Serial Killer Research Paper

He was named Samuel after a friend of his parents, and also named Truett after, George W. Truett, a pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. His father, Joseph Benjamin, was an insurance salesman for Life and Casualty Company. Joseph collected on life and accidental death policies that yielded sometimes only nickels and dimes. Even though Cathy’s father was a hard worker, he could not make an adequate living for his large family. Often, he would bring home chicken, hams, and other goods from policyholders who were too poor to pay their premiums in cash. Joseph verbally abused his wife. He relied heavily on the older children to take care of him. Truett’s mother, Lilla Kimbell Cathy, ran a boarding house to help support the family. She worked like a slave, keeping house and cooking for her seven children and a houseful of boarders (Cathy, p.36-37).

In the video “The Confessions” presented by Frontline, a murder of a women that was committed by one man, quickly resulted into a false gang murder-rape scene committed by eight men. The victim, Michelle Bosko, was seen to be raped and killed in her apartment in Norfolk, Virginia. From the video, it has been proven that seven out of the eight men that confessed were innocent, but somehow they all received an unequal punishment. Because the innocent men admitted to a murder that they didn’t commit out of fear, they were all sentenced to some time in prison. The head detective, Glenn Ford, intimidated the men so much that they either were convinced that they were at the crime scene or they told him every detail that he wanted to hear.

The Case of the West Memphis Three involves the three teenage boys accused and convicted of murdering Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers in West Memphis, Arkansas on May 5th, 1993. The investigation, trial, and appeals that followed would put the Arkansas criminal justice system under scrutiny for their actions. The West Memphis Police Department arrested and charged Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelly, Jr. with the three boy’s murders. The entire case was under the constant watch of the media and brought a great deal of attention to the actions and conduct of the West Memphis Police Department, as well as the Arkansas criminal justice system. Many outsiders got involved with the West Memphis Three case. Among these outsiders were famous musicians Eddy Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, famous actors including Johnny Depp, and superstar director Peter Jackson. These celebrities helped to raise awareness of the case as well as to help raise money for the West Memphis three to obtain appropriate post-conviction representation and unbiased forensic testing and analysis in the hopes of exonerating them of their convictions. While the new forensic evidence (and the new testing and expert analysis of the original evidence) ultimately helped the West Memphis Three become free men again, the question still remains as to who really murdered those three boys on May 5th, 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. Because the

A serial killer is traditional defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media.

There was no evidence collected and tested at the crime scene which could have proved who committed the murders. A lieutenant who contacted a juvenile officer in Memphis both agreed that the murders had to have been done by someone in a cult. The juvenile officer quickly knew of someone who was involved in a cult and said this juvenile could be capable of a crime like this. The accused, Damien Echols, was immediately interviewed and asked questions that the police believed no one but the killer would know the answers to. The answers that were given by Damien Echols were known answers throughout the community and this made Damien look guilty. Damien’s appearance was very strange and different and he was not considered “normal” in the communities beliefs. He was considered guilty by his Wiccan beliefs and his gothic appearance. Not only was Damien deemed guilty of this crime, but two other boys were also accused of these murders. There are many inconsistencies with the case. The police did not collect all evidence in the woods that could have been collected to possibly link the murders to someone. According to TruTV Crime Library, there was a boy who claimed he saw who committed the murders. He claimed he even saw men who spoke Spanish commit the murders. He later changed his story and said he saw one of the victim’s fathers killing the three boys. This same boy could not even identify two of the boys

America has some of the most infamous serial killers who marked history, serial killers who once didn’t even think to harm any human being. Many people grow up differently from others, some people grow up in a safe environment surrounded with caring people and others grow up in a completely different environment being missed treated by others, therefore are serial killers made or born?

On May 5th, 1993 three eight year old boys were reported missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. The boys were found the next day, hog tied in a wooded area called “Robin Hood Hills”. After the case had been “thoroughly” investigated, the West Memphis Police announced on the news that they had found the murderers, pointing fingers at Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, three teenagers who were different from the norm in West Memphis, making it easy for them to be accused. I believe the boys were wrongfully accused of this crime because there is a lack of evidence in the case pointing to the boys, and the crime just seems to convenient for these three to actually pull off.

The police were convinced that they had found their killers in the three teenagers after hearing and recording Jessie’s so called confession to the crime and his tying Damien and Jason to it as well. Even though alibis were presented by the boys the police ignored them and went ahead with the arrests. It is rather obvious, that basing the whole case and investigation on the coerced confession given by Jessie is a seriously flawed decision on the part of the West Memphis police and brings the credibility of the department into question. Police discovered a knife in the Byers’ household belonging to John Mark Byers. Forensics stated that the type of blade on the knife was the same type used to cut and mutilate the three young boys; yet the blood found on the knife was never analyzed. When asked about the knife, Byers stated

John?s interests in young boys increased and in the spring of 1968 he was indicted by a grand jury in Black Hawk County for allegedly committing sodomy with a teenage boy named Mark Miller. Mark told the courts that John had tricked him into being handcuffed and had then violently raped him. John, fearful of being

The community began to search for the boys with no help from local police until the following morning. The boy’s bodies were discovered the next day, tied, naked, and mutilated, in a muddy ravine. Steve Jones, a former juvenile officer with Crittenden county, located a shoe belonging to one of the boys. He called for detective Mike Allen, who found the bodies of the young boys submerged under water (Berg, director, 2012). The murders shocked the small town of West Memphis, and put major pressure on the police department to find the killers and bring them to justice. Arrests were made less than a month after the murders and no other suspects were sought. Three teenage boys, Michael Dwayne (Damien) Echols, age 18, Charles Jason Baldwin, age 16, and Jessie Loyd Misskelley Jr., age 17, were arrested and charged with three counts of murder. All three boys initially claimed their innocence until Misskelley was interrogated for 12 hours with no legal representation or either parent present, confessed to participating in the crime along with Echols and

One of the accused was an old beggar woman named Sarah Good, another was an adulterous woman named Sarah Osbourne and the third was an Indian slave named Titube. However, the accusations did not stop there. Over one-hundred and fifty people were arrested and put on trial for practicing witchcraft. The trials were extremely unfair. Since most of the accused refused to confess, the court relied on spectral evidence. Spectral evidence consisted of Satan or some other supernatural being appearing in the form of an accused witch. It was impossible for one of the accused to be found not guilty (Bailey,1). The first to be hanged was Bridget Bishop. In the month to follow eighteen others were hanged and Giles Cory was pressed to death when he refused to plead guilty. In 1692twenty innocent people were executed in and around Salem. What started as a few adolescent girls writhing and convulsing soon metalized into dozens of victims, hundreds accused, and committees torn

While the coroner negligently examined the evidence, he overlooked a small amount of blood found at the crime scene. When the bodies of the boys were erected, a parole officer, Jerry Driver, was convinced that one of his juveniles, Damien Echols, was involved in the felony as a part of a cult. He immediately became the main focus of the investigation and was questioned two days after the homicide. Because of the lack of evidence, the crime became very popular and Vicki Hutchenson, an arbitrary individual who had no involvement with the investigation, chose to engage herself by getting Misskelley to introduce herself to Echols. Damien invited both to a Wiccan meeting which is a witches’ gathering where she claimed that Echols supposedly admitted to the crime in a drunken state. Hutchenson’s lack of knowledge involving the whereabouts and other information about the meeting should have prevented her from a legitimate witness. Years later, Vicki recanted and stated that she was forced by the police to fabricate her experience with Echols and Misskelley. However, the police interrogated Misskelley a day later without reason for 12 hours, and only taped 46 minutes of it. Although Misskelley was a minor, he was

On December 15, 1970, Brooks’s lured two 14 year old bo)ys named James Glass and Danny Yates away from a religious rally held near Houston Heights to Corll's apartment. They both were tied to opposite sides of Corll's torture board and then raped strangled and was buried in a boat shed.

Sarah Montgomery (Moore)- When she was only thirty-nine when she was murdered in her Iowa home bed. She was one of the most active participant at the family's local church. Sarah ex brother-in-law was one of the suspects in the case because he was very violent. Soon he was cleared from the case.

Many things today confuse, yet enthrall the masses. War, murder, medical science, incredible rescues, all things you would see on The History Channel. There is another topic that is also made into documentaries however, serial killers. Dark twisted people that commit multiple murders are of interest to the population, but what caused them to be this way. What horrible tragic set of events could twist a man to murder one or many people. Could Schizophrenia, psychopathy, or sociopathy? Many people have researched this topic and believe that childhood trauma, heavy drugs during the growing phase of life, as well as many other things have twisted the minds of men such as Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson,