British Serial Killers

[Mike Covell]

Suppose I kill someone this month,
Then someone the next,
Then a third the next day but he refuses to die until a month later

What would that make me?

[sdreid]

Is it just me or is the most popular page on this site now "Cannot find server"?

Anyway, hi Mike,

I would say spree killer because your actions all occurred in less than a five week period. That's where I draw the spree - serial line. I know I'm on the long side with that.

[sdreid]

P.S.

I would call Oklahoma City a mass murder and Columbine an aggregate murder since we're laying out our definitions.

[Blackkat]

The yorksire ripper has always got my attention when reading about british seriel killers. Strange man that one was. I remember the thread here that I started called " Inadequacies" and we were discussing JtR and whether or not he had inadequacies - psychoanalysis of his possible motives etc and I wanted to see what other's thought about the possibility that Jack didn't get "get a thrill" from his killings - mainly because the killings were so violent and it did show that he had a lot of anger and rage towards prostitutes so I said "maybe he was so disgusted by them "it" just didn't happen for him.

Now, that may or may not be my true feelings, and at the time of that post I was defending the minority opinion that he didn't get a thrill.

This case with the Yorkshire Ripper gives support to the majority of (mostly men) who think that Jack did get a thrill sexually from his crimes. Peter S. would attack and kill, and then stand over his victims and masturbate. I've never been able to wrap my mind around how death like that could make one excitable, but for many seriel killers it does.

Anyone? Thoughs?

[DarkPassenger]

It's a scarily simple thing, Blackkat - it's about power, and it's about a lack of intimacy. Peter S. murdered the victims because of something called the "flow experience" of murder - the build up to a power event, the trapping and seizing power of his victim, and the subsequent "flow" of the event to it's conclusion.

Also, remember that Sutcliffe was a chronic blusher when he spoke to women - absolutely key. Such things can either cripple a person socially or, in some people, make them hardened revenge-seekers. A dominant personality will lash out against these insecurities in the form of an externalization of the problem - women are to blame for being flirty sluts, it's not that I am in any way flawed - that kind of logic.

Also, and crucially, is the fact that Sutcliffe was bringing to it's conclusion the ultimate power fantasy of the totally compliant sexual "partner" simply because for him, it became both a fantasy and a necessity.

In short, it was not some obscure idea of murder or death which is a turn on, it is about grabbing and holding power, entwined with sexual release, driven by it in fact. The externalization of blame, and the egocentrism of the psychopathic, and dominant, mind.

EDIT: Think about your best sexual encounter, or if it has not happened yet imagine it - is it the intimacy of being with someone beautiful that turns you on? Is it the sharing of the sexual act which is important? Well, to a serial killer, intimacy is the enemy, it is something they fear.

[DarkPassenger]

Suppose I kill someone this month,
Then someone the next,
Then a third the next day but he refuses to die until a month later

What would that make me?

A serial killer - there have been several serial killers who have murdered monthly. Daniel Gonzalez murdered in even less time!
Andrew Rountree, Mark Martin, and others. Even Grieveson murdered close together.

[sdreid]

Great news that John Straffen has died!

[DarkPassenger]

Pah - old news!

[sdreid]

Great news to me.

[DarkPassenger]

How long before Sutcliffe pops it, and Wright starts swinging from the bars?

[sdreid]

I guess they're trying to gouge Sutcliffe's eyes out.

[Paul O'Henry]

Hi Stan,

I don't think so - the Papin Sisters are long dead!
Back to the Yorkshire Ripper - I read (a long time ago) he started killing with killing cats or other animals - not unlike Peter Kürten the infamous german mass murderer of the late 1920s.

By the way
Dr. Harold Shipman - was he a serial murderer?

kind regards
Paul O'Henry

[sdreid]

Lea might still be with us!

[Paul O'Henry]

Come on Stan - you can't proof that Lea Papin is still alive and kickin' and I can't proof she's dead and gone - by the way what do you think about Dr. Harold Shipman ?
The internet is a strange thing, isn't it - I can listen to one of my favourite australian rock bands - The Lime Spiders - and at the same time read and contribute to casebook JtR...

kind regards, especially to Easy Street...
Paul O'Henry

[sdreid]

Yes, Shipman would be a serial killer by any way I'd define one.