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Essay on the psychology of serial killers
Effects of childhood abuse to adulthood
Serial killers psychology case studies
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Like many serial killers, Donald Harvey was raped and abused as a child. Whenever he would visit his grandmother’s house, his uncle Wayne would rape him. This most likely was the start of things to come for Donald.He lived with his lover, Carl Hoeweler. Things took a turn for the worst when Donald suspected Carl of cheating and poisoned him so he wouldn’t be able to leave their apartment.Donald Harvey was an orderly at the Marymount Hospital in London, Kentucky. He started working there when he was 18 years old. After Donald’s first kill, he took a long break before the mass amount of murders started to take place. He seemed to many as a comforting and welcoming person. But they didn’t have any idea what dark secrets he was hiding. Donald
At the age of fourteen he dropped out of school to work as painter in railroad yards (ffrf.org).
With Johnny Torrio out of his way, Al Capone planned a raid on his rival gang leader, Bugs Moran (History.com para 1). Bugs Moran was the criminal that lead crime in North Chicago (History.com para 2). Throughout the 1920’s, Moran and Capone fought for control over bootlegging and prostitution (History.com para 2). Accordingly, Capone and Moran had been trying to kill each other and their gangs ever since Johnny Torrio was sent to prision (History.com para 2). With Moran's assassination attempt on Capone and a 50,000 bounty on Al Capone’s head, Capone starts to plan Bugs Moran's death (History.com para 4).
In the book, The Serial Killer Whisperer: How One Man’s Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World’s Most Terrifying Killers, Tony Ciaglia writes letters to various serial killers and starts a friendship with them. The friendships Tony’s build’s with these serial killer’s through phone calls and letters helped law enforcement in more than one way. The serial killers trust Tony and opens up to him about things they’ve done and why. The Serial Killer Whisperer gives readers an inside look of serial killers minds. Although the letters in this novel are between Tony and various serial killers, Pete Earley is the author. He interviewed Tony and his friends and families. Pete Earley is also the author of three New York Times bestsellers and he has won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Ealey wrote this gripping tale in a way that would captivate any audience.
Erick Larson wrote in Devil in the White City, “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing – I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered in the world, and he has been with me since” (Troy, Taylor). This statement was a quoted confession from Dr. H. H. Holmes himself in 1896. Holmes was the first major serial killer in America, even though he came after many others in his time. Thomas Neil Cream, the Austin Axe Murderer, the Bloody Benders, and Jack the Ripper came before him. His name was originally Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born on May 16th, 1860 in Gilman, New Hampshire. He was raised by his mother and father, who was a wealthy and respected citizen for 25 years. As a boy, Mudgett was always in trouble and was well known in his community for his rather sociopathic behavior. He would show cruelty to both animals and other children. The only thing keeping hope to society was the fact that he was an excellent student. He later changed his last name to Holmes in order to pursue both his medical and criminal careers. He had many other aliases in which he would hide under and try to derail the cops from finding him (Juan, Blanco). Holmes was medically trained to be a doctor and received his degree from the University of Michigan. He was not just into insurance fraud scams. His evil doings included forgery, claiming to find the cure for alcoholism, real estate scams, and pretending to have a machine that turned natural gas into water. He was quite the ladies man, had many wives, whom often had become his victims. Many of his medical partners became subject to him, also. He once even had three wiv...
later for a private security agency. His wife was also in the police, and their daughter
A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it, (Lapham, 1985). Unfortunately, such acts of rampage have become a prevalent factor in the Canadian culture. As a result of endless media coverage, Canadians now are constantly bombarded with countless images of violence. Many of which often portray a victim avenging their opponent by force. Thus, indoctrinating individuals to believe that it is only through aggression that problems are resolved. Rather than being punished for acts of violence, those who commit such offenses are often praised for their “heroism”. In addition, the success of films like The Godfather, Gladiator, and Troy further aid in reinstating we live in a society that praises violence. Furthermore, this ideology allows for people to partake in violent acts with little or no backlash from ones community. However, when an person strays away from the “norm”, they are likely to then be viewed as a deviant. Such cases of rejection within a society, are often seen in the portrayal of serial killers. Although our society tends to condone violence when it is directed towards a specific individual(s), it does not allow the killing of innocent bystanders. Instead, crimes that are targeted against a number of people over a long period, entail the harshest forms punishments under the law. Sadly, in executing the law for said crimes, those in charge often face much public scrutiny. Such occurrences were apparent in the faulty murder investigations of Canada's most notorious serial killer Robert Pickton. This is due to the fact that, the negligence of the Vancou...
The serial killer that I have chosen to research is Mark goudeau, also known as the “Baseline Killer”. Mark was born on September 6th 1964, he was an american serial killer and rapist. He was involved in one of the two simultaneously occurring serial killer cases going on in South Phoenix, Arizona at that time. Mark’s was born in Phoenix, and was the second youngest of 13 siblings in which six were felons, and four have done prison time. Mark’s mother was a maid working at all different hours of the day, while his father Willie was a lot attendant for different car dealers. They were lower working class which didn’t help with thirteen children to take care of. His father had a drug and alcohol problem, which ran in the family. He later cheated
American serial killer, Richard Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960 in El Paso, Texas. Ramirez was known for being a satanic worshiper and for going on a two-year raped and torture rampage, harming more than 25 victims and murdering more than a dozen. Ramirez, also known as the "Night Stalker," turned to satanic worship at an early age by his cousin, a soldier who had recently returned from the war in Vietnam. Following a four-year trial, in 1989, Ramirez was convicted of 13 killings. Ramirez received the death penalty and was sent to San Quentin Prison in California. He later died on June 7, 2013, at the age 53.
What drives serial killers to kill their victims in the most brutal way possible? The answer to that question is still being researched today. The psychopathic mindset of serial killers tend to be influenced by abuse, insanity, and mental illness. In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Capote shows great examples of mental illness and how being abused can affect their mind. An example of this is when Perry was abused by his parents, he had troubles wetting the bed and sucking on his thumb at ages “normal” people would consider troublesome. Serial killers are often portrayed as bloodthirsty monsters, when in reality, their psychological mindset needs to be considered.
He faced an abusive childhood and had many conflicts over his sexuality. He and his siblings grew up under their Danish and Polish parents, their father was drunk a lot and beat the kids on multiple occasions if they had misbehaved; the man also physically assaulted the children's parents as well. John suffered more struggles at school, not allowed to play with the other kids because of a congenital heart condition. He later realized that he was attracted to men, and experienced great turmoil over his sexuality. When he was a young boy he was sexaully assulted by a family friend. Gacy was a high school dropout, in the 1960s he became a fast food chain manager and became a self-made building contractor. He was also a clown performer for children's parties during this time, later to be known as the Killer Clown. Gacy married and was divorced twice in his life, along with one biological children and two stepchildren. In 1964, Gacy married Marilyn Myers, he worked for her in laws in Iowa at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, together they had one son. After rumors of a sexual assault made by Gacy on a young teenage boy, Marilyn divorced Gacy and left with her son. Carole Hoff was Gacy second wife, they were married on June 1, 1972. She was divorced with two young daughters shortly before she met Gacy. She lived with him in his Summerdale Avenue home, where all of his future victims would be buried and later
law enforcement, where he has experienced quite a few interesting incidents while on the job.
Serial murder is defined by the National Institute of Justice as a "series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually but not always, by one offender acting alone. The crimes may occur over a period of time ranging from hours to years. Quite often the motive is psychological, and the offender's behavior and the physical evidence observed at the crime scenes will reflect sadistic, sexual overtones." This definition perfectly describes serial killer Albert Fish.
grade. He worked a few odd jobs in Manhattan in a bowling alley and a
As if molded directly from the depths of nightmares, both fascinating and terrifying. Serial killers hide behind bland and normal existences. They are often able to escape being caught for years, decades and sometimes an eternity. These are America’s Serial Killers (America’s Serial Killers). “Even when some of them do get caught, we may not recognize what they are because they don’t [sic] match the distorted image we have of serial killers” (Brown). What is that distorted image? That killers live among everyday life, they are the ones who creep into someone’s life unknowingly to torture and kill them. The serial killers that are in the movies, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, and the evil master mind of SAW, these characters are just that characters. They have been made up as exaggerated fictional characters from the Hollywood imagination.
The prevalence of serial killer’s date back to mid-1970’s in the midst of catastrophic events. Disguised as charming and intelligent human beings yet very twisted in nature and bear pernicious tendencies in the soul. The exaggerated descriptions of serial killers in popular culture play a mitigating role in how society views serial killers in the 21st century, it has blurred truth in the eyes of many individuals. In most cases, investigated by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) serial killers usually hold victim’s captive for day, months, even years, and torture them physically or emotionally. What I do not understand is how can any human being find this fascinating; however, guilty as charged I find them fascinating as well due to their