Serial Killers Essay Example

Serial Killers Paper Michaud, in â€Å"The Hollow Men’, states that 1999 was the year of the murderous moral imbeciles, with the likes of Killer kids, the janitor at Yosemite, the ‘Railway Killer’ Angel Maturino Resendez, Mark Barton, and the deranged bigot Buford Furrow, to name a few. I say a few because, there remains an undisclosed number of cases still to be zeroed in.   The name of Ted Bundy stands well above the rest. A handsome, well educated psychopathic law student, Bundy would stalk young women; win their confidence, before murdering them (Michaud, 2007).Though many revelations have elucidated serial killers as habitual or addicted murderers, who show no remorse to refrain from indulging in their sadistic rites, there have been cases of some psychopaths refraining from their continued activities approach the police and confess their deeds. The mental state of these serial killers is quite intricate and psychologists work continuously in an effort to reveal this mystery.D rug abuse, diminished mental state, personal tragedy, and the likes are causes attributed to such behavior. The law has been constantly working overtime to bring as many sinister offenders to book and their efforts are beginning to show. The number of related cases has shown a marked decrease, yet there remain a number of files, that has accumulated dust over the years.The Serial Killer-An AnalysisSerial Killers use various techniques to kill their victim. Clubbing, stabbing, and strangulating are common methods used to kill their victims, some just butcher their unsuspecting victims. The motive and sadism were also quite different for each one of them. Mike DeBardeleben, a sexual sadist said that he found no greater power over another person than inflicting pain on his victims, mostly women.â€Å"To force her to undergo suffering without her being able to defend herself thrilled me. The pleasure in the constant domination over another person is the very essence of the sadistic dri ve† (Michaud, 2007).Ted Bunty was a very bright and handsome person. For this reason, he could attract women without much trouble. This, he used to his advantage in luring women to him. He would pick up young college women who looked quite similar to the young woman who broke off her relationship with him. What led this innocent-looking well-mannered psychopath to commit such heinous crimes?Just before his execution, Ted Bundy granted an interview to psychologist James Dobson. He was executed on January 24, 1989. In that interview, he described the agony of his addiction to pornography. When he was thirteen years old, Bunty came across a few dirty magazines near his home. He took an instant liking to it. This made him seek more magazines and hire videos that showed violent images of women having sex. Gradually, he experienced deep pleasure in seeing women being tortured and murdered. His addiction to sex and violence grew and this fueled the terrible crimes he committed (Dobso n, 1995).He was a very clever killer, using his countenance and skills to perfect alibi. He would fake a broken arm in a sling to convince young women to help him carry his textbooks to his car. Once in his comfort zone, he would batter them with a baseball bat and take away to secluded placed for his ghoulish rituals.In his interview to Dr. James Dobson, he related his actions to kill to, â€Å"a compulsion, a building up of destructive energy.† Alcohol also was a factor that made him act this way, he said. â€Å"In conjunction with my exposure to pornography, alcohol reduced my inhibitions and pornography eroded them further† (Dobson, 1995).â€Å"The F.B.I.’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers. It’s true† (Ted Bundy in an interview to Dr. James Dobson).According to Ted Bunty, the initial sexual encounter that he had with his victims was more or less voluntary, as the victim would sense danger if otherwise. However, such sexual overtures did not satisfy the full spectrum of desires that he intended. The helpless, motionless victim would re-kindle his desire to ‘possess’ her. He would abuse the victim before strangulating her. The word, possess, is central to all his crimes and this distinguishes him from other criminals, deviant or otherwise.Bundy desired a lifeless female form; comatose or dead. Possession meant a lot to him. Just before his execution, he admitted to keeping some of his victims in such a state for hours or days before disposing of them. He buried most of his victims in shallow woodland graves, only to revisit them often. So possessed was he of his victims that it was found that one of his victims was found in the frozen mountains of Utah in a post-mortem shampoo state, and another was found with fresh application of make-up before being discarded. â€Å"If youve got time, they can be anyone you want them to be,† he told FBI agent Bill Hagmaier.â€Å"Murder isnt just a crime of lust or violence. It becomes possession. They are part of you You feel the last bit of breath leaving their bodies Youre looking into their eyes A person in that situation is God!† (As told to Bill Hagmaier by Bunty in an interview in the 80s)On January 15, 1978, Lisa Levy and Martha Bowman were mercilessly raped and later clubbed to death by Bunty. Lisa Levy was raped, strangled, and beaten on the head, while Bowman was strangled with a pair of pantyhose and severely beaten on the head.  Neither had struggled. Bunty had taken his weapon with him so that no evidence was left at the crime scene. Police searched for clues, apart from the description given by Nita Neary, who saw a stranger run away from the scene of the crime. They found some blood smudges, a few print smudges, and sperm samples, but none of them could be linked to the killer. It was only a piece of evidence that became the centerpiece during the tri al: an odd bite mark on the left buttock of Lisa Levy.  Ted Bunty was very severe on his victims, getting thrills at seeing his victims suffer physically. In his act of perversion, Bunty had bitten Lisa on her breasts and buttock. The bitten mark on her breast was of less impression than the one on her buttock. During trial, the state called Dr. Lowell Levine, the chief consultant in forensic dentistry to New York Citys Medical Examiner.  He testified that the victim had to be lying passive for the marks to be left as they were, and also pointed out that odontology had a longer legal history than most people realized. For Bunty, he was known to be possessive of his victims, and he could have done this damage after immobilizing Lisa. The counter was perfect and impressive for a witness.Along with the eyewitness testimony of Nita Neary, this evidence was good enough.   Bundy was found guilty and sentenced to die in the electric chair.   This was the first case in Floridas lega l history that relied on bite-mark testimony, and the first time that a physical piece of evidence was linked to Bundy (Ramsland, 2007).Resendez is another serial killer who is sexually motivated. He was charged with killing as many as nine women in four different states, and of rape of another. There is also word that Resendez was known to have had sex with one of his victims even after murder. In almost all cases, there is a strong bond between sex and murder. Are the words of Ted Bunty true in connecting sex to murder? Cary Stayner is another who is accused of brutally dispatching four females at Yosemite, two by strangulation and two by slitting their throats, decapitating one, and nearly decapitating the other (Michaud, 2007).Forensic psychiatrist Park Elliott Dietz of Newport Beach, California, says that most mass murders are committed by the depressed and the paranoid, who see themselves as the deliverer of good, angrily lashing out at a world they fear and hate.Roy Hazelwood spoke of Harvey Glatman, the Lonely Hearts Killer of the 1950s. According to Hazelwood, Glatman, who was executed in 1959, would incapacitate his victims in their apartments, then bind and transport them out into the desert, where he would finally kill them. â€Å"He could have raped and killed these women in their apartments; instead, he kept them alive at increased risk to himself. He enjoyed the thrill of knowing the risk he took by keeping his victims alive for so long,† said Hazelwood. Glatman enjoyed the power to possess and the power to destroy (Michaud, 2007).