What Makes a
Serial Killer?
La Donna Beaty
Sinclair Community College
Dayton, Ohio
In most essays speculating about causes, conclusions must be ten-
tative. However, don't let this scare you away from discussing phe-
nomena that may not have obvious causation. La Donna Beaty
approaches a topic — serial killers -- that would seem to most to be
an unsolvable mystery and systematically examines potential causes
she uncovered in her research. Though it may not solve the problem,
speculating about the reasons serial killers develop may be our best
approach: the scientists and psychologists who continue such specula-
tive work may one day find a humane way to treat potential killers.
Beaty offers several possible triggers that, taken together, might turn
a child into a serial killer, including psychological abuse, frequent
moves, and genetic abnormalities, and she manages to discuss them
without sensationalizing. As you read, notice how visibly Beaty sig-
nals her move from one cause to the next as the argument progresses.
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Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Mark Allen Smith, Richard Chase,
Ted Bundy — the list goes on and on. These five men alone have been
responsible for at least ninety deaths, and many suspect that their
victims may total twice that number. They are serial killers, the most
feared and hated of criminals. What deep, hidden secret makes them
lust for blood? What can possibly motivate a person to kill over and
over again with no guilt, no remorse, no hint of human compassion?
What makes a serial killer?
Serial killings are not a new phenomenon. In 1798, for exam-
ple, Micajah and Wiley Harpe traveled the backwoods of Kentucky
and Tennessee in a violent, yearlong killing spree that left at least
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195
196 SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES
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twenty—and possibly as many as thirty-eight-men, women, and
children dead. Their crimes were especially chilling, as they seemed
particularly to enjoy grabbing small children by the ankles and smash-
ing their heads against trees (Holmes and DeBurger 28). In modern
society, however, serial killings have grown to near epidemic propor-
tions. Ann Rule, a respected author and expert on serial murders,
stated in a seminar at the University of Louisville that between 3,500
and 5,000 people become victims of serial murder each year in the
United States alone (qtd. in Holmes and DeBurger 21). Many others
estimate that there are close to 350 serial killers currently at large in
our society (Holmes and DeBurger 22).
Fascination with murder and murderers is not new, but researchers
in recent years have made great strides in determining the character-
istics of criminals. Looking back, we can see how naive early experts
were in their evaluations: in 1911, for example, Italian criminologist
Cesare Lombrosco concluded that "murderers as a group (are) bio-
logically degenerate [with] bloodshot eyes, aquiline noses, curly black
hair, strong jaws, big ears, thin lips, and menacing grins” (qtd. in
Lunde 84). Today, however, we don't expect killers to have fangs that
drip human blood, and many realize that the boy next door may be
doing more than woodworking in his basement. While there are no
specific physical characteristics shared by all serial killers, they are al-
most always male, and 92 percent are white. Most are between the
ages of twenty-five and thirty-five and often physically attractive. While
they may hold a job, many switch employment frequently, as they be-
come easily frustrated when advancement does not come as quickly as
expected. They tend to believe that they are entitled to whatever they
desire but feel that they should have to exert no effort to attain their
goals (Samenow 88, 96). What could possibly turn attractive, ambi-
tious human beings into cold-blooded monsters?
One popular theory suggests that many murderers are the product
of our violent society. Our culture tends to approve of violence and
find it acceptable, even preferable, in many circumstances (Holmes and
DeBurger 27). According to research done in 1970, one out of every
four men and one out of every six women believed that it was appro-
priate for a husband to hit his wife under certain conditions (Holmes
and DeBurger 33). This emphasis on violence is especially prevalent in
television programs. Violence occurs in 80 percent of all prime-time
shows, while cartoons, presumably made for children, average eighteen
violent acts per hour. It is estimated that by the age of eighteen, the
+
Beaty / What Makes a Serial Killer? 197
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average child will have viewed more than 16,000 television murders
(Holmes and DeBurger 34). Some experts feel that children demon-
strate increasingly aggressive behavior with each violent act they view
and become so accustomed to violence that these acts seem normal
(Lunde 15, 35). In fact, most serial killers do begin to show patterns
of aggressive behavior at a voung age. It is, therefore, possible that
after viewing increasing amounts of violence, such children determine
that this is acceptable behavior; when they are then punished for simi-
lar actions, they may become confused and angry and eventually lash
out by committing horrible, violent acts.
Another theory concentrates on the family atmosphere into which
the serial killer is born. Most killers state that they experienced psycho-
logical abuse as children and never established good relationships with
the male figures in their lives (Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas 19). As
children, they were often rejected by their parents and received little
nurturing (Lunde 94; Holmes and DeBurger 64–70). It has also been
established that the families of serial killers often moved repeatedly,
never allowing the child to feel a sense of stability; in many cases, they
were also forced to live outside the family home before reaching the
age of eighteen (Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas 19-20). Our culture's
tolerance for violence may overlap with such family dynamics: with 79
percent of the population believing that slapping a twelve-year-old is
either necessary, normal, or good, it is no wonder that serial killers re-
late tales of physical abuse and view themselves as the "black sheep" of
the family (Holmes and DeBurger 30; Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas
19-20). They may even, perhaps unconsciously, assume this same role
in society.
While the foregoing analysis portrays the serial killer as a lost,
lonely, abused little child, another theory, based on the same informa-
0
tion, gives an entirely different view. In this analysis, the killer is indeed
rejected by his family but only after being repeatedly defiant, sneaky,
and threatening. As the child's lies and destructiveness increase, the
parents give him the distance he seems to want in order to maintain
a small amount of domestic peace (Samenow 13). This interpretation
suggests that the killer shapes his parents much more than his parents
shape him. It also denies that the media can influence a child's mind
and turn him into something that he doesn't already long to be. Since
most children view similar amounts of violence, the argument goes,
a responsible child filters what he sees and will not resort to criminal
activity no matter how acceptable it seems to be (Samenow 15-18).
198 SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES
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In 1930, the noted psychologist Alfred Adler seemed to find this true
of any criminal. As he put it, “With criminals it is different: they have
a private logic, a private intelligence. They are suffering from a wrong
outlook upon the world, a wrong estimate of their own importance
and the importance of other people” (qtd. in Samenow 20).
Most people agree that Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy had to
be "crazy" to commit horrendous multiple murders, and scientists
have long maintained that serial killers are indeed mentally disturbed
(Lunde 48). While the percentage of murders committed by mental
hospital patients is much lower than that among the general popula-
tion, it cannot be ignored that the rise in serial killings happened at
almost the same time as the deinstitutionalization movement in the
mental health care system during the 1960s (Lunde 35; Markman and
Bosco 266). While reform was greatly needed in the mental health
care system, it has now become nearly impossible to hospitalize those
with severe problems. In the United States, people have a constitu-
tional right to remain mentally ill. Involuntary commitment can only
be accomplished if the person is deemed dangerous to himself or oth-
ers or is gravely disabled. However, "[a]ccording to the way that the
law is interpreted, if you can go to the mailbox to pick up your Social
Security check, you're not gravely disabled even if you think you're liv-
ing on Mars"; even if a patient is thought to be dangerous, he cannot
be held longer than ninety days unless it can be proved that the patient
actually committed dangerous acts while in the hospital (Markman
and Bosco 267). Many of the most heinous criminals have had long
histories of mental illness but could not be hospitalized due to these
stringent requirements. Richard Chase, the notorious Vampire of Sac-
ramento, believed that he needed blood in order to survive, and while
in the care of a psychiatric hospital, he often killed birds and other
small animals in order to quench this thirst. When he was released, he
went on to kill eight people, one of them an eighteen-month-old baby
(Biondi and Hecox 206). Edmund Kemper was equally insane. At the
age of fifteen, he killed both of his grandparents and then spent five
years in a psychiatric facility. Doctors determined that he was “cured”
and released him into an unsuspecting society. He killed eight women,
including his own mother (Lunde 53-56). The world was soon to be
disturbed by a cataclysmic earthquake, and Herbert Mullin knew that
he had been appointed by God to prevent the catastrophe. The fer-
vor of his religious delusion resulted in a death toll of thirteen (Lunde
63-81). All of these men had been treated for their mental disorders,
Beaty / What Makes a Serial Killer? 199
hold them against their will.
and all were released by doctors who did not have enough proof to
Recently, studies have given increasing consideration to the ge-
netic makeup of serial killers. The connection between biology and be-
havior is strengthened by research in which scientists have been able to
develop a violently aggressive strain of mice simply through selective
inbreeding (Tavlor 23). These studies have caused scientists to become
increasingly interested in the limbic system of the brain, which houses
the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure located in the front of the
temporal lobe. It has long been known that surgically altering that
portion of the brain, in an operation known as a lobotomy, is one way
of controlling behavior. This surgery was used frequently in the 1960s
but has since been discontinued as it also crases most of a person's per-
sonality. More recent developments, however, have shown that tem-
poral lobe epilepsi causes electrical impulses to be discharged directly
into the amygdala. When this clectronic stimulation is re-created in the
laboratory, it causes violent behavior in lab animals. Additionally, other
forms of epilepsy do not cause abnormalities in behavior except dur-
ing seizure activity: Temporal lobe epilepsy is linked with a wide range
of antisocial behavior, including anger, paranoia, and aggression. It is
also interesting to note that this form of epilepsy produces extremely
unusual brain waves. These wares have been found in only 10 to 15
percent of the general population, but over 79 percent of known serial
killers test positive for these waves (Tavlor 28–33).
The look at biological factors that control human behavior is by
no means limited to brain waves or other brain abnormalities. Much
work is also being done with neurotransmitters, levels of testosterone,
and patterns of trace minerals. While none of these studies are conclu-
sive, they all show a high corrclation between antisocial behavior and
chemical interactions within the body (Tavlor 63–69).
One of the most common traits that all researchers have noted 10
among serial killers is heavy use of alcohol. Whether this correlation
is brought about by external factors or whether alcohol is an actual
stimulus that causes certain behavior is still unclear, but the idea de-
serves consideration. Lunde found that the majority of those who
commit murder had been drinking beforehand and commonly had a
urine alcohol level of benveen 20 and 29, nearly tvice the legal level
of intoxication (31-32). Additionally; 70 percent of the families that
reared serial killers had veritable records of alcohol abuse (Ressler,
Burgess, and Douglas 17). Jettrey Dahmer had been arrested in 1981
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