Teenage adventure killer George Adorno was only four years old when he first displayed his pyromaniac tendencies, setting fire to his own sister. The habitual Carl Panzram was thrown into a reformatory when he was only eleven years old, and just months after torched the place, causing damage in excess of over one hundred thousand dollars.
* Sadistic activity: serial killers get their enjoyment from tormenting small animals at an early age, later graduating from animals to human beings.
Organized or Disorganized
One of the many jobs of an FBI profiler is classifying the UNSUB or Unknown Subject, collecting facts about the crimes he or she committed for understanding and future knowledge.
FBI profiler, John Douglas, termed the words ‘disorganized’ and ‘organized’ in the study of serial killers. These differences can be contingent from facts and other information about the crime, or from the crime scene itself.
A disorganized, psychotic, or mentally ill individual, is inferred from a messy, disorganized crime scene with lots of evidence left behind. On the other hand, an organized killer, someone who shows no remorse, and is psychopathic, is controlled, planning, premeditated, and leaves behind very little, if any, evidence at a crime scene.
Organized Serial Killer Attributes:
IQ above average; 105-120 range
Socially adequate
Lives with partner or dates frequently
Stable father figure
Harsh family physical abuse
Geographically/occupationally mobile
Follows the news media
May be college educated
Good hygiene/housekeeping skills
Does not usually keep a hiding place
Diurnal (daytime) habits
Drives a flashy car
Needs to return to crime scene to see what police have done
Usually contacts police to play games
A police groupie
Doesn’t experiment with self-help
Kills at one site, disposes at another
May dismember body
Attacks using seduction, into restraints
Doesn’t dehumanize victims, converses with them
Leaves a controlled crime scene
Leaves little physical evidence
Responds best to direct interview
Disorganized Serial Killer Attributes:
IQ below average, 80-95 range
Socially inadequate
Lives alone, usually does not date
Absent or unstable father
Family emotional abuse, inconsistent
Lives and/or works near crime scene
Minimal interest in news media
Usually a high school dropout
Poor hygiene/housekeeping skills
Keeps a secret hiding place in the home
Nocturnal (nighttime) habits
Drives a clunky car or pickup truck
Needs to return to crime scene for reliving memories
May contact victim’s family to play games
No interest in police work
Experiments with self-help programs
Kills at one site, considers mission over
Usually leaves body intact
Attacks in a “blitz” pattern
Depersonalizes victim to a thing or it
Leaves a chaotic crime scene
Leaves physical evidence
Responds best to counseling interview
Noteworthy Facts
* H.H. Holmes, America's First Serial Killer, was convicted of nine murders; however, Holmes confessed to twenty-seven murders, and some investigators thought he might have actually murdered hundreds. When the World's Fair opened in Chicago in 1893, he began by killing guests at the enormous Castle Hotel. His crimes were discovered in an inspection after a janitor told police that he was not permitted to clean certain floors of the hotel. He was convicted and hanged three years later in 1896.
* Most of the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy, who were both white males, were men and boys of racial or ethnic minorities.
* Mary Bell was only ten years old when she was convicted of murdering two boys in England in 1968. After being confined first in an all-boys' reform school, she was later sent to a women's prison and was released at the age of twenty-three.
* The Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, was a thrill killer who enjoyed the excitement of the kill. He did not touch any of his fifteen victims, but instead followed and shot at them from a distance.
* Most serial killers are white males between the ages of twenty and thirty-five. In recent years, however, there has been an increase of serial killers from other races.
* The USA makes up 76% of the world’s serial killers. England has produced 28% of the European total.
* The western part of the United States such as California and Washington has produced more serial killers than any other part of the United States.
