John Wayne Gacy,Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer; What do these infamous serial killers have in common? Though one may think that these killers are different and incomparable they all share a disturbed and damaging childhood that led them to their notorious fame that is still talked about today. Serial killing is defined as someone who murders 3 or more people in which the murders take place over at least one month and the killer has to take a “cooling off period” (physicality np). In case you were wondering these 3 serial killers exceeded the qualifications of being defined as a serial killer. While all these serial killers are unique in their own why they all have childhoods that have affected the way they kill in some way, shape, or form. …show more content…
The Milwaukee cannibal or known to most by the name that sends a shiver down your spine…...Jeffrey Dahmer.
Dahmer was a normal and relatively happy child until he age of 6 when he had to undergo a surgery for a double hernia. After that surgery he just wasn't the same. He had began to start to losing self confidence. Following the surgery came the birth of his brother which made him lack more confidence and lose attention. So Jeffrey was not the center of attention any more so he started to close out from the world. He also stopped caring about school and become friendless very quickly. Jeffreys compulsions of necrophilia and murder began at the age of 14 (dahmer bio.com np). This means at the age of 14 Jeffrey would kill animals and keep the bones and organs in jars in his tree house. He stated in several interviews that as a child and he was “fascinated by the insides of them”(jeffrey Dahmer). Jeffrey's dad was hesitant to stop this because he thought that he was just being a teenager. Jeffree then went on to killing humans 17 to be exact. In which, he would preserve their body parts and practice necrophilic acts on them. Dahmer would Also rip out their organs and eat them as well as other parts of the body. Hence the nickname The Milwaukee cannibal. This milwaukee cannibal has certainly curved america's appetite. As a result of troubling factors in his childhood Jeffrey Dahmer went on a bone chilling killing spree that resulted in the deaths of 17 …show more content…
men. A native to Chicago, A Kids party clown, and a all around nice guy…...well besides the fact that he was a serial killer. “John Wayne Gacy hands down was one of the most notorious serial killers” (bio.com gacy np). John grew up with an alcoholic dad who hit him with a razor strap and constantly verbally abused him (bio.com np). So he never really had a father figure to look up to. Gacy was also molested by a neighbor when he was 9 years old but never could seek out help from his father due to the thought of his dad blaming it on him. John was heavily bullied in school for not being able to participate in gym do to a heart condition. So john laked in self confidence and never had a good solid father figure to look up to. In one interview he spoke briefly about his father and stated that “My father was a monster ”. Like they say like father like son. John Wayne Gacy went on to murder and molest 30 young men and bury them under his home and garage (bio.com np). Which brought him to his infamous success that we know today. Ted bundy once said “we all go a little mad sometimes”.
But in ted's case we could use the term “little” loosely. Bundy became fascinated with knifes at the age of only 3 years old. ted once took knifes and assembled a circle of them around his aunt while she was sleeping which was a really macabre sight.(bio.com np). So ted was intrigued by knives since he was 3 and that kept with him his whole life. At the age of 7 ted began having behavioral issues at school with other kids. As ted got older he began to drift away from the social world and by the time he was high school he had no self confidence and was unable to react to social problems. This was due to the break up with his first girlfriend. So after his break up he couldn't assimilate to the high school social world as well as he's had in the past. As time went on Ted Bundy started to kill women. These women all looked like his first girlfriend from high school. Ted bundy ending up killing over 100 women during his killing spree. Jeffree Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Ted bundy may seem like drastically different people but they all have one thing in common.They all have childhoods that impacted the way they kill in someway shape or form. Childhood has a huge impact on the way you grow up and who you
become.
Jeffrey Dahmer was born May 21st, 1960, the first child for Lionel and Joyce Dahmer, after a difficult pregnancy that had Joyce on various prescription drugs.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born May 21, 1960. He was murdered by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver on November 28, 1994. Jeffrey Dahmer was born in West Allis, Wisconsin. When Dahmer was growing up his mother was greedy for attention and often left Dahmer to his own devices starting in first grade. While in elementary school Dahmer was considered quiet and uncommunicative by his peers, the teachers thought this was a sign of neglect caused by his mother’s illness. Early in Dahmer’s life a developed a fascination with insects and animals. He would place the insects in jars and he would collect road kill to dismember back home. He would also go around searching for animal bones and with live animals he would feel over to see where the bones were
An analysis of the most famous murderers and serial killers in the Chicago area shows varying degrees of psychopathy or mental illnesses, which ultimately contribute to homicidal conduct. Analysis also shows that the paths of serial killers have a tendency to converge.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Jeffrey Lincoln Dahmer also known as The Milwaukee Cannibal and The Milwaukee Monster was born May 21st, 1960 to his parents Joyce Annette and Lionel Herbert Dahmer. When Dahmer was six years old he had minor hernia surgery that afterwards changes in his behavior were reported. He went from a happy young boy to increasingly insecure and a loss in self-confidence, these changes seemed to coincide with the birth of his younger brother David Dahmer who was born seven years after him. At age eight Jeffrey and his family moved to Bath Ohio due to his father’s career as an analytical chemist. The move seemed to deepen his already increasing odd behavior and seclusion from society. By age fourteen he started to have impulsions to murder and perform necrophilia, these impulsions were amplified again when his parents ’marriage fell apart and they divorced in 1977.
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
The name of the serial killer that I have chosen is John Wayne Gacy. He was born on March 17, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois and died on May 10, 1994. Growing up as a young boy, John lived in a very abusive environment where he saw his mother, siblings, and himself abused by his father. His dad would beat them with a razor strap if they were perceived to be misbehaving. Being that his father was an alcoholic, didn’t help matters at all. He always saw John as a failure. What also didn’t help was that when he was going through school, he couldn’t play with other kids due to a congenital heart condition in which his father looked at as another failure. Another struggle he faced during adolescence was his attraction to boys, which caused great turmoil
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that make up this type of criminal. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted, pained, or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killer posses these characteristics, most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people. Dennis Rader was one normal average citizen until he shocked the public when he was caught as a serial killer who caused tragedy in their town.
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
Born into a bourgeois family, Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, working-class town in the northern United States. He moved with his parents in the small town of Bath Township ( near Akron ) , Ohio , at the age of seven years.Lionel Dahmer may have invented the story of aggression to "explain " why his son was attacked in gay " to take revenge " .Lionel Dahmer seems , in fact, have never accepted, nor understood his son 's homosexuality ... Jeffrey Dahmer himself said: "There was no particular incident that would ... caused it " ( sexual orientation). "It is said that some people are assaulted or raped by someone, this is what causes them to become homosexual. It has never been my case ." Dahmer 's father explained that eight years , Jeffrey was sexually assaulted by a teenager in the neighborhood. If this is true , perhaps this "incident" can help to understand the subsequent crimes Dahmer .Dahmer 's mother was neurotic and always edgy . Dahmer 's father , a pharmacist, spent all his time working (probably to escape his wife) . Both did not care much about the young Jeffrey . It played with " imaginary friends " and terrified his classmates by his strange behavior .Dahmer was an intelligent boy and a brilliant student , but he did not use all his " potientiel " . He interrupted the course being silly, was a loner and was acting strange .When Dahmer was about 8 years old, " a strange fear began to sneak into his personality, fear of others combined with a general lack of confidence. He developed a reluctance to change , a need to feel the assurance of familiar places . the prospect of going to school frightened him. the boy who previously seemed so happy and sure of himself had been replaced by a different person , who was now very sh...
During Dahmer’s psychiatric evaluation, Dr. Wahlstrom concluded, “Jeffrey was suffering from a mental illness never cured for” (FBI 1992). This leads me to perceive that Dahmer must have been displaying psychotic traits that went unnoticed and undocumented during his early lifetime. I can only speculate that this uncured mental illness lead Dahmer to develop and refine his inability to empathize with society; which in turn, lead him to engage in cruelty without mentally comprehending the victim’s suffering. Although the causes for psychopathy are unclear, some suggest that psychogenic aspects can outline abnormalities which may be present in psychopaths (Schmalleger 2014). When looking at Dahmer’s distant relationship with his parents early on in his childhood, I became conscious of the fact the lack of affection from his parents which may have lead him to develop twisted views on how one should display affection to others, thus prompting him to show psychotic behavior later on in life (The profile of Jeffrey Dahmer 1996). Even though the letter of the law fails to describe Dahmer and even if he was not fit to stand trial, I believe the court would have declared him fit for trial due to the brutality of the
It has been proven by psychologists and stated by serial killers that their childhood is one of the many problems they faced that led them to become serial killers. The childhood of a typical young boy would consist of loving parents, a stable home and having friends. As for serial killers, this is not typical at all. During the childhood of a serial killer, it is not uncommon that he or she was abused, raped, or even attempted suicide along with many other harmful acts that a child should not be faced with. There have been many studies on the childhood of serial killers, and how they grew up compared to other young children.
John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Henry Lee Lucas, Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh, Ann Rule, Angel Resendez, David Berkowitz, Albert DeSalvo, Ottis Toole, Eddie Gein, and Herbert Mullin, what do all of these serial killers have in common and why did they kill? This is the question I am going to answer in my paper. I am going to examine several killers and their childhoods, mental disorders, and types of killings they performed.
Data has been collecting reporting that “31% of people who had both a substance abuse disorder and a psychiatric disorder (a "dual diagnosis") committed at least one act of violence in a year, compared with 18% of people with a psychiatric disorder alone. This confirmed other research that substance abuse is a key contributor to violent behavior” (Harvard Health Publishing). This can be applied to Dahmer’s case. It is said that after getting hernia surgery when he was four, Dahmer was never the same. He went from a regular playful child to a distant anxious one. When becoming an adolescent, one will develop an interest in concepts and hobbies. For Dahmer it animal carcasses. He would find roadkill, “dissect and dismember them. He explained that he wanted to know how each animal "fitted together"(Cahill). This could come off as creepy and off-putting, but he was not hurting anyone. It is believed that his parents’ constant fighting and moving was the catalyst in making his obsession with carcasses into a dangerous one. “Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit crimes than those from stable families” (Bloxham). His drive to kill could quite possibly be linked to the fact that he simply linked to his familial issues. These problems in the family are definitely linked to his drinking problems as well. Dahmer’s
Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960; he was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He was a very happy child until the age of six. He had a double hernia surgery which caused him to become distant and interested in what normal people would think was weird. After the surgery his little brother was brought into the world, which causes Dahmer to not have much self assurance. His father then found another occupation, which was in another state. The family packed up and moved to Ohio which was worse for Jeffrey, by his teenage years he was distant, did not have friends, and was not social. Dahmer did not have any hobbies, deceased animals became very appealing. He became an alcoholic in high school it even carried on after high school.
There are four kinds of serial killer which include thrill seekers, mission oriented, visionary killers and power/control seekers. Serial killer's profile changes between these four options by the way they were raised and what they have been exposed to. The typical childhood for a serial killer involves physical and emotional abuse, a traumatic incident, and exploring sexuality. Serial killers are usually in and out of orphanages being considered the outcast