What Are The Different Types Of Serial Killers

The idea of serial killers and the role they play in our lives has fascinated people since the cases of Jack the Ripper and H.H. Holmes, although serial murderers existed before them. The infamous and mysterious complexities of these cases have puzzled and terrified people for over a century. Perhaps due to the deviant and taboo nature of serial killings, people in our society and others have tried to attribute many reasons for why they occur. In this search for answers, one major scope has been widely left out of the research: the sociological imagination. It is through this method of understanding that I will attempt to explain the development of serial killers and apply theories that explain the frequency of serial killings in our society.

According to Cristina Sanza, a letter that claims to have been written by the Ripper states that the killer planned to cut the ears off of his next victim. A day after the news agency received the letter, Catherine Eddowes was killed and both of her ears had been cut off. The Ripper’s letter was not published until after Eddowes’ death; therefore, the Ripper must have been the author of the letter. Sanza announced that Jeff Mudgett had a handwriting analysis expert compare the letter and Holmes’ diary and he reached the conclusion that the letter and diary were written by the same person. Sanza stated that “just to be safe, Mudgett sent the sample to a computer analysis who insisted there was a 97.95 percent chance that Holmes wrote the

They tested both the hair's DNA and the DNA on the axe and both results matched Jack's DNA but jack was hiding from the police. Until he slipped up and tried to exchange a golden egg for money at a bank and was caught as he left. Jack was put on trial and was sentenced to 20 years for murder, theft, and evading police. The

Many people walk through the paths of life hiding secrets from one another. Sometimes these secrets can be small and insignificant to other people. Sometimes people carry around with them much more serious, deep, dark, and often dangerous or disturbing great example of someone who may be carrying around secrets that everyone could agree on are dangerous and disturbing. A serial killer is generally described as a person who has killed more than three people in a time frame spanning more than a month with time lapsing between each one of their kills. Serial killers come in all different shapes and sizes. Race, age, gender, social status, economical situations, family background, physical

Although the prevalence of the serial killer is ultimately unknown, many researchers agree about “one-half of 1%” of homicides are determined to be the product of serial killers (Homant & Kennedy, 2014). In order to prevent future victims, improve the ability of law enforcement to detect and apprehend, potentially incorporate treatment for current serial killers, and increase the ability to detect potential future serial killers it is important to identify characteristics that may cause one to become a serial killer. The question researchers have strived to answer is are serial killers born or are there explicit factors that contribute to someone ultimately becoming a serial killer? Researchers have potentially exposed several factors that potentially contribute to one becoming a serial killer. These conditions are notably greater in prevalence in known serial killers compared to the general population. These factors consist of family dynamics/parental characteristics, experienced child abuse (physical, sexual, and neglect), and psychological disorders.

Serial killers are defined as those who commits take the lives of 3 people in over a period of a month. Most serial killers commit murder for some sort of psychological beneift. Serial killers vary in many ways, some serial killers have patterns, some have motives, some are organized and other are disorganized. Richard “The Ice Man” Leonard Kuklinski, Aileen Wuornos, and Charles Cullen are three specific serial killers who all had different motives for taking the lives of many innocent people.

Russell Edwards, the owner of a 126-year-old shawl, which was claimed to have been found at one of Jacks murder scenes, states that he has found DNA evidence identifying Jack. The shawl was believed to have been found at Catherine Eddowes’, the fourth victim, murder scene. Edwards claims that he has a letter that proves that the shawl belonged to Sergeant Simpson, who was on duty the night of Eddowes’ murder (Conner). According to record, Simpson never washed the shawl of the blood and put it into storage, where it stayed until being sold to Edwards. With the DNA samples and the descendants, the blood found on the shawl was a match to Eddowes, and upon discovering semen on the shawl, a match was made to the Kosminski family. Jari Louhelainen,

A serial killer can be defined as “a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern.” (McGraw-Hill) While there have always been serial killers, the 1880’s had some of the most significant. Two of the most notorious were “Jack the Ripper” and Lizzie Borden. While neither were convicted for their crimes, they will both go down in history as some of the world’s most brutal killers.

They believed because DNA from a male not matching anyone in the investigation had meant an intruder was responsible for the murder. The elite seven used world-renowned forensic criminalist, Dr. Henry Lee and his laboratory in Connecticut to dispel the concluded interpretation of the DNA evidence (The Case of JonBenet, 2016). The touch-DNA method is extremely sensitive and Dr. Lee proved that by testing a pair of brand new panties never opened out of the package. He was easily able to discover DNA from a female on the underwear, which could have come from someone in the manufacturing process (The Case of JonBenet, 2016). This explains the male DNA found in JonBenet’s panties and even more so, Dr. Lee explained how this DNA can easily transfer from one garment to another such as sliding on long johns over underwear (The Case of JonBenet, 2016). Dr. Lee’s tests and expert analysis discredits the district attorney’s choice to eliminate the parents as suspects (The Case of JonBenet,

Semen samples collected were reanalyzed. Police now had a DNA profile of the killer but they did not have a profile of a known individual to compare it to. They ran the DNA through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but it returned no hits, so the only thing they can conclude was that the killer was not a convicted offender.

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.

A serial killer is defined as an individual who has murdered three or more people over a time period of longer than a month; with a process called “cooling off” in between the different murders (What are the Different Types of Serial Killers?). The FBI states that motives for serial murder include "anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking.” Throughout history, the FBI has zeroed in on four different types of motives for serial killers, visionary, missionary, hedonistic, and power or control killers.

Serial killers can be defined as a person who kills multiple people over a long period of time. American media spreads stereotypical information about serial killers. The media portrays serial killers as either a monster or a charming guy next door (Forsyth 868). Serial killers cannot be fitted into the medias cookie-cutter definition. Everyone has experienced unique events throughout their life that shapes their personality and serial killers are not an exception. Ronald Dominique, a serial killer suffered a traumatic event while in jail; he was raped, and this event triggered his serial killings. “Serial murderers like those who kill only once, fit into no single profile; and create too wide a burden to be explained with one idea. They do seem to have one similar characteristic –that is; to blend into society and appear normal” (Forsyth 872).

A serial killer could be dining, sitting, or even living next to you at this very moment. Most killers offer little to no obvious clues that will lead anyone to detect their often secretive, undercover actions. I ask myself, “How can we be so naive to these types of people?” Serial killers amongst us are often well educated, portray an All-American image, yet have a psychotic side to them.

The diary of Jack the Ripper was denounced as a crude forgery, dating from a year or two before it was made public. Even to those inclined to view it as genuine, its provenance remains unclear. It is incoherently written in a stream-of consciousness style, but for the most part contains boasting, near-hysterical passages by Maybrick of anticipation at killing prostitutes, fooling the police, and avenging his wife's adultery. It also contains semi-coherent descriptions of the five Ripper murders, which is the only reason people are for sure