The Life Cycle of the Serial Killer: The Making of Human Monsters; how They Lived and Their Victims Died

By Paula Sainthouse

What really makes a serial killer? Why should any one individual grow up to be capable of inflicting unimaginable suffering on another? Are physical or mental defects always to blame? How can a secure facade of total normality be portrayed by the most depraved and sadistic murderers? How can these individuals stay free and undetected to kill for so long?
As research continues in the desperate hope of finding the answers to these and other questions and preventing future tragedy, this book examines the lives of many of the most prolific and frightening serial killers the world has ever known. It explores recent theory and the evidence to support or refute current arguments, and also describes the cases which sent shockwaves across the globe. From birth and maturity to the ultimate end of their murderous activities, this book charts the life stages of the deadliest killers. For those with an interest in real crime or looking to begin study in the area, it represents an engaging and informative introduction to this disturbing and complex field.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paula Sainthouse
• Release date: Feb 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466122444

Paula Sainthouse

Paula Sainthouse has had a lifelong interest in animals and studied animal behaviour to advanced degree level at Newcastle University in the UK. She has a wealth of experience in the care of various small pets and in the care and training of dogs.She is passionate about horses, has ridden for over 16 years and spent many years working at various North East stables. She is currently taking her BHS exams with the aim of qualifying as a riding instructor. She has already completed her Senior Horse Masters course (Level 2) with The Open College of Equestrian Studies, receiving a merit, and credits her accumulated equine knowledge to a serious book addiction and the helpful input of the many experienced horse people she has been lucky enough to meet in her riding career to date. She would be the first to admit that there are gaps in her understanding and advocates the philosophy; 'the more you learn about horses, the more you realise there is to learn'.Paula Sainthouse also holds a degree in Psychology. She has since studied public relations to diploma level with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and has a particular interest in corporate social responsibility and internal communications. She has gained experience in various consultancies and is now a freelance writer. She is currently Associate member of the CIPR.In her spare time she can usually be found at a stable yard, but also enjoys evenings dining out with friends in the North East. She acknowledges an interest in the unusual and the macabre and as well as having an addiction to horror movies has spent some time researching the dark phenomenon of the serial killer.Currently she shares her home with two German Shepherd dogs and is the proud owner of a four year old Andalusian mare called Ella.

Book preview

THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE SERIAL KILLER

The Making of Human Monsters; how they Lived and Their Victims Died

by

Paula Sainthouse

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Paula Sainthouse on Smashwords

The Life Cycle of the Serial Killer

Copyright © 2012 by Paula Sainthouse

Cover illustration Ted Bundy © 1978 State Archives of Florida

This illustration is reproduced via online media file repository Wikicommons, based on a copyright enquiry which received the following response:

You may use any of the images posted on the Florida Memory Project website. The State archives of Florida is not aware of any copyright issues with any of the images (2008).

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

* * * * *

Table of Contents

Chapter 1- Introduction

Chapter 2- Birth and Childhood

Chapter 3- Development; Adolescence to Adulthood

Chapter 4- The Beginning

Chapter 5- Killing Time

Chapter 6- The End

Chapter 7- Sources and Further Information

THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE SERIAL KILLER

Chapter 1- Introduction

The serial killer is a popular figure in modern media, featuring in films, television programmes and books on a regular basis and attracting substantial numbers of keen viewers and readers from all walks of life; a lucrative subject for many different creative outlets. Thomas Harris is an author who has achieved most success from his novels about serial killers- the most famous of which is the brilliant but insane cannibal Hannibal Lecter. The books have been made into profitable, famous and award winning movies. The SAW series of films, featuring the unconventional multiple murderer Jigsaw, have taken in excess of $873,000,000 worldwide. Several real life serial killers have had their brutal exploits immortalized in motion picture form; at the time of writing this list includes Aileen Wuornos, Albert Fish, The Boston Strangler Albert De Salvo, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Henry Howard Holmes, Hillside Stranglers Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Ted Bundy and Green River Killer Gary Ridgway. There is even a film which comments on the way that serial killers are often glorified by the media and become celebrity figures in the public eye despite the cruel, vicious and frequently irrational nature of their crimes; Oliver Stone’s infamous Natural Born Killers.

It is clear that these crimes, though shocking, have wide spread appeal, something with which not everyone is comfortable; including, ironically, many of the consumers of this same material. The reader or watcher can feel a need to justify their interest in serial killers, whether fictional or real. These crimes are often so appalling that engaging in the details for what amounts to entertainment purposes can concern people about what this says about them, a worry exacerbated by the frequent connections that the media make between consumption of such violent materials and alleged copy cat crimes. Natural Born Killers alone has been linked to at least eight murders and connected to the high profile tragedy of the 1999 High School shooting at Columbine by students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The teenage perpetrators killed 12 students and a teacher. Confirmed fans of the film, they used the code NBK in notes and journals referring to their intended actions in the months prior to the incident. Connections like these attract the greatest publicity and garner most public awareness, despite the fact that several studies have found a weak connection between media violence and violent crime. An interest in serial killers and their activities does not indicate that the reader/watcher is predisposed to similar horrific actions. If they were, the sheer popularity of these themes would lead us to expect far higher serious crime rates. What remains a mystery, and source of great conjecture, is just why they have this popularity.

Researcher and writer Cannon proposes that people are simultaneously ‘disgusted and fascinated’ by these crimes in that they make the ‘unimaginable imaginable’. She supports the view of British writer Colin Wilson that exploring these incidents through the media alleviates boredom- distancing the mundane routine of daily life. It may also provide a feeling of immunity- by educating themselves about how these crimes occur people may believe they are safer and feel less likely to fall victim themselves. David Schmid dedicated years of postgraduate research to exploring the reasons behind the popular interest in the serial killer. He believes the solution may lie in the uniquely contrasting feelings of attraction and repulsion that the accounts generate- that the reader or viewer will fantasize about existing in such a state of remorselessness and without guilt over their actions, but simultaneously consider and value their own normality. The accounts of serial killers have a strong element of horror about them, and there may well be parallels between engaging in these accounts and engaging in other elements of horror, the often fictitious books and films. Researchers have found that horror films in particular induce a physiological response, including the classic raised heart rate, associated with fear. The most ardent fans in particular find this heightened sensation enjoyable, and could be classed as ‘sensation- seeking’ in much the same way as an extreme sports junkie. They simply enjoy being scared. Any of these factors can help explain the fascination that serial killers hold for so many, and none are linked to a propensity toward violence.

My own interest in serial killers began in my early teens, as part of a growing interest in the extremes of human behavior, which included anything from suicide and cults to eating disorders and bullying. I decided to study psychology and completed my undergraduate degree in the subject before moving on to postgraduate research in a similar field, but the opportunity to take this specific interest further never arose. It never left me though, and throughout my years at university I picked up and read various books on the subject, kept a notepad for the information provided and my thoughts and pondered writing a book based on what I had learned. It has taken years, but finally I have realized that small ambition.

The following account is not intended as a definitive guide for the student or a collection of case histories for the leisure reader, but falls somewhere in between. The hope is that it will provide some useful information and potential research leads for the former, and some interesting new perspectives for the latter, without alienating either.

In researching accounts of different serial killers to include in this book it quickly became apparent that some have received greater attention than others; are more popular as it were. The additional detail available on these individuals is reflected in what follows, as some will appear more often than others in each chapter. Ted Bundy is a particularly high profile case, but in many ways he was an unusual serial killer, being highly intelligent, articulate and very well educated. His willingness to talk after he was incarcerated has meant that many of his interviews and insights dominate literature on the serial killer, but as the views of only one man, who had clearly been far from honest throughout his life, caution must be employed when using them or attempting to refer to them as a standard.

Whilst I have made every effort to use the most up to date and accurate resources I could for this book, it is important to note that there is conflicting information available on almost every serial killer recorded. The subject matter inevitably attracts a range of writers, some of which are keen to highlight the most grisly aspects of each case, even if it requires them to compromise the truth. With this in mind I have tried to go with the facts as supported by the majority of available sites and books.

There are also constant changes and updates, even on the activities of those killers who are long dead. At the time of writing, Ted Bundy’s DNA was being used to see if he may have started his killing career with an eight year old girl in 1961 at the age of 14. He vehemently denied the crime to her family when he was incarcerated and before his execution, but forensic teams are conducting investigations in the hope of confirming this for themselves. Other cases are far from resolved. As I write, two men believed to be responsible for the crimes of the Grim Sleeper and the Double Initial murders are standing trial for their crimes, but the verdict is still a long way off. The Long Island serial killer is still unidentified. There will be updates on all of these cases by the time you read this book. We can also be certain that there will be new serial killers, whether known or unknown, grabbing the headlines.

Nor does research or theory on the subject ever stand still; both are constantly reviewed and furthered. We’ll encounter some of the problems with existing theories in the course of this book, but there may well be whole new concepts and categories, new methods of attempting to understand the creation of a serial killer, within a few years. It is inevitable that these will be similarly criticized and debated, and the review process will continue.

Most of the serial killers featured are American. There is good reason for this; the U.S. is generally regarded as the world’s leading producer of serial murderers, with estimates running at around 76% of the world’s total, well ahead of Europe, the second largest producer, with 16%. Whilst the debates rage about what socio-economic factors could cause such a terrible statistic, many propose that it would be better to state that the U.S. has 76% of the world’s known serial killers. Some researchers argue that forensic techniques and police skills are simply better in the U.S. and can detect and successfully capture a serial killer where those in other countries would not. Africa has been highlighted as the probable base of more serial killers than the U.S. or Europe, but as a country where DNA profiles and fingerprint records are virtually impossible to maintain and the police often lack training, far fewer are ever identified or caught. The international media rarely pick up on the stories of multiple murderers in Africa- the language barrier across the individual countries within this large continent is often blamed. South America is also believed to be a hotbed of active serial killers. Two recent and relatively high profile cases have illustrated just how easy it is for perpetrators on this continent to kill repeatedly and get away with it. Pedro Alonso Lopez confessed to the rape and murder of more than 300 girls across different countries and was disbelieved until he led police to a mass grave of 53 victims in Ecuador in 1980, and Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in 2007 for a killing spree that lasted over 14 years and left 42 boys dead. Whether it is accurate to say the U.S. has most serial killers or not, it is certainly true that there appears to be more general information, more media interest, and more research on the phenomenon based in this country than anywhere else. For this reason, the majority of the cases featured in this book are from the U.S.. The required details are much less accessible for killers in less developed countries.

Many of the serial killers discussed are also white. Figures quoted indicate that in the majority of these cases the offender is Caucasian (as high as 82-86%). Multiple reasons for this discrepancy have been proposed, but the most common explanation is that as most serial killers appear to operate in America and Europe, and the Caucasian race is prevalent in both (around 70% of the population of America being white, and even higher estimates being applied to Europe (up to 95%)) it is predictable that the majority of serial killers would also be white. Again if we explore the available information further it is probable that the more accurate statement would be that around 80% of known serial killers are white. Similar to debates on the apparent high numbers of these killers in America, many argue that the countries with a predominately Caucasian population are also richer, and can fund research and better, more effective police operations, thus catching more white serial killers. Some have also argued that there are lingering but stubborn elements of racism in the police in both America and Europe, and that as serial killers usually operate within their own race, a black killer attacking other blacks does not attract the same determined response as white killer killing other whites. In one quite famous case, there are reports that concerns raised with police about the activities of black serial killer Anthony Sowell were not followed up. The force has also been accused of turning away relatives attempting to file missing person reports. Some of these relatives commented later that the officers showed little concern for the wellbeing of black women with a reputation for drug use, as many of the victims were. Sowell was finally arrested in 2009 when the police went to his home to arrest him for rape and discovered two bodies in his living room. The ensuing search produced the remains of a total of eleven female victims. Sowell was sentenced to death for his crimes in August 2011.

Having outlined the limitations of this work, the following will explore various theories and research findings that have been linked with serial killing, as well as outline various cases and the often harrowing backgrounds of the killers themselves. However we might be able to accept that someone has been disadvantaged and damaged physically, developmentally and emotionally, I maintain that they still made that choice to commit these atrocious acts and that any sympathetic responses must be limited with a mind to the terrible suffering of the innocent victims and their families. In seeking to explain these cases it is vital not to appear to justify the unjustifiable.

Chapter 2- Birth and Childhood

When examining possible causes for the deviant behavior of the serial killer, the hunt for clues often begins in their earliest days, in childhood. The somewhat outdated nature-nurture debate has long been applied to this phenomenon, contrasting the innate qualities of the individual with their experiences particularly in early life, often to try and explain if these monsters are made or born.

The standard belief is that serial killers are raised in violent and dysfunctional households. It is true that this appears to have been the case for many known killers, and that many are found to have displayed conduct disorder behaviors from an early age, but, as we shall see, it is far from the only background of a killer. There are numerous problems with considering this as sufficient explanation for such extremely violent predispositions.

Children Who