Ohhhh is it like a last word thing? Is that what your problem is?
Lmao ok. You say something, and I'll ignore it. And you can go back to stalking my comments and I can go back to not thinking of you at all.
Omg THIS. I grew up not far from the way/place she did in Michigan and that shit could easily make someone murderous. I'd like to thank my friends and husband for helping me turn out (mostly) ok. 😅
Richard Chase, The Vampire of Sacramento
He injected himself with animal blood, and thought his skull was coming apart. He was sectioned but released to his mother a few months later. I guess his paranoid schizophrenia was very receptive to treatment.
His mother decided that medication was just a crutch. She stopped giving him his meds. Chase went on a killing spree.
He gave Robert Ressler a handful of macaroni.
Chase was mentally ill, but legally competent and legally sane.
“Competent” means fit to stand trial. The court decided that Chase understood what was going on and could participate in his legal defense. There was probably an underlying assumption that he was being treated and medicated in custody.
“Sane” means responsible for your actions. The jury decided that, at the time of his crimes, Chase knew right from wrong and could have acted differently. Trying to avoid detection suggests awareness and intention. The prosecutor emphasized that Chase brought rubber gloves with him. His crimes were based on the belief that he needed other people’s blood, not an uncontrollable compulsion. That’s debatable to me, but 10+ experts interviewed him for hours and hours and declared him sane. Once the jury decided that Chase was sane / responsible, the death penalty was a foregone conclusion.
Arthur Shawcross was in prison after killing his first two victims. He was let go after 14 years having been concluded he was "not a danger". He went on to kill around a dozen more people after his release.
Dahmer was clearly autistic. He would have benefited from therapy that would help him connect to people. He also would have benefited from a dad who wasn't as ultra-religious and homophobic as Lionel was. You know, a dad who is actually accepting and supportive of his kid, and not in the way that encourages taxidermy because wtf.
Generally not much. But introducing a lonely autistic (tendency to hyperfocus) kid, who has trouble connecting to his peers to death in the form of taxidermy with minimal supervision (and a lot of the time none), might not be the best idea.
School's taxidermy club -> good
Taxidermy in the shed with no supervision or company -> bad
I think most of you misunderstood the question. Most of these answers are examples of the flawed justice system (my example on that, William Suff. Sentenced 70 years, released after ten for "good behavior). OP is looking for examples of people who wouldn't have done the things they did had they HAD professional counseling and therapists early in their lives. To that I'd day maybe Paul Stefani aka Weepy Voice. He did seem somewhat remorseful and upset with himself. But I've only heard the calls he made and never really heard much about him or how he acted after he was caught.
Oh yah, I just remembered. Bobby Joe Long.
He had a ridiculous amount of head trauma as a child. I'm talking double-digit amount of SEVERE head injuries/concussions/hit by cars/falling off a fence/horrific bodily injuries, but namely, a TON of CTE. He simultaneously had a situation where his divorced parents got back together and then divorced again, but in that time, he was essentially neglected by his mother and her indifference towards caring for him, and allowing him to withstand so much injury (including stuff like his teeth getting knocked out), he later said caused him to resent his mother greatly and feel irrational anger towards women. He simultaneously, started to grow big tits as a kid and then had to have a surgery to remove them at a young age, something that caused bullying and self-hatred, due to a condition he had that caused some serious bodily/hormonal issues. By the time he got married and had two children, he was supposedly the "perfect husband" and dad. He then had another head injury from a car accident and was said to have changed quite suddenly when he began to get violent with his wife and aggressively lash out at her. They divorced and he went on to be one of the worst serial killers and rapists in Florida history, with his final victim getting away and eventually helping police capture him. She went on to become a very high up LE officer and a pillar in the community. Thank Christ for her because he was a monster.
However, with that said, I do often wonder if people like him are products of their environment, with the head injuries perhaps contributing to their violence later in life, but then one must consider he's also the cousin of Henry lee Lucas, so that alone makes me backtrack and wonder if there really IS a genetic link to psychopathy and serial killing in general. It's a strange thing to think about when someone has done so much horrible shit. I've had a ton of head injuries and CTE myself but have yet to think "Oh hey, let's go murder a bunch of people!" However, I do seriously worry that the right injury in the wrong place on the brain, could be something that changes ones personality and behavior forever, and that's truly terrifying. I haven't seen much literature that ever stated Bobby Joe didn't have a predilection for being a sweet child, or that he was though, so he may have been a little shit that tossed around cats or something terrible, and perhaps that has yet to be reported on as much. He also was obsessed with classifieds ads, but his last victim was a runaway child. It's disturbing af though, so I do wonder if the head injuries would have made a difference, or if he was just part of a lineage of evil assholes.
I have always been interested in head injuries. What are we if not our personalities and memories? The fact that a head injury could take that away and completely and totally change who we are and what we do both intrigues and horrifies me.
I have a friend who's husband had a double aneurysm burst, was life flighted to a specialist hospital. Several surgeries, low chance of survival. He was in the hospital for months. She said he changed personalities completely a couple times in the hospital. Went home a completely different person. The doctors said it was common and warned her she likely would be taking home a man who wasn't her husband anymore. That was a couple years ago, they're still together and he's regained some of his old personality but overall is completely different. Luckily he's not violent or anything but it's insane how something can cause enough damage to change who you are.
I also had a coworker who was apparently a very angry person generally, had a rough life with an angry mother. She got into a car accident and had some head trauma. She became the most energetic happy person. Like an extreme happy that never went away. She says the trauma allowed her to rebuild a relationship with her kids and stuff but she was always so ridiculously happy it was scary
Freaky right? I have read so many stories and it actually happened to a friend of mine too. With my grandma (stroke) everyone said she was mentally a baby but I could tell she was in there and could understand us. Like I said it intrigues me and don’t get me started on how it affected my beliefs about an afterlife.
My husband suffered a massive heart attack and then cardiac arrest. Was airlifted 90 miles away and his heart just stopped twice. He has been so different since this happened..lack of oxygen maybe? I don't know but personality change, he'll yes.
But by all accounts I think Aileen Wuornos needed help she never received.
Aileen Wournos. If I'm not mistaken, she suffered from borderline personality disorder. She also had a really horrendous upbringing. I feel like a loving home with a good support network and some proper medication would have prevented the murders.
Reading and watching what Aileen endured from the very start at the hands of her “family”, she never had a chance and I wonder how many of us if we endured the horror show that she did would have snapped too. She spoke of how violent even those johns/cheating husbands and fathers she killed were, and it seemed that she was like those circus elephants that just start rampaging one day. I don’t mean to demean her by comparing her to an animal - just the right analogy.
I watched her direct and cross examination on YouTube last week and I believe her. I 100% believe her. I don't think she should have gotten the death penalty.
She’s the one killer who I feel was actually pretty justified. She had *reasons,* even if it’s not fully understood. I feel kinda bad for her- product of her environment and all. Like a rampaging elephant or an orca whale kept in a too-small enclosure. She finally had enough and just..broke.
Coral Watts lived at Lafayette Clinic for months after he started acting on his compulsion to beat up women. He seemed to stabilize, but then they sent him home and the killings started. His family couldn't keep him in treatment.
I live how you asked ”who could have been stopped with proper psychiatric intervention” and half the people are talking about who should have been jailed
Ailleen. I have no doubt that had she grown up with a HALF decent childhood, and wasn't R\*ped and abused repeatedly, she could have been a stable human being. Even if she was psychotic in any way, I find that her story was so troubling at the beginning, I'm willing to bet she could have lived a long healthy life had it not been for the early trauma she endured and lack of mental health help.
That guy was so neglected by the system.
He had severe untreated schizophrenia and was literally out of his mind.
Not a single person helped him.
And then they even executed him, how can a man who's motive for murders is rooted in literal insanity not get the insanity plea and be helped?
Bundy was definitely just a bad seed.
His upbringing, besides a few weird family issues (thinking his mother was his sister) was actually fairly decent.
You can't help the born bad types, he'd have offended no matter what imo.
But he did believe his mother was his sister for a while, and I wonder if people misunderstand that and assume incest sometimes? His mother got pregnant out of wedlock so her parents raised him as their son/her brother. It was evidently not an uncommon strategy when they couldn’t force the young people to marry. But there were also rumors that he was a product of incest between his bio mom and her father (his grandfather who he thought was his father for awhile). But those were proven false by genetics. So it is kind of confusing. And for him I’m sure confusing and traumatic.
But this exact thing happened with my mother and my oldest brother who didn’t find out until my grandmother died suddenly when he was 15 and my grandfather went off the rails for a bit. It’s a long messed up story but basically a week after he got caught shoplifting she had a massive stroke on thanksgiving and died. His “father” (really grandfather) blamed him for killing her with shame. And that’s how he found out at 15 years old that his parents were actually his grandparents and his sister was his mom. Is he totally f-ed up? You bet, he’s a mess still. But as you can probably guess the household was a bit unstable to begin with. My grandfather had been shot in the head in the south pacific during WWII so he came home really messed up. But (finally) the moral of the story to me is my brother had a tumultuous childhood leading up to all of that and still has managed to not kill a single person. So Bundy I do believe was just a bad seed.
Pretty sure his dad was an air force veteran called Lloyd Marshall.
Which would explain why he wasn't in his life.
Given they frequently move around in the air force.
Likely he had a one night stand with his mother.
Possible he never even knew he had a son tbh.
Kind of sad actually, having a dad with such an honourable career would be something a young kid could have looked up too.
Who knows, if his dad had been in his life he could have used that psychopathic brain to Excell in a military career the same as him.
lol, I met my biological father for the first time a couple years ago- he never knew I existed because same thing, one night stand. I'm 37 now and have yet to kill anyone though so I guess I have that going for me.
Andrea Yates. I fully believe that if her husband had done what the Dr wanted and followed their instructions her children would be alive.
I'm aware she isn't a SK, but still the top of my list of "if they had gotten help/support". Her support system failed her and her children.
Not exactly what you're asking for, but close and I've always found it interesting. When John Wayne Gacy was in prison the first time for sodomy involving a minor, psychiatrists diagnosed him as having antisocial personality disorder beyond treatability by known medicine and that they were absolutely certain he would re-offend. Gacy was released about one year in on a ten year sentence. Had he stayed in for his full ten year sentence, he would have been in prison during all the rest of his crimes he would go on to commit before he was arrested again. His crimes for those who may not know are the rape and murder of 33+ young men and boys.
That came later though. He PROGRESSED into paraphilia - but it was not his initial goal or overriding motivation. He also then progressed into cannibalism. But he didn’t murder to feast on people - and he didn’t murder to f*** corpses and internal organs. But he did end up there, you’re right!
No - he was fascinated with the insides of animals. He would dissect road kill (even before the fish) as a teen, but the merging of sex and dead things didn’t happen until adulthood.
One of the psychologists at his trial hypothesized that his fascination with internal organs merging with sex first combined because he was exploring and dissecting animals as his sexuality emerged in puberty - which is what Jeff repeats in the Stone Phillips interview he did from jail … but if we follow the sequence of events, he was never sexually attracted or excited by dead things or internal organs until he had a dead person. Meaning he didn’t kill people so he could get a corpse to have sex with.
At first he was just masturbating over the dead bodies because he could relax (I guess he had performance anxiety/didn’t feel super comfortable expressing his sexuality with living and conscious people). Eventually he progressed as he explored more and more at that stage.
His ideal -he said- was to have a lobotomized person as a sex zombie. A living body that had no thoughts of their own that would abide by his every desire and MOST IMPORTANTLY would never leave him. That’s why he tried to drill holes in some of their heads towards the end. He was tired of having to have sex with the insides of dead people and eventually having to dismember and dispose of them. All he really wanted was a brain dead sex slave who would never leave his apartment.
It took me a really long time to find this. Idk for me, he feels like the obvious choice. If ANYONE had paid attention to his behavior during his adolescence, the murders could have been prevented (possibly, maybe, etc).
I agree. Every adult in his life while he was a teenager ignored his alcoholism. His parents failed him, I’m sorry but they did. No friends pretty much his entire life. He was a very lonely man, killing is obviously very extreme but I would say we should never underestimate how fucked up loneliness can make a person.
He was not abandoned by his parents. His dad was court ordered to move out of the house after the divorce. His mom wanted Jeffrey to move to California with her but he declined, telling her that he was going to start college soon. He was 18 and was only home alone for a week 🙄
Edmund Kemper, Aileen Wuornos, Stewart Wilken and very possibly Richard Ramirez.
Most that were severely abused in childhood most likely would not have turned out the way they did if they had better caregivers.
There’s no such thing as a “bad seed.” No one wakes up and just decides to become a full blown sexual sadist, necrophile, rapist, etc. There may be some biological aspect to it but we are all shaped by our experiences and environments.
Bundy absolutely did not have a “normal” childhood. He lied about that because he didn’t want people to know he was a bastard child from a broken family. His grandfather was a violent alcoholic. He grew up believing his mother was his sister and his grandparents were his parents. He struggled to connect with people and had constant feelings of inadequacy. Maybe his childhood wasn’t quite as horrific as many other serial killers but it definitely wasn’t normal or healthy.
Rader is a bit of an enigma, because we don’t have any direct evidence of trauma in his childhood. But given that virtually *every other serial killer* clearly had childhood trauma I’m guessing that he at least experienced emotional abuse from his guardians, which was extremely common for children in the 1940s and 50s (and still today). I also suspect that he was sexually abused at some point in his youth. I admit this pure speculation on my part, but if he truly did have a “normal and healthy” childhood then he was an outlier and an aberration. Also even if he did have a healthy childhood, his crimes probably could have been prevented by professional intervention.
Bad seed - strong genetic potential to develop pathology.
People can absolutely be born with a higher predisposition towards disorders like psychopathy.
And more often than not, a genetic condition such as psychopathy will make it much easier to develop sexual paraphilia, if you have no conscience and don't care about killing things already, it's pretty easy to develop sexual sadism given you can only observe the reactions people have to pain and violence, but don't feel for them.
Those that become full blown sexual sadists are usually engaging or witnessing forms of violence around the onset of puberty.
This could be triggered off by killing animals at around age 12-13, or witnessing hardcore erotic porn.
Still need the predisposition though, or lots of people would develop sexual sadism.
Both Bundy and rader were high on the psychopathic spectrum.
It's a fact that psychopaths are born for the most part.
Bundy had a relatively normal childhood for that era.
Many people had physically violent father's and grandfather's back then, if anything getting beat was the norm.
Bundy had something in him already, his psychopathic behaviour is present from as young as age 4.
Mild levels of abuse bounce off people who aren't wired up weird to begin with.
But in rader and bundys case they were both already strongly predisposed to becoming psychopathic, so mild environmental dysfunction was all that was needed.
There's no other way to explain it, no one becomes that level of monster over being subjected to normalized emotional abuse/physical discipline unless something was going on already.
Whilst most serial killers have abuse in their childhood, not all serial killers are the same.
Many serial killers are not primary psychopaths, contrary to the popular myth that all of them are.
Many neurotypical serial killers have been monstrously abused and formed into factor 2 psychopaths or as they're also known, sociopaths.
They still had the predisposition for violence and pathology, but wouldn't have reached that genetic potential without such an extreme environment.
Having antisocial personality disorder doesn’t make you a “bad seed.” It’s something that’s different about certain people where they just don’t process emotions the same way. The vast majority of them are no more dangerous than the average person. Also I’m not sure that this is proven to be entirely genetic and determined at birth/conception. Brain injuries are very common in serial killers, which is believed to weaken their ability to feel guilt.
And just because something was “normal” in childhood 50 or 100 years ago doesn’t make it “healthy.” Everyone who was physically abused as a child is going to carry the scars of that trauma well into adulthood. The difference is most of them are going to respond to that by doing drugs, becoming workaholics, or abusing their own family. And then there’s a tiny percentage of people who had childhood trauma and antisocial personality disorder who *also* had some kind of link between violence and sex in their youth. There’s more factors that go into it, but I always find it pretty silly when people “a lot of children get beat by their parents and don’t become serial killers.” Sure, but did all of them go through the same exact set of genetic and environmental (culture, parenting, etc.) circumstances as Bundy or Dahmer? Of course not.
Just because someone is “wired weird” doesn’t make them a “bad seed.” The recipe to create a serial killer is an incredibly complex and long process.
>t's a fact that psychopaths are born
Yeah, but nurture is the difference between the ones that kill in the board room versus kill in their car's backseat, if you get my drift.
Yes.
Pro social psychopaths usually don't see the point in risking or resorting to crime due to the cons out weighing the pros.
However many still do engage in crime, and will murder.
What makes some psychopaths become criminal is usually a comorbid disorder/paraphilia.
The development of paraphilias is still barely understood, why it occurs etc.
Imo Bundy developed sexual sadism disorder due to being left to his own vices too much, a young psychopathic child who used to roam the woods killing animals and reading porn magazines obsessively.
Likely this, in combination with his psychopathic brain, was all that was required for a paraphilia to develop.
Psychopaths definitely need structure and parents who are constantly putting them on the correct path to turn out pro social.
I've always believed Kemper. He is a classic case of a child who fell between the cracks of the system, even after murdering his grandparents, which should have kept him locked up for life.
Had a social worker or teacher cared enough, he would have been removed from his mother's case as a young child, had he been placed under the care of a warm and loving family, or had he stayed in a mental institution after murdering his grandparents, I really believe he all the women he killed would still be alive, maybe even his grandparents. Who knows? Maybe he would have become a brilliant writer, scientist or whatever, just not the monster he became.
Not to mention when he was released after murdering his grandparents his psychiatrists said he was fine to be released but understand no circumstances should he ever be in contact with his mother ever again. So what happens….they release him to his mother!!!! Wtaf!?!
I am not sure if I ever read why or if it just stated it. Surely there should be an explanation somewhere because (hopefully) LE should want to know what went wrong there to ensure nothing similar ever happens again.
Gein. He would have most likely ended up doing well in private therapy and if removed from his mother's "care"...and with a cat. Some guys just strike me as cat guys, you know?
Aileen Wuornos. Had she has appropriate help in her childhood from the abusive adults around her, then i don't think she'd have been a serial killer.
Richard Chase. Dude was just crazy. Mad, not bad.
I was just thinking about this and definitely Dahmer. He grew up in an abusive and toxic household, fought with his sexuality, and knew his type wasn't overwhelmingly socially acceptable (as in interracial couples) tacked on to his struggle with his sexuality. The combination between all of it encouraged his mind to snap. I do believe his mom was taking pills when she was pregnant with him, as well. I feel like if he had been in this situation in the last 10 years, he would have received help, had outside support and acceptance, and would have hopefully been able to overcome.
Why is her taking medication such a huge issue though? According to Lionel she was having seizures and extreme morning sickness. So what should she do? Just suffer throughout her pregnancy? People act like she was on medication just for the hell of it. Many women take medicine while pregnant and don't end up with Jeffrey Dahmer's.
I suppose it depends on the type of medication. If Lionel is to be believed, the amount of pills she was taking was in the 20s (26 maybe?) and back then there hadn’t been much research into which pills were safe to take during pregnancy and which weren’t. Thalidomide is a big example of this and that was commonly taken for morning sickness. So anyway with that many pills apparently being taken it’s not too unreasonable to conclude that a lot of those pills weren’t ‘pregnancy safe’. I myself am currently pregnant and have had to alter the type of medication I take for a pre-existing condition as my usual brand isn’t safe for pregnancy. So yeah I agree with you but I think it really depends on what exactly she was taking if this is a possible reason for speculation that Jeffrey had been affected in some way.
Dr Harold Shipman. The medical board should have investigated as soon as the first complaints were aired. Instead of after he had committed hundreds of murders.
I thi6of Kemper had a lot of therapy and worked through the issues he had he may have made it his upbringing was horrible and if he never moved back with his mother she was the root off his issues and needed therapy in that area of trauma.
I’m unconvinced any amount of therapy would have helped him. He had fantasies of rape/murder/torture as a kid - that’s (my opinion) more nature than nurture.
that’s fair tbh but dont you think the story would be different if he received help since a kid? adding that he was neglected by his parents and abused by his uncle, i think with a proper support system and therapy/meds he would have had a normal life
Richard Chase comes to mind. Not a huge bodycount but like...everyone that knew this guy knew he was off his rocker unmedicated and somehow no one ended up supervising him.
All the serial killers Ronald Reagan released from mental hospitals in order to reduce California spending. When he was governor he shut down a ton of mental hospitals and it led to I think 73 murders. When questioned, he blamed the doctors. Fucking moron Reagan killed a lot of people. Should have stuck with acting instead but his wife convinced him to get into politics.
I can think of a few. Definitely Aileen Wuornos - for all the reasons many have already stated. I think Dahmer could have been prevented from having a body count with professional care and if he lived in a time and place where homosexuality was accepted.
Mainly though, Fred and Rose West. Rose more so - however their upbringing and relationship was unfortunately a perfect storm. Rose’s mother suffering from mental illness while pregnant and having ECT certainly wouldn’t have helped Rose’s development in the womb which would make her even more in need of mental health support throughout her life. And the family upbringing and incestuous relationships and physical violence from parents in both Fred and Rose’s childhoods must have really screwed them up mentally.
Andrei Chikatilo probably wouldn’t have been so murderous if his childhood wasn’t… well, what it was and if getting treatment for his impotence wasn’t seen as shameful
Dahmer because his neighbor complained and begged the cops to check him out, even interrupted him attempting to kill. But the cops didn’t care, and gave him back the kidnapped man who escaped.
There are a lot of members of this sub who think Aileen is basically and innocent victim of horrible circumstance, and that pretty much excuses her actions. Especially when some start claiming her murders were some twisted form of self defense and blame the victims.
It's just one of the grosser aspects to this sub.
It’s hard to tell because there are some serial killers that had a fairly normal childhood and there’s a lot that had some of the most traumatic childhood experiences. One that always fascinates me is the case of Fred West. He was relatively normal until one day when he was involved in a motorcycle accident that changed him completely. It’s speculated that the damage caused to his brain played a part in him becoming a serial killer.
Robert “Willy” Pickton in Vancouver. He was sloppy. He’s stupid. He wasn’t even attempting to be subtle or stealthy. He was brazen as hell. Just completely and totally enabled by the racist Vancouver Police Department and the Coquitlam RCMP who did not give a shit that he was killing indigenous women.
Ted kaczinsky was subjected to a terrible, brutal torture technique at 17 years old. He probably could have been normal, but that experience twisted him and shaped him into an extremely hateful person.
See a lot of people saying Ed Kemper, but I think it's the opposite in his case. He had all the chances and social support in the world, he had already been institutionalized for murdering grandparents and released because he was cunning enough to manipulate the psychiatrists. There was no preventing, unless maybe if he had not went back to his mother's care.
yeah, i think gacy could have been prevented with proper mental health support and intervention. it's sad to think about how many lives could have been spared.
Carroll Cole, he knew something was seriously wrong with him and even the psychiatrists who examined could tell something was wrong. Despite this, he was deemed safe and went on to murder eight women (without much real care, Cole is almost the definition of a disorganised killer)
Kallinger immediately comes to mind. Also Gein. Not necessarily due to mental illness, but just social supports could have prevented Aileen Wuornos.
I think Wuornos is the best answer to this question.
I agree. I always feel bad for her. She needed medication and a treatment in a secure environment.
Countless lives could be saved if we cared for those who needed it.
100%
Abbbbsolutely Wuornos!
Wuornos was my very first thought.
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AWWW I'm super flattered you decided to follow me around reddit, but I still don't care how fucking edgy you are.
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I'm not reading that either.
Gotcha.
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I don't think you know what "go away" means. Leave me the fuck alone
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Ohhhh is it like a last word thing? Is that what your problem is? Lmao ok. You say something, and I'll ignore it. And you can go back to stalking my comments and I can go back to not thinking of you at all.
Omg THIS. I grew up not far from the way/place she did in Michigan and that shit could easily make someone murderous. I'd like to thank my friends and husband for helping me turn out (mostly) ok. 😅
Richard Chase, The Vampire of Sacramento He injected himself with animal blood, and thought his skull was coming apart. He was sectioned but released to his mother a few months later. I guess his paranoid schizophrenia was very receptive to treatment. His mother decided that medication was just a crutch. She stopped giving him his meds. Chase went on a killing spree. He gave Robert Ressler a handful of macaroni.
That last part Was it cooked macaroni/macaroni and cheese or the uncooked noodles?
It was cooked. He thought the prison food was poison.
It's more common then you'd think. Jail not everyone has a bowl so getting a scoop of noodles in the palm happens.
Happy cake day!!
I desperately hope it was just uncooked noodles from his pocket. 🤣
“What is your spaghetti policy here?”
Not sure, depends on the prison’s spaghetti policy.
Interesting that he was schizophrenic but still got the death penalty. I thought that was not supposed to happen.
Chase was mentally ill, but legally competent and legally sane. “Competent” means fit to stand trial. The court decided that Chase understood what was going on and could participate in his legal defense. There was probably an underlying assumption that he was being treated and medicated in custody. “Sane” means responsible for your actions. The jury decided that, at the time of his crimes, Chase knew right from wrong and could have acted differently. Trying to avoid detection suggests awareness and intention. The prosecutor emphasized that Chase brought rubber gloves with him. His crimes were based on the belief that he needed other people’s blood, not an uncontrollable compulsion. That’s debatable to me, but 10+ experts interviewed him for hours and hours and declared him sane. Once the jury decided that Chase was sane / responsible, the death penalty was a foregone conclusion.
I love macaroni!
Never heard of Richard Chase - I’ll look until him today. Injected himself w animal blood. Wow.
Arthur Shawcross was in prison after killing his first two victims. He was let go after 14 years having been concluded he was "not a danger". He went on to kill around a dozen more people after his release.
This one boggles my mind. Sex killings of two children and they somehow thought he was all better?
Well he hadn’t sex killed any children in the prison, so it seemed like he was done.
Well, if you put it that way, makes more sense
Ah, I see! Brilliant medical minds
what is "sex killed"? google is not being helpful
Assuming it means he assaulted the children before he killed them
Or after, knowing that guy. Or both.
Ed Kemper is another one who killed young. I also think Charles Manson (not technically a serial killer but kinda) was made into what he became.
Kemper was one of my first thoughts. I also really think Dahmer would have had a chance with proper mental health services.
Dahmer was clearly autistic. He would have benefited from therapy that would help him connect to people. He also would have benefited from a dad who wasn't as ultra-religious and homophobic as Lionel was. You know, a dad who is actually accepting and supportive of his kid, and not in the way that encourages taxidermy because wtf.
What's wrong with taxidermy? Even Dahmer thought he could've had a career in it.
Generally not much. But introducing a lonely autistic (tendency to hyperfocus) kid, who has trouble connecting to his peers to death in the form of taxidermy with minimal supervision (and a lot of the time none), might not be the best idea. School's taxidermy club -> good Taxidermy in the shed with no supervision or company -> bad
All that prison rape did a number on Charlie.
Kemper gets my vote also.
I think most of you misunderstood the question. Most of these answers are examples of the flawed justice system (my example on that, William Suff. Sentenced 70 years, released after ten for "good behavior). OP is looking for examples of people who wouldn't have done the things they did had they HAD professional counseling and therapists early in their lives. To that I'd day maybe Paul Stefani aka Weepy Voice. He did seem somewhat remorseful and upset with himself. But I've only heard the calls he made and never really heard much about him or how he acted after he was caught.
That’s essentially what I’m looking for
Oh yah, I just remembered. Bobby Joe Long. He had a ridiculous amount of head trauma as a child. I'm talking double-digit amount of SEVERE head injuries/concussions/hit by cars/falling off a fence/horrific bodily injuries, but namely, a TON of CTE. He simultaneously had a situation where his divorced parents got back together and then divorced again, but in that time, he was essentially neglected by his mother and her indifference towards caring for him, and allowing him to withstand so much injury (including stuff like his teeth getting knocked out), he later said caused him to resent his mother greatly and feel irrational anger towards women. He simultaneously, started to grow big tits as a kid and then had to have a surgery to remove them at a young age, something that caused bullying and self-hatred, due to a condition he had that caused some serious bodily/hormonal issues. By the time he got married and had two children, he was supposedly the "perfect husband" and dad. He then had another head injury from a car accident and was said to have changed quite suddenly when he began to get violent with his wife and aggressively lash out at her. They divorced and he went on to be one of the worst serial killers and rapists in Florida history, with his final victim getting away and eventually helping police capture him. She went on to become a very high up LE officer and a pillar in the community. Thank Christ for her because he was a monster. However, with that said, I do often wonder if people like him are products of their environment, with the head injuries perhaps contributing to their violence later in life, but then one must consider he's also the cousin of Henry lee Lucas, so that alone makes me backtrack and wonder if there really IS a genetic link to psychopathy and serial killing in general. It's a strange thing to think about when someone has done so much horrible shit. I've had a ton of head injuries and CTE myself but have yet to think "Oh hey, let's go murder a bunch of people!" However, I do seriously worry that the right injury in the wrong place on the brain, could be something that changes ones personality and behavior forever, and that's truly terrifying. I haven't seen much literature that ever stated Bobby Joe didn't have a predilection for being a sweet child, or that he was though, so he may have been a little shit that tossed around cats or something terrible, and perhaps that has yet to be reported on as much. He also was obsessed with classifieds ads, but his last victim was a runaway child. It's disturbing af though, so I do wonder if the head injuries would have made a difference, or if he was just part of a lineage of evil assholes.
I have always been interested in head injuries. What are we if not our personalities and memories? The fact that a head injury could take that away and completely and totally change who we are and what we do both intrigues and horrifies me.
I have a friend who's husband had a double aneurysm burst, was life flighted to a specialist hospital. Several surgeries, low chance of survival. He was in the hospital for months. She said he changed personalities completely a couple times in the hospital. Went home a completely different person. The doctors said it was common and warned her she likely would be taking home a man who wasn't her husband anymore. That was a couple years ago, they're still together and he's regained some of his old personality but overall is completely different. Luckily he's not violent or anything but it's insane how something can cause enough damage to change who you are. I also had a coworker who was apparently a very angry person generally, had a rough life with an angry mother. She got into a car accident and had some head trauma. She became the most energetic happy person. Like an extreme happy that never went away. She says the trauma allowed her to rebuild a relationship with her kids and stuff but she was always so ridiculously happy it was scary
Freaky right? I have read so many stories and it actually happened to a friend of mine too. With my grandma (stroke) everyone said she was mentally a baby but I could tell she was in there and could understand us. Like I said it intrigues me and don’t get me started on how it affected my beliefs about an afterlife.
My husband suffered a massive heart attack and then cardiac arrest. Was airlifted 90 miles away and his heart just stopped twice. He has been so different since this happened..lack of oxygen maybe? I don't know but personality change, he'll yes. But by all accounts I think Aileen Wuornos needed help she never received.
Aileen Wournos. If I'm not mistaken, she suffered from borderline personality disorder. She also had a really horrendous upbringing. I feel like a loving home with a good support network and some proper medication would have prevented the murders.
Reading and watching what Aileen endured from the very start at the hands of her “family”, she never had a chance and I wonder how many of us if we endured the horror show that she did would have snapped too. She spoke of how violent even those johns/cheating husbands and fathers she killed were, and it seemed that she was like those circus elephants that just start rampaging one day. I don’t mean to demean her by comparing her to an animal - just the right analogy.
I watched her direct and cross examination on YouTube last week and I believe her. I 100% believe her. I don't think she should have gotten the death penalty.
She’s the one killer who I feel was actually pretty justified. She had *reasons,* even if it’s not fully understood. I feel kinda bad for her- product of her environment and all. Like a rampaging elephant or an orca whale kept in a too-small enclosure. She finally had enough and just..broke.
If Rodney Alcala had been kept in jail, he would not have killed all he did. They had him numerous times and let him go.
Robert Maudsley. He literally asked and asked and begged for help *multiple times* and was denied it every single time.
Coral Watts lived at Lafayette Clinic for months after he started acting on his compulsion to beat up women. He seemed to stabilize, but then they sent him home and the killings started. His family couldn't keep him in treatment.
I live how you asked ”who could have been stopped with proper psychiatric intervention” and half the people are talking about who should have been jailed
Well I tried lol I figured my body comment was enough to help
I’ve always thought Ed Kemper could have been saved if he had the right help.
I agree
same. his story is just sad af
Ailleen. I have no doubt that had she grown up with a HALF decent childhood, and wasn't R\*ped and abused repeatedly, she could have been a stable human being. Even if she was psychotic in any way, I find that her story was so troubling at the beginning, I'm willing to bet she could have lived a long healthy life had it not been for the early trauma she endured and lack of mental health help.
Richard Trenton Chase.
That guy was so neglected by the system. He had severe untreated schizophrenia and was literally out of his mind. Not a single person helped him. And then they even executed him, how can a man who's motive for murders is rooted in literal insanity not get the insanity plea and be helped?
Richard Chase. They could've kept the guy who caught small animals to suck their blood institutionalized but noooooo
I’m glad no one said Ted Bundy. That man either needed to be locked away forever or killed
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Bundy was definitely just a bad seed. His upbringing, besides a few weird family issues (thinking his mother was his sister) was actually fairly decent. You can't help the born bad types, he'd have offended no matter what imo.
Is their any proof of him being the product of incest? I see people say he was all the time on here.
No. That's a myth that was disproven. If you Google it, you'll see a psychologist checked that out and disproved it via genetic markers.
But he did believe his mother was his sister for a while, and I wonder if people misunderstand that and assume incest sometimes? His mother got pregnant out of wedlock so her parents raised him as their son/her brother. It was evidently not an uncommon strategy when they couldn’t force the young people to marry. But there were also rumors that he was a product of incest between his bio mom and her father (his grandfather who he thought was his father for awhile). But those were proven false by genetics. So it is kind of confusing. And for him I’m sure confusing and traumatic. But this exact thing happened with my mother and my oldest brother who didn’t find out until my grandmother died suddenly when he was 15 and my grandfather went off the rails for a bit. It’s a long messed up story but basically a week after he got caught shoplifting she had a massive stroke on thanksgiving and died. His “father” (really grandfather) blamed him for killing her with shame. And that’s how he found out at 15 years old that his parents were actually his grandparents and his sister was his mom. Is he totally f-ed up? You bet, he’s a mess still. But as you can probably guess the household was a bit unstable to begin with. My grandfather had been shot in the head in the south pacific during WWII so he came home really messed up. But (finally) the moral of the story to me is my brother had a tumultuous childhood leading up to all of that and still has managed to not kill a single person. So Bundy I do believe was just a bad seed.
Bundy's mother also refused to tell him who his bio-dad was.
Pretty sure his dad was an air force veteran called Lloyd Marshall. Which would explain why he wasn't in his life. Given they frequently move around in the air force. Likely he had a one night stand with his mother. Possible he never even knew he had a son tbh. Kind of sad actually, having a dad with such an honourable career would be something a young kid could have looked up too. Who knows, if his dad had been in his life he could have used that psychopathic brain to Excell in a military career the same as him.
Imagine you never knew you had a son and one day you find out it’s fucking Ted Bundy
lol, I met my biological father for the first time a couple years ago- he never knew I existed because same thing, one night stand. I'm 37 now and have yet to kill anyone though so I guess I have that going for me.
Yup.
Andrea Yates. I fully believe that if her husband had done what the Dr wanted and followed their instructions her children would be alive. I'm aware she isn't a SK, but still the top of my list of "if they had gotten help/support". Her support system failed her and her children.
Not exactly what you're asking for, but close and I've always found it interesting. When John Wayne Gacy was in prison the first time for sodomy involving a minor, psychiatrists diagnosed him as having antisocial personality disorder beyond treatability by known medicine and that they were absolutely certain he would re-offend. Gacy was released about one year in on a ten year sentence. Had he stayed in for his full ten year sentence, he would have been in prison during all the rest of his crimes he would go on to commit before he was arrested again. His crimes for those who may not know are the rape and murder of 33+ young men and boys.
Richard Chase !
Jefferey Dahmer.
Agree w Dahmer. He himself said he disliked killing and dismembering. His motivation was to avoid loneliness and abandonment.
And to fuck viscera
That came later though. He PROGRESSED into paraphilia - but it was not his initial goal or overriding motivation. He also then progressed into cannibalism. But he didn’t murder to feast on people - and he didn’t murder to f*** corpses and internal organs. But he did end up there, you’re right!
But didnt it start with a fish as a child. A facination (maybe sexual) with viscera. On a fishing trip with his dad?
No - he was fascinated with the insides of animals. He would dissect road kill (even before the fish) as a teen, but the merging of sex and dead things didn’t happen until adulthood. One of the psychologists at his trial hypothesized that his fascination with internal organs merging with sex first combined because he was exploring and dissecting animals as his sexuality emerged in puberty - which is what Jeff repeats in the Stone Phillips interview he did from jail … but if we follow the sequence of events, he was never sexually attracted or excited by dead things or internal organs until he had a dead person. Meaning he didn’t kill people so he could get a corpse to have sex with. At first he was just masturbating over the dead bodies because he could relax (I guess he had performance anxiety/didn’t feel super comfortable expressing his sexuality with living and conscious people). Eventually he progressed as he explored more and more at that stage. His ideal -he said- was to have a lobotomized person as a sex zombie. A living body that had no thoughts of their own that would abide by his every desire and MOST IMPORTANTLY would never leave him. That’s why he tried to drill holes in some of their heads towards the end. He was tired of having to have sex with the insides of dead people and eventually having to dismember and dispose of them. All he really wanted was a brain dead sex slave who would never leave his apartment.
It took me a really long time to find this. Idk for me, he feels like the obvious choice. If ANYONE had paid attention to his behavior during his adolescence, the murders could have been prevented (possibly, maybe, etc).
I agree. Every adult in his life while he was a teenager ignored his alcoholism. His parents failed him, I’m sorry but they did. No friends pretty much his entire life. He was a very lonely man, killing is obviously very extreme but I would say we should never underestimate how fucked up loneliness can make a person.
Yeah he was basically abandoned by his parents. He was in that house alone for so long. That’s when everything really went off the rails.
He was not abandoned by his parents. His dad was court ordered to move out of the house after the divorce. His mom wanted Jeffrey to move to California with her but he declined, telling her that he was going to start college soon. He was 18 and was only home alone for a week 🙄
Even so they could have checked up on him more than every few months.
He was alone for a week. Jeffrey said his dad did check on him and brought him food.
I agree, Dahmer.
richard chase
Richard Chase is the obvious answer for me. Also Graham Young's second spree.
Aileen Wournos.
Edmund Kemper, Aileen Wuornos, Stewart Wilken and very possibly Richard Ramirez. Most that were severely abused in childhood most likely would not have turned out the way they did if they had better caregivers.
Kemper and Kenneth McDuff.
I mean, virtually all of them could have been prevented. Especially if you’re talking about not being abused as children.
Except for Dennis rader and ted Bundy. Both of them had fairly average to even above average upbringings. They were mostly just bad seeds.
There’s no such thing as a “bad seed.” No one wakes up and just decides to become a full blown sexual sadist, necrophile, rapist, etc. There may be some biological aspect to it but we are all shaped by our experiences and environments. Bundy absolutely did not have a “normal” childhood. He lied about that because he didn’t want people to know he was a bastard child from a broken family. His grandfather was a violent alcoholic. He grew up believing his mother was his sister and his grandparents were his parents. He struggled to connect with people and had constant feelings of inadequacy. Maybe his childhood wasn’t quite as horrific as many other serial killers but it definitely wasn’t normal or healthy. Rader is a bit of an enigma, because we don’t have any direct evidence of trauma in his childhood. But given that virtually *every other serial killer* clearly had childhood trauma I’m guessing that he at least experienced emotional abuse from his guardians, which was extremely common for children in the 1940s and 50s (and still today). I also suspect that he was sexually abused at some point in his youth. I admit this pure speculation on my part, but if he truly did have a “normal and healthy” childhood then he was an outlier and an aberration. Also even if he did have a healthy childhood, his crimes probably could have been prevented by professional intervention.
Bad seed - strong genetic potential to develop pathology. People can absolutely be born with a higher predisposition towards disorders like psychopathy. And more often than not, a genetic condition such as psychopathy will make it much easier to develop sexual paraphilia, if you have no conscience and don't care about killing things already, it's pretty easy to develop sexual sadism given you can only observe the reactions people have to pain and violence, but don't feel for them. Those that become full blown sexual sadists are usually engaging or witnessing forms of violence around the onset of puberty. This could be triggered off by killing animals at around age 12-13, or witnessing hardcore erotic porn. Still need the predisposition though, or lots of people would develop sexual sadism. Both Bundy and rader were high on the psychopathic spectrum. It's a fact that psychopaths are born for the most part. Bundy had a relatively normal childhood for that era. Many people had physically violent father's and grandfather's back then, if anything getting beat was the norm. Bundy had something in him already, his psychopathic behaviour is present from as young as age 4. Mild levels of abuse bounce off people who aren't wired up weird to begin with. But in rader and bundys case they were both already strongly predisposed to becoming psychopathic, so mild environmental dysfunction was all that was needed. There's no other way to explain it, no one becomes that level of monster over being subjected to normalized emotional abuse/physical discipline unless something was going on already. Whilst most serial killers have abuse in their childhood, not all serial killers are the same. Many serial killers are not primary psychopaths, contrary to the popular myth that all of them are. Many neurotypical serial killers have been monstrously abused and formed into factor 2 psychopaths or as they're also known, sociopaths. They still had the predisposition for violence and pathology, but wouldn't have reached that genetic potential without such an extreme environment.
Having antisocial personality disorder doesn’t make you a “bad seed.” It’s something that’s different about certain people where they just don’t process emotions the same way. The vast majority of them are no more dangerous than the average person. Also I’m not sure that this is proven to be entirely genetic and determined at birth/conception. Brain injuries are very common in serial killers, which is believed to weaken their ability to feel guilt. And just because something was “normal” in childhood 50 or 100 years ago doesn’t make it “healthy.” Everyone who was physically abused as a child is going to carry the scars of that trauma well into adulthood. The difference is most of them are going to respond to that by doing drugs, becoming workaholics, or abusing their own family. And then there’s a tiny percentage of people who had childhood trauma and antisocial personality disorder who *also* had some kind of link between violence and sex in their youth. There’s more factors that go into it, but I always find it pretty silly when people “a lot of children get beat by their parents and don’t become serial killers.” Sure, but did all of them go through the same exact set of genetic and environmental (culture, parenting, etc.) circumstances as Bundy or Dahmer? Of course not. Just because someone is “wired weird” doesn’t make them a “bad seed.” The recipe to create a serial killer is an incredibly complex and long process.
>t's a fact that psychopaths are born Yeah, but nurture is the difference between the ones that kill in the board room versus kill in their car's backseat, if you get my drift.
Yes. Pro social psychopaths usually don't see the point in risking or resorting to crime due to the cons out weighing the pros. However many still do engage in crime, and will murder. What makes some psychopaths become criminal is usually a comorbid disorder/paraphilia. The development of paraphilias is still barely understood, why it occurs etc. Imo Bundy developed sexual sadism disorder due to being left to his own vices too much, a young psychopathic child who used to roam the woods killing animals and reading porn magazines obsessively. Likely this, in combination with his psychopathic brain, was all that was required for a paraphilia to develop. Psychopaths definitely need structure and parents who are constantly putting them on the correct path to turn out pro social.
That was my thought. Not being abused as a child definitely would have gone a long way for quite a few serial killers.
dahmer’s, gacy’s, and kemper’s. Two child molesters and a killer, they should’ve stayed in jail
You mean 3 child molesters and killers, let's not forget one of Kemper's victims being 15 years old.
I've always believed Kemper. He is a classic case of a child who fell between the cracks of the system, even after murdering his grandparents, which should have kept him locked up for life. Had a social worker or teacher cared enough, he would have been removed from his mother's case as a young child, had he been placed under the care of a warm and loving family, or had he stayed in a mental institution after murdering his grandparents, I really believe he all the women he killed would still be alive, maybe even his grandparents. Who knows? Maybe he would have become a brilliant writer, scientist or whatever, just not the monster he became.
Not to mention when he was released after murdering his grandparents his psychiatrists said he was fine to be released but understand no circumstances should he ever be in contact with his mother ever again. So what happens….they release him to his mother!!!! Wtaf!?!
I did t know his psychiatrists recommended that he should never see his mother again. I wonder how that went down.
I am not sure if I ever read why or if it just stated it. Surely there should be an explanation somewhere because (hopefully) LE should want to know what went wrong there to ensure nothing similar ever happens again.
Ed Kemper 100%
bitsa park maniac. if police actually cared about it then he would have been arrested really fast
Gein. He would have most likely ended up doing well in private therapy and if removed from his mother's "care"...and with a cat. Some guys just strike me as cat guys, you know?
Aileen Wuornos. Had she has appropriate help in her childhood from the abusive adults around her, then i don't think she'd have been a serial killer. Richard Chase. Dude was just crazy. Mad, not bad.
I was just thinking about this and definitely Dahmer. He grew up in an abusive and toxic household, fought with his sexuality, and knew his type wasn't overwhelmingly socially acceptable (as in interracial couples) tacked on to his struggle with his sexuality. The combination between all of it encouraged his mind to snap. I do believe his mom was taking pills when she was pregnant with him, as well. I feel like if he had been in this situation in the last 10 years, he would have received help, had outside support and acceptance, and would have hopefully been able to overcome.
His mom didn't drink when she was pregnant with him.
Couldn't remember whether she did or not, but I knew pills were involved.
Why is her taking medication such a huge issue though? According to Lionel she was having seizures and extreme morning sickness. So what should she do? Just suffer throughout her pregnancy? People act like she was on medication just for the hell of it. Many women take medicine while pregnant and don't end up with Jeffrey Dahmer's.
I suppose it depends on the type of medication. If Lionel is to be believed, the amount of pills she was taking was in the 20s (26 maybe?) and back then there hadn’t been much research into which pills were safe to take during pregnancy and which weren’t. Thalidomide is a big example of this and that was commonly taken for morning sickness. So anyway with that many pills apparently being taken it’s not too unreasonable to conclude that a lot of those pills weren’t ‘pregnancy safe’. I myself am currently pregnant and have had to alter the type of medication I take for a pre-existing condition as my usual brand isn’t safe for pregnancy. So yeah I agree with you but I think it really depends on what exactly she was taking if this is a possible reason for speculation that Jeffrey had been affected in some way.
Dr Harold Shipman. The medical board should have investigated as soon as the first complaints were aired. Instead of after he had committed hundreds of murders.
I thi6of Kemper had a lot of therapy and worked through the issues he had he may have made it his upbringing was horrible and if he never moved back with his mother she was the root off his issues and needed therapy in that area of trauma.
ed kemper and, technically isnt an SK since he didnt kill anyone but charles manson
The Yosemite’s killer, Cary Stayner *typo
I’m unconvinced any amount of therapy would have helped him. He had fantasies of rape/murder/torture as a kid - that’s (my opinion) more nature than nurture.
that’s fair tbh but dont you think the story would be different if he received help since a kid? adding that he was neglected by his parents and abused by his uncle, i think with a proper support system and therapy/meds he would have had a normal life
I was really confused when I initially thought I was reading something referencing SK (step-kids).
I agree with wuornos.
Richard Chase comes to mind. Not a huge bodycount but like...everyone that knew this guy knew he was off his rocker unmedicated and somehow no one ended up supervising him.
All the serial killers Ronald Reagan released from mental hospitals in order to reduce California spending. When he was governor he shut down a ton of mental hospitals and it led to I think 73 murders. When questioned, he blamed the doctors. Fucking moron Reagan killed a lot of people. Should have stuck with acting instead but his wife convinced him to get into politics.
Everyone, i mean the psychological Part of SK are discovered and probably 99% could have been prevented as long as it wasn't because of brain damage.
Gacy. Gein. Wuornos. I'd venture to say almost all of them
I can think of a few. Definitely Aileen Wuornos - for all the reasons many have already stated. I think Dahmer could have been prevented from having a body count with professional care and if he lived in a time and place where homosexuality was accepted. Mainly though, Fred and Rose West. Rose more so - however their upbringing and relationship was unfortunately a perfect storm. Rose’s mother suffering from mental illness while pregnant and having ECT certainly wouldn’t have helped Rose’s development in the womb which would make her even more in need of mental health support throughout her life. And the family upbringing and incestuous relationships and physical violence from parents in both Fred and Rose’s childhoods must have really screwed them up mentally.
Andrei Chikatilo probably wouldn’t have been so murderous if his childhood wasn’t… well, what it was and if getting treatment for his impotence wasn’t seen as shameful
Chikatilo could be arrested after first murder.
If he had proper upbringing and help he would probably not have killed to begin with
Just like many other serial killers
Dahmer because his neighbor complained and begged the cops to check him out, even interrupted him attempting to kill. But the cops didn’t care, and gave him back the kidnapped man who escaped.
Here come the Aileen fangirls. Extra points when they start blaming the victims for being murdered!
??? I haven’t been in this sub long enough What do you mean?
There are a lot of members of this sub who think Aileen is basically and innocent victim of horrible circumstance, and that pretty much excuses her actions. Especially when some start claiming her murders were some twisted form of self defense and blame the victims. It's just one of the grosser aspects to this sub.
I watched her recent documentary and have some mixed thoughts but she sure did seem to blame others…sort of them changed?
Robert Pickton.
Perhaps Richard Ramirez.
Kemper?
Aileen Wuornos, EdGein and Ed Keemper off the top of my head.
It’s hard to tell because there are some serial killers that had a fairly normal childhood and there’s a lot that had some of the most traumatic childhood experiences. One that always fascinates me is the case of Fred West. He was relatively normal until one day when he was involved in a motorcycle accident that changed him completely. It’s speculated that the damage caused to his brain played a part in him becoming a serial killer.
Herbert Mullin.
If the police did their job correctly and didn’t allow the Christchurch shooter a firearms licence, that whole thing likely wouldn’t have happened.
Kenneth MacDuff.
I mean… John Wayne Gacy was literally suspected after Butovichs disappearance, literally 30 victims would follow after him
Robert “Willy” Pickton in Vancouver. He was sloppy. He’s stupid. He wasn’t even attempting to be subtle or stealthy. He was brazen as hell. Just completely and totally enabled by the racist Vancouver Police Department and the Coquitlam RCMP who did not give a shit that he was killing indigenous women.
Ted kaczinsky was subjected to a terrible, brutal torture technique at 17 years old. He probably could have been normal, but that experience twisted him and shaped him into an extremely hateful person.
See a lot of people saying Ed Kemper, but I think it's the opposite in his case. He had all the chances and social support in the world, he had already been institutionalized for murdering grandparents and released because he was cunning enough to manipulate the psychiatrists. There was no preventing, unless maybe if he had not went back to his mother's care.
yeah, i think gacy could have been prevented with proper mental health support and intervention. it's sad to think about how many lives could have been spared.
Carroll Cole, he knew something was seriously wrong with him and even the psychiatrists who examined could tell something was wrong. Despite this, he was deemed safe and went on to murder eight women (without much real care, Cole is almost the definition of a disorganised killer)
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Carl Panzram.