Serial Murder Notes

Introduction: The Phenomenon of Serial Murder

Forensic Psychology Applications

• Crime scene investigations

• Competency to stand trial

• Termination of parental rights

• Solving crimes

• Psychopathy

• Sex offenders and sexual predators

• Post-conviction assessments

• Expert witness

• Classification of criminals

• Jury selection

• Hostage negotiations

• Eye Witness credibility

• Mapping criminal behavior

• Juvenile offenders

• Workplace violence prevention

• Sex offenders – assessment and treatment

• Neuropsychology and forensic practice

• Criminal and victim profiling

• Prediction of violent behavior

• Elder abuse

• Directing criminal investigations

• Correctional psychology

• Psychological autopsies

• Police psychology

• Terrorism/Homeland Security

• Interviewing suspects

• Detection of Malingering

• Jury understanding and behavior

• Competence: death penalty; Miranda rights; sentenced as an adult

• Mitigation in criminal offenses

• Criminal insanity

• Probation and parole evaluations

• Threat assessment and risk management

• Forensic anthropology and body farms

• Homicide: mass and serial murder

Defining Murder

• A murder requires an illegal taking of another's life.

• Intent is a key element in defining murder.

• Determination is influenced by provocation, cooling-off periods, and reasonable person standards under the circumstances.

Types of Murder

• Often includes felony murder, which is murder committed during the course of another felony (e.g., killing someone while robbing a bank).

• May involve specific methods such as poisoning, lying in wait, torture, or the use of explosives.

Murder Statistics in the U.S.

• 1987: 20,096 murders, rate of 8.3 per 100,000 population

• 1991: 24,703 murders, rate of 9.8 per 100,000 population

• 1995: 21,606 murders, rate of 8.2 per 100,000 population

• 1999: 15,522 murders, rate of 5.7 per 100,000 population

• 2003: 16,528 murders, rate of 5.7 per 100,000 population

• 2007: 16,929 murders, rate of 5.6 per 100,000 population

• 2010: 14,748 murders, rate of 4.8 per 100,000 population

International Homicide Rates

• The U.S. homicide rate is lower than most non-developed nations, but higher than many developed nations.

• Examples of higher rates: Congo ($30.8$ per 100,000), Cote d’Ivoire ($56.9$ per 100,000), Jamaica ($52.1$ per 100,000), El Salvador ($66$ per 100,000).

• Examples of lower rates: Germany ($0.8$ per 100,000), UK and Australia ($1.2$ per 100,000), Italy ($1$ per 100,000), China ($1.1$ per 100,000), Japan ($0.5$ per 100,000), Iraq ($2$ per 100,000), Afghanistan ($2.4$ per 100,000).

• The U.S. ranks approximately 100th out of 200 surveyed nations in terms of homicide rate.

Capital Cases

• The most serious murders are capital cases, involving premeditated murder or the willful, intentional killing of another person(s).

Types of Homicide

• Justifiable homicide: Killing someone under necessity or duty with no criminal intent (e.g., self-defense).

• Manslaughter:

  • Voluntary: Killing in the heat of passion, during a felony, or in self-defense.

  • Involuntary: Negligent homicide, such as killing someone while committing a non-felony offense like reckless driving (vehicular manslaughter).

Specific Types of Homicide

• Neonaticide: Killing a newborn within the first 24 hours of life.

• Infanticide: Killing an infant child less than one year of age.

• Siblicide: Killing of an individual by a sibling or siblings, sometimes facilitated by the parent(s).

• Fratricide: Killing of one’s brother or sister; often used in military contexts or referring to killing relatives/countrymen.

More Homicide Types

• Prolicide: Killing one’s own children, including infanticide and killing a fetus in utero; commonly referred to as filicide (killing of a minor, including a step-child).

• Parricide: Killing of a parent(s) or other relative. Patricide is killing one’s father, matricide is killing one’s mother.

• Genocide: Extermination of a specific racial, ethnic, religious, or national group of people.

Defining Mass Murder

• The FBI defines mass murder as killing four or more persons at one time.

• Over half of all attempted and/or completed mass murders in the United States involve domestic homicides.

Examples of Mass Murders

• Omar Mateen—Orlando, Florida, 2016: shot 102 people, forty-nine killed.

• Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik—San Bernardino, California, 2015: shot 36 people, fourteen killed.

• Jared L. Loughner —Tucson, Arizona, 2011: shot 20 people, killing six.

• Dr. Amy Bishop — Alabama, 2010: shot six faculty members, killing three.

Charles Whitman Quote

• "I do not quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I do not really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts."

Types of Mass Murderers

• Family Slayer or Annihilator: Kills family and commits suicide.

• Murder for Profit: Kills for material gain.

• Murderer for Sex: Kills with the primary goal of sexual torture, rape, and murder.

• Pseudo-Commando: Obsessed with guns and has a fantasy for murder.

• Set-and-Run Killer: Plans an escape route after the mass killing.

Additional Types of Mass Murderers

• Psychotic Killer: Suffering from acute or chronic psychosis; legally insane.

• Disgruntled Employee: Seeks revenge for real or imagined wrongs at work.

• Disciple-Type Killer: Commits murder at the behest of a charismatic leader.

• Ideological Mass Murderer: Persuades others to kill themselves or each other (e.g., cult leaders).

• Institutional Mass Murderer: Commits mass murder as a crime of obedience when ordered to by a leader (e.g., genocides).

Characteristics of Mass Murderers

• Appear to give little concern to capture or death.

• Some are killed by police during the attack.

• Others kill themselves after the massacre.

• Some surrender or offer no resistance.

Location of Mass Murders

• Most mass murders occur at one distinct location, such as a school, office building, or private residence.

• Some offenders begin in one location and move to another to continue the killing; this is referred to as bifurcation.

Public vs. Private Mass Murders

• Public to public mass murders are extremely rare.

• Private to public mass murders are more likely to occur when events are bifurcated.

Historical Examples of Mass Murders

• 1927: Andrew Kehoe - 45 dead, 58 wounded

• 1950: Ernest Ingenito - 9 dead, 1 wounded

• 1966: Charles Whitman - 16 dead, 32 wounded

• 1971: Douglas Dean - 5 dead

• 1987: Ronald G. Simmons - 16 dead, 4 wounded

• 1989: John M. Taylor - 4 dead, 1 wounded

• 1991: Andrew Brooks Jr. - 6 dead, 2 wounded

• 1991: Joseph M Harris - 4 dead

• 1998: Kip Kinkle - 4 dead, 22 wounded

• 1999: Mark O. Barton - 9 dead, 13 wounded

• 1999: Lawrence M. Hensley - 4 dead, 1 wounded

• 2005: Jeffrey Weise - 10 dead, 5 wounded

• 2006: Jennifer San Marco - 7 dead

• 2009: Michael McLendon - 11 dead

• 2010: Christopher Speight - 8 dead

• 2011: Rodrick S Dantzler - 7 dead

Recent Mass Murder Events

• 2012: Ian Lee Stawicki - 6 dead

• 2012: Adam Lanza - 29 dead

• 2013: Kurt R. Myers - 4 dead, 2 wounded

• 2013: Christopher Dorner - 4 dead, 3 wounded

• 2013: John Zawahri - 5 dead, 4 wounded

• 2014: Ivan Lopez - 4 dead, 16 wounded

Reactions to Mass Murder

• Mass murderers are usually apprehended, killed by police, commit suicide, or surrender.

• Reactions to mass murder are often media-intense, focused, and of short duration.

• Serial killers make special efforts to elude detection and may continue to kill for weeks, months, or years before being stopped.

Mass Murder vs. Serial Murder vs. Spree Murder

• A mass murderer kills groups of people within a few minutes or hours, whereas a serial killer individualizes murders over days, weeks, months, or years.

• Spree murder involved a cooling-off period between killings, but as of 2008, experts agreed to eliminate the concept of spree murder, including such offenders with serial murder cases.

Definition of Serial Murder

• The unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offenders in separate events (FBI, 2008, p. 12).

Common Myths About Serial Killers

• Serial killers have a prototype

• Nearly all white

• All male

• Insane or psychopaths

• Driven to kill due to sexual abuse

• Highly intelligent

• Lust killers

• Kill alone

• Cannot stop killing

• Highly mobile

• Most have a desire to be caught

• Dozens of victims and all die violent deaths

Realistic Characteristics of Serial Killers

• In recent years the majority of serial killers are black.

• Nearly 17% are female.

• Insanity is a legal term: only 2-4 percent are legally insane.

• Most serial killers are of average intelligence.

• Some killers are motivated by material gain.

• Many kill due to rejection and abandonment in childhood.

Serial Killer Statistics

• Most kill under 8 victims

• Most kill in a local area

• Some have several years between murders

• About 1 in 4 have one or more killing partners

• Some victims are poisoned

• Some learn from experience and avoid detection while others are caught and imprisoned only to be released and kill again.

Psychopathy and Serial Killers

• Some serial killers are true psychopaths while others possess psychopathic traits. Several high body count serial killers who have been PCL-R evaluated do not qualify as psychopaths.

• Serial killers vary in race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, gender, SES, IQ, education.

Primary Motivations in Serial Murder

• Anger

• Criminal enterprise

• Financial gain

• Ideology

• Power/thrill

• Sexual

• Psychosis

Serial killer typologies

• New typologies raise issues of motivation and etiology, and may overlap one another.

• Some typologies generate more explanations and understanding than others.

• The FBI organized-disorganized dichotomy has proven to be a stepping stone to more advanced profiling techniques as researchers delve inside the minds of serial murderers.

Holmes Typologies of Serial Murderers

• Visionary

• Mission-Oriented

• Hedonistic

• Power/Control-Oriented