Research Paper on Serial Killers
In the twisted minds of men and women who murder again and again, sex, pain, and death are fashioned in to a terrible passion to kill. Otherwise normal individuals, serial killers turn to violence and death in search of power over others and to explore their own monstrous sexual identity. That is what their killing is really about, although it may take many different forms.
Some of these serial killers view women and sometimes men, as mere dolls to be terrorized, murdered, violated, and the dispersed, piece by piece, for wild animals to find. Others, through a perverse psychological chemistry, form a murderous composite identity- but remain relatively harmless on their own. There are those rare predators who, hunting with the cunning savagery of a forest wolf, stalk through the human herd and attack the weakest members: the impaired, the homeless, the young of both sexes.
Such men lead more or less normal lives in parallel to their murderous one. They have parents, fiancйs, spouses, lovers, children, homes, jobs; they enjoy a drink with the boys, they fret about bills, and they aspire to better things- many yearn to become police officers. When apprehend they often reveal a host of reasons for their deadly acts; a tyrannical or missing parent, a prostitute’s scornful laugh, demons murmuring secretly in their minds. They may even exhibit a self-pitying variant of remorse.
While their behavior has been insane, however, they are rarely locked away in mental institutions. To be judged legally insane one can not understand the wrongness or consequences of his crimes. These individuals commit not one, but a series of premeditated murders and then skillfully elude capture. They may indeed be compelled to kill, but they are not insane in the eyes of the law. When society does pick up such predators, their very cunning insures them a life behind bars or a place on death row.
Most serial killers have an extensive history of severe sexual and/or physical abuse and neglect in their childhood that makes them question their masculinity later in life. With this question running through their mind as they are developing sexually and experimenting with it, leaves them a feeling of inadequacy of sexual orientation.
Larry Eyler, a part time painter and store clerk, had a sadistic streak few have matched. Throughout his childhood, he was the battered son of a alcoholic father, he suffered abuse from two stepfathers and was sent by his mother to live with a succession of other families. He was the youngest of four children whose parents divorced when he was still young. Dropping out of high school his senior year, he worked odd jobs for a couple of years before earning his GED.
Sporadic enrollment in college between 1974 and 1978 left him without a degree and he finally made his move to Chicago. Unknown to his friends and relatives, Larry was at war with his own sexuality. Struggling to cope with his homosexual tendencies that both fascinated and repelled him, he would learn to take sex where he could find it, forcefully, and then eliminate the evidence of his shame. This struggle, as with so many others, is emotionally draining and can eventually control one’s life. Mental abuse comes mostly from within their own thoughts and desires.
A classic example of an inadequate personality would be the case of the Son of Sam murders in New York City during the late 1970’s. David Berkowitz was eventually arrested for his series of murders of couples, six murders in all. Berkowitz murdered because of sexual frustration, but he was not a homosexual. He murdered because of his discontent with women. From July 29,1976 to August 10,1977, New York City was held in a reign of terror because of an unknown assailant, calling himself the Son of Sam. He trolled the streets of New York, in search of his victims, with his infamous .44 caliber revolver. Eight related shootings, spanned out over the year, ended with the lives of six and seven others were injured and left with the horrible memories that they will never forget.
As a man, Berkowitz was sexually immature; he would usually masturbate about three times per day. Occasional masturbation is healthy, but when an individual prefers it to sexual intercourse, as Berkowitz did, it is a sign of sexual immaturity. In 1971, he joined the Army saying: “I joined the Army to lose my virginity.”
In the serial killers childhood, they usually have a marked history of delinquent acts as cruelty to animals and or children, destruction of property, setting fires and theft. Rebellion and lying to their authority figures are also other common traits.
As a child, Jeffery Dahmer, the killer of at least eighteen, seemed excessively interested In the makeup of mechanics and the anatomy of animals. Children, as many adults are curious about how things work. Jeff’s parents never really questioned this because his father was one that believed in in the experimentation and discovery way of learning. Unfortunately, Jeff’s interest progressed from merely dismembering “road kill” to actually trapping and mutilating the neighborhood pets. The theft of family pets eventually bored him . It was time to move on to bigger and better things, like humans.
For whatever reason, in approximately fifty percent of the families of future serial killers, the biological fathers had left before the child was twelve years of age. Of course the argument here is that fifty percent come from stable homes, or at least, full households…but why? The lack of a father figure at this point of their lives leaves them to take the roles of a “father” to help support, sometimes financially, the mother and the other children. This also gives them the opportunity to express their feelings more openly and freely, with little or no parental interference. Having an opening to do such things leads them to believe that they can not get in any trouble for what they are doing. Setting fires, being cruel to other children and animals and other delinquent acts are freely acted upon.
The story of Henry Lee Lucas tells a tale of a fatherless childhood and the lack of parental supervision. The lone parent abusing him every chance that she got, may have contributed to his rampage that left up to several hundred dead in twenty-six states. Born to a prostitute in 1936, he was frequently starved and beaten. The only male or father figure that he knew was his stepfather, a drunken railroad worker who lost both legs in a accident. He died of pneumonia after passing out in the winter snow when Henry was thirteen. With the loss of a father, Henry was left to grow and learn from his mother, an obviously inadequate parent. Lucas’ mother who made him wear dresses and grow his hair long, girl fashioned- once knocked unconscious when he disobeyed. According to Lucas she also made him watch her with her clients.
When looking at this so called “Terrible Triad”, we find the combination of potential warning signs in youths, consisting of bed wetting, sadistic abuse of animals and other children and setting fires. We notice that nearly all of the serial killers experience one or more of the “triad” symptoms and several experience all of these throughout their early life.
Alton Coleman was born in November 1955, the third of five children. His mother was a prostitute in Illinois and was raised by his maternal grandmother, who ignored him. The neighborhood children called him “Pissy” because he constantly wet his clothing. In his teens Coleman joined street gangs, engaged in petty crimes- including theft, assault, killings of neighborhood animals and arson, and was eventually arrested on assault and rape charges. In 1974 he was convicted of the robbery, and kidnap and rape of an elderly woman. Plea-bargaining got him two to four years in prison, where he was also accused of molesting other inmates. In 1984, he began a five state, three month long spree consisting of kidnapping, car theft, rape and murder. After ten deaths, six rapes and several robberies and beatings, he was arrested and eventually received six death sentences as well as 140 years for the kidnapping and child molestation charges.
As we can see, there are many underlying causes of what may make a common person convert into a cold blooded killer. No one for sure can pin point any particular trait or set of traits that will let authorities know before hand to stop that person before he gets the chance to do his damage on society.
Theodore Robert Bundy is the epitome of a serial killer, exhibiting several of the mentioned traits throughout his childhood, life and crimes. Ted, as he was called, was born on November 24,1946, to an unwed mother (Louise Crowell) in Burlington, Vermont. Shortly after his birth the young mother traveled to Philadelphia and left little Ted with strangers while she and her parents debated as to putting him to adoption. After about two months, she decided to keep the baby boy and reclaimed him and returned home to Pennsylvania.
To this day, no one really knows who his real father was. All that is known that he was a member of the armed forces. One half of is genetic makeup was and still remains unknown. Could this be the missing piece of what turned Bundy into a killer? It could very well be.
On May19,1951, in another traumatic experience, Ted acquired both a stepfather and a new name over the course of one day. Louise married John Culpepper Bundy. The boy was not yet five years old. Along with his good grades in school were letters asking him to control his violent temper from his teachers. Several of these letters were with pleas for his guardians to help him do so.
The need to acquire things, to take things that he could not afford, became a Bundy trademark later in life. He brought nothing home but shoplifting items that were far beyond his families’ means. He would explain them away as being gifts from the department store where he worked part time or that they were simply borrowed from friends.
The lack of social interaction, including the lack of, was a note worthy point to his friends. “ He was attractive, and well dressed, exceptionally mannered,” recalls a female classmate. “ I know that he must of dated, but I don’t remember ever seeing him with a date.” In fact Ted only had one date in all of his high school years.
As he grew, Ted’s underlying urges riddled his every thought. In 1972, he graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology. He was a bright student awaiting entrance into the University of Utah at the time the killings began. In January of 1974, a University of Washington coed did not show up for breakfast one morning and her roommates assumed that she decided to sleep late. Deciding to check up on her midmorning, they got no response to knocks at her door. This is where it all began for Ted Bundy and we all know where it eventually wound up. Ted was executed in the electric chair in the state of Florida on January 24,1989.
Who are these people? How do we pick them out of a crowd? We can’t do that. This is why society is having trouble coping with the idea that there are such people out there on the streets as we speak. Murder happens everyday, to a variety of people… but the authorities only know a small percentage of these serial killers. The serial killer becomes more cunning and arrogant with each generation. Some may never be caught and some may never even start killing, but society does have a real worry in their hands the day they all come out and play.
Some of these serial killers view women and sometimes men, as mere dolls to be terrorized, murdered, violated, and the dispersed, piece by piece, for wild animals to find. Others, through a perverse psychological chemistry, form a murderous composite identity- but remain relatively harmless on their own. There are those rare predators who, hunting with the cunning savagery of a forest wolf, stalk through the human herd and attack the weakest members: the impaired, the homeless, the young of both sexes.
Such men lead more or less normal lives in parallel to their murderous one. They have parents, fiancйs, spouses, lovers, children, homes, jobs; they enjoy a drink with the boys, they fret about bills, and they aspire to better things- many yearn to become police officers. When apprehend they often reveal a host of reasons for their deadly acts; a tyrannical or missing parent, a prostitute’s scornful laugh, demons murmuring secretly in their minds. They may even exhibit a self-pitying variant of remorse.
While their behavior has been insane, however, they are rarely locked away in mental institutions. To be judged legally insane one can not understand the wrongness or consequences of his crimes. These individuals commit not one, but a series of premeditated murders and then skillfully elude capture. They may indeed be compelled to kill, but they are not insane in the eyes of the law. When society does pick up such predators, their very cunning insures them a life behind bars or a place on death row.
We can write a custom research paper on Serial Killers for you!
Most serial killers have an extensive history of severe sexual and/or physical abuse and neglect in their childhood that makes them question their masculinity later in life. With this question running through their mind as they are developing sexually and experimenting with it, leaves them a feeling of inadequacy of sexual orientation.
Larry Eyler, a part time painter and store clerk, had a sadistic streak few have matched. Throughout his childhood, he was the battered son of a alcoholic father, he suffered abuse from two stepfathers and was sent by his mother to live with a succession of other families. He was the youngest of four children whose parents divorced when he was still young. Dropping out of high school his senior year, he worked odd jobs for a couple of years before earning his GED.
Sporadic enrollment in college between 1974 and 1978 left him without a degree and he finally made his move to Chicago. Unknown to his friends and relatives, Larry was at war with his own sexuality. Struggling to cope with his homosexual tendencies that both fascinated and repelled him, he would learn to take sex where he could find it, forcefully, and then eliminate the evidence of his shame. This struggle, as with so many others, is emotionally draining and can eventually control one’s life. Mental abuse comes mostly from within their own thoughts and desires.
A classic example of an inadequate personality would be the case of the Son of Sam murders in New York City during the late 1970’s. David Berkowitz was eventually arrested for his series of murders of couples, six murders in all. Berkowitz murdered because of sexual frustration, but he was not a homosexual. He murdered because of his discontent with women. From July 29,1976 to August 10,1977, New York City was held in a reign of terror because of an unknown assailant, calling himself the Son of Sam. He trolled the streets of New York, in search of his victims, with his infamous .44 caliber revolver. Eight related shootings, spanned out over the year, ended with the lives of six and seven others were injured and left with the horrible memories that they will never forget.
As a man, Berkowitz was sexually immature; he would usually masturbate about three times per day. Occasional masturbation is healthy, but when an individual prefers it to sexual intercourse, as Berkowitz did, it is a sign of sexual immaturity. In 1971, he joined the Army saying: “I joined the Army to lose my virginity.”
In the serial killers childhood, they usually have a marked history of delinquent acts as cruelty to animals and or children, destruction of property, setting fires and theft. Rebellion and lying to their authority figures are also other common traits.
As a child, Jeffery Dahmer, the killer of at least eighteen, seemed excessively interested In the makeup of mechanics and the anatomy of animals. Children, as many adults are curious about how things work. Jeff’s parents never really questioned this because his father was one that believed in in the experimentation and discovery way of learning. Unfortunately, Jeff’s interest progressed from merely dismembering “road kill” to actually trapping and mutilating the neighborhood pets. The theft of family pets eventually bored him . It was time to move on to bigger and better things, like humans.
For whatever reason, in approximately fifty percent of the families of future serial killers, the biological fathers had left before the child was twelve years of age. Of course the argument here is that fifty percent come from stable homes, or at least, full households…but why? The lack of a father figure at this point of their lives leaves them to take the roles of a “father” to help support, sometimes financially, the mother and the other children. This also gives them the opportunity to express their feelings more openly and freely, with little or no parental interference. Having an opening to do such things leads them to believe that they can not get in any trouble for what they are doing. Setting fires, being cruel to other children and animals and other delinquent acts are freely acted upon.
The story of Henry Lee Lucas tells a tale of a fatherless childhood and the lack of parental supervision. The lone parent abusing him every chance that she got, may have contributed to his rampage that left up to several hundred dead in twenty-six states. Born to a prostitute in 1936, he was frequently starved and beaten. The only male or father figure that he knew was his stepfather, a drunken railroad worker who lost both legs in a accident. He died of pneumonia after passing out in the winter snow when Henry was thirteen. With the loss of a father, Henry was left to grow and learn from his mother, an obviously inadequate parent. Lucas’ mother who made him wear dresses and grow his hair long, girl fashioned- once knocked unconscious when he disobeyed. According to Lucas she also made him watch her with her clients.
When looking at this so called “Terrible Triad”, we find the combination of potential warning signs in youths, consisting of bed wetting, sadistic abuse of animals and other children and setting fires. We notice that nearly all of the serial killers experience one or more of the “triad” symptoms and several experience all of these throughout their early life.
Alton Coleman was born in November 1955, the third of five children. His mother was a prostitute in Illinois and was raised by his maternal grandmother, who ignored him. The neighborhood children called him “Pissy” because he constantly wet his clothing. In his teens Coleman joined street gangs, engaged in petty crimes- including theft, assault, killings of neighborhood animals and arson, and was eventually arrested on assault and rape charges. In 1974 he was convicted of the robbery, and kidnap and rape of an elderly woman. Plea-bargaining got him two to four years in prison, where he was also accused of molesting other inmates. In 1984, he began a five state, three month long spree consisting of kidnapping, car theft, rape and murder. After ten deaths, six rapes and several robberies and beatings, he was arrested and eventually received six death sentences as well as 140 years for the kidnapping and child molestation charges.
As we can see, there are many underlying causes of what may make a common person convert into a cold blooded killer. No one for sure can pin point any particular trait or set of traits that will let authorities know before hand to stop that person before he gets the chance to do his damage on society.
Theodore Robert Bundy is the epitome of a serial killer, exhibiting several of the mentioned traits throughout his childhood, life and crimes. Ted, as he was called, was born on November 24,1946, to an unwed mother (Louise Crowell) in Burlington, Vermont. Shortly after his birth the young mother traveled to Philadelphia and left little Ted with strangers while she and her parents debated as to putting him to adoption. After about two months, she decided to keep the baby boy and reclaimed him and returned home to Pennsylvania.
To this day, no one really knows who his real father was. All that is known that he was a member of the armed forces. One half of is genetic makeup was and still remains unknown. Could this be the missing piece of what turned Bundy into a killer? It could very well be.
On May19,1951, in another traumatic experience, Ted acquired both a stepfather and a new name over the course of one day. Louise married John Culpepper Bundy. The boy was not yet five years old. Along with his good grades in school were letters asking him to control his violent temper from his teachers. Several of these letters were with pleas for his guardians to help him do so.
The need to acquire things, to take things that he could not afford, became a Bundy trademark later in life. He brought nothing home but shoplifting items that were far beyond his families’ means. He would explain them away as being gifts from the department store where he worked part time or that they were simply borrowed from friends.
The lack of social interaction, including the lack of, was a note worthy point to his friends. “ He was attractive, and well dressed, exceptionally mannered,” recalls a female classmate. “ I know that he must of dated, but I don’t remember ever seeing him with a date.” In fact Ted only had one date in all of his high school years.
As he grew, Ted’s underlying urges riddled his every thought. In 1972, he graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology. He was a bright student awaiting entrance into the University of Utah at the time the killings began. In January of 1974, a University of Washington coed did not show up for breakfast one morning and her roommates assumed that she decided to sleep late. Deciding to check up on her midmorning, they got no response to knocks at her door. This is where it all began for Ted Bundy and we all know where it eventually wound up. Ted was executed in the electric chair in the state of Florida on January 24,1989.
Who are these people? How do we pick them out of a crowd? We can’t do that. This is why society is having trouble coping with the idea that there are such people out there on the streets as we speak. Murder happens everyday, to a variety of people… but the authorities only know a small percentage of these serial killers. The serial killer becomes more cunning and arrogant with each generation. Some may never be caught and some may never even start killing, but society does have a real worry in their hands the day they all come out and play.
- CAUTION! Free research paper samples & examples on Serial Killers are 100% plagiarized!!!
At EssayLib.com - professional research writing service - you can buy custom research papers on any topics and disciplines, 100% written from scratch. EssayLib.com employs top-rated Ph.D. and Master's experts only to write superior-quality custom essays, term papers, research papers, thesis & dissertations at affordable rates. EssayLib.com knows HOW effectively to help high school, college & university students with writing the highest grade custom papers online.
