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Isabella Winward
Fred Baird
Criminal Justice
11-26-14
What is a serial killer?
Everyone has their own definition of what a serial killer is but what is it really? Over the years,
Law enforcement have alternated and adjusted the definition of what they believe the term serial
killer means. The FBI defines serial murders as; a minimum of three to four victims, with a "cooling
off" period in between, The killer is usually a stranger to the victim meaning the murders appear
unconnected or random, The murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim, The murder is
rarely for profit because the motive is psychological not material, The victim may have symbolic value
for the killer which will lead to different methods of killing, and also killers often choose victims who are
vulnerable like prostitutes or runaways.(Scott)

Throughout the years, studies have been done about serial killers. One of the many questions
that have been asked is:How does a particular person become serial killer? The answer lies in the
development of the individual from birth to adulthood. Specifically, the behavior a person displays is
influenced by life experiences.(Serial Murder)

There are many varieties of serial killers. But this it depends on events that played out in their
early life such as their childhood or teenage years. Certain affects or dramatic changes can cause
damage to a young persons thoughts, emotions and behaviors. We are going to take a look at five very
different serial killers and what became of them.

Ted Bundy is known as one of the most notorious serial killers. He murdered women in six
different states including Utah. They do not know the exact number of women Bundy had killed. He had

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admitted to thirty-six murders but experts believe the number to be closer to one hundred. In 1967,
Bundy was going to college when he met a girl. She was beautiful, wealthy and everything he ever
wanted. He fell in love with this college girl and when they broke up he was devastated. Experts believe
that this life changing event had caused him to kill. Many of his victims resembled his old college
girlfriend. His killings were gruesome and he sometimes raped his victims before killing them.(Bell)

He often lured his victims by pretending to be injured like wearing a cast on either his arm or
leg. He would struggle and ask young women nearby for help to his car. Experts believe he started killing
about 1974. In 1975, Bundy was arrested for kidnapping a young woman. This young lady was one of the
few to escape from Ted Bundy. He was convicted and receives a one to fifteen year jail sentence. A
couple years later, Bundy was accused for murdering a Colorado young woman.(Bell)

He had managed to escape from custody twice. The second he escaped he fled to Florida and
murder two more young women and one little girl. He was arrested once again and was given the death
penalty for the crimes he committed. He did everything to avoid the death penalty even offering
information on some unsolved murders but people wanted justice. On January 24, 1989, Bundy was put
to death by the electric chair commonly known as Old Sparky at the Florida State Prison.(Ted Bundy
Biography)

Dennis Rader also known as the B.T.K Killer was a famous serial killer in Kansas. In 1974,
Rader committed his first murder. He killed four members of the Otero Family in their own home. He
used the method of strangulation to murder them. The victims were found with their hands and feet
bound with rope. Some of the victims were gagged and hoods placed over their heads. Experts believe
he did this for sexual pleasure because they found semen near a female victim which was found hanging
in the basement partly clothed. They also found the phone line cut which became a trademark of the

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B.T.K killer. They reported a few things missing like a watch from the Otero family and thought that
Rader took it as a souvenir. (Bardsley, Bell, and Lohr)

A few months after the murder, the Wichita Don Granger received an anonymous call, from
Rader explaining that there was a letter that he wrote in a book at the library. In the letter he claims he
indeed murdered the Otero Family and more victims to come. Experts believe that Rader wanted to
take the credit for his murders. He came up with the nickname B.T.K. which stands for three simple
words that told exactly what he does to his victims. He blinds them, tortures them and then kills them.
Rader would leave clues for the police like anonymous call of people that were killed and send letters
with poems, pictures and driver license of his victims. There were more murders done in the same
matter as the Otero Family and police found the signature of B.T.K. (Bardsley, Bell, and Lohr)(Dennis
Rader Biography)

Despite playing games with police, Rader lived quite a normal life. He went to school, had
numerous jobs, had a family and went to church. Over the years, the B.T.K. case just seemed to turn
cold. Until 2004, marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Otero family murders, the B.T.K. killer
resurface. Rader sent several letter to the police of his crime, pictures, word puzzles and an outline of
his B.T.K. Story. He later sent a computer disk and the disk helped lead police to Raders church. Police
obtain DNA sample form Raders daughter that helped greatly in the case against him. On February 25,
2005, Rader was arrested and charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder. Rader escaped the death
penalty because he committed his crimes before the state's 1994 reinstatement of the death penalty.
He is currently serving 10 life sentences in a Kansas prison.(Dennis Rader Biography)

Jeffery Dahmer is yet another known serial killer and a notorious sex offender. Dahmer killed 17
men between the years of 1978 to 1991. At the age 14, Dahmer had begun to have sexual desires for
dead bodies known as necrophilia and also for murder. Dahmer developed homosexual feels meaning he

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was attracted to the same sex. His parents marriage and divorce made him psychologically stressed. And
that had played a major role for his dangerous thoughts. In June 1978, Dahmers thoughts turned into
action. Dahmers first victim was Steven Hick a hitchhiker he picked up off the road. He took the young
man to his parents house which was vacant due to the parents divorce. They shared alcoholic drinks and
just hung out. Then Hick tried to leave, Dahmer killed him with a blow to the head with a barbell and
strangled him. He dismembered the corpse, put the body parts in plastic bags and buried them in the
woods behind his parents house.(Jeffrey Dahmer Biography)

After his first killing, Dahmer began to drink to ease his mind. His drinking problem caused him
dropping out of college and he was discharge from the Army for alcoholism. He went to go live with his
grandmother in Wisconsin. Dahmers killed a second time and that lead to a killing spree. He had
developed a stereotype for his victims. They were mostly African-Armenian men. He would prowl for his
victims at gay meeting places. He would lured them to his grandmothers basement and promise them
money or sex. He would then give them alcohol with drugs before strangling them to death. He would
then fulfill his fantasies by having sex with the corpse or pleasuring himself. He would finally dismember
the bodies and dispose of them. He would usually keep their genitals or skull as souvenirs. He would often
take photos to document the process of his murders to relive the experiences.(Bardsley)(Jeffrey Dahmer
Biography)

He moved out of his grandmothers house and got an apartment. His apartment turned into a
death chamber where he conducted several experiments with chemicals in which trying to control his
victims. He also ate the flesh of some of his victims. In an interview with Dahmer, they ask why he ate
some of his victims flesh. His respond was: it felt like they were permanently part of him and that they
satisfied him.(Bardsley) (Jeffrey Dahmer Biography)

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On July 22, 1991, Dahmer was arrested when two police officers knocked on his apartment door
because of a young African- American man who had handcuff on his wrist and told the officers that
Dahmer had the key. The officers were shocked by what they found in Dahmers apartment. They found
heads in the fridge, jars with body parts, and horrifying photographs. In 1992 at court, Dahmer pleaded
guilty but that he was insane. Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms, or 957 years in
prison. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was murdered by another inmate at the prison.(Bardsley)
(Jeffrey Dahmer Biography)

Aileen Wuornos is one of many serial killers who was female. It is quite rare to find a woman
serial killer that murders at random like Wuornos had done. Many woman serial killers will usually
murder their family members or people they are close to. Wuornos had a troublesome childhood. Her
parents had abandoned her and her grandparents took her in. At quite a young age, she discovered she
could get money for having sex with the neighbor boys. At the age 14, she got pregnant and gave the
baby up for adoption.(Macleod)

After that she hit the road and begun her life working as a prostitute. Over the years, she would
prostitute making her way cross America. She eventually got married to a wealthy and elderly man. The
marriage didnt last long because she did not treat her husband right and they got divorce short after.
She began to prostitute again and became a thief. She even tried to commit suicide and did not succeed.
In 1986, Wuornos met Tyria Moore and they became a couple and lived together. Wuornos and her
lover Moore barely survived on Wuornos income from prostitution. Wuornos then decide that she
would have to rob her clients and shoot them to make ends meet.(Macleod) (Aileen Wuornos
Biography)

On December 13, 1989, Police found the corpse of a man named Richard Mallory. A few
months later, Police found another body that was shot by the same gun that killed Richard Mallory. In

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January 1991, Wuornos was arrested for first degree murder. In court, she stated that she was raped
and the shootings were an act of self defense. She later confessed to murdering those 7 men and
requested the death penalty. On October 9, 2002, her life was ended by lethal injection.(Aileen
Wuornos Biography)

Belle Gunness is another well known woman serial killer. It is reported that Gunness murdered
more than 40 people between the years of 1884 and 1908 and then just simply disappeared. She was
not an American but an immigrant from Selbu, Norway. Experts believe that Gunness behavior started
back in Norway. At the age of 17, Gunness was pregnant with a rich mans baby. The rich man having
knowledge about her pregnancy and also of the fact that she was poor, he did not want to have a future
with her. One night he beat her badly which cause her to miscarriage and lose the baby. After that her
personality changed dramatically. A month later, the man died from stomach cancer but experts believe
that by Gunness future acts that she might have poisoned the man which would making him her first
victim. This terrible event might have influenced her violent behavior towards men.(Geringer)

Over the course of Gunness life, she immigrated to the U.S. in search for a better life. She got
married to a wealthy man and lived a fancy lifestyle. In 1884, her home and husbands store
mysteriously burned down. She claimed the insurance money for both. Soon after, she killed her
husband and declared he died from heart failure and she claimed his insurance money. Gunness bought
large acres of farmland and married again. Not long after, she would kill her second husband and
claimed that he died from a freak accident. Gunness then put ads in the news paper which was called
the lovelorn column. She wrote that she was looking for marriage and had acres of farmland. This was
her tactic of luring in her victims. She would meet wealthy men and that would bring cash to her farm.
She would get their money and then murder them. She would then bury the bodies in her large acres of
farmland.(Geringer)(Belle Gunness Biography)

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In 1908, Gunness house mysteriously burnt to the ground. Police found four burnt bodies in the
basement of what was left of the house. Three were identified as Gunness foster children. They believe
the fourth body that did not have a head, belonged Belle Gunness herself. When they recovered the
body it was not her. After the fire, her victims were unearthed from their shallow graves around the
farm. The remains of broken bodies totaled up to more than 40 men and children. She planned the
arson, emptied her bank account and skipped out of town. They never tracked her down, nor has her
death ever been confirmed.(Belle Gunness Biography)

In conclusion, this paper defines the meaning of what a serial killer is, what causes people to
become like this and true stories about real life serial killers which were Ted Bundy, Dennis Rader,
Jeffery Dahmer, Aileen Wuornos and Belle Gunness. It told of their stories and the events that lead up to
what they had became. The human mind is unpredictable, with that said please be careful about the
strangers you meet because you never know what they are capable of.

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