I’m pretty sure that some serial killers have started their “career” in their teens. Which known serial killer started the youngest? (I was wondering if any one had done their first kill before their teen years.)
Ted “Just admit it” Bundy, may have started killing at 14 but he denied it, a quote from his wiki
"Circumstantial evidence suggests that he abducted and killed eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr of Tacoma in 1961 when he was 14, an allegation he denied repeatedly.[58] "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_bundy
Capt
Edmund Kemper was born in 1948 and killed his grandparents in 1964, at age 15.*
- Edmund’s age, not that of the grandparents.
Jesse Pomeroy was probably about 11 when he started attacking younger children, and his first known (and only proven) murder was at age 14.
He didn’t actually get a proper serial killer spree since he was caught too quickly, but clearly fits the profile.
Mary Bell who committed her two separate murders at ages 10 and 11 is probably also of note
Billy the Kid at 13? Or was it Miyamoto Musashi? Nah Musashi sliced his first victim at 13. I think BTK gunned down his first at 16.
In order to be a serial killer you have to murder at different times, don’t you? They’re spree killers.
Yes, they aren’t serial killers.
ETA: They would be considered mass murderers since the killings took place in one location.
Caril Ann Fugate was 14, but she too was more spree than serial.
Interesting! thanks for the replies.
He killed his first man, Frank P. Cahill, in 1877, which would have made him 17 (although there is uncertainty about his birth date, and he may have been 15). Cahill was a bully, and Billy the Kid shot him during an altercation. Some witnesses said that Antrim killed Cahill in self defence, but an inquest found the killing ‘criminal and unjustifiable’.
I can’t believe they ever let her out.
I think there is too much emphasis on semantics in this thread because:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
How to distinguish a spree killer from a mass murderer, or from a serial killer is subject to considerable controversy, and the term is not consistently applied, even within the academic literature
[/QUOTE]
ETA: That’s from the definition for spree killer, BTW.
William Heirens (the “Lipstick Killer”) began murdering at age 16.
From the literature, it looks like most serial killers either experienced severe physical/sexual child abuse, head injuries, or had inherited mental illnesses, or some combination of 2 or 3 of those.
I assume the problem is going to be that those who kill very young, tend not to get away with it, and so are unlikely to go on to have careers as serial killers.
So do a whole lot of other people, who don’t go on to become serial killers.
But it is significant enough that many serial killers have that in common.
Here’s another serial killer who began (and ended) his career as a teenager.