Jeffrey Dahmer Serial Killer

In order to be considered a serial killer, a person must have murdered two or more people on separate events (Warnes). Ever since the beginning of humanity, serial killers have been active. The evidence that supports this statement is the story of the vampire “Dracula,” which was based on one of the earliest serial killers named Prince Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler (Warnes). Another early serial killer is Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who was said to have killed hundreds of virgins and bathed in their blood (Warnes). In earlier times, humans did not have all the available materials that modern serial killers use now. Modern day serial killers can research their victims online, photograph them with cameras, and use a variety of weapons

to kill and dispose of the body (Warnes). Law enforcement can also use technology to find the killers and attempt to bring them to justice (Warnes). The big question is, why do serial killers kill? Most serial killers murder in search of revenge, power, lust, control, or attention (Warnes). Serial killers have a great number of similarities, and are largely all considered psychopaths. Psychopaths choose their victims by race, gender, or age group (Warnes). As they kill, they like to obtain trophies or leave clues to get attention (Warnes). The Zodiac Killer for example, is one of the most famous American serial killers, but was never discovered. Shortly after the disposal of his victims, the Zodiac Killer would leave clues or letters for law enforcement, about his victims and what he did. Scientists, criminologists, and academics have studied the psychology of serial killers and found that psychopaths are usually born with abnormal brain activity, which causes the bad behavior (Warnes). Psychopaths also have often been found to have had bad childhood experiences (Warnes). Scientist still do not know if it is nature or nurture that causes someone to become a serial killer, because there is evidence of both. It can be both nature and nurture that causes someone to become a serial killer, as evidenced by three well known psychopaths Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Gacy.
Ted Bundy, one of the most famous American serial killers was arrested after he murdered more than thirty girls in the 1970s (Jenephyr). Ted Bundy's characteristics point both to nature and nurture. He was born as Ted Cowell on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont and spent his first few years growing up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Jenephyr). Ted seemed to have a bright future because he did well in school and was charismatic, but he was not nurtured well, which encouraged bad behavior. He grew up with no father and moved homes and places (Jenephyr). Bundy grew up with his mother Eleanor Louise Cowell and his grandparents, because his father was never around (Jenephyr). The people of Philadelphia believed that his mother was his sister and that his grandparents were his parents, because the grandparents looked after him more than his mother did (Jenephyr). Ted Bundy and his mother moved a lot when he was young, such as in 1950 they moved to Tacoma, Washington where his mother was remarried to Johnnie Bundy and then changed her son's name to Theodore Robert Bundy (Jenephyr). Ted stayed in Washington until he graduated from college and many people thought Bundy had a bright future (Jenephyr). However, staying in Washington was a bad choice for Bundy because it brought back the memories of how he was not raised well.
He was an honor student, though he had some problems in college, such as failed relationships with his girlfriends, Stephanie Brooks and Elizabeth Kleopfer (Jenephyr). This may have triggered the evil nature in him. People believe that Bundy’s first act of murder was shortly after he graduated college in 1974, when a woman was taken from her Seattle basement apartment and only bloodstains were left behind (Jenephyr). Later the police found her skeletal remains in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains (Jenephyr). During this time, Bundy was working at the Seattle crisis clinic and was also planning to run for governor (Jenephyr). However, he moved to Utah in 1974 instead, where he kidnapped and assaulted a twelve year old girl, Kimberly Leach (Jenephyr). Bundy was arrested in 1975 for suspicion of burglary and put into a lineup where he was identified for the kidnapping that happened in 1974, and he was then sentenced to fifteen years in prison (Jenephyr). In June 1977 Bundy escaped from prison, but was caught six days later (Jenephyr). He again escaped in December 1977 then went to Tallahassee, Florida were he stayed in hiding (Jenephyr). “In 1978, Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida and beat five girls, killing two by strangulation and biting one of the deceased on her left buttock; the teeth imprints eventually helped to convict Bundy” (Jenephyr). Bundy did not know that the teeth imprints would later help the police convict him. He was captured again in February of 1978 driving with a stolen car (Jenephyr). “After his arrest in Florida, Bundy was indicted on two counts of murder and three of attempted murder. He went on trial in June, 1979, and was found guilty. Then, in 1980, Bundy was found guilty of the Leach murder and received a death sentence for that crime (Jenephyr).” For the next ten years he was on death row but was using legal tactics to delay his execution (Jenephyr). In the Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida, on January 24,1989, he was executed in the electric chair for the murder of Leach (Jenephyr). In addition he had also been sentenced to two death sentences and three nineteen year sentences (Jenephyr). His murders occured in King County, Washington, Salt Lake City, Utah, Colorado, and Tallahassee Florida (Jenephyr). The difficult childhood and the failed relationships made Bundy want control, lust, and revenge.
Jeffrey Dahmer on the other hand, showed dreadful natural characteristics from a young age and later, poor nurturing affected him and seemed to influence his acts.

Jeffrey Dahmer is an American serial killer who was obsessed with the idea of death and killed adult males. Some people say that he grew up with a part of him missing (Jenephyr) . Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and his killings occurred in Bath, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Jenephyr). “He had difficulty making friends and was a loner who was fascinated with death, bodies, flesh, and taxidermy. He had a collection of roadkill and insects preserved in chemicals. Dahmer was also fond of impaling the heads of animals on stakes and mounting the bodies on trees behind his house” (Jenephyr). Dahmer had trouble making friends and was shy around peers, especially females (Jenephyr). He would even seek attention by faking seizures and other bad behavior (Jenephyr).
When his parents were getting a divorce, they fought over custody of his younger brother David, but not him (Jenephyr). This is an example of poor nurturing that could have triggered him to seek revenge. His parents would also try to pressure him into picking sides (Jenephyr). His mother then eventually got custody of David and shortly after this his father left (Jenephyr). Dahmer then moved into his grandmother's house (Jenephyr). These experiences would make Dahmer want to have revenge on his mother, father, and brother. It would also nurture his dark nature turning him into a serial

killer.
On June 18, 1978 Dahmer met an eighteen year old, hitchhiker named Stephen Hicks, and Dahmer took him back to the place he called home and engaged in sexual intercourse (Jenephyr). Afterwards, Hicks then tried to leave but before he could, Dahmer hit him in the head with a barbell and then used a sledge hammer to smash his body further and then hide it in the woods behind his house (Jenephyr). Dahmer had many anger issues which can somewhat explain the rage in his murders. He later joined the army but was released because of problems with alcohol (Jenephyr). In 1982 he moved in with his grandmother near Milwaukee and continued his gay lifestyle at gay bars (Jenephyr). In 1987 he picked up Steven Toumi at a gay bar and they wound up at a hotel after a night of drinking (Jenephyr). He then killed Toumi and took to him to his grandmother's house where he engaged in necrophilia, which is having sexual intercourse with corpses (Jenephyr). Later he then dismembered the body and threw it in the trash (Jenephyr). He continued to pick up men at gay bars and go through the same routine. In 1989 Dahmer picked up a twenty four year old African-American male who he took to his grandmother's house for sexual intercourse and he then drugged him, strangled him, disposed of the body, but kept the head and boiled it until the skull remained as a souvenir (Jenephyr). He would do this to many more men and kept some bodies and performed necrophilia and cannibalism (Jenephyr). Tracy Edwards, another victim of Dahmer was able to escape and notify the police (Jenephyr). The police searched his apartment where they found pictures and the leftover skulls, but no Dahmer (Jenephyr). In 1988 Dahmer picked up a thirteen year old male who he tried to drug with sleeping pills but was able to escape and tell the police (Jenephyr). The next day he was arrested for sexual assault and was eventually sentenced to 5 years in prison (Jenephyr). In prison in 1994, he was beaten to death and died November 28, 1994 in Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin (Jenephyr). Nature and nurture caused him to do the terrible things he did to get revenge.
John Gacy is another American serial killer. John Gacy was born March 17, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in a Roman Catholic family (Luongo). John Gacy would try to act normal but there was another evil side of him. His characteristics both point to nature and nurture. There were many incidents and characteristics of him that show how nature influenced him. At the age of eleven Gacy was struck with a playground swing in the frontal lobe and treated for blood clots which caused some blackouts as well as lack of empathy for others (Luongo). “The frontal lobe is considered responsible for much of the behaviour that makes possible stable and adequate social relations, (Courtauld).” This would be nature because it affected the brain and not his emotion.
Gacy also showed where nurture experiences influenced him. Gacy grew up with an abusive alcoholic father who would always have fights with him (Luongo). When Gacy was a senior he dropped out of high school but later graduated from business college (Luongo).
He got married and moved to Waterloo, Iowa where he became a manager of a restaurant that belonged to his wife's family (Luongo). During his job as a manager in 1968, he was arrested and convicted for assault and homosexual acts with a young employee (Luongo). He was then sentenced to ten years in prison but was released after eighteen months and then his wife divorced him (Luongo). He was also arrested for attempted rape but then accused another young male and the case never made it to court (Luongo). After he was released he bought a house and threw neighborhood cookouts to try to act normal and he even got a job as Pogo the clown (Luongo). “Gacy was active in local organizations and politics. He frequently visited hospitals dressed as a clown to entertain sick children, while at the same time, Gacy targeted teenage boys and young men. He brought them to his house, where he tortured, raped, and murdered them” (Funk). He would then dispose of the bodies under his house and was active in doing this between 1972-1978 (Luongo). Gacy was convicted of 33 murders of young teenage males and was executed with a lethal drug (Luongo). Gacy’s nature and nurture experiences lead to the despicable behavior and ultimate bad consequences of being executed.
Cited
Courtauld, Alice. “Serial Killers, born or made?” shoutoutuk.org, 9 Jan. 2014, www.shoutoutuk.org/2014/09/01/serial-killers-born-made/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2018.