Serial killer

A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than thirty days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings. The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common; for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group.

Serial killers are not the same as mass murderers, who commit multiple murders at one time; nor are they spree killers, who commit murders in two or more locations with virtually no break in between. Coinage of the English term serial killer is commonly attributed to former FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. The concept had been described earlier, e.g. by German police inspector Ernst Gennat coining the same term in 1930. Author Ann Rule postulates in her 2004 book Kiss Me, Kill Me that the English-language credit for coining the term "serial killer" goes to LAPD detective Pierce Brooks, mastermind of the ViCAP system.

Characteristics

Serial killers in the United States tend to share the following general characteristics:

1. The majority are single, white males. However, there are several recorded cases of non-Caucasian serial killers, such as Wayne Williams, Timothy Spencer, Charles Ng, Angel Maturino Reséndiz, Richard Ramirez, George Russell, and serial snipers John Muhammad and Lee Malvo.
2. They are often intelligent, with IQs in the "above normal" range.
3. Despite their high IQs, they have trouble holding down jobs, and often work menial jobs.
4. They tend to come from unstable families.
5. As children, they are typically abandoned by their fathers and raised by domineering mothers.
6. Their families often have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories.
7. They were often abused—emotionally, physically and/or sexually—by a family member.
8. They have high rates of suicide attempts.
9. From an early age, many are intensely interested in voyeurism, fetishism, and sadomasochistic pornography.
10. More than 60 percent wet their beds beyond the age of 12.
11. Many are fascinated with fire starting.
12. They are involved in sadistic activity or torturing small animals.

Psychosis is rarely noted among serial killers. The predominant psychiatric diagnosis noted in the group tends toward the psychopathic, meaning they suffer from traits within a specific cluster of dysfunctional personality characteristics, those most commonly associated with antisocial personality disorder or dissocial personality disorder. Psychopaths lack empathy and guilt, are egocentric and impulsive, and do not conform to social, moral and legal norms. Instead, psychopaths often follow a distinct set of rules which they have created for themselves. They may appear to be normal and often quite charming, a state of adaptation that psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley named the "mask of sanity". Although psychopathy is not an official term in the DSM-IV, it is a disorder that involves traits that are both antisocial as well as narcissistic. Robert Hare created a checklist to differentiate psychopathy from antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), known as the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The questionnaire scores people based on the presence of antisocial and narcissistic traits. His test found that while 50–80% of criminals were diagnosed with ASPD, only 15–30% scored as primary psychopaths on the PCL-R test.

The Macdonald triad—animal cruelty, pyromania, and persistent bedwetting (also known as enuresis) past the age of five—is often exhibited by serial killers during their childhood. Subsequent research, however, found that bedwetting is not related to psychopathy.

Development

What distinguishes serial killers from the "normal" population is the similar problems they face in their childhood development. Hickey's Trauma Control Model explains how early childhood trauma can set the child up for deviant behavior in adulthood. The child’s environment (either their parents or society) is the dominant factor in whether or not the child’s behavior escalates into homicidal activity.

The mother normally plays the largest role in the development of a child. Maternal overprotection—combined with the lack of paternal influence—has resulted in the development of many sexually violent men. Jeffrey Dahmer experienced this kind of childhood, which could have led to his inability to develop social relationship in his adult life.

Family, or lack thereof, is the most prominent part of a child’s development because it is what the child can identify with on a regular basis. "The serial killer is no different than any other individual who is instigated to seek approval from parents, sexual partners, or others" (Hale, 1993, p. 41). This need for approval is what influences children to attempt to develop social relationships with their family and peers, but if they are rejected or neglected, they are unable to do so. This results in the lowering of their self-esteem and helps develop their fantasy world in which they are in control. Hickey’s Trauma Control Model (2010, p. 107) clearly shows that the development of a serial killer is based on an early trauma followed by facilitators (porn, drugs, and alcohol) and disposition (the inability to attach).

Family interaction also plays an important role in a child’s growth and development. "The quality of their attachments to parents and other members of the family is critical to how these children relate to and value other members of society." Wilson and Seaman (1990) conducted a study on incarcerated serial killers and what they felt was the most influential factor that contributed to their homicidal activity. Almost all of the serial killers in the study had experienced some sort of environmental problems during their childhood, such as a broken home, or a lack of discipline in the home. It was common for the serial killers to come from a family that had experienced divorce, separation, or the lack of a parent. Furthermore, nearly half of the serial killers had experienced some type of physical and sexual abuse and even more had experienced emotional neglect. When a parent has a drug or alcohol problem, the attention in the household is on the parents rather than the child. This neglect of the child leads to the lowering of their self-esteem and helps develop a fantasy world in which they are in control. Hickey's Trauma Control Model supports how the neglect from parents can facilitate deviant behavior especially if the child sees substance abuse in action. This then leads to disposition (the inability to attach), which can further lead to homicidal behavior unless the child finds a way to develop substantial relationships and fight the label they receive. If a child receives no support from those around him or her, then he or she is unlikely to recover from the traumatic event in a positive way. As stated by E. E. Maccoby, "the family has continued to be seen as a major--perhaps the major--arena for socialization."

Fantasy

Children who do not have the power to control their mistreatment create a new reality that they can escape to. This new reality becomes their fantasy that they have total control of and becomes part of their daily existence. In this fantasy world their emotional development is guided and maintained in their own world. According to Garrison (1996), “the child becomes sociopathic because the normal development of the concepts of right and wrong and empathy towards others is retarded because of the child's emotional and social development occurs within his self-centered fantasies. A person can do no wrong in his own world and the pain of others is of no consequence when the purpose of the fantasy world is to satisfy the needs of one person” (Garrison, 1996). Boundaries between fantasy and reality are lost and fantasies turn to dominance, control, sexual conquest, and violence, eventually leading to murder. Fantasy can lead to the first step in the process of a dissociative state, which, in the words of Stephen Giannangelo, "allows the serial killer to leave the stream of consciousness for what is, to him, a better place."

Criminologist Jose Sanchez reports, "the young criminal you see today is more detached from his victim, more ready to hurt or kill . . . The lack of empathy for their victims among young criminals is just one symptom of a problem that afflicts the whole society." Lorenzo Carcaterra, author of Gangster (2001), explains how potential criminals are labeled by society, which can then lead to their offspring also developing in the same way through the cycle of violence. Before he was executed, serial killer Ted Bundy stated media violence and pornography had stimulated and increased his need to commit homicide, thought this statement was made during last ditch efforts to appeal his death sentence.

Categories

The FBI's Crime Classification Manual places serial killers into three categories: "organized", "disorganized" and "mixed"—offenders who exhibit organized and disorganized characteristics. Some killers descend from being organized into disorganized behavior as their killings continue.

Organized/nonsocial offenders

Organized nonsocial offenders usually have above average intelligence, with a mean IQ of 123. They often plan their crimes quite methodically, usually abducting victims, killing them in one place and disposing of them in another. They will often lure the victims with ploys appealing to their sense of sympathy. For example, Ted Bundy would put his arm in a fake plaster cast and ask women to help him carry something to his car, where he would beat them unconscious with a crowbar, and carry them away. Others specifically target prostitutes, who are likely to go voluntarily with a stranger. They maintain a high degree of control over the crime scene, and usually have a solid knowledge of forensic science that enables them to cover their tracks, such as burying the body or weighing it down and sinking it in a river. They follow their crimes in the media carefully and often take pride in their actions, as if it were all a grand project. The organized killer is usually socially adequate, has friends and lovers, and sometimes even a spouse and children. They are the type who, when/if captured, are most likely to be described by acquaintances as kind and unlikely to hurt anyone. Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are examples of organized serial killers.

Medical professionals

Main article: Angel of Mercy (serial killer)

Some people with a pathological interest in the power of life and death tend to be attracted to medical professions or acquring such a job. These kinds of killers are sometimes referred to as "angels of death" or angels of mercy. Medical professionals will kill their patients for money, for a sense of sadistic pleasure, for a belief that they are "easing" the patient’s pain, or simply "because they can." One such killer was nurse Jane Toppan, who admitted during her murder trial that she was sexually aroused by death. She would administer a drug mixture to patients she chose as her victims, lie in bed with them and hold them close to her body as they died.

Female serial killers

Female serial killers are rare. They tend to murder men for material gain, are usually emotionally close to their victims, and generally need to have a relationship with a person before killing them. "An analysis of 86 female serial killers from the U.S. found that the victims tended to be spouses, children or the elderly." The methods they use for murder are covert or low-profile, such as murder by poison (the preferred choice for killing). They commit killings in specific places, such as their home or a health-care facility (where they then become known as "Angels of Mercy" by the media), or at different locations within the same city or state. Other methods used by female serial killers include shootings (used by 20%), suffocation (16%), stabbing (11%), and drowning (5%). Though most female serial killers murder for money or other such material gain (74% of them), others do it for attention. While many female serial killers have been diagnosed with Münchausen syndrome, little research has been conducted focusing on the societal influences—particularly gender roles and expectations of women—which contribute to these women committing multiple murders. Each killer will have her own proclivities, needs and triggers, as specific reasons can only be obtained from the killer herself. "In a review of published literature on female serial murder, sexual or sadistic motives are believed to be extremely rare in female serial murderers, and psychopathic traits and histories of childhood abuse have been consistently reported in these women." On rare occasions, women may be involved with a male serial killer as a part of a serial killing "team".

Kelleher and Kelleher (1998) created several categories to describe female serial killers. They used the classifications of black widow, angel of death, sexual predator, revenge, profit or crime, team killer, question of sanity, unexplained and unsolved. In using these categories, they found that most women fell into the categories of black widow and team killer. In describing murderer Stacey Castor, forensic psychiatrist Dr. James Knoll offered a psychological perspective on what defines a "black widow" type. In simple terms, he described it as a woman who kills two or more husbands or lovers for material gain. Though Castor was not officially defined as a serial killer, it is likely that she would have killed again.

A notable exception to the typical characteristics of female serial killers is Aileen Wuornos, who killed outdoors instead of at home, used a gun instead of poison, killed strangers instead of friends or family, and killed for personal gratification. The most prolific serial killer in all of history is allegedly Elizabeth Báthory. Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, 17 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a countess from the renowned Báthory family. After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80. Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted. In 1610, however, she was imprisoned in the Csejte Castle, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later.

An article which addressed some of the misperceptions of female criminality has appeared in the forensic literature. The Perri and Lichtenwald article addresses the current research regarding female psychopathy and includes case studies of female psychopathic killers featuring Münchausen syndrome by Proxy, Cesarean Section Homicide, Fraud Detection Homicide, female kill teams, and a female serial killer.

Motives

The motives of serial killers are generally placed into four categories: "visionary", "mission-oriented", "hedonistic" and "power or control"; however, the motives of any given killer may display considerable overlap among these categories.

Visionary

Visionary serial killers suffer from psychotic breaks with reality, sometimes believing they are another person or are compelled to murder by entities such as the devil or God. The two most common subgroups are "demon mandated" and "God mandated."

Herbert Mullin believed the American casualties in the Vietnam War were preventing California from experiencing an earthquake. As the war wound down, Mullin claimed his father instructed him via telepathy to raise the amount of "human sacrifices to nature" in order to delay a catastrophic earthquake that would plunge California into the ocean.

David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") is an example of a demon-mandated visionary killer. He claimed a demon transmitted orders through his neighbor's dog, instructing him to murder.

Mission-oriented

Mission-oriented killers typically justify their acts as "ridding the world" of a certain type of person they perceive as undesirable, such as homosexuals, prostitutes, people of different ethnicity or religion; however, they are generally not psychotic. Some see themselves as attempting to change the nature of human society, often to cure a societal ill.

Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber", targeted universities and the airline industry. He wrote a manifesto that he distributed to the media, in which he claimed he wanted society to return to a time when technology was not a threat to its future, asserting that "the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race."

Hedonistic

This type of serial killer seeks thrills and derives pleasure from killing, seeing people as expendable means to this goal. Forensic psychologists have identified three subtypes of the hedonistic killer: "lust", "thrill" and "comfort".

Lust

Sex is the primary motive of lust killers, whether or not the victims are dead, and fantasy plays a large role in their killings. Their sexual gratification depends on the amount of torture and mutilation they perform on their victims. They usually use weapons that require close contact with the victims, such as knives or hands. As lust killers continue with their murders, the time between killings decreases or the required level of stimulation increases, sometimes both.

Kenneth Bianchi, one of the "Hillside Stranglers", murdered women and girls of different ages, races and appearance because his sexual urges required different types of stimulation and increasing intensity.

Jeffrey Dahmer searched for his perfect fantasy lover—beautiful, submissive and eternal. As his desire increased, he experimented with drugs, alcohol and exotic sex. His increasing need for stimulation was demonstrated by the dismemberment of victims, whose heads and genitals he preserved. He experimented with cannibalism to "ensure his victims would always be a part of him".

Thrill

The primary motive of a thrill killer is to induce pain or create terror in their victims, which provides stimulation and excitement for the killer. They seek the adrenaline rush provided by hunting and killing victims. Thrill killers murder only for the kill; usually the attack is not prolonged, and there is no sexual aspect. Usually the victims are strangers, although the killer may have followed them for a period of time. Thrill killers can abstain from killing for long periods of time and become more successful at killing as they refine their murder methods. Many attempt to commit the perfect crime and believe they will not be caught.

Robert Hansen took his victims to a secluded area, where he would let them loose and then hunt and kill them. Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, the DC Snipers, killed random victims, often at gas stations, shooting them and leaving the scenes unnoticed. In one of his letters to San Francisco Bay Area newspapers, the Zodiac Killer wrote "[killing] gives me the most thrilling experience it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl". Coral Watts was described by a surviving victim as "excited and hyper and clappin’ and just making noises like he was excited, that this was gonna be fun" during the 1982 attack. Slashing, stabbing, hanging, drowning, asphyxiating, and strangling were among the ways Watts killed.

Comfort (profit)

Material gain and a comfortable lifestyle are the primary motives of comfort killers. Usually, the victims are family members and close acquaintances. After a murder, a comfort killer will usually wait for a period of time before killing again to allow any suspicions by family or authorities to subside. They often use poison, most notably arsenic, to kill their victims. Female serial killers are often comfort killers, although not all comfort killers are female. Dorothea Puente killed her tenants for their Social Security checks and buried them in the backyard of her home. H. H. Holmes killed for insurance and business profits. Professional killers ("hit men") may also be considered serial killers. Richard Kuklinski charged thousands of dollars for a "hit," earning enough money to support his family in a middle-class lifestyle (Bruno, 1993).

Some, like Puente and Holmes, may be involved in and/or have previous convictions for theft, fraud, dishonesty, non payment of debts, embezzlement and other crimes of a similar nature. Dorothea Puente was finally arrested on a parole violation, having been on parole for a previous fraud conviction.

Power/control

Their main objective for killing is to gain and exert power over their victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy as adults. Many power or control-motivated killers sexually abuse their victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is not motivated by lust but as simply another form of dominating the victim. Ted Bundy traveled around the United States seeking women to control.

Theories

Theories for why certain people kill serially have been advanced. Some theorists believe the reasons are biological, suggesting serial murderers are born and violent behavior is a result of abnormal brain activity. Holmes and Holmes believe that "[u]ntil a reliable sample can be obtained and tested, there is no scientific statement that can be made concerning the exact role of biology as a determining factor of a serial killer personality." The Fractured Identity Syndrome (FIS) is a merging of Charles Cooley’s Looking Glass Self and Erving Goffman’s Virtual and Actual Social Identity theories. The FIS suggests a social event, or series of events, during one's childhood or adolescence results in a fracturing of the personality of the serial killer. The term "fracture" is defined as a small breakage of the personality which is often not visible to the outside world and is only felt by the killer.

Another theory, the military theory, can be included as to why serial murderers kill. Looking deeper into some serial murderer's pasts reveals that some have served in the military or other such fields. According to Castle and Hensley, 7% of the serial killers studied had military experience.

Similar to the Trauma Control Theory, serial murder can also be explained through Social Process theory. Social process theory states offenders may turn to crime due to peer pressure, family, and friends. Criminal behavior is a process of interaction with social institutions, in which, everyone has the potential for criminal behavior. A lack of family structure and identity could also be a cause leading to serial murder traits. A child used as a scapegoat will be deprived of their capacity to feel guilt. Displaced anger could result in animal torture, as identified in the Macdonald triad, and a further lack of basic identity.

Sentencing

The United States does not have a specific guideline to sentencing serial killers. When a serial killer gets caught, they will be charged with murder and if convicted they can get life in prison or receive capital punishment, depending on which state the killer killed in. Below are several examples of how a serial killer may be sentenced in different states. For every vicitim a serial killer kills, the offender will be charged for every murder. For example, if a serial killer kills five victims, the offender could get five life sentences or five death sentences depending on the evidence and the state that they killed in.

Arizona

In Arizona a person is charged with murder when the offender knowingly and intentionally causes the death of a person or unborn child. The murder must be premeditated. In the state of Arizona, if an individual is found guilty of murder 1, there is the possibility of receiving the death penalty.

Florida

In Florida a person is guilty of first degree murder when it is perpetrated from a premeditated design to result in the death of a human being. This offense is categorized as capital offense, if convicted the offender could possibly receive the death penalty in the State of Florida.

Hawaii

In Hawaii a person is found guilty of first degree murder when they intentionally and knowingly cause the death of another person. The State of Hawaii has no death penalty. If they are found guilty, the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.

Louisiana

Louisiana states that homicide in the first degree is killing of a human being with intent. There are other specific guidelines like killing a police officer or firefighter is an automatic first degree charge or intent to kill more than one person is automatically a first degree charge. In the State of Louisiana you can receive life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Michigan

In Michigan a person is found guilty of first degree murder when murder is perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait, or any other willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing. In Michigan the top penalty you can receive is life imprisonment, the punishment cannot be cruel and unusual.

Nevada

In Nevada first degree murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice and aforethought, either expressed or implied. If a serial killer is found guilty with an aggravating circumstances or any mitigating circumstances, for example killing someone with torture or killing a stranger with no apparent motive. In the State of Nevada, they can seek the death penalty in those circumstances or get life without parole.

Washington State

In the State of Washington a person is found guilty of first degree murder when there is a premeditated intent to cause the death of another person. Murder in the first degree is a class A felony in the state of Washington. If a person is convicted of first degree murder, they will not receive anything lower than life imprisonment. The offender an possibly get a charge of aggravated first degree murder if they committ first degree murder and have a aggravating circumstance; for example, if they kill a police officer. In this case, they can receive the death penalty.

Again, serial killing is not a specific crime. If a serial murder gets caught they will be charged with first degree murder for every murder they commit. These are just a few states and what possible sentence they may receive. Each state is different and each case is different. In some cases, you receive the death penalty and in some cases you may get life imprisonment. It depends on the situation.

In history

Further information: [[:List of serial killers before 1900]]

Historical criminologists have suggested that there may have been serial murders throughout history, but specific cases were not adequately recorded. Some sources suggest that legends such as werewolves and vampires were inspired by medieval serial killers.

Liu Pengli of China, cousin of the Han Emperor Jing, was made king of Jidong in the sixth year of the middle period of Jing's reign (144 BC). According to the Chinese historian Sima Qian, he would "go out on marauding expeditions with 20 or 30 slaves or young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport". Although many of his subjects knew about these murders, it was not until the 29th year of his reign that the son of one of his victims finally sent a report to the Emperor. Eventually, it was discovered that he had murdered at least 100 people. The officials of the court requested that Liu Pengli be executed; however, the emperor could not bear to have his own cousin killed, and Liu Pengli was made a commoner and banished.

In the 15th century, one of the wealthiest men in Europe, Gilles de Rais, sexually assaulted and killed peasant children, mainly boys, whom he had abducted from the surrounding villages and taken to his castle. It is estimated that his victims numbered between 140 and 800. The Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory allegedly tortured and killed as many as 650 girls and young women before her arrest in 1610.

Thug Behram, a gang leader of the Indian Thuggee cult of assassins, has frequently been said to be the world's most prolific serial killer. According to numerous sources, he was believed to have murdered 931 victims by means of strangulation with a ceremonial cloth between 1790 and 1830. Recent scholarship has cast doubt on the Thuggee cult and suggested that the British in India were confused by the vernacular use of the term by Indians, and may also have used fear of such a cult to justify their colonial rule.

The first serial killers to get media attention were Burke and Hare. They killed 16 victims in Edinburgh, Scotland between 1827 and 1828 and sold their cadavers to an anatomy lecturer.

In his 1886 book Psychopathia Sexualis, psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing noted a case of a serial murderer in the 1870s, a Frenchman named Eusebius Pieydagnelle who had a sexual obsession with blood and confessed to murdering six people.

The unidentified killer Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes (the exact number of victims is not known) in London in 1888. Those crimes gained enormous press attention because London was the world's greatest center of power at the time, so having such dramatic murders of financially destitute women in the midst of such wealth focused the news media's attention on the plight of the urban poor and gained coverage worldwide. He has also been called the most famous serial killer of all time.

American serial killer H. H. Holmes was hanged in Philadelphia in 1896 after confessing to 27 murders. Joseph Vacher was executed in France in 1898 after confessing to killing and mutilating 11 women and children.

In media and popular culture

Music

Main article: List of songs about killers

Modern singers and bands, some more popular than others, have felt the fascination and horror toward certain celebrity serial killers, writing their own songs about them. Songs about serial killers have been made by the Rolling Stones (Midnight Rambler), Eminem (3 a.m.), Bruce Springsteen (Nebraska (song)), The Talking Heads (Psycho Killer), The Police (Murder by Numbers (song)), and many other more modern artists such as Sufjan Stevens (John Wayne Gacy Jr. (song)).

Art

Collecting art created by convicted serial killers has become a special pastime for some. John Wayne Gacy drew and painted art from prison, much of which he gave away. Some people took the work just to trash or burn it, especially after discovering many of his images depicted his own victims. In 2005, serial killer Alfred Gaynor's art was offered on an online auction. One of his more popular works, titled "A Righteous Man's Reward", was a drawing depicting the figure of Jesus.

Books

There is a huge market for "True Crime" and mystery murder novels, some of the more successful authors being Patricia Cornwell, Ann Rule, Truman Capote, and Philip Carlo. The novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson can be seen as a metaphor for the complex personality of the organized serial killer type that later disintegrates into the disorganized version. One of the greatest themes of this book, however, is the possibility that the dualistic conflict seen in Jekyll/Hyde could happen to anyone.

Film

Since its invention, portrayals of violence seem to have been an integral part of filmmaking. One of Thomas Edison's first phonograph recordings dealt with the confessions of serial killer H. H. Holmes. The creation of a “monster” helps society cope with the scarier side of humanity and starts to create a desensitization of media violence.

Serial killers are featured as stock characters in many types of media, including books, films, television programs, songs and video games. Films featuring serial killers include Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, The Watcher, Mr. Brooks, Seven, Copycat, Halloween, Scream, The Lovely Bones, Romasanta and many others.

The television series Dexter features a police blood-spatter pattern analyst, named Dexter Morgan, who moonlights as a vigilante serial killer who goes after criminals who have slipped through the law's fingers in an attempt to be "good" and "just", and cease his killing urges. It is based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Other notable literature with a serial killer theme includes Davis Grubb's The Night of the Hunter, Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me and Thomas Harris' books Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, all featuring Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a cannibalistic serial killer. The television show Criminal Minds frequently involves cases of serial killers.

Memorabilia

Notorious and infamous serial killers number in the hundreds, and a subculture revolves around their legacies. "Murderabilia", or memorabilia centered around famous serial killers, includes the paintings, writings, and poems of these killers. Recently, marketing has capitalized even more upon interest in serial killers with the rise of various merchandise such as trading cards, action figures, and encyclopedias like The Serial Killer Files by Harold Schecter. Some serial killers literally attain the status of "celebrity" in the way they acquire 'fans'. Some killers even have previous personal possessions auctioned off on websites like eBay. A few examples of this are Ed Gein's 150 pound stolen gravestone, and Bobby Joe Long's sunglasses.

Controversy

One of the most well-known opponents of collectors of serial killer remnants, Andrew Kahan, is said to have coined the term "murderabilia". He is the director of the Mayor's Crime Victims Office in Houston and is backed by the families of murder victims, and "Son of Sam" laws existing in some states that prevent murderers from profiting from the publicity generated by their crimes.

See also

• List of serial killers by country
• List of serial killers by number of victims
• Offender profiling
• Serial crime
• Spree killer
• List of horror movie serial killers

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• MacDonald, J. M. "The threat to kill." American Journal of Psychiatry 120 (1963).
• Newitz, Annalee (2006). Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture. Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822337454.
• Norris, Joel (1990). Serial Killers: The Growing Menace. Arrow Books. ISBN 0-09-971750-6.
• Peck, Dennis L. (2000). Extraordinary Behavior: A Case Study Approach to Understanding Social Problems. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-275-97057-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Qian, Sima. "Han Dynasty". Records of the Grand Historian. Vol. I (Revised edition 1993 ed.). Columba University Press.
• Ressler, Robert K. (1993). Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI. New York: Macmillan/St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0312950446. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Rosner, Lisa (2010). The Anatomy Murders. Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and of the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812241916. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
• Roy, Jody M. (2002). Love to Hate: America's Obsession with Hatred and Violence. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231125697.
• Rushby, Kevin (2003). Children of Kali: Through India in Search of Bandits, the Thug Cult, and the British Raj. Walker & Company. ISBN 0802714188.
• Schechter, Harold (2006). The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781416521747. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Schlesinger, Louis B. (2000). Serial Offenders: Current Thought, Recent Findings. CRC Press. ISBN 9780849322365.
• Schmid, David (2005). Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226738673.
• Seltzer, Mark (1998). Serial Killers: Death and Life in America's Wound Culture. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-91481-9.
• Sitpond, M. (2000). Addicted to murder: The true story of Dr Harold Shipman. Virgin.
• Vronsky, Peter (2004). Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. Penguin Group/Berkley. ISBN 0425196402.
• Vronsky, Peter (2007). Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters. Penguin/Berkley. ISBN 9780425213902.
• Whittle, Brian (2000). Prescription for Murder: The True Story of Mass Murderer Dr Harold Frederick Shipman. Warner. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Wilson, Colin (1995). A Plague Of Murder. Robinson. ISBN 1-85487-249-4.
• Yudofsky, Stuart C. (2005). Fatal Flaws: Navigating Destructive Relationships with People with Disorders of Personality and Character. American Psychiatric Publishing. ISBN 9781585622146.
• Ramsland, Katherine. "Serial Killer Culture". Tru.tv Crime Library. Retrieved April 2, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Schmid, David (2007). Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-73869-7.
• Ramsland, Katherine. "Serial Killer Culture". Tru.tv Crime Library. Retrieved April 2, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Sparknotes Editors. ""Sparknotes on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"". LLC. Retrieved April 1, 2010. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
• Robinson, Bryan. "Serial Killer Action Figures For Sale". ABC News. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
• Haggerty, Kevin D. (2009). "Crime, Media, Culture: Modern Serial Killer". Sage Publications, 5(2), 1-21. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• DeFronzo, James (2007). "Male Serial Homicide:The Influence of Cultural And Structural Variables". Homicide Studies, 11(1), 3-14. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• Crime Library's Serial Killer page
• Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators Official FBI publication
• Website focused on Serial Killers and other psychological motivated crimes