Ted Bundy Research Paper

Isaac Franks

Mrs Burger

Psychology 101

1 January 2017

Childhood and Serial Killers

Even before man invented the sword their has been serial killers

One of america's most famous serial killers is Ted Bundy. Bundy was a killer, kidnapper, necrophile, rapist and burglar. Bundy admitted to murdering 30 women but the total amount of killings could be drastically more, some say that the true total could be close to 100 young girls and women. Bundy was said to be charming and handsome, which is partly one of the reason he was able to lure so many women to their deaths. Bundy would dress up nicely and portray an authority figure or fake an injury to add to the chances that a girl would "help" or approach him. Ted would kill his victims in various

violent ways.

He'd sometimes rape them or practice necrophilia. Bundy would also take pictures of his victims or keep some of their heads as mementos. Bundy would revisit some of his victims remains on many occasions. Bundy grew up in a very catholic lovely home. Bundy said that he had a great home life with very loving parents. Bundy said the thing or the monster as he describes that sent him downhill was pornography, specifically sexually violent pornography. In his very last interview, with James C Dobson shortly before his death, Bundy says "The most damaging kind of pornography - and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience - is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces - as I know only too well - brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe." Bundy said he had an addiction and eventually porn wasn't good enough so he started to act out what he saw. Ted Bundy was executed in 1989 at

Raiford Prison in Florida. Bundy was regarded as a psychopath using manipulation, as well as his charm to control others and he did so without remorse.

Our second serial killer is one of the most manipulative convincing close to 100 people to join his cult like 'family'. Chalres Manson did not have a stable childhood. Born in 1934 illegatimatly to a 16 year old girl. His mother, Kathleen Maddox, was a prostitute and alcholic. Manson never met his biological father. According to Manson his mother once sold hm for a pitcher of beer to an infertile watress. His uncle picked him up shortly after where he would live for a while, due to his mother being arrested and imprisoned for trying to rob a service staton. When she was released she took ahold of her son and lived with him for a while in various hotels and locations. She tried to place him in a foster home but to no avale there was none. He than was sent to a all boys school and after 10 months escaped to his mother where she rejected him. Charles Manson never had a typical american childhood. He never had a father figure or a mother figure for that matter. This would later show later on as he went on to commit a number of petty crimes. This would continue for some time as by the time he was 32 he spent almost half of his life behind bars.
It wasn't until his releasement from jail in 1967 when he moved to San Fransico that things started to escalade. He met a women named Mary Brunner, where he convinced not only himself but 18 other women to stay at her home. Manson called this group like cult the 'Family' where he gathered more member that shared his same idealists.
Charles Manson was heavily influenced by the Beatles and the Book of Revelation. Specifically the Beatles song Helter Skelter and believed that it showed a type of race war where the black would rebel against the white rule. He impeded this into his followers and manipulated them into believing he was Jesus.
In 1969 Manson gathered a group of his most loyal followers carried out a rather brutal massacre of Hollywood's most rich and influential individuals. Each murder was not however carried out by Manson himself. Instead he ordered his followers to kill them and they followed without question.

The Macdonald Triad is a set of three behavior characteristics. Proposed by psychiatrist J.M. Macdonald, in a 1963 paper by the American Journal of Psychiatry, "The Threat to Kill". The three behaviors being Animal cruelty or torture, prolonged bed wetting and fire starting or arson. These three behaviors are linked to increased violence in a person. However other research has found no evidence in this statement that this the basic fundamentals of a serial killer.
Animal Torture is seen as a way to feel powerful again if beaten down by someone of a bigger size. It's also said that it is a way to practice killings to humans. Animal torture has been linked to humiliation during childhood. The young serial killers couldn't fight back and killed animals to release tension or aggression build up.
In our society people have been trying to find a one size fits all for everyone with everything, the Macdonald Triad is one of these one size fits alls. The Macdonald Triad is a way to understand the human mind and wrap our "normal" brains around why killers did what they did they did to their helpless victims.

Antisocial personality disorder is a mental health disorder characterized by disregard for other people. Two types of antisocial personality disorders are psychopaths and sociopaths.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder that affects 1 in 100 people. Do not get psychopathy mixed up with sociopathy, another ASPD. Although psychologist use them interchangeably because of their numerous similarities they are not the same diseases. Psychopathy is a mental health disease that people are born with. Defined by the FBI "psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs." Psychopaths have a hard time forming real relationships so they form relationships that will benefit them or ones that they can manipulate for their own personal gain. Psychopaths feel no remorse or empathy for others or what they have done. This would show why some serial killers feel no sympathy for their victims. Not all psychopaths are natural born killers that are out to get people, but more likely than not serial killers will posses some psychopathic traits or will be a psychopath.
A sociopath is once again very similar to the 'symptoms' or traits of a psychopath. Sociopaths and psychopaths, Psychology Today says that both "show failure to feel remorse or guilt, disregard for laws and social mores, disregard for the rights of others, and a tendency to display violent behaviors." They are not the same mental illness and both show unique differences. Sociopaths are more likely to let out emotional episodes like acts of rage. They are often easily agitated and nervous. Sociopaths tend to be the rut of the litter, hanging on by a thread in society. Unlike their counterparts. Sociopaths murder sprees and killers are spontaneous and unplanned unlike psychopaths. Most importantly sociopaths are products of their environments. It's most likely developed due to past experiences or childhood trauma.
Jim Fallon, neurobiologist, Did a brain scan of 70 brains, some of those happening to be serial killers.

All of the serial killers had damage to their orbital cortex. All had the MAOA gene or a major violence gene. Its sex linked on the X chromosome, so only men can get it. The brain is bathed in serotonin during development so when they mature their brains don't react to serotonin. This would explain why a lot of serial killers are men, they obtained the high violence gene from their mother so their is no other X chromosome to cancel it out. It would also explain why their are few serial killers that are female because both mother and father would have to have the

gene.
Most serial killers experienced some type of trauma or abuse in their early lives. In a study of 50 serial killers 35 of them experienced cruel treatment during childhood and 25 of them said they experienced psychological abuse like verbal abuse or isolation. A painful childhood could dramatically increase the chance of someone becoming a sociopathic serial killer. A person carrying the MAOA violence gene is also at risk of becoming a serial killer. Expressing or activating that gene is done by being exposed to something traumatizing before puberty. Child abuse may be that something making that person even more likely of becoming a serial killer. Their a walking time bomb about to blow at any moment.
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