Clayton Bo Eichler: Regina's First Serial Killer Case

Serial murder is defined as the murder of at least three victims accompanied with an intermittent “cooling off” period in between. Often during the “cooling off” period the serial killer fantasizes about his next potential victim and contrives a plan to enact said fantasy (Simons, 2001). The term “serial killer” was introduced into the English lexicon in the 1970’s and used to describe individuals who committed a series of murders under these pretenses. The typical age of onset for serial murder is usually in the mid-to-late twenties (Arndt, Hietpas, and Kim, 2004). It is difficult to determine when exactly Robert Pickton began his string of killing since much of his early life remains shrouded in mystery. The best way to examine the frequency of Pickton’s murders and the duration of the “cooling off” period between them then, is to examine data of women reported missing from the Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver. Using this data, it can be reasonably assumed that Pickton began his murders (at least within the context of his general modus operandi) sometime in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s (The Pickton Trial, CBC.ca/news). Using the missing women data along with evidence found on the Pickton farm, it is seen that the murders increased in frequency with a much smaller “cooling off” period throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s before his eventual arrest in 2002.

Crimes and criminals define not only places, but certain time periods. Serial killers are usually the ones that individuals tend to remember the most. An individual is considered a serial killer when they murder three or more individuals during a period of time with a cooling off period between each crime (Frailing & Harper, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to discuss one of the most controversial and yet famous serial killer, Theodore Robert Bundy. Something interesting that attracts the attention of most towards him is the fact that he was an unexpected face for a serial killer. The fact that he was handsome, intelligent, integrated into his community and with a bright future ahead of him made him an unexpected suspect during the investigation.

Serial killers represent a social problem in many ways. Many innocent lives are taken away by these serial killers. We as a society should care if serial killers or spree killers operate within our culture because we never know that we or a family member could be next on the list. People’s lives are taken away by these criminals; people who have a whole life ahead

Out of all the Infamous killers in the U.S the two well-known killers that I will be researching are Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. These two murderers share many similarities such as their backgrounds, Crimes, and Motives. Both Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy are serial killers who’ve killed over a dozen people each. They’ve committed crimes including rape, murder, and kidnapping. In this research paper I will be comparing and contrasting the two serial killers.

The serial killer I chose to do my report on was Dennis Rader. Rader was born on March 9, 1945 in Pittsburg, Kansas and as of today he is still alive. Rader was the oldest of four sons. When Dennis was a child he hung stray cats. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Rader served our country by joining the U.S Air Force which he served from the mid to late 1960’s. He got married to Paula in 1971 and he work for a company that sold camping gear but he only worked there for a few years. He worked for ADT services in 1974.

This paper will focus on the well-known Canadian serial killer, Clifford Olsen. Born on January 1st, 1940 in British Columbia, Clifford Olsen can be described as a short and stocky man with brown hair and charming brown eyes. (Martin, 2011)

In the summer of 1982, one of the nation’s worst and deadliest serial killers would start a killing spree that would last for almost 2 decades. This killer was known as the “Green River Killer,” but his real name was Gary Leon Ridgway. Ridgeway would murder numerous women in and around the Seattle, Washington area during the 1980s and the 1990s. When he was captured in 2001, Ridgway had admitted to killing 48 plus women. (Rule, 2004) Though, it is still believed that there are other victims that have not been identified. In the following, I will describe who Ridgway is, how he committed his crimes, what makes him unique, and how he was finally caught. I will also describe the mistakes the

The BTK Killer incident is one of the more fascinating cases I have had the pleasure to research in quite a while. This is the true story of the actions of a deacon, a trusted member of the community and leader of a congregation, who was found to be a serial murderer, and by the use of some very clever tactics and DNA analysis, his identity and location was discovered. His cases spanned over the course of 17 years, from 1974 to 1991. His public name, BTK Killer, stands for Bind, Torture and Kill, which was his preferred method of disposing of his victims. However, his legal name is Dennis Rader, and in 2005 he was sentenced to 10 life sentences for the long list of murderers he was responsible for.

Ray Copeland was a serial killer convicted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Copeland was one of the oldest to be sentenced to death row . The life of Ray Copeland was arduous and hard, but his response to it was to commit crimes that led him to several years in prison early in his life. He later committed many murders after scandals at his farm that were under the guise of legitimate business. His motives for killing were to get rid of evidence from previous endeavors for scandalous business transactions.

December 11, 1978, Robert Piest was reported missing by his mother. He was last seen meeting John Wayne Gacy for a potential job. On December 21 they searched Gacy's house finding bodies hidden under the house,garage and later found more in the Des Plaines River. The young men were lured by false jobs and were sexualy assulted and later strangled and buried. Over 33 bodies of missing boys were found in Gacy's house. Gacy is not the only one in the world who has taken the life of many innocent people. Over the many years bodies have been found mutilated and sexualy assulted. These bodies have been the subject of one hostility and violence, a killer. Serial killer have been around for very long but the secret to their wrong doing is only being opened in recent years. The advancement in technology has opened opportunities to find the cause for these awful killings.Serial killers are created from birth but proceed to rise mental illness, brain injury and child abuse corrupt their mind and life pushing them to kill.

Richard Kuklinski is unique in many ways, one of which being his devotion to his job. However, it was nothing worthy of praise. Kuklinski’s death count reached nearly 200 people, with his first kill as just a teenager. To most, this sounds like a very extreme example of a serial killer; however, Kuklinski was not a serial killer. Every serial killer, or mostly every serial killer, is going to exhibit the same characteristics that all align to explain the crimes they commit. Serial killers commit horrific crimes that are unimaginable to the average person; however, Richard Kuklinski was not a serial killer, even though he exhibited most of the characteristics that a serial killer does. Richard Kuklinski’s upbringing, for example, is evidence and explanation for why he was the way he was.

The serial killer I choose to write about is Jeffery Dahmer. I found Jeffery to be the most interesting Serial Killer due to what he did to his victims after he killed them. Jeffery was a troubled child born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1960. Dahmer attended The Ohio State University and dropped out after only one quarter. He then joined the United States Army and was discharged due to having a drinking problem. In Dahmer early childhood years, he had surgery at the age of 4 to correct a double hernia. It was after surgery that his parents stated to notice a difference in his behavior.

A public event that took place recently was a reading at the Halifax public library by author and storyteller, Steve Vernon. The event was titled Winter Chills: True Tales of Murder and Mayhem in the Maritimes. The event was composed of three readings and one story telling. The first reading was from Vernon’s book “Maritime Murder: Deadly Crimes from the Buried Past”, this reading was about a women from PEI who murdered her one of children by poisoning him with matches. The next reading was something a little lighter that was from Steve Vernon’s children’s book Maritime Monsters. From this, he read a story about mermaids that were seen in the Atlantic waters by men on ships. Then Vernon moved back to the “Maritime Murder” novel and read one

The case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka is one of the most profound cases in Canada. Paul Bernardo is known as a Canadian serial killer and rapist, specifically in the southern Ontario area. He came from a home of abuse and neglect. Despite his childhood, he graduated from University of Toronto in the Scarborough area with a commerce and economics degree. This proved that Paul was an intelligent intellectual who was seen as the “average” in society. In October of 1987, Paul met Karla Homolka after recently breaking up with his former girlfriend. At this point in his life he became the Scarborough rapist who is widely known today.

The legal definition of a serial murder, as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)(Morton & Hilts, Eds., 2006), in 2005 is, “[t]he unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events" (p. 9). However, numerous people debate over the definition, including this researcher, because it lacks a cool-down period in between murders, which numerous professionals believe is necessary for serial killer status. The cool-down period is a short to extended amount of time between murders. This is what differentiates them from other killers such as mass murderers and spree killers. Despite this disagreement, serial killers remain a rare phenomenon. The FBI (2006) states, serial murder accounts for under one percent of the killings a year. Nevertheless, throughout the years, countless people have