Edmund Emil Kemper III: The Co-Ed Killer

Edmund Emil Kemper III was born in Burbank, California on 18 December 1948. He is more commonly known by the title of “The co-ed killer” because of the numerous murders of girls attending co-education schools and acts of necrophilia he committed on them during the 1970’s (Greig, 2012). No one is suddenly made into a killer overnight, so there must be a source that the motivation to kill comes from. In Kemper’s case there were multiple sources. The toxic relationship he had with his mother as well as the internal feelings of inadequacy and a desire to have power were large factors in his compulsion to kill. Of course there could be many more contributing factors to add to the equation, but the aforementioned three had the most weight in Kemper’s life. Growing up, Kemper’s parents separated when he was a child. He ended up moving up north with his mother and sister to Montana where his mother got remarried. She had a tight hold of and would constantly punish him, attempting to make him tougher. At times, she would even lock him in the cellar as a form of punishment. Eventually the tolerance limit was reached regarding his behavior and he was sent to his father’s

Most people would try to please someone but give up eventually when he or she sees that nothing is going to work. This train of thought was not there in this case. Therefore, the idea that somewhere deep in Kemper’s mind he intensely wanted to be in a sexual relationship with his mother and win her affection can explain why he never tired of trying. In this Freudian game of hedonistic calculus, the desire to be with his mother outweighed the relentless efforts he put into the relationship. To him, it did not matter how many times he would have to try, the fact that the possibility of being in a relationship with his mother was existent in his mind was enough to make it all