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Science, Intuition, and Hope: The Art of Personality Profiling

Also see: Types of serial killers.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A serial killers suffer from Antisocial Personality Disorder and appear normal or charming, sometimes referred to as the "mask of sanity." Sometimes there is a sexual element to the murders and they may have a commonality such as gender, occupation, appearances, race, etc.

The term serial killer was coined in the 1970s due to cases such as Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz.

According to an FBI Behavioral Unit study 85% of the world's serial killers are in America. At any given time 20 - 50 unidentified active serial killers are at work continually changing their targets and methods.

Prostitutes, runaways, and others who lead transient and anonymous lives are usually not reported missing promptly and receive little police or media attention, making them excellent targets. Experts speculate on what happens to unsolved cases of murderers. Some may commit suicide, die, be incarcerated, in mental institutions, relocate, or stopped killing; a few turn themselves in.

Experts don't agree on an exact definition of a serial killer but general definitions are based on numbers and patterns: two or more unrelated victims in distinctly separate incidents.

The Northwest has a notorious history of prototype killers -- among them are Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer. Lesser known serial killers have claimed scores of lives but are only charged and/or convicted of one or two murders, but suspected of more.

Suspected or convicted serial killers in Washington. (.pdf)

According to Mike Rustigan, professor of criminology at San Francisco State University:

"With all of them, their motives tend to be total, deep and personal. They feel no guilt, no remorse and have an attitude of total disdain towards their victims.

"There's a self-importance that runs in all of them. With the Unabomber, for example, he demanded that The Washington Post and The New York Times publish his manifesto. You get the feeling that if he had just laid low, he may have remained on the loose to this day. His own brother saw the manifesto in his home and he then contacted authorities. I feel he felt upstaged by the Oklahoma City bombing, which made everything he had done up to that point seem like nothing."

Tod W. Burke, professor of criminology at Radford University and a former police officer explains:

"Most profilers say serial killers don't learn from mistakes in their previous killings, but I believe they do. They try to improve on their previous effort. You know how the more you do something, the better you get at it? Well, there comes a point where you peak and you can only go down.

"With serial killers, a greed factor will set in where they'll believe the more they kill and get away with it, the easier it will be. And that's when they get sloppy and get caught."

Emanuel Tanay, forensic psychiatrist, points out that Ohio serial killer 'Angel of Death," Larry Ralston, quit killing for 6 years while he worked in a morgue. Because he had enough involvement with death when he worked in a morgue, he didn't kill anybody. 'He was satisfied.'

Retired FBI agent Gregg O. McCrary, private criminal profiler, says it's all about control.

Cannibalism: A modern taboo

The aetiology of serial murder: towards an integrated model Despite media, public interest, recent increases in offenses and disproportionate social effects; multi-disciplinary research of serial murder has not been forthcoming. Most are based on court and newspaper reports with no access to subjects. This examines theories that pertain to serial sexual murder into a multi-disciplinary aetiological model including sociological, psychiatric, psychological developmental and biological elements. Edward W. Mitchell, PhD Student, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge Trinity Hall Nightingale Scholar in Mental Health Law.

Indexing Evil Interviews Michael Werner, forensic psychiatrist. about definitions and Importance of a depravity scale in the role of psychiatry in criminal cases.

Retired FBI agent Gregg O. McCrary, a private criminal profiler, says it's all about control.

Serial Killers and Mass Murderers.

Signature Killers by Robert D. Keppel, William J. Birnes. Compelling insights into the murderer, who kills multiple people, and leaves a signature behind. Keppel's been involved in more than 2,000 murder investigations, 50 high-profile serial cases. He covers "the essence of torture," "the anger-retaliation signature," "the picquerism signature," "the psychological imprint of a sadist," and Dahmer, "the black hole at the end of the continuum."

A study of attacks on Native women in Western Canada revealed even after serial killer John Martin Crawford's was released from prison in 1989, his habit was to cruise the poor side of town for prostitutes in his mother's car, Bill Corrigan, with a drinking buddy and former fellow inmate who participated in crimes.

Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation Sari Horwitz and Michael E. Ruane -- For more than three weeks, the nation watched in disbelief as Washington, DC, and its surrounding suburbs were held hostage by anonymous gunmen shooting innocent civilians at random. Sniper is the account of John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, and the massive manhunt that ended with their capture by a SWAT team in an early-morning raid at an interstate highway rest stop. Washington Post reporters retrace the steps of Muhammad and Malvo from their first meeting on the island of Antigua to Malvo's confession in a Virginia jail.

Every Move You Make by M. William Phelps -- Gary C. Evans, 35, a master of disguise and career criminal who once befriended David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, suspected of five killings over 13 years when he led a group of thieves. Rysedorph, Cuomo and Falco grew up together in South Troy, NY. In 1985, he fingered Michael Falco as the brains but didn't mention he shot and buried him. September 8, 1989 Douglas J. Berry, 63, owner of a secondhand shop was shot to death as Evans and Damien Cuomo entered the store to burglarize it. December 1989, Gary killed Cuomo in New York ; then had a ten-year romance with the mother of his child. In 1997 Timothy Rysedorph, 39, was dismembered and buried. Gregory Jouben, 36, was killed in his store. Evans confessed and led police to the shallow graves of Rysedorph, A Goodfella's Guide to New York: Your Personal Tour Through the Mob's Notorious Haunts, Hair-Raising Crime Scenes, and Infamous Hot Spots by Henry Hill, Bryon Schreckengos

The Hillside Stranglers by Darcy O'Brien -- For weeks in the fall of 1977, as the body count of sexually violated murdered young women escalated, the Los Angeles newspapers headlined the serial killer they named the Hillside Strangler. But another year passed and the mysterious disappearance of 2 women in Seattle before the police arrested Kenny Bianchi-and discovered the strangler was two men, Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono.

Depraved by John Glatt -- John Edward Robinson was a 56-year-old grandfather from rural Kansas. An entrepreneur and Eagle Scout honored as 'Man of the Year' by a Kansas City charity. To the women on the Internet, he was Slavemaster, a sadomasochist of torture. He promised money and adventure. For fifteen years, he trawled the Web, snaring women never seen again. Sue Wiltz spent two years researching the book and attended the trial. Dr. Godwin was a forensic consultant on the case.

Serial Killers (continued)

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Baton Rouge
Paul Bernardo
David Berkowitz
Kenneth Bianchi
Boston Strangler
Angelo Buono
BTK Killer
Ted Bundy
Andrew Cunanan
Jeffrey Dahmer
Albert Fish
Caril Fugate
Eddie Gein
Green River Killer
Karla Homolka
Jack the Ripper
Edmund Kemper III
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Tommy Lynn Sells
Piggy Palace
Wesley Shermantine
Charlie Starkweather
Cary Stayner
Michael Swango
Unabomber
Fred & Rose West
Aileen Wuornos
Robert Yates
The Zodiac Killer

Serial Killers: Issues Explored Through the Green River Murders by Tomas Guillen Serial Killers fills a void in the serial killer literature. Little has been written about the challenging issues permeating the serial killer cases or investigations. The essays perspective of the Green River Murders and the many people it touches. The essays are relevant to murder investigations, justice, victimology, interrogation techniques, media coverage of crime, and grief.  CD-ROM includes video coverage of the confession.

My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers Depraved by Helen Morrison, Harold Goldberg -- Dr. Helen Morrison profiled the Mad Biter, Richard Otto Macek, chewed on his victims' body parts, stalked Morrison, then believed she was his wife. Morrison did the last interview with Ed Gein, the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. John Wayne Gacy, the killer clown-obsessed with young men, sent her Christmas cards and gave her paintings. Then there was Atlanta child killer Wayne Williams; rapist turned murderer Bobby Joe Long; England's Fred and Rosemary West, who killed girls and women, and Brazil's deadliest killer of children, Marcelo Costa de Andrade. Morrison has received hundreds of letters from killers, read their diaries and journals, evaluated crime scenes, testified at their trials, and studied photos of the gruesome carnage. She has interviewed the families of the victims -- and the spouses and parents of the killers. She has also studied serial killers throughout history with psychological autopsies of the fifteenth-century French war hero Gilles de Rais, the sixteenth-century Hungarian Countess Bathory, H.H. Holmes of the late 19th century, and Albert Fish of the Roaring Twenties.

Slayer of Innocence by Jim Conove.- William Guatney a predator pedophile and serial killer was on the loose for many years. More than 16 young boys throughout the Midwest, California, Oklahoma and Arizona disappeared under similar circumstances-- at least 14 were found murdered. The Midwest was his killing field from 1972 until 1979. Lawmen, from 7 states and many agencies, joined forces to hunt this predator down.