What do you know about serial killers?

I was just looking this up! A little bird told me you’d ask this question.

I said I thought that one thing they had in common was some sort of severe abuse as a child, and that seems to be the case.

From this Wiki article, “They were often abused—emotionally, physically, or sexually—by a family member.”

Ted Bundy has some attachment disorder, “possibly due to his mother passing herself off as his sister during his childhood.”

I read “The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. She actually worked with Ted Bundy. If I remember correctly, his grandfater was his actual father, so in a way his mother was his sister as well as his mother. But I think it was just hinted at as he was growing up.

@Dutchess_III
As Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) profiler Jim Clemente said, “Genetics loads the gun, their personality and psychology aim it, and their experiences pull the trigger.”

https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/violence-and-aggression/serial-killers-murder-child-abuse/article/776149/

Single parents and serial killers:
https://www.mnpsych.org/index.php?option=com_dailyplanetblog&view=entry&category=industry%20news&id=54:father-absent-homes-implications-for-criminal-justice-and-mental-health-professionals

And of course, they generally start by abusing animals. And many have head injuries.
http://listverse.com/2018/08/18/10-childhood-warning-signs-of-a-serial-killer/

That makes perfect sense, too @KNOWITALL.

I think that Snap, Crackle, and Pop should be very afraid.

I consider myself a highly sensitive person with a lot of empathy but in the past few years I’ve been interested in reading the timeline of events that led up to the serial killers getting arrested. I’ve read them on Wikipedia. Their sources are quite good so I’m fairly certain there’s very little factual inaccuracies.

Try reading Ann Rule’s stuff. It’s really interesting and well researched.

My BTK is signed by the author, I’m such a nerd. :)

Our youngest son who is a freshman in high school wants to study criminal psychology or forensics. We watch a lot of documentaries about serial killers. We just watched the Ted Bundy tapes on Netflix yesterday. It was fascinating. In fact, our son just did an easy on Ted Bundy two weeks ago for his English honors class. His teacher told him he did a great job and learned some things he didn’t know about Bundy.

@Aethelwine Thats so neat, I bet he’s learning some fascinating things. Glad to hear Bundy is good, haven’t seen it.

I know that a lot of them get medals for their work.

I’ve watched quite a lot of documentaries on serial killers, there’s a fascination in what makes them tick, the risks they took etc. I mean, they’re all sick buggers but there’s definitely some warped sense of charisma around the more high profile guys like Dahmer, Bundy & Gacy.
Nothing wrong or unhealthy about being interested in the subject, just simple human curiosity.

I enjoy lots of crime / drama programming, like Forensic Files. I sometimes wonder if that would work against me if I ever wound up in court for some reason.

@Dutchess haha, you’d be smart enough not to get caught. We should have a thread called How to get away with murder. Its crazy how many killers just slip up, like BTK and the envelope from his church.

Yeah, but lord knows he got away with it long enough. At one point my sister lived in Park City at the same time that Dennis Rader did. He hadn’t been caught then.
OMG! I was looking that up (couldn’t remember if it was Park City or Kechi) and learned he was born in Pittsburg, Kansas, where my husband grew up.