Originally posted by Batman
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As for your claim that changes in MO are not a product of modern times and the information flow about how and why serial killers either stay in the clear or get caught, I simply disagree. It will be a heavily weighing factor.
Furthermore, serial killers are creatures who quite often have fixed urges and wishes and that will be mirrored on the murder site. A serial killer who has a fixation about eyeballs, like Charles Albright, kills for that one and only reason and gouges the eyes out for that one and only reason. Why would he change his MO to poisoning if it did not satisfy that particular urge? It lacks credibility, I´m afraid, and the exact same thing goes for Chapman. If you wish to speak about MO:s and signatures, that don´t change much - the Rippers signature was certainly not poisoning, but instead cutting into his victims with a knife and opening them up. The two men are worlds apart no matter which terms we use to describe them.
A sordid taste in books - if such a thing can be ascribed to him - is, as I said earlier, interesting per se. But it cannot be used as a counterweight to the ripping/poisoning matter, at least not in my book. Plus, as I said earlier, in that same book, Kelly and the 1873 torso victim fell prey to the same man. Who was not a thirteen year old boy who killed per telepathy...
So my no stands very firmly, I´m afraid.
As for your examples: Rader did not change his MO - he stopped killing.
Shooting a couple in a car or a taxidriver in a car is not an example of the Zodiac changing his MO. However, he did stab a couple at Lake Beryessa, so that is what you should use. Both methods are high in violence, though, and not a comparison that works when trying to explain going from knife eviscerations to poisoning.
De Angelo did not change his MO very much - he crept into houses and took unsignificant personal things in all three series. He stacked plates on the backs of husbands in overlapping series. He killed as a burglar and as a rapist. He was always, it seems, ready to apply lethal violence. If anything, that escalation in violence was something that followed him throughout his criminal career, making it look rather consistent in many ways. Many serial killers have begun by nicking underwear and suchlike, and many of them have had it said about them by concerned social workers that they are likely to escalate into much heavier crime if not handled.
The Chapman metamorphosis would be one with no comparison at all. I am not buying into it for a split second, and I never have.
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