Richard Speck: The Sociopathic Mass Murderer

As if molded directly from the depths of nightmares, both fascinating and terrifying. Serial killers hide behind bland and normal existences. They are often able to escape being caught for years, decades and sometimes an eternity. These are America’s Serial Killers (America’s Serial Killers). “Even when some of them do get caught, we may not recognize what they are because they don’t [sic] match the distorted image we have of serial killers” (Brown). What is that distorted image? That killers live among everyday life, they are the ones who creep into someone’s life unknowingly to torture and kill them. The serial killers that are in the movies, Norman Bates, Michael Myers, and the evil master mind of SAW, these characters are just that

One of the most infamous serial killers and sex offenders in America and around the world is Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer is widely known for his killing, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. He killed seventeen males between the ages of 14 and 33. He was so well known the was even mentioned in a Katy Perry song. Fortunately his brutally gruesome killings were put to an end in 1994 when he was convicted and sent to prison.

In the article ‘Inside a Murdering Mind,’ Anne E. Schwartz argues this exact point. She uses Jeffrey Dahmer as an example of someone who should be at fault writing, “serious mental illness or psychosis is rarely present. In background, in personality, and even in appearance, the mass murder is extraordinarily ordinary” (Schwartz 296). Opposite this thought process many people – since the days of Sigmund Freud – like to blame believe that a child’s upbringing has a lot to do with how a child turns out as an adult, including being keen to killing. Although it has been proven that the way a parent raises their children does affect them as adults, one cannot blame them for their children turning out to be killers. The last thing a parent would want is their child to be a murder, as they also are ‘losing’ a loved one in the process. Dahmer’s parents were grief-stricken to find out their son was the killer of sixteen men. To their dismay, many psychologists started to pry into their private life trying to figure out ‘where they went wrong.’ And to the psychologists’ dismay, they could not find anything that the parents did wrong. All they found out was that Dahmer used to kill and skin animals behind the shed in his backyard, which his parents did not even know about, and that is a common precursor to murderous behavior in the future. So the blame needs to stop going to the poor parents of these lost souls, and to the actual creator of the monster – which in this case is Dahmer himself for hating the fact that he was homosexual. No one could do much of anything to stop him before he started, as he is the monster. Not many people kill because their parents fought when they were young, but many people kill because they want to

The nurture part of the debate is how the person was raised. The national center for crisis posted article “Serial killers: nature vs. nurture. How serial killer are born” going into detail about the crimes that have happened and if it was connected to their past and if they were abused at a young age. The serial killer may have been beat when they were young and they learned from their parents.

Stephen’s father begins to notice all the time his son and Leka spend together talking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company and so do the other pulp-cutters. They make ridiculous assumptions as to why Stephen and Leka spend so much time together, and they judge Leka, saying he is odd and has weird intentions just because he s from another country. Stephen s father orders his son to quit spending time with and talking to Leka because of the embarrassment it is causing him. At this moment Stephen feels scared and pressured by his father to obey because he is his father after all, and in the end he is convinced to distance himself from Leka. Although Stephen makes this decision that appears to show he‘s reverted to his old ways and beliefs of his father, we are given hope as we see Stephen still cares enough to wake Leka from a nightmare. Stephen grew up surrounded by men who believed they needed to be strong and fearless to be the best men they could be. He adopted these beliefs as his own because he didn’t know any better. When Leka began sharing his stories, Stephen was exposed to

A constant need for love and care develops in Richard when he is young. One of the first major events that occur to Richard during his autobiography is the abandonment by his father. As soon as his father leaves him and his mother, Richard begins to be deprived of the love he needs most

There are many theories as to why people become serial killers. Almost all of these concepts are associated with the Nature vs. Nurture theory. Are serial killers born with the need to kill, or is it something that they learn to long for as they grew up? Many believe that the nurture theory is the likely concept to believe; that serial killers are created from bad childhood experiences including being abused by their parents, or molested at an early age. Psychologist and sociologist have interviewed serial killers and picked apart their minds, to find out what it is that makes them feel the need to perform these heinous crimes. It is the nature theory that they are looking for when

The National Geographic film, A Portrait of a Killer, examines the types of stress that living beings can endure, and how it can thus affect the rest of their bodies. Severe chronic stress can lead even lead to the destruction of brain cells. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a neurobiologist of Stanford University who has been researching stress for over thirty years. In order to study stress and its implications upon nonhumans, he went to Africa to study baboons. This species has only three hours of stress caused by eating, and the rest of their daily routine is consumed by about nine hours of free time. Much like Western society, baboons socially stress out one another, as they have social hierarchies to regulate how them interact with one another.

Have you ever wondered why some people love art and music, and some love science and math? These individuals love math or art because they get a sense of relaxation and excitement from these activities. Serial killers are the same way they love to kill people and have lots of different motives for why they kill them. A serial killer is a person who kills repeatedly. The one motive that drove Dennis Rader, to kill his victims was to gain power and control over them.

Richard believes that he was made to be the person he became because of his parents as both continuously beat him his entire childhood. Many neighbourhood children abused and harmed him as well, for many reasons such as being Polish, scrawny and weak. Neither parent ever helped Richard either mentally of physically throughout the time he was bullied. “Richard often wondered why his mother and father didn’t like him, what he had done to deserve their indifference and violence” (p.22). Richard’s mother, Anna would not only verbally assault him, but would also routinely abuse him beginning at a young age, with household items such as broomsticks. She thought of this as stern discipline, which was supposedly required when brought up in a religious upbringing. Richard’s father, Stanley, abused his wife, as well as all three of his sons; one of which died from one of the

He was used to live in his brother’s shadow, but when the boat accident happened to them, he was the only one to survive. As he was always indentifying himself the less important one, he considered it was wrong that he was the one who would still have a life. As a result of nervous breakdown, he tried to kill himself with cutting his wrists in the bathroom, fortunately his father found out and save him. Then he went to the psychiatric for four months. When he comes back, there are still issues he needs to deal with.

Gary Ridgway grew up like any other ordinary suburban kid. He had a problem of wetting the bed which his mother would make fun of him and embarrass him in front of family and friends. As a young teen, he was always getting into trouble such as stabbing a six year-old boy in the ribs when he was a young teen. In high school Gary continued to go down hill and get bad grades. Gary graduated high school and joined the Navy. While he was in Vietnam, he discovered prostitutes and ended up getting sexually transmitted diseases. Soon after being home from Vietnam, Gary was killing and raping prostitutes on the streets of Seattle, Washington. Gary would go on to murder about 71 young women who he targeted because they were either prostitutes or runaways.

The question of whether or not man is predetermined at birth to lead a life of crime is a question that has been debated for decades. Are serial killers born with the lust for murder, or are their desires developed through years of abuse and torment? Many believe it is impossible for an innocent child to be born with the capability to commit a horrible act such as murder. But at the same time, how could we have corrupted society so much as to turn an innocent child into a homicidal maniac? Forensic psychologists have picked apart the minds of serial killers to find an answer as to what forces them to commit such perverse acts. Their ultimate goal is to learn how to catch a serial killer before

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.

It had been fifteen years since Betty had died. They found the doctor outside with a large cut on the back of his head. He bled out on the side of the road. As a result of the doctor not making it, Betty died. They came to the conclusion that Betty had died of a heart attack while giving birth to Richard. Richard is 15 now and is a Freshman. He is the best student in class, a hard worker, and is always helping out. Or so he would have you believe. The truth is, he has bullied his way to the top. He takes what he wants and when being caught in the act, gives puppy eyes and acts ignorant of the entire situation. Much like how his brothers are talented in their own craft, Richard is talented in manipulation and deceitfulness. He runs an entire gang of hooligans that obey his every word. They call themselves the Red Scarves. His gang takes money from the weak kids and protect whoever pays them. And with Richard being class president, he is fooling everyone by going after the Red Scarves. Richard has accomplished a lot, not all of it being necessarily good.