Albert Fish : An American Serial Killer

In today’s world, murderers aren’t a surprising thing, as long as they are fictional. Plenty of TV shows and movies have plot lines around murder, but what about real life? As Scott Bonn states in his writing, of the approximate 15,000 murders in the United States, only 1 percent are serial killings, amounting to about 150 victims per year, with between 25 and 50 serial killers active at any given time. There are plenty of statistics on serial killers. 1 in 20 had the same three characteristics as a child: bedwetting, fire setting, and torturing animals. Animal torture is a common indicator that the child will be violent in the future. Also, over 30 percent of murderers use killing as a way for their sexual arousal (Stone). A murderer

Clifford Olson is one of Canada's well known serial killers. He showed no sign of sympathy for the public all throughout his life and would eventually end up killing many innocent people and spending a good portion of his life in jail.

Forensics has changed the way our criminal system works now. A lot of cases are being solved because of the development of forensics. Even cold cases are being brought up to the light to be investigated again and a good percentage of the cases are being solved and criminals are being brought to justice. The green river killer is one case that really got me intrigued into forensics and I got mesmerized by the techniques that are being used to catch murderers and other crimes being committed. The green river killer had an interesting childhood that led him to be a serial killer. He committed multiple murders on prostitutes and left there families with agony and pain. But advances in DNA ultimately led to his demise, police officers were able

First, the theory chosen for the social science discipline, psychology is psychosocial. The focus of the theory is how Robert Pickton became a serial killer due to the environment he grew up in and relationships. Pickton’s parents ran a meat business in Port Coquitlam and Pickton alongside his brother helped them. Pickton’s mother was tough and had the children work on a strict schedule. In addition, Pickton’s father had very little influence in his life, but his mother can be the key influence in why he murders women. Pickton was close to his mother and she also was a major authority figure in his life. Consequently, Pickton could have grown a hatred towards women due to his mother and is the reason he targets women. Enough hatred to ensure his victims suffer by raping and killing them Also, due to his mother making him work hard on the farm he had little to no childhood. Pickton did raise a calf and was very close to it, however, the calf was slaughtered. As a result, Pickton never forgot it and also said from CBC News, the incident made him realize life was fleeting. Additionally, Pickton is used to seeing things being killed and dying because he saw many animals being slaughtered when he was young. Death in his eyes has been normalized and is not an unusual occurrence. This is a key reason Pickton does not feel remorse for the killing of his victims because it is normal to him. Furthermore, Pickton was quiet and socially awkward, sometimes exhibiting unusual behaviour.

Theodore Bundy was an infamous American serial killer who preyed upon numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. He was associated with at least 30 counts of homicide and suspected of an estimated one hundred or more. Beyond homicide, he also made it apparent that he was capable of other sinister crimes such as rape, kidnapping, and necrophilia. His most frequent method of killing was an attack with a blunt weapon to the head. However, he did not merely kill his victims; evidence concludes that each were also sexually assaulted and sodomized. It is reported that he even revisited his crime scenes to further engage in sexual acts with the decomposing corpses. Moreover, at least 12 of his victims had been decapitated .

Eric Edgar Cooke, normally going by the name of Edgar was nicknamed the “Night Caller”. He was an Australian serial Killer. Edgar Cooke was born in 1931 on 25th February. After dying on October 26th 1964, he was known for his notorious murders. He was born in Victoria Park in Perth, Western Australia and the eldest of three children.

Albert Fish is an American serial killer from the early 1900s who is linked to 15 murders. He also has molested over 100 children who were often young African American boys and mentally disabled children. Some of his most noted victims were Francis X. McDonnell, Billy Gaffney, and Grace Budd, but he was only convicted for the murder of Grace Budd. Following the typical characteristics of serial killers, Fish was a white male abused as an orphaned child. Eventually, he found that he gained sexual pleasure and satisfaction from these beating, which followed through to his personal life and killings when he would beat the bottoms of his victims as well as physically hurt them by cutting off pieces of their face. Albert had

Henry Herman Holmes was known to many as the first American serial killer. Better known as just H. H. Holmes, he committed many murders in a suburb on the south side of Chicago during the late 1800’s. Holmes once admitted to police that he killed 27 people, but many actually predict that the number of murders he committed is near 200 (Handley). So what is the real number of people that he killed? Let’s take a closer look at the facts of Holmes’ life, occupation, and the mansion that he built to determine how many people he may have actually murdered.

A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it, (Lapham, 1985). Unfortunately, such acts of rampage have become a prevalent factor in the Canadian culture. As a result of endless media coverage, Canadians now are constantly bombarded with countless images of violence. Many of which often portray a victim avenging their opponent by force. Thus, indoctrinating individuals to believe that it is only through aggression that problems are resolved. Rather than being punished for acts of violence, those who commit such offenses are often praised for their “heroism”. In addition,

Ted Bundy is one of the most famous serial killers in United States History. There are many theories behind what made him become a serial killer. Many believe he was born that way, with a darkness inside of him to which he could not control. Others believe he is a victim of circumstance and had no chance from the very beginning of life. Ted killed fourteen plus women and girls, his earliest victim thought to be when he was just fifteen years old, with only one known survivor. I believe Ted made the choices he did, not because of his family circumstances or his dark passenger, but because he felt entitled and liked control. What more control is there then to decide who lives and who dies? I do believe there are circumstances that may have been the perfect storm to bring Ted to his killing path and in this paper I will discuss how I feel Ted came to be what he was.

Erick Larson wrote in Devil in the White City, “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing – I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered in the world, and he has been with me since” (Troy, Taylor). This statement was a quoted confession from Dr. H. H. Holmes himself in 1896. Holmes was the first major serial killer in America, even though he came after many others in his time. Thomas Neil Cream, the Austin Axe Murderer, the Bloody Benders, and Jack the Ripper came before him. His name was originally Herman Webster Mudgett. He was born on May 16th, 1860 in Gilman, New Hampshire. He was raised by his mother

Serial killers have fascinated the imaginations of people for a long time. One of the most notorious serial killers is Jeffrey Dahmer whose gruesome murders shocked the nation. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as Milwaukee monster was a notorious American serial killer and sexual offender in the 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1978 and 1991 Dahmer had murdered 17 men. His victims were usually raped, tortured, dismembered, and cannibalism was also involved. Jeffrey was a troubled child psychologically and his social skills had a lot to be desired. All the way through his childhood he was ignored and had queer fantasies of cadavers. In his adulthood this psychosocial status quo didn 't change and was in fact aggravated.

Studies show that traits of a serial killer can be seen in a person at a very young age. Most warning signs go unnoticed which is why the growth of the killer continues. A thing such as animal cruelty is one of many clues inside the growth of a serial killers mind “They often start out their careers by maiming, harming, and torturing small animals.” “In extreme cases, they have been known to spend hours inflicting a slow death on animals...this is a form of control that allows them the power to crave” (Kocsis,2008) . Many future serial killers also show a major interest in setting fires. Even though it is common for most young children to show a slight interest in fire, those with serial killing in their future are somewhat pyromaniacs.

go back as far as the fifteenth century, only a few were written about prior to

“The serial killer ‘is an entirely different criminal,’ ”The term serial killer is misleading on the ground that each murder is intended to be the last.” We see them as a figure of “the dark side of human potential,” but they believe they’re “on a heroic quest for the biggest score possible” They believe they are “the archetypal figure of impurity, the representative of a world which needs cleansing.” However, society knows that serial killers are not heroes, and they’re not cleansing the world. “The figure of the serial killer is violent impurity personified, and it is a construction that necessitates figures of violent purity to confront it.” While it can be argued whether having mental disorders should prevent a serial killer from being capitally punished, it is proven that many serial killers suffer from “paranoid schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, or psychopathology.” It’s even said that “this crime is actually a form of disease. Its carriers are serial killers who suffer from a variety of crippling and eventually fatal symptoms, and its immediate victims are the people struck down seemingly at random by the disease carriers.” Serial killers usually have a stressor in their life that makes them start killing, and when they do “homicidal mania becomes ‘a necessity… linked to the very existence of a psychiatry which had made itself autonomous but needed thereafter to secure a basis for its intervention by gaining recognition as a component of public