The Truth About Serial and Mass Murders

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A murderer is a murderer. There is no doubt about it, a person like that deserves to be punished for the crime they committed. However, not every killer is the same; there are some who are mass murderers who go on killing rampages for reasons of their own, and then there are the serial killers that love to kill people because it makes them feel some sort of emotion. People often mistake these killers as one and the same, but in reality they are completely different in the ways they are profiled by the police, how they commit their murders and the effect they have on the community and the nation.
Granted mass and serial murders are both killers, the police profile them differently. Even though they each have a different style of killing, both serial killers and mass murderers follow patterns. In an article written by R.M and S.T. Holmes they say that “the mass murderer is perceived as a demented, mentally ill person”. As the quote in the book says Prendergast was obviously mentally ill as are most other mass murderers. In the book, The Devil in the White City, Larson says that “Holmes was warm and charming and talkative, he touched the women with a familiarity that while perhaps back at home would have been offensive, now seemed quite alright in the new city of Chicago” (Larson, 245). R.M and S.T. Holmes observe that “serial killers give themselves no discernible traits form the other people in society; they walk into the lives of many, invited then fatally dispatched with little concern.” Just like Larson said Holmes invited himself into the lives of many, and while he may have stood out in the way he touched them, I'm sure it wasn’t a big factor because this was the beginning of a new era and younger people were behaving with mo...

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...is committed, it is tragic, no matter the type of killer, but it is important to know the difference between a mass and serial murderer. Figuring out their patterns can possibly help the law enforcers catch them before things get out of hand. It can also help police understand what makes the murderers the way they are, so the police can possibly stop the things that trigger tem to become the killers that they are. These murderers are different because of the way they the police see them, the way they kill their victims and the way they scare they community and the nation.

Works Cited

Holmes, R. M., and S. T. Holmes. (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Federal Probation. 1st ed. Vol. 56. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 9-53. Ebsco Host. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. New York: Crown, 2003. Print.

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