Serial Killers : The Serial Killer Essay

Serial killers are a relatively rare, yet commonly publicized, part of our society. The media portrayal of serial killers skews the opinions and creates a stereotype of murderers for the public. James Knoll, MD states in his article, “Serial Murder: A Forensic Psychiatric Perspective”, that no evidence supports the idea that serial murder is a “growing epidemic” as people believe it is (qtd. in Johnson-Sheehan & Paine, “Writing Today”, pg 332). This misperception of serial killing was exhibited in the way the media portrayed the “Hillside Strangler”, a murderer who was killing women in the Los Angeles area by strangling them and leaving them nude in the hilly areas in 1977. The articles reporting the

Rosemary West is one of those baffling cases. We will look deeper into her life and learn how her inner demons progressed to becoming one of Britain’s most notorious and sadistic serial killers, taking the lives of at least 10 young women and girls.

These two couples must have a reason to have done this because no one wakes up one morning and decides to kill people knowing it's hard to take someone's life and cover up the tracks. In our research, we first had to determine if any of these killers had a rough childhood or any mental conditions. So, we did and we found out in one of our couple killers, both partners had some types of rough/mental lifestyle. In our other couple one of the partners had a rough childhood and the other was perfectly fine had no hiccups in their childhood or family problems. We ended up looking at a whole bunch of articles comparing words and sentences, finding out every bit of information we could about the couples. We found differences like how the “lonely heart killers” used a business to commit their killings, but “ken and barbie” used different ways like they played an act and they used their killings for personal affections or to fulfil their so called fantasies of darkness. But why did they feel the need to take someone else’s life to fulfil their needs? We may ask, the answer is I don't know. It could have been a mental state or the love that brought them together, but it wasn't something that we could give a name. They must have thought it was okay in society and maybe they it was because they had no one to stop them. They’re

Serial killers are probably one of the most horrified subjects ever. I mean could you imagine being killed? By a person who sees you’ve done something so wrong to them and you may not even know their name? Maybe they’re just crazy and you’re their innocent victim, or maybe it’s all a part of revenge. The thoughts running through the killer and victims heads, are unrevealed. The gruesome facts, are stomach turning. The way the killers or survivors describe what happened, would make you very paranoid. Don’t say it wouldn’t ever happen in your home- town. Because it has, it has happened right here in Arkansas.

The Zodiac had several victims but only five confirmed murders and two victims who survived. David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, Michael Mageau, Cecilia Shepard, Bryan Hartnell and Paul Stine

A young boy from Chelsea, Massachusetts was frightened and filled with fear over the uncertainty of what events will occur every night. Stripped from the guidance of a father figure, he was repeatedly on the receiving end of a blunt pipe from a cruel, abusive parent. Terror stricken, the boy witnessed the traumatising sight of his mother brutally beaten to the floor with broken teeth and fingers, by his own father. Forward to 33 years later, this same very young boy was now infamously known as 'The Boston Strangler', identified as Albert Henry DeSalvo, the serial killer accounted for the murders of eleven innocent women in the string of under two years, in addition to the crimes of rape. The reoccurring argument of why the United States comprises of the highest rate of convicted serial killers has

Another striking example in the history was Rosemary West, who along with her husband was convicted of murdering ten young women in 1995. All the motives of these serial killers still remain unveiled. Be the motive personal, social or other, the fact is that all these women were either aroused by the process of killing or were forced to kill because of their beloved

When you think of the typical serial killer, you think of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. Most people only think of male serial killers but female serial killers are on the rise and are just as dangerous. There may not be as many female serial killers as there are male but their crimes are just as brutal. For example Aileen Wuornos, she brutally killed seven men and is one of the most well known female serial killers. Many of the men she killed were convicted rapists or a man that she felt threatened by.

Historical serial killers have been around for long before we even knew of names like Ted Bundy and Jack the Ripper. 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 (Simon, Ü. G. 2015). The Federal Bureau of Investigation states that the killings have been lowered from three to four, down to two killings (Fridel, E. E., & Fox, J. A. 2017). A serial killer can basically be anyone at all, but studies have shown that the majority of them are people who have suffered some type of abuse in their life, people who have depression, people who have a life full of alcohol or

Serial killing has been around for a very long time, however not in the same way that it is in today. While in olden times, numerous killed for power, revenge, or to fulfill a blood desire, today, most serial killers utilize their killings as a way to

In over 64 percent of the cases, the reason of the serial killers being caught is not the police finds the killers after a series of investigation of the murders, but by accidently catch someone with minor offence such as stealing little things or drunk driving and then find that he or she is the one they have been looking for for years. Why is that? Because there are lots of rumors and misunderstanding about the serial killers. Persistent misinformation, stereotypes and hyperbole presented in the media have combined with the relative rarity of serial murder cases to foster a number of popular myths about serial murder. The most common myths about serial killers encompass such factors as their race, gender, intelligence, living conditions and

The serial killer I will be discussing is a Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy was a serial killer who had been linked to at least 36 murders. In the 1970’s Ted had raped and murdered women in several states. The first source comes from crimefeed.com.

Throughout history there has been a traditional trend of men being serial killers. Women in comparison aren’t usually the sex that is thought of when thinking of serial killers, this does not mean that women cant be serial killers but it means that there is a less number of women serial killers compared to men in the world. Both men and women can be serial killers but often the way they carry out their task is different and why they do it is also different altogether. Women serial killers are also thought to be less violent in comparison to their male counterparts. This does not mean that they can not be as dangerous as men in fact women often kill people they know in order to gain something of worth from it.

The nineteen-seventies was an incredible decade. It was a decade of change, one of freedom, a time for great music. It was also an incredible decade for shock, fear and serial killers. John Wayne Gacy, an amateur clown, was a pedophiliac homosexual. He tortured and killed thirty three little boys and stored their remains under his house. David Berkowitz, a.k.a. the Son of Sam, stalked New York City from nineteen-sixty-seven to nineteen-seventy-seven. He claimed to have been following a voice from his dog that told him when and where to kill. Ted Bundy, who is believed to have killed at least thirty-four people, was charged for only three under his own defense- and in fact, he was commended by the judge for his own defense. He was put to

The first serial killer was none other than the infamous Jack the Ripper. He killed a total of 5 women whom had been plucked from the streets of London, England. The crime scenes of the Ripper were very contaminated and not well orchestrated. DNA testing had not yet been discovered, therefore no DNA evidence was collected. Despite all of these setbacks, law enforcement was able to conclude that each of the 5 murders were connected. They had realized that the victims had been killed and dissected in very similar ways. This evidence provided them with the idea that the killer had to have been a Butcher or a Doctor.