Serial Killers Essay, Research Paper
serial killers
In 1984, International Association of Forensic Sciences, FBI Special Agent Robert K Ressler and several of his colleagues produced a paper listing the following ‘general characteristics” of serial sex murderers:
? They tend to be intelligent and have IQ’s in the ‘bright normal’ range.
? In spite of their high IQ’s, they do poorly in school, have a hard time holding down jobs, and often work as unskilled laborers.
? They tend to come from markedly unstable families. Typically, they are abandoned as children by their fathers and raised by domineering mothers.
? Their families often have past criminal, psychiatric, and alcoholic histories.
? They hate their fathers. They hate their mothers.
? They are commonly abused as children – psychologically, physically, and sexually. Sometimes the abuser is a stranger. Sometimes, it is a friend. Often, it is a family member.
? Many of them end up spending time in institutes as children and have records of early psychiatric problems.
? They are intensely interested from an early age in voyeurism, fetishism, and sadomasochistic pornography.
Examples
? Serial killers aren’t always referred to by the amount of people they have killed, but more by the amount of deaths resulting from actions produced by a guilty mind and actions. Charles Manson for example was convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders in July 1969, yet never wielded a knife or fired a pistol. It was his manipulation of his cult members that proved him to be the guilty mind behind the murders.
As opposed to Charles Manson is John Wayne Gacy, who killed 33 people, many of which were young boys. Yet both were classified as serial killers.
Serial killers have been around since the nineteenth century, and not to mention, much earlier, although accurate reports of the incidents have not been recorded. Yet reports go back to as earlier as ancient Rome were depraved aristocrats such as Gilles de Rais (the original Blubeard) killed hundreds of victims.
But for each decade, the world has seen it’s fair share of serial killers. Beginning with Jack the Ripper, one of the most famous serial killers, namely because he was never caught and died a free man. Around the same time was H.H.Holmes.
Holmes, after scamming his way into money built what he called ‘The Castle’. Inside his castle were secret passageways, hidden staircases, fake walls, concealed shafts, and trap doors. Some rooms were sound proof, lined with asbestos, and equipped with gas pipes connected to large pipes in the cellar. And of them all was a pair of chutes from the second and third floors of the basement, where Holmes kept a fully equipped dissection lab.
Next, around the 1910’s was Fritz Haarman. Not only did Haarman kill boys, but also sold their left over flesh that he didn’t consume to the black-market beef trade. Next, in the 1920’s was Albert Fish. When examined by a psychiatrist, he declared that Fish had practice every sexual perversion known aswell as a few no one had ever heard of.
Around the 1950’s was Ed Gein. Some would call him the superstar of serial killers for being the inspiration behind 3 of the most terrifying films in the past thirty years: Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs.
Overtime though, it would be hard to distinguish just how serial killers of our time have changed to say a century ago. Perhaps now, they are more imaginary and prefer to put thought to their killings rather than slaughtering numerous people at once, which tended to be the frequency in the 19th century.
One thing that remained normal over all this time is just how many serial killers there are. Each era has seen it’s fair share of serial killers, and each era will continue to do because not only are serial killers increasing, but also it is said that right now, there are 32 active serial killers at large.
Overtime though, the public has grown immune to such events as these. For example, Jack the Ripper killed 5 street workers 100 years ago, and only in 1995 a warehouse clerk named William Lester Suff was convicted of killing thirteen prostitutes in Southern California. The media barely noted the event, which explains why you may not have heard of these crimes until now.
But no other time besides the nineteen sixties and seventies had any country seen a bigger epidemic of serial killers than America. Not until than had serial murders been so planned and thought out and it was about this time that an abundant amount of serial sex-murders occurred. This era saw the likes of Melvin Rees, Albert DeSalvo, Richard Speck, Charles Manson, the Zodiac- which is still at large to date, Berkowitz, Bundy, Kemper and Gacy, Bouno and Bianchi.
The exact definition of a serial killer is debatable, but one philosophy that I personally believe is correct is that serial killers can be classed into four different groups, they are: Visionary, mission-orientated, hedonistic, and power seekers.
Of the four, despite all are classified as extremely dangerous, hedonistic and power seekers would be classified as most dangerous.
HEDONISTIC – Have no motive behind their pleasure. They kill because it feels good, the thought of inflicting death, pain and torture upon a person give them an ultimate high, a source of intense, and mostly sexual pleasure that can only be derived for them through killing.
POWER SEEKERS – Usually seek pure control over their victim. To say that it compensates for their own personal feelings would lack reasoning. But to say that it gives them a power that they were always on the other end to, explains just why power seekers feel most happy whilst dominating a victim.
MISSION ORIENTATED – Believe that they have a mission to carry out. To rid the streets of prostitutes would seem the most common, but homosexuals, foreigners and even in Charles M
VISIONARY KILLERS – Who could also be characterized as psychotics and, in some cases schizophrenics often kill because of voices or visions seen and heard. Normally heard through “telepathic voices”, they are commanded to kill and promised various things ranging from a perfect after life to prevention of a white revolution.
? Serial killers were always classed as insane, yet tests on some can prove negative. For instance, Jeffrey Dahmer.
? Some types can overlap, e.g. Herbert Mullin heard voices telling him to kill in order to prevent an earthquake in California. This was both visionary and mission orientated. And Dahmer was hedonistic and power seeker; he derived pleasure from killing them, but liked asserting power over his victims.
Bibliography
HISTORY OF SERIAL KILLERS
Serial killers have been around since the nineteenth century, and not to mention, much earlier, although accurate reports of the incidents have not been recorded. Yet reports go back to as earlier as ancient Rome were depraved aristocrats such as Gilles de Rais (the original Blubeard) killed hundreds of victims.
But for each decade, the world has seen it’s fair share of serial killers. Beginning with Jack the Ripper, one of the most famous serial killers, namely because he was never caught and died a free man. Around the same time was H.H.Holmes.
Holmes, after scamming his way into money built what he called ‘The Castle’. Inside his castle were secret passageways, hidden staircases, fake walls, concealed shafts, and trap doors. Some rooms were sound proof, lined with asbestos, and equipped with gas pipes connected to large pipes in the cellar. And of them all was a pair of chutes from the second and third floors of the basement, where Holmes kept a fully equipped dissection lab.
Next, around the 1910’s was Fritz Haarman. Not only did Haarman kill boys, but also sold their left over flesh that he didn’t consume to the black-market beef trade. Next, in the 1920’s was Albert Fish. When examined by a psychiatrist, he declared that Fish had practice every sexual perversion known aswell as a few no one had ever heard of.
Around the 1950’s was Ed Gein. Some would call him the superstar of serial killers for being the inspiration behind 3 of the most terrifying films in the past thirty years: Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs.
Overtime though, it would be hard to distinguish just how serial killers of our time have changed to say a century ago. Perhaps now, they are more imaginary and prefer to put thought to their killings rather than slaughtering numerous people at once, which tended to be the frequency in the 19th century.
One thing that remained normal over all this time is just how many serial killers there are. Each era has seen it’s fair share of serial killers, and each era will continue to do because not only are serial killers increasing, but also it is said that right now, there are 32 active serial killers at large.
Overtime though, the public has grown immune to such events as these. For example, Jack the Ripper killed 5 street workers 100 years ago, and only in 1995 a warehouse clerk named William Lester Suff was convicted of killing thirteen prostitutes in Southern California. The media barely noted the event, which explains why you may not have heard of these crimes until now.
But no other time besides the nineteen sixties and seventies had any country seen a bigger epidemic of serial killers than America. Not until than had serial murders been so planned and thought out and it was about this time that an abundant amount of serial sex-murders occurred. This era saw the likes of Melvin Rees, Albert DeSalvo, Richard Speck, Charles Manson, the Zodiac- which is still at large to date, Berkowitz, Bundy, Kemper and Gacy, Bouno and Bianchi.
VARIOUS TYPES OF SERIAL KILLERS
The exact definition of a serial killer is debatable, but one philosophy that I personally believe is correct is that serial killers can be classed into four different groups, they are: Visionary, mission-orientated, hedonistic, and power seekers.
Of the four, despite all are classified as extremely dangerous, hedonistic and power seekers would be classified as most dangerous.
HEDONISTIC – Have no motive behind their pleasure. They kill because it feels good, the thought of inflicting death, pain and torture upon a person give them an ultimate high, a source of intense, and mostly sexual pleasure that can only be derived for them through killing.
POWER SEEKERS – Usually seek pure control over their victim. To say that it compensates for their own personal feelings would lack reasoning. But to say that it gives them a power that they were always on the other end to, explains just why power seekers feel most happy whilst dominating a victim.
MISSION ORIENTATED – Believe that they have a mission to carry out. To rid the streets of prostitutes would seem the most common, but homosexuals, foreigners and even in Charles Manson’s case, whites, are just few of the helpless that are often preyed upon by mission orientaters.
VISIONARY KILLERS – Who could also be characterized as psychotics and, in some cases schizophrenics often kill because of voices or visions seen and heard. Normally heard through “telepathic voices”, they are commanded to kill and promised various things ranging from a perfect after life to prevention of a white revolution.
? Serial killers were always classed as insane, yet tests on some can prove negative. For instance, Jeffrey Dahmer.
? Some types can overlap, e.g. Herbert Mullin heard voices telling him to kill in order to prevent an earthquake in California. This was both visionary and mission orientated. And Dahmer was hedonistic and power seeker; he derived pleasure from killing them, but liked asserting power over his victims.