Serial Killers in Modern America

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Serial Killers in modern America

In 1404 Gilles De Rais was convicted of torturing, raping and murdering young children. Rias main victim's was young boys with blonde hair and blue eyes. He would take these young victims to his residence to rape, tortured, and cut them up into small parts. Rias would also ejaculate on his dying victim. It is not known for certain the number of young adults that was murdered; however, Rias may have killed up to 600 victims to include females. The victim ages range from 6 to 18 years of age. Rais servants often assisted him with committing the hideous crimes. One of Rias servant named Henriet stated that his master would make him tortured these young children. Rais love to watch the agony on his young victims face. Henriet stated that he would cut the young victims jugular vein so that Rais could take a bath in their blood. After the incident Henriet would burn the victim and destroy anything connected to the crime. Rais would later cry and pray about what he had done to the young victims.

Fascination with crime and the macabre has an extensive history of folklore and reality. The vicious fascination with criminality often brings about the question as to why many members of humanity celebrate criminality through stories of numinous or spiritual possessions by the cadaver (Penfold-Mounce, 2010). For example, "the belief that the skin of a criminal corpse could cure skin diseases, while their blood could stop a variety of complaints including epilepsy, and their small bones, if kept in a purse, were believed to prevent it from ever being empty" (Hibbert, 1963, p. 296). This of all of which Hibbert called the "celebration of executions."

David Berkowitz, who is was also known as the "Son of Sam" claimed that in order to keep the demons quiet he had to do what they wanted. When dogs howled, he believed that they were demons asking him to kill women. He later recanted his story and told the FBI that he invented the "Son of Sam" stories to convince the court that he was out of his mind. He then stated the real reason he killed was partially because of his mother's death; his failure with women, and the sexually arousal he felt when he killed women.

The meaning of serial killers in the Britannica is the "unlawful homicide of at least two people carried out in a series over a period of time." Webster meaning is "the performing series of similar acts over a period of time." The words homicide, murder, and killing are all the acts of ending the existence of another human being. However, if this individual kills numerous victims over a time period he or she is portrayed to be a "serial killer." Many serial killers have been known to kill for some type of particular gratification, or sexual advantages.

The Federal Beau of Investigation (FBI) defines "serial murder" as killing of several persons in three or more separate incidents over weeks or extended periods of time. Psychiatrist and professional criminologist have classified them into organized and disorganized. In disorganized serial killers, the perpetrator is very violent with no apparent preplanning. The organized serial killers are often meticulous, detailed, and efficient. The Federal Beau of Investigation (FBI) indicates that a serial killer motive for killing include anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking. The victims of a serial killer often have something in common such as race, occupation, sex and age group.

No one can definitively ascertain the cause and reasoning behind a serial killer. Many professionals and therapist concur that this behavior is developed in the early stages of childhood development.

These individuals are most often from families with a history of Psychological and behavioral problems like alcohol, drug, or sexual abuse. They have been abused emotionally and physically. The majority of serial killers in the United States are usually white males, from lower to middle class background; usually in their late twenties to early thirties. However, they often include African American, Asians and Hispanics.

Serial killers in modern America have not changed much from serial killers of long ago. The possibility of being caught is much greater now due to a variety of resources that law enforcement use to track, establish patterns and be proactive. Although there may have been several killers arrested many may not have been charged due to being connected to the crime.

Female serial killers tend to kill victims they appear to be intimate with. Aileen Carol Pittman