Is it necessary for a serial killer to have a dark past? There have been many serial killers in the history of humanity, and “inhumanity” (as some like to describe those who have the heart to kill another human) over the time. However, in the history of serial killers, there is not another like Ed Gein, “The Plainfield Ghoul”. He was known with this peculiar and sinister nickname because he grew up on a farm a few miles outside of the town of Plainfield, Wisconsin where he exhumed corpses, body-snatched, and assassinated. Although very mentioned and feared when people hear his name, with fewer than three murders attributed, it is said that Ed Gein does not meet the traditional definition of a Serial killer. In 1968, Gein was sentenced to
He was born on August 27, 1906 and died on July 26, 1984. He was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He lived with his dad, his mom, and his older brother named Henry. His dad was an alcoholic while his mother was very religious whom he was super devoted to. His parents only stayed together due to their religious beliefs about divorce. Gein and his family lived on a farm in hopes of avoiding people from influencing Ed and his brother. Ed spent a large portion of his time going to school and doing chores. Gein never left home or had interest in dating. His mother would often take a portion of their night to read them parts of the bible. She typically selected graphic selections that often dealt with
Jeffrey Dahmer orfan, murderer, cannibal, sex offender. A man with a tragic back story turned evil. A loner at school, who got picked on and had a sick way to have fun. As he got older he became more fascinated with dead bodies of different animals and seeing what would happen to them after a period of time. While he was one of the most know serial killers , he 's a cannibal, he kept the victims heads in the freezer and kept there skulls, poured acid in their heads to see what would happen, and dismembered their bodies after torching them.
Around the ages of 10 and 15 Jeffrey Dahmer did not like doing hobbies or having social interactions. Dead animals
Edmund Kemper was a serial killer who was known for the murdering of his grandparents, his mother and her friend, and six female hitchhikers. During his childhood, there were many early signs of violence and criminality. Kemper was said to have a “dark fantasy life” and would often dream about killing his own mother when he was younger (Biography.com Editors). Furthermore, Kemper participated in the act of animal torturing at a very young age. When he was ten years old, Kemper “buried a pet cat alive; once it died, he dug it up, decapitated it and mounted its head on a spike”. He then stated that lying to parents about the murder of his cat, gave him pleasure. He later killed another family cat because he believed that it was favoring his younger sister over him. He cut up the cat into pieces and stashed the remains in his closet.
Every article, report and case study about Dahmer always says the same thing; he was a withdrawn young man who had a drinking and no friends. His father thought something was wrong with him and his grandmother who also thought his behavior was strange and at one point
John Wayne Gacy was born into a rough household. His father was an abuser. His father, John Stanley Gacy, was an alcoholic, and he beat his wife and kids. John Wayne’s sister Karen once said the kids grew so used to the beatings that John Wayne would not even cry. The rough family life brought him very close to his two sisters and his mother.
Death, rape, murder, psychopath: words that vehemently cry for horror and taboo yet carry a mystique and fascination to not only the criminally obsessed, but also to the average person. As a result, authors and directors tend to capitalize on the viewing public’s urges for crime and thriller, often recreating stories of the world’s most tragic, sadistic serial killers in history through biographies, documentaries, television shows, and movie adaptations. Unfortunately, these dramatizations can sometimes overshadow the impact of these crimes, exploiting the violence for entertainment rather than the tragedies itself. However, in 2012, illustrator Derf Backderf revolutionized a new medium to portray the true crime genre with his graphic novel My Friend Dahmer. This comic book style memoir details of
In 2005, serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as BTK (bind, torture, and kill), was arrested and convicted of murdering 10 people in Kansas between the years of 1974 and 1991. Rader sent numerous notes to the police, but they couldn’t prove for sure that he was the one committing the murders. In 2004, he began sending things to the police once again. However, this time Rader sent a document created in Microsoft Word on a floppy disk.
Due to his low tolerance of frustration, he would take it out as physical torture to fulfill his sexual desires. Although Dahmer himself has said before he did not mean to hurt anyone, he always had to be in control. Besides sadism, Dahmer partook in necrophilia. Necrophilia is having a sexual attraction to corpses (Berger). Dahmer indulged in sexual activities with at least five of his victims. Although his sexual fantasies were not the only things wrong with him, he was also a cannibal. Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating flesh or internal organs of other human beings (Berger). Dahmer would keep the organs of his victims stored in mason jars or plastic bags, and then put them in the fridge to preserve them. He made artwork out of his victims bodies, whether it was by carving and hollowing them out, skinning them, or just dismembering them. He would typically try to rip out their organs and eat them. This was done to over eight of his seventeen victims (“Jeffrey
The rarest form of murder is the one of serial murders. It is defined as the murder of three or more individuals with a ‘cooling-off’ period in-between. Serial killers have intrigued people for years and we still don’t fully comprehend what drives them to murder countless people. John Wayne Gacy, also known at the famous “Killer Clown” became a national phenomenon when his 33 rape and murder victims were uncovered in his home and other areas. The purpose of this research paper is to consider John Wayne Gacy’s abusive father, internal struggle with his sexuality, and constant need to be accepted and praised as possible reasons that led Gacy to murder 33 teenage boys. At the conclusion of this research, there will be no dominating factor to explain
John Wayne Gacy is a serial killer who killed 33 people in total. He was born on May 17th 1942 in Chicago where he was physically and verbally abused by his father. Since this age he showed unusual behaviours and avoiding society, but then was determined that he has a psychological disorder.
Dahmer, who was born on May 21, 1960 had a relatively normal life until he was four. “He was described as an energetic and happy child until the age of four, when surgery to correct a double hernia seemed to effect a change in the boy” (Biography.com Editors). After the surgery he had little emotion and was an unhappy child most of the time. Dahmer had a sick obsession with
(WH, 2011) Without others to turn to, Jeffrey turned to drinking when he was fourteen. Around this time, he discovered homosexual urges and was confused. He wanted to change his sexuality and to be accepted but was unable and this added to his increasing frustration to everyone in his life, mostly himself. (Silva, 2002) His whole life he craved the attention of others but was unsure of how to attain it. In an effort to replicate the feelings of being with another person, Dahmer stole a mannequin from the same mall he suffered fake seizures at. When his parents were not at home he would cuddle the mannequin for hours. At eighteen his parents divorced and his drinking increased. After a semester of college he dropped out and joined the army due to the suggestion from his father. Receiving a few weeks of basic training he was sent overseas as a medic and then shipped back promptly for excessive drinking. Upon returning he moved in with his grandmother in a family effort to get him to drink less. This worked for a while; he only drank on weekends and held a job at a plasma clinic for a year until he was fired. Shortly after this, on a night his grandmother was out of the house, he committed his first act of
He did well in high school expect for his behavior was often odd. Dahmer would pretend to have epileptic fits or seizures and he would make sheep sounds like Beeh in the middle of class. He pulled this prank where he was in the yearbook portrait of the honor roll society and the editor blacked Dahmer out using Magic Marker because he was so furious that Dahmer was in the picture. Dahmer started to drink heavily during school hours which caused him to be late to class or he would not even show up to class at all because he was under the influence of alcohol. He would drink so he could attempt to rid himself of fantasies of torture, mutilation, and death that had intensified over the years (Schechter, 2003,