Serial Killers Essays (1304 words) - Crime, John Wayne Gacy

Serial Killers Serial Killers and What They Are Behavior is sometimes defined as the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment. Parents, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, and peers can all affect a persons behavior. Not everybody necessarily will have the behavior of a serial killer. In this paper, I will attempt to show the difference between the psychopath and the psychotic. Explain how the environment, upbringing, and treatment of serial killers led them to become who they are today. Most serial killers can be placed in two categories, the psychopath and the psychotic. Psychotics are clearly insane and fail to perceive reality correctly. However, very few serial killers fall into this category. Most serial killers have a thought out scheme, or plan of going about things. They think things through, and evaluate what the situation could bring to them. This comes from a long line of abuse, intolerance, and dysfunction during their early childhood years. Many people may even go so far as to view certain serial killers as geniuses, in the respect that their actions are so well thought out so very carefully planned. These types of serial killers would fall, under the psychopath category. A psychopath, also known as a sociopath, does not suffer from a mental illness, where in their makeup of their DNA have nothing to do with the way they are. A psychopath, rather suffers from a severe brain flaw, or personality, resulting due to the way they were brought up, their envir onment, and the way they were treated by family, especially that of the parents, or brothers, and sisters. One thing to note about the psychopath is that, the majority of the time, they realize the crime they are committing is wrong. This does not concern them, however, as they feel their need to kill and punish is greater than any rule or law (www.serialkillers.net). Psychopaths are usually very smart, very deceiving, and very normal upon first glance. They look like everyone else and behave like everyone else when in the company of others. Deep into the depths of their mind, they are working up an elaborate plan on how to catch their prey tonight. They have a need to kill, and an elaborate scheme, to fit the pieces of the puzzle. Their need to kill comes from the way they were treated in the past. Some serial killers hold vengeful thoughts towards their parents, fathers in particular, who dismissed them from their lives or abused and harmed them when they were children. An example is, John Wayne Gacy, During Gacys late teens, he had some trouble with his father, although relations with his mother and sisters were very strong. John Wayne Gacy, Sr., was an abusive alcoholic who physically abused his wife and verbally assaulted his children. Although John Sr. was an unpleasant individual, young Gacy deeply loved his father and wanted desperately to gain his devotion and attention. However, his father would drink himself stupid and physically and verbally abuse young Gacy. He would call him a queer, and a mamas boy, and seemingly avoided his son at all costs. Unfortunately, Gacy was never able to get very close to his father before he died, something which he regretted his entire life. (www.crimelibrary.com) This type of behavior, presented to a child at a young age, is bound to stir up some troubled emotions. Gacy was to never get over his father calling his only son a queer. During a three year period, Gacy would go on to viciously torture, rape, and murder over 30 young boys, who would later be discovered buried under the floorboards of his home. Another notorious serial killer whose killings were based on major events that occurred to him during his adolescent years is the infamous Ted Bundy. Bundy grew up with a family of all women. He never knew his father, and his mother and sisters played a big role in his life. He was shy as friends recalled him being a loner in school. In college he met a young woman by the name of Stephanie Brooks, and he fell instantly in love. Stephanie became Teds first love, and she was the first woman Ted was ever involved with sexually.