Serial Killers and Their Psychological Disorders - Essay Example

Running head: Serial Killers Serial Killers s Serial Killers A serial killer is an individual who is guilty of murdering three or more than that people. These murders usually take place over the time period of a month or more though there is some time off in between which is known as the “cooling off period”. The drive for killing is mostly to be psychologically gratified. The motives of a serial murderer may range from anger and thrill to financial gain and seeking attention or even a sexual element may be involved. They may have killed many in a common manner and the victims may have something similar like their sex or race, etc. Over the years, the serial murderers have been classified under different types. Some of them are the: Visionary Type, Mission-Oriented Type, Power Control-Oriented Type, Lust Killers, etc. The two serial killer types that I will be focusing on in this paper are the Lust Killers and Mission-Oriented Type. The main motive for Lust Killers is sex (Coet). It does not matter whether their victim is dead or alive; they mostly depend on their fantasy. The more they torture or even mutilate the person, the greater the sexual gratification they get. These killers mostly use weapons - such as knives or even their bare hands - that make it possible for them to have a near contact with the victims. There is no time span for how long these murders may continue, as long as the stimulation is present, they will keep happening. As it decreases, they may slow down or come to a halt completely. One of the most famous of these killers is Jack the Ripper. Despite the fact that he killed in the nineteenth century and is believed to have murdered five women over a period of three months, yet there remains a great hype about him. The main reason behind that being that to this day no one has discovered the true identity of the serial killer. Jack the Ripper is thought to be a Lust Killer because of his choice of victims and the way he took their lives (House, 2011). He murdered middle aged women who were prostitutes and he did the job so very brutally, slashing different parts of their body and even scooping out their organs. He used a sharp knife and was very quick with his work that he was not caught. Psychologists say mutilating his victims helped him attain sexual pleasure. Even though Jack the Ripper shares some of his qualities similar to that of a disorganized killer, but the majority of them are those of an organized one. He clearly had an aim in mind to murder the prostitutes and not just any random person he came across. To do that he brought and used his own weapons and did not even leave any of them behind. Since he even extracted out the organs of his victims, it is safe to assume that he knew something about the human body at least and had the right tools to perform the procedure. This automatically leads to the fact that he was obviously intelligent and maybe even educated. He only focused on the prostitutes of the East End and Whitechapel (Hayes, 2006). He sent letters to the police even going as far as sending one of the weapons he used in his murders. Of course, he was never caught so he had to be clever, fast and sly enough to have escaped. Another example of this type is Kenneth Bianchi. He, along with his cousin Buono, raped and murdered women. These were normally aged between twelve to twenty eight years. They used to act as if they were policemen and talk them into coming to their place. There, they tortured and sexually abused the women before deciding on how to kill them. They experimented the killing in various ways using lethal injection or electric shock and other methods. Evidently they thrived on the thrill of taking advantage of the women (Gibson, 2006). Bianchi, too, has certain characteristics similar to that of an organized killer but those of a disorganized killer overrule them (Giannangelo, 1996). He was the child of a prostitute and adopted by a couple when he was three months old. Though he was intelligent but his school work showed otherwise. His temperament was not stable and his diagnosis confirmed it. His marriage did not last for more than eight months and he dropped out after the first semester of attending college. He was employed at different places but ended up as a security guard at a jewelry store. This place was convenient for him to steal jewels from. Later he moved and came under his cousin’s guide, raping and murdering women. Once the two parted ways, Bianchi tried to continue it on his own but failed at the first try. He was too clumsy and left behind much evidence leading to his conviction. The Mission-Oriented Types are those who have a “mission” of getting rid of a specific kind of group of people which they think to be undesirable and unworthy of living with the general public (Waller, Allhoff, & Doris, 2010). They do have the realization that what they are doing is not generally acceptable, that it is wrong but they think that they are right and are willing to face the consequences. They believe that they are working for the general public. Their victims are usually specific groups of people like homosexuals or prostitutes, etc. Joseph Paul Franklin is a Mission-Oriented serial killer. During his teenage he read some pamphlets about the American Nazi Party and realized that he agreed fully with them. He believed that he needed to get rid of all the people in the world he considered to be inferior. These may be African Americans and Jews, people who married with people of another race or others. He took it up to himself to try to kill as many of these people as possible (Newton, 2006). Franklin can be called a disorganized killer. He was brought up in an abusive and impoverished household and often had to take the beatings. He probably had to live through and follow many rules and regulations. He has a complete and utter hatred for those he thinks to be inferior. He let it out by killing as many of these people as he could, the record says the number is twenty. Several of his victims were shot suddenly from a distance. Other than his siblings, he seems to have no family of his own as no spouse or children have been mentioned in relation with him. Even though he is imprisoned, still he insists that his way was right and he has no regrets. Albert DeSalvo, more commonly known as the Boston Strangler, is another example. He went on a rampage of sexually assaulting women aged between nineteen to eight five years of age and then killing them using their own clothes. He thought them to be the reason behind all problems (Rogers, 2006). He can be called a disorganized killer of sorts. He was not brought up in the environment a child should be born in. His father was a drunk and physically abused his mother. He also treated the children harshly, even sold them for slavery but they managed to escape. He then taught them to steal. With such an upbringing, it was only inevitable that DeSalvo ended up taking the route he did. He was imprisoned and was stabbed to death. Some of them like Jack the Ripper, Kenneth Bianchi and Albert DeSalvo focused on harming the females no matter what their reasons. Franklin and Charles Manson also seem to be having similar point of views of racial discrimination. Though the latter was not a serial himself, he hired others to do the dirty work for him. Serial killers over the years have had various reasons or have been killing people due to mental reasons. But it is true that due to their psychological disorders several innocent lives have been lost. References Coet, E. (n.d.). SLKSerial Killer. PublishAmerica. Giannangelo, S. J. (1996). The psychopathology of serial murder: a theory of violence. Greenwood Publishing Group. Gibson, D. C. (2006). Serial murder and media circuses. Greenwood Publishing Group. Gordon, R. (2001). The Private Life of Jack the Ripper. House of Stratus. Hayes, V. A. (2006). Revelations of the True Ripper. Lulu.com. House, R. (2011). Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yards Prime Suspect. John Wiley & Sons. Newton, M. (2006). The encyclopedia of serial killers. Infobase Publishing. Rogers, A. (2006). The Boston Strangler. Applewood Books. Waller, S., Allhoff, F., & Doris, J. M. (2010). Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: being and killing. John Wiley and Sons. Read More