“One side of me says, I’d like to talk to her, date her. The other side of me says, I wonder what her head would look like on a stick.” Edmund Kemper III is an intimidating man at 6 foot 9 inches, three hundred pounds, without also being given the title “the Co-ed Killer.” In less than a year, Kemper killed and dismembered several hitchhiking co-ed females around the Santa Cruz area, including his mother and her friend, until he turned himself in and eventually convinced the police he was in fact “The Co-ed Killer.” Biological, psychological and even critical theories have tried to indirectly explain Kempers abnormal deviant behavior It is possible that Kemper is biologically predisposed to such violent behavior “There are many aspects of biochemistry that influence human behavior and each one operates through effects of the central nervous system which compromises the brain and the spinal cord and the peripheral autonomic nervous system.” Even as a child Ed Kemper showed signs of mental abnormalities displaying sadistic tendencies; cutting off the heads of his sister's dolls and ripping off their limbs, burying the family cat alive, digging it back up after it was dead and then displaying its severed head on a spike in his bedroom. The second family cat, Kemper killed with a …show more content…
The girls never made it to their intended destination and instead ended up scattered in the nearby mountains and ravines. Shortly after 6 more female victims trusted Kemp enough to get in his car and disappeared. Paranoid the police were beginning to suspect him as the “co-ed killer,” during Easter weekend while his mother sleep he bashed her head in with a hammer then called over a friend of hers Sally Hallett and strangled her to death then raped her
Knight, Zelda G. "Sexually Motivated Serial Killers And The Psychology Of Aggression And "Evil" Within A Contemporary Psychoanalytical Perspective." Journal Of Sexual Aggression 13.1 (2007): 21-35. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 1 May 2014.
Scott, S. L. “What Makes Serial Killers Tick?”. Crime Library. Retrieved April 3, 2014, http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/tick/victims_1.html
...dent because he was known to hang out in a bar in Santa Cruz where off duty police officers could be found, asking questions about the murders he had committed. He had even applied to become a police officer (Martingale 222). Kemper, by calling the police and describing details of the murders to get them to believe he was the “coed killer,” was finally getting the notoriety and recognition he felt he deserved for the first time in his life. The label of antisocial personality disorder can be applied to Kemper. He paid no attention to the pain and suffering he caused others and completely ignored their individual rights. This behavior started early in his childhood and continued until he became incarcerated. Edmund Kemper III is a sociopath, a psychopath, the “coed killer,” a serial killer, one of the most horrifying and most serious offenders living in prison today.
-Bardsley, M., Bell, R., and Lohr, D. 2009. The BTK Story. Retrieved December 9, 2009 from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/btk/index_1.html : This was a reliable source since it collected it’s information from police records, first hand accounts and testimony from the trial. This resource was very helpful because it presented a high-profile case of a person suffering from this disorder.
Wilson, David. “What Makes A Born Killer?” The Mirror. 3 Star Edition. The Mirror (2011). Print.
Serial killers have long eluded law enforcement while simultaneously grabbing the attention of the public, and now more than ever, criminal psychologists are beginning to understand what makes a serial killer. In his true-crime documentary, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote depicts the horrifying murders of four members of the Clutter family and the search to find the criminals responsible for the deaths. Eventually, two killers are caught, one being Perry Smith, a detached and emotionless man. And although his carnage of the Clutters labeled him a mass murderer, many of Perry’s personality traits are characteristic of a serial killer. In fact, if detectives had not caught him, Perry could have easily become a serial killer.
A person does not need to have acquired a doctorate in psychology to determine that there is something horrifically different about serial killers. Quotes from killers show this drastic difference, such as Ted Bundy who said, “What’s one less person on the face of the earth anyway?” (Scott 2). Or Charles Manson who, with seven simple words, disgusted and oppositely inspired millions by saying, “Death is the greatest form of love” (“Charles Manson”). It is inside these people where it is easy to be determined just how unstable the very fabrics of their genetic and brain codes are; many things can be genetically transmitted from parent to offspring through heredity; therefore, so can the biological urge to become a killer.
Ted Bundy was an American born rapist, a necrophile; a serial killer and a kidnapper who assaulted and murdered several young women during the 1970’s. The criminal kept on denying the charges for more than ten years and later confessed of having committed the thirty homicide crimes in seven different states before his execution (Rule, 2009). Bundy’s handsome and charismatic appearance made it possible for him to easily win the confidence of young women who were always his targets. He broke into the dwellings of his victims at night and bludgeoned them as they slept. He also approached young women in public places where he impersonated as an authority figure or feigned injury on his victim before empowering and assaulting at a more secluded area where he left them dead (Rule, 2009).
... middle of paper ... ... Arndt, William, Hietpas, Tammy, Kim, Juhu. 2004. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard “Critical Characteristics of Male Serial Murders.”
Ramsland, Katherine M. The mind of a murderer: privileged access to the demons that drive extreme violence. Santa Barbara, California: Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data, 2011.
Miller, Laurence. "The predator's brain: Neuropsychodynamics of serial killers."Serial offenders: Current thought, recent findings, unusual syndromes (2000): 135-166.
David Berkowitz, otherwise known as the “Son of Sam”, was notorious for his crimes committed between 1976 and 1977 that ended the lives of six innocent victims and wounded several others in New York (“David Berkowitz Biography”, n.d.). At first, police did not make a connection between the murders because there was nothing unusual about them; all the victims were shot with a 40 caliber gun, not fairly unusual during this time or place especially since the killings were over an extended period of time. Police finally made the connection when Berkowitz began to live behind notes that were meant to tantalize authorities since they had yet to catch him (“David Berkowitz| Son of Sam Killer,” 2015). Often times, the psychological structure of a human
A serial criminal lifestyle represents of a rapist toward an innocent stranger of a woman with no hesitation. Through a rapist's eyes he sees what anybody else sees in choosing his targets such as she can be short, ponytail, African American, Hispanic, Asian (RAINN, 2009), types of clothing, and her walking style. In choosing his victim, his main goal is to pick the multi-tasker walker in another word she projects aloud not paying attention. It ranges from 0 mile to 1 miles of the perpetrator (RAINN, 2009), which can leads to one step closer to grabbing her quickly and easily without any witnesses noticing anything from the scene. Once a Caucasian male perpetrator grabbed the victim, it leads to an overexposure of things such as disgusting
Moreover, Kemper failed to exhibit commitment to institutional or prosocial activities such as engaging in school work or playing any sports so he didn’t invest time in these types of activities, which were essential to deviate from antisocial behaviour. Instead, Kemper would commit antisocial behaviour by mistreating cats and playing with their deceased bodies (Whyte, n.d., para. 6). Kemper also didn’t display involvement in socially acceptable activities, but involved himself with gloomy fantasies such as imagining about murdering his mother (Whyte, n.d., para. 3). Lastly, Kemper failed to have strong beliefs in the law because he disregarded the moral rules of society. For instance, Kemper exhibited animal cruelty at the age of 13 when he killed the family cat, which validates that Kemper wasn’t concerned about the moral rules of society and the legal system (Whyte, n.d., para. 3). Without these social bonds, Kemper displayed low self-control that compelled him to commit criminal activities. For instance, Kemper’s low self-control caused him to commit horrendous serial killings by murdering
“One side of me says, I`d like to talk to her, date her.The other side of me says, I wonder what her head would look like on stick”.(Edmund Kemper).Imagine putting yourself in place of those families where some sister`s lost their brothers and some brothers lost their their sisters, women lost their husbands and men lost their wives, parents lost their son and daughters and kids lost their parents.A lot of families are losing their loved ones just because their loved ones are becoming the target of Serial killers.US is 5% of world`s population and 75% of world`s population.Edmund Kemper is one of those serial killers who had kill some families` loved ones only females including his own mother and grandmother.Question rises in everyone`s mind