Nicknamed “the racist killer” James Clayton Vaughn Jr. killed more than fifteen people. He is a perfected example of what characterizes a mission type serial killer. He was a neo nazi and a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was motivated to kill interracial couples and Jewish people because of his hatred towards them and belief that they were inferior and destroying America. His desire to kill this demographic of people stemmed from his desire to incite a race war after reading Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He even attacked celebrity Larry Flint, publisher of Hustler magazine for allowing his magazine to depict interracial sex. He was found guilty for his crimes and was executed in 2013. (Blanco, 1999)
The hedonistic serial killer is perhaps the
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Controlling another’s life and death gives the murderer psychological and sexual pleasure. However, they do not kill simply for sexual gratification such as the hedonist lust type; the sexual gratification is an after result of their primary motivation, to control another. This type of murderer will not kill their victim quickly, usually prolonging torture and often uses a personal weapon such as a knife or their own hands. This is done because in enables them to act out their desires to control and dominate another human making their victim subservient to their command all the way to death. (Holmes, R. M., Holmes, S. T., & Park, H. 2007). This type of killer will often rape their victim as well as it is another form of domination. In addition, in childhood they were either bullied or made to feel powerless through abuse, usually carried out by a family member. Furthermore, this type of killer is generally organized, meaning they will control the crime scene, take steps to hide their victim’s body, and rarely leave behind physical evidence such as a murder weapon. The exception to this is that sexual assault is often a component in their crimes and so biological evidence such as semen will usually be left behind. Control killers can be geographically stable, however most are geographically …show more content…
Teten, Patrick Mullany, Robert Ressler, John Douglas, and Roy Hazelwood. The first success to be experienced by the group that also brought a lot of credibility to the field of psychological profiling was in the case of the David Meierhofer murders. This offender abducted and murdered a seven year old girl and was thought to and later found to be guilty in the disappearance of a woman he knew. Using the information they had gathered from the two cases, they developed a profile that suggested the killer would be intimidated by women and need to contact the victim’s families in order to revisit his murders. Meierhofer matched a part of their profile of being a local, young, white male, and a societal loner. Sure enough Meierhofer contacted the family a year after the abduction. They proved it was him and got a search warrant for his home that uncovered pieces of his two victims. However, they were only able to prove it was him because they had asked the mother to confront him in order to confirm his voice and lure him into contacting them by phone anonymously again. (Hicks & Sales,
The hypocrisy and double standard that allowed whites to bring harm to blacks without fear of any repercussions had existed for years before the murder Tyson wrote about occurred in May of 1970 (Tyson 2004, 1). Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1).
In June of 1998, a sadistic murder of a middle-aged black man from Jasper, Texas, rekindled memories of lynching practices from the blood stained American past. James Byrd, Jr., 49, was beaten savagely to the point of unconsciousness, chained to the back of a pickup truck by his neck, and dragged for miles over rural roads outside the town of Jasper. It is believed that Byrd survived through most of this experience, that is, until he was decapitated. Three white men, John William King, 23, Shawn Berry, 23, (both of whom had links to white supremacist groups) and Lawrence Brewer Jr., 31, were arrested. Brewer and King were sentenced to death for a racial hate crime that shocked the nation. Berry was sent to prison for life.
In my free time at work I used to listen to You-Tube documentaries on serial killers. I thought it was interesting and it passed the time. Looking back, I now notice that most of the serial killers were white males, middle class, and heterosexual. Without reading this article I probably would have never thought of the fact that most of the serial killers were in fact of that nature. This article just continues to prove that people can not judge people based on race, social status, or gender. There is more that goes on in a person’s brain then what they look like or how they might seem on the
Two Ku Klux Klan members, Francis Hays and James. “Tiger” Knowles, was arrested and charged with the murder. A third individual, Benjamin Cox. was also charged as an accomplice. The three were sent to trial and one was executed, Hayes said. and the other two are serving time in prison.
When it come to the wrongdoing of serial murders the first thing people think of is that the offender is psychotic, white, abused as a child and experimented with animals. However that is not true, serial killers have different alternatives, motives and desires. Some are sexual sadist, act in necrophilia and are mission base serial killers. However people do not know that African-Americans consist of the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total amount of serial killers in America. (Bonn) Most believe that serial killers are white and other races are not likely to partake in that type of crimes. However two notorious well known black serial killers are Lemuel Smith & John Floyd
In a study conducted by Hickey, he discovered that out of thirty-four female serial killers, almost one in two had a male accomplice committing murders with them (Holmes et al., 1991). He also revealed that 97% were white and the average age the women started committing murders was thirty-three (Holmes et al., 1991). Women serial killers differ from men in that most women kill for material gain, such as money or insurance benefits, and they usually commit murder with pills or poison. Stephen Holmes, Ronald Holmes, and Eric Hickey developed a typology for female serial killers similar to the one developed by Holmes and Holmes, discussed earlier. They begin with visionary serial killers, who are compelled by some force, such as God, or spirits, to commit murders. The second type is the comfort killer, who usually kills acquaintances and does so for a material gain, money or real estate (Holmes et al., 1991). The third category is hedonistic female serial killers, which is similar to the earlier typology in that the offender connects murder with sexual gratification. This is the least represented category for female offenders, but evidence for this type of killer can be seen in the case of Carol Bundy (Holmes et al., 1991). Bundy allegedly helped her husband kidnap, murder, and decapitate the
The present paper intent to enquire into a female serial killer. It shall describe and analyze the theories behind the occurrences and sequent offer explanations. The studies of criminology theories it is important to recognize why humans decide on living a life cycle of crime. Wikipedia.org defines serial killer as, “a person who murders three or more people, usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break (a “cooling off period”) between them.” Precisely of this, humans who tend to be a serial killer are prone to developmental and physical characteristics. Several of these trends could fit into a model standard of a crime. A good example of analyzing the life and crimes of Aileen Wuornos, an American female serial killer who killed
Taking the life of another person is one of the worst infractions of the law to commit. The Bureau of Justice defines serial killing as “[involving] the killing of several victims in three or more separate events” (“Michigan” 1). Serial killers often commit extremely violent crimes; they usually become infamous for these crimes. The first recorded serial killers are probably Jack the Ripper in 1888 and Fritz Haarmann in 1924 (“Michigan” 1). Jack the Ripper is also one of the most well-known criminals, almost everyone knows who he is or has at least heard of him. Most people know what he is famous for and associate him with being a bad person. Serial killers are typically sadistic and sociopathic, meaning that they are unable to feel empathy for people who are suffering (“Michigan” 1). Whimsical sociopaths who have sadistic tendencies are very dangerous. They inflict pain because they do not care that someone else is suffering, they only care that it makes t...
Almost every major social, biological, psychological, behavioural influence that has been seriously suggested as playing a role in causing crime has been thoroughly thought of as potentially contributing to the behavior of serial killers (Levin, 2008). The time period and amount of killings fluctuate depending on the individual committing the crime. Usually, the murders happen in different geographical areas. A mass murder has a separate definition than a serial killer, because a serial killer has a “cooling off” period, where mass murders kill several individuals in a single event. Each of a serial killer’s killings temporarily gratifies whatever provokes the killer’s actions, and each subsequent killing terminates a separate sequence of behaviors.
Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System “We simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment,” stated Senator Russ Feingold. Even though racism has always been a problem since the beginning of time, recently in the United States, there has been a rise in discrimination and violence has been directed towards the African American minority primarily from those in the white majority who believe they are more superior, especially in our criminal justice system. There are many different reasons for the ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system between the majority and the minority, but some key reasons are differential involvement, individual racism, and institutional racism to why racial disparities exist in Institutional racism is racism that is shown through government organizations and political institutions. In a report done by David Baldus in 1998, he discovered that when it comes to the death penalty, blacks are more likely sentenced to death than whites, and those who kill whites are more likely to be given the death penalty than the killing of blacks (Touré).
A study found that 22.86% of victims are children personally associated with the killer and another 14.29% of victims were children acquainted with the murderer such as being a patient or neighbor (Farrell et al, 2011, p. 240). One of the most common female serial killer classifications are known as “Angels or Death” and they are caregivers, usually nurses, who kill those in their care (Pozzulo, Bennell, & Forth, 2015, p. 410). They focus on individuals they care for, most likely because they are the easiest to control and have power over. Angels of death are often motivated by ego and the need to dominate (Freiburger, & Marcum, 2015, p. 125). They get the feeling of control and complete domination, then others give their sympathy because the killer is thought to have lost a patient or loved family member.
As years go on so will the research on serial killers and hopefully we as a society will fully understand them and one day be able to cure whatever inside that makes them have the urge to kill. Works Cited The Electronic Journal of Sociology, published by the University of Guelph, Ontario. http://www.scribd.com/doc/167086215/How-Serial-Killers-Work. According to the article “10 Most Common Traits of Potential Serial Killers By Hestie Barnard Gerber. According to Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer.
I. Sub Point 1: For a serial killer like Jeffrey Dahmer, it was both the need for dominance and uncontrollable impulse, claiming that “The only motive that there ever was was to completely control a person; a person I found physically attractive. And keep them with me as long as possible, even if it meant just keeping a part of them.” Dahmer was driven from the one motive that was to have some sort of control of a man’s body, given that he had been attracted to men since he was a young
In the 1960’s, people actually believed that psychology was simple minded and unnecessary, so, becoming a criminal profiler back in the day definitely involved difficulties. Little did Teten and Mullany know that they would change the was law informants works forever. (Susssex Publishers, 1991-2016). Although criminal profiling was not utilized until the 19th century by Dr. Thomas Bond. He wrote a description on the legendary “Jack The Ripper” describing how he may act or look. Even after all of the work he done he or anyone else to this day has been able to find out who Jack the Ripper was.
Mass Murderers and Serial Killers are nothing new to today’s society. These vicious killers are all violent, brutal monsters and have an abnormal urge to kill. What gives people these urges to kill? What motivates them to keep killing? Do these killers get satisfaction from killing? Is there a difference between mass murderers and serial killers or are they the same. How do they choose their victims and what are some of their characteristics? These questions and many more are reasons why I was eager to write my paper on mass murderers and serial killers. However, the most interesting and sought after questions are the ones that have always been controversial. One example is; what goes on inside the mind of a killer? In this paper I will try to develop a better understanding of these driven killers and their motives.