The Story Behind Serial Killing

The Story Behind Serial Killing

The names Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Jack the Ripper, Ed Gein, and Charles

Manson are familiar to many of us. What do all of these names have in common?

The five men listed above are all serial killers. The definition of serial murder is,

“the killing of three or more people over a period of more than thirty days, with a

significant cooling-off period between the killings” (Holmes & Holmes, 1998). Serial

killing is a low frequency crime, representing only one percent of all homicides.

Despite this fact, many people all over the world are intrigued by this rare crime.

Since the huge interest in serial killing began, the knowledge base has grown

dramatically: television shows, movies, and books attempt to tell the story of serial

murder. There are those who believe that serial killers are a modern problem due

to the lack of morality in America. However, they are mistaken. Serial killing has a

long history which dates back to the beginning of human life. There are multiple

characteristics that many serial killers have in common, such as being Caucasian,

single, and male. Psychologists and criminologists alike have come up with many

motives to as why serial killers murder their victims, such as being abused as a child

or simply wanting to become famous. The theories that explain why serial killers

have the personalities they possess are biological, psychological, and sociological.

Serial killing has a long and extensive history, dating back to the beginning of

human life. Stories that were part of ancient Greek myths, and also multiple works

of Shakespeare including Titus Andronicus display the brutal beginnings of serial

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killing (Schechter, 2003). Also, it is believed by many that fairy tales hold the key to

reflecting the social reality happening all over Europe in the middle ages. The most

famous case of this is the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood,” where the ideas of

werewolves stem from real life cases of mutilation-murders. These murderers killed

with such bestial anger that they were thought to be actual wolf men, such as Peter

Stubbe and Gilles Garnier (Schechter, 2003). Serial killers have been around since

premodern times, with famous cases dating back to the 1400’s. There were also

many cases of serial killers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including

Thomas Sherwood, and Sweeny Todd. In the nineteenth century, William Burke

and William Hare were notorious for being grave robbers, often digging up corpses

and selling them for a few pounds (Schechter, 2003). In 1888, five victims were

murdered in Britain by Jack the Ripper, who is one of the most recognizable serial

killers of all time. The Ripper murders were remarkable because of how extensively

they were reported on, and for the fact that to this day the killings remain unsolved

(O’Reilly-Fleming, 1996). The World War I era, the 1920’s, and the 1930’s and the

1940’s saw no shortages of serial murders. However, one particularly famous case

occurred in the 1950’s when body parts turned up in the home of Ed Gein, who was

the inspiration for the 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs. In the 1960’s the

Zodiac Killer emerged, who was never caught for his gruesome crimes, and whose

murders were copied by Heriberto Seda. Also occurring in the 1960’s were the

murders done by Charles Manson and his “family” of worshipers who brutally killed
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multiple people. The 1970’s witnessed a sharp increase in the number of

psychopathic sex murders, leading to the term serial killer, which was coined by the

FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. Ted Bundy, who killed over three dozen women, is

perhaps one of the most famous serial killers of the postmodern era (Schechter,

2003). Today, serial killers are a part of America’s cultural heritage. Many serial

killers have become household names, such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and

Edmund Kemper. Also, there have been countless movies dealing with the topic of

serial killing, the most famous being Silence of the Lambs, Zodiac, and The Hills

Have Eyes. Many television shows also display the idea of serial murders, including

CSI and Criminal Minds (Holmes & Holmes, 1998).

In addition, there are multiple characteristics that many serial killers have in

common. In 1984 at a meeting of the International Association of Forensic

Sciences, the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit presented general characteristics that

many serial killers have in common. Most serial killers are single, white, and well

educated. However, despite their intelligence, most serial killers do poorly in school

and end up as unskilled workers. Also, most serial killers are between the ages of

twenty five and thirty four (Holmes & Holmes, 1998). Serial killers come from

severely troubled families which are often comprised of broken homes and single

mother households. Many serial killers have a history of psychiatric problems,

criminal behavior, and drug and alcohol abuse in their families. They often are

victims of abuse: whether it is psychological, physical, or sexual. This abuse often

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results in them having feelings of humiliation and helplessness. Since serial killers

often have distant or abusive fathers, they often have resentment towards them.

This can lead to trouble with male authority figures. Because serial killers were

dominated mostly by their mothers, they often have feelings of hostility towards

women. At an early age, many serial killers have psychiatric problems and

sometimes spent time in institutions when they were children. Many serial killers

are socially isolated, and this leads to them being suicidal because of their “general

hatred of the world and everyone in it, including themselves.” Often times, serial

killers display an interest in deviant sexuality, and are obsessed with fetishism and

violent pornography (Schechter, 2003). There are also five primary elements found

in serial murder. The first is that serial murders are usually one-on-one

relationships, involving the assailant and the victim. The second element is that the

relationship between the victim and the assailant is usually that of a stranger. The

third element is that the motives of the serial killers are not immediately obvious,

and appear to be non-rational. The fourth element is that the serial murderer is

motivated to kill, despite the differences in motivations. The last element is

repetitive homicide, the serial killer will continue to kill if not stopped (Holmes &

Holmes, 1998). It is important to note, however, that these traits were from a

sample of thirty-six serial murders, all men and mostly white. There are many serial

killers who possess different characteristics from the ones listed above, and more

research with a large sample size will need to be conducted in order to conclude
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that the above characteristics are representative across all serial killers. (Schechter,

2003).

Furthermore, there are many motives that cause serial killers to murder their

victims. The first motive is atavism, which refers to an ancient, ancestral trait that

every human has. There is something savage about serial killers, who seem like

creatures from a primitive age when cannibalism and human sacrifice are involved in

their vicious murders. This motive leads psychologists to argue that serial killers

suffered a breakdown of the normal socialization process, in which morals, empathy

and conscience were never instilled in them during their childhood. As a result,

serial killers become susceptible to barbaric urges and under the right

circumstances, will act out on their most primitive instincts. The next motive is child

abuse, which is one of the most commonly named motives on why serial killers kill.

Having been tortured by their caretakers, a serial killer may, later in life, seek to

torture others as a way of seeing revenge, or in the most extreme cases, to feel

pleasure in the only way they know how to: by inflicting pain. The number of serial

killers who have faced abuse as a child is overwhelming: in fact, according to the

FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, nearly “all serial killers come from dysfunctional

backgrounds: unstable, abused, or deprived family situations” (Schechter, 2003).

The abuse that many serial killers faced was not only physical, but psychological,

too. According to many psychologists, a child who is always shamed and

humiliated, and made to feel like he is worthless and undeserving of love, is almost
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bound to develop a malicious personality. People who have been abused as

children may become indifferent towards other people, and believe that they are not

worthy, so neither is anyone else. Because of this, the abused will often lash out

against the world. Another theory of motive is known as the mother hate theory.

This motive states that when a person is raised by a mother who dominates and

destroys her own offspring, it leads them to have hatred not just of their mothers,

but of womankind in general. Some criminologists have claimed that many serial

killers who target women specifically are largely driven by women hate, and the

crimes of these men are rooted in the unconscious need to take revenge upon their

cruel mothers, and since they often cannot for one reason or another, they displace

their anger on other women. On the opposite end of the spectrum of abuse and

vicious mothers, some serial killers grow up in relatively normal homes. These

people are known as “bad seeds,” because of the notion that a psychopathic child

can grow up in a loving, stable household, and are just “born evil” (Schechter,

2003). However, this belief is not popular since it has been discovered that almost

all serial killers are the products of extremely dysfunctional backgrounds: nearly

none of them grew up in a healthy, happy home. Another popular theory about the

motives of serial killers is fantasy. Many people who are not serial killers may

occasionally have fantasies of killing or torturing people. However, these people

push these thoughts out of their heads because of the feelings of guilt and shame

that they bring. For a serial killer, these mental images of murder and brutal rape
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never go away; instead they stay stuck in his mind and are acted upon. This theory

touches upon the idea of self-control, which states that those with low self-control

will act out their deepest, darkest fantasies and desires while a person with high-self

control will not. A lack of self-control may be because of lack of warmth and

discipline when an individual is growing up. Another popular theory is the idea that

violent books, movies, and television shows have an effect on serial killers behavior.

Since mass media was invented, people have accused it of undermining morals and

instigating crime. However, more often than not, when a person commits a crime

after watching a movie or a television show, they are already deeply disturbed.

Along with violent movies and other mass media sources, many serial killers such as

“Son of Sam” David Berkowitz and John George Haigh have blamed their atrocious

acts of murder on the Bible (Schechter, 2003). The next motive of serial killing is

the idea of becoming a household name, or a celebrity. Many serial killers are

misfits, who have failed in every part of their life, and therefore feel a sense of utter

worthlessness. Because of their feeling of worthlessness, seeing their names in

papers and their faces on the television bring a sense of power and importance to

the serial killers: they feel that they have become famous. While the desire to

become famous may play a part in why serial killers murder their victim, it is often a

secondary gain, because the root of their behavior lies elsewhere. Another possible

motive is thrill seeking, because many serial killers are sexually sadistic and enjoy

inflicting pain on others and watching them suffer in agony (Schechter, 2003).
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While there are many different motives that may point out the reason why serial

killers murder their victims, it is hard to pinpoint one distinct cause of what exactly

makes serial killers “snap,” since it is often due to an accumulation of factors.

Furthermore, like motives, there are many theories that are applied to the

idea of why serial killers kill. Motives and theories go hand in hand with each other,

however theories are more of a broad category of the personality characteristics a

serial killer has, while motives are the reasons behind the killings themselves. The

first theory is the biological theory; in which problems with the brain are used as a

reason to why serial killers murder their victims. In one study, EEG abnormalities by

some people disappeared when they reached the age of thirty five. According to

researchers, this can conclude that once a person reaches the age of thirty five, his

brain is at its maturity level and can therefore handle problems in a more socially

acceptable manner rather than a violent matter. Another part of the biological

theory is the role that brain damage plays in serial killing. Head injuries during the

formative years or at birth are common elements that many serial killers share. It is

also noted that almost all serial killers suffer from epilepsy or severe hormonal

imbalances that could result from a malfunction in the limbic system, more

specifically in the hypothalamus. Heredity and genetics also have a large role to

play in the biological theory of crime, and the hunt for the “crime gene,” or the

extra Y chromosome is still ongoing. However, there is no real evidence to their

being an extra Y chromosome present in a person’s DNA. Until a reliable, large

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sample of people can be biologically and physiologically tested, it cannot be said

that biological factors are the only factors of a serial killers personality. The second

theory of serial killers personality is the psychological theory. This theory talks

about the impact that past experiences have on the personality of a serial killer.

The psychological theory also talks about the idea there is a part of their personality

that is split from the offender. This theory of dissociation and the separate or

divided self has its scientific roots in findings of such persons as Sigmund Freud and

Carl Jung. The process of dissociation is a normal psychological process, which

provides the opportunity for a person to avoid memories and feelings that are too

painful to tolerate. In other words, a serial killer could protect himself from

personality disintegration while still committing acts of violence. Another idea for

the psychological theory of serial murders is that many serial killers displace their

aggression by acting out the hatred that they have for another person on an

innocent one. This idea also ties in with the next theory, the sociological theory.

The next theory of why serial killers murder their victims is the sociological theory,

which states that certain groups of people are more prone towards delinquency

because of their social status in the society. The sociological theory talks about the

blocked opportunity theory, in which people commit more crime because their

opportunities to achieve socially approved goals are blocked. They may be blocked

because of low socioeconomic status, or another reason that they may lack means

to attain their goals. Another important concept that is covered with the sociological
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theory is the importance of social learning and socialization, which means that those

who witness violent acts of others can be prone to be more violent, since they have

witnessed a violent action that acted as a model. An example of this is when a

serial killer witnesses their father abusing their mother daily, and he learns to

imitate this same behavior. Another extension of the sociological theory is the

frustration-aggression theory, which is when frustration occurs when an individual

encounters a barrier that prevents them from reaching a goal. Serial killers display

reactive or angry aggression which is venting in anger in response to frustration, or

to negative stimuli. In the case of serial killers, a frustration is experienced, and

then internalized, during which this time the person does not experience the same

social successes as other people. After the frustration is experienced, an aggressive

drive has been blocked, which is suppressed by an individual but at some point must

be released. The killer cannot confront the real cause of their humiliation, since if

they had the chance to earlier their feelings would not have been suppressed.

Therefore, the individual displaces their aggression on someone who is not the

source of frustration, through the process of generalization (Holmes & Holmes,

1998).

To conclude, serial killers have a long and extensive history that dates back to

the beginning of the human era. Serial killers share many of the same personality

traits as one another, which helps to classify them as a group. Also, there are many

motives and theories that help explain why serial killers murder their victims. While
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it is known that there are many characteristics, theories, and motives that link serial

killing cases together by their similarities, more research is needed to be done. Until

this research is done, it is virtually impossible to construct a solid profile of a serial

killer, which in turn makes predicting who will be making the next headline

extremely difficult.
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Works Cited

Holmes, Ronald M., and Stephen T. Holmes. (1998). Contemporary Perspectives on

Serial Murder. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Holmes, Ronald M., and Stephen T. Holmes. (1998). Serial Murder. Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage Publications.

O'Reilly-Fleming, Thomas. (1996). Serial and Mass Murder: Theory, Research, and

Policy. Toronto: Canadian Scholars.

Schechter, Harold. (2003). The Serial Killer Files: the Who, What, Where, How, and

Why of the World's Most Terrifying Murderers. New York: Ballantine.