Serial Killers By Tanzia McKamey Period 5 Research Questions and Why I Chose Them
What is the most common mental disorder in serial killers?
What famous serial killers had a mental disorder?
What were their typical victims?
I chose these questions because I was curious on how many famous serial killers actually do have mental disorders and which is the most common. David Berkowitz - Paranoid Schizophrenia
Targeted women and couples. MURDERED 6 PEOPLE Was an intelligent but troubled child and was deeply affected when his adopted mother, who he was close to, died.
All of his killings were with a .44 caliber gun.
Claimed his neighbor Sam Carr was commanding him to do the killings “He told me to kill. Sam is through his dog. the devil”-David Berkowitz Jeffrey Dahmer- Borderline Personality Disorder Also a sex offender MURDERED 17 Men
Displayed troubling behavior when he had surgery to fix a double hernia
Targeted men and teenage boys
Along with killing his victims, he would lure them home where he mutilated, photographed and performed sexual acts on the corpses where he kept mainly there genitals as mementos.
Has been arrested many times before “I made my fantasy life more powerful than my real one”- Was caught when a victim escaped and found the Jeffrey Dahmer police who found many pictures of severed bodies and four heads in the fridge, preserved skulls Jeff Dahmer’s Fridge Contents
SEVERED HEAD Albert Fish- Schizophrenia
Family has a history of mental illnesses MURDERED 2+ PEOPLE including his mother having visions and his MOLESTED 400 KIDS uncle suffering from religious mania. His brother and sister were both also mentally ill.
Sent to an orphanage as a young child where him and other boys were stripped down naked and beaten by teachers repeatedly.
He would hear voices and thought it was Christ telling him to sacrifice his 6 kids
He would reenact biblical stories
“I always had a desire to inflict pain He used a boy to “play” with for food and on others and to have others inflict clothes. They would do every sexual act you pain on me. I always seem to enjoy could think of and after two weeks castrated everything that hurt.”- Albert Fish him. The Most Common Mental Disorders
The most common mental disorder in serial killers is schizophrenia. The second most is personality disorders due to how many different types there is. Schizophrenia is the most common because people will act out more due to delusional thoughts. Key Terms and Questions
Schizophrenia
Borderline Personality Disorder ● What is the most Serial killers common mental disorder in serial killers? ● Do you think serial killers can be rehabilitated?