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Serial Killer Research Paper

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You always used to think that there were monsters in your closet or under your bed when growing up. Your parents told you that there was no such thing as monsters, and that there was nothing to be scared of. But sadly, there are monsters among us. They are just hiding behind the mask of everyday people. These monsters are serial killers.
National law enforcement figures that there are a minimum of 50 active serial killers on the loose during any given day in the United States. Many think that the number could be up to 200. One FBI estimate is that during the twenty-first century, serial killers will average 11 killings during their killing spree (Early, 2012).
A serial killer is someone who has killed at least three people. Those killings …show more content…

Some may argue that there are serial killers that do not exhibit any of these traits or have had troubled pasts. There are four things that experts do agree on when it comes to serial killers. One is that serial killers decide to kill, meaning they make a conscious decision whether or not to act on the compulsion to kill. Another thing that experts agree on is that serial killers enjoy killing people, and that it is comparable to an addiction. Much like addiction, serial killers need to continue killing in order to maintain the high that they get from taking someone’s life. Serial killers are also thought to be either psychopaths or sociopaths. Serial killers tend to be calm and disconnected when talking about their crimes. There is usually no remorse for the murders. Finally, experts agree that serial killers are not insane. “Insanity purely has to do with a person having responsibility or not having responsibility for their crimes. In the case of serial murderers, the notion of not guilty by reason of insanity is a standard that your serial killer isn’t going to be able to meet because they are capable over a long period of time of avoiding detection and of performing acts that will minimize the possibility of detection, and therefore these people are by definition not insane.” (American Serial Killers, 2009). …show more content…

After they had sex, he drugged him and then killed him. He then moved the body to his apartment and dismembered it. This is the first known victim that Jeffrey kept a souvenir, as Sears’ painted skull was found in Dahmer’s apartment when he was arrested.
In 1990, Dahmer killed four more men. Ricky Beeks, age 33, was last seen in a gay nightclub on May 29. Dahmer brought him back to his apartment to have him pose for nude photos. He drugged Beeks and killed him prior to having sex with the corpse. In June, Dahmer killed Edward Smith, age 28. Dahmer had, again, met him in a bar, offered him money for pictures and sex, then drugged and killed him. This is the first murder where Dahmer took pictures while dismembering the body. Jeffrey met Ernest Miller, age 24, outside a bookstore on September

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However, Dahmer was only charged with the murder of 16 out of 17 of the murders, as there was a lack of evidence to support the murder of 28 year old Steven Tuomi. There are two prominent victims in this case which become prevalent pieces of evidence backing the victimization involved with this case. One of which was Dahmer’s first victim, Steven Hicks. Hicks was 19 years old at the time of his encounter with Dahmer. After graduating high school, Jeffrey’s parents were in the midst of a divorce and argument over custody of Jeffrey’s younger brother.

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He then took him home, killed and dismembered his body, and then kept his skull. When he started killing a person a week in 1991, he had this insane idea of experimenting with his victims bodies Where he would inject things like hydrochloric acid and boiling water into their brains. Soon after people in his apartment building started noticing loud noises and horrible smells coming from Dahmer's apartment. The day he was arrested he tried to murder Tracy Edwards, by luring her into the bedroom with a knife. She would then escape through the fire escape where she would alert the police.

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Additionally, he experimented with lobotomies, drilling holes into victims' brains while they were still alive and injecting their brains with muriatic acid. He was very careful in how he chose his victims so that he would not get caught as easily, which included people that were criminals and people of color. On May 27, 1991, Dahmer’s neighbor Sandra Smith called the police with reports of a

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Later in the station, he confessed to even more, to the killing and dismembering of 17 people within 78 and 91. He received, according to Waxman in “How Police Caught Jeffrey Dahmer,” “15 consecutive life terms in jail, but died in 1994 after inmate Charles Sarver beat him to death.” He had already spent 10 months in jail for fondling a 13 year old Laotian boy in 88, he offered this boy $50 to pose nude for pictures. After his first release, he was put on probation. The problem was, he was the only one making the effort.

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Just after his work-release term ended, Jeffrey strangled Raymond Smith, who was thirty-two, and dismembered Edward Smith, who was twenty-seven. His killing streak went on and on; luring in mostly dark-skinned gays from bars; having sex with them; drugging them; beating them; strangling them; dismembering them. Dahmer killed ten men between September 1990 and July 1991. Finally, on July 22, Dahmer tried again with Tracy Edwards, who broke away, and found help. The police finally arrested Dahmer.

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His first victim was Steven Hicks a hitchhiker. Jeffery Dahmer picked up Hicks and took him home to his parents' house. Dahmer proceeded to get the young man drunk and when Hicks tried to leave, Dahmer did not agree, Dahmer felt disrespected for him not wanting to be intimate with him. Dahmer killed him by “striking him in the head and strangling him with a barbell” (Biography). He dismembered the corpse of his first victim, packed the body parts in plastic bags and buried them behind his parents' home in attempt to cover his motives.

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His second killing wasn’t until 10 years later. After this one, Dahmer said that this is when his obsession with killing went into full swing. Two more lives were taken in his grandmother's house, until she kicked him out in 1988. She didn’t know that any of this was happening at the time but didn’t like his drinking problem, the smells that came from the basement and all of the guys he brought home. His youngest victim was a 13 year old boy.

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On May 21 in 1960, one of the most notorious american serial killers was born. According to his official biography updated in 2017, Jeffrey Dahmer strangled over 17 males in his lifetime, sexually assaulting and dismembering them after they died. After his arrest in 1991, officers found many body parts in jars around Dahmer’s house including a head sitting in his refrigerator and many horrific polaroids of his already dead victims. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, but was killed in 1994 by another prisoner. Soon after his death, a group of people bought all the weapons used to kill Dahmer’s victims to destroy them and leave the horrible events in the past.

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A man ran to police officers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin claiming Dahmer threatened to kill him. When police arrived at Dahmer’s apartment they found polaroids of bodies in various stages of dismemberment. Since Wisconsin has no death penalty Dahmer was sentenced to 937 years behind bars. He was killed by a fellow inmate in 1994. Although Jeffrey Dahmer had a normal childhood, later in his lifetime he murdered seventeen people because of his deteriorating mental status.

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He would then engage in sex acts with the corpses before dismembering them and disposing of them, often keeping their skulls or genitals as souvenirs” (A&E Networks Television). He took photos of his victims at different stages of his murder process, so he could relive the experience. He was captured in 1991 and sentenced to 16 life terms. He was killed by a fellow prison inmate, Christopher Scarver, in 1994. Jeffrey Dahmer

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In the summer of 1978, Dahmer committed his first murder. While driving around, he spotted a hitchhiker and promised him beer and a job back at his house. Almost all of the murder victims of Dahmer were young, black males between the ages of 14-36. He found most of his victims in gay bars and hitchhiking on secluded highways. Promising his victims alcohol and a job, they willingly followed Jeffrey home.

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In 1978, at the age of 18, he committed his first murder. Over the next 13 years, Dahmer would go on to kill at least 17 people before being caught by police in 1991. Dahmer's crimes were particularly gruesome. He would lure young men back to his apartment with promises of money or alcohol before drugging them and killing them. He then dismembered their bodies and kept their remains in his apartment for

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These individuals are seen as people who have multiple things wrong with them mentally, but most are charismatic, charming, and witty. The odds of you knowing that a person is a serial killer are rather unlikely because unlike common belief, they act just as “normal” people do. Growing up is difficult for any child because of the responsibilities that are now being pushed onto you. Doing

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Being a seriel killer also may have some sort of psychological gratification with the murder committed. The number one reason a serial killer murders is for some sexual reason others are motivated by anger, thrill, finanxial gain and because they crave the attention. Murders can be attempted or completed in the same manner. Victims would have either

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When he visited the gay bars often had to offer the boys or men money to lure them to his apartment (Schwartz,1992). As stated in Ewing (2006), in November, Dahmer committed his second murder, but Dahmer never recalled how the man died, just that carried the body in a suitcase to his grandmother’s house. At the house he told authorities he masturbated on the body, skinned and dismembered it and threw the remains of the body in the trash. Dahmer’s killing spree would rapidly escalated nearly two months after the second homicide and would last for about three and half years before the police would finally catch him (Ewing,2006). According to Schwartz (1992), later in Dahmer’s confession he said, “he killed his victims to prevent them from leaving”.

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