Let's Talk About Serial Killers...

A serial killer is someone who murders three or more people with a 'cooling off' period between each murder, whose motivation for killing is largely for psychological gratification. All serial killers suffer from some form of Antisocial Personality Disorder. They are usually not psychotic, and thus appear to be quite normal and often even charming, a state of adaptation which Hervey Cleckley calls the "mask of sanity." There is sometimes a sexual element to the murders. The murders may have been completed/attempted in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common, for example occupation, race, sex, etc.
The term serial killer is widely believed to have been coined either by FBI agent Robert Ressler or by Dr. Robert D. Keppel in the 1970s (the credit for the term is disputed). Serial killer entered the popular vernacular in large part due to the well-publicized crimes of Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz in the middle years of that decade.

Serial killers are specifically motivated by a variety of psychological urges, primarily power and sexual compulsion. They often have feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness, sometimes owing to humiliation, bullying, and abuse in childhood and/or the pressures of poverty and low socioeconomic status in adulthood, and their crimes compensate for this and provide a sense of potency and often revenge, by giving them a feeling of power, both at the time of the actual killing and afterwards. The knowledge that their actions terrify entire communities and often baffle police adds to this sense of power.

The element of fantasy in a serial killer's development is extremely important. They often begin fantasizing about murder during or even before adolescence. Their fantasy lives are very rich and they daydream compulsively about domination, submission, and murder, usually with very specific elements to the fantasy that will eventually be apparent in their real crimes. Others enjoy reading stories or seeing photographs in magazines featuring rape, torture, and murder. In some cases, however, these traits are not present.

A significant number of serial killers will show certain aspects of both organized and disorganized types, although usually the characteristics of one type will dominate. Some killers descend from being organized into disorganized behavior as their killings continue. They will carry out careful and methodical murders at the start, but become careless and impulsive as their compulsion takes over their lives. Regardless, the FBI generally categorizes serial killers into the two different types.

Organized/Nonsocial Offenders types are usually of high intelligence, have an above average IQ (120+ range), and 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 metal bar (i.e. a crowbar), and carry them away. Others specifically target prostitutes, who are likely to voluntarily go with a serial killer posing as a customer. 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 by burying the body or weighting 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 a grand project. The organized killer is usually socially adequate and has friends and lovers, often even a spouse and children. They are the type who, when captured, are most likely to be described by acquaintances as kind and unlikely to hurt anyone. Some serial killers go to lengths to make their crimes difficult to discover, such as falsifying suicide notes, setting up others to take the blame for their crimes, and faking gang warfare. The case of Harold Shipman, an English family doctor, is slightly unusual in that his social position and occupation was such that he was able to portray victims as having died of natural causes; between 1971 and 1998 he killed at least 215, and possibly well over 250, of his own mostly elderly patients – and until very near the end of his killings it was not even suspected that any crimes had been committed. The medical field has produced more serial killers than all other occupations combined. Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are two well-known examples of this type of serial killer.

Disorganized/Asocial Offenders types are often of low intelligence, have a below average IQ (80-95), and commit their crimes impulsively. Whereas the organized killer will specifically set out to hunt a victim, the disorganized will murder someone when the opportunity arises, rarely bothering to dispose of the body but instead just leaving it at the same place in which they found the victim. They usually carry out "blitz" attacks, leaping out and attacking their victims without warning, and will typically perform whatever rituals they feel compelled to carry out (e.g., necrophilia, mutilation, cannibalism, etc.) once the victim is dead. They rarely bother to cover their tracks but may still evade capture for some time because of a level of cunning that compels them to keep on the move. They are often socially inadequate with few friends, and they may have a history of mental problems and be regarded by acquaintances as eccentric or even "a bit creepy." Usually they are very introverted people, too. They have little insight into their crimes and may even block out memories of committing the murders. Ed Gein is a prime example of this type of serial killer.

Motives

The motives of serial killers can be placed into five different categories (suggested by Holmes and DeBurger, 1988), although there may be some serial killers that have characteristics of more than one type.
Contrary to popular opinion, serial killers are rarely insane or motivated by hallucinations and/or voices in their heads. Many claim to be, usually as a way of trying to get acquitted by reason of insanity. There are, however, a few genuine cases of serial killers who were compelled by such delusions.

Visionary
Herbert Mullin killed 13 people after voices told him that murder was necessary to prevent California from suffering an earthquake. Mullin went to great pains to "point out" that California did indeed avoid an earthquake during his murder spree.
Ed Gein claimed that by eating the corpses of women who looked like his deceased mother, he could preserve his mother's soul inside his body. He killed two women (or more, because the exact number is unknown) who bore passing resemblances to his mother, eating one and being apprehended while in the process of preparing the second woman's body for consumption. He also used the flesh of exhumed female corpses to fashion a "woman suit" (as well as various other household adornments, such as curtains and lamp shades) for himself so that he could "become" his mother. After his arrest he was placed in a mental institution for the rest of his life.

Missionary
So-called missionary killers believe that their acts are justified on the basis that they are getting rid of a certain type of person (often prostitutes or members of a certain ethnicity), and thus doing society a favor. Gary Ridgway and Aileen Wuornos are often described as missionary killers. In Wuornos' case, the victims were not prostitutes, but their patrons. Dr John Bodkin Adams, meanwhile, was a British fundamentalist Christian (a member of the Plymouth Brethren). His rich, 'non-believing' victims were killed partly in order to redistribute their wealth to people Adams considered more "deserving", usually - but not always - himself. Missionary killers differ from other types of serial killer in that their motive is generally non-sexual.
Some have noted that some missionary serial killers might be religious extremists who believe it their religious duty to kill those possessing different beliefs.

Hedonistic
This type kills for the sheer pleasure of it, although what aspect they enjoy varies. This is the most common type of serial killer depicted in horror, slasher and splatter movies. Yang Xinhai's post-capture statement is typical of such killers' attitudes: "When I killed people I had a desire (to kill more). This inspired me to kill more. I don't care whether they deserve to live or not. It is none of my concern" . Some killers may enjoy the actual "chase" of hunting down a victim more than anything, while others may be primarily motivated by the act of torturing and abusing the victim while they are alive. Some, such as Dennis Rader, Wichita's notorious "BTK (Bind Torture Kill) Strangler" who killed 10 known victims, enjoyed both the hunt and torturing his victims after capturing and subduing them. Yet others, like Jeffrey Dahmer, may kill the victim quickly, and then indulge in necrophilia or cannibalism with the body. Usually there is a strong sexual aspect to the crimes, even if it may not be immediately obvious; some killers obtain a surge of excitement that is not necessarily sexual, such as David Berkowitz, who got a thrill out of shooting young couples in cars at random and then running away without ever physically touching the victims.

Gain motivated
Most criminals who commit multiple murders for material ends (such as Mafia hit men) are not classed as serial killers, because they are motivated by economic gain rather than psychopathological compulsion. There is a fine line separating such killers, however. For example, Marcel Petiot, who operated in Nazi-occupied France, could be classified as a serial killer. He posed as a member of the French Resistance and lured wealthy Jewish people to his home, claiming he could smuggle them out of the country. Instead he murdered them and stole their belongings, killing 63 people before he was finally caught. Although Petiot's primary motivation was materialistic, few would deny that a man willing to kill dozens of people simply to acquire a few dozen suitcases of clothes and jewelry was a violent sociopath.

Power and control
This is the most common serial killer. 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. Often they indulge in rituals that are linked, often very specifically, to forms of abuse they suffered themselves. Many power/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.

List of Most Important Serial Killers

Henry Lee Lucas
Dennis Lynn Rader
John Wayne Gacy
David Berkowitz
Ted Bundy
Jeffrey Dahmer
Theodore Ed Gein
Erzebet Bathory
Gilles De Rais
H.H.Holmes
Aileen Wuornos
Charles Manson
Dr.Harold Shipman
Jack the Ripper
Jack Unterweger
Andrei Chikatilo
Zodiac Killer
Edmund Kemper
Peter Woodcock
Luis Garavito
Pedro Lopez
Miyuki Ishikawa
John George Haigh
Albert Fish
Richard Ramirez
Ottis Tool