Mind Of A Serial Killer Video Questions About World
Joel Rifkin strangled 17 prostitutes in four years, at random and without remorse. But years after New York police caught him in 1994, he still said he had no idea why he killed. 'It was just something that happened and, you know, I had no plans to repeat it,' Rifkin said in an interview from prison, where he is serving a life sentence.
Documentary Former FBI agent John Douglas, the inventor of criminal profiling, leads a journey into the minds of the 20th Century's most notorious killers, including Charles Manson, John. Liked this also liked. The Serial Killers Serial Killers: The Real Life Hannibal Lecters Most Evil Murder: No Apparent Motive Crimes That Shook the World.
'Am I just evil? Am I brain-damaged? I mean, these are questions I want answered.'
So do a lot of scientists. Using imaging techniques that allow them to map the brain with growing precision, they have found subtle but similar patterns in the brain activity of people who commit violent crimes. The Frontal Lobe In the 1990s a research team — led by Adrian Raine of the University of Southern California and Monte Buchsbaum, now at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York — did brain scans of 25 convicted murderers. They found that many of the killers had abnormalities in the front sections of the brain — the so-called frontal lobes. 'In the normal person the frontal lobe is one of the most highly active areas of the brain,' says Buchsbaum, calling up an image on his computer. He points at a brightly colored cross-section of a man's brain on the screen.
'In this individual, who carried out a murder, we can see that the frontal lobe is quite inactive.' Why does that matter? Because scientists have found that parts of the frontal lobes seem to be involved in planning and organizing, and — perhaps most important to the understanding of violent crime — impulse control.
'The frontal lobes are the part of the brain that put a brake on impulses and drives,' says Dr. Jonathan Pincus, a psychiatrist at Georgetown University in Washington.
'It's the part of the brain that allows us to say, 'Don't do that! Don't say that! It's not appropriate! There are going to be consequences!'
' Pincus has examined brain scans of more than 100 killers, including some of Rifkin. He says Rifkin matches many other offenders he's seen: 'His frontal lobes were very, very seriously damaged.' Understanding Criminal Urges That brain deficiency alone is not enough to make a person violent. Researchers say people with poor impulse control may simply seem poorly organized, or socially inept. Researchers cite a myriad of other factors — ranging from schizophrenia to severe abuse in childhood — that may play roles. If a person was badly abused, says Pincus, there may be anger waiting to be released.
If the person also has frontal lobe deficiency, he says, 'then you have a very dangerous combination of impulses and drives that cannot be easily controlled by the damaged frontal lobes.' Buchsbaum warns against reading too much into this. Research has moved gradually, partly because doctors do not want to create a false impression that they are looking for ways to excuse violence. Researchers also agree it is far too early to say anything about the serial sniper slayings in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
'We can't specifically say, 'This person will be a sniper and at age 30 will carry out such-and-such a crime.' That is fundamentally impossible,' Buchsbaum says. 'What we can do is understand the underlying dimensions of impulse control — how the brain stops behavior — and perhaps we can learn to strengthen this, with educational strategies, or with drugs.' Meanwhile, Joel Rifkin concedes that if he were ever set free, he is not sure he could prevent himself from killing again.
I watch a lot of scary movies. Vampires, werewolves, zombies they’ve got nothing on one other group when it comes to scaring me — serial killers. Even when they’re just fictional characters, I find serial killers to be terrifying not because I expect to come across one any more than a movie monster, but because they represent something real. These awful excuses for human beings do exist, and they pose a real threat to society. They come in all shapes and sizes, colors, and races. Today we’ll take a quick look at 25 serial killers from around the world. There will be some of the more well-known U.S. And other serial killers, but we’ll also have some from places like Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, China, and more.
They aren’t all the most famous serial killers. You’ve probably never heard of some of them. And some of your “favorites” won’t be included here. This list is a little different.
Rather than focusing solely on well-known serial killers (although some will be included), we’re looking at a more diverse group — both men and women, different races and nationalities, etc. Even more importantly, I wanted to take a look at some of the world’s recent and distant serial killers with some of the most disturbing motives or stories. Keep in mind. I’m not claiming these are THE most disturbing serial killers. There have been too many for me to ever know about them all, and that would be subjective. These are just some examples of particularly disturbing individuals that caught my attention or made me cringe.
If other serial killers top your own personal list, feel free to leave a comment below to tell us about them. 25 Disturbing Serial Killers from Around the World The serial killers profiled below are listed in alphabetical order (by first names) — not in any order based on how “disturbing” I might find them, by race, nationality, etc. Also, understand that the definition of “serial killer” is heavily debated. For example some definitions simply state there must be a break between killings to separate serial killers from mass-murderers. Other definitions give a specific length that break must be in order to qualify as a serial killer rather than a spree killer.
We’re not going split hairs about that here. Anon & Craig — Sorry to disappoint. Well, not really. You’re welcome to your opinions, and I’m welcome to mine, even if you happen to consider them “self-righteous.” I could say the same about people who troll blogs just to criticize posts just because they don’t agree as if they’re doing readers some great service. The beauty of the blogosphere is that it’s filled with opinions this isn’t journalism with purely objective “stick to the facts” styling; it’s a blog. And I genuinely and wholeheartedly encourage you to write your own post on the topic if you disagree, and then come back and link us to it here in the comments. Different perspectives in that sense are a good thing for everyone, and I’m sure other readers would appreciate it as well.
@Matt – “Disturbing” is subjective, and this list was about both a combination of diversity and the ones that disturbed me. Given that there are hundreds to thousands of serial killers (and that’s probably an understatement) it’s not possible for me to know them all. I researched many before choosing, but there will certainly be many known to others that I didn’t come across or who didn’t phase me as much. But thanks for mentioning Holmes if others want to learn more about serial killers, now they have another one they can look into. 🙂 @chamblee54 – You’re welcome. @MM – Thank you. That’s precisely the reason I gave opinions and not just facts.
That was done previously by another writer on a site connected to this one, and readers there were never happy either. @Martin – Agreed. @k8 – That was a big part of why this list was created, so thanks for noticing. 🙂 @charlie – I honestly don’t know the details — that’s for the legal system to figure out in the end.
But it certainly made his case an interesting one. @nikiaa – This list was limited to 25, so there are many who aren’t in this list. It sounds like you did indeed go through a scary time, and I’m sorry you (or anyone) has to live through experiences like that. Although I now live in the No GA Mountains, I was an Atlanta Firefighter during the Missing & Murdered Children. Racial tensions were peaked due to suspicions of racial motives.
Ironically the present Mayor of Atlanta was best friends with one of the tragic victims. RE: Outcome: Gary Carlton was convicted of murder on August 26, 1986 and then sentenced to death. He is still on death row. He was supposed to be executed on December 16, 2009 but the Georgia Supreme Court stopped his execution the day it was supposed to happen to allow for a hearing on the DNA evidence. ************ DNA Databases and Laws are in effect in aprox half of the States.
IMO, DNA is the most lethal weapon of LE for identifying predators and SKS before they hone their skills and their victim count escalates. ************ Gary Leon Ridgway — “The Green River Killer” — makes my list of one of the most disturbing serial killers for the sheer volume of victims he had. It’s a reminder that sometimes awful people really can evade the law for quite some time.
And that is something I find terrifying. Although Ridgway’s IQ was low, he honed his skills over the decades that he was active. Although he was a suspect early in the investigation, he passed two polygraphs and evaded police until DNA caught up to him in November 2001. One of the tricks that he learned was to offer the prostitutes $200.00, which was much more than their normal rates. Although they knew that a Serial Killer was preying on prostitutes, this caused them to lower their guard. Ridgway had no intention in paying **************** JM, A Prolific Serial Killer omitted from the partial list and one that I have been backtracking and researching since 01/06/08 is Gary Michael Hilton: Murderer of Meredith Hope Emerson: Blood Mountain, GA Hiker.
GMH is/was an emulator. Thought by Law Enforcement to be a petty thief and drifter, he was a copycat of SKs prior, had no victim profile, and had been doing his evil deeds since he was 14 years old. GMH actually assisted his Attorney Samuel Rael in Producing a Serial Killer Movie: ‘Deadly Run’ -Hunting Humans, 14 years before his capture Sound Familiar? JM, last season’s top 10 TV Shows included 7 which had a serial killer theme. Human Nature requires rubber necking when one sees an auto collision.
Guess human nature may be one of the reasons for the fascination with or interest in serial killers. Although many people can name many Serial Killers. With the exception of Family members and Friends, the innocent victims are usually soon forgotten. Gary Hilton held Meredith Hope Emerson, within 200 yards of my home *************************************** In Response to Re: Cheryl Dunlap’s Forum:(Tallahassee Democrat) AweI can’t talk about it anymoreit just makes me too sad. I’ll never understand why he still went ahead with it knowing so many people witnessed them and the dogs together that day and had to know he’d be a main POI. Meredith sure did everything possible though.
God love her. Posted by BandMom1 Because she challenged him on the morning of 01/04/08, sacrificing her life for others. Hope we all could be so courageous.
Meredith knew that GMH, never intended to let her go free. She fought him with mind, body, and spirit.
She was Victorious ‘Right To Hike’ ‘In Memory of Meredith Hope Emerson’ “An Evening of Hope” “If not for her perception, courageous fight, and unselfish sacrifice, Gary Michael Hilton would still be preying on our Families, Friends, and Loved Ones”. Sometimes Life imitates Art. I have been backtracking & researching a Serial Killer named Gary Michael Hilton, since 01/06/08 when he held a victim within 200 yards of my home in an abandoned house.(Blood Mountain Hiker). The information that I have gathered has come from conventional and nonconventional investigative methods. Age 62 years when he was arrested, he was thought to be a petty drifter and thief. After backtracking him only a few days, it was obvious to me that he was very intelligent, cagey, calculating, evil, demonic, cannibal, ritual; Serial Killer, with no victim profile and had been preying on his many innocent victims for decades.
My analogy of him was that of a mountain lion. He would hunt his prey, capture them, return them to his primary den, toy and torture them, then devour them, mind, body, and spirit. GMH’s victims range in age between 11 year old to Levi Frady(GA) & 84 year old Irene Bryant and her husband John. GMH had no victim profile, only a preference; female mid 20s.
GMH’s IQ when he entered the military was 150+. He could have been Ted Bundy’s Professor A LE officer close to the case, working another cold case of a missing GA school teacher was asked by me, why did GMH have no victim profile?” The Agents response: ‘ Food’different cuts of meat. In 1994, Hilton, helped to creatively write a movie that went straight to video(Available at Netflix): “Deadly Run”. He helped write, handpicked the cast & crew, shoot locations, and tutored the lead actor in the ‘Art’ of Serial Kiling. The movie’s plot; luring young girls to a cabin in the North GA Mtns, holding them captive, releasing them into the forest, then hunting them as prey The movie’s producer; Samuel Rael/Hilton’s Defense Attorney in an Arson case with inhabitants said, “I knew that he was Sociopath, but didn’t know that he was violent.” In one of GMH’s interviews by the GBI, he states, “I am a hunter, a professional.” A Serial Killer with a script GMH was a master at emulation, he was a copycat of many with an added twist of his own creativity. In the attic of the abandoned farmhouse, he had a frigid weather room which was complete with a wood burning stove, which he used newspaper and cardboard as fuel. I found an article in the attic from an Oct 1989 Gainesville, GA Times Newspaper: ‘Night Stalker says Lucifer will avenge me’ When the jury handed down the death sentence to Richard Ramirez: Night Stalker, he said, “I don’t expect you to understand me, I am beyond Good and Evil, Lucifer will Avenge me.” In many of his interviews, GMH states that he reads constantly.
I talked to a Thrift Store Volunteer, that eye witnessed him at the Jasper, GA Thrift Store, checked out their book supply, and here I am 2 & 1/2 years and over 150 novels later. Wolfscratch — I have to agree with you about DNA being such an important tool in catching killers before they have a chance to escalate to serial killer status. It makes me wonder how we ever got by without things like that and the kind of inter-agency cooperation we have today to help identify these people (although there could certainly always be better cooperation). As for the fascination with with serial killers on TV, I honestly hadn’t thought about it much. I happen to be a fan of the crime genre on the rare occasion I watch tv shows anymore, even if I don’t particularly have a fascination with serial killers myself.
But they do always seem to pop up, even if the show doesn’t entirely revolve around that concept. I suppose you’re right about the rubber-necking analogy. I think it might also partly be a case of writers wanting a continuing storyline in the genre, which serial killers lend themselves to better than one-time killers.
But regardless of the reasoning, thanks for pointing it out. It’s something interesting I might not have otherwise noticed. J.M., many of the TV, shows and movies are inspired by the FBI BAU2, which was pioneered by John Douglas, Roger L Depue, and other ‘special’ Agents. When the BAU was first established, it was named the BSU(name changed for obvious reasons), was dimly lighted with no windows, and was located 60′ underground at Quantico, VA, and was referred too by the other agents as the ‘Witches Unit’.
One of the top TV shows of 2009/2010 was ‘Criminal Minds’: I picked up a nonfiction book; “JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS” BY JOHN DOUGLAS(1997); Author and FBI Criminal Behavioral Profiler. He penetrates the minds and motives of the most terrifying Serial Killers. Of course Gary Michael Hilton, wasn’t on their radar when this statement was made. He is one of the pioneers of the FBI’s Elite BAU and many of the techniques, strategies, and procedures used in tracking and identifying unidentified subjects today, can be attributed to his research and experiences on his journey into the abyss or darkness Prologue:’In the Mind of a Killer’. John Dougas, ‘This isn’t the Hollywood version. Knut Nystedt O Crux Pdf To Jpg there. It isn’t sanitized or prettied up or rendered into art. This is the way it really happens.
If anything, it’s worse than the way I describe it’ “AS I HAD SO MANY TIMES BEFORE, I PUT MYSELF IN THE MIND OF THE KILLER”. Special Agent Douglas, goes on to say that he also puts his head into the head of the ‘innocent victims’ also, to be able to see the whole picture. This experience would have to be very traumatic for anyone and could cause a very strong minded person to cry a river of tears. Especially when the victim total will possibly exceed 150 + victims over decades, as in the Gary Michael & Associates; Trail of Terror.
As does Priests that perform multiple exorcisms, FBI BAU Special Agent Douglas, suffered severe traumatic stress and therefore paid a hefty price with his health, even though he possessed a very high tolerance level, due to the enormous ‘EVIL’ he encountered Wolfscratch: VICAP: the computer system that tracks Serial Killers was implemented in 1985 under the Leadership of LA PDs Pierce Brooks. L-depue.html Roger Depue “Between Good and Evil” He is a retired FBI Profiler: ******************** Snipit from R. Depue: When I was a young man, a friend taught me the ancient art of dowsing, and after a time, I became something of a practitioner myself, finding water underground as a kind of parlor trick for friends.
It might seem odd that a man so rooted in grim reality would take an interest in something so ethereal. In fact, I’m fascinated by the unseen forces at play in the lives of human beings. My job has been to try to stop human predators before they kill again, and after studying them so closely over so many years, to me their traits seem clearly recognizable.
Evil is more than a vague notion. It is an entity, and it is manifest on the earth. It has reflexes and intuition, senses vulnerability, and changes its form to adapt to its surroundings. Those who do not believe the Devil walks this earth have not seen the things that I have seen. Evil is not a discrete entity that springs forth fully formed. It is born in the mind, takes root there as fantasy, and prospers when normal human restraint can no longer contain it.
I have seen it devour the personalities of men like Richard Speck, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Ted Bundy, turning them into blank-faced sociopaths who clearly know right from wrong, but choose, time and again, to follow their own base urges, with complete disregard for the terrible human suffering they cause. I believe that every act of homicide causes a slight unbalancing in the world, and that it diminishes life’s universal equation. In the interest of justice, it is imperative that someone try to right that imbalance. But the task of fighting evil can take a terrible toll on the people who are charged with it. Eton Web Camera Driver Download.
It can cost them their families, their equilibrium, their capacity for joy.: ‘a great read’ Wolfscratch. Snipit from R.
Depue: When I was a young man, a friend taught me the ancient art of dowsing, and after a time, I became something of a practitioner myself, finding water underground as a kind of parlor trick for friends. It might seem odd that a man so rooted in grim reality would take an interest in something so ethereal. In fact, I’m fascinated by the unseen forces at play in the lives of human beings.
************************************ By Jeff Warren Pickens County (GA) Progress News -‘Grave Dowsing’- (snipet) Trying is believing. I stepped slowly across a burying ground, carrying two brass dowsing rods ahead of me. Held level and a little higher than my waist, the 21-inch rods pointed straight ahead. An additional five and a half inches of brass turned down at 90 degrees through my fingers. With my fingers curled, the long brass of the rods lay across my index fingers between the hand and first knuckle.
At the 90-degree bend, the short handles pointed straight down, curled inside my fingers, excluding the two smallest digits. The brass rode against the outside of my pinkie fingers. Thumbs stayed folded out of the way.
As I moved on to a grave, the rods turned inward toward each other and aligned parallel to the plot. The sensation was only as eerie as watching the play of a compass needle. I was doing this under the tutelage of an expert, Jasper dowser Joe Chastain.
A longtime resident of Pickens County, Chastain is retired from Lockheed. He started dowsing when he was nineteen years old. “I didn’t have a teacher,” Chastain said. “The first time I ever used the rods, an old farmer had some. I was in a little disbelief.” Wolfscratch.