SECTION 1

CHAPTER 1

The Minds of Killers

This book explores personality theory as it applies to most notorious serial killers in recent history. The science of personality theory has advanced dramatically in recent years and has cleared the way for this useful and edifying speculation about the inner workings of horrific serial killers. This book will answer several questions:

• What drives a serial killer?

• How does sexual desire fit into the motivation of a serial killer?

• Why do some serial killers stop killing while others escalate?

• What are the different types of serial killers based on personality theory?

These questions will be answered through an exploration of over a dozen modern serial killers.

Although serial killers have existed just about as long as human society itself, interest in this particular type of homicide offender has increased markedly since the 1970s. The rise in interest started with a few serial killers who were active in that decade namely, Ted Bundy, Ed Kemper (Co-ed Killer), David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), and Kenneth Bianchi (Hillside Strangler).

As time moved on, serial killers continued to emerge and fascinated people in the same way as the killers from the 1970s and in new ways. Richard Ramirez (Night Stalker) shocked people with his extreme and erratic violence as he terrorized California during a spree of killing and rape. Citizens in the area bought guns, alarm systems, and dogs, worried that they would be the next victims of this ruthless and unpredictable killer.

The boldness of Rodney Alcala (Dating Game Killer) as he hid not only in plain sight but onThe Dating Game amazed people who thought that a serial killer would be easy to spot. As it turns out, he wonThe Dating Game, and the young woman who selected him was immediately overtaken by feelings of disgust. She would end up rejecting him and the two would never go out for a date, which was quite fortunate for her as Rodney Alcala had not reached the end of his murderous career.

Even though some killers like Richard Kuklinski (Iceman), seemed to be motivated in ways that do not conform to our understanding of serial killers, many killers fall into a familiar pattern. Kuklinski was unusual in that he was motivated by greed and perhaps a high level of vulnerable narcissism. That is, he was very insecure and could not tolerate any type of perceived criticism. This combined with his paranoia led him to be an unpredictable serial killer who acted out of rage. As terrifying and well known as Kuklinski was, he was quite atypical, as most serial killers are motivated by hatred of women and a need to dominate and control women. This desire is prevalent even among some killers that don’t initially appear to be motivated by anything even remotely sexual in nature. For example, it is believed that Berkowitz was sexually motivated even tho