In the late 1980’s the streets of Rochester, New York, would not only be the home to hundreds of prostitutes working the streets, but also home to the man who would prey on and eventually kill these very women. In 1988, a convicted murderer would literally be smuggled into the city of Rochester, his name, Arthur Shawcross. Also known as the Genessee River killer, Shawcross committed his first murder in 1972 more than 200 miles away in Watertown New York. His victims at the time unlike the 11 other women he would eventually kill 25 years later were 10 year old Jack Blake and 8 year old Karen Ann Hill.
Shawcross at least according to him, lived a very troubled childhood which included being sexually abused by his mother and aunt. He also according to him, had sex with his younger sister, experienced bestiality, and had his first homosexual encounter before he was even a teen. (Bio Channel Website) His family would later discredit his stories stating that “he lived a normal childhood and the events described were largely product of his imagination.” (Bio Channel Website)
As in the case with Defeo, Shawcross too was also a pathological liar who constantly changed his story omitting certain information while often exaggerating other parts. Unlike Defeo though who was a mass murderer, Shawcross was more of a Lust Serial Killer. To be more specific, I believe Shawcross fell under the umbrella of a “disorganized Asocial” lust serial killer. Shanna Freeman writes that killers of this type generally have a below average IQ, possible high school dropout, attacks in a blitz pattern, kills and leaves corpse at the scene, and attacks in a “blitz” pattern. (HowStuffWorks) She also goes on to list several more characteristics which fall under...
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... normal kid would be nicknamed “Oddie” in my opinion.
All we know for sure is that Shawcross took the lives of eleven women and two children over his life span. The why’s behind his actions can be argued from many different approaches. The bottom line is that the “man” simply preyed on and killed helpless and to some extent weaker victims.
Works Cited
"How Serial Killers Work." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Gerberth, Vernon J. "Articles." Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
"Arthur Shawcross Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Feldman, Rachel. "University of Haifa." » Psychopathy, Brain Damage and Empathy. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Blanco, Juan. "Arthur Shawcross | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers." Arthur Shawcross | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
On July 25, 1946, two young black couples- Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were killed by a lynch mob at the Moore's Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four victims were tied up and shot hundreds of times in broad daylight by a mob of unmasked men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, pistols, and a machine gun. "Shooting a black person was like shooting a deer," George Dorsey's nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been over fifty years and this case is still unsolved by police investigators. It is known that there were atleast a dozen men involved in these killings. Included in the four that were known by name was Loy Harrison. Loy Harrison may not have been an obvious suspect to the investigators, but Harrison was the sole perpetrator in the unsolved Moore's Ford Lynching case. The motive appeared to be hatred and the crime hurt the image of the state leaving the town in an outrage due to the injustice that left the victims in unmarked graves (Jordon,31).
When horrific crimes occur in large cities, many of them can be chalked up to gang violence or to the larger population of that specific city. But when horrific crimes happen in small cities like Lincoln, Nebraska, people begin to ask questions like who did this and why. In 1958, a nineteen year old man named Charles Starkweather put the entire state of Nebraska and possibly the entire nation in a state of terror. With his murder spree taking only three days, Starkweather had collected a body count of ten bodies, including two teenagers and a young child. Understanding Starkweather’s past and state of mind begins to answer the second question of why.
From 1888-1891 a portion of London England known as Whitechapel was terrorized by a rash of murders. In total eleven women were murdered, five of those are thought to be the victim of one of the most well-known serial killers whom was never identified, Jack the Ripper. Out of the murders committed in the two year period, the five had like backgrounds, they lived in boarding houses and were prostitutes, alcoholics, or both. The women were found with their bodies lying on their backs with the legs spread apart. The victims were also found to have been murdered in like fashion with their throats had been slit and their bodies mutilated. This gave Jack the Ripper a specific modus operandi narrowing down the field of likely victims from the original total. Those five murders also took place in a time span of ten months.
Taking the life of another person is one of the worst infractions of the law to commit. The Bureau of Justice defines serial killing as “[involving] the killing of several victims in three or more separate events” (“Michigan” 1). Serial killers often commit extremely violent crimes; they usually become infamous for these crimes. The first recorded serial killers are probably Jack the Ripper in 1888 and Fritz Haarmann in 1924 (“Michigan” 1). Jack the Ripper is also one of the most well-known criminals, almost everyone knows who he is or has at least heard of him. Most people know what he is famous for and associate him with being a bad person. Serial killers are typically sadistic and sociopathic, meaning that they are unable to feel empathy for people who are suffering (“Michigan” 1). Whimsical sociopaths who have sadistic tendencies are very dangerous. They inflict pain because they do not care that someone else is suffering, they only care that it makes t...
...s and reform school throughout his young childhood. Manson never lived a normal childhood and was molded into a cold sociopath at the beginning of his birth. By the age of nine Manson was already convicted of stealing and grand theft auto.
2011. “Serial Killers and Mass Murderers.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 9:
Triarchic Conceptualization of Psychopathy: Developmental Origins of Disinhibition, Boldness, and Meanness. " Development and Psychopathology 21.03 (2009): 913–9. Cambridge Journals. 7 July 2009. Web.
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.
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).
Psychopathy has fascinated the public for years due to the gruesome and evil portrayal it has received in the media. Psychopathy is defined in the DSM-III as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior (Patrick, Christopher, Fowles, Krueger, Rober, 2009). Psychopathy represents a cluster of different dimensions of personality found amongst the general population to varying degrees (Patrick et al, 2009). The diagnostic definition is meant to be applied to adults, however psychopathology can occur in children. Controversy surrounds the topic of childhood mental illness because the brain is not fully developed until the age of 18; thus allowing the possibility that symptoms are the result of growing up and will change. The triarchic model, formulated by Christopher J. Patrick, is the most commonly used model in diagnosing adult and childhood psychopathy. This model suggests that different conceptions of psychopathy emphasize three observable characteristics to varying degrees; boldness, disinhibition and meanness (Patrick, et al, 2009). Boldness is the first observable characteristic and is comprised of low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness. Disinhibition; characterized by poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints. Meanness is defined as lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seek...
Typically, when one thinks of serial killers, such images as Son of Sam, John Wayne Gacy, or the Boston Strangler, come to mind. Though these men do indeed fit the description, there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the definition of serial killer, first and foremost that serial ...
...res of the psychopaths and gives the reader various examples of these individuals playing out these characteristics in everyday life. A widely used checklist is provided so the reader can get a wide spanning view of what is accounted for when scoring a psychopath. This form of research is very important within the deceitfulness of this population; it allows the professional to ignore their words and examine their actions. Hare made it clear that it is not uncommon for there to be an emotional and verbal disconnect from their actions. With virtually no emotional functioning psychopaths feel no remorse for the offenses that they commit and it is very important that we work towards using the opportunities we have to study and assist these populations; not only for them but for ourselves.
“Following Footsteps of a Killer.” New York Post (Nov. 2002): 124: Proquest. Web. The Web.
Robert William “Willie” Pickton is currently serving a life sentence for the second degree murder of six British Columbian women. Although convicted for the murders of six victims, physical and forensic evidence for thirty-three women was uncovered at Pickton’s Port Coquitlam pig farm which served as the crime scene for his murders. Numerous other missing women, mostly marginalized prostitutes with chronic drug addiction, from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside area remain unaccounted for. It is not unreasonable to assume that they too, met the same disturbing fate as the other murder victims. Pickton’s modus operandi for the serial murders was the same; he would prowl the drug and poverty ridden Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver looking for potential victims, take the victims back to his Port Coquitlam pig farm, and then sexually abuse, torture, and murder them before mutilating and disposing their bodies. Most disturbingly, the victim’s remains were allegedly fed to the pigs on his farm, which were then slaughtered with the meat given out to associates of Pickton or to visitors of the farm (The Pickton Trial, CBC.ca/news).
... when the rampage began. He argued that if he had only killed his second wife Marcia, then he would never have killed those prostitutes. He was really trying to hurt his wife. It’s easy not to believe Ridgway’s claim. People who worked or were involved in the case think he would have killed sooner or later anyway. Whatever his true motive, a bit more than a year after Ridgway’s divorce, the body’s of young women started turning up alongside the Green River.