Serial Killers: Nature vs. Nurture
“The term ‘serial killings’ means a series of three or more killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors” (Heath, 2013). Psychologists to this day do not have a reason for why these people do what they do. Although there is not one obvious reason, they have been able to narrow it down to two categories — born with the desire, or developed the desire through traumatic experiences as a child.
History and Classification of Serial Killers
Throughout the 1990s, the murder rate in the United States declined dramatically, but since 2001 the rate is steadily increasing. (Vronsky, 2005) Many unresolved serial murders disappear on their own. Serial killers often times burn out on their fantasy by moving to a different jurisdiction, being put in jail, dying, or just growing out and becoming mature. On the other hand, sometimes they don’t burn out and they continue to commit crime. All serial killers end their careers differently; for example, Edmund Kemper killed ten women, then killed his mother and quickly surrendered to the police. Henry Lee Lucas was the opposite of Kemper — he started by killing his mother, then went on killing for decades, and finally finished with killing his wife that he had been married to for thirteen years; Lucas claims that his wife was his 360thkill. (Vronsky, 2005) Serial killing is categorized into 4 basic types — power and control, visionary, missionary, and hedonistic. Most of the famous American serial killers that are well-known are classified power and control. Serial killers under this category enjoy the process of murder, and their main motivation is to dominate their victims. They find the act of murder satisfying and when they finally get control over the victim, they feel complete. They take their time in stalking, capturing, and torturing their prey to be satisfied longer. Often times after the victim is dead, the killer will return to the decomposing corpse to have sex and remember their domination. (Bonn, 2014) Power and control killers are true psychopaths. Psychologist S.K. Henderson stated the following about psychopaths, “The inadequacy or deviation or failure to adjust to ordinary social life is not a mere willfulness or badness which can be threatened or thrashed out of the individual so involved, but constitutes a true illness for which we have no explanation.” (Vronsky, 2015) The second basic type of serial killing is classified as visionary. The motivation behind this type are the voices and vision inside one’s head. They are disorganized because of the mental illness that motivates them. “While most serial killers have an ideal victim they seek out, e.g., white, female prostitutes, visionary killers select their victims seemingly at random based on logic that is indiscernible to either investigators or forensic psychologists.” (Bonn, 2015) A serial killer with a mission to kill a certain type/group of people falls under the missionary category. They are motivated by their own personal beliefs and focus on getting rid of what they consider undesirable. Killers who fall under this category are usually perfectionist; they take a lot of time to precisely plan out every little detail and they will not stop until their victims are killed. (Bonn, 2018) The fourth and final type of serial killing, hedonistic, is solely for the satisfaction of the killer. Hedonistic serial killers are split into three sub-categories — lust, thrill, and comfort killers. This type of killer is motivated by receiving the pleasure of mutilating their victims. They make a strong connection between personal violence and sexual gratification; this is the type that you will usually find in fictional books and movies. (Chase, 2015) Another big influence of serial killers is their childhood. “Taking an almost opposite view from instinct theories, which focus on innate explanations of aggression, observational learning theory emphasizes that social and environmental conditions can teach individuals to be aggressive.” (Feldman, 2017 pg. 526) An example of an American serial killer with an abusive childhood is John Wayne Gacy. Gacy was born in March of 1942 to an alcoholic dad who would abuse him with a razor strap if he ever misbehaved. His father would also assault his mother. (B, 2014) While growing up in school, Gacy was unable to play with the other children due to a congenital heart condition. In 1968, was sentenced to 10 years of prison after sexually assault to teen boys. He continued to rape and kill men, but when he finally got caught, he told the investigators that the crimes had been committed by an alternate personality, which he called Pogo the Clown. The demons instilled with him from his childhood resulted in 33 murders of young men and six still unidentified (Lukacs, 2017) Gacy’s final words were, “kiss my ass.”
Nature Theory
On January 23, 1918 Dr. James Dobson was able to interview and hear the lasts words of the famous serial killer Ted Bundy. This interview was taken the night before Bundy was executed. Ted Bundy is one of the most well-known serial killers in America. Between 1974–1978, Bundy raped and murdered more than 30 females. In Dr. Dobson’s interview Bundy explains what his childhood was like. Johnny Culpepper Bundy and Eleanor Louise Cowell Bundy had two children, Ted and Rose. The Christian based family lived in Burlington, Vermont; they are what you would consider to be a “typical American family.” Bundy stated that he first encountered pornography was at the age on 12 in the local grocery store. In his childhood, he also saw graphic images/books and violent scenes in peoples’ dumpsters. In the interview Bundy explained the following, “I want to emphasize that the most damaging kinds of pornography, from my personal experience, were those that involve sexual violence. It brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe. I am not blaming pornography, the issue is how this type of literature helped mold and shape this kind of behavior.” (Paoletti, 2017) Throughout the next 15 years, Ted attended 4 different universities and had two girlfriends, but he was not receptive to the concept of marriage. Dr. Dobson asked Mr. Bundy the following question in the interview, “What pushed you over the edge?” Bundy’s response was that the sensation that he felt is very difficult to describe. He reached a point where he knew something snapped and couldn’t control himself. The self-control he learned while growing up in school and Sunday school wasn’t enough. Bundy’s first attack was not considered murder. He broke into a student’s dorm room. He took a metal rod from the bed frame and smashed it into her head. Bundy then sexually assaulted her. (Paoletti, 2017) In the interview, he explained how he felt after committing his first murder. He used the example of waking up from terrible dream, but then he came to the realization that it wasn’t just a dream. Bundy was absolutely horrified of what he was capable of doing, but that didn’t stop him. “For everything he did to the girls — the bludgeoning, the strangulation, humiliating their bodies, torturing them — I felt that the electric chair is too good for him,” said Eleanor Rose, the mother of one of the victims. Out of the four classifications of serial killers explained above, he would fall under the power and control type. Bundy was a true sociopath and was very organized in his crime.
https://www.focusonthefamily.com/media/social-issues/fatal-addiction-ted-bundys-final-interview
Nature Theory
Jeffery Dahmer, a famous American serial killer, had a different motivation for killing his victims. Dahmer seemed normal as a child, but as he grew up he started to separate from the “norm”. When he was young, his hobbies included looking at the carcasses of dead animals and his father mentioned that his son was oddly thrilled with the sound of clanking animal bones together. In high school, he started to shy away from high school parties and anything that involved social interactions. Dahmer started to realize he was guy and would have visions of him raping the men he saw. Dahmer was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and just three short weeks after he graduated, he committed his first murder. His parents were going through a divorce at this time and he claims to have a lot of deep thought going through his mind. Dahmer’s first murder started out when he picked up a hitchhiker and offered to take him home and have a drink. He then hit the hitchhiker in the back of the head with a 10-pound dumbbell. “Dahmer then dissected, dissolved, pulverized, and scattered the now imperceptible remains throughout his back yard, and later admitted to killing him simply because he wanted Hicks to stay. Nine years would pass before he killed again.” (Paoletti, 2017) Nine years later, he attended college, but shortly after he had to drop out due to his drinking problem. He moved in with his grandparents and joined the Army; during his time in the Army, Dahmer raped and drugged two other soldiers. Jeffery Dahmer had a hard time determining what was acceptable behavior. After his time in the Military, he continued to sexually assault both males and females, masturbating in front of children, and drugging then raping men at gay bathhouses. (Paoletti, 2017) Dahmer continually lured in gay men, took them back to his grandma’s house, drugged them, raped them, killed them, and finished off by cutting off their body parts. Dahmer stated the following about his motivation to why he felt this desire, ““It was an incessant and never-ending desire to be with someone at whatever cost,” he said. “Someone good looking, really nice looking. It just filled my thoughts all day long.” Throughout the next couple months Dahmer participated in the following behaviors — preserving victims’ heads and genital in acetone, offer men money to pose nude for him then killed them, take photos of dissolving flesh and bones, preserve skulls and kept them as trophies, and came up with a new form of entertainment for him which included drilling holes in the head of a victim, while they were still alive, and filled the brain with hydrochloric acid. “He hoped that this technique would put his victims in a permanent, unresistant, and submissive state.” (Paoletti, 2017) Dahmer was convicted of 17 murders and was sentenced for a total of 957 years of prison. He had constant thoughts of suicide, but never got the change. In 1994, the inmate that he stayed with, who also committed murder, beat Dahmer to death in the bathroom with a metal bar in the bathroom. (Paoletti, 2017)
Jeffery Dahmer once said, “The only motive that there ever was was to completely control a person; a person I found physically attractive. And keep them with me as long as possible, even if it meant just keeping a part of them.” Each and every serial killer has a different type of motivation; whether they are born with the desire to kill, or they are not raised properly and develop the urge to commit this crime.
