Edmund Kemper and other Serial Killers - A Research Paper

There were many more serial killers during Edmund Kempers timeframe. Just like Kemper, many of them were linked to mental illness, frustrations, psychological reasons, and revenge. Most of the serial killers have different attitudes and desires. Few of them have killed more than 100 people while a few have killed less than ten people but brutally. The serial killers during Kempers time frame were scary, terrifying, evil, and loved to commit murder. Some of them are discussed below (White, Lester, Gentile, & Rosenbleeth, 2011).

Dean Corll

Dean Corll, an American serial killer, committed more than 28 murders. He did this together with two other young teenagers David Brooks and Elmer Wayne. They killed more than 28 boys between 1970 and 1973. This act was considered as the worst example of murder in the history of America during the 1970s. The two teenagers used to abduct or lure many young boys to Corlls place where they killed them. These serial killers used to drug their victims with alcohol or other drugs until they met their death. They tied their victims on to a plywood board or on to the bed. Corll and his colleagues then killed the victims by strangling or shooting them with a .22 caliber pistol after which they buried them. Corll was shot fatally by Henley, his accomplice just before the police could convict him because he wanted to kill two of his friends (Jenkins, 1990).

Robert Berdella

Robert Berdella was another serial killer during this time. Berdella tortured and killed six men between 1984 and 1987. He was sexually molested at the age of 16 by a male co-worker when he was working at a restaurant. Just like Kemper, Berdella engaged in animal torture at a younger age. He tortured a dog, duck and a chicken. His criminal career started when he got involved in drug dealing. At the age of 18, he was arrested for possessing marijuana. He also had sexual activities with male prostitutes, and he was proud of being gay. From 1984 onwards, he started killing prostitutes by befriending them and luring them into the basement where he tortured and murdered them. He continued to kill many other people using different and harmful styles. Berdella tortured, suffocated, injected infected drugs to his victims, and electrified some of them. At some time, he drained the blood of a few of his victims, chopped off some of their parts and retained the remaining parts before burying them in his backyard. Berdella died of hearty attack in1992 (Cencich, 2012).

Pedro Rodrigues Filho

Pedro Rodrigues Filho was termed as the most brutal serial killer in Brazil. He was arrested in 1973 for having committed 73 murders and was later convicted in 2003. Just like Kemper killed his grandparents a the age of 14, Rodrigues also killed his first victim at the age of 14. The victim was the vice-mayor of Alfenas Minas Gerais. He involved himself in a robbery and murdered a drug dealer when he was living in Mogi das Cruzes, Sao Paulo. He lived with Maria Aparecida Olympia in Mogi das Cruzes who was killed by some gang members. Rodrigues went on a revenge mission. He started to torture and killed people to know the whereabouts of the gangsters who murdered his girlfriend. He had killed several people and injured many of them at the age of 18. Rodrigues killed his father and chewed a piece of his heart after he learned that his father had killed his mother. He was a notorious serial killer who promised to kill another serial killer during his conviction (Beard, Hunter, Kern, & Kiley, 2014).

Andrei Chikatilo

Andrei Chikatilo, nicknamed Butchering Rostov was another brutal serial killer during Kempers time frame. Between the year 1978 and 1990, he had assaulted and murdered more than 50 women and children. He came from a poor humble background. Chikatilo discovered that he had chronic impotence during his adolescence. This condition made him bring hate upon himself, and it lowered his self-esteem. His peers got to know that he was impotent when he was serving in the army. This act made to feel humiliated. He committed his first assault in 1973 on his pupil. He often visited the girls dormitory. Chikatilo assaulted another teenage girl a few months later. He was asked to resign by the school board due to the increased complains against him. After he resigned, Chikatilo went and joined another school. And in 1981, his teaching career ended. Chikatilos first victim was a nine-year-old girl in 1978. After brutally killing her, he threw her body into a nearby river. He also strangled and murdered another teenage girl in 1981 and mutilated her body with a stick and teeth. Most of the bodies found displayed signs of severe of torture and assault. A lot of his victims met their death by brutally ripping and their body parts being opened. He also removed their eye sockets, cut their private parts and bit off their tongues. On the 13th of September 1984, Chikatilo was arrested, and he was executed by a gunshot on 14th September 1994 (Hickey, 2013).

Daniel Conahan

Another serial killer linked to the time of Edmund Kemper is Daniel Conahan. He is an American serial killer related to The Hog Trail Killings. Conahan is suspected to have committed more than 15 murders, but he is convicted of only one murder. His victims were mostly gay. On the 1st of February 1994, a mans corpse which was mutilated was found in Punta Gorda. The corpse looked terrible, it had several rope burns, and its genital parts were missing. The victim was never identified. Two years later a stray dog brought a mans skull, and the authority went to search the body. The police found the corpse of the man in similar conditions to that of the 1994 victim. Many more skulls were discovered after these incidents. To this day, it is said to have been the largest number of skulls in Floridas history. All of these crimes are said to have been committed by Daniel Conahan. The media termed the murders as The Hog Trail Killings. Conahan is said to have been gay since his childhood. Conahan nearly got jailed for his gay solicitation when he was working with the US Navy. Many more corpses have been found between 2000 and 2002. To this day, Conahan is termed as the worlds most brutal killer (Dogan, Demirci, Deniz, & Erkol, 2010).

David Parker Ray

David Parker Ray nicknamed Toy Box Killer is the most brutal in the history of serial killers. He has never been convicted of any murder though he is a prime suspect. He committed crime through torture, rape, and murder during the 1950s. Nobody knows the exact killings that he has committed, but he is suspected to have killed over 60 people. Ray had a gynecological table which was mounted with a ceiling mirror. The sole purpose of the mirror was for the victim to see as he was being tortured. This act was the scariest part of his crimes. Ray had installed torture instruments that could cost around 100,000 dollars. Ray gave his victims sedatives and hypnotic drugs to keep them in a secure dungeon conditions. They could not remember anything after the torture. Ray and Cindy Hendy, his girlfriend, used to pretend to be the police officers to lure young teenage girls and prostitutes. One of his victims managed to escape. She is the one who told Rays story. Ray was never convicted since there was no proof of his crimes. The psychopath serial killer died of heart attack before he could be tried for his crimes (Leyton, 2008).

Works Cited

Jenkins, P. (1990). Sharing murder: Understanding group serial homicide. Journal of Crime and Justice, 13(2), 125-147. doi:10.1080/0735648x.1990.9721417

Dogan, K. H., Demirci, S., Deniz, I., & Erkol, Z. (2010). Decapitation and dismemberment of the orpse: A matricide case. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 55(2), 542-545. doi:10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01266.x

Leyton, E. (2008). Serial and mass murderers. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict, 1901-1914. doi:10.1016/b978-012373985-8.00160-4

Beard, V., Hunter, S., Kern, L., & Kiley, B. (2014). Death-related crime: Applying Bryants conceptual paradigm of thanatological crime to serial homicide. Deviant Behavior, 35(12), 959-972. doi:10.1080/01639625.2014.901053

Hickey, E. W. (2013). Serial murderers and their victims. Cengage Learning

White, J. H., Lester, D., Gentile, M., & Rosenbleeth, J. (2011). The utilization of forensic science and criminal profiling for capturing serial killers. Forensic Science International, 209(1-3), 160-165. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.01.022

Cencich, J. R. (2012). Serial killers, spree killers, and mass murderers. Encyclopedia of Street Crime in America. doi:10.4135/9781452274461.n152

Terjesen, A. (2010). Are aerial killers cold-blooded killers? Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone, 141-152. doi:10.1002/9781444324587.ch11