Famous Serial Killers Essay

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Three Famous Serial Killers Since the United States was founded, serial killers have crept their way into the nation. To understand the science behind these serial killers, one must first have a basic idea of criminology. Criminology is defined as the scientific study of crime and criminals. A big part of criminology when it comes to serial killers is psychology or the mental or emotional factors governing a situation or activity. To understand a serial killer, one must understand the motivations behind what lead them to their illegal behaviors, also known as a trigger. In SERIAL KILLER FILES THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW, AND WHY THE WORLD’S MOST TERRIFYING MURDERERS it states that “ Psychoanalysis is based on the belief that you can explain an adult’s troubled behavior by tracing the causes back to his childhood experiences.” There have been many serial killers, but three of the most famous are: H.H Holmes, …show more content…

The years of abuse and the bullying of his fellow classmates helped establish H.H Holmes’ desire to kill and created violent physiological behaviors. (Serial Killer Files) He additionally killed several to silence those who knew too much about his illegal habits and could potentially turn him in. Pearl and her mother, Julia Conner, for instance, were murdered because they had discovered too much of Holmes sick hobbies. (Blanco) Out of all these reasons, H.H Holmes main reason was to gain money and valuables from his victims. He gained life insurance money, money from the bodies he sold, and other possessions. For example, one of his victims, Dr. Robert Leacock, was murdered and Holmes gained around $40,000 in life insurance. (Blanco) In Serial Murder-FBI it states that,“Financial gain is a motivation in which the offender benefits monetarily from killing. Examples of these types of crimes are “black widow” killings, robbery homicides, or multiple killings involving insurance or welfare

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