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How to Raise a Serial Killer

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Serial Killing 1

Running Head: Serial Killing

How to raise a Serial Killer
Brenden Brewer

Serial Killing 2 What makes a serial killer want to kill? What pushes them over the edge or drives them to keep killing? Many researchers including psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and FBI Agents, all have theories of what makes them tick. They come across these accusations by talking to actual serial killers themselves. They have come up with these theories by talking with Albert DeSalvo (The Boston Strangler), Albert Fish, Andrei Chikatilo, Bobby Joe Long, Carl Panzram, Charles Manson, Christopher Wilder, David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), Dennis Nilsen (the British Jeffrey Dahmer), Eddie Gein, Edmund Kemper(The Coed Butcher), Fritz Haarmann (The Butcher of Hannover), Henry Lee Lucas, Herbert Mullin (Santa Cruz Killer), Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, John Haigh (Acid Bath Murderer), Joseph Kallinger (the Enigmatic Cobbler), Kenneth Bianchi (Hillside Strangler), Leonard Lake, Patrick Mackay, Peter Kurten (The Vampire of Dusseldorf), Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker), Richard Speck, and Ted Bundy, William Heirens (the Lipstick Killer). All of them were successful serial killers and caught by authorities. First off, what makes someone a serial killer? The FBI has guidelines on how to classify a serial killer from a murderer. To be classified as a serial killer, you have to have a minimum of three to four victims with a grace period or “cooling off” period in between, you’re a stranger to the victim so the murders appear random, the murders somehow reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim and the motive is psychological and not for profit. The victim could have symbolic value to the killer and the way they kill their victim may reveal the meaning and finally the killer will often choose victims who are vulnerable such as kids, prostitutes, runaways and people who appear to be alone. Serial Killing 3
There were connections with all the serial killers interviewed above however. They all had explanations as to why they were killing people. These included childhood abuse, genetics, chemical imbalances, brain injuries, exposure to traumatic events, and perceived social injustices. The thing is, a huge chunk of the population has been exposed to one if not all of these traumas. So how come the world isn’t full of serial killers? Researchers believe it is caused by how you go through and deal with all these traumas. Most serial killers are precociously fascinated by sadistic violence at a very young age. Ed Kemper was chopping the heads off his sister’s dolls and playing execution games when he was a little boy and Albert DeSalvo was sold off by his alcoholic dad as a slave. Many other murderers and serial killers say their childhood was all horrifying sexual abuse and torture and that’s what made them who they are. They often blame their mother because they have been described as too distant, too sexually active or too repressed and the father often disappears. If the father is to blame it is because of his sadistic disciplinarian rules, alcoholic rants and abusive nature towards women. All of the serial killers above claim to have some sort of childhood abuse. Whether it be Bobby Joe Long who shared a bed with his mother who frequently had sex with male partners right next to him, Charles Manson and Henry Lee Lucas who were forced to dress as girls, Albert DeSalvo’s dad who would beat his mother in front of him breaking bones and bringing home prostitutes or John Gacy’s father who bashed his son calling him names, beating him and his mother and shooting Johns dog right in front of him to teach him a lesson. One of the first things serial killers claim is that them being exposed to violent events ignites their urge, animal cruelty being one of them. Ed Gein said that seeing farms animals
Serial Killing 4 slaughtered gave him perverted ideas; Ed Kemper buried his family cat alive, dug it back up, and cut off its head. Jeffrey Dahmer used to cut off dog’s heads and placed them on sticks in his backyard. Joseph Kallinger, David Berkowitz, and Peter Kurten loved watching houses burn. Kallinger was a pyromaniac and Berkowitz was a pyromaniac keeping records of all his 1,411 fires. Bed wetting is another symptom. Researchers estimate around 60% of murderers wet their beds past adolescence into adulthood with Kenneth Bianchi being one of them. With new technology, tests are now showing that the nervous system in a psychopath is remarkably different than the average person. Psychopaths are showing lesser feelings of fear and anxiety. This makes the psychopath seek more dangerous situations than the normal person would. Surprisingly, some psychopaths seek jobs in law enforcement because of the intensity of the job. John Gacy would hear an ambulance and rush to the scene to see what was happening. With all of this happening because of genetics, physiological factors also contribute to how a psychopath is born. When a psychopath does inherit developmental disabilities, it is usually deals with the higher functions of the brain which then in turn show that they have abnormal brain wave patterns like ones seen in children and infants. Abnormal brain wave activity comes from the limbic system and temporal lobes located in the brain and those areas control memory and emotions. If these parts of the brain are genetically impaired, the parents abuse the child or irresponsible or manipulative, then there is no doubt that the child is going to turn out with issues.
Psychopaths know what society thinks is right and wrong and will behave as if they really do believe in those views. For example, “John Gacy was “a smooth talker and an obscurer
Serial Killing 5 who was trying to white-wash himself of any wrongdoing. He has a high degree of social intelligence or awareness of the proper way to behave in order to influence people," said Eugene Gauron, who evaluated Gacy before the killings began. Still, he was released. Perhaps the most dramatic duping of the doctors was Ed Kemper's evaluation. Two psychiatrists interviewed him and agreed that he was now "safe." All the while, Kemper had the head of one of his victims sitting in the trunk of his car, parked outside the doctors' office. Bundy charmed his way into the good graces of his jailers, only to escape when they became more lax in their watch of him.” This just shows that it’s hard to spot a serial killer or anybody with issues in broad daylight because of how well they play it off and cover it up.
Once the serial killers where caught, they faced trial and had a psychiatric evaluation. If they could convince the jury they were clinically insane, that means the jury declares them as “legally insane” and they avoid death row. If they avoid death row, they are still put in prison but they have a chance to convince the keepers that they have fully recovered and there is hope of being released. Some ways they try to convince the jury is by creating an alter ego, a different person inside. The “Lipstick Killer” William Heirens created George Murman, John Gacy used his alter ego on an actual cop named “Jack Hanley” and one of the most famous alter egos was Kenneth Bianchi’s “Steve Walker”. The killers tried fabricating a disorder to get out of trouble, in these cases, Dissociative Identity Disorder, or multiple personalities but in reality they all had some underlying disorder. All of which were personality disorders. Whether they have a antisocial personality disorder, avoidant personality, schizoid personality, narcissistic personality, or borderline personality disorder.
Serial Killing 6
Even though it seems like there’s not a chance someone can go through with all this, and not come out with a problem, that’s where people are wrong. There are plenty of people that have disorders, have had some sort of trauma, and have been abused by their parents and they haven’t turned out to be a serial killer. For example, take a look at the siblings of these serial killers. They went through the same experiences as a kid with these guys and plus they might have the same chemical balances in them too. One thing is for sure though, all of it links back to how they were raised and brought up. It’s not like one day they just woke up and said I want to kill people today. It took years and years to shape how these people turned out. Maybe if one thing could have happened different in their lives, maybe we wouldn’t be reading what caused these people to kill or what caused these men to have no conscious and no feeling of empathy or love.

Serial Killing 7
Works Cited

Frater, John. "Top 10 Evil Serial Killers." Listverse. Listverse, 22 Aug. 2007. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://listverse.com/2007/08/22/top-10-evil-serial-killers/>.
Freeman, Shanna. "How Serial Killers Work." How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works, 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/serial-killer.htm>.
"Killers from History." Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks, 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/index.html>.
Morton, Robert, ed. "Serial Murder." The FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. Department of Justice, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder>.
Scott, Shirley Lynn. "What Makes Serial Killers Tick?" Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks, 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/tick/victims_1.html>.
Walsh, William. "Killers and Criminals: Seeking Biochemical Clues." Crime Times. Wacker Foundation, 1998. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www.crimetimes.org/96c/w96cp6.htm>.

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