"Serial killers are as fascinating as they are horrifying. As much as we fear them, we can't help but be captivated and perplexed by their nature" ("Bloodthirsty," n.d.).
There have been many infographics like this one that list some of the most notorious psychotic murderers out there though not one chart can be large enough so as to contain the entire potential scope of human atrocities. As for me, I have mine own favorite five menacing murderers:
My list begins with Pedro Filho, who, having been born with a deformed skull due to his father beating his mother’s womb during her pregnancy, committed his very first crime at the young age of fourteen by murdering the employer who fired his father from his job. He eventually went on to butcher his father and eat a part of his heart after the latter killed his mother with a machete. His murder count totals seventy-one victims (“Profile: Pedro Filho,” 2012).
Next, come Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, both of whom grew up in “normal” loving households with supportive family members. Primarily, Dahmer was notoriously famous for his bizarre necrophilia and cannibalism fetish. Although he was known for raping, dismembering, and cannibalizing seventeen men and boys, and received seventeen consecutive life sentences, he was killed by a fellow inmate after serving just two years in prison. “The contrast between the seemingly normal public life Dahmer lived, and the unspeakable acts occurring behind closed doors made the case all the more unusual” (Brad, 2013).
Another personal favorite of mine, Ted Bundy was a charismatic criminal with an IQ higher than that of the average individual, who killed, raped, murdered, and decapitated his female victims. More so, although the courts have proven and documented twelve cases, strong evidence suggests that he has killed over a hundred (Brad, 2013).
As we move closer towards the end of my list, it really doesn’t matter who I save for last: Jack the Ripper or Edward Gein as both are remembered not for their victim count (which wasn’t too high) but for the degree of viciousness regarding the crimes they committed. “Jack the Ripper” was a pseudonym given to a man specialized only in the killing of prostitutes parading the streets of London at night in the year 1888 (Barbee, n.d.). It wasn’t just that the fact that he wasn’t captured what made him one of the most puzzling mysteries at the time, it was also the fact that his murders were so carefully executed to the point where police and doctors actually believed he had to have had some knowledge in human anatomy and biology in order for him to have always been able to extract “souvenirs” from his victims’ bodies while keeping the rest of their organs intact. That said, his crimes were “marked by sadistic butchery, suggesting a mind more sociopathic and hateful than most citizens could comprehend. Jack the Ripper didn't just snuff out life with a knife, he mutilated and humiliated women, and his crimes seemed to portray an abhorrance for the entire female gender” (“Jack the Ripper Biography,” n.d.).
Last but certainly not least, Edward Gein became the inspiration for numerous books and horror movies when the public discovered how he had robbed female graves and collected different parts of his victims’ sexual organs either in order to satiate his burning desire of changing his sex from male to female, or so as to recreate a fleshy template of his deceased mother. Once police finally broke into his house, they even discovered an assortment of ghastly memorabilia like upholstery made of human skin, skull mugs, and nipple-belts (Brad, 2013).
I often used to spend most of my time watching violent horror movies with very graphic content, or keeping up with the latest solved and unsolved brutal murders on the Investigation Discovery channel. The more disturbing the crime was, the more I found myself so interested in learning more about its perpetrator’s methods of execution and overall early childhood and background. I have absolutely no idea why I find the criminal mind so fascinating, but one major quandary that most certainly triggered my curiosity had to be the famous nature/nurture debate. As when it comes to the homosexuality controversy, everyone has always been curious about answering one pivotal question: Whenever a person deviates from the “norm,” was he born different or did he later choose to become different after having faced certain circumstances in his life? I personally find that question quite intriguing, especially given the ominous importance people place on “norms” in the first place. After all, to know if we strayed away from the normal, shouldn’t we first determine what exactly constitutes the norm, or how the term could be defined? While scientists haven’t been able to totally resolve that controversy, they have discovered that it can’t but be a combination of the two: nature, but triggered – or rather activated – by nurture. In other words, even if one were born gay, he would never actually become gay had his surroundings not fostered or supported those innate desires of his. The analogy becomes especially relevant once we compare it to the eerie criminal mind. This second infographic illustrates how Jim Fallon, a neuroscientist who studied the brains of psychopaths for over twenty years, discovered that although the genetic makeup and brain patterns of individuals could result in “low activity in the orbital cortex mean[ing] less normal suppression of behaviors such as rage, violence, eating, sex [and] drinking” (“The Brain of a Serial Killer,” n.d.), these factors, on their own, are not entirely conducive to the making of a serial killer. Interestingly enough, the other critical criterion appears to be childhood abuse or violence. That said, much like the conclusion reached with the homosexual nature/nurture debate, when it comes to psychopaths, even if a potential killer had the predisposition to become aggressive and violent – which Fallon apparently noticed most of the men in his family including himself have due to heredity – that does not necessarily mean this person will become an actual killer; especially if no environmental conditions get factored in (“The Brain of a Serial Killer,” n.d.; Sóuter, 2014).
So for some strange reason, all this somehow got me thinking about writing: I noticed a pattern regarding the nature/nurture dilemma and immediately became excited about finding out if the same conclusions applied to writers and the process of writing in general. Certainly, many talented writers famous today were once dropouts like Charles Dickens, Jack Kerouac, and Marc Twain who never continued their formal training their entire lives, just as many other authors like Stephen King, Amy Tan, John Updike and Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodor Geisel) majored in English and chose to constantly learn, and practice their writing. To go back to our analogy, “once a serial killer does embark on their murderous spree […] their behavior is often reinforced and will continue to escalate until they are apprehended. Very few killers stop unless they either die or are incarcerated […] The problem is that a serial killer is often driven by either a rage or a deep seated desire to kill, which makes treatment approaches problematic” (Sóuter, 2014). I personally think that the same concept applies to aspiring writers; whether professionally trained or driven by nothing other than their own pure personal passion, the writer will write each time he has the urge to share a message and if it so happens that his message is to keep spreading messages, then he will never find a reason to stop writing. In that sense, writers are more like psychotics than psychopaths. In other words, while “psychotics and psychopaths can have traits in common […] they differ in terms of whether they are in touch with reality. Psychopaths are calculating and manipulative but they do not suffer from hallucinations or delusions” (Brogaard, 2012). While both terms could be applied to those who write, a psychopathic writer would rip the paper apart if he felt the well of ideas ran a bit too deep, a bit too dry. A psychotic writer, on the other hand, would simply imagine the well to be bottomless, and jump right in. All things considered, however, it is worth mentioning that I’m not trying to argue that writers and murderers are one in the same. This post transcends that chilly (though somewhat plausible) contention.
My purpose has been trying to understand what happens when the extreme drive of certain individuals, be it writers or murderers, is sent into overdrive. After all, we all know what happens when writers write, and murderers murder. That said, what makes me lie awake thinking most nights, is imagining the limitless possibilities that may surface the uncanny moment the psychotic, the psychopath, and the writer all merge, and scarily coincide, into one.
References
- Bloodthirsty — Inside the mind of a serial killer. (n.d.). Criminal Justice Degree Hub. Retrieved from http://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com/serial-killers/
- Barbee, L. (n.d.). Jack the ripper: Introduction to the case. Casebook. Retrieved from http://www.casebook.org/intro.html
- Brad. (2013, Oct. 11). 10 Most heinous serial killers of all time. Background Checks.org. Retrieved from http://backgroundchecks.org/10-most-heinous-serial-killers-of-all-time.html
- Brogaard, B. (2012, Dec. 7). The making of a serial killer: Possible social causes of psychopathology. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201212/the-making-serial-killer
- Famous English majors. (n.d.). Washington State University: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English. Retrieved from http://libarts.wsu.edu/english/famous.html
- Jack the ripper biography. (n.d.). Biography. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/jack-the-ripper-9351486
- Profile: Pedro Filho. (2012, Aug. 6). Body Report. Retrieved from http://bodyreport.com/article/profile-pedro-filho
- Sóuter, E. (2014, May 27). Inside the minds of serial killers. Experts reveal who they really are. The Stir. Retrieved from http://thestir.cafemom.com/crime/172873/inside_the_mind_of_a
- Temple, E. (2012, Sept. 20). A tale of 10 dropouts: Famous authors who left school at an early age. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/a-tale-of-10-dropouts-famous-authors-who-left-school-at-an-early-age/262633/#slide3
- The brain of a serial killer. (n.d.). Best Counseling Degrees. Retrieved from http://www.bestcounselingdegrees.net/serial-killer/
