Yesterday, Today, and Beyond

There are many things that could facilitate a higher risk of being a victim of a serial killer.   In some cases in which victims are tricked, the victims may be trusting and gullible, putting their fate in the hands of a stranger.   Some people living on the fringes of society have a higher probability of becoming a victim of a serial killer, such as prostitutes, homeless, runaways, drug addicts, or hitchhikers.   In this way some victims have allowed themselves to be in a vulnerable position. When someone becomes a victim, their actions could possibly save them if they realize they are in danger and can act in time.   Such is the case when a victim of Ted Bundy’s actually fought him in the vehicle and was ultimately able to escape ( Ted Bundy ). The victim may not have lived if she were submissive to Bundy and didn’t fight for her life.   Ultimately, the serial killer will kill and the blame relies solely on the killer.   Should one person not fit the bi...

Serial killers are often glorified in the media.   Some serial killers get a type of “cult” following, even letters professing love and admiration for the offender.   People seem to be fascinated with serial killers. In The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations The Grisly Business Unit , Robert Keppel and William Birnes note that “Recognition is the single most important concept in serial murder investigations.” (Keppel & Birnes 3).   Serial killers sometimes remain undetected and undeterred as they operate on the fringes of society or appear so normal that they hide in plain sight.   Another obstacle is that some police departments may not want to admit they have a serial offender on their hands.   There are many reasons for this.   The rate of solving serial murder cases is generally much lower and slower than other murders and crimes.   The media and public attention may cause additional stress on the police department to solve the case...

Some serial killers are emblazoned into the minds of the public.   Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer’s names are synonymous with evil and what it means to be a serial killer.   Gacy, for instance, would kill young men that were on the fringes of society – often runaways or homeless.   He then would hide their bodies in the crawlspaces of his home.   Gacy was eventually arrested for the murder of 33 young men, with 28 of their bodies were found inside his home.   Police did not know there was a serial killer in the area, nor suspect Gacy of any killings before his last victim. Other serial killer cases are less known to the public (Keppel & Birnes).   There was a group of serial killers who like likely killed 30 or more teenage boys.   The killers were Elmer Wayne Henley, Dean Corll, and David Owen Brooks.   The police and public were unaware there was a serial killer trio in Pasadena, Texas.   On August 8, 1973, Henley ki...

In 1946, someone terrorized the small town of Texarkana.   The ripples on this town are so deep that a 1976 movie was made based loosely on the killings that put fear in the town.   Five people were killed within a ten week span, along with three others that were attacked and survived (Grey).   People in town were locking and blocking doors and windows in their homes, setting booby traps.   Theaters in town were deserted.   People didn’t visit each other unannounced or after dark.   The townspeople were paralyzed with fear (McDonald).   In February, Jimmy Hollis and Mary Jeanne Larey were parked out at a lover’s lane.   A man with a white hood over his head walked up with a gun and ordered the two out of the car.   Hollis was forced to take his pants off and then beat on the head so hard that his skull was fractured (Stowers).   He cracked Hollis’s skull so loud that Larey thought the gun was fired.   The attacker had told Larey...

The Granny Killer, John Wayne Glover, was a serial killer in Australia.   He molested and killed older women in their 60’s to 90’s.   Glover bludgeoned the women, groped them, then tied and strangled them with their panties.   Glover was a local pie salesman and he would go to the nursing homes where many of his victims resided in the course of his work selling pies.   Based on incorrect profiling, police were looking for a teenaged offender.   Glover, however, was middle aged and appeared to be very friendly and respectful.   He had a wife and family, did charity work, and socialized with senior groups.   Glover had committed some sexual assaults about 25 years prior to him starting to kill.   Killings started after a series of stressful events in Glover’s life.   First, Glover and his wife moved into his wife’s parents home.   Second, Glover’s mother moved into the house with them as well.   Living with his in laws and mother ca...

The serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper is a prolific serial killer in England.   Sutcliffe killed and assaulted prostitutes as well as other women for about 6 years in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.   Sutcliffe would attack women from behind by hitting them in the head with a hammer.   After they were incapacitated, he would disarrange their clothes and stab them on their bare skin on the stomach, chest, and abdomen ( Keppel & Birnes) .   There were several things that led to Sutcliffe being in the police files, such as: boot prints, blood type, type of car and tire impression, and a specific £5 bank note.   Also, his vehicles were on two separate lists of cars that were sighted in the vicinity of known prostitution areas where the killer attacked.   One list was for the car being sighted two times, and the other was for being sighted 3 times – double and triple sightings (Keppel & Birnes).   A common psycholo...

In November of 1990 and February of 1991, two prostitutes were murdered in the Portland area.   These two murders were solved due to the realization of a possible serial killer in an unrelated assault and different law enforcement agencies working together.   In May of 1991, another prostitute in Seattle was severely sexually and physically assaulted and thrown from the cab of an 18 wheeler truck.   The victim had to be hospitalized as a result of the attack.   Even though the victim did not want to prosecute the case, the detective in charge realized that this attack showed signs of a current or future serial killer.   Police were able to track down a man by the name Seth Scott Cutter through the employer, the trucking company.   Police felt that Cutter could be the person responsible and information about Cutter was disseminated to neighboring agencies.   An officer from a different police department recognized the suspect as a local man named Scot...

Dennis Nilsen is a Scottish serial killer, born in 1945.   When Nilsen was just 4 years old, his parents divorced.   He was eventually sent to live with his grandparents when his mother remarried.   At just 16, Nilsen joined the army and worked as a cook and butcher for many years.   He also briefly worked as a police officer.   Nilsen craved sexual relationships with men and feared abandonment of his lovers leaving him (Murray).   During the late 70’s and early 80’s, Nilsen took men or boys back to his apartments for sex (Dennis).   He would strangle the men to death while they slept and would wash the bodies periodically and keep them over the course of several weeks or months hidden under his floor boards.   Nilsen would bring the men’s bodies out to be with him, “watch” television with him, and lay in the bed with him.   Later, he dismembered the bodies and burned them in the garden, along with a tire to mask the smell of burning flesh....

The El Paso Desert Murders was a series of 6 homicides, along with one living victim.   All of the murder victims were female prostitutes aged 14-28.   Judith Brown, the final victim and a living witness, was kidnapped and sexually assaulted.   Her statement was not only critical in getting David Wood into prison, but also in the eventual solving of the murders.   Wood’s name came up as a suspect with the El Paso Police Department during the course of each of the murder investigations.   Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough the proof needed to link him to the murders.   Wood was already in prison, due to the sexual assault of Judith Brown.   Brown gave a very detailed account of the night she was kidnapped and assaulted, including street names of places where Wood drove her and assaulted her.   Police were able to solve the murders by using this living witness to link the sexual assault site with burial sites of the murder victims, along wit...

The Atlanta child murderer, Wayne Williams, killed at least 23 people, mostly young black children.   Initial profiles of the killer claimed that the murders were perpetrated by a white racist person.   In fact, the killer was a young black man, and a member of the very community that he terrorized.   He spent a considerable amount of time building relationships with his unsuspecting victims, offering the older victims a promise of a job.   Once he had the perfect opportunity, he would drug his victims, and then asphyxiate them once they were incapacitated.   He would often leave the victim’s bodies is sexually degrading positions (Keppel & Birnes). Works Cited Keppel, Robert D., and William J. Birnes. The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations The Grisly Business Unit . Academic Press, 2003.

Ted Bundy is a movie that chronicled the life and crimes of serial killer Theodore Robert Bundy.   The film starts out showing Bundy as an impulsive kleptomaniac.   The movie continues with alternating scenes between fairly normal life with his girlfriend and her daughter and times where Bundy is stalking, attacking, raping and killing women.   He sometimes broke into women’s houses with a lock picking kit.   He would often attack women on the streets or trick them into letting their guard down before attacking them.   The scenes with assaults are shocking, as Bundy nonchalantly attacks and kidnaps women, usually in broad daylight.   One scene with Bundy putting makeup on a severed head in his house is particularly chilling.   When Bundy ends up moving to Utah, his killings appear to have ramped up, and he killed in multiple areas in Utah and Colorado.   Bundy picked up a woman at a shopping center, claiming to be a police officer working on a ...