The First American Female Serial Killer

Aileen was born in 1956 to her 16 year old mother. She was not born with any physical or mental disabilities. At the time of her birth her father was incarcerated for child molestation and he was also believed to be a schizophrenic, he hung himself in jail and Aileen never met him. When Aileen was 3 years old her mother abandoned her and her 4 year old brother and left them with her own parents who legally adopted them. The family struggled economically and by age 11 Aileen would engage in sexual activities for food, drugs and alcohol. Home life was not easy for Aileen as she claims to be sexually abused by her alcoholic grandfather and beaten by her grandmother. She would also engage in

My research paper is on Anthony Sowell, a serial killer, identified in press reports as the Cleveland Strangler. My research will examine and explain Anthony Sowell’s life and history prior to his crimes, the crimes and personality theories that apply to his deviant behavior.

The following criminal analysis shows why Aileen Wuornos was convicted for the murder of six men and what lead up to these actions. These actions were not in self-defense, but out of cold blood. This profile will analyze the following: what lead up to the murder of these men, what Wuornos’s intents were, the evidence and patterns, her personality and characteristics, and her behavior. These facts and evidence will show Wuornos’s intent and motive, and whether or not she was insane. This woman was not born to be a killer, but something in her life drove her to commit these horrible crimes, and this profile will analyze how exactly she did it and why.

For the purpose of this essay I will be considering Nils Christie’s (1986) concept of the ‘ideal victim’. In considering this concept, I will discuss what is meant by an ‘ideal victim’ and will also be focusing on the high profile Australian criminal case of Anita Cobby in Blacktown on 2nd of February 1986. Anita Cobby was only 26 years old when she was abducted, brutally raped and murdered by four ‘ideal offenders’. This essay will also consider, the ways in which the media and criminal justice system have constructed Anita Cobby as an ‘ideal victim’.

To say that Aileen’s start in life was a poor one, is a great understatement. It was a horrible life right from the start. One of the only good things about her life was that she never got to know her father, a psychopathic child molester, serving a life sentence in a Kansas prison for raping a 7 year old girl, who hanged himself in prison in 1969. (Arrigo & Griffin (2004).

Serial killers can be profiled in many ways, but they do not always fit perfectly into one category. Most of the definitions and techniques used to profile these criminals are based on reoccurring patterns and characteristics in their killings. While society may view most of these people as troubled, there are classifications of some serial killers as being well adapted into society. Serial Killers can be characterized as organized or disorganized murders, as well as classified into four different types created by Ronald and Stephen Holmes; serial killers are typed as visionary, mission-oriented, hedonistic, or power-oriented. Albert Fish is a well-known serial killer who is a good representation of how serial killers do not always fall or stay in one box.

“Women cannot be murderers.” Even though this was not explicitly stated in the newspapers, The Boston Herald in its article “Lizzie Borden” conveys the perception that the feminine ways associated with women would make it impractical for women to commit murder. Lizzie Borden, a young lady accused of brutally killing her stepmother and father with multiple blows to their heads with a hatchet was described as a religious, sincere, and modest human being in The Boston Herald’s article covering Lizzie’s life before and after the murders. During Lizzie’s youth, she suffered from isolation because of her reserved personality and belief that nobody appreciated her presence, but in womanhood turned her life around and attain friendships who vouched for her good character during the time of the investigation. The Boston Herald’s article “Lizzie Borden: Her School and Later Life - A Noble Woman, Though Retiring”, successfully persuades the reader of Lizzie Borden’s innocence with the focus on her femininity through diction and logic.

Aileen Wuornos was a mentally troubled woman that had a troubled life as a young child. Aileen Wuornos, also identified as Lee Wuornos, was born February 29th of 1956 in Rochester, Michigan. Aileen’s parents were not great role models. Her father was a psychopath who was under arrest for child molestation; he took his life in prison. Their mother abandoned Aileen and her brother. Their grandparents adopted them, which they thought were their parents for years. Their family life began to get worse as the years pass on by with a drunken grandmother /mother and a stern grandfather/father. When she was about 13 she got pregnant by an unidentified man; Aileen also said she was raped. No one believed that she was raped, and she was sent to a home for unwed mother. Once she gave birth the child was placed for adoption; her grandfather threw Aileen out of the house a short time later. At age 15 Aileen

Andrea Yates, then Andrea Kennedy, was born July 2nd 1964 to a middle class family in Houston, Texas. From the start she was an overachiever and goal oriented. She maintained high marks in school, graduated valedictorian and had been captain of the swim team. Forensic psychiatrist _____________, an expert witness for the defendant in the trial, would later comment on her constant desire and need to be perfect in everything she did. She attended University of Texas Health and Science Center’s nursing program and had a successful career as a nurse, a job that she later resigned from after conceiving her first child.

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

The media today, is highly selective in their constructions of offences, offenders and victims. Media representations of crime are moulded and women are portrayed in a way that is entertainment driven and is appealing to the audience. Despite the fact that women seldom stalk, murder outsiders or commit sequential murders- in fact they are rarely vehement, “accounting for only ten percent of convicted violent offenders- those who do so are highly newsworthy because of their novelty” (Jewkes 2011, p. 123) Present day media admits that because fierce women are comparatively uncommon, they are all the more appealing and diabolical to the audience as a result. The essay shall discuss the reason and presentation in the media of female offenders, female victims and women specific crimes.

She was found guilty and sentenced to death. In March of 1992, Wuornos plead no contest to the murders of Dick Humphreys, Troy Burress, and David Spears, saying she wanted to "get right with God". In her statement to the court, she stated, "I wanted to confess to you that Richard Mallory did violently rape me as I've told you; but these others did not. [They] only began to start to." Wuornos was found guilty and was given three more death sentences. In June of 1992 Wuornos plead guilty to the murder of Charles Carskaddon and was convicted and sentenced to death again. In February 1993, Wuornos plead guilty to the murder of Walter Jeno Antonio and was sentenced to death again. No charges were brought against her for the murder of Peter Siems, as his body was never found. In all, she received six death

Elizabeth Bathory is known as one of the most ruthless female serial killers.She has rumored to kill over 600 hundred girls. Bathory was born in Transylvania in 1560.Bathory came from a very wealthy and prominent family, she was related to a cardinal, prince and a prime minister but her most famous relative was Istvan Bathory who was the prince of transylvania and king of poland from 1575 to 1586 .Bathory as a child used to have horrible seizures.Before she was married to her husband Bathory had a child with a man who remains unknown. In 1575, Bathory got married to Count Nadasdy.She has four children with her husband.Her husband died in 1604. Bathory started to age that's when she started to drain her servants dry because she thought their blood could keep her forever young she did this because she was fearful that she was losing her beauty.One day a servant was brushing her hair but pulled too hard so Elizabeth slapped her on the hand so hard that it the girl started to bleed until the blood was on Elizabeth’s hand that’s when she thought that blood of young girls would keep her forever beautiful.She ended up telling her majordomo and another helper to cut the servant girl and bring her the blood so she could bath in it.

Lisa Scottoline in the novel, Lady Killer, skillfully illustrates the reality between the law and relationships. Scottoline supports her demonstration by telling the story between Mary DiNunzio, her work, and friendships. Scottoline’s purpose is to capture the reader with realistic events that are normally not talked about in order to grasp the interest of her readers, and reveal the reality of criminal justice. Scottoline writes in a conversational tone for her young readers without previous knowledge about criminals nor law.

“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