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Inside the Mind of Serial Killers

Carlos K Talam

Department of psychology, Kenya Methodist University

Psych 2237: Psychology of the Mind

Dr. Thomas Munene

Dec 1, 2020
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Inside the Mind of Serial Killers

People should know what brings about the murderous thoughts that drive a normal

individual to become a serial killer. Understanding a serial killer will help authorities,

psychiatrists, and other related organizations to stop a serial killer early. It is not always easy to

comprehend because society is not accustomed to talking about murder so freely, but doing this

prevents more deaths and raises awareness on such topics.

The study of serial murder continues to humble even the most experienced researcher. I

was told by Dr. Steven Egger, as renowned an expert on the subject as there is, that the more one

studies this subject, the more comes the realization of how little one knows (Giannangelo, 2012,

p.24). In 2015, Michael F. Stone, Ph.D., a psychoanalyst in New York, published a study of mass

killings. Stone selected 235 mass homicides that occurred in the United States from 1913 to 2015

and were reported in newspapers, magazines, books, and websites. It does not appear that he

interviewed any of the perpetrators. FBI statistics indicate there were approximately 1,000 mass

killings in the United States between 1900 and 1999, meaning Stone’s sample covers less than

one-quarter of the incidents. Stone selected cases for which sufficient information was available

to make a psychiatric assessment. For 7 cases Stone noted the information was not sufficient to

make a judgment; thus, his series consists of 228, not 235, cases. For his diagnoses, Stone used a

narrow definition of mental illness, psychosis. Thus, the mass killers identified as mentally ill by

Stone were almost all diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with psychotic features.

(Carroll, 2018, para, 3).

Potential murderers often feel the crime will benefit them psychologically, perhaps

fulfilling them internally. This depends upon the state of mind of the killers, which of course is

the most troubling and confusing aspect of the murder, to begin with. The offenders often
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discover that their fulfillment disappears and they soon get the urge to kill again. The murderer

also suffers from the action due to incarceration and a possible death sentence if they are caught.

(Zeigler & Kurtz, 2007, p.2)

The reality of serial homicide has been largely hidden from the general public because

serial killers are presented in a biased and stereotypical fashion by state officials and the news

and entertainment media. Popular culture images of serial killers as homicidal maniacs or evil

geniuses obscure the actual diversity among them in terms of their pathological personalities and

behavior. Misinformation and media hyperbole has turned serial killers into cartoonish

boogeymen and kept the public in the dark about their true demographic and psychological

profiles and what leads them to kill in the first place (Bonn, 2014, p.54)

What Drives a Serial Killer to Homicide?

Experts have established various motives that can lead serial killers to perform those

vices. Mental illnesses being one of them, there are other factors as well, and these may differ

profoundly from a regular murderer, as these traits are found to be contemporary since birth.

Factors such as fear of rejection and lack of parental love are just but a few.

Generally speaking, a serial murderer rapes and kills people because it gives him sexual

gratification. During his development, the concepts of violence and sex became intertwined with

one another. In other words, the thought of gaining control over someone and committing violent

acts toward them turns him on. (ThisInterestsMe, 2020, para.1). Serial killers do not kill just

because they are sociopaths. Although being a sociopath who doesn’t feel guilt can make it

easier for someone to become a serial killer, that alone is not enough. A lack of remorse is just

one ingredient in this cocktail of violence.

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Realistically speaking, there are probably thousands of sociopaths living among us who have no

fantasies about harming other people. They might lack empathy and remorse. They might be

manipulative, deceitful, and superficial. However, the underlying rage and sexual fantasies that

drive a serial killer to kill just aren’t there. In other words, causing physical harm to others is not

important to them. It does not turn them on. (ThisInterestsMe, 2020, Para.8). As does infancy,

early childhood is key to the formation of a serial killer.  Commonly, serial killers were isolated

from their peers as children (Vronsky 2004)

A neophyte serial killer who was traumatized as a child will seek to avoid painful

relationships with other human beings as an adult. He will particularly seek to avoid painful

relationships with those he desires or covets. Such fear of rejection may compel a fledgling serial

killer to want to eliminate any objects of his affections. He may come to believe that by

destroying the person he desires before entering into a relationship with them, he can eliminate

the frightening possibility of being abandoned, humiliated, or otherwise hurt by someone he

loves, as he was in childhood. (Bonn, 2014, p.94).

Understanding a serial killer with mental health

It is never easy, and it’s never pleasant putting yourself into their thoughts, but the

common soul does not seem to comprehend the reasoning behind their minds. What was, why

did, how did, are some of the questions roaming about in society. Well, research has put us a step

closer to understanding the minds of a few of them in a way that can be virtually understandable.

It’s the thrill of the hunt that gets these guys going. If you could get a galvanic skin

response reading on one of them as he focuses on his potential victim, I think you’d get the same
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reaction as from that lion in the wilderness. And it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about

the ones who hunt children, who hunt young women or the elderly or prostitutes or any other

definable group—or the ones who don’t seem to have any particularly preferred victim. In some

ways, they’re all the same. (Douglas & Olshaker, 2017, p.12-13)

…but it is the ways they are different, and the clues that they leave to their personalities, that

have led us to a new weapon in the interpretation of certain types of violent crimes, and the

hunting, apprehension, and prosecution of their perpetrators. I’ve spent most of my professional

career as an FBI special agent trying to develop that weapon, and that’s what this book is about.

In the case of every horrible crime since the beginning of civilization, there is always that

searing, fundamental question: what kind of person could have done such a thing? The type of

profiling and crime-scene analysis we do at the FBI’s Investigative Support Unit attempts to

answer that question. (Douglas & Olshaker, 2017, p.12-13)

A key aspect of the psychopath regarding serial killers is that the violence tends to be

predatory and primarily on a stranger-to-stranger basis. The violence is planned, purposeful, and

emotionless. This emotionlessness reflects a detached, fearless, and possibly dissociated state,

revealing a lower level of impulses generated by the autonomic nervous system and a lack of

anxiety. The psychopath’s general motivation is to control and dominate, and his history reveals

no bonds with others. (Giannangelo, 2012, p.32)

Mental disorders prevalent in different serial killers

Psychopathy- Psychopathy is defined as a mental (antisocial) disorder in which an

individual manifests amoral and antisocial behavior, shows a lack of ability to love or establish
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meaningful personal relationships, expresses extreme egocentricity, and demonstrates a failure to

learn from experience and other behaviors associated with the condition (Neumann & Lasslett,

2017, para.1).

Another salient feature of psychopathy is a lack of empathy; it is central to any

description of this type of personality. You probably are not completely comfortable when

thinking about closing a door on your finger. Just considering the prospect may make you

uneasy, because experience has taught you that it hurts so much, that it should never be repeated.

Thanks to your sense of empathy, you feel the same way when you see someone else on the

verge of having their finger crushed in a door. Empathy allows you to imagine the pain that a

person would feel when a finger is mangled (Haycock, 2015, p.159) Ed Gein had no particular

compulsion to kill—what he needed was corpses. When during the hard winter months, he could

no longer dig into the frozen earth to uncover graves, he began killing to get his supply. Gein

was certified insane and died in detention in 1984 (Vronsky, 2004, p.208)

DeSalvo’s first murder was highly proficient. He wore gloves and left no fingerprints

behind. He parked his car a distance away from where he committed the murder. He quickly

disposed of his bloodied clothing and he engaged a stranger who could later testify to an alibi if

he had been caught that day. His training as a military policeman was paying off (Vronsky, 2004,

p.105). DeSalvo had been given a psychiatric examination at Bridgewater mental hospital, and it

was recommended that he be put into a psychiatric unit instead of prison. It might have worked

in this case, because it appears that DeSalvo was aware of his compulsions and sincerely wanted

to be free of them (Vronksy, 2004, p. 103)

It is time for the public to distinguish between harmful psychopathic traits that bring

significant discomfort or injury to others and traits that are reminiscent of psychopathy but that
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do not lead to harm. Not everyone with psychopathic features is a psychopath. (Haycock, 2015,

p.215). As the majority of the medical tests were carried out on the brains of serial murderers, the

majority of the results tested positive for schizophrenic tendencies. “The most common

diagnoses were schizophrenia, delusional disorder, and major depression. Fifteen of the

perpetrators had a documented history of psychiatric hospitalization or visits to a mental health

professional. Alcohol was found to play a role in only 3 of the 30 killings (Carroll, 2018, para, 3)

Is it possible to cure a serial killer?

A curious question, but one that doesn’t matter greatly in the eyes of the affected

families, as the deed has already been done. Is it reversible? Can their psychology be reversed at

a young age when recognized? Good thing is, that this question can be answered due to several

tests done by medical professionals.

According to mental health experts, the short answer to this question is no. Dr. Nigel

Blackwood, a leading Forensic Psychiatrist at King’s College London, has stated that adult

psychopaths can be treated or managed but not cured. Blackwood explains that psychopaths do

not fear the pain of punishment and are not bothered by social stigmatization. Psychopaths are

indifferent to the expectations of society and reject its condemnation of their criminal behavior.

According to Blackwood and others, callous and unemotional psychopaths simply do not

respond to punishment the way that normal people do. Consequently, adult psychopaths in prison

are much harder to reform or rehabilitate than other criminals with milder or no

antisocial personality disorders. (Bonn, 2014, p.90).

Why can’t they be cured? - This is a question that can be answered appropriately using science.

Psychopaths possess a combination of charm and emotionlessness that makes them capable of

ruthless, impulsive, and even criminal acts. And, for a long time, psychologists believed that
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these people were simply incapable of experiencing emotion — and that there was no way to

change that. (Locke, S, 2014). This research shows that without emotion, psychopaths have close

to zero chances of being able to recover and be normal again. There’s evidence that psychopaths

might have more of a cognitive-processing problem — that they have difficulty paying attention

to more than one thing at a time — than an emotional problem. So, they focus tightly on a goal

(say, stealing money) and lose the contextual information around it (it will make the victim feel

sad, it's socially unacceptable, and it could lead to arrest).

SIX HOURS OF COMPUTER-GAME TRAINING IMPROVED PSYCHOPATHS'

COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING

If this is the case, then it might be possible to rewire psychopaths' brains to be less psychopathic

(Locke, S. 2014).

Have they passed the point of no return turned back and are condemned to that lifestyle?- do

they just continue to be the vile killing machines that they are or do even they, have a change of

heart and decide enough is enough? Well, according to Joseph James D’Angelo’s case where 30

years had passed since his last murder before he was arrested in 2018, this question doesn’t have

a firm answer.

According to a post in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Golden State Killer's barrage of

rapes and murders began in a gold mining area east of Sacramento in 1976. By 1986, it seemed

to have stopped. Why? With the arrest on Tuesday of Joseph James De Angelo, 72, who has

been charged so far with eight counts of murder, more than 30 years had passed since the last
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episode in the series. That long period of quiescence seems to fly in the face of the popular belief

that serial rapists and killers are incapable of stopping. (2018)

The controversy will doubtless continue. Experts disagree over how violent psychopaths

should be housed and whether they can be rehabilitated. Studies are cited by both sides. But such

is the subtle nature of human behavior that, while the science may be objective, the results of

such studies are often open to subjective interpretation. (Norton, 2014, para.16)

Another common myth is that once serial killers start killing, they simply cannot stop.

Although this claim may seem reasonable, it is simply inaccurate. Some serial killers stop

murdering altogether before ever being caught. In such instances, some events or circumstances

occur in the offenders’ lives that inhibit them from continuing a life of murder. These events can

include increased participation in family life, a substitute for sexual gratification, or some other

diversion. (Bonn, 2014, p.47)

Dealing with Strangers and Recognizing Warning Signs

Normally, we thrive on safety and peace, go to do our business during the day, and hope

to come back safely to our loved ones and the comfort of our homes. At least most of us do. So,

there are some ways to make us rethink and raise our guard when it comes to certain things and

signs from individuals. It isn’t normal to go around performing our duties and interacting with

people and second doubting every single person who comes across our path. This will only lead

to paranoia. So, according to Peter Vronsky’s book, this is what he had to say on some

suspicious behaviors and acts you might want to look out for.
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When a stranger approaches you with ulterior motives, there can be underlying warning

signs of duplicity. Learn to recognize the signs that there might be more to the contact than what

appears on the surface. These signs include the following:

Feigned weakness: The stranger makes a big deal of letting you know that he might be

physically weaker than you. “Please help me carry this to my car. Ever since my back

injury, I can hardly move.”

He is wearing a cast or walking with a cane. That’s how Ted Bundy trapped some of his

victims.

Too much information: The stranger gives you too much unnecessary and detailed

information: “My sister has a sweater just like that. She was living in California but she

moved home last year. Her boyfriend gave it to her for Christmas, but afterward, they

broke up . . .” When somebody is telling a lie, even if it sounds credible to you, he has

less confidence in what he says; thus, he tends to fill in more details than necessary to

bolster it. This revelation of details also makes a stranger appear more familiar to you

than he is.

The unrequested promise: “Just one drink and then I will take you home, I promise.”

You never asked him to promise you anything. (Vronsky P, 2004). A simple nice deed or

smile can mask the vilest intentions.

Conclusion

While this may energize pardons for self-announced chronic executioners to perform

demonstrations of homicide, individuals should realize what achieves the dangerous

contemplations that drive an ordinary individual to turn into a chronic executioner.

Understanding a serial killer will support specialists, therapists and other related associations end
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a chronic executioner early. It is easy for a society to talk about homicide so candidly, but doing

this it helps to prevent more circumstances and brings issues to light on such points

Topics surrounding murder, death, and related topics have never been comfortable to

society, but they should be covered nonetheless to enlighten the public and raise awareness on

this topic. This research can help the average individual to at least have a glance at what goes on

in the mind of a serial killer. Maybe someday in the future, we will all come to a solution on how

to stop serial killers for good, or how to identify them from the day of birth through some sort of

MRI scan. Till then, various researchers should continue coming up with reports that can change

the matter permanently.

On identifying a serial killer

This remains to be the toughest charge to undertake in that, as research shows, serial

killers are usually for the most part blending in with society and it comes close to impossible to

know one because the word serial killer is not written on their foreheads

Should people be afraid to go out in public?

Personally, I think not, because what research has shown us, is that the overall percentage

is significantly low (6.3% of the world’s population). Meanwhile, the percentage of them being

caught is 61.1%. According to these statistics, one should be confident, but careful while

undergoing their day-to-day activities. As the research has shown above, there are ways to

identify a potential serial killer thus this will help one to act.

Can your mental health lead you down that path?

Absolutely not. This is one of the surest researches that has been performed by scientists,

also in this research paper we find that people who have been diagnosed with psychopathy have
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nothing to worry about for a quarter to about a third of the serial killers had psychopathy. What

people diagnosed with the condition can do is seek professional help.

Finally, as I conclude, I think the medical professionals and the police authorities can do

better when handling these merciless killers because in most cases, we hear about reports from

the victim’s friends or family that there was some sort of incompetence or unprofessionalism that

made the serial killer slip away when they were close to getting caught.
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References

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