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Serial Killers/Sociopaths/Psychopaths

digesthisickness

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Fear is why I don't kill. Seriously if I could get away with it I might kill some people I know.

i didn't say fear was never the reason, i said it's not the reason.
 

Totenkindly

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A multiplicity of reasons, certainly.

I just can't identify with many of them.
 

kuranes

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Really?
What was he like?
And what sort of temperament could help a guy deal day-in and day-out with this sort of person?

I always thought Kemper was fascinating, since he was so darn smart and had so much self-awareness, compared to some psychopaths. Funny that he turned himself in once he had killed his mother, realizing that was really all he had wanted to do the whole time.

(Of course, that sort of introspective capability and intelligence makes him sort of frightening too. Aside from him being 6'6".)
Just as you have described Kemper here, is the way this man characterized him. The doctor must have had a lot of letters from sensation seekers. The main point that he invariably returned to, over and over, was that "prisoners are just like you and me" in so many ways. "Just living in different circumstances" etc. He insisted on snail mail. And his letters were typically very short. He published his POB address and interests in a lot of places. I think he had a lot of correspondence, and tended to take a bit of a cookie cutter approach to replying to much of it.

Actually I learned much more about Charlie from a book Charlie co-wrote, with the help of a ghost writer/interviewer guy, where he tells his side of the story.
 

Totenkindly

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...Actually I learned much more about Charlie from a book Charlie co-wrote, with the help of a ghost writer/interviewer guy, where he tells his side of the story.

That's probably the one I have. (I forget the title.)
 

Tallulah

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I don't really have much to add to the discussion at this point, but yeah, I've always been fascinated by serial killers and true crime stuff.
 

Anja

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Why does everyone assume that serial killers are raised in dysfunctional homes? Surely, it must be possible that some people just aren't afraid to use their latent killer instinct.

I'm "assuming" this is a serious question, Uber. Hee. Assumptions=dangerous ground but I feel pretty solid with this one.

Virginia Satir posits that 97 percent of us come from dysfunctional homes so it's a safe bet!

Or, wait a minute! Maybe they are the other three percent?

Seriously, haven't you noticed in reading the biographies that nearly all of them have had horrendous childhoods? Or some form of head injury or a genetic pattern of social dysfunction?
 

redacted

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People with no conscience intrigue the shit out of me. Mainly because I'm the opposite; I think I envy them in a way.

Except I don't envy the fact that most of them developed that way in response to horrible childhood conditions...
 

Ivy

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Macdonald triad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's definitely a component of childhood trauma or neglect in there, but it's difficult to argue that they are the only factors. There are plenty of kids who would never become killers, no matter how much trauma or neglect they suffer. It seems like there has to be an inborn tendency that can be activated by circumstances.
 

FDG

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Thank god I never set on fire anything!

Doesn't everyone bedwet when little, though?
 

Ivy

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Thank god I never set on fire anything!

Doesn't everyone bedwet when little, though?

A lot of people bedwet. It's the combination of the three (arson, animal cruelty, and bedwetting to a later age than is typical, I think past 7-9 but I'm not sure about that) that is supposedly a bad sign.
 

The Ü™

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I've never wet the bed with urine beyond 12, and I've never tortured animals (I've teased them, but not tortured), however, I do have a fascination with fire.
 

Ivy

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A fascination with fire isn't the same thing as arson. Lots of kids have a fascination with fire, too. Fire is cool.
 

The Ü™

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Well, I did, by accident burn down my mother's apartment when I was about 10. I was playing with her cigarette lighter. :blush:
 

Jack Flak

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Well, I did, by accident burn down my mother's apartment when I was about 10. I was playing with her cigarette lighter. :blush:
It's not every day I hear about arson and think "Oh, that makes sense."
 

Ivy

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I'm not sure accidents count as arson, either. I know you'd really like to be a badass but I'm just not sure it's in the cards for you.
 

Jack Flak

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I'm not sure accidents count as arson, either. I know you'd really like to be a badass but I'm just not sure it's in the cards for you.
Consider the following:

Step 1: Burn down the apartment.

Step 2A: Say "Oh I'm so sorry I accidentally burned down the apartment!" and get away with it, or

Step 2B: Say "I intentionally burned down the apartment." and go to juvie.

I know I'd pick 2A.
 

Anja

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Ivy hit it. And so much more succinctly than I could with my referential mind. I didn't know the sinister triad had a name.

It's that pattern thing that's the determining factor. Persistent pattern.

Unless you have a secret life beyond the net, Uber, your introspection and gaining knowledge is a useful thing.

Speaking of family secrets:

My IXTP son once said to me that he was worried that he may have the makings of a serial killer. I wonder if many people don't wonder if they have the capability to do this.

Anyway it led to some good fact-finding on his part and a couple of interesting conversations between us about some things which were troubling him. Probably also a sense of relief on his part.

It's possible that Dahmer had a genetic predisposition. And if so my thoughts about his father are deeply sympathetic. Imagine!

Still I like to search for ideas about the generating factors. And, as Ivy says, it depends on a combination of those.
 

Anja

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Here's fodder for the conversation:

The guy who wrote The Black Dahlia Avenger, Steve Hodel.

He used to be in police work and claimed that he had figured out that his father had been the man who killed The Black Dahlia, Beth Short.

Did anyone read this? Hah. Freud would have had a heyday.
 

Ivy

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I saw about that guy on Most Evil. (Cool show, though they reuse the same material a lot.) He makes a pretty good case for his dad being the guy who killed her.
 
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