Essay/Term paper: Fantasy's integral role in the creation of a killer

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities Essays

Fantasy's Integral Role In The Creation Of A Killer


Through out history seldom has an individual been able to hold a city
in fear. Most times people will just either ignore the individual, let the
police handle the situation, or call them wacko or crazy. But then there are
the extreme cases. On this end of the scale people may have extreme mental
problems or very strong motives, so extreme or so strong that they captivate an
entire city or even nation. Jack the Ripper did it by killing and murdering
five prostitutes. In recent times it has been people like Charles Manson and
the Boston Strangler, who assaulted and murdered thirteen women keeping the
entire city captivated in a state of fear. Serial Killers... Fantasy plays a
very important role in creating and or modeling a serial killer and it is shown
through remorse, uniform and weather or not they have or follow a trademarked
style. All of these elements combined expose the fantasy portrayed by a serial
killer.

Pain, does a serial killer have or feel pain for their victims?
Sometimes the killer may depending on the psychological state they are in. But
then regarding the fact most serial killers grow up in violent households one
might say that the killer does not or even can't feel remorse because violence
is what they were brought up in and to believe is true so it is what they have
been conditioned to believe. Or you could take the approach that the killer
feels they are being threatened by their victims so they had to be removed from
the picture altogether. Or finally it might be the killer is so mentally
unstable that they have very little to no consciences awareness of what they are
doing. But what if they do feel sorrow? Can a serial killer feel sorrow? One
researcher says no. "The inner workings of the mind of a serial killer cannot
grasp the feeling of any kind of sorrow or remorse". Therefore a serial killer
is hate manifested into a physical state and may or may not have motives to
kill.

Serial killers may be killing For many reasons weather it be for
revenge or whatever but one thing remains as a standard among killers you have
to be smart to stay alive. Once you have that intellect comes avoidance from
the law and your capture. One of the best cases of a extremely intelligent
killer was the case of the Zodiac Killer in California. His uniform was to kill
couples parked in cars, by shooting through the window with a .44 gun. Then he
changed his uniform victim to single women who were walking. Then once again
he changed uniform this time back to couples but only if they were not in a car.
Thus showing he had a particular type of victim, although he changed it, it
still followed suit he was just smart enough not to become a pattern killer and
changing his uniform was so that the police would have little chance of
catching him. Many killers have a uniform, a favorite way of killing if you like,
Sort of a pattern. This pattern mostly applies to the victim though. "Serial
killers tend to go after women and children. However some homosexual killers
enjoy hunting gay men." The motivation of these killing spree's are to some
extent unknown but it is speculated that "Their methodical rampages are almost
always sexually motivated." Yet there are some killers who kill at random with
little to no motivation and no uniform victim. These killers travel around and
kill whoever and whenever the feel it necessary, "This human predator claims
more than three victims with a cooling off period in between each killing." Some
people attribute a killer not following a uniform the reason their killing
rampage can continue for so long, yet also there are some killers who follow
uniform and still get away with a lot for instance Pedro Alonso Lopez. Enter
the most prolific and successful killer of all time. Pedro killed 300
estimated on the low end and 450 on the high end, all were teenage girls.
Pedro's killing spree took him on a tour over three nations. He would have
gone free except a flash flood unleashed the bodies from their graves. Pedro
like so many others had his way of killing his on trademarked style.

In this part of the essay certain serial killers will be introduced and
a description of their styles will be given.

Warning: this part contains graphic material.

First of all there is the Green River Killer Who "using a stolen ambulance and
police car would lure his victims inside and then brutally beat them and rape
them, their corpse he would then leave beside a river. He is believed to have
killed 48+ victims . Next is "Gilles de Rais". An ally of Joan of Arc in
fifthteenth century France Gilles started out as a war hero but then turned to
torture and murder. "He enjoyed killing mostly young boys, who he would
sodomize before and after the decapitation. When he wasn't feeling up to the
task he enjoyed watching his servants butcher the boys and masturbated over
their entrails." Then comes "Andrei Chikato: The soviet Hannibal Lecter." He
lived in Rostov Russia, about 500 miles from Moscow, where he lived a quiet
married life as a teacher. What the town didn't know was that Andrei preyed on
small children. He stalked many of his victims in train and bus stations and
had a penchant for disembowelment and mutilation. He was also a cannibal and a
sadist. And last is "John Wayne Gacy". John liked to dress in a hand made
pogo the clown outfit to entertain children. This lonely and sadistic
contractor also liked to young boys privately in a very different fashion. The
prototypical organized killer, he had all the aspects of the murder worked out
before each kill. Once he entered murderess fantasy there was no turning back.
He enjoyed handcuffing his victims, anally raping them, beating them to a pulp,
then offering them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, finally he would recite
passages from the bible and strangle them to death." With this it brings to
mind the saying "to each his own" show each different killers mind workss in its
own unique way having it's own pleasure. "Serial killers similar enough to put
into one category, but different enough to make them difficult to study."

Although we may look inside the mind of a serial killer and in a
medical sense understand how it works we cannot yet grasp the mental concept
Behind why a serial killer kills. It cannot be denied that a serial killer
kills however we can try to understand how to subdue these mad rampages
displayed by a another human being. In that sense we don't really understand
why anyone kills for "A mere slip of the hand on the steering wheel can turn a
normal person into a killer." So until we can fully understand the motives and
workings of an individuals mind we cannot stop them from thinking the thoughts
they think or conjuring the ideas they want. So until then the world has to
move on.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Dubner Steven J. Portrait Of A Serial Killer New York: Signet 1992

2. Haines, Max Multiple Murderers Toronto: The Toronto sun publishing corp.
1994

3. Marilyn Kim Killing Spree Honolulu: Signet 1989

4. "Genesis Of A Serial Killer" On-line. Internet. December 4 1996

5. "Serial Killer Hit List" On-line. Internet. December 11 1996