In 1870, Hamilton Fish is born in Washington, D.C, a normal child, yet several years later he is known to be one of the most horrific serial killers of the 1920s. It is not known how many total victims Fish had during the 1920s, yet some of his most well-known victims include Grace Budd, Billy Gaffney, and Francis X. McDonnell. His murders were very horrific, yet what made Fish the most well-known serial killer of the 1920s was the letters he wrote about how he killed, raped, and ate the children he abducted (youtube.com). Throughout his childhood, Fish experienced severe abuse, trauma, and loss that were key factors in what would later develop into paranoid and religious psychosis including a mixture of other mental illnesses (creativescapism.com). …show more content…
He was known to attack mentally challenged or African American children, because he believed that they would not be as missed or publicized. It is not known how many victims there were, but Fish has admitted to at least three specific murders. The first known victim of Fish was Francis X. McDonnell, an eight year old boy, who had been playing a game of ball with his four other friends when he was abducted in 1924. Interesting enough, Francis McDonnell did not fit the criteria or Fish’s usual victims. He was not African American, mentally challenged, or disabled …show more content…
By the end of it, Fish was found guilty and sane. Although there was plenty proof that Fish suffered from psychosis and was insane, the jury wanted to see him punished. He was sentenced to death by electrocution and was scheduled to die in January of 1936. Fish arrived at Sing Sing Prison after being found guilty carrying a bible, and when questioned by reporters stated that, “What a thrill that will be if I have to die in the electric chair. It will be the supreme thrill. The only one I haven’t tried.” The first giant jolt of electricity failed to kill Fish due to the needles inside his body creating a short circuit. The second jolt did kill him though, and Fish remains to be one of the oldest men to ever die in the electric chair. His final statements have never been revealed and have been referred to as “the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read” by Fish’s defense attorney
...derer himself, he compares the guilt of his son’s death to that of fishes incident and how terrible he treated himself because of it.
Sean Vincent Gills was born June 24, 1962, in Baton Rouge, LA to Norman and Yvonne Gillis. His father died of acholism when Gills was just a young boy. His mom working a full time job at a local television station struggled to take care of Gills. Her parents often looked at after him. As a child Gills was thought to be normal. His mother was quoted saying that “I used to call him my little blue-eyed angel. This is the person I loved most in this world.” It wasn’t until his teenage years when others began to see a different side of him. As a teenager he had minor infraction but none to alarm others to think he would become a killer. He was arrested for traffic citations, DUI, possession of marijuana, and contempt of court through tout the years.
He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but some thought he might actually be suffering from drug-induced toxic psychosis. He visited the emergency room for testimonials that bones were coming out the back of his head, someone stole his pulmonary arteries, his stomach was backwards, and his heart stopped beating sometimes. He was also diagnosed with hypochondria, where he believed his heart was in danger of shrinking until disappearance. He then came to the solution that drinking blood of animals or humans would stop the shrinking. He was also interviewed and said that he killed to stay alive. He was admitted to a mental institution and was prescribed antidepressants. He was allowed to leave anytime he wanted. He was left unsupervised and his mother told him that he did not need the
Some of the traits most male serial killers have as a child include killing animals, auto-erotic activities, physical head injuries, and even bed wetting. The reason why killing animals is very common among serial killers is because it gives young killers great pleasure in knowing they have control over someone’s or something’s life.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In many cases, serial killers began their lives as remotely normal human beings. Most, however, have detectable characteristics of murderers before they hit puberty. Otis O’toole, for example, started a neighbourhood fire when he was six. George Adorno was even younger when he first displayed his pyromaniac tendencies by setting fire to his own sister when he was four. Along with pyromaniac behavior, other often-cited warning signs are enuresis (bed-wetting) and cruelty toward animals. Often, serial murderers are abused physically, psychologically, and sexually as children, sometimes from a stranger, but in most cases from a trusted family member or friend. Typically, they come from broken families, usually...
Attention Getter: Jeffrey Dahmer, The Zodiac Killer, Donald Henry Gaskins, Tsutomu Miyazaki, Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper, Amelia Dyer, Jane Toppan, these are the names of some of the most notorious serial killers the world has ever come to see, and there are many more where that came from.
Upon his arrest he had confessed to 5 burglaries and several violent sexual assaults, including the two unsolved murders and sexual assaults of Barbara Krlik, 15 and Annie Mae Johnson, 24. He had also admitted to have attempted sexual assaults on more than 4 women, all of which failed because he preferred to be a necrophilia stating that “He got no thrill with the living women he raped” (Gado, 2004).
“My consuming lust was to experience their bodies. I viewed them as objects, as strangers. It is hard for me to believe a human being could have done what I've done”(Dahmer). Jeffrey Dahmer is notably one of the most infamous serial killers in the United States. Along with seventeen murders under his belt, he was also a pedophile, cannibal and necrophiliac.
Throughout history, America has been the home of serial killers, with more than 2,000 throughout history. In this country, America has encountered many different kinds of these sick people. One of the most infamous serial killers throughout American History was Theodore Robert Bundy, also known as Ted Bundy. On November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont, Theodore Robert Bundy was born. When people think of serial killers, they usually see a dirty, insane looking person that would stand out from the average person. In Bundy’s case it was very different. Ted was a very smart individual who had attended 5 different colleges throughout the United States, studying law and eventually getting his degree in psychology at the University of Washington. Bundy was a very handsome and charming man, unlike most other serial killers. Looking helpless and using his good looks, Bundy was able to lure his victims and would knock them unconscious with an object such as a crowbar or a pipe, then would handcuff them inside his car. Once the victims were under his control he would then proceed in kidnapping, raping, sodomizing, and eventually killing them in very harsh ways. Throughout the 70’s, he raped and murdered young women all across the country. Bundy was said to be connected to at least 36 murders, and suspected to have committed one hundred or more.
Serial killers have been around for decades but According To Jack Levin, 'seven of the ten largest mass killings in American history have taken place in the last decade (Douglas, p. 137). One of the most popular and well-known serial killers in history was Ted Bundy. He was convicted of killing three women but is suspected of killing thirty-six other women (Douglas, p. 137).
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 ...
In Green River, Running Red, author Ann Rule describes a killer without remorse, who is the product of both personal and social influences, in effect forcing him to murder women and to continue to do so for over a decade as a fulfillment of his fantasies. When endeavoring to rationalize the causes of such a mind, theories of deviance, when separated into two distinct categories, positivist and constructionism. Positivist theories, such as the general theory of crime, allows for individual's to piece together events in the life of Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer which would undeniably lead him to a twisted sense of reality, combined with sexual fantasies and a tendency to justify perverted acts of murder. Constructionist theories, specifically conflict theory, are able to shed light on the lives and decisions made by the victims, who were all led to such lifestyles through outward sources. In determining the causes and motivations behind both the offender and the victims, theories of deviance leave little to be speculated on when placing blame on either psychological or social factors.
Gary Ridgway normal serial killer or psycho serial killer? That question is asked among many people still to this day and considered a catastrophe for Seattle’s reputation. Gary Ridgway currently 63 years old, was born on February 18th, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah then moved to Washington in 1958. Gary had been married three times, producing one child from his second marriage. Gary told many he was religious, and would go around preaching about god, yet he was discriminating because, most of his victims were prostitutes that he had slept with dead or alive. For thirty years, Gary worked as a competent truck painter to support himself and his families. Beginning in July 1982, Ridgway began killing young girls, the youngest being 12, and the
By 1978, roughly thirty women were dead and mutilated by the same man with little explanation as to why. Ted Bundy, one of the most infamous serial killers in history brutally took the lives of numerous women for seemingly no reason at all. His justification for these murders was simply that he felt like committing them. A serial killer is defined as someone who has killed more than three people over a period of a month or more for seemingly no reason at all. Most serial killers have no real motive for killing; for them it is an urge that they must satisfy. Was Ted Bundy and others like him always a violent psychopath or did certain events cause him to behave this way? One common belief is that abusive childhoods and other environmental factors are the main reason serial killers develop the way they do. The other belief is that serial killers are born with an innate desire to kill. The answer to this question lies within both arguments and there is no secret serial killer formula. Serial Killers are neither born nor made; instead many factors, both biological and psychological, contribute to the making of these destructive monsters.
“Early Signs of Serial Killers.” crimemuseum.org. National Museum of Crime and Punishment. 2008. Web. 29 Oct 2013.