What Makes A Serial Killer?

A 16 year old boy named Kip Kinkel, brutally killed both his mom and dad. The next day he brought a gun to school and killed two of his classmates without even thinking. No one would’ve ever thought a young man like him would ever think about killing. All serial killers are often labeled by mental health professionals with various mental health issues; they often become another statistics but they are more than a statistic. Many assume there is a specific profile for serial killers, that they all have the same MO, they target the same victims, however they are more clever than ordinary people, and some go undetected by ‘normal’ people. For example, Ted Bundy used his good looks in order to lure women into his car, later raping and brutally …show more content…
No matter the type of abuse, the child is still affected. There are common mental disabilities found in child in abusive homes are anxiety disorder, depression, bipolar, and other social disorders. A famous serial killer, Billy Milligan, gained national attention by claiming to have multiple personality disorder. This disorder is common in physically abused children, in which, personalities split to help the ‘host’ deal with the abuse. Billy had a normal children until his parents divorced, leaving his mom and him alone. Later his mom marries again, this leads to Billy getting abused by his step-dad and his mom telling him to deal with the pain. Little did his mom know, he would grow up to rape three women and a three-year-old girl. While in court Billy pleaded to insanity, claiming that two of his personalities took over and caused those crimes. He was later released from jail. Along with abusive homes, neglect is also common. It is proven that a nurturing mother helps a person to empathize. Aileen Wuronos, a famous serial killer that shot seven men in cold blood, was neglected as child. Her mom was fifteen years old when she gave birth to Aileen. When Aileen just four years old, her mother abandoned her. Aileen never met her real father and was left to live with her grandparents. Along with being neglected, Aileen was sexually abused by her grandfather and even gave birth to his child at the age of …show more content…
As much as we want to fear them, we can’t help but be fascinated and perplexed by their nature. According to the FBI, “All psychopaths do not become serial murderers. Rather, serial murderers may possess some or many of the traits consistent with psychopathy.” They define psychopaths as being emotionless, impulsive, and lacking in empathy, to name a few characteristics. There are psychopaths everywhere: CEOs, doctors, and lawyers are often classified as psychopaths. They’re driven, focused, and can have little to no remorse in their quest to success- but they don’t usually kill. So not all psychopaths are killers, but if you intentionally kill multiple people over an extended period of time, isn’t there bound to be some kind of psychopathy somewhere? With the definition of psychopathy, it’s impossible to point at two different people and say that one is a psychopath while the other isn’t. Herbert Mullin killed and mutilated 13 people because of the voices in his head told him that it was the only way to save California. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and schizo-affective schizophrenia years before he began to kill. In fact, more gruesome murders are attributed to psychotics rather than psychopaths. The difference is that psychotic serial killers have lost touch with reality, while psychopathic serial killers know exactly what they are doing. Also, psychopathy is not a mental illness and can’t be used