The Christopher Wilder : The Beauty Queen Killer

One late night, in 1993 in Missouri, Christopher Simmons; a 17 year old boy along with two of his friends robbed a woman by the name of Mrs.Shirley Crook. They broke into her home and the noise startled her making her get up to see who was in the house. Simmons, who has recently been involved in an accident with her recognized her face. Simmons became upset and scared. The three young men left, but came back later to murder her. The three men tied her up, took Crook to a bridge and threw her off it. They went on to tell people about it; boasting about the crime they had just committed. Christopher Simmons had the idea for his friends to come along because they thought

Although it is not obvious in modern society, psychopaths may survive and thrive within the population. Psychopaths are typically represented as stark outliers that rarely exist outside of mental institutions, but this is not always the case. In Columbine, by Dave Cullen, Cullen investigates the psychological state of Eric Harris, the mastermind behind the Columbine massacre that occurred on April 20, 1999. Through his extensive definition of psychopathy, Cullen elaborates on the reasons that led Eric to murder many of his peers, and to explain how his psychopathic nature helped him accomplish his mission.

This psychopath terrorized the people of Wisconsin and Ohio for thirteen years. This man committed a series of murder, rape, and dismemberment amongst his seventeen 17 victims. This paper will go one to talk about his early life, first victims, killing spree, arrest and imprisonment, and also his death.

This essay aims to examine weather serial killers are born a certain way and their genetics define their psychotic tendencies or whether they're a product of a bad environment that they grew up. This essay looks at recent killings in the late 20th century as there is more information on the killers from this period and it's easier to gain details about their childhoods. Whilst I will look at various different killers to reach more rounded conclusions (see appendix for comparison table), this essay will focus on four in detail to examine the debate; Ted Bundy (1946-89), Jeffery Dahmer (1960-1994), John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994) and Gary Ridgway (1949-present).

Richard Ramirez is an infamous serial murderer who terrorized Los Angeles, California in 1985. The media gave him the name the “Night Stalker” when he was on his vicious rampage of forcing himself into the homes of his victims late at night and committing his heinous crimes. Though he was only convicted of thirteen murders, he had many more victims. His crimes were so random, disorganized, and impulsive that the law enforcement officials of Los Angeles had no luck finding Ramirez for months as he grew increasingly more violent. (Tripod.com, 2012) Finally, in August of 1985, the police had enough information from many of his victims to release a sketch of him to the media. The sketch had only been on the news for one

This essay will look at the public understanding of the nature of mental disorder and to what extent it is associated with dangerousness and violence. The essay will begin by exploring the public’s perspectives and opinions on the matter and the impact that the mentally ill have on crime rates. Specific social perspectives will also be explored..

As I viewed the case of Gary L. Sampson, 41, he can best be described as a man dependent on liquor and cocaine, a miscreant father, and a bank burglar with a long history of brutality. On August 1, 2001, he handed himself over to the Vermont State Police in the wake of escaping from interest for a string of three killings he submitted in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The individuals who knew Sampson estimated that his homicides were an urgent finale to a pained life. Amid his initial life in New England, he once bound, choked, and beat three elderly ladies in a treat store. He had commandeered autos at knifepoint and was therapeutically analyzed as schizophrenic. In 1977, he wedded a 17-year-old young lady he had impregnated; after two months, he was captured and accused of assault for having "unnatural intercourse with a

Serial killers have plagued the world since before the 1500s. Theories have evolved over long periods of time for explanations as to why people begin killing. The earliest explanation was rooted in witchcraft and demonic possessions overtaking the person causing them to commit these acts of violence. Biological, psychological, and social theories have emerged over the years as society has developed and advanced. The latest theory suggests that the behavior of serial killers results as a combination of biological, psychological, and socialization factors. Despite the numerous theories trying to explain the phenomena of serial killing, no one knows exactly why or how seemingly normal people begin killing others. One of the most infamous serial killers was Donald Harvey. Harvey was a self-proclaimed “angel of death.” He murdered dozens of victims as a hospital aid. Due to Harvey’s difficult childhood and prolonged sexual abuse,  Donald developed a psychopathic-type personality disorder and killed dozens of victims.

For the past century, the Murders of Andrew J. Borden and his wife Abby Borden became one of America’s obsessions. From the towns’ people of Fall River Massachusetts to the rest of the country, the Borden murders became the topic of interest. The case shocked the nation as Lizzie Borden- a 32 year old school teacher- was put on trial for the murders of her parents.

There is no doubt that the results of a rampage can be tragic, But the media tends to exploit the drama and leave out the context.Aside from the group of severely ill individuals, multiple studies have shown that mental illness alone does Not incline a person to violence.

As with many sexual sadists who go on to become serial killers, Gacy claimed that he was molested as a child by a family friend. As Gacy got older the verbal abuse from his father continued. Eventually Gacy fled to Nevada where he worked as a funeral attendant. One night Gacy climbed into the coffin of a teenage boy and proceeded to embrace the corpse. Gacy expressed that he was so shocked by his actions that he returned to the home of his father afterwards.

Senator Creigh Deeds story is just one of many that end in tragedy because of a mental health system that has failed. While the major proportion of people living with mental illness are not violent, they can become a victim of violence. According to the latest statistics from the American Psychological Association one in five adults has a diagnosable mental disorder, one in twenty-four has a serious mental disorder (SMI), and people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent that people without mental illness (Association, American Psychiatric, 2016). Untreated mental health care is characteristic of the violent crimes that we see happening today. Some of the reasons behind these untreated individuals are the unmet needs of people not having a financial means to pay for services, lack of insurance, knowledge about how to access care, embarrassment about having the need for services, and those that needed care but experienced delays in accessing care (Jones et al., 2014).

While “movies, newspapers, magazines, television shows, books, radio programs, and advertisements have all been vehicles for communicating the experience of…mental illness” it usually “[tends] to be a misrepresentation of the experience” (Corrigan 201). This has a major negative impact on people suffering from mental illnesses because they feel sentiments of “societal scorn and discrimination” which ultimately “leads to diminished self-esteem, fear of pursuing one’s goals, and loss of social opportunities” (Corrigan 201). There seems to be a revival in the world of movies and television of depicting forms of exploring the minds of serial killers which started in the 60s with the creation of the Horror film genre. There is almost a strange fascination amongst audiences to know more about the minds of murderers and those who are too sick to see the wrong they are doing. Films depicting mental health have a great impact on the lives of those suffering from mental illness and also the perceptions of those who do not suffer from mental illness. The mostly negative stigma surrounding those who suffer from mental disorders gives them a bad reputation that impacts most aspects of their lives.

Since the late 1970’s, there has been a strong correlation between mental health disorders and the perpetrators of mass shootings. “Up to 60% of the perpetrators have displayed symptoms including acute paranoia, delusions and depression before committing their crimes” (Metzl & Macleish, 2015). In the case of Adam Lanza, infamously known for the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, the history of his mental illnesses is quite extensive. However, it has been discovered that when it comes to mental illnesses, it is not influenced by one factor, but rather many factors that have integrated into the individual’s life (Sue, 2014). These factors began affecting Lanza’s life at only two years old, continuing throughout his lifetime until his heinous act of murder at the age of twenty. Throughout his

“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