Serial Killers: The Zodiac Killer

The term serial killer is defined as, “The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender in separate events” according to the F.B.I. It is clear that there is something not quite right about a person who can kill, and continue to do so. (Pemment, 2013) With serial killers there is no real reasoning behind their murders, they do not just snap one day, nor do they do it out of greed or even jealousy. There is time between the murders, and most of the time these people are active members of a community. While there are umpteen studies about why these people murder, there have been no actual breakthroughs. The studies go anywhere from a poor childhood, to brain damage. While everything is so unclear, there are many studies that point

There have been countless new articles, books, movies, and reports about these people, who seemed to be a normal part of the community until it was found that they were serial killers. Dennis Rader (the BTK Killer), killed ten people in 1974 then taunted the police; he sent a floppy disk which ended up being traced back to his church. Jeffery Dahmer raped, murdered, and dismembered seventeen men and boys; in addition to, cooking and eating the severed body parts in 1978. When a potential victim escaped, he went to the police and took them to Jeffery Dahmer’s apartment. A few of John Wayne Gacy’s victims were employees at his construction business. While Ted Bundy was picked up during a traffic stop; David Berkowitz (The Son of Sam), shot and killed six people and wounded seven others during the summer of 1976, was thought to be a witness rather than the murderer. (Freeman, 2014)(Castillo,

There are possibilities in question that can be answered with a diagnosis like psychopathy, borderline personality disorder, or Schizophrenia. Borderline personality disorder is characterized by emotional instability, anxiety, and psychotic-like symptoms. These patients can become paranoid or suspicious of others out of nowhere. The theory is that if all of these things happen at once to a person with borderline personality disorder, there is a possibly the result could be the death of another person, and if these are triggered by a certain situation or place then it could become serial killings; whereas, psychopath killings are usually pre-meditated. Simon Baron-Cohen included borderline personality disorder as resulting in zero-degree empathy, this means that the patient does not have empathy for others. Finally, there is schizophrenia, when these patients being having symptoms or hallucinations they can become violent. Castle and Hensley have claimed that there has never been a serial killer who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but Ronald Markman M.D., a forensic scientist, studied the life of Richard Chase, The Vampire of Sacramento, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia countless times before he committed most of his murders. (Pemmet, 2013) In the case of psychopathy, it is known that these patients do not have the typical reactions to situations, like getting caught doing