I hated all of my life. I hated everybody. When I first grew up and can remember, I was dressed as a girl by Mother. And I stayed that way for two or three years. And after that I was treated like what I call the dog of the family. I was beaten; I was made to do things that no human bein’ would want to do. I’ve had to steal, make bootleg liquor; I’ve had to eat out of a garbage can. I grew up and watched prostitution like that with my mother till I was fourteen years old. Then I started to steal, do anything else I could do to get away from home….but I couldn’t get away from it. I even went to Tecumseh, Michigan, got married, and started livin’ up there, and my mother came up there and we got into an argument in a beer tavern…that’s why I killed her.” Quoted by: Henry Lee Lucas (Norris, 1988)

Henry Lee Lucas was convicted of eleven murders, one death penalty, six life sentences, two seventy-five year sentences, and one sixty-year sentence. He is awaiting death row in Texas. To this day authorities don’t know whether to believe Lucas’s confessions. At one point, he claimed to have indulged in sufficient violence to turn the whole South into a cemetery of his victims. (Ellroy, 1992) Henry Lee Lucas, like other serial killers, belongs to the walking dead. He is a man who dies emotionally and socially before the age of ten and for whom existence had become only a hunt to satisfy his primal urges from each moment to the next. (Norris, 1988)

Serial Killers tend to be white, heterosexual males in their twenties and thirties who are sexually dysfunctional and have low self-esteem. Their methodical rampages are almost always in a sexual nature. Their killings are usually part of an elaborate fantasy that builds to a climax at the moment of their murderous outburst. Serial killers generally murder strangers with cooling off periods between each crime. Many enjoy cannibalism, necrophilla and keep trophy-like body parts as mementos of their work. Serial killers are sadistic in nature. (Norris, 1988) Some return to the scenes or graves of their victims to fantasize about their deeds. Many insert themselves in the investigation of their crimes and some enjoy taunting authorities with letters or carefully planned pieces of evidence.

Serial killers tend to prey on women and children of their same race. Prostitutes, drifters and hitchhikers are their victims of choice. Some homosexual killers enjoy hunting young boys and gay men. Female serial killers tend to be “black widows” who kill a succession of husbands, lovers, or other family members. The majority of the serial killers grew up in violent households. As youngsters they enjoy torturing animals, setting fires or participating in juvenile crimes. As adults, many serial killers have some type of brain damage and are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.

By Serial killers nature they are suppose to be given feelings of invincibility. They usually work in secret or secluded areas. (Clarkson, 1997) Andrew Cunanan proves this statement wrong. He killed designer Versace on Ocean Drive at breakfast time on a sunny Tuesday morning. It was a location filled with rollerbladers, the fabulous, the chic, and the sundrenched. (Clarkson, 1997) Killers become intoxicated by their celebrity and kill again and again to maintain it. Eventually they make a mistake. In Cunanans case, he left his gym bag behind. (Clarkson, 1997)

Most children whom are abused eventually snap and take their rage out on their abuser. They are extremely depressed during this time and do not know whom to turn to. In the case of “Cindy Baker” who appeared to have everything life had to offer. Wealth, looks, and a loving family. But under the surface Cindy was going through a bizarre, X-rated horror movie in which she played dual roles as favorite daughter and sex slave. (Mones, 1991) At the end of this story Cindy snaps, not becoming a nation wide serial killer, but killing her father with a shotgun.

The human brain is a complicated but elegant communication device wherein the instantaneous nature of the signal switching within the different areas of the brain between what is reported by the senses and what is stored in the memory banks provides a base level of consciousness. The psychological reaction that trips the delusion mechanism can be triggered by an event in the real world. Bobby Long had severe brain damage, which had been battered by successive head trauma, no longer has a functioning regulator to control the flow of emotions that are stimulated by hormones. As a result, Long found himself acting out of a waking dream, unable to suppress the rage and violence that had become associated with sex during the years his mother and his domineering wife. (Norris, 1988)

Most serial killers knew what was happening to them and either tried to suppress it themselves, or pleaded with authorities to help them. Lucas, and Long all told prison or medical authorities that they were sick and needed help. Lucas frankly told the prison doctors that, if released he would go on killing sprees. The officials released him anyway. Bobby Long tried for several years to tell his Army doctors that he was severely injured and was experiencing symptoms that worried him, but the doctors rejected his claims. (Norris, 1988)

What can society do about the growing menace of serial killers? For every one that is apprehended and put in jail, three more are emerging to start their careers. To help stop this violence we need to go to the root of where it all starts. To the children. The childhood of all serial killers have the same characteristics. There is abuse, and much unwanted violence. I believe the personality can change dramatically throughout ones lifetime. If there is a string of illness in the family then isn’t certain that it will be passed along to the children. Once you are born you observe and learn from those around you. If you are a young boy and you witness your mother being beaten night after night, then you might find it ok to hit your wife.

The way to stop serial killers, or any murderer for that matter, is to stop them before they even begin. It’s easy to say “All children should live in a good environment” but to actually do something about it is a different story. You can’t stop abusive parents from having babies. Maybe if we can educate EVERYONE, then the violence can cease to exist.

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