Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Criminology 1 review
Criminology chapters 1 2 and 3
Criminology theory research paper
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Criminology 1 review
The Hare Psychopathy Checklist and Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Andrew Nilsen, sometimes referred to as the Muswell Hill Murderer and the Kindly murdered, dismembered, and sexually violated 15 young men in the course of his 5 year killing spree. He started murdering young homosexual men, which he generally met in bars and then invited back to his place, in 1978, with his final killing being in around 1983. All the crimes Dennis committed were in Muswell Hill, a small district in London, in both of his homes (Osborne, 2013).
Dennis Nilsen was born in Fraserburgh, Scotland on the 23rd of November in 1945, to Elizabeth Duthie Whyte and Olav Magnus Moksheim. Whenever he was just 4 years old, his father, who apparently suffered from alcoholism, left
…show more content…
his family, leaving him without a father figure or any form of male role model (“The making of a serial killer,” n.d.). This sudden loss of a relationship caused Dennis to become very close with his grandfather, Andrew Whyte. However, it did not last long because just 2 years later Andrew died of a heart attack. Nilsen claims that this traumatic event was a large influencing factor for the psychological problems he faced later in life. At his grandfather’s funeral Elizabeth forced Dennis to view the body of his deceased grandfather because she believed it would be helpful to her son; however it just led to more confusion in his young mind. His grandfather’s corpse was the first one he had seen, which he claims triggered the fascination he has with corpses. Dennis did not understand what everyone meant when they said, “Andrew was in a better place,” he always wondered why his best friend didn’t take him too. Dennis’ mother ended up getting remarried and had four children, which caused Nilsen to become more reserved as a child (“London/Fraserburgh serial killer,” 2012). Another traumatic event that Dennis experienced was when he was eight years old. Nilsen nearly drowned but was saved by a 16 year old boy, who later showed a sexual interest in him. This was the first homosexual encounter Nilsen experienced and the only one up until he was enlisted in the army around age 16. Due to the uncommonality of homosexuality during this time period, it was difficult on Nilsen growing up because he felt like he needed to keep this a secret. For a majority of his life he suffered from depression as well as alcoholism like his father. When he was 16 he enlisted in the army, he was a cook for several years and gained experience as a butcher for the Army Catering Corps, these skills would prove to be valuable later during his killing sprees. Eleven years into his service in the army, Nilsen was discharged in 1972, he joined the metropolitan police force in 1973. Several of his collegues said that Dennis showed a fascination with the corpses, various autopsied bodies, and morgue visits, but none of them thought anything of it. He ended up resigning due to an incident and became a civil servant after several months (“London/Fraserburgh serial killer,” 2012). Nilsen did not have any run-ins with the criminal justice system until 1973, whenever a work friend of Nilsen’s claimed that while he was sleeping Nilsen took several photographs of him.
Even though the encounter enraged the friend to the point that he required hospitalization, upon questioning Dennis was released without any charges (“Dennis Nilsen,”n.d.). Nilsen took up alcoholism after his boyfriend of two years, David Gallichan, moved out; this triggered a downward spiral in Nilsen’s life which would lead to his first murder. His first victim was Stephen Holmes, a 14 year old he met at a bar, in December of 1978 (“The Serial Killer Next Door,” n.d.). Nilsen invited the young boy back to his aparment for dinner and drinks, whenever Holmes tried to leave in the morning, Nilsen became upset. He strangled the 14 year old with a neck tie and then drowned him in a bucket of water. In several interviews Nilsen claims he took the corpse into his bathroom to wash it and then placed it back into his bed because he found the corpse to be beautiful. He attempted to engage in necrophilia and after he was unsuccessful he just went to sleep next to the dead man. He later hid the corpse in the floorboards of his apartment, but later took the corpse to his backyard where he burnt
it. In 1979, around a year later, accusations were brought up against Nilsen, saying he tried to strangle a young man during a sexual encounter. The police shrugged off the accusations once again and no charges were filed. A few months after this encounter Nilsen had found his next victim, Kenneth Ockendon. He met Ockendon at a bar as well, and like his first murder, he invited him back to his home. The fear of another man leaving him pushed him to the point of strangulation once again. This case was slightly different though. Instead of just putting the body in the floorboard and then burning it months later, Nilsen kept Ockenden around longer. He still cleaned the corpse and slept beside it for the night, but as days went by he took photos, sexually defiled, and held frequent conversations with it before placing it under the floorboards. This corpse was later met just five short months later by a homeless 16 year old, Martyn Duffey (“Dennis Nilsen,” n.d.).The list of victims continues for several years, Billy Sutherland (27 years old), Malcolm Barlow (24 years old), and 7 others who were never identified (“The Serial Killer Next Door,” n.d.). Some occasions the men that were invited to Nilsen’s home were not strangled, if he was not interested in the man by the end of the night he would simply let them leave. As the number of corpses in his home grew, Nilsen knew that he was going to run out of space. He ended up using his skills from working in the kitchen for the Army to butcher his victims before placing them into plastic bags. He would cut the corpses into small pieces, boil the skulls to remove flesh and melt the brain, then place the internal organs into plastic bags for easy disposal. The smell of the corpses in the floorboards was noticeable in the neighboring apartments but police were never dispatched to investigate the horrible smell. He would bury the limbs in his garden and store the remaining body parts in suitcases until he could start a fire in his backyard for permanent disposal (“Dennis Nilsen,” n.d.). In 1982, in an attempt to cease his homicidal tendencies, Nilsen moved from his apartment in Crickelwood to an upper-level apartment in Muswell Hill (“London/Fraserburgh serial killer,” 2012). However, this had no effect but made hiding his victims’ bodies more difficult. Due to the fact that his new apartment was not on the first floor, he did not have floorboards or access to a garden to dispose of these corpses. As his homicidal impulses continued at his new home, Nilsen strangled three more young men. He had to become more innovative whenever disposing of the bodies because of the lack of floorboards. He would boil the victims hands, feet, and heads but dissect the bodies into tiny pieces that could either be stored in plastic bags or flushed down the toilet (“Dennis Nilsen,” n.d.). The bags were stored in his wardrobe, which eventually led to smells that his neighbors would notice and complain about like at his old home. The large amount of foreign material flushed down the toilet in Nilsen’s apartment led to plumbing issues in the whole building. A fellow tenate at his apartment building called out a specialist to solve the issues. When the plumber came to the house to unclog all of the pipes he noticed that there were several things blocking them and knew immediately that these were human remains. The plumber called the police, who would come to the apartment to investigate. Nilsen knew that this was going to mean trouble for him so he attempted to remove the human remains from his drain that night, but a neighbor saw him and became very suspicious. At this point Nilsen knew that it was the end of the line, he told one of his coworkers, “If I’m not in tomorrow, I’ll either be ill, dead or in jail,” (“Dennis Nilsen,” n.d.). On February 9th, Detective Jay approached Nilsen at his home to ask him about the human remains that had been discovered in the drainage system. Immediately upon walking into the apartment the detective could smell the odor of decomposing bodies and knew that this was the right place. When Nilsen was questioned about the smell he calmly told the detective that there were several bags around the apartment that had body parts and things of that nature in them. In several interviews Nilsen seemed very calm and did not seem to be disturbed by what he had done at all. He was later arrested and on October 24, 1983 at his trial he was convicted of six murders as well as two attempted murders and was later sentenced to life in prison and was denied the chance of parole several times (“The Serial Killer Next Door,” n.d.). His conviction relied heavily on the many facts he provided in interviews when he was arrested that he willingly provided for days. However, Nilsen claims that he was not responsible for these crimes because of his “mental defect” (“Dennis Nilsen,” n.d.).The evidence against Nilsen was so strong they even had the cutting board that he used when he was chopping up the victims, as well as the pot he used to boil the skulls and other body parts of his victims. Currently, Nilsen is at HMP Full Sutton maximum security prison located in North Yorkshire (“Murderpedia,” n.d.). He has tried to publish several books, specifically one called “The History of a Drowning Boy,” but so far he has not been allowed, he is currently trying to appeal this with the European Court of Human Rights (“The making of a serial killer,” n.d.). Unlike most psychopaths, Dennis Nilsen did not show any of the signs from the Macdonald triad. As a child Dennis was not cruelty to animals, prone to bedwetting or fire setting. So it is already evident that he is not going to be the typical psychopath.
On the 28th August 1993, Stephen and Helen Gilham became the victims of murder in their own home, located in Woronora, which they shared with their two sons, Christopher (25) and Jeffrey (23). At the hands of Jeffrey Gilham, Stephen, Helen and Christopher Gilham were murdered brutally by means of stabbing, although Jeffrey only admitted to the murder of his brother Christopher. Jeffrey maintained the series of events that it was in fact Christopher that murdered Stephen and Helen, and that he had discovered Christopher holding the murder weapon, a knife, and in a blind fit of rage stabbed Christopher a total of 17 times. Gilham’s uncle believed otherwise, stating that it was Jeffrey who committed the initial murder and not Christopher.
Born in Waragee, 1947, the oldest of six siblings, Mcleod’s exact birth date is unknown. His father, Arthur, was a labourer, boxer and alcoholic. His mother was a housewife who was active at the local church. The church is where Mcleod first began to sing, in the little church choir of the town. The family moved to Sydney at some stage in Mcleod’s life, and he attended school at Nowra High School, where he topped in sports.
It was summer hot and humid July but all was not well for homicide was in the air. Jeremy Ringquist had, after a divorce and begin unemployed, had taken up residence with his parents once again. Thirty-eight years of age Jeremy, was charged with the death of his parents and attempting to hide the bodies in a freezer.
	John Paul was born in the small fishing village of Arbigland, Scotland on July 6, 1747. To his parents John Paul and Jean MacDuff he was the fourth child. They had seven children but unfortunately all but two died in infancy. The family was originally from Fife but John Paul's father had taken the family and moved to Arbigland where William Craik, the owner of a large estate their had met him and hired him to be his gardener.
Dennis Dugan was born September 5 1946. He was the son of Marion and Charles Dugan. Dennis was born in Wheaton, Illinois. Dad was an insurance sales person. He was the second of four boys. His mom Marion was a stay at home mom, house wife. Dennis had three brothers. Many of Dennis childhood he grew up in Wheaton Illinois. Dennis graduated from Wheaton Central high school in the early 1960. Dennis was a very like in school he was known to be popular. He was very involved with acting in high school, this is where he became passionate about it. Once he graduated he attended Chicago’s Goodman Theater school. He graduated in 1969 from Theater school. After graduation his moved to New York City where he got involved with Broadway. At this time he stared in a Broadway “A Man's Man" and "The House of Blue Leaves”.
The detectives were able to track Richard. He refused to reason with them, but they found an opportunistic approach to search him. He was discovered with Dan Meredith’s wallet. They searched his apartment and found his apartment caked in blood. In 1979, they arrested him and tried him in court for six counts of murder. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in an attempt to avoid death sentence, but was overruled. He was sentenced
Trying to help his son, Lionel assisted Jeffrey get into the University of Ohio. But it was already too lateJeff Dahmer made his first killing at age 17, when he picked up a hitchhiker , brought him home, murdered him, and scattered the bone fragments in the woods behind the Dahmer home.
...found were, various pills, syringes, rubber dildos, homosexual literature, as well as explicit sex videos. The only thing Gacy was originally arrested for was possession of marijuana. Soon after his incarceration, the police were back at his residence. They wanted to search his crawl space beneath his house. He was quick to admit to killing one person in self-defense, and that the body was buried under his garage. They still felt it necessary to search the crawl space. Upon their search they discovered nearly 30 bodies that had been there a varying amount of time. The first killing had taken place in 1972, and currently the year was 1976. Upon conviction by authorities, Gacy was charged with the murder of 33 young men, and was sentenced to the death penalty. He was sent to Menard Correctional Center, where after years of appeals, he was killed by lethal injection.
Dennis Banks , an American Indian of the Ojibwa Tribe, was born in 1937 on the Leach Lake reservation in Minnesota and was raised by his grandparents. Dennis Banks grew up learning the traditional ways of the Ojibwa lifestyle. As a young child he was taken away from practicing his traditional ways and was put into a government boarding school that was designed for Indian children to learn the white culture. After years of attending the boarding school, Banks enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, shipping out to Japan when he was only seventeen years old.
Jeffrey then destroyed the body parts, he done this by crushing the bones with a hammer and bleaching his skull (this would then become a regular pattern for the discarded of future victims). Dahmer continued to lure victims into is apartment by offering them money for sex or nude photographs (Stubel,2007). He would then drug his victims, engage in sexual intercourse then kill them by strangulation. Dahmer’s fantasies then progressed into necrosadistic behaviour by 1988 as he would kill his victims then participate in necrophilia sex. He would then mutilate their corpses, Dahmer would also save the remains of his victim’s body parts as souvenirs such as save genitals of victims, scalps and skulls (Purcell and Arrigo, (2006). Collecting these items allowed to him masturbate up to the point of orgasm and relive the paraphilia experience Dahmer reported. Dahmer also engaged in cannibalism as as in his words a way remembering the victim, it was also reported that this was sexually arousing to Dahmer. Over a period of 13 years Jeffrey killed 17 young males all with a similar organised pattern, the case of Jeffrey Dahmer will be assed below aiming to establish reasons for why he committed such extreme
Dennis Rader was one normal avaergae citizen untill he shocked the public to when he was caught as a serial kiiler who caused tragedy in their town. A article stated “either in his genes or in his childhood or perhaps a grim combination of both created a hole in the spot most of us call a soul”(Klepper). Dennis rader was the oldest of four sons. He grew In Wichita Kansas. As a child dennis was known to kill and hang stray cats.( article 3) Peopl...
Herman Melville had an interesting life. He was born on August 1st, 1819 to Allen and Maria Melvill of New York. At a young age, he came down with scarlet fever and as a result had weakened eyesight for the remainder of his life. His family was a well-respected one, then their import business fell through and they moved to Albany, New York. Their finances were desperate. During this time they changed the spelling of their last name and added an e, to be spelled, Melville.
He is known to have killed at least five prostitutes between August 7th and September 10th, although he is suspected of many other murders. He chose prostitutes as his targets on purpose. They were easily accessible and the prostitutes first initiated contact with him, which appealed to his asocial personality. The murder of prostitutes, or other lower class citizens, was not uncommon in London’s East End at the time. The district was known for the violence and crime brought over by immigrants looking to make a new start for themselves. However, these murders were different than any other violent crime of the time, because of the sadistic and sociopathic manner of the murders. However, the killer did not just murder these women, he mutilated their bodies by removing their organs. This action really stood out at that time because it showed the killer had a mind for violence that no normal citizen could even comprehend.
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).
The person I chose to research was Gary Ridgway. He is also known as The Green River Killer. Gary was a serial killer in Washington. He has been convicted of murdering 49 women, he has confessed to around 60 killings, but is estimated to have killed closer to 80 women. All the women that he had killed were prostitutes that he had picked up, had sex with them, and then strangled them. He says that he never raped or tortured any of his victims, he just killed them. Gary started killing prostitutes in 1892 and is confirmed to have killed till 1998, but is thought that his last kill was around 2001. He was called the Green River Killer because his first victims’ bodies were found around the Green River.