Serial Killer

"We serial killers are your sons, your husbands. We are everywhere and there will be more of your children death tommorow."

- American serial killer Ted Bundy

A Serial Killer is defined as a person who murders at least three people in a relativily short time span. Most of the time a serial killer murders more than three victims. Most oftenly a serial killer is psychopatic or suffers from another mental disorder. Their motives can varey greatly. Some serial killers kill with greed as motive, others want to have control over life and death. Some can achieve sexual sadisfaction throw the act of torture or murder of another human being. Most of the time a serial killer is a white male between 20-60 years old, above average intelligence and suffers from sociopathy.

Types of Serial Killers
There are certain diffrent types of serial killers. Most common are the sexual predators. Most serial killers murder people that are strangers to them. They may be married or have a family life without those around them knowing what they are. Prof. Jack Levin of Boston University estimates there are every year 20 serial killers active in the United States of America. Most serial killers are American. The second largest potential is the United Kingdom, in Europe Germany produces most serial killers.

Early serial killers
One of the earliest serial killers was Countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614) who  lived at a castle in Hungary. The legend says she murdered as many as six-hundred of her servant girls to bath in their blood. She as well derived sexual pleasure from torturing them.

An earlier serial killer was French knight Gilles De Rais (1405-1440) who murdered perhaps as many as 80 to  800 children in the 14th century.

Modern phenomenon
However, the serial killer did not become the terryfying phenomenon that it is today before the infamous murders commited by "Jack The Ripper " inWhitechapel, London in the autumn of 1888. The unidentified killer murdered five prostitutes and mutilated thier bodies. This case was the first widely known serial killing investigation.

In America the "Murder Castle" of Dr. H.H. Holmes during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 shocked the civilized world for a second time. Maybe as many as 300 people may have been tortured, and killed by Holmes for profit.

In the 1920's and 1930's serial killers would become more terryfining and regular with Germany's sadist killer like Peter Kũrten, Fritz Haarmann and Carl Großmann. This tradition would be extended in other places than Europe when sadomasochist Albert Fish terrorized New York.

During World War II the serial killer phenomenon minimized, only to return in the 1950's in America with killers like Albert DeSalvo and necrophile Ed Gein. During the 1960's Britain got terrified at the thought of a female serial killer when the Ian Brady and Myra Hindley "The Moors Murderers" killed children in Manchester.

