Tom Philbin - The Killer Book of Serial Killers. Incredible Stories, Facts, and Trivia from the World of Serial Killers

Copyright 2009 by Tom Philbin and Michael Philbin
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Philbin, Tom.

Killer Book of Serial Killers : incredible stories, facts, and trivia from the world of serial killers / Tom and Michael Philbin.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. Serial murderersCase studies. 2. Serial murdersCase studies. 3. HomicideCase studies. I. Philbin, Michael. II. Title.

HV6513.P45 2008

364.152320922dc22

2008034035

Printed and bound in Canada.
WC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

L ike our first Killer bookThe Killer Book of True Crimethis book aims to serve up facts about serial murderers in an entertaining way. As such, some of the information is served up in small bites: quotes, brainteasers, lists, matching games, facts, and factoids permeate the book and make the gruesome information a little more, well, palatable. The meat of the book, chapters 2 to 36, is comprised of long stories that delve deeply into the lives of the most infamous serial murderers, the dark stars of our time and times past.

This book is designed both for people who are relatively unfamiliar with serial killers and their crimes and for those who have already devoured books and websites dedicated to all the grisly details. We think that the quality and depth of the research will enable both groups to enjoy it. Enjoy may seem like a strange word to use when talking about murder particularly serial murderbut the plain fact is that there is a certain subset of ghouls out there (yours truly included) who love reading about it. As in the first book, however, we have drawn a line on the morgue floor: There are some things that are so awful that they are not enjoyable to read. We have tried to exclude that material without taking the bite out of the book. For example, there was one close-up photo that showed a young female victim with her vaginal vault gone, which could make, as they say, a goat barf. If the book were for goats that like to barf, we would have used it, but it isnt.

We hope you enjoy the book and come away with a better understanding of the creature known as the serial killerand trust us, they arent really human, not like you and I are.

Yours in blood, death, depravity, and piquer acts,

Tom Philbin and Michael Philbin

We serial killers are your sons,
we are your husbands,
we are everywhere.
And there will be more of
your children dead tomorrow.

Ted Bundy

S erial killers are a lot different from regular murderers. Most people who commit murder do so out of passion and anger. When homicide cops investigate, they usually look at family members as suspects first. There are, of course, people who plan a murder for financial or other gain, but murder is most often a crime of passion. Serial killers are much different; they kill many people, almost all of whom are usually strangers, over a period of time, and usually with some sort of cooling-off period between killings.

According to the FBI, a serial killer is someone who has killed a minimum of three people. We agree that this generally is a true definition, but we would also put firmly into the serial killer category those killers who were stopped from murdering before they reached three victims because they were caught or otherwise incapacitated, but who, because of the way they committed their crimes, would have killed at least three maybe many more.

The Canadian Paul Bernardo and his masochistic lover Karla Homolka are prime examples of this: They killed three people, but as one of the murders was legally categorized as manslaughter, they arent official serial killers because only two of their killings are considered first degree murder. But a close look at the murderous drive inside the twoa drive that facilitated the rape and murder of young girls, including Karlas younger sisterreveals that there was no way they would have stopped killing had they not been caught. (More on Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka in Chapter 25.)

Notable Quotable

In my lifetime I have murdered twenty-one human beings. I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons, and, last but not least, I have committed sodomy on one thousand male human beings. For all these things I am not the least bit sorry.

Carl Panzram

The Answer Is Found in Childhood

So, then, what creates a serial killer? Why this compulsionand it is a compulsionto kill multiple times?

Some people think that the compulsion to kill may be the result of trauma to the brain. This is what the Tampa, Florida, serial killer Bobby Joe Long thought drove him to rape and murder women; he claimed that, before a motorcycle accident that caused severe head trauma, he never thought about killing women.

Some psychiatrists think its genetic, that an aberration of some sort occurs and puts people on a homicidal path. Another potential reason is that something dreadful happens to the human psyche when a child is shipped to an orphanage, or given up to a foster care system. Author John Bowlby says in his book The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds (1979), In psychopaths the incidence of illegitimacy and the shunting of the child from one home to another is high. It is no accident that Ian Brady of the Moors murders was such a one.

Most psychiatrists are usually vague about exactly what compels someone to kill people, and its true that there is no definitive answer. However, most doctors believe that serial killers are programmed in their childhoods to be killersand its not just doctors who feel that way. Most investigators who are close to these crimes and criminals agree, people like the FBIs John Douglas and Robert Ressler, premier profilers and investigators who have been investigating serial killers since the term was coined in the 1970s.

We believe that to understand the why of serial killers, one has to first accept the existence of the unconscious mind: that things are going on it constantly and that it is capable of controlling behavior. When a child is abused in one way or another by parents, the anger and terror he or she feels is hidden in the unconscious, which becomes like a seething cauldron, and the child starts looking for ways to deal with the terrifying feelings emerging from it. Someone in the family, usually the mother or father, has clearly shown the child that he or she has no value except perhaps as a sex object or someone to hurt. A terrible fear builds up in the childs unconscious that results from feeling constantly under threat, so the child starts to formulate fantasies of being all-powerful, controlling, and able to handle whatever comes his or her way. Then, the child creates symbolic scenarios in which he or she is dominant or acts out, first by showing mastery over animals by abusing them, and sometimes over structures while burning them down. This manifests in adulthood as a powerful sex drive and the abuse of the women or children in the persons life.