1. Antisocial Behavior
Psychopaths have a strong tendency towards antisocial behavior, so watch for extremely antisocial children. That being said, some children develop more slowly, and this is not a definitive sign. Pay attention if a child regresses from being extremely social to extremely anti-social.
Ed Gein, the inspiration for Psycho’s Norman Bates and Silence of the Lamb’s Buffalo Bill, had no social connections besides his extremely religious and abusive mother, who punished him whenever he tried to make friends. After she died in 1945, Gein began to murder and dig up graves, collecting body parts of women who looked like his mother and trying to make a “woman suit.”

2. Arson
Many serial killers start as arsonists. Arson is psychologically attractive because it involves manipulating power and control, something that serial killing also offers.
David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer, was infatuated with pyromania as a child, to the point that other children called him “Pyro.” After being arrested, he took responsibility for dozens of New York arsons. Some sources indicate that he might have been responsible for up to 1,400 fires.

3. Torturing Small Animals
This is one of the strongest warning signs. Children who torture or kill small animals like squirrels, birds, cats, and dogs without showing remorse are highly likely to be sociopaths. Many serial killers kill to control others’ lives, and as children, small animals are the only lives they have the power to control.
Cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer would bike around the woods as a child, collecting dead animals to dissect. Dahmer even killed and dismembered his own puppy, mounting its head on a stake when he was done.

4. Poor Family Life
Many serial killers come from unstable families with criminal, psychiatric, or alcoholic histories. These killers often have terrible relationships with their families, and often use them as their first victims.
When he was only fifteen, Ed Kemper, “the Co-ed Killer,” killed his grandparents. After being released at age twenty-one, Kemper killed six female college students. The police finally caught him when Kemper killed his violent, alcoholic mother. He treated his mother’s corpse particularly brutally, decapitating her, using her head as a dart board, and throwing her vocal cords down the garbage disposal.

5. Childhood Abuse
Many serial killers are abused – physically, psychologically, sexually – as children by a close family member. This behavior instills in the child feelings of humiliation and helpless, feelings which they will later seek to instill in their victims.
Aileen Wuornos, the prostitute serial killer portrayed by Charlize Theron in Monster, was abandoned by her mother when she was four and never met her father, who was serving time in prison for raping a seven-year-old girl when Aileen was born. Aileen’s grandfather, who took over care of Aileen when her mother left, physically and sexually abused her until she ran away at age fifteen.

6. Substance abuse
Many serial killers struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.
Jeffrey Dahmer began drinking in his teens and was an alcoholic by his high school graduation. His alcoholism resulted in both his expulsion from college and his discharge from the military.

7. Voyeurism
From a young age, many serial killers are interested in voyeurism, sado-masochistic pornography, and fetishism.
Ted Bundy claimed that, as an adolescent, he would get drunk and stalk around his community at night, looking for undressing women or other titillating sights.

8. Intelligence
Many serial killers have IQs in the “bright normal” range. Organized serial killers who kill methodically, like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy, have an average I.Q. of 113, while disorganized serial killers have an average I.Q. of 93.
Ed Kemper had an I.Q. of 136 (140 is often used as the genius mark in I.Q. tests). He used his intelligence to convince psychiatrists to release him after serving only five years for his grandparents’ murders, claiming to have reformed. He hadn’t, and he killed eight more women before being caught again.

9. Shiftlessness
Despite higher than normal intelligence, many serial killers have trouble keeping jobs or work in unskilled labor.
After leaving the military, David Berkowitz, who reportedly was of “above-average intelligence,” held several blue-collar jobs before he was captured, including his last one as a postman.

The post 9 Early Warning Signs for Serial Killers appeared first on Crime Museum.

While the capture of the Night Stalker was a credit to law enforcement’s use of the media, his identification as Ramirez was the result of another modern technique. The Night Stalker case was among the first major cases to use automated fingerprinting technology.

Today, television detectives run fingerprints from a crime scene through an automated database and get results in seconds—somewhat inaccurately. In reality, the database kicks back “likely” matches and a trained fingerprint examiner must compare them to find an actual match. Still, the technology we use today allows quick searches of a vast number of fingerprints, and if a criminal leaves a fingerprint behind we can see if he’s ever been booked and fingerprinted, or if we have the same print on file from another scene.

In 1985, this use of computers was brand new. Before automated systems, examiners would have to look through fingerprints on file by hand, using ten-print cards (on which a booked criminal has rolled all ten fingerprints in ink). It meant a great deal of time and effort, and was rarely useful without a suspect in mind. Some even admitted that the collection of fingerprints at the scene was frequently done for public relations purposes only—to appear to be doing something to solve the crime.

When computers were first applied to the task, the systems were extremely expensive, making it difficult to sell to agencies with low budgets. That’s why when the California Department of Justice used their brand new automated fingerprint indexing system to immediately identify Richard Ramirez as the Night Stalker, it put these systems on the map—it proved they worked, and that the cost was justified.

For a contemporary article on the use of automated fingerprint technology, go here. For more on the Night Stalker’s crimes, go here.

The post Fingerprint Technology Captured Stalker appeared first on Crime Museum.

Prior to this tragedy, Dexter already faced heat from the Parents Television Council for being too violent. Sadly this is not the first murder that is linked to the television show. In 2008, Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell faced charges for committing a murder based on the show’s storyline. This has some wondering what kind of influence violent television has over today’s teens. According to the Parents Television Council, 54% of kids have a TV in their room and 44% say that they watch different programs while alone than they do with their parents. They also state that the average kid watches 4 hours of television each day, making it an integral part of their daily routine.

Conley confessed that on the morning of his brother’s murder, he fantasized about what it might be like to kill his sleeping father, and that he had been having such fantasies since the 8^th grade.  Clearly, his disturbances significantly pre-dated Dexter. MIT professor and American media scholar Henry Jenkins, addresses the preconception that violent media leads to violent youth in saying that, “It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester”.

Could this gruesome crime have been avoided if additional restrictions were put on violence in the media, or was such a tragedy inevitable given Conley’s appetite for violent crime?

To find out more about the Conley case, click here.

For more information about the Parents Television Council, click here.

To read more about Professor Jenkins’ ideas regarding the link between violence in the media and youth, click here.

The post Showtime’s Dexter Purely Entertainment? appeared first on Crime Museum.

News reports indicate that police were led to Abuelazam by an anonymous phone tip to the Michigan police hotline.  Apparently the tipster was calling based on information that had been released about the suspect’s vehicle.   The Slasher’s vehicle had been described as an older model (1995-2005) Chevy Blazer or GMC Jimmy with a two-toned or dark green top over a light tan, beige, or gold bottom.  The tip led authorities to someone associated with Abuelazam, which in turn led to the liquor store in Michigan where he worked.  Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Abuelazam had hidden his dark green chevy S-10 Blazer at a Michigan home behind a shed.  His movements were traced from Michigan to Kentucky, and then from there to Atlanta where he was arrested at the airport before boarding a flight for Tel Aviv.  Abuelazam is currently being held on one count of assault with intent to commit murder in Michigan.  He is to be extradited back to Michigan to face charges.

The string of attacks by the Slasher started lasted from May 24, 2010 to August 7, 2010.  Based on those attacks, a trend began to appear.  The victims were primarily African American males with small stature or of older age—people perceived by the Slasher as being easier to physically control.   Only two victims did not fit this profile—one was white and the other Latino.  Some authorities therefore believe that these attacks were racially motivated, as none of the victims were been robbed.  Information gleaned from victims indicated that the Slasher approached unsuspecting victims who were on their own in the early morning hours.  He asked for directions or for assistance as a means to lure them closer to his vehicle.  The Slasher then attacked and stabs his victims, a very personal method for killing.

If you have any additional information that may be of value in this case, please contact Michigan police at 866-246-9500 or 810-732-1111 or 810-237-6800.  You can also call Crime Stoppers at 800-422-JAIL.  For more information regarding the case, please see any of the following news articles: CNN-1, CNN-2, CNN-3, NBC25-1, or NBC25-2.

The post The Serial Slasher Apprehended? appeared first on Crime Museum.

Multiple personality disorder, more accurately known as dissociative identity disorder (DID),  is a completely different disorder that is much more rare than schizophrenia, in fact many mental health professionals doubts its validity.  DID, considered an “identity disorder,” is a mental illness where in one person has two or more distinct personalities.  One of the main symptoms of DID is a loss of time or memory where in the person with DID cannot remember significant chunks of time in their lives, this is due to the dominance of a different personality during the missing time.  One of the Hillside Strangler serial killers, Kenneth Bianchi, faked having DID in order to use the insanity plea during his trial, he was discovered to be a fake and he plead guilty to 5 charges of murder.

The post Schizophrenia and Personality Disorder appeared first on Crime Museum.