Dr. Spencer Reid (thisiscalm) wrote in marinanova, @ 2012-11-08 17:53:00 |
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HISTORICAL SERIAL KILLER — H.H. Holmes
Dr. H. H. Holmes — or Herman Webster Mudgett as he's also known — is generally considered one of the first documented American serial killers in the modern sense of the term. In Chicago at the time of the 1893 World's Fair, Holmes opened a hotel which he had designed and built for himself specifically with murder in mind, and which was the location of many of his murders.
While he confessed to 27 murders, of which four were confirmed, his actual body count could be as high as 200. He took an unknown number of his victims from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which was less than two miles away, to his "World's Fair" hotel.
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PSYCHOLOGY— What makes a serial killer?
A serial killer is traditionally defined as an individual who has killed three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time — a "cooling off period" — between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification. The FBI typically disregard the "three or more" criteria and define the term as "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone" or, including the vital characteristics, a minimum of two murders.
Often, a sexual element is involved in the killings, but motives for serial murder include "anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking". The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common; for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group.
Serial killers are not the same as mass murderers, nor are they spree killers, who commit murders in two or more locations with virtually no break in between; however, cases of extended bouts of sequential killings over periods of weeks or months with no apparent "cooling off" period or "return to normalcy" have caused some serial killer experts to suggest a hybrid category of "spree-serial killer"
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PRACTICAL APPLICATION — Introduction to the Basics, the history of criminal profiling.
While the origins of profiling can be traced back to as early as the Middle Ages, criminal profiling in the sense we know it didn't exist until the 19th century. Thomas Bond, a medical doctor in the 1880's, tried to profile the personality of Jack the Ripper during the 1888 Whitechapel murders.
In his notes, dated November 10 1888, he mentioned the sexual nature of the murders coupled with elements of misogyny and rage. Dr. Bond also tried to reconstruct the murder and interpret the behavioral pattern of the offender — soon he came up with a profile or signature personality trait of the offender to assist police investigation.
Another notable profiler is Dr. Walter C. Langer, a psychoanalyst based in Boston. In 1943 he was asked to develop a profile on Adolf Hitler that would provide a behavioral and psychological analysis for the construction of strategic plans. Dr. Langer’s profile noted that Hitler was meticulous, conventional, and prudish about his appearance and body. He was robust and viewed himself as a standard-bearer and trendsetter. He had manic phases, yet took little exercise.
Due to a lack of evidence, Langer believed that Hitler was in reasonably good health, so it was unlikely he would die from natural causes, but he was deteriorating mentally. He would not try to escape to a neutral country, nor would he, in Langer's opinion, allow himself to be captured by the Allies. Hitler always walked diagonally from one corner to another when crossing a room, and he whistled a marching tune. He feared syphilis and germs. Dr. Langer also predicted that the most likely scenario was that he would commit suicide, although there was a possibility that he would order a henchman to perform euthanasia.
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Q&A
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