THE EVOLUTION OF

MONSTROSITY
BASED PRIMARILY ON CHAPTER 4 OF
SERIAL KILLERS BY PETER VRONSKY
MANY WAYS TO CATEGORIZE OTHER THAN
THE FBI’S 3 CATEGORIES (BASED ON
UNKNOWN KILLERS)
■ MOST OTHER CATEGORIZATION IS DONE BY ACADEMICS IN THE FIELDS OF
PSYCHOLOGY OR CRIMINOLOGY –
– MORE ACCURATE THAN FBI’S CATEGORIES BECAUSE THEY ARE BASED ON
THE STUDY OF REAL S.K.

■ MOST PREVALENT TYPOLOGIES:

– DEVELOPED BY RONALD HOLMES, STEPHAN HOLMES & JAMES De BURGER
– BASED ON MOTIVE, NOT BASIS
HOLMES, HOLMES & De BURGER’S
CATEGORIES
1. VISIONARY
2. MISSION-ORIENTED
3. HEDONISTIC
4. POWER/CONTROL-ORIENTED
 VISIONARIES
■ KILL AT THE BEHEST OF VOICES
OR VISIONS
■ SUFFER FROM PSYCHOSIS OR
OTHER MENTAL ILLNESS
■ COMMIT HEINOUS CRIMES,
LEAVING CHAOTIC CRIME SCENES
– THIS LEAVES PLENTY OF
EVIDENCE
– PATTERNS DON’T MAKE SENSE
■ OFTEN BEGIN KILLING IN LATE
TEENS/TWENTIES (WHEN
SCHIZOPHRENIA EMERGES)
Some mental illness conditions that can
cause visionaries to kill
PSYCHOSIS-
“fundamental derangement of the
mind (as in schizophrenia)
characterized by defective or lost
contact with reality especially as
evidenced by delusions,
hallucinations, and disorganized
speech and behavior”
2017 Merriam-Webster Dictionary
SCHIZOPHRENIA
a psychotic disorder characterized by
loss of contact with the environment,
by noticeable deterioration in the
level of functioning in everyday life,
and by disintegration of personality
expressed as disorder of feeling,
thought (as delusions), perception (as
hallucinations), and behavior
2017 Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Some mental illness conditions that can
cause visionaries to kill, cont’d.
Paranoid schizophrenia
schizophrenia characterized
especially by persecutory or
grandiose delusions or
hallucinations or by
delusional jealousy
 Disorganized killers sometimes blame demonic possession,
labelling them as “visionary killers”
■ Some visionary killers believe they
are someone else due to mental
illness
■ Some visionary killers feel
compelled to kill at the behest of God
or the devil
Example of the 2nd type
Herbert Mullin believed that the killing
in Vietnam during the 1970’s prevented a
catastrophic earthquake in California.
Since the war was winding down, he
claimed a supreme voice told him to
“raise the number of human sacrifices”
in order to delay the California
earthquake.
‹ Mugshot of Mullin
The class will create a
personal & criminal
description of
Herbert Mullin (on board)
 MISSIONARIES
■ BELIEVE IT IS THEIR MISSION TO
KILL CERTAIN TYPES OF PEOPLE
THEY DEEM UNWORTHY OF LIVING
■ MOST OFTEN, VICTIMS ARE
MEMBERS OF SOCIALLY
OPPRESSED GROUPS
■ USUALLY, PERPETRATORS ARE
MEMBERS OF SOCIALLY
PRIVILEGED GROUPS-WHITE,
WHITE COLLAR, EMPLOYED,
EDUCATED, LONG-TERM
RESIDENTS
■ THE KILL IS THEIR OBJECTIVE,
SO. . .
– SEXUAL ACTS USUALLY DO
NOT ACCOMPANY KILL
– VICTIMS ARE NOT POSED &
ARE LEFT AT KILL SITE
– PERPETRATORS WANT TO
MINIMIZE PERSONAL CONTACT
WITH VICTIMS (AVOIDING
EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS)
J O S E P H P. F R A N K L I N

■ Former klansman
■ Killed ~ 17 people in 7 states
■ Mostly killed people of color or
“mixed” race couples
■ Thought God wanted him to protect
white women from injury or
degradation
■ 2013-Missouri put him to death
Some of Franklin’s notorious kills:
■ In 1977, Franklin hid in long grass
behind a telegraph pole at Brith
Shalom, a synagogue in Richmond
Heights, MO, shooting into a group
of worshipers, killing 1 & wounding
2; found guilty & sentenced to die in
MO
■ Shot & paralyzed Larry Flynt, (of
Hustler magazine)
■ Shot & seriously injured civil rights
leader and Urban League president,
Vernon Jordan, Jr., after seeing him
with a white woman
■ Shot & killed numerous random
people at fast food restaurants
because they were persons of color or
were with someone of a different
color
■ Execution delayed many times
“THE ZEBRA KILLERS”
Named for interracial killings carried out
by men of color against whites
■ All belonged to a cult in San Francisco-Elijah Mohammad’s Nation of Islam
■ Inner cult called “Death Angels”
– Requirements to become a “Death Angel:”
■ Kill > 9 white men, 5 white women or 4 white children
■ > 15 men qualified as Death Angels per the cult’s bulletin board
■ New qualifiers in October, 1973 began killing white people randomly
– Most victims shot, some robbed /raped, some kidnapped & tortured
– Didn’t try to hide their kills or evidence
– One turned state’s evidence; 4 members tried & sentenced to life in prison
■ This cult killed ~ 135 men, 75 women & 60 children
TED KACZYNSKI
The “Unabomber”
 Kaczynski’s background
& crimes
■ Brilliant child – 170 I.Q.
■ Isolated childhood, despite having a
brother
■ Parents pushed his intellectual
development & ambition
■ Earned UG degree at Harvard & Ph.D.
in math at U. of Michigan;
■ Taught math for 2 years at U. of
California-Berkely
■ Moved to small cabin in rural Montana
■ Engineered bombs that he mailed or
delivered to people he found despicable-
scientists & technologists
■ Killed 3 and injured 23 people over 20
years
■ Finally arrested in 1996 after longest &
costliest FBI hunt ever
■ Wrote a “manifesto”-Industrial Society
& Its Future, which his brother & sister-
in-law recognized as his & reported
him.
■ Tried, convicted & sentenced to life in
prison without parole
 What made Kaczynski
a serial killer?
Childhood trauma
■ Contracted severe case of hives for
which he was hospitalized in
isolation for long period-his mother
said he was never the same;
■ Skipped two grades which moved
him away from same-aged classmates
to classes where he was the youngest-
was bullied
Harvard guinea pig
■ When a freshman at Harvard (17 y.o.),
was subjected to brutal psychological
experiments by Henry Murray where
objective was to break down values &
beliefs of the subjects
OR. . .
■ Kaczynski believes he is not insane &
acted completely for the purpose of
revenge against a technologically-
controlled society
 HEDONIST COMFORT KILLERS
■ HEDONIST-belief that pleasure or
happiness is the sole or chief goal in
life
■ COMFORT-a state of physical ease
or relief from pain or other
constraints
■ Kill for profit or gain
■ Vronsky believes they were more
prevalent in past centuries—Do you?
■ Vronsky says these S.K. have been
“nonaristocratic”
■ Often, these S.K. prey on people who
will not be missed
■ Almost always, the victim is known
to the S.K.
■ Can be geocentric or nomadic
■ Usually, victims are killed quickly
 Examples of hedonistic comfort S.K.
■ Mafia hit men
■ Gang members who kill members of
opposing gangs
■ Bertha Gifford-killed her first
husband so she could remarry
■ Medical cadaver harvesters
■ Insurance motivated killings
■ Politically motivated killings
■ H.H. Holmes & murder castle
■ Dr. Marcel Petiot-lured Jewish
refugees during WW II to his home
with promise of safe passage from
France to S. America, then poisoned
them with cyanide; stole victims’
money & valuables
– Killed < 63
– Tried & guillotined
 HEDONIST LUST KILLERS
■ HEDONIST-belief that pleasure or
happiness is the sole or chief goal in
life
■ LUST-intense sexual desire
■ Want to have sex with a person’s
corpse or body part; sometimes have
other rituals associated with sex—
eating or dissecting body parts
■ Probably scariest & most monstrous
■ Often have an ideal type of victim
■ Don’t have feelings of hatred; just wants
the victim’s corpse
■ Method of killing is often “personal,”
such as strangling or stabbing in order to
maximize pleasure
■ Often travels to a number of locations to
dispose of remaining victim body parts
■ Usually disposes of each victim in a
different place
The class will create a
personal & criminal
description of
Jerry Brudos-the fatal shoe
fetishist (on board)
 ED GEIN
The Original “Psycho”
 Gein’s background
& crimes
■ Grew up in rural Wisconsin in early 1900’s
■ Parents’ marriage was unhappy, but stayed
married for religious reasons;
■ Mother sheltered him on farm & taught
him all women were evil & prostitutes
(except herself)
■ Seemed effeminate & was bullied at
school
■ Robbed graves to obtain bodies for body
parts
■ When Wisconsin winters froze the ground
making grave robbing impossible, Gein
killed to obtain bodies
■ Gein probably killed his brother due to
jealousy but that was never proven
■ Killed two women, but was suspected of
killing < 11 women
■ Gein became the impetus for the S.K. in
Psycho & The Silence of the Lambs
■ Made clothes, furniture, jewelry and
displayed various women’s bodily parts
■ Was tried on 1 count of murder, found
guilty & sentenced to life in a mental
institution w/o parole.
■ Said he was not motivated by sex, but
wanted to become a woman and needed
women’s body parts to do it.
 HEDONIST THRILL KILLERS
■ HEDONIST-belief that pleasure or happiness
is the sole or chief goal in life
■ THRILL-to cause to experience a sudden
sharp feeling of excitement
■ Derive sadistic pleasure from the process of
killing – the preliminary acts leading up to
killing
■ Once victim is dead, S.K. loses interest &
quickly disposes of corpse
■ Often revive victim
■ S.K. is very controlling & controlled
■ Important that victim is aware of his/her
situation
■ The S.K. enjoys the victim’s suffering
■ Usually have 3 crime sites
1. Capture site
2. Highly controlled torture & kill site
3. Dump site-often chosen to mislead
police
■ Often skilled at luring victims due to
S.K.’s attractiveness / cunning
KENNETH BIANCI &
ANGELO BUONO
The “Hillside Stranglers”
Cousins, Bianchi’s & Buono’s backgrounds & crimes
Bianchi
■ Born in 1951 to an alcoholic mother-
possible brain damage
■ Adopted at 3 mo. by a couple
– Father gone working-died of heart
attack when Bianchi was 13 y.o.
– Mother-very controlling, nearly
hysterical in possessiveness
– Bianchi used psychosomatic illnesses
to manipulate his mother
■ At 7 y.o., hospitalized with several
genital/urinary problems
Buono
■ Born in 1934 to immigrants who divorced
when he was 5 y.o.
■ Moved with his mother & sister to California
■ Although he attended public school & was
raised Catholic, he engaged in major crimes
as a young teen & sent to reform school
■ Was married and fathered 7 children, all of
whom he abused
■ Began an upholster shop, moved on to
pimping with his cousin
 Joint crimes /
Separate trials
■ Bianchi & Buono began in 1977 to kidnap & kill women, sometimes prostitutes, students & young workers,
dumping their bodies on hillsides in Southern California
■ Committed ~ 10 murders together, often torturing & raping victims
■ Police knew 2 perpetrators were involved due to two 2 different seminal fluids
■ Within a few years, Bianchi was arrested due to lack of attention to disposing of 2 victims’ bodies (placed
in the trunk of 1 of the victim’s car)
■ Bianchi faked multiple personality disorder (he’d learned about it while setting up a bogus business as a
psychologist)
■ Bianchi turned informant vs. Buono in exchange for life in prison w possibility of parole
■ Buono stood trial, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison w/o parole
■ Bianchi will be up for parole again in 2025; Buono died of a heart attack in prison in 2002
■ Bianchi tried to show that Hillside Strangler was still strangling by in prison, enlisting his girlfriend to plant
his semen on a victim & strangle her. The victim overcame the girlfriend & reported to police. Girlfriend
sentenced to life in prison w/o parole
■ Neither Bianchi or Buono succeeded in killing without the other, although Bianchi tried
 Proposed classifications
(applies to all killers, not just S.K.)
■ Power-assertive: Rape is planned, but murder is not. Murder occurs because of increased
aggression used to control the victim. Purpose is to establish male power over females. Very
organized. Usually loners. “Control freaks.”
■ Power-reassurance: Rape is planned, but murder is not. Goal is to effect a seduction or conquest
fantasy. Murder occurs when victim interferes with the fantasy (i.e. rape fails). K. continues rape
/ mutilation. Usually “weirdo loner” who lacks confidence. Underachiever who knows victim
from neighborhood.
■ Anger-retaliatory: Rape & murder are planned. Both are done in revenge for perceived wrong,
resulting in overkill of the “wrongdoer” or her substitute. Killing will continue until the K is
satisfied. K has a history of conflict with authority, has superficial friendships & is sexually
frustrated or impotent.
■ Anger-excitation: Rape & murder are planned. Murder is secondary to playing out a highly
scripted fantasy of torture & mutilation. The K seduces the victim into moving out of safe place.
After killing, often continues to abuse corpse & ultimately disposes it away from suspicious
place. K looks like a “normal” member of society, decent job, law-abiding, married & a parent.