Development of Serial Killers Thesis Notes

I. Introduction

• Serial killers are both intriguing and frightening to society.
• In 2017, 15% of homicides in the United States were estimated to be the result of serial killers.
• An estimated 200-2,000 serial killers have never been prosecuted for their crimes each year (Martin, et. al., 2020).
• Famous serial killers, such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, remain in the public consciousness due to documentaries and archival footage.
• Cases of serial killers in the United States date back to the 1800s.
• Herman Webster Mudgett, also known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, is considered America’s first serial killer, confessing to 27 murders but claiming to have killed 133 (Brown, et.al., 2015).
• The Chicago Police discovered the remains of over 100 dead bodies scattered throughout Holmes’s “Murder Castle” (Reeder & Mayer, 2009).
• A recent example is Samuel Little, who confessed to strangling 93 victims between 1970 and 2005 in 19 different states (Samuel Little: Confessions of a Killer - FBI, 2019).
• Understanding serial killers is difficult, but similarities in motivations and psychological composition can give people a better understanding and explanation of their behaviors.
• This paper focuses on Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy to provide a detailed understanding and analysis of their behavioral and psychological nature.
• The paper specifically focuses on white male serial killers because they are charming and often misunderstood as complex individuals with a strange liking for dark delusion.
• The “nature vs. nurture” debate has been ongoing in psychology since the 16th century.
• Nature: How genetics influence an individual's personality.
• Nurture: How their environment (including relationships and experiences) impacts one's development.
• One of the oldest philosophical debates within the field of psychology is whether nature or nurture plays a bigger role in personality and development (Cherry, 2020).
• The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how nature is a more salient factor that contributes more greatly to someone becoming a serial killer.
• The research methodology primarily uses multiple case study analysis.
• Qualitative research tool for studying the relations between the personal, social, behavioral, psychological, structural, cultural, and environmental factors that guide organizational and leadership development (Halkias, 2022).
• The paper addresses three main questions:
  • What is the motivation of serial killers?
  • How do nature and nurture play a role in creating a serial killer?
  • What drives serial killers to commit murders?
• Using individual case studies for each serial killer, this paper explores their childhood, adolescence, and adulthood along with factors that help to explain them.
• Analyzing their lives will help to identify their motives and similar experiences they faced that molded them into a serial killer.
• The information gathered during this research seeks to represent common characteristics among serial killers.
• Ultimately, this analysis will demonstrate the important role of nature in the development of serial killers.

Literature Review

Definition of Serial Killers

• To understand why serial killers kill, one needs to know the definition of a serial killer.
• Over the years, the definition of a serial killer has evolved.
• Researchers, Korte and Fahey (2006) defined a serial killer as killing three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant waiting period between killings.
• According to Turvey (2012) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigator, Robert Ressler was the first person to invent the term serial killer, which he defined as offenders who are fixated on fantasies that go unsatisfied, pressing them onward to the next offense.
• A common stereotype of serial killers was that they are White males between the ages of 24-35 years old disregarding the possibility of the serial killer being female or from a different ethnicity (African American, Hispanic, African, and Asian).
• However, there have been arrests of female serial killers and serial killers from other racial/ethnic groups, which made people mindful that a serial killer can be from any gender or ethnicity.

Characteristics of Serial Killer

• Serial killers differ in various ways, including their motivations for killing and their behavior at the crime scene.
• For most serial killers, warning signs often start in childhood.
• The following paragraphs will discuss specific characteristics that have been found to correlate with the experience of being a serial killer that include superficial charmer, torturing animals, egotistical bragger, manipulator, and power.

Superficial Charmer

• Serial killers tend to have a very good grasp of other people’s emotions and are quick to pick up on any vulnerability or weakness to convince them to do so.
• For example, Ted Bundy was often described as charming, charismatic, and handsome (Woollaston,2016).

Torturing Animals

• This should not be taken lightly because kids who find pleasure in killing or torturing small animals tend to have no remorse and often turn out to be sociopaths.
• Some serial killers have also been known to collect, dissect, and dismember animals as kids.
• Example: Jeffrey Dahmer, poured motor oil into the tadpoles’ jar, killing them because his teacher gave them to another student (Tanveer, 2018)

Egotistical Bragger

• Egoistical serial killers often cannot help but brag about the crime they have committed, whether it’s aimed at their accomplices, the next victim, law enforcement, or just themselves.
• Example: Trevor Hardy bragged about one murder to his younger brother, leading to his arrest (Woollaston, 2016).

Manipulator

• Serial killers are also often able to manipulate a situation to pass the blame for their actions, using debatable issues or medical psychological research to try to explain their actions.
• Example: Harold Shipman used his position as a medical expert to manipulate his patients into treatments that ultimately killed them while posing as a caring member of society (Woollaston, 2016).

Power

• Intent on exerting some kind of control over the people around them, they often hold back bits of crucial information in a bid to maintain power over the situation, gain attention, and assert a warped sense of authority.
• Example: Ian Brady, the Moors Murderer who was convicted of killing five children with accomplice Myra Hindley between 1963 and 1965, withheld the location of victim Keith Bennett’s body from the police which many believe was to assert power and control (Woollaston, 2016).

Serial Killer Typologies

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation has characterized serial killers in three typologies based on the way they carry out their murders (Baker, 2001).
• Understanding which category, a serial killer fits into, helps to make the investigation easier and how to stop them.
• According to Baker (2001), the FBI classifies serial killers into two basic categories: organized and disorganized.
• The third category is a mixed serial killer, a combination of both organized and disorganized.
• This type is known to be less helpful to investigators when profiling the offender and their crime scene because they do not follow a given pattern.

The organized killer

• Douglas et al. (1992) claim that organized killers are hard to identify and capture because they are highly intelligent, socially skillful, and very organized.
• The killer strategies the crime in advance and takes precautions to make sure no evidence is left at the crime scene.
• These types of serial killers would observe potential victims for several days, to choose a target.
• According to Choo and Choi (2020), organized killers are more likely to use a verbal approach (being charming) with their victims instead of violence, they use restraints on their victims, and bring a weapon with them to the crime scene to commit the murder and take the weapon with them.
• Organized killers take pride in the crime they commit and tend to follow news media to see if law enforcement had any luck to determine who committed the crime.
• They tend to be charming, often engage in conversation, seduce their victims into being captured, and are familiar with police investigation methods.

The disorganized killer

• Douglas et al. (1992), claim that disorganized killers rarely ever planned out the death of the victim and their victims are mostly random people who just were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• They tend to be antisocial and have a low IQ of 92.8.
• Disorganized killers tend to have no recollection of the crimes they commit or confess that they were impelled by voices in their heads.
• According to Choo and Choi (2020), since the crime was not planned, they tend to leave evidence at the crime scene such as blood, semen, fingerprints, and murder weapons.
• Douglas et al. (1992) implied that disorganized killers kill opportunistically and live near the crime scene.
• Also, the lack of healthy social relationships increases the possibility of sexual or vicious acts as part of the crime.
• Canter et al. (2004) point out that with disorganized killers, there is minimal use of restraints, and the body is often displayed in open view (broad daylight).

The mixed killer

• Douglas et al. (1992) introduced a third category, mixed killer, in the Crime Classification Manual for serial killers who cannot be categorized as either organized or disorganized.
• A mixed serial killer displays traits common to both characteristics of an organized and disorganized serial killer.
• They tend to be more difficult to capture because they do not follow a particular pattern.
• There is one category of serial killers that was not mentioned which is medical killers, these are very rare and are often someone involved in the medical industry.
• They are normally very intelligent, know how to conceal their crime, and make it seem as if the victim died of a natural cause.
• Few doctors and nurses in the past have managed to kill dozens of people before anyone noticed.
• The main idea is that serial killers have certain characteristics, and some follow a distinct pattern that can appear similar to others but there are exceptions.
• The organized and disorganized serial killer theory is useful but could only help an investigation to a certain extent.

Other typologies

• Many researchers questioned the validity of having two divisions of serial killers (Canter, 1994), but Holmes and Holmes’s (1998) classification of serial killers can be seen as a division of organized and disorganized serial killers.

These serial killers can identify as:

• Visionary Type.
  • These offenders suffer from delusions and hallucination and are unable to tell the difference between what is real and what is not.
  • They believe they are commanded to kill and would make little or no effort to cover up their crimes.
  • For example, Herbert Mullin’s delusion led him to believe a massive earthquake would occur in California if nature did not receive a sacrifice.
• Mission-oriented Type.
  • These offenders plan their crime, target a specific group of people (certain ethnicity or religion), and kill quickly.
  • They do not suffer from psychosis but feelings for revenge and hatred are driving factors.
  • For example, Joseph Paul Franklin- believed race mixing was a crime against God and targeted black and Jewish people.
• Hedonistic Type.
  • These types of offenders are divided into three categories:
    • The lust killer.
      • These types of killers fantasize about violence, find it difficult to control impulses, and prefer close contact.
      • They rape, torture, and dismember their victim because it gives them sexual gratification.
      • Cannibalism, necrophilia, and dismemberment would fall under this type.
    • The thrill killer.
      • These types of killers enjoy the hunt and get off on their victim’s terror and the act of murdering someone excites them.
      • They often lose interest in the victim after death.
    • The comfort killer.
      • These serial killers kill for emotional needs or wealth and often use poison and avoid close contact.
      • They would select their target and often wait a long time between murders.
• Power/Control Type.
  • These types of offenders seek to gain control, power, and dominance over their victim and their motive is to make the victim feel helpless.
  • They tend to be calm, organized, and patient and tend to keep souvenirs of their victims.

Etiological Theories of Serial Killing

• Theories have been suggested as to what triggers someone to become a serial killer and this can be categorized into two groups: biological factors (nature) and psycho-social factors (nurture).
• Nature: Genetics of a person and focuses on biological connections, meaning certain traits are passed down and individuals are born with the capability for murder + assume no matter what environment an individual was raised in or taught throughout life they will become a serial killer and the nature of a person is something that cannot be changed.
• Nurture: Environment that one grows up in, meaning that if one has serial killers as parents, they have the ability to change or choose a different path in life.
• Research on nature versus nurture is important because it will educate society of potential factors that may lead an individual in becoming a serial killer and help the mental health institute and criminal justice system to determine what to look for.
• Psychopaths are linked to serial killers + observing these symptoms so psychopathy can be treated and since psychopaths have a high risk of potentially becoming a serial killer due to the lack of empathy.

Biological Perspectives (Nature)

• According to Choo and Choi (2020), biological explanations argue that criminal behavior is the outcome of factors internal to the physical body of the individual human being that predisposes that person to criminality.
• This viewpoint is concerned with our biological processes and the extent to which they influence our behavior.
• There are various biological explanations for serial murder.
• Biological theories include brain abnormalities, predisposing neurodevelopmental problems (head injury), drug and alcohol abuse, and genetic components.

Brain abnormalities (brain disorder).

• A recent study (Predestined Serial Killers, 2010) has shown that 20 out of 31 confessed killers are diagnosed as mentally ill, and out of that 20, 64% have frontal lobe abnormalities.
• The frontal lobe is responsible for making healthy and adequate social relations and acts as a conscience that stops a person from acting on violent tendencies.
• According to Englander and Snell (2012), minimal brain dysfunction (MBD), will not look like major brain damage but may affect the behavior, emotions, learning, or memory of a person, minimal brain dysfunction may be related to behavioral problems like violence.

Predisposing neurodevelopmental problems (head injury).

• According to Choo and Choi (2020) head trauma may result in aggressive and violent actions and biochemical explanations suggest that an imbalance in hormones, blood sugar, or serotonin can affect aggressive and violent tendencies.
• Research at four universities showed that people with frontal lobe damage had real-life irregular social feelings and a lack of empathy.
• Damage to the frontal lobe, hypothalamus, and limbic system may lead to excessive anger, loss of control, and decision impairment.
• Damage to the orbitofrontal cortex can cause loss of control and impulses of emotional outbursts, damage to the anterior cingulate cortex cause loss of cognitive functions (impulse control, emotion, and decision-making), and damage to the amygdala cause loss of processing fear and threatening stimuli.
• Most importantly loss of function in the orbital cortex, a person has no sense of mortality and has very little control over their impulses.

Genetic components.

• Chromosomal abnormality is the condition of having an extra Y chromosome (XYY), this can be linked with a serial killer’s behavior.
• Having an extra Y chromosome can cause emotionless, aggressive, and unremorseful behaviors.
• Klinefelter’s syndrome is a genetic condition in which a male is born with an extra X chromosome, having an extra X chromosome can result in psychiatric disorders.
• People with XYY chromosomes can have greater motivation for killing and are prone to criminal behaviors.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

• According to Reid (2019) prenatal drug and alcohol exposure has also been found to contribute to the dysregulation of key chemical neurotransmitters such as dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) (Derauf et al., 2012; Minnes et al, 2011).
• Both dopamine and serotonin function in the coordination of the human brain and behavior.
• For example, reduced levels of serotonin can cause depression, impulsivity, and impact aggression, while high levels of dopamine cause strong levels of both physical and psychological arousal.

Psycho-social Perspectives- Nurture

• This viewpoint is concerned with our environment or surroundings we grew up in and the extent to which they influence our behavior.
• Psychosocial theories focus on mental disorders, social learning-related influences, and childhood trauma.

Childhood trauma.

• During different stages in life, individuals encounter, unlike circumstances described as trauma that include real or threatening death experience, serious injury, or witnessing a traumatic event.
• The memories associated with trauma cannot be easily forgotten and trauma seems to be a repeated topic in the biographies of most serial killers.
• Studies have shown that serial killers tend to experience childhood trauma and as a result, it is believed, they learned to suppress their emotions or suffered damage to the areas of the brain that control emotional impulses.
• They never learn the correct responses to trauma and understand other emotions, which is why they find it difficult to empathize with others.
• Hickey (1997) mentions environmental factors serial killer includes “unstable home life, death of parents, divorce, corporal punishments, sexual abuse, and other negative events” (p. 86), emphasizing rejection as being the most common.

Emotional, psychological, and physical abuse.

• Though physical abuse produces aggression toward others, psychological criticism by the parents appears to be associated with low self- evaluation (Briere & Runtz, 1990).
• Neglect is associated with severe cognitive and academic deficits, social withdrawal, limited peer acceptance, and internalizing problems rather than physical abuse (Hildyard & Wolfe, 2002).
• When parents neglect their children, they create an environment where they are exposed to different types of violence such as psychological, emotional, and physical abuse.
• Physical abuse includes slapping, punching, throwing, hanging, drowning, forbidding sleeping, food, and medication.
• Psychological and emotional abuse is not visible but still has its effect such as damaging self-esteem and making them feel unloved or unwanted.
• Usually, any discipline they received as children tended to be unreasonable and usually involved the child being humiliated.

Abandonment.

• Serial killers often fear relationships but seek to control and destroy people to avoid the possibility of having another humiliating rejection.
• According to Reid et al., (2019) the earlier the abandonment, the higher the risk that the person would be affected later in life, and even if the parent never physically abandoned their child, they could still feel they were never worthy of their parent’s attention.

Defining Psychopath

• To look at serial killers, one must first understand the relationship between psychopathy and serial killers.
• The relationship between psychopathy and serial killers is quite fascinating.
• All psychopaths do not all psychopaths become serial killers, but serial killers do have similar traits to psychopaths.
• According to DeAngelis (2022), a psychopath is a term that tends to conjure images of violent criminals or public figures capable of monstrous or selfish acts on a broader scale.
• Individuals with this condition display alarming inclinations, including low empathy and remorse, impulsivity, and occasionally aggressive or violent behavior.
• “Psychopathy is a condition that causes people to do things that reduce our compassion for them, and so there’s a resistance to funding and treating it,” said Georgetown University psychologist and neuroscientist Abigail Marsh, Ph.D.
• Robert Hare is a psychologist who made major contributions to the fields of criminal psychology and forensic psychology.
• He is best known for his research on psychopathy.
• Hare is the creator of the Psychopathy Checklist and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Theodore, 2022).

II. Methodology

• The methodology used for this research was primarily through multiple case studies analysis.
• A multiple-case research design was chosen for this research because it changes the focus from understanding a single case to understanding the differences and similarities between more than one case.
• This paper will explore their psychopathic traits, analyze individual case studies for each killer, and find similarities and differences between them to identify possible life events and factors (biological or environmental) leading them to become serial killers.
• Also, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Hare, 1991) will be used to see if they meet the criteria of a psychopath, this is done by looking at their characteristics, lifestyles, and their behaviors.
• This descriptive research paper aimed to analyze and compare the three serial killers that were once active in the United States and determine what psychological and biological traits can explain their methods and motives.
• For the aim of the study, a descriptive analysis of serial killers' lives (childhood, youth, and adulthood) was examined to determine potential etiologies of serial killing behavior.
• The primary source of this study is case studies, but it is noted that the case study method limits external validity.
• Since there are weaknesses in case study analyses, the use of a multiple-case design instead of a single-case design allowed for a more in-depth explanation of serial killers and their unique personalities and characteristics.
• After reviewing each case study, I evaluated each serial killer using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised created by Dr. Robert Hare.
• The same traits and scale were used for the checklist and the three serial killers were analyzed based on different criminological theories and their case studies.
• This evaluation goal was to conclude whether any of the three serial killers in this study may be classified as true psychopaths.

Quantitative measure

• Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCR) is a 20-item scale scored from interview and file information.
• The twenty items are rated on a three-point scale (from 0 to 2) based on the subject's behavior that matches the item's description.
• PCR includes 2 factors.
  • Factor 1 is a measure of Emotional Detachment (e.g., charm, manipulativeness, absence of guilt, or empathy).
  • Factor 2 is a measure of Antisocial Behavior (aggression, impulsivity, irresponsibility, proneness to boredom).
• The following list contains the characteristics and personality traits analyzed in the PCR as well as a brief description for each:
  • 1) Superficial Charm and Glib: Smooth-talking, psychopaths are not afraid to say anything.
  • 2) Grandiose self-worth: They have an opinion about everything, and will boast, and brag about the things they have done.
  • 3) Seek stimulation or are prone to boredom: They like doing new and different things, always looking for excitement and entertainment.
  • 4) Pathological Lying: The urge to lie and their ability to lie are admirable.
  • 5) Manipulativeness and Conning: They deceive, cheat, con-trick, or defraud others for personal gain.
  • 6) Lack of Guilt or Remorse: They are unfazed, dispassionate, coldhearted, and unemphatic. They often disdain the victims and may even say they deserved it.
  • 7) Shallow Affect: Coldness towards others despite seeming very friendly.
  • 8) Lack of Empathy: A lack of feelings towards other people and tending to be heartless
  • 9) Parasitic Lifestyle: They will intentionally manipulate people for financial gain and have no sense of responsibility in terms of earning their living.
  • 10) Poor behavioral controls: They have a sudden expression of annoyance and aggression or sudden outbursts of anger and temper.
  • 11) Promiscuous sexual behavior: They often maintain several relationships at the same time, and they may take great pride in discussing their sexual conquests.
  • 12) Early behavior problems: There is often a history of antisocial behavior before age 13, including lying, stealing, cheating, vandalism, bullying, and cruelty to animals or siblings is particularly threatening.
  • 13) Lack of realistic, long-term goals: They show an inability to execute long-term goals; then may drift from one place to another lacking any real direction in life.
  • 14) Impulsivity: They cannot resist temptation and urges and do not consider the consequences, so they appear reckless and unpredictable.
  • 15) Irresponsibility: They will repeatedly fail to honor commitments or obligations, in school, work, family, or social situations. They fail to turn up, do not pay bills, fail to honor contracts, etc.
  • 16) Failure to accept responsibility for their action: They make it seem like it is never their fault or their responsibility.
  • 17) Many short-term marital relationships: Inability to maintain a long-term relationship because they are unreliable.
  • 18) Juvenile Delinquency: Behavioral difficulties between the ages of 13-18 and behaviors that are crimes or are manipulative and aggressive.
  • 19) Revocation of condition release: They may have had their probation revoked for practical reasons such as failing to appear, carelessness, etc.
  • 20) Criminal Versatility: Taking immense pride in getting away with crimes.

Procedure

• A thorough Google search was conducted by typing search terms such as,