Serial Killers, Unmasked

1. Serial Killers, Unmasked by Michael Anthony Abril English 102 hybrid, Section 8885

2. Serial Killers Not Born, Made • Bonding • Childhood Abuse • Behavioral disorders

3. Bonding In the Womb • “Fetuses are incredibly attuned to how the mother is feeling and even the slightest stress experienced by the mother in pregnancy can delay the growth process and retard bonding” (Klaus, Kennell, and Klaus 22). • This fact illustrates how a mother who never truly wanted her child during pregnancy could have a negative impact on the child in the long run.

4. Bonding • Ted Bundy, who is believed to have killed 36 women in at least five different states, was an unwanted child during pregnancy.

5. Early Days • Immediate bonding after birth is a critical stage in childhood development. • Researchers have noted that an infant who has his basic needs met, but is not held or nurtured, can actually wither and die (Klaus, Kennell, and Klaus 151). • Babies waiting to be adopted do not see the mother for a few days; they wait in a plastic box experiencing no sense of touch from a caring person.

6. Early Days • David Berkowitz, "The Son of Sam," killed six and severely injured eleven more people in the New York City area. • Kenneth Bianchi "Hillside Strangler," with his cousin, tortured and murdered ten women in California. • Joel Rifkin killed and dismembered seventeen prostitutes in Long Island. • All of these men were adopted.

7. Early Days • Children neglected at home in the first years of their lives will grow up with a piece of their lives missing. • "If the proper bonding and subsequent attachment does not occur the child will develop mistrust and a deep seeded rage towards others. He becomes a child without a conscience" (Klaus, Kennell, and Klaus 79) . • A person who kills someone and shows no sign of remorse has somewhere in their childhood lost or never experienced real love.

8. Family Relations • Richard Chase, the “Vampire Killer,” killed a half a dozen people before he was caught in 1978. • Chase's mother was a schizophrenic, emotionally unable to concentrate on the task of socializing with her son or adequately caring for him (Gerdes 100).

9. Childhood Abuse • Parents physically, mentally, and emotionally abuse their children in ways that scar them for life. • “Parents who abuse their children, physically as well as psychologically, instill in them an almost instinctive reliance upon violence as a first resort to any challenge” (Gerdes 98).

10. Childhood Abuse Albert Desalvo • Alcoholic father sold him off as a slave. • As a punishment to his mother, Desalvo’s father broke his mother’s fingers forcing his young son to watch. • Desalvo went on to strangled thirteen women in Boston between 1962-1964.

11. Childhood Abuse Henry Lee Lucas • Suffered gender confusion due to being dressed up as a girl until he was seven. • His mother beat him senselessly when he finally cut his hair at age seven because his teacher complained (Scott). • Henry Lee Lucas killed eleven plus women until his capture in 1983.

12. Conduct Disorder People and Animals • Killing animals at a young age is potential sign of a future serial killer. • Usually the killing starts out with small animals such as squirrels and rabbits and then escalates to cats and dogs and, in the end, people are the victims.

13. Conduct Disorder • Jeffery Dahmer provides one example of a serial killer who, as a child would walk in the woods behind his Milwaukee home, collect dead animals, and store them in an old shed where he would dismember them. • Dahmer’s fascination with dead animals combined with his homosexual obsession with men resulted in a passion of killing and performing sexual acts on dead men.

14. Molding the Serial Killer • Cleary, these childhood issues play a huge factor in the molding of a serial killer. Despite the fact that serial killers have complex minds, their childhood struggles help answer some questions as to why they kill. • While parents will continue to abuse and neglect their children, these signs should be highly regarded by teachers and other adults who see children that display these signs, so as to avoid a potentially disastrous future.

15. Works Cited in Report • Gerdes, Louise., Serial Killers. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2000. • Klaus, Marshall H., John H. Kennell & Phyllis H. Klaus. Parent-Infant Bonding. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,1983. • Keeping Children on the Right Path. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children,1981. • Scott, Shirley Lynn.“What Makes Serial Killers Tick?” Crime Library. April 2004: 2. <http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/tick/victims_1.htm>. • Time-Life Agency. Compulsion To Kill. Alexandra, Virginia: Time Warner, 1993. • Weissbourd, Bernice & Judith Musick. Infants: Their Social Environments. New York: Putman, Inc., 2001.