My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers

The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us by Gregg O. McCrary (Author), Katherine Ramsland -- A former Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, Gregg McCrary takes us deep into the minds of predators. In the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia -- McCrary profiled criminals for over 25 years in more than a thousand cases involving homicide, serial murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault: The Sam Sheppard case -- what new material did McCrary's analysis discover? The Poet's Shadow -- The strange story of Jack Unterweger and the hunt for an international serial killer. The Buddhist Temple Massacre -- The evil that resulted in the deaths of nine gentle people.

Why Crime? An Integrated Systems Theory of Antisocial Behavior by Matthew B. Robinson -- Explains why some people are more prone to antisocial behavior than others. Risk factors that increase the probability of antisocial behavior are identified, and an understanding of what produces criminality, delinquency, and deviance. Organized around an integrated systems perspective, the book examines six levels of analysis, from cell to society. Relationships between factors at each of these levels of analysis and antisocial behavior are stated; and a new theory of antisocial behavior and criminality is presented that combines biological, sociological, psychological, anthropological, and economic factors. This book presents more than 1,000 references, making it an excellent source of information for criminologists and law enforcement professionals.

Dark Dreams: Sexual Violence, Homicide and the Criminal Mind by Roy Hazelwood, Stephen G. Michaud Profiler Roy Hazelwood reveals the twisted motives and thinking that go into the most reprehensible crimes. He catalogs innovative and effective techniques-investigative approaches he helped pioneer at the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit that allow law enforcement to construct psychological profiles of the offenders who commit them. Hazelwood helped track down some of the most violent criminals; in Dark Dreams: * A young woman disappears from the store where she works. Her remains are found in a field. * A teenager's body is found hanging in a storm sewer. His clothes neatly folded and a stopwatch in his mouth. * A married couple, with their toddler, pick up a female hitchhiker. They kidnap her and hold her for 7 years keep her as a sexual slave. The wife agreed to this inhuman arrangement in exchange for a second child. Who was to blame? As gruesome as the crimes are and as unsettling as the odds seem, Hazelwood proves that the right amount of determination and logic can bring even the most cunning and devious criminals to justice.

Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back by John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker

	Web KariSable.com

• Watch for new True Crime Books and DVDs as they are published!
• If you enjoy discussing true crime cases with others, please join our True Crimes Discussion list

Hazelwood identifies predators who rape and murder children and women they know as disorganized. They don't plan attacks but are opportunistic, using weapons available at or around the crime scene and they do not conceal their crimes. Organized predators plan out the crime, and bring tools as they troll for strangers far away from home. They destroy the evidence.

Anger-Excitation Rapists plan methodically. They are cruel in relationships but they kill strangers.

Serial sex offenders rely on sadistic cruelty to act out fantasies. They use restraints, ritualism, fantasies, hatred, manipulation, and mind control.

Differences Between Mass Murderers and Serial Killers -- In mass and serial murder the offender gains control victims as the dies.

Predestined Serial Killers

3 Types of Serial Killers

• Thrill Seekers: See outsmarting law enforcement as a game, enjoy media attention, police pursuit, and evading the authorities. They send messages, and keep records.
• Mission Oriented:Feel they are doing society a favor by eliminating certain people like prostitutes.
• Power and Control: Enjoy the victim's terror, suffering, and screaming.
• Souvenirs & Serial Killers: Serial killers often keep mementos of their victims. Robert Keppel places these collections into 2 categories: souvenirs and trophies.
  • Souvenirs: Personal items allow the killer to enjoy the memories of the crime.
  • A trophy can become something of a shrin

Jeffrey Dahmer kept photos in his apartment. He had skulls of his victims in a closet, refrigerator, and freezer. Genitalia was preserved in formaldehyde.

In 1957, when police searched the Wisconsin farmhouse of Eddie Gein they found a bowl made from a human skull, a chair and suit made of human skin.

• Signatures

Some serial killers repeatedly, leave psychological markers, called a signature. Signatures include posing, concealing victims, or inserting objects in the bodies after death for the killers gratification. As a killer needs to punish and degrade victims intensifies as they may develop unique preferences.

Robert Keppel, consultant to the Green River Task Force and author of Signature Killers, said. "They like to (leave signatures). They enjoy it. It's one of their favorable pastimes. It's my belief that all serial killers leave a sign. It's also my belief that we don't find it all the time because of decomposition or because he doesn't want you to find it ... It's what their sexual enhancement is."

James Fox, a Northeastern University criminal justice professor, says signatures aren't as common as people believe. They may use the same weapon or sexually mutilate in the same way, but use different methods to kill and prey victims. Ted Bundy enjoyed sadism, rape, and murder but no signatures weren't found. A signature goes beyond the act of murder, such as posing, which is present in less than 1% of murder cases. Inserting objects in a body after death is even rarer. Posing is not staging, moving a body to cover the crime and mislead pursuers.

A signature is different from a modus operandi, (mode of operation, MO) the way they find, overpower, and kill a victim without getting caught. The MO changes as the killer refines their methods.

How to connect serial killers to crimes:

"If your case is not as strong on one murder, you could testify about behavioral characteristics and how they are maintained throughout all the murders," said Keppel. "So, whoever did Number 1, they also did Number 2 and Number 3."

February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, 23, a mildly retarded, woman who frequented bars. Pavlinac confessed, produced physical evidence, and implicated her boyfriend. The actual killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, a long haul truck driver, and murderer of 8 women wouldn't allow anybody else take credit. After Sosnovke and Pavlinac received life sentences he confessed:

"I killed Tanya Bennett . . . I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Yes I'm sick, but I enjoy myself too. People took the blame and I'm free . . ..Look over your shoulder. I may be closer than you think."

Randy Kraft, the "Scorecard Killer," a shy, ingenious psychopath, left a trail of as many as 67 mutilated bodies from California to Michigan.

Angel of Darkness by Dennis McDougal, Rick Morgan (Editor) -- In May 1983, Randy Kraft, computer consultant in Orange County, CA and 1967 economics graduate of Claremont Men's College, was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers because of suspected drunk driving. Approaching Kraft's Toyota, the officers faced a dead, partially clothed US marine, drugged and strangled in the passenger seat. Kraft killed young male hitchhikers and patrons of gay bars. His victims were sexually tortured, impaled and mutilated. He kept a sketchbook from one victim, a camera from another, and electric razor from another. He took photographs of his victims posed in sexually provocative positions. His companion never suspected anything. Still suspected in 60 murders, Kraft lives on death row, maximum security, California's San Quentin death row for 16 murders in the 1970s and 1980s; he has a reputation as one of the most notorious serial killers in US history.

Born Evil or Born Genius: The Leading Cause of Crime and Turmoil in Today's World by Barry Sudiker

Male Crime and Deviance: Exploring Its Causes, Dynamics, and Nature by R. Barri Flowers -- Seeks to explore the types of offenses committed by males, characteristics of male offenders, how male criminality and delinquency compare with and differ from female delinquent and criminal behavior, explanations for male crime, and efforts at combating crime in this country. Particular attention is given to exploring the relationship between male aggression and masculinity, as well as the role that testosterone and other biological factors play in male crime and violence. The book focuses on the correlations between male violence and aggressive behavior and firearms, violence involving intimates, male sexual violence, bias crimes, workplace violence, terrorism, male perpetrated sexual offenses, youth gang crime, and school violence.

Dying for Daddy by Carlton Smith Jack Barron June 1992, hearts went out to Jack Barron when his wife Irene died in her sleep. Barron was at work when his wife's body was found by a neighbor. On Feb. 7, 1993, Jeremy, 4, died. Aug. 7, 1994, Ashley, 4, died. Followed by Barron's mother, Roberta Butler, 52, in February 1995 whose body was found in her condominium. They had a stormy relationship, until Roberta announced she wanted to evict him. Before she could she was found dead. Barron's former girlfriend, Starla Hayes, told a judge soon after his wife's death, Barron made a disquieting remark to Jeremy, 3, for crying about his "Mommy," Jack shouted, "If you don't shut up, I'll send you to where Mommy is!" She met the defendant in 1990, at a Lucky's supermarket where they worked. After his wife died, Barron found himself with no one to baby-sit his kids. Hayes, a mother of two, 6 and 8, faced the same problem, she and her husband had separated. She and her two children moved into Barron's 3-bedroom home several months after Irene's death. The two agreed to share childcare duties. Hayes said she and Barron began having sex. The housing arrangement wasn't working. A couple of months after moving in, Hayes moved out. Barron was arrested 5 months after the death of his mother. Barron blames the loss of his family on hereditary heart disease. The motive for the slayings was Barron's hatred of his father, who divorced Barron's mother and abandoned him when he was a teenager. He also wanted out of his marriage and to collect $170,000 in insurance. In Irene's personal effects, was an undated letter she had written to Barron. "I'm really sorry you're unhappy right now. We have so much to be happy and thankful for ... It really upsets me when I hear you talk about divorce." April 2000, a defiant Jack Barron was sentenced to 3 consecutive life terms in prison with no parole. Barron is the first man known to suffer from Munchausen-by-Proxy, where a person causes illness or death to a loved one in order to attain sympathy. Photos.

For nearly 30 years, Helen Morrison has probed the brains of serial killers -- though, until Gacy, she'd never held one in her hands.

Criminal Profiler John Philpin Features:

Update: Slaughter Night in Moscow by John Philpin -- Between dusk on July 21, and dawn, July 22, 4 women were murdered in Moscow. Serial Killer in Moscow? Although the information has not been released to the Russian media, Moscow investigators have found three surviving victims who have provided similar detailed descriptions of their assailant.

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

The Baton Rouge Serial Murders Series -- Intriguing 5 part series takes you behind the scenes of the search for the Baton Rouge Serial Killer through the eyes of a criminal profiler who worked the case.

Featured True Crime Author: Sue Russell

Sue's Journey: The Writing of Lethal Intent -- Would the eyes of Aileen ‘Lee’ Carol Wuornos Pralle, accused serial killer, be a window to her soul?

Why Aileen wanted to die.

Lethal Intent by Sue Russell -- That rarest of serial killers - a woman - Aileen 'Lee' Wuornos confessed to killing 7 men. Lethal Intent contests the judgment of Wuornos as a "man-hating lesbian" via insights from men with whom she shared relationships. Lethal Intent contains insights and intimate memories from her family, friends and childhood peers who lost their virginity's to Aileen.

Kari & Associates
PO Box 7126
Olympia, WA 98507