggested as an explanation for serial murder. Social process theory states that offenders may turn to crime due to peer pressure, family, and friends. Criminal behavior is a process of interaction with social institutions, in which everyone has the potential for criminal behavior.}} A lack of family structure and identity could also be a cause leading to serial murder traits. A child used as a scapegoat will be deprived of their capacity to feel guilt. Displaced anger could result in animal torture, as identified in the Macdonald triad, and a further lack of basic identity.

Military

The "military theory" can be included as to why serial murderers kill. Looking deeper into some serial murderer's pasts reveals that some have served in the military or other such fields. According to Castle and Hensley, 7% of the serial killers studied had military experience. Jeffrey Dahmer served in the US Army as a Combat medic/Orderly until being medically discharged. John Reginald Christie served in the Sherwood Foresters in the trenches during World War I, later serving in the Metropolitan Police as a Special constable (a reserved occupation) during World War II, despite having convictions for theft and assault. Dennis Nilsen was a former soldier (working as a butcher) who later served in the Metropolitan Police before becoming a civil servant and trade unionist.

7% of serial killers today have some background or experience in the military. Two such serial killers are David Russell Williams "The Kinky Killer Colonel" and Robert Lee Yates. David Russell Williams was a colonel in the Canadian Air Force who escalated from panty heists to serial rape to serial murder. Robert Lee Yates killed prostitutes in different areas of Washington State while he was in the military. He is currently staying on death row of the prison he, ironically, worked in earlier in life. However, serial killer Randy Steven Kraft killed US Marines after he was discharged from the military for mental health reasons. He figured "if I couldn't be a marine, they can't either".

There are two theories that can be used to study the correlation between serial killing and military training, and those two theories are "applied learning theory" and "social learning theory." Applied learning theory states that serial killing can be learned. The military is training for higher kill rates for servicemen while training the soldiers to be desensitized to killing a human life.However, serial killing can be unlearned as well as learned. Social learning theory can be used when soldiers get praised and accommodated for killing. They learn that it is okay to kill because they were praised for it in the military. Serial killers want accreditation for the work that they have done.

In both the military and serial killing, either the offender or the officer are dehumanized to killing as well as compartmentalized. The soldiers do not see the other soldiers as humans while killers do not see their victims as humans.

Identification

According to the FBI identifying one, or multiple, murders as being the work of a serial killer is the first challenge an investigation faces. Especially if the victim(s) come from a marginalized or high risk population and is normally linked through forensic or behavioral evidence (FBI 2008). The FBI suggests utilizing databases and increasing interdepartmental communication. Keppel (1989) suggests holding multi-jurisdictional conferences regularly to compare cases giving departments a greater chance to detect linked cases and overcome linkage blindness.

Leadership

Leadership, or administration, should play a small or virtually non-existent role in the actual investigation past assigning knowledgeable or experienced homicide investigators to lead positions. The administrations roll is not to run the investigation but to establish and reaffirm the primary goal of catching the serial killer, as well as provide support for the investigators. The FBI (2008)

The FBI handbook provides a description of how a task force should be organized but offers no additional options on how to structure the investigation. While it appears advantageous to have a full time staff assigned to a serial murder investigation it can become prohibitively expensive. For example the Green River Task Force cost upwards of two million dollars a year (Guillen 2007), in which departments get together and focus on a specific set of topics. With serial murders the focus is typically on unsolved cases, with evidence thought to be related to the case at hand.

Similar to a conference is an information clearing house in which a jurisdiction with a suspected serial murder case collects all of it’s evidence and actively seeks data which may be related from other jurisdictions (Egger 1990). (1560–1614) was known.]] Liu Pengli of China, cousin of the Han Emperor Jing, was made king of Jidong in the sixth year of the middle period of Jing's reign (144 BC). According to the Chinese historian Sima Qian, he would "go out on marauding expeditions with 20 or 30 slaves or young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport". Although many of his subjects knew about these murders, it was not until the 29th year of his reign that the son of one of his victims finally sent a report to the Emperor. Eventually, it was discovered that he had murdered at least 100 people. The officials of the court requested that Liu Pengli be executed; however, the emperor could not bear to have his own cousin killed, so Liu Pengli was made a commoner and banished.

In the 15th century, one of the wealthiest men in Europe and a former companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, sexually assaulted and killed peasant children, mainly boys, whom he had abducted from the surrounding villages and taken to his castle. It is estimated that his victims numbered between 140 and 800. The Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory allegedly tortured and killed as many as 650 girls and young women before her arrest in 1610.

Thug Behram, a gang leader of the Indian Thuggee cult of assassins, has frequently been said to be the world's most prolific serial killer. According to numerous sources, he was believed to have murdered 931 victims by means of strangulation with a ceremonial cloth between 1790 and 1830. According to some estimates the Thuggees murdered 1 million people between 1740 and 1840.

In his 1886 book Psychopathia Sexualis, psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing noted a case of a serial murderer in the 1870s, a Frenchman named Eusebius Pieydagnelle who had a sexual obsession with blood and confessed to murdering six people.

The unidentified killer Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes (the exact number of victims is not known) in London in 1888. Those crimes gained enormous press attention because London was the world's greatest center of power at the time, so having such dramatic murders of financially destitute women in the midst of such wealth focused the news media's attention on the plight of the urban poor and gained coverage worldwide. He has also been called the most famous serial killer of all time.

American serial killer H. H. Holmes was hanged in Philadelphia in 1896 after confessing to 27 murders. Joseph Vacher was executed in France in 1898 after confessing to killing and mutilating 11 women and children.

In media and popular culture

Art

Collecting art created by convicted serial killers has become a special pastime for some. John Wayne Gacy drew and painted art from prison, much of which he gave away. Some people took the work just to trash or burn it, especially after discovering many of his images depicted his own victims. In 2005, serial killer Alfred Gaynor's art was offered on an online auction. One of his more popular works, titled "A Righteous Man's Reward", was a drawing depicting the figure of Jesus.

Books

There is a huge market for "True Crime" and mystery murder novels, some of the more successful authors being Patricia Cornwell, Ann Rule, Truman Capote, and Philip Carlo. The novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson can be seen as a metaphor for the complex personality of the organized serial killer type that later disintegrates into the disorganized version. One of the greatest themes of this book, however, is the possibility that the dualistic conflict seen in Jekyll/Hyde could happen to anyone.

Controversy

One of the most well-known opponents of collectors of serial killer remnants, Andrew Kahan, is said to have coined the term "murderabilia". He is the director of the Mayor's Crime Victims Office in Houston and is backed by the families of murder victims, and "Son of Sam" laws existing in some states that prevent murderers from profiting from the publicity generated by their crimes. The already vast and continuing production of serial-killer based works shows that the serial killer is simply fascinating to a large portion of American culture. (Anderson) We cringe at their bloody antics but remain transfixed watching violence on television. (“Serendip”) They seem unable to give love and affection to others and have been called moral idiots since their conduct is often motivated by an excessive physiological need for thrills and excitement. (Gado) This fascination may be our way of connecting with a power that has been repressed within us. (“Serendip”)

Serial killers are featured as stock characters in many types of media, including books, films, television programs, songs and video games. Films featuring serial killers include Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, The Watcher, Mr. Brooks, Zodiac, Seven, Copycat, Halloween, Scream, Man Bites Dog, The Hitcher, Monster, The Killer Inside Me and many others.

The television series Dexter revolves around Dexter Morgan, a police blood-spatter pattern analyst who moonlights as a vigilante serial killer, attempting to channel his homicidal urges in a "positive" direction by killing other murderers who have slipped through the cracks of the legal system. It is based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Other notable literature with a serial killer theme includes Davis Grubb's The Night of the Hunter, Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me and Thomas Harris' books Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, all featuring Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a cannibalistic serial killer. The television show Criminal Minds follows the cases of an FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit as it pursues serial killers.

Memorabilia

Notorious and infamous serial killers number in the hundreds, and a subculture revolves around their legacies. "Murderabilia", or memorabilia centered around famous serial killers, includes the paintings, writings, and poems of these killers. Recently, marketing has capitalized even more upon interest in serial killers with the rise of various merchandise such as trading cards, action figures, and encyclopedias like The Serial Killer Files "The Encyclepedia of Serial Killer" by Harold Schecter. Some serial killers literally attain the status of "celebrity" in the way they acquire 'fans'. Some killers even have previous personal possessions auctioned off on websites like eBay. A few examples of this are Ed Gein's 150 pound stolen gravestone, and Bobby Joe Long's sunglasses.

Music

Modern singers and bands, some more popular than others, have felt the fascination and horror toward certain celebrity serial killers, writing their own songs about them.

See also

List of serial killers by country

List of serial killers by number of victims

Offender profiling

Serial crime

Spree killer

List of horror movie serial killers

Son of Sam Law

Footnotes

;References

;Bibliography

Further reading

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External links

Crime Library's Serial Killer page

Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators Official FBI publication

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