Did Ted Bundy believe in God?
What does “It loaded on scale X” mean?
-FrL-
You may be onto something here. There is a type of female serial killer known as a “black widow,” who marries men and then kills them. The motive is usually profit; these women live off of inheritance and life insurance payouts.
This page talks about what defines a serial killer and what the differences are between mass murderers and serial killers. It mentions in a few places that women are often excluded from the serial killer category due to public perception. The definitions of what makes a serial killer are sometimes overly narrow and based on things other than operational criteria.
I’m not a psychologist, so don’t take my views as carrying more authority than the norm, but based on some of the fetishistic and ritual elements in how they kill, it’s my opinion that serial killers are, in a sense, making sacrifices. It seems to me that they are fulfilling their religious impulses through killing. In other words, killing is their religion. They may see themselves as agents of a higher power or simply think that they are above society’s rules due to their state of enlightened knowledge. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them actually consider themselves to be a kind of god or at least a different being from “normal” humans.
The idea of transformation often occurs in connection with serial killers, either that they are becoming something else, or that they are changing their victims. Thomas Harris’ novels, for which he actually did quite a bit of research, often features this element. Dolarhyde in Red Dragon was “becoming” the Dragon, transforming himself into his personal devil, and of course that transformation required pain and sacrifice. Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs was also trying to transform himself, as Lecter pointed out to Clarise Starling. But it’s not just in popular culture that serial killers want to change their victims or themselves.
This page, on the The Psychology of Serial and Mass Killers says that, “[Some] killers ‘improve’ the intimate object by ‘purifying’ it, removing ‘imperfections’, depersonalizing it, and dehumanizing it. This type of killer saves its victims from degeneration and degradation, from evil and from sin, in short: from a fate worse than death. The killer’s megalomania manifests at this stage. He claims to possess, or have access to, higher knowledge and morality. The killer is a special being and the victim is ‘chosen’ and should be grateful.”
This language: purify, remove imperfections, saving someone from corruption, saving someone from a fate worse than death, sounds very religious to me. To be sure, I’ve rarely read anything that comes directly from the killer—there aren’t many published interviews that I’m aware of—but even if it is a product of the investigator’s interpretation, it means that the killers’ words and deeds are suggestive enough that many, if not most people who study them are drawn to evoking religious images.
The planning and rituals surrounding the killing serve as Mass, the killing is the Sacrifice, the consumption of the flesh or sexual violation is the Communion. Not too much of a jump considering that Christianity holds that communion is either symbolic or actual cannibalism. Most people don’t think about it that way, but that’s the doctrine in almost every church.
Of course, these religious elements don’t take place in every murder that is classified as a serial killing. One of the most basic criteria is that here is always some kind of ritual, but the expression could be weak—as in always using the same method—to strong—as in planning every aspect so as to convey the importance of the act and using clear symbols in the killing, so that the killing itself seems to have less importance than way he or she does it. From what I’ve read, male serial killers are more likely to incorporate strong rituals and religious-type thoughts into their acts.
And just because this is getting too serious, here’s a link to a comic to brighten your day. (Warning: may be offensive if you don’t have a twisted sense of humor like me.)