The Who and Why of Serial Killers

It can be argued that serial killers and mass murderers have gradually increased in the last few decades, if we were to theorise like Sohail Khalit, the author of Myth of the Chosen One: The Psychology of Serial Killers. Theoretically, and I am inclined to agree that serial killers and mass murderers kill innocent strangers. Lunde, the psychiatrist featured in the above reference states that " the most important single contrast between mass murderers and murders of a single person is their relationship to the victims, the former killing strangers, the latter killing intimates." But what is the root cause for a serial killer to start killing. Khalit beleives that there are two groups of serial killers. If this is true then I beleive it is fair to think that there are potentially two types of triggers.

The first group of serial killers may have been adopted or grew up institutions or were brought up and abused by their parents. Henry Lee Lucas from Texas, who confessed to killing 300 people says that he grew up watching his mother doing sexual acts. She intentionally went into the room he was in and made sure he was watching her. Lucas states, "I got to hate it." The Boston Strangler, Albert De Salvo, was abused by his father. De Salvo and his mother were regularly beaten by his father.


The second group of serial killers grow up in loving, supportive families who are usually spoilt and over-indulged in their life. They are generally successful in school and have high values and ideals. The down fall comes when these ideals and values are shattered. This causes anger, resentment and revengeful people. Thus a serial killer is born.

Many consider serial killers to be mad. Mental Health professionals agrue that serial killers





generally do not show symptoms of mental illness, however, they suffer from Psychopathic Personality Disorder. There seems to be a link between murder, misogyny and masculinity. There is deep fascination with the jack the ripper imagery in popular culture. Serial murder serves to highlight the undesirability of any behavour for example, promiscuity, hemosexuality, abuse etc. Simply speaking serial killers tend to kill those who they think personify values they hate.



Which family structure was Jack the Ripper a part of? It is well documented that the police
suspected Jack was a medical man because of how he mutilated the bodies. Does this mean that Jack was a privilaged child from the second group? But why did he hate prostitutes? Could it be

that like many of his victims, his mother or the matriarchal figure in his life was cast out of the family and ended working on the streets? This could explain why he mainly killed prostitutes of a certain age and with certain physical characteristics. Food for thought.













http://books.google.co.uk/bookshl=en&lr=&id=rqlq1DGgJVQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=jack+the+ripper,+mysogyny&ots=vbQx_bCZ3f&sig=y8SoMuO3jrwzsOqP4EQj4-1U_Z4#v=onepage&q=&f=false



Khalid,S. (2002) Myth of the Chosen One: The Psychology of Serial Killers, White Knight Publications inc.