The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations


Book Description

Serial killers like Seattle's Ted Bundy, Maryland's Beltway Sniper, Atlanta's Wayne Williams, or England's Peter Sutcliffe usually outsmart the task forces on their trail for long periods of time. Keppel and Birnes take readers inside the operations of serial killer task forces to learn why. What is the underlying psychology of a serial killer and why this defeats task force investigations? This is the first book of its kind that combines state-of-the-art psychological assessment experience with the expertise of a homicide investigator who has tracked some of this country's most notorious serial killers. The author also brings to the book hands-on best practices gleaned from the experience of other task forces. Readers, both professionals and students, will benefit from the comprehensive and critical case reviews, the analysis of what went wrong, what went right, and the after-action recommendations of evaluators in the US, UK, and Canada. The book covers: * The nature of the psychology of a serial killer * How crime assessment profiling reveals that psychology * Why psychological profiles fail * How serial killer task forces defeat themselves * How the media can, and usually does, undermine the task force operation * The big secret of all serial killer investigations: police already have the killer's name * The best practices for catching a serial killer * Comprehensive case reviews of some of the US's and UK's most baffling serial killer cases * A list of best practices for serial killer task force investigators * Recommendations for how to manage comprehensive files and computer records * Practical advice on how to manage the media: what to say and not to say * Insight into what a serial killer might be thinking and doing to stay away from police * Recommendations for setting up and administering long-term investigations * Practical tips on how to maintain a task force's psychological edge and avoid defeatism




The Serial Killer Files


Book Description

THE DEFINITIVE DOSSIER ON HISTORY’S MOST HEINOUS! Hollywood’s make-believe maniacs like Jason, Freddy, and Hannibal Lecter can’t hold a candle to real life monsters like John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and scores of others who have terrorized, tortured, and terminated their way across civilization throughout the ages. Now, from the much-acclaimed author of Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved, comes the ultimate resource on the serial killer phenomenon. Rigorously researched and packed with the most terrifying, up-to-date information, this innovative and highly compelling compendium covers every aspect of multiple murderers—from psychology to cinema, fetishism to fan clubs, “trophies” to trading cards. Discover: WHO THEY ARE: Those featured include Ed Gein, the homicidal mama’s boy who inspired fiction’s most famous Psycho, Norman Bates; Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, sex-crazed killer cousins better known as the Hillside Stranglers; and the Beanes, a fifteenth-century cave-dwelling clan with an insatiable appetite for human flesh HOW THEY KILL: They shoot, stab, and strangle. Butcher, bludgeon, and burn. Drown, dismember, and devour . . . and other methods of massacre too many and monstrous to mention here. WHY THEY DO IT: For pleasure and for profit. For celebrity and for “companionship.” For the devil and for dinner. For the thrill of it, for the hell of it, and because “such men are monsters, who live . . . beyond the frontiers of madness.” PLUS: in-depth case studies, classic killers’ nicknames, definitions of every kind of deviance and derangement, and much, much more. For more than one hundred profiles of lethal loners and killer couples, Bluebeards and black widows, cannibals and copycats— this is an indispensable, spine-tingling, eye-popping investigation into the dark hearts and mad minds of that twisted breed of human whose crimes are the most frightening . . . and fascinating.




The Serial Killer Files


Book Description

There are many myths about serial killers: that they are all dysfunctional loners; all white males; only motivated by sex; that they all travel and operate across a wide area; cannot stop killing; are all insane, or evil geniuses; and that they all want to get caught. Of course, there are some serial killers who fit into these categories, but the married Green River Killer was not a dysfunctional loner; there are plenty of female and non-Caucasian serial killers; Dr Harold Shipman was certainly not motivated by sex; many serial killings (such as the Ipswich prostitute murders carried out by Steve Wright) happen within a confined area; the 'BTK Killer', Dennis Rader, stopped killing in 1991, but wasn't caught until fourteen years later. Many serial killers may have a low animal cunning, or be 'street smart', but few of them are Mensa-level geniuses. Each of the thirty cases covered here is unusual in some respect, perhaps in the way in which the killer carried out their crimes, the choice of victims, the way in which they were apprehended, or the method of their execution. The cases are presented alphabetically by country - from Australia via Colombia, Great Britain, Indonesia, Iran, South Africa and elsewhere to the United States - and then chronologically. They come from across history and from all over the world. The author has gone back as far as possible to contemporary source material - newspaper accounts, trial evidence, interviews with perpetrators or survivors - rather than rely on the increasingly blurred truth to be found online and in far too many collections.




Female Serial Killers


Book Description

In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill—and the political, economic, social and sexual implications buried with each victim. How many of us are even remotely prepared to imagine our mothers, daughters, sisters or grandmothers as fiendish killers? For centuries we have been conditioned to think of serial murderers and psychopathic predators as men—with women registering low on our paranoia radar. Perhaps that’s why so many trusting husbands, lovers, family friends, and children have fallen prey to “the female monster.” From history’s earliest recorded cases of homicidal females to Irma Grese, the Nazi Beast of Belsen, from Britain’s notorious child-slayer Myra Hindley to ‘Honeymoon Killer’ Martha Beck to the sensational cult of Aileen Wournos—the first female serial killer-as-celebrity—to cult killers, homicidal missionaries, and our pop-culture fascination with the sexy femme fatale, Vronsky not only challenges our ordinary standards of good and evil but also defies our basic accepted perceptions of gender role and identity. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS




Serial Killer Ted Bundy


Book Description

Bundy's criminal behavior as a serial killer can be explained in terms of Freud's psychological theory. According to Freud, a person's behavior comes about as a result of interactions between three aspects of his or her personality including the superego, ego, and id. Id drives instinct and controls what a person does from birth. There are both constructive and destructive instinctual drives. A person's ego moderates his or her instinctual drive while the superego is needed for a person's development during which he or she learns the values of society. As Freud puts it, large portions of ego and superego can remain unconscious, making an individual unaware of whatever he or she is doing (Ahmed, 2012). Examples of unconscious experiences include disturbing memories and extreme sexual behaviors. If the person becomes aware of these unconscious experiences, he or she is likely to engage in destructive behavior. It can be concluded that Bundy's ego and superego may have been unconscious when he was committing initial criminal activities. However, when his awareness was restored, he responded by even more destructive behavior like when he decided to kidnap and kill more than one lady during the day (Ahmed, 2012). This book analyses the serial killer Ted Bundy.




Confession of a Serial Killer


Book Description

In 1974, Dennis Lynn Rader stalked and murdered a family of four in Wichita, Kansas. Since adolescence, he had read about serial killers and imagined becoming one. Soon after killing the family, he murdered a young woman and then another, until he had ten victims. He named himself "B.T.K." (bind, torture, kill) and wrote notes that terrorized the city. He remained on the loose for thirty years. No one who knew him guessed his dark secret. He nearly got away with his crimes, but in 2004, he began to play risky games with the police. He made a mistake. When he was arrested, Rader's family, friends, and coworkers were shocked to discover that B.T.K. had been among them, going to work, raising his children, and acting normal. This case stands out both for the brutal treatment of victims and for the ordinary public face that Rader, a church council president, had shown to the outside world. Through jailhouse visits, telephone calls, and written correspondence, Katherine Ramsland worked with Rader himself to analyze the layers of his psyche. Using his drawings, letters, interviews, and Rader's unique codes, she presents in meticulous detail the childhood roots and development of one man's motivation to stalk, torture, and kill. She reveals aspects of the dark motivations of this most famous of living serial killers that have never before been revealed. In this book Katherine Ramsland presents an intelligent, original, and rare glimpse into the making of a serial killer and the potential darkness that lives next door.




PEE WEE


Book Description

Volume II of PEE WEE, Serial Killer or Homicidal Maniac, focuses on the courtroom drama of his several trials and appeals. Readers that enjoy trial strategy, courtroom personalities and the cloakroom maneuvering of the criminal courts will find a plethora of intriguing twists and turns. Seemingly foregone outcomes are reversed by national events or by the local politics of the farmlands of South Carolina that stubbornly resist change. It is replete with excerpts from actual trial transcriptions and transcripts of out of court statements given under oath. Despite his numerous murder convictions Gaskins manages time and again to avoid the death penalty in real life by virtue of unexpected events that could seemingly occur only in fiction. Told by an attorney intimately involved in the cases, there are pithy descriptions of battles fought in and out of the courtroom on the one hand and on the other of the camaraderie between adversaries. Both often lead to unpredictable outcomes. Pee Wee Gaskins describes the murders to which he will plead guilty in his own words. At the same time by either omission or outright lies, he avoids the inclusion of those murders for which he does not want to admit responsibility. Finally, in one of the most incredible crimes imaginable, the tiny killer foils the safeguard systems of a maximum security penitentiary to murder a fellow death row inmate with plastic explosives.




Trace Evidence


Book Description

The #1 New York Times bestselling true crime author presents “a solid, compelling account of that most vicious of criminals, the random serial killer” (Library Journal). Through the 1970s and 80s, a dangerous serial killer stalked Northern California along Interstate 5. Dubbed the I-5 Strangler, Roger Kibbe was incredibly skilled at staying ahead of investigators as his victim count rose. Even after he was identified, there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with murder. Instead, investigators had to build their murder case over the course of months while Kibbe was locked up on an assault conviction. Drawing on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with key investigators, as well as other important figures such as the Kibbe’s reclusive wife, #1 New York Times bestselling author Bruce Henderson builds a fascinating portrait of this unrepentant murderer. “Trace Evidence is a gripping, fast-paced account of what it takes to capture and make a winnable case against an elusive serial killer.” —Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter "A masterful job…Lusciously detailed and immensely readable.”—Booklist




The Serial Killer's Apprentice


Book Description

Discusses twelve cold cases in Northeast Ohio involing murders and abductions.




Psychopedia


Book Description

For those looking to delve into the sick and psychotic minds of serial killers, Psychopedia is an extensive encyclopaedia of serial killers and murders. A popular Apple iTunes app from inception, this title is now available in eBook format. Psychopedia Satisfies A Strange Curiosity - App Advice An insightful and interesting read into the minds and lives of psychopaths (which can become quite addictive) - Appscovery From the Axeman of New Orleans to the Zodiac Killer, this publication presents readers with a compendium of the world's most prolific and notorious serial killers and the most captivating unsolved serial murder cases. The articles are written from an objective factual approach and make no attempt to glorify the murderers. With over 400 profiles spanning hundreds of pages it is a useful guide for students of criminology, sociology, or abnormal psychology. The content is derived from Wikipedia articles and most entries contain extensive details of the killer's early life, crimes, capture, and conviction. Genre screenwriters, novelists, fans of true crime literature and anyone with an interest in the macabre will find plenty of fascinating and grisly details of the world's most infamous and intriguing killers, and their horrendous crimes. All gruesome details can be discovered within its pages.