Open Mind

[The Rookie Detective]

You may find this interesting RD (with Alice in mind):

Ritual and Signature in Serial Sexual Homicide | Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (jaapl.org)

Notwithstanding numerous anecdotal case reports, ritual and signature have rarely been studied empirically.

Twenty-six (70.3%) of 37 offenders displayed behavior during one homicide that met our criteria for uniqueness. In other words, these offenders experimented at a crime scene: they behaved with only one victim in a way that they had not behaved with any of their other victims. In two cases the offender experimented in very different ways with two victims in the series, and in one case the offender experimented in different ways with three of his victims. The location of the incident of offender experimentation in a series varied: 3 offenders experimented with the first victim, 11 offenders experimented with the last victim, and the remainder experimented with a victim in the middle of the series. The three offenders who experimented with the first victim in their series may have had prior victims who were not attributed to them. The types of experimentation typically involved some form of postmortem genital mutilation, dismemberment, or both that were not done for body-disposal purposes.

Our research suggests that the crime scene actions of serial sexual murderers are fairly complex and varied. Specifically, the notion that offenders leave unique signatures at every scene is not supported by the data. Although almost all the offenders in our sample engaged in some form of ritualistic behavior, they rarely engaged in exactly the same behavior at every murder.

I'd say this has important implications for Mary also. It is postulated that Mary was the culmination of an evolutionary cycle. Perhaps Mary was the WM's 'experimentation in the middle of the series', while the core of the pattern was swift kill for no pleasure, same type of location, same type of woman, mutilation/attack on sexual regions of the anatomy for pleasure and skirt lifting/body posing.



I reckon it's motive, RD.

The pleasure for these types of murderers is not in the kill per se, but rather in the mutilation. And, they tend to engage, ambush and kill swiftly (a vulnerable/weaker target). It's one of the reasons these people are generally non violent in prison: it doesn't lend towards ambush and their weaker/vulnerable target isn't there for them.

I could read your posts all day, absolutely brilliant!

Once again I agree with you completely and the scientific foundations that underpin these studies helps to add a degree of structure and a better level of understanding to proceedings.

Fascinating stuff indeed.


RD
.

[Fleetwood Mac]

Once again I agree with you completely and the scientific foundations that underpin these studies helps to add a degree of structure and a better level of understanding to proceedings.

Aye, the concept of the canonical five, moreover the reason underpinning it, is understandable given the information that was available to people prior to the 21st century.

The least that can be said these days, RD, is that the reasoning underpinning that concept has been called into question due to more recent, empirical studies.

You're quite right in questioning received wisdom.