Essay/Term paper: Serial killers

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Social Issues

Serial Killers


"God, I've never done anything. Help me, help me! God, why is this
happening? Help me!" Robert Violante screamed as the Son of Sam's .44 caliber
bullet tore through his temple (Eyes of a Killer, http.//www.serialkiller.com).
Serial killers are the most famous of all murderers because of their mass
numbers of victims and their odd rituals of killing. What is a serial killer?
A serial killer falls into two categories: psychotics and psychopaths.
Psychotics are clearly insane, they fail to perceive reality correctly. A
minority of serial killers are psychotics. Psychopaths, also known as a
sociopaths, do not suffer from a mental illness, but from a character flaw.
They are in touch with reality, and know right from wrong. They know killing is
wrong, they just don't care (1994, Serial Killers, Time Life Books). You cannot
pick a sociopath out in a crowd because they look just like everybody else.
Actually, they act just like everybody else. You could have a neighbor that's a
serial killer and not even know it. Psychopaths are everyday people with
everyday lives, but they just have one problem, they have a need to kill.
What does a serial killer do? Serial killers usually have reasons for
killing, they just don't go out and kill anyone (the majority). A serial killer
will plan out where, when, why, and how before they actually kill. Ted Bundy
used to lure his victims with a phony cast on his leg. Others lured with the
promise of sex or porno movies. When they kill they usually have their own
style. The Son of Sam used a .44 Cal, Dahmer killed various ways and then
hacked his victims into several pieces, dumping the bodies into vats of acid,
and Gacy molested little boys before strangling them and dumping them into the
crawl space under his home.
What makes a serial killer? A serial killer tends to be white, male,
and middle aged. There are other races, sexes, and ages, but the majority fit
the description I've just given. Their character flaw seems to come from their
childhood. Ted Bundy grew up in a male dominated family, so Ted grew up to kill
women. John Wayne Gacy was sexually molested by a man and accused of being a
"queer" by his father, so John grew up to kill little boys. Ed Gein was over
protected by his mother so he grew up with a warped sexual sense and started,
gravedigging, and making furniture out of corpses, and killing
To be labeled a serial killer, a person must kill at least three people
with intervals between each killing. That is what differentiates a serial
killer from a mass murderer. Mass murderers will kill large numbers of people
at one time, (1994 Mass Murderers, Time Life Books) while a serial killer will
kill and kill again over a period of time.
Everybody knows that serial killers murder people in abhorrent ways,
they often do not know the whole story behind these deranged people. Serial
killers backgrounds are often too hideous for the common person to endure.
Others view what these people do as taboo and refuse to believe that it happens
in our society. Well it does happen, and to understand the full concept of a
serial killer you have to know the whole story. Because every serial killer has
their own uniqueness, you'll have to hear several case profiles too understand
the idiosyncrasies between them.
Psychotics are the easiest of all serial killers to pick out. That is
because they are insane. They often tend to have interesting stories behind
their killings because they often see and hear things that the normal person
doesn't. Schizophrenia is a common source are associated with psychotics.
Schizophrenics will hear voices in their head and will ultimately make them go
insane. Often the voices will make these people kill to appease them or to kill
for a cause. Psychotics will most likely have a normal childhood unlike the
psychopath. Although there are cases were psychotics have had a rough childhood
as in the case of Ed Gein. The number of psychotics compared to the psychopath
are minimal. Psychotics have a mental disease unlike the psychopaths which have
a character flaw. To show what a psychotic actually is, the following are two
profiles on psychotics with interpreted case histories.

Herbert Mullin

Herbert Mullin had a normal childhood. Growing up in a middle class
family Herbert had no major difficulties. But by the time he was twenty,
Herbert started to become violent, had began learning Eastern religions, and
became a drug user. In 1969, he started to imitate his brother-in-law and his
parents were worried that he suffered from echopraxia. Echopraxia is one of the
first symptoms of schizophrenia. Herbert admitted himself into a mental health
institution and was diagnosed with having schizophrenia. Six weeks later he was
released. Upon released he shaved his head and began slipping away from reality,
during this time he was quoted as saying "murder is an act of love". In 1972
Herbert went to visit his parents in Santa Cruz; it was at this point when
Herbert began to hear voices. He believed that his father was communicating
with him telepathically. The voice would instruct him to go kill people. So in
time he had done just that. His first victim was a man that he clubbed to death.
A few months later he picked up a hitchhiker, stabbed her to death and dumped
the body. His third victim was a Catholic priest he stabbed to death in a
confessional. By this time a new voice had entered his head. Albert Einstein
told Herbert telepathically that Herb was the "designated leader" of his
generation. Einstein then told Herb that he had to sacrifice people to stop the
great California earthquakes. Then the voices changed in Herbert's head from
Einstein to random people offering themselves to be killed. Herb killed five of
these people. In early February he came across some teenagers illegally camping,
Herb first told them to leave but then shot and killed them all. Then on
February 13 Mullin was delivering firewood when the voices told him that he
could not deliver the wood until he killed someone. As he was on his way to
deliver the wood, he observed a seventy two year old man, he shot him and
continued on his way never leaving his vehicle. Herb was quickly arrested but
he didn't even know why. Herb was not found insane by the courts, but this is
highly arguementive. Herb Mullin was sentenced to life in prison.

Ed Gein

The people of Plainfield, considered Ed Gein a gentle man who
everybody trusted. Ed had a very strict childhood. His father died when he was
very young. His mother then decided that she would raise her children and not
marry or be involved in any relationship. Mrs. Gein told Ed and his brother
Henry that all women were bad and that sex would lead to heart breaks and
diseases. Later in life, Ed confessed he felt his mother was good in every
manner (deranged,wierd,sick, http.//www.deranged.com). Authorities suspected
he had a sexual relationship with his mother. Within a matter of time Ed's
mother and brother had died, leaving Ed desolate on a farm which didn't even
have electricity. Ed worked odd jobs like a handyman and baby-sitting. In his
free time, Ed conducted psychotic experiments. Fascinated with the female body,
Ed often indulged himself in anatomical textbooks. To actually see and feel for
himself, he went to the graveyard and exhumed several bodies, including his
mothers'. He found pleasure in handling dead women's sex organs. Even worse,
he skinned the corpses and dissected the bodies. The inventory inside his home
consisted of heads, hearts, livers, intestines, and skin scattered about. At
night he would take off all of his clothes, put on his mothers skin, and dance
around the house. Seeking yet more sexual gratification Ed made furniture and
musical instruments from body parts. Some of these items included lampshades,
tom toms, and bracelets. Gein then moved on to killing other people. Even
though he only killed two women (Mary Hogan and Bernice Wordan), Ed was still
considered a serial killer. After killing Bernice Wordan, the evidence left
behind lead to Ed Gein. When the authorities arrived they were welcomed by an
assortment of human artifacts. Shrunken heads, drinking glass skulls, and skin
furniture. Ed didn't realize that what he had done was wrong so he invited the
police in for coffee. In the kitchen there was a human heart simmering in a
saucepan. The police then found Bernice hanging in the barn, she was gutted and
strung up like a deer. Most of the officers became sick after viewing the
carnage. Ed was arrested and found by the court to be insane. He was
institutionalized for the rest of his life. The movies Psycho and Silence of
the Lambs were based on his life (1994 Serial Killers, Time Life Books).

Psychopaths or also known as sociopaths are people with a severe
character flaw in which they feel like they have to kill. Sociopaths know that
killing is wrong, they just don't care. Sociopaths act just like everybody else,
some are shy, and some are extremely outgoing. These people are usually led to
killing by influences that have warped their personalities. Common examples are
child abuse, a fetish with a certain items, or a hatred of some sort. A serial
killer loves to kill, it gives the killer a sense of power and gratification.
Since sociopaths far out number the psychotic, seven profiles on select serial
killers are givin to understand the many different aspects serial killers have.

Gilles De Rais

This serial killer is the third most notorious serial killer known. His
name is Gilles De Rais. During the Hundred Years War, De Rais was Joan of Arc's
personal bodyguard. Immensely rich, and popular throughout France, De Rais was
named a baron to the people. Being a faithful Christian, it was hard to accept
what De Rais had done. Other lords and the common people became suspicious of
all the missing children in the area. The Bishop of Nantees demanded that De
Rais's castle be searched. In a pit within the castle, they dug up the remains
of one hundred and forty boys. De Rais had murdered them all by means of
satanic ritual or sexual gratification. At times when he didn't feel like
killing, he had his servants molest, torture, and murder the young men. While
this was happening, De Rais watched and masturbated over the children's entrails.
De Rais and his servants were found guilty of murder and torture. De Rais was
simultaneously hanged and burned alive, while his servants were just burned
alive. Though, they only found the remains of 140 people, it was estimated that
he killed over 300 (Compulsion to Kill, Time Life Books).

Albert Fish

The next serial killer to be discussed is Albert Fish. The father of
sadism, Fish was sexually aroused by pain and misery. After Fish's wife and
six children left him, he would become aroused by inflicting pain upon himself.
He would eat his own defications, stick flaming alcohol balls into his anus,
flagellate himself with a nail studded paddle, burn himself with red hot pokers,
and insert sewing needles into his groin. At night he would dance naked in his
yard screaming "I am Christ!" (1994,Serial Killers, Time Life Books). As a pass
time Fish would answer lonely widow ads in the newspaper by giving promises of
paddling, punishment, and much worse. He bigamously married three of the women
he had met through the ads in the paper. None of these rituals could fully
sexually appease him so Fish turned to molesting children and cannibalism.
After molesting seven little girls and then strangling them, he decided to try
cannibalism. The 8th and final victim was ten year old Grace Budd. He told her
parents that Fish was taking her to Fish's niece birthday party. There was
actually no party, he took her to an abandoned house in the country. After
molesting and strangling the girl, he chopped her into pieces and made a stew
out of her. When Fish ate the stew he had experienced an orgasm that lasted
seven days straight. He then quickly moved out of state but his conscience told
him to inform the parents what had happened to their daughter considering the
Budds were his friends. Albert wrote the Budds a letter telling them what a
delight it had been eating their daughter. The police then traced the return
address and apprehended Fish. He was found guilty of murder and a multitude of
other charges and then sentenced to death. At age 65, Fish was the oldest
person electrocuted at Sing Sing prison. An untrue legend has it that Fish
short circuited the electric chair due to all the sewing needles in his groin
(1994, Beyond Murder, John Philpin, Penguin Books USA Inc.)

Richard Ramirez

The third sociopath I will write about is Richard Ramirez. Ever since
Richard was a boy he was a loner. By the time he was in 8th grade he was
sniffing glue and smoking marijuana but shunned group activities such as youth
gangs. The one thing about Richard that is the most frightening is that he
killed randomly. There were no racial, sexual, or age preferences. Richard
would just break into houses and kill the occupants. Ramirez's first victim was
seventy-nine year old Jennie Vincow, whom he raped and nearly decapitated.
Ramirez was homeless, sleeping anywhere he could. As a pass time Richard would
flirt with Satanism and practice in the occult. After killing thirteen people
and assaulting about thirty more, Richard was finally captured with the first
time used invention of the computer used to match finger prints (VICAP) (1994,
Most Wanted, Time Life Books). Ramirez was found guilty and was given the death
penalty. Richard tried pleading insanity but the court found that he wasn't.
"The Night Stalker" would kill just because he liked to.

Jerry Brudos

Jerry Brudos was known as the Shoe Fetish Slayer. At age five Jerry
found a pair of high heel shoes in the dump and became fascinated by them.
Jerry took them home and wore them around until his mother found out, Jerry was
severely punished. When Jerry was 16, he dug a tunnel hoping to capture a girl
in it so he could make her do anything that he wanted. Still enchanted by the
high heeled shoes, Jerry started to burglarize houses, stealing their high
heeled shoes and sometimes lingerie. After stealing the items, Jerry would go
home and try them on. In 1956 Jerry was arrested for assaulting a little girl
and trying to rip her clothes off. At age 23, he married a 17 year old girl
and became the father of two children. This is when he started to kill. In
January 1968, he killed a 19 year old who was selling encyclopedias door to
door (1994, Lethal Shadow, Stephan Michaud, Penguin Books USA Inc.). Knocking
her unconcious, he took her to the basement, and then strangled her. He then
undressed her, and put on her undergarments and high heeled shoes. Fascinated
by the shoe, Jerry cut off her left foot, put a high heeled shoe on it, and then
stored it in the freezer. But now what was he going to do with the body? He
tied her to an old, discarded engine block and tossed her into the Willamette
River. His next victim was killed ten months later. This time he dressed up
the cadaver and took photographs. He severed one of her breasts before dumping
her into the Willamette River. In March 1969, Brudos had raped another victim
and then strangled her. Once finished with the body, Jerry severed both breasts
before dumping her body. His last victim followed about a month later; after
the rape and murder, he applied electric shocks to the rib cage to see if the
body would jump. A anonymous tip led the authorities to Brudos. At his home
they found special electrician knots which were used to hold down the body in
the river. They had also found his souvenir collection of body parts. The last
thing the authorities found was a photograph of a dead woman hanging from a hook
in his garage. Jerry was charged with three out of the four murders and was
sentenced to life in prison. Jerry is eligible for parole in 1999
(1994,Compulsion to Kill, Time Life Books).

Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy was probably the most brilliant serial killer of all time. A
law school drop out, this murderer of thirty six women was on a killing spree
that lasted a decade. As a child, he grew up in a male dominated household.
His father would scream, yell, and beat his mother. Ted grew up with domestic
violence ingrained into his personality. He tried many times, but relationships
never lasted. He was a charming and well educated man. To some he was
considered a hero. When he was a teenager, he saved a child from drowning. So
it was considered odd that he ended up a killer. When he was in his twenties he
married Beth Archer. This seemed peculiar because by this time he had already
killed two dozen women. Eventually she divorced him and he remarried Carol
Bartholomew. Even though he was married, he still continued to stalk and murder.
Ted's common hunting grounds were universities and beaches. He lured his
victims by using a fake cast. Women would feel sympathetic and help him with
his books or assist him in some other way. This would be their fatal mistake.
He would take them out of site and then murder them. Ted's methods of killing
were strangling and/or beating to death with blunt objects (1994, Serial
Killers, Time Life Books. He knew how to cover his tracks and not let anyone
notice him. When he'd go "hunting" he would leave the area which he live
traveling as much as three hundred miles to find his victims. Police became
suspicious of Ted but they had no evidence against him. Nationwide, college
campuses were advised to be on the lookout for anyone unfamiliar roaming the
campuses with a cast on. One day Ted's wife was scavenging the attic for
something when she stumbled upon a box filled with cast material. She called
the police and Ted was apprehended. With Ted's friendly personality he was
givin a lot of freedom in the courts. Since he was a law student he decided to
represent himself. One day in court Ted asked to go to the bathroom and was
allowed to do so. The court room was on the third floor so they didn't
anticipate an escape attempt. Unattended in the bathroom, Ted jumped from the
third floor window and escaped with a broken leg. There was a state wide man
hunt for Bundy and he was apprehended a few days later. Ted was then shackled
in the courtroom and his liberties were stripped. The courts have convicted Ted
with thirty six counts of murder. Ted, after conviction, admitted to the crimes
he had committed. He had a hard time remembering the names because there were
so many victims. Ted had a inner hatred towards women and this was the only way
he knew how to deal with this hatred. Ted was executed January 24, 1989. His
last word were "Thirty six is the wrong number, you have to add one more digit"
(1992, To Kill and Kill Again, John Coston, Penguin Books USA Inc.). This means
he could of killed one more, ten more, or a hundred more, we will never know.

Henry Lucas

If anything that can go wrong in a childhood, it has happened to Henry
Lee Lucas. The youngest of nine, Henry came from a severely dysfunctional family.
He never knew his father, just a drunken stepfather that lost both his legs
while working for a railroad, who eventually died of pneumonia. Henry's mother
was a cruel prostitute. She made him grow his hair long, and put him in dresses
just to make fun of him. If he'd disobey, she'd beat him until he was
unconcious. Sometimes she'd make him watch while she was with a client. It
took Henry three years to pass the first grade and he dropped out after the
fifth. At a young age he was subjected to necrophilia. One of his mother's
lovers killed a cow and had sex with it. His older brother damaged Henry's eye
in a fight and when a teacher accidentally hit him, he went blind in that eye.
In 1960 Henry killed his mother in a argument about marriage. He claimed that
she died of a heart attack after he punched her and slightly slit her throat.
The autopsy showed that she had actually died from bleeding to death. Henry
was sentenced to twenty to forty years in prison; but only served ten. After
Henry was released from prison he teamed up with Ottis Toole, a bisexual
cannibal, and they went on a nation wide killing spree. They killed and raped
their victims as it was a necessity to them. If they ever had a urge to kill,
they said that they would just pick up a hitchhiker every now and then. Joining
up with them later was Toole's niece, Becky Powell. With time she developed a
relationship with Henry and he ultimately ended up killing her too. Henry had
Becky's dismembered body in the back seat of a car when he was stopped by a
deputy sheriff in Texas. After arrest Henry admitted killing over 360 people
nationwide. Officers from twenty eight states came to interrogate him (which
had included my father, Richard Wellner). In one interview he was quoted as
saying "We killed them every way there is except one, I haven't poisoned anybody.
We cut 'em up. We hanged 'em. We ran 'em down with cars. We stabbed 'em. We
beat 'em. We drowned 'em. There's crucifixion-there's people we fillet like
fish. There's people we burnt.(1994,Serial Killers, Time Life Books) There's
people we shot in cars. We strangled them by hand. We strangled them by rope.
We strangled them by telephone cord. We stabbed them then we strangled them.
We even tied them so they would strangle themselves. Henry Lee Lucas is known
as the Bloody Liar because of his false confessions and that strive for
attention. He was only linked to eleven murders, one being Becky Powell. He
may have killed more but this is all that police have proven so far. Henry is
currently sitting on death row.

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy's part time occupation as a clown hid his true self
pretty well. Pogo the Clown molested and murdered thirty three boys. When John
was a child, he was what you would call a momma's boy. His father had always
accused him of being a "queer". Later on in childhood his father's friend
sexually molested him while taking him for a ride in a truck. John grew up and
worked as an electrician and a part time clown. Gacy suffered from two broken
marriages and then he started to kill. John would lure young boys to his house
with promises of sex or porno movies. He would have sex with those who wanted
sex and would manipulate the others to masturbate during the porno's. After
having his way with the boys he would then strangle and bury them in his crawl
space. Before all the killings started, Gacy had a police record and spent time
in jail for sexual assaults. Gacy became a suspect in a number of missing boy
cases because of his police record. With a anonymous tip, they searched his
house and found there were three boys buried in the crawl space. After being
arrested and convicted, John Wayne Gacy was sentenced to death. While sitting
on death row, he imitated his father when he used to lock himself in the
basement and started to paint. Gacy's paintings sold up as high as five hundred
thousand dollars each (1993, Garden of Graves, Maria Eftmiades, St. Martins
Press).

In conclusion, psychotics and psychopaths have only one thing in common,
they are labeled serial killers. Many people see both of them just as serial
killers when they are extremely different. Psychotics would not kill if they
were not mentally ill. A psychopath is not mentally ill. They know what they
are doing and will kill in cold blood with no remorse for the shear pleasure of
it. Contrary to that, a psychotic will kill because they have no idea what they
are doing is wrong. A psychopath will usually have their own personal reasons
for killing which may include hatred, sexual gratification, devil worship, or a
lust for blood. Psychotics are in their own world where murder is a perfectly
normal way of life. Psychotics will also kill to appease a voice driving them
crazy or a sexual interest which seems fine to them. The label "serial killer"
is a group of abstract murderers all mixed up together. A "serial killer" is not
just one kind of murderer.