What Makes Someone A Serial Killer? A person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a certain characteristic, predictable behavior pattern, is known as a serial killer. No one grows up thinking that one day they're going to become a serial killer. Everyone has their reasons for doing what they do, most of the time it is based off of how you were brought up. Were they neglected? Were they sexually harassed or watched someone be harassed? There is clearly something that was brought out in them, that lead them into falling through with these actions? Ridgway’s Childhood Gary Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gary, is the middle child along with two other siblings, …show more content…
They married and not too long later he enlisted into the Navy and was sent to vietnam. “In the Navy, he started having sexual encounters while in ports with prostitutes regularly and contracted Gonorrhea. He blamed the prostitutes for infecting him, which began his life long late for prostitutes.” After he came home he found out his wife was having an ongoing affair which led to their divorce. In 1972, he was discharged from the Navy and found himself back in his hometown. He acquired a job painting designs on trucks. Gary had married quickly to a woman named Marcia Winslow. It is said that early in their marriage they would have sex in outdoor places in the Western Washington area, which happens to be where some of the bodies he murdered were found. Macia and Gary had a child together, who is named Matthew. After Matthew was born, Macia was not always available to Ridgway in a sexual sense anymore. “His demeanor towards her began to change and his idea of foreplay on some occasions was to choke her.” They later got divorced in 1981. Ridgway went on and got married one more time in 1988 to Judith …show more content…
When he first started he targeted mostly prostitutes and other young runaways. The women were usually between 15 and 40 years of age. He had no particular ethnicity he would go for, did not matter if they were black, white, hispanic, or asian. He did not care about their physical features either, but rather convenience. The one thing he typically chose was if they seemed to be “vulnerable”, or “east to get alone”. All these occurrences happened near his home in Seattle, Washington. He would pick the women up where the girls had been reported to have disappeared and he would often bring them home. He would show them pictures of his son, Matthew, in order to gain their trust. He would have sex with these women, but would tell them he would pay them after they were finished. When he first started, he would strangle the women after sex by hand, but as he later progressed he started using ropes and belts and other ligatures so it would not draw as much attention. He either killed his victims in his home or his truck. Later, would dispose of the bodies in what he called “clusters” along the banks of the Green River, where he would then go back and have sex with the
Serial killers are people who kill three or more people. They don’t have a close relationship with their victims. They are mostly white, younger males, but this might not always be the case. Many serial killers have specific childhood experiences that contribute to their urge to kill. Genetics can play a role, for example; specific patterns of genes found in serial killer’s brains. Many serial killers do at least one of these things as a child: wet their bed, set fires, and torture animals. Child who have problems; for example, being abused either physically or sexually, parent troubles, and school problems can lead to someone being more likely to be a serial killer.
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
Gary Leon Ridgway was born February 18, 1949. He had a troubled home life his mother was described as domineering. As a young child he witnessed more than one violent argument between his parents. He did very poorly in school and the other kids would describe him as quiet and easily forgettable. He wet the bed until he was 14, when his mother would witness it she would make him march naked all the way into the bathroom. Then she would bathe him which made him very uncomfortable and made him start having both sexual and violent fantasies with his mother. He committed his first crime his first crime when he was 16, which he had stabbed a boy and the boy survived. According to the victim and him himself he walked away laughing and said “I always
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Most people do not understand what can make a person want to kill multiple people for no reason other than their own satisfaction gain. In actuality, serial killers have been studied for over hundreds of years, and the information that has been documented continues to grow. The research that I have gathered about serial killers focuses on their childhood development, the differences and similarities between male and female serial killers, and finally general information on how their brains operate and their motives for committing such harmful acts. There have been many theories over the years about how a person becomes a serial killer, and how having an unstable childhood affects a person.
Whether it is Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and person of the like, you may have a bad feeling about them due to their ill past. This is not due to an inner judgment of the person on your part, more than likely it is the media that has skewed your views of a serial killer. The news media is just playing their role in society and that is to inform people but they do so in a way that frightens people into coming back to view the media that they produce. The other types of media such as movies, television shows, radio stations, and books also portray serial killers as monsters to entertain people. Although it may be a great way to entertain and inform people, it is not the least bit true and gives serial killers a worse image by labeling them as monsters.
A serial killer is defined in Webster's Dictionary as someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short period of time. There is no one generic profile to identify a serial killer. They usually are people seeking for a sensation, a lack of guilt or remorse, a need for control, impulsivity, and predatory behavior. These traits make up a psychopathic personality disorder. Psychopathy is a disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, manipulation, and occasional violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own wants and needs. There are four main types of serial killers; thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary serial killers, and power and control killers. There may be other
Andy Drath, a sixteen year old boy at the time, went missing around 1978. This young boy was put into several foster homes because his mother had once laid easy. Andy had fit the missing description of these teenage boys well. Gacy had liked the younger men and teenage boys.
A serial killer is a person who has killed three or more people over a month apart. Their motivation for killing is usually based on psychological issue.(Sanmartín,2001) In the U.S, the most reported serial killers are lower middle class white males, usually in their late twenties to early thirties (Skrapec,2001). Serial killers, often, are liars. They have no sense of remorse or guilt. Most of the time they are not in serious relationship or have any emotional obsession to any one person, besides their victims. Most of the well-known serial killers are: Robert Pickton, Charles Manson, Anthony Sowell, Ted Bundy, The Zodiac Killer, The Green River Killer, and The BTK murderer. (Sanmartín,2001). Often, women were never seen as even a suspect
Gary was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 18, 1949. His father was a bus driver, who, Gary remembered, would frequently complain about the prostitutes he would see along his route. This could be the root of why Gary decided to kill prostitutes. His mother was not a very charming. She was both mentally and physically abusive to Gary and his two brothers. Gary also states that he was sexually attracted to his mother at an early age. He also showed tendencies of a serial killer at a young age. He began torturing animals, such as cats when he was little. When he was 14, he says that he stabbed a six-year-old in a wooded area, but was never caught. Then a couple years later he committed his first murder when he held a young boy underwater till he drowned. When he was old enough Gary joined the Navy and was sent to Vietnam. He returned and attempted to become a police officer, but failed. He then found a job painting at a truck shop. Gary was also married three times and had a son during his second marriage. He would even use his ...
Ever wondered if there is a serial killer in your community? The characteristics of a serial killer may shock you or be surprisingly familiar to some of you. It is important for society to get informed about the various types of serial killers that are out there. It is essential for families to educate their children about strangers, to be careful with everyone they encounter on the streets, store, and even in their neighborhoods. A serial killer is defined as a person who murders three or more people in at least three separate events, with a "cooling-off period" between the kills. The big question is, what makes a person do these atrocious killings? We will analyze personal histories, categorized serial killers,
So what makes a serial killer? Levin points out that contrary to popular belief, serial killers don't just 'snap'; or 'go crazy'; (Douglas, p. 137). Many of the serial killers have been the victims of childhood abuse. Jack Levin stated 'Research shows many serial killers suffered abuse, incest or neglect as children and develop poor self images'; (Douglas, p. 137). Serial killers often have a childhood marked by the absence of any nurturing relationship. 'They often come from families where the parents were absent or ineffective, where authority was not defined, and where they could engage in destructive behavior undeterred-violent play, cruelty to animals, and incidents of arson being some of the childhood behavior patterns noted among many serial killers'; (Clark, p. 206).
The marriage ended when Gacy was imprisoned for ten years at a correctional institute in Waterloo, Iowa for various sex and violent crimes against young men. In 1971 Gacy was arrested again for trying to rape a teenage boy.
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that makes up this type of criminals. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted pain or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killers posses these characteristics, but most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people.
... 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.
There have been many serial killer cases that have attracted the attention of not only the media but of mental health experts as well. Many experts from a variety of different fields have come together to answer one question: Why did they do it? It is believed that most, if not all, serial killers have a mental illness, motives, and/or trauma during their lives that made them start killing. Serial killers are not only the effect of nurture but also nature. The environment of their country, the United States is our focus, can cause the number of serial killers to increase especially if the country itself is unstable.