Within the mind of a serial Killer

Within the Mind of a Serial Killer

What is Serial Killing

The nature of serial killing has boggled the minds of the police and the public alike . This type of crime is commonly defined as a series of subsequent murders committed by one or more individual /s that kills victims at different times , with no direct connection to the previous crimes . There have been theories that the killer 's choice of victims might be thematic : in most cases , the victims share common characteristics . Most serial murders record men as the dominant

killers , and usually , cases address the psychopathology of the murderer 's behavior . The motivation in the murder act is usually triggered by the need to fulfill the gratification to kill

In his book Serial Murder : An Elusive Phenomenon , Egger cites the editors of Forensic Science International in their claim that serial killing may have a medico-legal definition . The following are considered as strong indicators that a murder is serial in nature (Egger 5

. committed on young males or females in which there has been brutalization and apparent suffering before death as evidenced by bondage , torture with elicitation of pain and suffering , sexual molestation , mutilation before or after death , a unique pattern to the injury , possibly ripping of the abdomen , castration or patterned cuts bites or pulverization of the body in a shallow grave , under branches rocks or in garbage dumps or containers or in water Egger also cites Holmes and DeBurger 's book Serial Murder (1988 ) for defining serial murder based on the elements and the traits of the murderer (Egger 5

Repetitive homicide , continuing if not prevented

Primarily one-on-one

Relationship (victim-perpetrator ) usually one of stranger or slight acquaintance , seldom on strong affiliation

Motivation is to kill not conventional crime of passion or victim-precipitated

Serial Killers

While serial killers may vary in traits , they are nevertheless similar in their perversions and mental instability . Sadist murderers are considered the most common type of serial killers , who are most likely to repeat the crime because of the excitement they find , as provoked by their fantasies . Some studies on serial killers come to conclude that serial killers are psychopaths who are suffering from a reactive mental instability (Gianneangelo , S .J , 1996 . Serial killers may also have self-concepts that trigger their need to kill (The Stranger , 2006 Although there have been serial killers who appear to be normal on the outside , they have the skill to put on a sane mask that dissociate them from shady characters . Serial killers are usually smart people who have psychopathic impulses . The following are pros of three known serial killers including the symptoms they suffered and their methods in killing

Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer had a history of abandonment while growing up . Other than the birth defects he had suffered , his parents went through an ugly divorce which led to his estrangement with his mother . Despite the estrangement , his father admitted that he and his son Jeffrey had a strong bonding when they would share violent fantasies with each other Jeffrey Dahmer 's father had a history of early violence he had an obsession with fires as a kid that almost led to the burning of a house He also started making bombs and once blew a kid on his bike

Dahmer was eighteen when he started his legacy as a serial killer . As a child , he found the gratification in killing and mutilating animals like nailing a dog to a tree and crucifying squirrels in his small pet cemetery . Growing up , Jeffrey Dahmer started having homosexual tendencies , and the male hitchhiker he killed at eighteen was the first recorded killing . The story goes that he picked up this hitchhiker and found himself having a good time . When the hitchhiker had to leave Jeffrey Dahmer hit him with a barbell , and smashed his remains with a sledgehammer . He disposed of the remains in the woods

Dahmer admitted to luring a number of men who had cruised gay bars shopping malls and bus stops , took them to his grandmother 's house in West Allis , Wisconsin , and later on , to his apartment in Milwaukee . He would serve them with spiked drinks , either with benzodiazepine menzodiazepine , or another undetected drug . Later , there were reports of police finding chloroform in his closet

Dahmer would kill his victims , and later take pornographic and postmortem pictures that he would later use for self-gratification purposes . He was known to mutilate his victims , an act that would arouse him , and eat their body parts . He admitted cutting of these parts with knives and an electric saw that would make it small enough to get flushed down the toilet or to be easily disposed of . He also kept a 57 gallon drum of acid that would melt the torso of his victims Jeffrey Dahmer was the kind of serial killer who liked to keep trophies of his crimes : he kept skulls , hands , skeletons and penises . He performed necrophilia on his victims , and admitted to performing brain surgery in attempts to turn them into zombies to become his sexual slaves

His killing spree was discovered when in July 23 , 1991 , his victim Tracy Edwards got away from her killer 's hands and flagged down the Milwaukee police . The police found photographs of mutilation of human bodies , that later lead to the discovery of the place where Dahmer would kill , mutilate , and even cannibalize a number of young men

Before the discovery of his serial killings , Jeffrey Dahmer had a series of disturbing childhood behavior . He used to mutilate animals and experiment with them , performing surgeries and bleaching their bones . He known to be a loner as a child , and exhibited symptoms of anti-social behavior . He had earlier recordings of public drunkenness fights , arrests for indecent exposures , and masturbating in public . He was also sent to prison for drugging and molesting a Laotian boy

An interesting study of mental health professionals note that during Dahmer 's serial killings , there was an instance when he got to talk to his mother on the phone . There had been an estrangement for five years at that time , and this reconnection could have brought a killing frenzy within Dahmer , which resulted to a killing spree of seven to eight murders

Although Dahmer was clearly a highly disturbed young man , his court trial found him sane , and he was convicted for fifteen counts of murder amounting to 962 years in prison before he could get a parole . He was regarded as a `strange kid ' who had natural tendencies towards reservation and introversion , and a `flat emotional state . His homosexuality probably triggered his internal disturbance , in addition to feelings of abandonment and the thirst for violence and self-gratification . Dahmer was killed in Wisconsin 's Columbia Correctional Center when he was beaten to death by another inmate in 1994

John Wayne Gacy

John Gacy was an affluent man . He ran his own businesses and was a highly-regarded neighbor . He was a married man , and he liked to throw gatherings in his house . Late in his life , however , Gacy discovered that he was a homosexual . His first imprisonment was for the attempted molestation of a young man in the backroom of his fastfood chain in 1968 . Since Gacy was model prisoner , he was released from prison in eighteen months instead of serving the full sentence of ten years

In the following years , John Wayne Gacy found himself being accused of molesting teenage boys from which he would eventually get away . Gacy continued to thrive in his construction business that he started when he moved to Chiacago after getting released from prison . He was regarded as a man of high standing , and he was even an active member of the Democratic Party . The other side of his double life , though , put Gacy as a man who frequented gay bars . In 1978 , he met Jeffrey Rignall , a twenty seven year-old whom he invited to share a joint with him in his Oldsmobile . Rignall ended up being stuffed with a cloth soaked in chloroform in his face , and later on , he woke up tied and naked in Gacy 's basement . Gacy started torturing and sexually abusing Rignall up to the point when Rignall already begged Gacy to kill him . Gacy would shove chloroform in Rignall 's face in-between tortures . After blacking out , Rignall found himself fully clothed in Chicago 's Linkin Park where there was money stuffed in his pocket . His driver 's license was missing

Rignall eventually reported the incident to the police , and despite his being drugged , he managed to trace Gacy 's residence and spotted his Oldsmobile . This made the police decide to do a surveillance of Gacy 's home . Furthermore , the results from the hospital on Rignall 's case showed that he had a bleeding anus , a damaged face and liver due to the chloroform . Unfortunately , the Chicago Police found that Gacy 's suburban abode put him outside their jurisdiction , thus the pressing of felony charges became impossible , and the matter was settled when Gacy agreed to pay Rignall at least 3000 for the medical bills

It wasn 't until Mrs . Elzabeth Piest , during the same year , d a case for his missing son , fifteen year-old Robert . Robert had expressed interest iin applying for a local construction firm for a summer job and he was reportedly referred by the local pharmacist to Gacy 's firm the contractor that gave estimation for refurbishments in the shop Gacy denied about Robert 's whereabouts , but the police later checked Gacy 's records and found that he had a sodomy case . Gacy denied any knowledge of it at all , and refused to come down to the precinct Without that much for a case , the police couldn 't detain him , but they put Gacy 's residence under surveillance . However , Gacy managed to put Robert 's corpse in the trunk of his car and dumped the young man 's remains in the Des Plaines river . The police finally got a search warrant for Gacy 's residence , but they only found a piece of receipt addressed to Robert Piest . That evidence wasn 't much to detain Gacy but this didn 't stop the police surveillance

The discovery of Gacy 's killings was somehow initiated by Gacy himself He invited police for coffee in his home , and it was not long before the police smelled of something rotting . They ultimately discovered that the corpses of twenty-nine victims over the years were buried under Gacy 's house . They also found four bodies dumped in the Des Plaines river , including Robert Piest 's body

During Gacy 's trial , psychiatrists for defense stated that Gacy was suffering from a mental illness that caused him to swing from periods of normalcy to intense psychosis . On the other hand , the psychiatrists for the prosecution stated that Gacy had a psychopathic or antisocial personality with sexual deviation . The prosecution stressed on Gacy 's sane everyday presentation of himself , and that he had shown no evidence of psychosis . Furthermore , the prosecution stated that it was impossible for Gacy to have suffered thirty-three isolated instances of psychosis that would have resulted in murder John Wayne Gacy was guilty , and it was his morals that was distorted

John Wayne Gacy 's trial resulted to life imprisonment in 1980

David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz instigated the largest manhunt in New York City which involved hundreds of detectives and police officers . Intially dubbed as the .44 caliber killer , David Berkowitz eventually became known as the notorious Son of Sam , the serial killer who performed gunshot killings to a number of women in New York City

David Berkowitz is a son of a Jewish divorcee , who gave him up for adoption . Psychiatrists who examined him were interested in his past Berkowitz has an above-average IQ but has very low self-esteem . He kept clippings of 1488 arson attacks , and he was always regarded as a loner withdrawn , and a paranoid . He also had this enduring hatred for women

Berkowitz worked in a Postal Service in the Bronx , but this didn 't help him change his solitary disposition . In November of 1975 , Berkowitz took a month off from his job at the post office , locked himself up in his apartment , and covered his windows with blankets . He disposed all of his furniture except for a bare mattress where he had spent most of his time eating junk food and masturbating . In December of the same year , he started his attacks by killing two women with a knife . Later he exchanged his knife for a .44 Bulldog caliber

One night in July of 1976 , he shot two women who were inside a parked car : Donna Lauria in the neck , and Jady Valenti in the leg . Lauria was killed , and Valenti was seriously injured . Berkowitz waited until October 1976 to resume his attacks , and he did them again with women who were sitting inside parked cars . A month later , he shot two women walking home from the cinema , Donna Demasi and Joanne Lomino . Later on he shot Christine Freund who was on a date with her boyfriend

These killings led to a massive manhunt by the New York City police force where a multi-unit taskforce was formed led by Deputy Inspector Timothy Dowd . This was regarded as the largest manhunt in the city 's history

When he finally got caught , David Berkowitz explained why he calls himself as `the Son of Sam . He explained to the authorities that his killing sprees were a result of the s of his neighbor , Sam Carr Berkowitz mentioned that Carr never directly told him of these brutal murders , but that the messages were transmitted through Carr 's black Labrador , `the demon dog , Harvey . Harvey was shot and wounded by Berkowitz with his .44 Bulldog . There were reports that the Son of Sam killings could be possibly influenced by the Process Church , a cult where Sam Carr and his brother Michael , were involved in . This cult was deemed Satanist , and they habitually used hallucinogens and cocaine in combination , in which Berkowitz allegedly participated

Berkowitz confessed to the Son of Sam killings , and was a willing suspect . He described in detail the killings he conducted , starting with Donna Lauria and ending with Stacy Moskowitz . This confession didn 't leave any doubts to the detectives that David Berkowitz was indeed the prime suspect of the serial killings

In August 1977 , David Son of Sam ' Berkowitz pleaded guilty to six counts of murder , and eight counts of attempted murder . He no longer had a trial , and he was sentenced to a no possibility of parole

Although there wasn 't any definite analysis of David Berkowitz unstable mental state , he remained to be one of the most notorious serial killers of all time . Whether David Berkowitz was a sane or an insane man remains to be a question

Conclusion

The motives of serial killers cannot really be attributed to any one factor . The cause of the actions could have been products of an unstable mind or of a distorted sense of morality . Traits and personalities of serial killers vary , from the anti-social to the deceptive kind Motivations of the killings range from a number of perversions , ranging from the sexual to violent fantasies to mere hatred . However , serial killers have personalities that make them seem normal on the outside Majority of them had a traumatic childhood or experiences in the past that could have led to the frustrations and their urge to kill . They have also been known to be intelligent beings who can calculate their attacks and reason with the consequences

Common traits put most of them for the mere need to fulfill the desire to kill . Their motivations remain to be simple : to end a victim 's life for their self-gratification . And in the minds of serial killers acting out perversions may be the only way to define who they really are and fill a void that has haunted them for the rest of their lives

Cited Works

Cawthorne , Nigel . Sex Killers . London : Boxtree , 1994

David Berkowitz - Son of Sam . About .com . 19 November 2006

p Egger , Stephen A . Serial Murder : An Elusive Phenomenon . Westport , CT

Praeger Publishers , 1990

Fox , James Alan . Mass Murder and Serial Killing Exposed . New York Plenum

Press , 1994

Gianneangelo , Stephen J . The Psychopathology of Serial Murder

A Theory of Violence . Westport , CT : Praeger Publishers , 1996

Hare , Robert . Predators . Psychology Today . Jan /Feb . 1994

Jeffrey Dahmer . Seize the Night . 18 November 2006

p John Wayne Gacy . Wikipedia . 18 November 2006

p Serial Killers and Self-Concept . The Stranger . 19 November 2006

Vaknin , Sam . The Psychology of Serial and Mass Murders - Introduction . Buzzle

p - - - - - - - - - . The Psychology of Serial and Mass Murders - Introduction Two

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