Well sometimes the police arrest them. What about the other cases though: why do they stop killing if they are not caught by law enforcement?
They don’t. They stop when apprehended or dead. I can’t think of any “former” serial killers.
There could be all kinds of reasons. The most obvious one being suicide. It’s possible that the killer had a hit list, did the business and simply stopped. Mission accomplished, if you will. Victim fights back and either kills the killer or gives him a big enough fright to make him stop. Checked into an mental institution. I’m sure there are many more.
The obligatory wiki-link to a list of unidentified serial killers.
according to douglas what’s his face FBI serial profiler that’s written a lot of books. Serial killers generally do not stop and in fact they tend to escalate. Something puts them over the line, they do the first one and then generally tends to increase in frequency and often savagery.
He postulates that many serial killers are caught for other crimes and stop for long periods because they are in jail. He doesn’t subscribe to the theory that serial killers “get it out of their system” and then stop.
Or they accept Jesus into their lives.
But I’m sure it is possible, just not likely… Maybe like 1%, just maybe? The rest, for instance, likely died of suicide, natural causes, or imprisonment for other crimes as stated above.
Well how many SKA (Serial Killers Anonymous) meetings have you been to? I know we’re in GQ territory, and I have no cite or facts, but I still asert that it is possible for one to get bored with it and give it up, albeit a very small percentage.
EDIT: fixed spelling
Well the only case that would qualify, to my knowledge, would be Albert DeSalvo if he was in fact the Boston Strangler. He had started out as “The Measuring Man”, tricking women into haveing their measurements taken for a spurious modelling career. He was arrested as the “Green Man”, a burglar and sometime rapist who left his victims otherwise physically unharmed.
This would indicate that rather than escalating his violent crimes, he started out with petty sexual assaults, graduated to rape and murder and then having fulfilled himself eased back to regular rape. Of course the other alternative is that his confession as the BS was just that and he was your typical escalating sexual criminal working his way to murder.
After all rape and murder is not some form of self actualization.
Didn’t BTK stop for a good 15 years before they caught him?
Some of those dudes are hit men, which may fit the technical definition of serial killers, but not really in the same spirit.
BTK hadn’t killed for a number of years because he felt he wasn’t really physically up to the task. That’s why his last victim was in her sixties. But then, he said he was working on a “project” in the months before his arrest (sortofa last hurrah, I think).
Course, Rader was a rather unusual serial killer since he felt compelled to blend in with normal society. Otherwise his count would have been much higher, or he would have been caught much sooner.
Just saw Zodiak and did a little reading about him. He apparently killed several people in '68 and '69 and then stopped. I think one possible reason is that the police were getting too close to him. There was also one period where he was in prison for another crime.
And there is some speculation, I gather, that he committed some murders in Sonoma that weren’t part of the “zodiac” spree.
But he may very well be an example of someone who committed several murders and then, although he continued to taunt police, stopped killing.
Anyone have more detail?
Gary Ridgeway seems to have stopped for 20 years after killing women at the peak rate of 2 a week before he was finally caught. The idea that serial killers won’t stop killing because it’s such an addiction was mentioned in many of the profiler books from about 10 years back. In fact, it was because of this theory that many police officials thought that the Green River Killer never actually stopped but had simply moved to San Diego, where a series of similiar murder began not longer after the Seattle killings ended. But Gary seems to have done it cold turkey. Granted, the police had already questioned him several times regarding the murders so maybe he felt it was best to keep a low profile.
It seems that Ridgeway was still physically able, as well. If I recall, he arrested sooner than prosecutors would have liked because he had started cruising for prostitutes again after a long hiatus.
You mean Zodiac?
I haven’t seen the movie but am familiar with the case. What evidence is there that he/she was in prison when they never found out who it was? Or is that something that was added to the movie plot?
Ed Kemper stopped - that is, he turned himself in.
He seems to have been working up the nerve to kill his mother all along. Once he managed that, it seemed he was done. Cite, work safe but not pleasant.
Suicide or prison for something else are often other reasons.
Regards,
Shodan
Right: Zodiac, Jack the Ripper, the BTK killer and the Green River murderer are 4 examples of serial killers who apparently stopped.
Of these that I mentioned, only the BTK killer has been caught. From wikipedia, I see that he murdered from 1974-1991. He was caught after he sent a number of letters to the media and police in 2004-2005. The letters included evidence of his crimes.
Anyway, I was wondering whether the FBI’s Behavioral Crimes unit or some other researcher had speculated on why serial killers stop.
Ok, but he didn’t appear to be a couch potato. From the wiki article:
Such a job would presumably have involved onsite visits. In 1991, he would have been 46 years old.
Hm. Perhaps some stop because they fear getting caught following a police interview – or election to public office in the case of BTK.
No. Gary Ridgeway was convicted for the Green River killings.
Crime Library has an article on serial killers who voluntarily turned themselves in.