by Ray Black
Finally there are also patterns that form in the serial killers behaviour both before and after they have committed a crime. In the immediate days before the organized killer commits his crime, they are very often involved in some kind of criminal behaviour. These crimes are generally of a minor nature such as, breaking into a house to steal items that for them have a sexual undertone and these are called ‘fetish’ burglaries. They have also been known to start minor fires or even kill pets within their neighbourhood. Some murderers may even go out to bars, car parks, gay bars or districts to choose a victim in advance, and it is not uncommon for them to consume alcohol or use drugs just prior to their crime.
Post-crime behaviour seems to fall into four categories:
1.They will often return to the scene of the crime.
2.They like to around when the body of their victim is discovered.
3.They keep trophies of their murders
4.They often participate in the investigation
It is quite common for the organized killer to return to scene of the crime so that he can relive the fantasy of his murder, kill another victim, or even to commit a sexual act with the corpse. He likes to be around when the body is discovered as this seems to give him a great deal of pleasure. The trophies that the killer will usually remove from the crime scene can be anything from jewellery, pieces of clothing or even photographs of his victim and he may use these time and time again to relive his fantasies. Also taking part in the investigation allows him to keep track of the police’s progress. Although all these actions put him in jeopardy of being caught, the killer’s desire to live out his fantasy is insatiable.
Of course all the generalizations I have mentioned will not apply to every single case, but they are found to be true in about three-quarter of the cases. It helps the police to build up a profile of the suspect and, even if all the information is not correct, the majority of it will help in the apprehension of a murderer.
The character of the serial or organized killer changes as soon as they are actually caught. From the calm, smart, organized exterior emerges an appearance of insanity. They will pretend to be a multiple personality, a schizophrenic, or the subject of blackouts – in fact anything that will make the police believe they have diminished responsibility. What does lie beneath the suave exterior of the serial killer?
THE DISORGANIZED KILLER
The disorganized killer is the complete opposite to the organized or serial killer. He will choose his victims at random, dehumanize or distance himself from them, relies less on torture and, after the murder has taken place, will take little or no steps to cover up his crime. Because they will more often than not leave clues behind them, the disorganized killer is generally much easier to apprehend, but are obviously no less a threat than the organized killer.
The disorganized killer is normally a loner and his murder will usually display anger. Most are of a low intelligence and suffer from some form of mental disorder. The killing is not pre-planned and is generally a spur of the moment thing.
The following are factors that are normally common to the disorganized killer. Firstly, he will usually walk to and away from the crime scene, but if he does use a car it will most probably be in a very poor condition. The murder is a spur of the moment event with no planning other than the one simple objective to kill. The killer will have no previous contact with his victim, and does not generally carry any particular ‘tools of the trade’. The disorganized murderer does not rape or torture his victim before the murder. The actual act will normally be frenzied and the victim will sustain many wounds as a result of the high degree of violence. The disorganized murdered does not care whether he leaves any evidence at the scene of the crime, and will not attempt to move or bury the body. The killer will very often be involved in further acts with the corpse – mutilation, necrophilia, cannibalism, etc. – and may also take a souvenir from the body. Finally, they will take very little if any interest in the crime after it has been committed.
There are also keypoints in the disorganized killer’s childhood, such as his family or school life. Very often their father may be unstable, inflicting forceful discipline upon their child. There are very often family problems due to drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, etc. The child is usually a withdrawn, silent type who internalizes hurt, anger and pain. They usually have a low IQ and will usually bunk off from school as they are not able to keep up with the rest of their classmates.
As an adult the disorganized killer may have a very low opinion of themselves and consequently think that they are inadequate. They may have some form of disability, mental illness, or even a physical ailment. They are loners, withdrawn from society and incapable of forming relationships. They are usually incapable of having a sexual relationship or if they do may be very bad at it which only exacerbates their feeling of inadequacy. They feel inferior to other people and will either live alone or continue to live with one or other of their parents.
So the disorganized killer is a person who lacks the self-gratification to maintain a healthy mental attitude. Constantly being belittled they do not feel good about themselves and so it is all part of a terrible inescapable cycle of demented self-gratification.
THE MASS MURDERER
The majority of mass murderers are male, caucasian, traditionalist, and come from relatively stable, lower-middle-class backgrounds. They normally come from a stable home and have not been the subject of neglect or abuse. Instead, they are people who aspire to more than they can achieve, and blame other people for holding them back. They start to become outcasts and are not able to identify with large groups of people. In fact they become frustrated, angry individuals who feel helpless and hopeless about their future and start to form a homicidal hatred towards large groups of people. Very often they choose to die in an explosion of violence that is directed at the very group they feel that threatens or excludes them.
Mass murderers can be divided into three separate groups:
1.The family annihilators
2.The paramilitary enthusiasts
3.The discontented worker
The simmering rage within the mass murderer can be triggered off, therefore, by unemployment, extreme loneliness, a family breakup, or maybe just a reprimand at the workplace. Very often the murderer will save the last bullet for themselves, but those who don’t are generally declared legally insane, a very different picture from that of the serial or organized killer.
Having looked at the various types of killers next we move on to look at some case studies of men who killed in different ways and for different reasons.
Ted Bundy
Attractive, ambitious and intelligent with a natural way of blending in. What made this polite, well-dressed man feel the need to prey on pretty, dark-haired girls over a four-year period?
On January 31, 1974, Linda Healey disappeared from her basement lodgings in Seattle without trace. All that was left behind were blood-stained sheets and a blood-stained dressing-gown that was hanging in her wardrobe.
Earlier that month Joni Lenz had been found by her student housemates, not asleep as they first thought, but lying in a pool of her own blood that was coming from her head and face.
When her terrified friends pulled back the bed sheets they were to find something even more horrendous – a rod from the end of her bed had been ripped off and savagely rammed into her vagina. Joni was rushed to hospital and miraculously was still alive although she lay in a coma and suffered brain damage that would be with her for the rest of her life. However, she was one of the lucky ones – one of the very few pretty dark-haired girls who survived an attack by Ted Bundy. There were countless victims, a number that have more likely than not been taken to his grave. He left behind him a trail of bloody murders that included the deaths of as many as thirty-six young women that spanned through four different states.
TED GROWING UP
Ted Bundy’s life began on the November 24, 1946. He was born to 22-year-old Elean
or Louise Cowell in a home for unmarried mothers in Burlington, Vermont, USA. Bundy grew up never knowing his father. Soon after his birth they moved back in with Eleanor’s mother and father who told everyone that Ted was their adopted son. Ted always thought that they were his real parents and was told that Eleanor was his older sister.
Ted was extremely fond of his grandfather and they had a very close relationship. Other members of his family described Ted’s grandfather as being ill-tempered and was known to be both verbally and physically abusive towards his wife. Ted’s grandmother suffered badly from depression and agoraphobia, and very rarely left the house.
When he was four years old Ted moved with his natural mother to Tacoma, Washington to live with relatives. Shortly afterwards Eleanor married an army cook by the name of Johnnie Culpepper Bundy, and this was the family name that Ted would later assume for the rest of his life. A name that would later become synonymous with horror.
Ted’s mother had four children with Johnnie Bundy, and Ted regularly had to spend his time babysitting for these siblings. As for his step-father they never really bonded. Even though Johnnie tried hard to treat him like one of his own, Ted had other ideas. He was much closer to his grandfather whom he adored and who he would much rather spend time with.
When Ted started junior high school he was a shy but intelligent child. He was often teased and bullied but regardless of this he managed to keep his grades at a good level. He was active in the church and Boy Scouts, but is remembered for having an explosive temper when provoked.
Maybe now in hindsight it might have been apparent that Ted was not a completely normal child. It is quite common for children who have had unconventional childhoods to become introverted because of them – but it does not necessarily make them grow into callous cold-blooded killers. So was this murdering instinct present in Ted Bundy from the womb or was it something that happened later on in his life that triggered the reaction?
As it has been stated in psychological studies over the years, serial killers often tend to be white, heterosexual males in their twenties to thirties. While it is impossible to predict who will ‘become a serial killer when they grow up’ there are certain traits that seem to be apparent in many killers. These traits include cruelty to animals, bedwetting, lying, drug and alcohol abuse, and a history of violence. The chicken and egg question is, does having these traits make you a killer or does being a killer give you these traits? And is Theodore Robert Cowell, otherwise known as Ted Bundy, a prime example of these studies?
By the time Ted started high-school, the fact that he was shy did not seem to be a problem. It is said that he was much more popular than he was at Junior High, extremely well-dressed and a complete gentleman. His interests in skiing and politics started to take up all his spare time and even though he had a lot of female admirers he did not start dating until he went to college. All in all it seemed that his slightly unconventional childhood had not had any major effect on him as a adolescent. He was a shy but warm character with a keen interest in sport and no random morbid fascinations, or none that showed, that one would expect from a soon-to-be serial killer.
It was while in high school that Ted’s interest for politics began to grow. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1965 and won a scholarship to the University of Puget Sound. He started studying courses in Asian studies and Psychology but after just two semesters he transferred to the University of Washington in Seattle where he started studying intensively in Chinese. Ted Bundy seemed dedicated to achieving and worked in many part-time jobs to pay his way through university, although some employers are said to have thought that he was unreliable. Even though he was slack in his part-time work he was extremely focused in his university classes and always managed to obtain above average grades.
While he was studying at Washington University Ted embarked on an intense and passionate relationship that seemed to change his life forever.
In the Spring of 1967, Ted Bundy met Stephanie Brooks, a beautiful, intelligent and chic girl from a wealthy Californian family. She was tall, slender with long dark-brown hair with a centre parting. A look that would become very important in the not-too-distant future.
University friends said that Ted could not ‘believe his luck’, that someone from her background would be interested in someone like himself. She seemed genuinely fond of Ted and, although they had many differences, they also had some common bonding interests such as their passion for skiing. It was on one of their ski trips where the love and sexual side of their relationship really began, and Stephanie was the first woman that Ted became sexually involved with.
Ted was completely infatuated with Stephanie, he found her totally fascinating and was certainly the love of his life. One question that we could raise here is, was this love already unhealthy or was it the same as any other man embarking on his first sexual relationship?
Stephanie and Ted were like any other young, loving couple. Days would be spent taking long country walks, eating out and going on romantic skiing holidays. It seemed like the perfect balance of similarities and differences. However, problems started to surface when Stephanie admitted that she was not as infatuated by Ted as he was by her. She liked Ted immensely but was worried that he had no real direction or goals for the future. He tried too hard to impress her, to make her believe that he was the man for her, even if it meant lying, something that she detested – in a nutshell not the type of man that someone of her class and upbringing could ever see spending the rest of her life with.
After graduating from the University of Washington in 1968, Stephanie finished the relationship with Ted. A break-up that he never, ever recovered from, a break-up that would put fear into all American women especially those who had similarities to Stephanie Brooks.
Following the breakup Ted lost his interest in everything including his studies and eventually dropped out of university. He became depressed and once again introverted, unable to believe that the love of his life did not feel the same way about him. Ted could not get over it, he was obsessed with Stephanie and managed to stay in contact with her through letters. Stephanie only replied out of politeness but had no interest in rekindling the relationship.
Could it be that this was the trigger that Bundy’s mind seemed to need to turn him into an evil, homicidal maniac?
To add to this gigantic blow a year later in 1969, Ted learned that his ‘sister’ was in fact his mother and his ‘parents’ were his grandparents. This seemed to snap him out of his lethargy, and overnight he changed from a shy introvert into a focussed domineering man. Suddenly he wanted to prove himself to his family, his friends and, most importantly, to Stephanie. He was once again focussed enough to study and re-enrolled at the University of Washington, but this time to study psychology, a subject in which he surpassed.
With Stephanie now out of his life, he met a new woman with whom he was to have a five-year relationship. This woman was Meg Anders, a shy and quiet divorcee with a young daughter. At first it seemed as though she had found the perfect father figure for her child, and to outsiders it appeared Ted had finally moved on from his infatuation with Stephanie Brooks. Meg fell deeply in love with Ted, even though she knew that she felt much more towards him than he ever did for her. Meg thought that she would, in time, change him and he would end up loving her as much as she loved him. This was a complete role reversal to the Ted who had – and still – loved Stephanie.
Bundy would spend a lot of time away from Meg on ‘business trips’ and spending many nights away from home. Although Meg never knew where he was, she didn’t want to shatter her illusion of ‘happy families’ and consequently never questioned him. It was on one of his business trips in the autumn of 1973 that Ted met back up with Stephanie. She was surprised to find a confident, assertive man who was nothing like the shy boy she had known at university. Realising that he was a changed man Stephanie was prepared to try again.
Ted was still living with Meg at this time, and she knew
nothing about Stephanie, least of all that they were seeing each other. Likewise, Stephanie knew nothing about Meg. That was the way Bundy liked it and that was the way he wanted it kept.
This time Stephanie became infatuated with Bundy and, realising that she had become totally dependent on him, Ted became distant and cold, and decided to stop having any contact with her. Just exactly what she had done to him a few years before.
Whilst becoming cold towards Stephanie the same was also happening at home with Meg. He lost interest in their sex life and more than ever before showed his dissatisfaction in their relationship. Any love that had been there – whether it had been real or not, was now gone. When, on the rare occasion, Bundy felt like having sexual intercourse with Meg it would be in the form of strange bondage fantasies that Meg detested and decided to end the relationship.
On the surface, between 1969–1972 it may have seemed to many that Ted’s life was changing for the better. He started applying to law-schools and became active in local politics. He worked hard on a campaign to re-elect a Washington governor, a campaign that allowed Ted to form friendships with politically powerful people in the Republican Party. At the same time as being politically in-tune, Ted was undertaking voluntary work at a crisis clinic and even saved the life of a little boy who was drowning in a lake. All this seemed a long way from events that were about to or maybe had already started happening.
This is the biggest problem with many people who kill, especially serial killers, they are just so difficult to spot. They never seem ‘mentally ill’ but instead are usually charming, well dressed, highly intelligent and very pleasant company. Although this is only a generalization, Ted Bundy had all these characteristics, but so do many other men who do not feel the need to harm anyone let alone kill in cold blood. What is the factor that sets Ted Bundy aside from other ‘normal’ human beings? Where was Ted’s emotion and sense of right and wrong?
