An American criminal justice television program from the A&E Network, “American Justice” showed interesting criminal cases. One of the episode was on “Happy Face Killer”. Between 1990 and 1995, Keith Jesperson, who was a truck driver have killed eight women in several states. His nickname was “The Happy Face Killer” because he drew a smiley face on his letters to the media and even to the police. Keith Jesperson was an example of killers without conscience.
“I did it because deep inside me somewhere along the way I wanted to do it” This is what Keith Jesperson answered when he was asked why he commited crimes. We could figure out that he is one of the murderer without guilty and conscience. When police put two people in the jail for conviction of Keith Jesperson’s first crime, his reaction was “I though
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only in American that I could kill someone and two people stand up and take the blame for it” He did not feel guilty on two people in jail.
He even wrote the letter indicating evidence on other cases such as locations of the dead bodies and description of who victims were. Both media and police received his letters. Media and police identified all information he has provided. Everything was clear except the case on Taunja Bennett, who was a his first victim. Police already had two people in jail serving term, so they could not just free two people in the jail. Rick Buckner, a detector who were in charge of Keith Jesperson’s inquiry explained about his confession. “He never explained to me why he confessed…...I’d probably because he enjoyed the attention. He wanted to be on the front page” He did not confess but maybe he wanted credit for his kils from the others. Video shows few interviews of Keith Jesperson and in every interview clips, he does seem he is not guilty. No one still knows why he turned in himself, but still can guess he wanted to be attentioned by people around him. There are many
types of crime motive and in Keith Jesperson’s case, crime motive is none. In the video, it does not talk much about his personality in socially, but he had few friends and based on his father’s interview, his father is portrayed as a gentle man who cannot understand why his son turned out the way he did. It’s ture that he was grown in an ordinary family. Video might be trying to say there are some exceptional criminal cases that we could not understand fully. After watching this video, I thought it was very interesting. When we think of a serial killer, we imagine a harsh, violent and tough guy. However, as I remember, Keith Jesperson looked very calm, consider he killed 8 people and he just looked fine. In the lecture, Differential Association from chapter 8 says, a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to the violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law. I think this idea fits perfectly in Keith Jesperson’s case because during the 8 times of murder, he did not take too much time and never failed.
...lice or lawyers used their integrity. The police skirted around the law and use evidence that the witnesses said was not correct. They had a description of the suspect that did not match Bloodsworth but, they went after him as well. They also used eyewitness testimony that could have been contaminated.
These two men, both coming from different backgrounds, joined together and carried out a terrible choice that rendered consequences far worse than they imagined. Living under abuse, Perry Smith never obtained the necessary integrity to be able to pause and consider how his actions might affect other people. He matured into a man who acts before he thinks, all due to the suffering he endured as a child. Exposed to a violent father who did not instill basic teachings of life, Smith knew nothing but anger and misconduct as a means of responding to the world. He knew no other life. Without exposure to proper behavior or responsible conduct, he turned into a monster capable of killing an entire family without a blink of remorse. In the heat of the moment, Perry Smith slaughtered the Clutter family and barely stopped to take a breath. What could drive a man to do this in such cold blood? The answer lies within his upbringing, and how his childhood experiences shaped him to become the murderer of a small family in Holcomb, Kansas. ¨The hypothesis of unconscious motivation explains why the murderers perceived innocuous and relatively unknown victims as provocative and thereby suitable targets for aggression.¨ (Capote 191). ¨But it is Dr. Statten´s contention that only the first murder matters psychologically, and that when
Keyes was never caught for the raping of the teenage girl and therefore he was able to continue committing other crimes. According to a blog called “Acting At Random,” his first murder was in 2001 of an unidentifiable couple. He also started dating a woman whom he had a child with later on and in 2006 committed his second murder claiming two more victims. In 2009 he needed to support his criminal activities, thus he began robbery, but still continued to murder by taking the lives of Bill and Lorraine Curriers. On February 1, 2012 Keyes abducted and murdered Samantha Koenig which caught the media’s attention that eventually lands him in prison due to surrounding cameras that caught his car on tape.
This is when I had known that the criminal justice system had mad various errors with this case. For instance the only evidence that the police had, had at the time was a description of the suspect, from the victim’s husband whose adrenaline level was very high. In my opinion when a traumatic thing just occurred I think it would of been best to of asked the eye witness what the suspect had looked like multiple times and giving a good length time period between when I asked. As well as when they arrested Brenton, the first mistake I noticed was how they claimed they found/captured the murderer of Mary Ann Stevens right away. The second mistake I noticed was how they asked the victim’s husband if Brenton Butler was the one who had pulled the trigger killing his wife. Now usually from what I’ve seen when police want someone to be identified the police do a couple things: 1. Capture Multiple people and 2. Have them stand in a police station while the witness picks out who he/she suspects was the suspect. Now the police did not do that, they captured one suspect and had him sit in the back of a cop car while the eye witness, which in this case was Mary Ann’s husband, judge from a distance to see if that was the boy who killed his wife. Additionally when they made that arrest my immediate question was why did the forensic team in which ever unit test Brenton Butler hands and clothes for gun
The author, Katherine Ramsland, is a forensic psychologist that teaches criminal justice. The purpose of this article is to answer the question of ‘how and why’ a human could have so much anger towards another person. Anthony Meoli holds a BS in criminal justice from Penn State University, a MA in forensic psychology from Argosy University, and a JD from John Marshall Law School. He was interviewed while I was reading this article and answered questions based off of why he was launching this project. His ultimate goal was to find a link between the creative side of their brain and the ability they have to naturally compartmentalize their live. He wants to find out why they are addicted to killing and what draws them towards that need. He
Guilty or not guilty? This the key question during the murder trial of a young man accused of fatally stabbing his father. The play 12 Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, introduces to the audience twelve members of a jury made up of contrasting men from various backgrounds. One of the most critical elements of the play is how the personalities and experiences of these men influence their initial majority vote of guilty. Three of the most influential members include juror #3, juror #10, and juror #11. Their past experiences and personal bias determine their thoughts and opinions on the case. Therefore, how a person feels inside is reflected in his/her thoughts, opinions, and behavior.
Investigative Reports: Inside the Killer's Mind. Perf. Arthur Shawcross. A&E Television Networks, 2000. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
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
Throughout all of American history there have been those who are well known for committing what are classified as deviant or criminal acts. Most of those who are well known by the public for their actions have committed deeds seen as extremely controversial such as being cult leaders, gang or mafia members, terrorists, rapists, or killers. The lists of members for each topic is numerous, however, there are a certain few that are more prominent than others. One criminal that stands out when speaking of killers in particular is Gary Ridgway, or as he is better known, the Green River Killer. Gary Ridgway is the nation’s most abundant serial killer, with the highest murder rate in America’s history (Gibson).
A notorious murderer or serial killer is the typical next door neighbor one would hardly associate with a serious crime: an educated psychopath with little regard for life. Most of them commit murder for some misplaced psychological benefits. Their actions border on insanity as some commit theft by stealing their victims’ belongings and commiting rapes, an indication of a need for financial gain or a craving for distorted sexual desires. It is disheartening that people always associate the city of Chicago with crime, ranging from the prohibition-period gangsters to modern-day criminals; however, it is understandable because these crimes have a history going back several decades, and most received wide media coverage and documentation. Their names and pseudonyms are imbeded in the collective minds of the people. In all cases, these serial killings claim national attention and elicit heated debate, but this infamy sometimes fascinates the public to the extend that it sparks an initial interest in potential criminals. An examination into the characteristics of serial killers who were active in the Chicago area reveals they have varied motivations for their crimes but the overriding factors tend to include financial gains, sexual perversion, racial hatreds, and infamy. Chicago’s infamous reputation as a lawless and corruption riddled city stems from the motives for crimes committed by particular individuals in the Chicago area and the media attention these cases gained.
Another interesting fact came out in this case regarding Johnson. During the investigation it was found out that Johnson had nickname called murder man. He did not deny these allegations that was his name on the street. Officers ask Johnson if he ever enter the premises of where the murder occur. Johnson confirm that he had enter the location of where the murder occurred. There was also men clothing located at the property implying further that Johnson may have murder the victims Heather Camp and Nicole Sartell. Ardentric Johnson did admit as well during the integration with officers that he had seen the victim Heather Camp previously before she was murder. Evidence also points out that Johnson may have locked up the second victim Nicole Sartell for 46 hours and force her to smoke crack cocaine. Sartell body was found in the closet few days after the first victim, Heather Camp body had appeared. With this accumulating evidence against the accuser Ardentric Johnson, he has been charged with the two murders of Heather Camp and Nicole Sarell. END OF
Megan, K., & Courant, S. W. (2005, Mar 10). THE KILLERS (AND LIARS) IN OUR MIDST ; HOW DOES A SERIAL MURDERER LIVE UNDETECTED AMONG `NORMAL PEOPLE'? BY BEING A SOCIOPATH -- A PERSON WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE, WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO LOVE. Hartford Courant. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/256830354?accountid=10244
Hickey, Eric W. Serial Murderers and Their Victims. Belmont, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1991. Print.
Storey Amanda, Strieter Carrie et al. Al, (2005), Richard Trenton Chase “Dracula Killer”, “The Vampire of Sacramento”, Department of Psychology, Radford University. (1-6) Kass-Gergi, Yara (2012). Killer Personalities: Serial Killers as Celebrities in Contemporary American Culture. Wesleyan University, p. 4-8.
The earliest warning signs of serial killers can be traced back to their childhood. It is believed that the mind of a murderer is charged with a turbulence of emotions stored from early childhood (Abrahamsen 18). When these often repressed emotions are activated, the mind, particularly when aroused or frustrated, becomes violent, and so it is that a person who may appear quite normal and well adjusted on the surface, becomes possessed by a mind that murders (Abrahamsen 18). The study of 36 incarcerated killers by Robert Ressler, Ann Burgess, and John Douglas, which can be found in their book Sexual Homicide Patterns and Motives, found many common behavior indicators in their childhoods. These behaviors include daydreaming, compulsive masturbation, isolation, chronic lying, bed wetting, rebelliousness, nightmares, destroying property, fire setting stealing, cruelty to children, poor body image, temper tantrums, sleep problems, display assault toward adults, phobias, running away, cruelty to animals, accident prone, headaches, destroying possessions, eating problems, convulsions, and...