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 active.
Experts
disagree on the definition of
a serial killer but general definitions
are based on numbers and patterns. Two
or more unrelated victims in distinctly
separate incidents.
Prostitutes,
runaways and transients
are usually not promptly reported
missing receive little police
or media attention, making them targets.
Experts speculate
unsolved serial killings that appear to stop may be due to death,
institutionalization,
relocation or stopped killing. Some turn
themselves in.
The Northwest has a notorious history
of prototype killers -- among
them are Ted
Bundy and the Green
River Killer. Lesser known serial
killers charged and/or convicted
of one or two murders are often suspected
of more.
A serial killer with Antisocial
Personality Disorder may appear
normal or charming, ("mask of sanity"). Sometimes
there is a common sexual element to the murders
such
as gender, occupation, appearances, race,
etc.
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.'
