Most serial killers are white males between the ages of 25-35, and their intelligence varies from above normal to under normal (Ressler 8). They are from working, or middle-class backgrounds and their victims are mainly white females (Ressler 8). Ted Bundy, who is looked upon as one of the most intelligent serial killers of all time, is a prime example of this description of serial killers, since he was considered “normal,” charming, good-looking, bright, well dressed and well mannered (Ressler 8). Serial killers can take many forms, as they can be working, married with children, and live among an unexpected community, or they can conversely be so unstable as to be unable to work or maintain normal relationships and, therefore, be a loner (Ressler 9). Most serial killers are sociopaths/psychopaths who feel no remorse for what they do. Victims are usually seen as tools used to fulfill the needs of the serial killer (Ressler 10). Most Serial killers also have sadistic tendencies: they find pleasure in raping, and mutilating their victims to death. This gives the serial killers dominance and power over others, and this is their source of greatest pleasure (Ressler 10). There are a lot of white males ranging from the ages of late twenties to thirties who desire power and dominance in society but most of them do not turn into serial killers.
The reasoning behind why serial killers tick starts with a small seed of anger. Not the normal anger that one feels once in a while, but instead their anger is an uncontrollable one and it is this anger that drives these killers from their first fantasies of violence to serial murders (Ressler 38). This seed is not planted by a single event but by a series of events (Ressler 38). The anger that is left by the perpetrators of such crimes come from obvious abuses, such as beatings, but can also be very difficult to identify; however there are three factors at the basis of this monstrous anger: mistrust, abandonment and neglect (Ressler 39). At six months a child’s brain is still growing and it is extra sensitive to external stimuli, it is also at the time that the child connects with its environment. When a child screams and is picked up, it reacts in a positive way; the child knows it can trust its environment because its screaming was responded to (Ressler 40). If the environment reacts in a negative way or does not react at all when the child screams, the child senses this and adjusts to it negatively. The child learns not to trust its environment (Ressler 40). When a child is abandoned and/or neglected it develops feelings of hostility and resentment toward its environment and the small seed of anger begins to grow (Ressler 40). Domineering parents can also affect the child’s socialization. There is proof that serial killers who had dominating mothers later choose women as victims, and that those who had dominating fathers choose male victims (Ressler 41). It can be hard for a child at a young age to grow up in a family that neglects and/or verbally/physically abuses them; especially when the person of whom they look up to has so much hatred inside them.
Most serial killers can be placed in two categories, the psychopath and the psychotic. Psychotics are clearly insane and fail to perceive reality correctly, yet very few serial killers fall into this category (www.serialkillers.net). Most serial killers think things through, and evaluate what the situation could bring to them. This comes from a long line of abuse, intolerance, and dysfunction during their early childhood years, from the parents/guardians who do not see them as people (www.serialkillers.net). People may even go so far as to regard serial killers as geniuses, in so far as their actions are extremely well thought out and very carefully planned. This type of serial killer falls under the psychopath category, which means they do not suffer from a mental illness (www.serialkillers.net). A psychopath rather suffers from a severe brain flaw, or personality, resulting from the way their education, their environment, and the way they were treated by their family (www.serialkillers.net). The majority of the times, psychopaths realize that they are committing a crime, but it does not concern them, since their need to kill and punish is greater than any rule or law (www.serialkillers.net). Psychopaths are usually very smart, very deceiving, and very normal at first glance. They look like everyone else and behave like everyone else when in the company of others, but in the depths of their mind, they are working on elaborate plans to catch their prey (www.serialkillers.net).
Some serial killers hold vengeful thoughts towards their parents, who dismissed them from their lives or abused and harmed them when they were children (www.crimelibrary.com). John Wayne Gacy, for example, had some trouble with his father, in his late teens although his relations with his mother and sisters were very strong (www.crimelibrary.com). John Wayne Gacy, Sr., was an abusive alcoholic who beat his wife and verbally assaulted his children (www.crimelibrary.com). This type of behavior, witnessed/experienced by a young child, is bound to stir up some troubled emotions. During a three year period, Gacy went on viciously torturing, raping, and murdering over 30 young boys, who were later discovered buried under the floorboards of his home (www.crimelibrary.com). Another notorious serial killer whose killings were based on major events that occurred to him during his adolescent years is the infamous Ted Bundy (www.crimelibrary.com). Bundy grew up in a family of women. He never knew his father, so his mother and sisters played a big role in his life. In college he met Stephanie Brooks, and fell instantly in love with her (www.crimelibrary.com). She was his first love, but when he wanted to take their relationship further, she did not feel the same way. She felt he had no goals and no future, and eventually, broke up with him (www.crimelibrary.com). Bundy never recovered from this breakup, he was obsessed with Stephanie, and he could not get her out of his mind. It was an obsession that would span his lifetime and lead to a series of events that would shock the world (). Ted Bundy was sentenced to death on July 31, 1979 when he confessed to the murders of 28 young women, all of whom looked exactly like his first love, Stephanie Brooks. All of the women were young adults, and had long brown hair parted in the middle, just like Stephanie Brooks. Thus, the effects of trauma or even heartbreak in a person’s past can turn him or her into a serial killer (www.crimelibrary.com).
The way people are brought up and raised, the events that take place around them as they are growing up, their relationships with parents, siblings, friends, lovers, all these things have an influence in the way the mind develops. It is hard to believe one is born a criminal, or born a psychopath; these types of behavior are made at a young age. One does not have evil running through one’s veins. It all depends upon the situations in their lives, and the events that unfold around them as they grow. This is not to say that anyone who suffers a breakup from a first love will end up on a killing spree as Ted Bundy did. This is the result of a traumatic childhood, which lacked in the nurturing, teaching, and understanding needed to become a well-rounded member of society. Serial killers like Bundy, feel the urge and desire to turn things into their liking to fit them in their frame of mind (www.crimelibrary.com). They overcome anything in their minds to get what they want and take back what they wrongfully thought they lost to begin with. It has become an art form or a job for this kind of people. They kill for fun, and they want to show that they cannot be caught or defeated.
There are many more serial killers who suffered extreme emotional, as well as physical abuse. “Henry Lee Lucas was forced to watch his mother have sex with various men, was beaten mercilessly daily, was made to eat from the floor, and was brought up as a girl until age 7 wearing long hair and a dress” (Egger 46). Henry Lee Lucas grew up to be the murderer of 10 women between 1970 and 1983; the only thing that stopped his killing spree was his capture (Egger 47). Gerald Stano was the fifth born to a mother who lost all of her children to adoption due to abuse and neglect (Egger 47). When Gerald was removed from his home he was malnourished, physically and emotionally neglected and functioning at an animalistic level.” (Egger 51) Stano confessed to and was convicted for the murders of 25 women and is believed to have been linked to 40 more (Egger 51). As a child Andrei Chikatilo witnessed the devastation of war firsthand, he saw the gathering of dismembered bodies of soldiers and civilians, adults and children. “The experience that appears to have had the greatest impact was learning the harrowing tale of his older brother who was said to have been kidnapped and eaten.” (Egger 58) Chikatilo was convicted of the murders of at least 53 children; he systematically hunted, dismembered, cannibalized, stabbed repeatedly and raped his victims (Egger 58). The list of atrocities against and performed by these monsters is unfortunately much longer. There are many questions than there are answers; one thing is certain as long as children are subjected to the sort of abuse and neglect that warps their personalities into something other than a caring, functioning human being there will be many more horrific tales of murders, rapes, and other atrocities.
There is no clear indicator that points to just the biological or the sociological causation of these types of disorders but rather a mixing of the two elements that combine in a mystifying, terrifying way to create the monster known as the serial killer. “For most serial killers, there definitely appears to be a history of physical, sexual, or mental abuse (Egger 60). Finally, and possibly most important, these killers seem to evidence a pervasive lost sense of self and intimacy, an inadequacy of identity, a feeling of no control. These could all be factors in a pathology that manifests itself in the ultimate act of control- the murder, and repeated murder of other human beings.” (Egger 61) Although some cases of bad parenting are worse then others, it all plays a major role in the behavior of a child, while growing up. When children are growing up with their parents, they see them not only as adult figures, but role models as well. If they witness their parents participating in a criminal of deviant matter, against them or others, it can sometimes become only natural that the child will grow up to be the same way. That is not fair to say that all children that grow up with this are going to fall under the same path, but it is safe to say, that upon seeing this behavior towards and/or against them that it does not help matters any.
A serial killers’ mind is constantly going through one of seven phases. The first of these phases is the “Aura Phase” where the killer daydreams about death and destruction (Wilmington 34). After awhile these demented fantasies sometimes have the urge to be acted upon, this leads to the “Trolling Phase.” Where the serial killer tries to find their perfect victim (Wilmington 34). They usually tend to look in schoolyards or lovers lanes or even red light districts. This might go on for hours, days, and sometimes even months, until the perfect victim is found (Wilmington 35). Then begins the “Wooing Phase,” serial killers usually act very debonairly to get their victims to trust them (Wilmington 35). After the Wooing Stage comes the “Capture Stage,” when the killer reveals himself, before the climax, of the “Murder Stage.” (Wilmington 35) They may just decide to kill the person, but sometimes, they will decide to torture them to death, and try to revive them on the brink of death, so that they can torture them more (Wilmington 35). The sixth stage is the “Totem Stage,” when the killer takes a souvenir from his or her victim, it might be jewelry or clothes or even a piece of the victims body (Wilmington 36). Then comes the seventh, and final phase, which is Depression: at this point the killers experiences have an emotional let down, they may even become so depressed as to attempt suicide, but sooner or later they will start day dreaming again and the whole cycle will repeat itself until the killer is either caught or dies (Wilmington 34).
There are many factors that affect the way that serial killers think. They are mentally confused but most of them have good reason to be. It is said that serial killers go through an individuation stage as children (Douglas 101). This means that they are not able to tell that the person they are hurting is a living, breathing, feeling human being (Douglas 101). The most chilling fact about serial killers is that they do not pick just a random act of violence; it is planned at first sight (Douglas 102). Bundy blamed his serial killing on pornography (Douglas 63) but, on the other hand, no serial killer will ever take responsibility for what they have done, they always blame it on something else; it is never their fault. By the time children reach adolescence, the amount of sexual and violent material they have been watching on television is tremendous and sooner or later it will affect them. They may even see their own murders as art, especially the killers who gratify themselves by posing their dead victims. Violence and pornography might always have existed in one way or another but is has never been as accessible as today. The most frightening source is the internet, because you can any time, any day find instructions telling you how to kidnap young girls, how to kill people silently, how to construct a bomb etc. It is a part of the information society we live in today.
Society feels the effects of serial killers by harboring significantly more fear towards strangers (Douglas 102). It has come to a point where no one is safe walking in his or her own neighborhood, no matter how upscale it may be. Money and status have no bearing whatsoever upon who falls victim to a serial killer. As a means by which to enact self-preservation, people have come to withdraw from those whom they do not know, opting not to answer doorbells or help strangers on the street, indeed, this is precisely the manner by which many of the killers’ victims lost their lives (Douglas 104). The fact that most serial killers are white males in their thirties addresses issues that previously have not been associated with this particular kind of perpetrator. Society has historically looked upon serial killers as having a certain repulsive image or appearance, never once considering that upstanding, nice looking, relatively young men could ever fit that description. This modification addresses that; the overall representation of serial killers has changed to the point that anybody’s next-door neighbor, or even a close friend, might very well be the country’s next mass murderer.
Formative years may play a role in the molding of a serial killer, which becomes a sole reason why they end up doing what they do. When growing up as a young child, your family is more important then ever in influencing your life; this plays a major role in the child’s behavior and attitude against the world as they are growing up. From neglect to abuse towards a child, can sometimes be enough for them to self-destruct and take their aggression that they have built up over the years, out on some innocent victim. Their bad childhood becomes a primary reason for their homicidal tendencies, and can sometimes turn what could have been a nice person, into a killer.