The What and Why of Serial Killers

A person is legally classified a serial killer if he or she has murdered three or more times, no matter the means. I believe that a serial killer is someone who not only kills many times (In some cases thriving on the violent means of killing) but also enjoys the aftermath of his kill by doing unimaginable things to his victim’s dead body. It would take a couple of books to write all the details of serial killers to date so I am just going to look at the childhood and the actual crimes committed. I have two reasons for doing this. One is for the interest of others and the second reason is study notes for my book I plan to write.

Before looking into the lives of various serial killers, I have to mention the infamous Jack the Ripper. Jack the ripper surely set a new standard for the modern day serial killer to follow. The noticeable difference between him and other serial killers was that he committed a burst of violent sexual murders and then disappeared. He was like a bad storm that hits fast and furious then suddenly subsides leaving destruction behind. Because of this, Jack the Ripper escaped the legal system. There are many assumptions about who he was and what made him do these awful crimes but Jack the Ripper remains an interesting and unknown subject for psychiatrists and authors around the world.

Jack the Ripper played with the police sending them notes signed Jack the Ripper, a name that has passed the lips of millions spoken with horror and disgust. He targeted prostitutes in their 40’s until his last victim who was 25 years old. The London police were aghast when Jack the Ripper’s first victim was found. The body of his first victim had her throat slashed, belly slit and her vagina mutilated with stab wounds. The police thought they had seen the worst murder ever until they found his next victim a week later. The second victim suffered with malnutrition and consumption that added to the horror of the scene. Jack the Ripper severed his victim’s neck muscles and almost sawed through her spinal column leaving her head dangling from her body. He also disemboweled her.

Jack the Ripper went into a crazy frenzy when interrupted by the sound of a truck approaching. In a hurry he slit his third victim’s throat, disfigured her face, cut her body in half from her rectum to her breastbone, then removed her entrails and took her left kidney. His forth victim he took his time disemboweling, leaving her without a nose and breasts and slicing pieces of flesh off her legs. Suddenly the murders stopped, it was over. Jack the Ripper faded into the shadows leaving the horrors behind him for the world to deal with. What a demonic inspiration for the serial killers that followed him!