# Do Serial Killers ever just stop?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 1, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538 "2012-05-01T17:52:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/61 "2012-05-31T20:16:05Z")
> [@Rampant\_Coypu](#):
>
> Whether you believe the stories of Kemper’s abuse or not, you should surely recognize that Kemper turned himself in and has been a model prisoner.
Model prisoner my ass!
In the late 1970’s, FBI criminal profiler Robert Ressler interviewed Kemper several times as part of the Criminal Personality Research Project. Ressler became comfortable enough with Kemper that an interview was conducted one-on-one, with no other federal agent or law enforcement officer present. Upon concluding their discussion, Ressler, who was locked in a room with Kemper, pressed a buzzer to alert the guards that he was ready to leave. When no one came to unlock the door, Ressler pressed the buzzer again. After three attempts at summoning a guard Kemper spoke up. The following quotations are verbatim from Ressler’s book, Whoever Fights Monsters. “Relax. They’re changing the shift, feeding the guys in the secure areas. Might be fifteen, twenty minutes before they come and get you.”
Kemper was playing the part of the master manipulator. He wasn’t letting up either.
“If I went in apeshit in here, you’d be in a lot of trouble, wouldn’t you? I could screw your head off and place it on the table to greet the guard.”
According to Ressler, he tried to reason with Kemper, assuring that there would be trouble if anything untoward happened. Kemper replied, “What would they do - cut off my TV privileges?”
Kemper, Ressler knew, was exactly right. While killing Ressler might earn his extra time added to his sentence or a stint in solitary confinement, there wasn’t much that could be done to Kemper that would be any worse than spending the rest of his life in prison. Not to mention killing a federal agent would undoubtedly give him great respect and notoriety in the prison population.
Ressler began hinting that he might be armed, telling Kemper that FBI men might be given special privileges for carrying weapons into a prison. When asked what the weapon might be, Ressler hedged, saying, “I’m not going to give away what I might have or where I might have it on me.” Kemper pressed the issue, and finally asked, “[Is it] martial arts then? Karate? Got your black belt? Think you can take me?” The mood had shifted, and Ressler took this as an opportunity to begin a conversation about martial arts.
Finally, a guard appeared to allow Ressler to leave and return Kemper to his cell. As he was exiting the room, Kemper touched Ressler’s shoulder and said, “You know I was just kidding, don’t you?”
Robert Ressler immediately made it mandatory that no FBI agent ever conduct an interview alone with a serial killer. This mandate was later extended to all types of serial criminals.
Ressler realized that he made what might have been a fatal mistake: He trusted a prisoner he knew was a serial killer.
---
### Author:  [@Stelios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stelios)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/62 "2012-05-31T20:46:59Z")
[QUOTE=Wesley Clark]
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#):
>
> I can’t argue with that assessment. Ed Kemper is a decent man. Well, alright, there may be some merit in postulating that it edges a bit toward the outer boundary of proper decorum to have oral sex with the severed head of one’s mother, then using it as a dartboard, but all things considered, really not a bad bloke at all.
Don’t be a playa hata
[/QUOTE]
A genuine lol for both these comments 😃
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### Author:  [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/63 "2012-05-31T21:24:53Z")
[John Floyd Thomas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Floyd_Thomas,_Jr.), who was a co-worker of mine, stopped in 1986 but wasn’t caught until 2009.
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### Author:  [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/64 "2012-06-01T03:15:45Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#):
>
> [John Floyd Thomas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Floyd_Thomas,_Jr.), who was a co-worker of mine, stopped in 1986 but wasn’t caught until 2009.
Do you remember dealing with him? What was he like? I’m just curious how easy it is to spot killers.
---
### Author:  [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/65 "2012-06-01T03:19:37Z")
I didn’t interact with him much, and tried to avoid him when I could…not because he seemed like a rape n strangle expert, but because he wore a FUCKTON of cologne, to the point where if he came to your cubicle it would still smell like his cologne for 10 minutes afterward. Other than that, there wasn’t much distinctive about him.
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### Author:  [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/66 "2012-06-01T04:40:47Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> Model prisoner my ass!
>
> In the late 1970’s, FBI criminal profiler Robert Ressler interviewed Kemper several times as part of the Criminal Personality Research Project. Ressler became comfortable enough with Kemper that an interview was conducted one-on-one, with no other federal agent or law enforcement officer present. Upon concluding their discussion, Ressler, who was locked in a room with Kemper, pressed a buzzer to alert the guards that he was ready to leave. When no one came to unlock the door, Ressler pressed the buzzer again. After three attempts at summoning a guard Kemper spoke up. The following quotations are verbatim from Ressler’s book, Whoever Fights Monsters. “Relax. They’re changing the shift, feeding the guys in the secure areas. Might be fifteen, twenty minutes before they come and get you.”
>
> Kemper was playing the part of the master manipulator. He wasn’t letting up either.
>
> “If I went in apeshit in here, you’d be in a lot of trouble, wouldn’t you? I could screw your head off and place it on the table to greet the guard.”
>
> According to Ressler, he tried to reason with Kemper, assuring that there would be trouble if anything untoward happened. Kemper replied, “What would they do - cut off my TV privileges?”
>
> Kemper, Ressler knew, was exactly right. While killing Ressler might earn his extra time added to his sentence or a stint in solitary confinement, there wasn’t much that could be done to Kemper that would be any worse than spending the rest of his life in prison. Not to mention killing a federal agent would undoubtedly give him great respect and notoriety in the prison population.
>
> Ressler began hinting that he might be armed, telling Kemper that FBI men might be given special privileges for carrying weapons into a prison. When asked what the weapon might be, Ressler hedged, saying, “I’m not going to give away what I might have or where I might have it on me.” Kemper pressed the issue, and finally asked, “[Is it] martial arts then? Karate? Got your black belt? Think you can take me?” The mood had shifted, and Ressler took this as an opportunity to begin a conversation about martial arts.
>
> Finally, a guard appeared to allow Ressler to leave and return Kemper to his cell. As he was exiting the room, Kemper touched Ressler’s shoulder and said, “You know I was just kidding, don’t you?”
>
> Robert Ressler immediately made it mandatory that no FBI agent ever conduct an interview alone with a serial killer. This mandate was later extended to all types of serial criminals.
>
> Ressler realized that he made what might have been a fatal mistake: He trusted a prisoner he knew was a serial killer.
This beggars belief doesn’t it? That the routine is such that prisoners know when there will be no one around, and even worse, they were aware that a person was locked in a cell alone with a sociopath and still had no one available. (Mind you I think Ressler should take some responsibility for not ensuring there was a safeguard).
The attitude of Kemper is similar to that of John Jason Nixon, in high security prison in Brisbane. He has already murdered two inmates- the latest by conking him with a bag filled with soap bars. He knows he is going to spend the rest of his life inside and doesn’t care what the authorities think- he knows they can do nothing.
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/67 "2012-06-01T16:50:20Z")
> [@Cicero](#):
>
> I can’t follow your reasoning. There seems no evidence that Kempers’ grandparents ever abused him. There is no evidence that his mothers friend abused him.
>
> He didn’t stop. He was fleeing the scene when news of the murders broke and he then rang police to say where he was. That is hardly stopping.
It does bear mentioning that the police were not looking for him when he called. Kemper was on speaking terms with local law enforcement, and he had to call them repeatedly to convince them he wasn’t pranking.
“Decent” isn’t the word I would use, but Kemper is certainly self-aware.
---
### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-serial-killers-ever-just-stop/620538/68 "2012-06-01T20:04:23Z")
> [@Cicero](#):
>
> This beggars belief doesn’t it? That the routine is such that prisoners know when there will be no one around, and even worse, they were aware that a person was locked in a cell alone with a sociopath and still had no one available. (Mind you I think Ressler should take some responsibility for not ensuring there was a safeguard).
This happened when the FBI was just setting up the serial killers unit. Ressler was interviewing them to learn how to deal with them. It was his third interview and he’d had no trouble with the first two. Sociopaths can take in anyone, including the experts.
Ressler is about 5’4", somewhat overweight, and talks with a lisp–about the last type of person you’d think could handle a serial killer.
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