Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) out of Quantico defines how one becomes listed as a serial killer and that is; someone who kills more than three people, the killing spree happened over a length of time, and the killing has no break between the killings (FBI Gov.). I started to look into what it takes to be a criminal, how the mind reacts to certain situations, and that a woman is likely to commit such horrible crimes themselves. There’s many reasons why one commits a crime, or even why they become a serial killer, a female serial killer. Female serial killer’s spree can usually last longer than their counterparts, because they tend to keep a lower profile. I found one woman who was coined a serial killer and she was Aileen Wuornos. Her story …show more content…
Aileen’s parents were Leo Dale Pittman and Diane Wuornos who at the age of fifteen got married. It was a doomed marriage from the start which did not last very long. Leo Pittman did not know his daughter Aileen and she did not get to know him. Leo was sentence to prison for child molestation charges and while in prison he hung himself. Aileen and her brother Keith had a very unstable, unfit mother who decided to drop them off in the care of her parents. For years Aileen thought that her grandparents, Lauri and Britta were her real parent’s no one told her the truth. Aileen was raised in a very hostile situation where she was abused, and raped by family members and even got pregnant from a family friend, but Aileen had lay claim that her brother in fact got her pregnant. Aileen’s son was born on March 23, 1971, she was only fourteen years old. Aileen would later on find out that her parents raising her and Keith were actually her grandparents in which had add to her troubles. Aileen and Keith had been thrown out of the only home they knew by their grandfather when their grandmother had pass …show more content…
It was 1976 that Aileen would eventually land a husband. While hitchhiking Wuornos got a ride from Lewis Fell who was way older than Aileen. Lewis who was seventy years old at the time had married Wuornos in 1976. While married Wuornos would continue her tyrant ways at the bars. Lewis was being abused by this monster and was forced to get a restraining order. That same year in July 1976 Aileen was arrested in Antrim County and was charged with disturbing the peace, and assault for hitting a bartender in the head with a cue ball. Aileen’s temper has always been an issue in her life and that would be her downfall. It would nine weeks later that Lewis would file for divorce from Aileen, she also had lost her brother Keith to cancer where she received a check from the insurance
Aileen Wuornos was born on February 29, 1956 in Rochester, Michigan; at a young age she and her brother, Keith, were raised by their grandparents, after her parents divorced just months before Aileen was born. Her father, a career criminal, was later convicted of kidnapping and raping a seven year old girl and eventually hung himself in his prison cell. Wuornos grandparents drank heavily and parented with strict authority. Wuornos would later say that she was sexually abused by her grandfather and had sexual relations with her brother. She became pregnant at the age of 14, and the baby was given up for adoption, and was forced out of her home and lived in the woods. She was arrested during the mid 1970s for charges related to assault and disorderly
Aileen Wuornos is one of the most famous psychopathic serial killers in the world. Not only is she one of the only female serial killers, her killings are unlike any other there has been. She exhibited psychopathic traits since birth and her abuse as a child didn't help matters. She killed six men in the span of a year and told police she was the victim in all the cases, not admitting to intentionally killing them many months later. After getting caught by the police and going through a long, tedious trial she was found guilty of all her charges and was charged with the death penalty.
Mainly we have talked about male, but now let’s talk about female serial killers. When people think of a psychopathic killer, typically a male comes to mind and we have no sense of what a females capabilities are. After studies in this article, they categorized female serial killers into 7 different categories. Those categories would be black widow, angel of death, revenge killer, murder for profit or crime, killer whose sanity is in question, team killer, and sexual predator. So you see, female serial killers may not be common but often are in low profile and quite dangerous when put into play. When looking for a psychopath, there is a unique check list that they have talked about using in this article. First and for most they tend to be quiet and unsociable, but at the same time come off charming. They are very manipulative in getting what they want, this goes back to the “Sadomasochistic Serial Killer Protagonist in the Killer Inside of me” article. This article is a great representation of my topic because it focuses on how to know when someone is a psychopath aka “Serial Killer”. It directly answers my question on what makes a serial killer by identifying the personality traits of
Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith was born September 26, 1971 in Union, South Carolina to Linda and Harry Vaughan. She was born the third child in the Vaughan family, with two older brothers. Linda Vaughan divorced Harry when Susan turned 7, and five weeks later Harry committed suicide at 37 (Montaldo). Within weeks of Linda and Harry’s divorce, Linda got remarried to Beverly (Bev) Russell, a local successful businessman. Linda and the children moved from their home into Bev’s, a larger house located in an exclusive subdivision in Union, South Carolina. Susan grew to be a well-liked teenager, and even became president of her Junior Civitan Club and Friendliest Female in her senior year (Montaldo). Everyone liked her, and she put on a great show at school. But after the last bell rang, she had to look forward to seeing Bev at home, something she feared above anything else. Bev had taken to molesting Susan when she turned sixteen, and it was not long afterward that she sought help with the local Department of Social Services (Wiki). The Department of Social services did little to help Susan, only making Bev attend a few counseling sessions (Wiki). When he returned home, he chastised Susan heavily for “airing their dirty laundry in public” and continued with the molestation (Montaldo). I believe thi...
In Aisha’s situation she was the one who was physically abused, that lead her and her sister being taken from the home. Aisha had a brown spot on her arm where someone burned her from a cigarette. Aisha or her sister, Alisha was ever diagnosed with any psychiatric problem or have substance problems. But their mother did. She was placed in a psychiatric hold because she threatened to kill herself after the girls were put on a 72 hour hold.
In a study conducted by Hickey, he discovered that out of thirty-four female serial killers, almost one in two had a male accomplice committing murders with them (Holmes et al., 1991). He also revealed that 97% were white and the average age the women started committing murders was thirty-three (Holmes et al., 1991). Women serial killers differ from men in that most women kill for material gain, such as money or insurance benefits, and they usually commit murder with pills or poison. Stephen Holmes, Ronald Holmes, and Eric Hickey developed a typology for female serial killers similar to the one developed by Holmes and Holmes, discussed earlier. They begin with visionary serial killers, who are compelled by some force, such as God, or spirits, to commit murders. The second type is the comfort killer, who usually kills acquaintances and does so for a material gain, money or real estate (Holmes et al., 1991). The third category is hedonistic female serial killers, which is similar to the earlier typology in that the offender connects murder with sexual gratification. This is the least represented category for female offenders, but evidence for this type of killer can be seen in the case of Carol Bundy (Holmes et al., 1991). Bundy allegedly helped her husband kidnap, murder, and decapitate the
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Most people do not understand what can make a person want to kill multiple people for no reason other than their own satisfaction gain. In actuality, serial killers have been studied for over hundreds of years, and the information that has been documented continues to grow. The research that I have gathered about serial killers focuses on their childhood development, the differences and similarities between male and female serial killers, and finally general information on how their brains operate and their motives for committing such harmful acts. There have been many theories over the years about how a person becomes a serial killer, and how having an unstable childhood affects a person.
Almost all people know who serial killers are, but what exactly defines a serial killer. The FBI defines serial murder as “a minimum of three to four victims with a ‘cooling off’ period between, the killer is usually a stranger to the victim, the murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim, and the murder is rarely for profit.” (Vronsky, 2004, p.36) Serial killers are usually a white male from a lower-to-middle-class background typically in his twenties or thirties. Also, 85% of the world’s serial killers live in America, with at least twenty to fifty unidentified active serial killers plotting another one of their killings. On average, every person has seen or met at least 37 serial killers in their lifespan.
The FBI has defined serial killing as “the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events” (Farrell, Keppal, & Titterington, 2011, p. 231). While individuals who partake in such activity do receive a large amount of attention, the female parts of this population are vastly under recognized. Female serial killers receive little academic attention, even though they are a complex and dynamic group to study (p. 229). Women make up 15% of American serial killers, with 36 known to be active in the last century (p. 230). It is speculated that at any given time there are 50-70 serial killers in the United States, and approximately 7-8 of them are female (Schurman, 2000, p. 12). Moreover, females acting alone manage
Jasmine Beckford’s case is the oldest out of the three; in 1984 Jasmine died as a result of long-term abuse aged 4. In 1981 her and her younger sister suffered serious injuries and were paced with foster carers for six months. After this they were allowed back home with their mother on a trial basis as social services were meant to support them. During the last ten months of Jasmine’s life she was only seen once by social workers (Corby, 2006).
She was raised by her grandmother together with her brother and evidently lacked the parental guidance as a child since her mother had abandoned her when she was only four years old (Seal, 2014). Her father on the other hand was a known child molester and psychopath who later hanged himself in prison. This is an evident genealogical aspect and coupled with the assertions mentioned above; these are some of the biological developmental and environmental factors that may have led to her indulgence in crime. Aileen also claims that she became pregnant at a tender age of 14, a pregnancy that she inconsistently blames on either her grandfather’s friend or her brother. The decision to adopt the baby could also be a resound proof that it could have altered her attitudes when growing up and it is also backed up by the fact that she chose a woman for a spouse and not a man (Frei, Graf & Dittmann, 2006). This is a factor that can be pegged on the fact that she probably grew a hatred for men after being impregnated by an individual she knew too
Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile. Almost every major social, biological, psychological behavioural influence that has been seriously suggested as playing a role in causing crime has been thoroughly thought as potentially contributing to the behavior of serial killers (Levin, 2008). The time period and amount of killings fluctuate depending on the individual committing the crimes. Usually, the murders happen in different geographical areas. A mass murder has a separate definition than a serial killer, because a serial killer has a “cooling off” period, where mass murders kill several individual in a single event.
Serial killers have many frightening facets. The most frightening thing about them is that experts still do not know what makes a human become a serial killer. Many experts believe serial killers become what they are because they have a genetic disposition or brain abnormality while other experts believe that a serial killer is created by childhood abuse; and some other experts believe that it is a combination of both brain abnormalities and abusive childhood experiences that creates a serial killer. A murderer is considered a serial killer when they “murder three or more persons in at least three separate events with a “cooling off period” between kills” (Mitchell and Aamodt 40). When defining a serial killer, their background, genes, and brain are not mentioned; perhaps one day those aspects of the serial killer can be included.
When Deborah was only sixteen she became pregnant with her first child by Cheetah and boy she liked when she was younger. Cheetah and Deborah got married and then had their second child. Deborah became very unhappy in the marriage because Cheetah started drinking and doing drugs. He started abusing Deborah. Cheetah pushed Deborah so much she almost killed him if it wasn’t for Bobbette. Deborah’s brothers Sonny and Lawrence were doing well except for Joe. Joe was another case. Joe went to the military, and the family was hoping that would do him good; but he came out worse than when he went in. Joe was threatened and beaten up by a boy named Ivy. Joe was in so much rage he went and stabbed him and killed him. Joe eventually turned himself in to the law, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced fifteen years in prison.
So what makes a serial killer? Levin points out that contrary to popular belief, serial killers don't just 'snap'; or 'go crazy'; (Douglas, p. 137). Many of the serial killers have been the victims of childhood abuse. Jack Levin stated 'Research shows many serial killers suffered abuse, incest or neglect as children and develop poor self images'; (Douglas, p. 137). Serial killers often have a childhood marked by the absence of any nurturing relationship. 'They often come from families where the parents were absent or ineffective, where authority was not defined, and where they could engage in destructive behavior undeterred-violent play, cruelty to animals, and incidents of arson being some of the childhood behavior patterns noted among many serial killers'; (Clark, p. 206).