I doubt if anyone of them “just stopped”. They either died, or were imprisoned for another crime or another murder. Sometimes if a dude is caught rd-handed commiting a crime, the police don’t dig very deeply. Unless the SK had a super distinctive MO,(and Zodiac did not) it’s quite possible that they were caught for a murder which the police did not link to a serial killer on file.
Zodiac not only stopped (apparently) killing, he stopped his letters. There’s only one post 1970, and one letter could have been gotten out of a prison and then mailed by a friend.
That’s what some area cops say. Off the record, of course. (looking at the list of stores where he left his poisoned bottles) Y’know, I think I have shopped at every last one…I mean, never been to ANY of them. Never! Not the Jewel six blocks from my house when I was a kid and certainly not the grocery store across the street from where my wife was studying to be an X-ray tech back in '82.
And though her reasoning for not wanting me to do some things is, “They never caught the Tylenol Killer,” she wonders why I prefer generic OTC meds. Nobody knows who they’d be blackmailing if they tampered with stuff from Equaline and anyway, the stuff’s so crappy how would anybody know it had been tampered with?
Ok, that may be the case sometimes – death and prison would be pretty effective stoppers, ignoring those who plan crimes while in the slammer.
But BTK and the Green River guy appear to have had an extended killing spree before they stopped (and were caught years later). Naturally, the unsolved cases are a matter of speculation.
BJMoose: I suspect that some joker at Wikipedia decided to edit that remark in. At any rate, when reasonable doubt rubs up against a Wiki entry, the reasonable doubt wins in my book.
I recall hearing a news story about police finding a man some years ago who’d committed suicide and there was evidence in his place to indicate that he was the Tylenol killer.
In the case of serial killers who have a fairly mobile lifestyle (say truck driver, travelling salesman, homeless, etc.), it might be hard to say for certain if a serial killer plaguing an area had really stopped, or just moved on. Certainly, there’s evidence that they can stop for a short period of time, but AFAIK, there’s no verified case of a serial killer racking up a number of victims, then quitting voluntarily, and dying some decades later a free man.
How likely would we be to? Once the person dies they aren’t likely to do something that gets them noticed by police related to an unsolved case.
Dennis Rader (the BTK murderer) and Gary Ridgway (the Green River Killer) stopped for far longer than “a short period of time.” There are also other cases. Not having a proven case of someone dying later without being caught doesn’t mean much when we have cases where they were alive years and years later after stopping.
Well, it would have been difficult to get away with dismembering Mom.
Another example of the “normal” serial killer is Randy Kraft, who was in a long-term stable relationship and had a good job as a computer software consultant.
One could theorize that Jack the Ripper got bored and quit, but that’s a bit speculative. Unless you believe Patricia Cornwell’s theory that the Ripper was painter Walter Sickert (and I don’t buy it).
Even way back then, I would think a serial killer crafty enough to leave no fingerprints, no identifying marks of any kind, etc. would be smart enough to use someone elses spit for the stamps.
While I’d be willing to bet that you’ve been whooshed, I know at one time it was possible to determine blood type from tissue samples and bodily fluids (besides blood). How large a sample, what fluids, when the test was developed, and if it was widely known about at that time, I can’t say.
Zodiac may have very well left prints and partial prints, particularly on his later cards & letters. According to the Crime Library, there are a number of latent prints and partial prints that have not been tied to any suspect, but also have been ruled out as coming from a 3rd party (mail carrier or recipient).
Also, Zodiac left a large, perfect palm print on a phone from which he made a 911 call after a murder. The print was however mishandled and ruined when lifted by the police technician (Apparently he tried to lift it too soon while it was “moist” and it got smudged).
I’m sure the probability that the DNA profile they have from the stamps is the killers is very, very high.
DNA results aside (assuming Arthur Allen got someone else to lick his stamps), why was no physical evidence found in his possession after he died? Where’s the weird hood & utility belt? Any photos or memoirs or “souvenirs”?) Sadly, when they say they found “no physical evidence” to link Allen to Zodiac, they mean “none”.
Donald Cheney, the guy who tipped police that Allen might be the Zodiac had a grudge against Allen (Allen had ‘touched’ Cheney’s daughter).
Wikipedia says: "In 1991 Rader ran and was elected as a Republican[2] supervisor of the Compliance Department at Park City, a two-employee, multi-functional department in charge of “animal control, housing problems, zoning, general permit enforcement and a variety of nuisance cases.” " Emphasis added.
I think that the Ark Valley News article implies, but does not state, that Dennis Rader’s job was appointed. But I may be reading too far into it. Or misreading it entirely.
Don’t get me wrong though. I tried to find another source that would substantiate the Wikipedia claim that Rader was an elected official, but was not able to. But I certainly may have missed something. Maybe you or someone else would have better luck.
This article from the Wichita Eagle makes it fairly clear that Dennis Rader’s job as a compliance supervisor in Park City, Kansas was a civil service position, not an elective office.
I came across some notes on an FBI Symposium on serial killers. One excerpt: [indent]Myth: Serial killers cannot stop killing.
It has been widely believed that once serial killers start killing, they cannot stop. There are, however, some serial killers who stop murdering altogether before being caught. In these instances, there are events or circumstances in offenders’ lives that inhibit them from pursuing more victims. These can include increased participation in family activities, sexual substitution, and other diversions.
• BTK killer, Dennis Rader, murdered ten victims from 1974 to 1991. He did not kill any other victims prior to being captured in 2005. During interviews conducted by law enforcement, Rader admitted to engaging in auto-erotic activities as a substitute for his killings.
• Jeffrey Gorton killed his first victim in 1986 and his next victim in 1991. He did not kill another victim and was captured in 2002. Gorton engaged in cross-dressing and masturbatory activities, as well as consensual sex with his wife in the interim. Serial Murder — FBI [/INDENT]
As for the Green River killer, his kill rate went down after he started a relationship with the woman who became his wife. Cite: Wiki and Tom Jensen, one of the Detectives on the case as portrayed in Green River Killer.
I still wonder whether we can form reasonable conjectures based on the fact that Jack the Ripper killed his victims over a ~3 month time span before stopping. Cite.
Criminology journals are filled to the brim with papers, studies and theories on serial killers and their motivations, MO and activities. The prevailing theory has changed at least thrice since I started reading them, back in 2002.
The term “serial killer” has some specific connotations: The killer kills one person and experiences something akin to a sexual thrill, and then kills other people in a similar but escalating manner in a doomed attempt to recreate that initial thrill. It’s one kind of multiple murderer; “Spree killer,” “contract killer” and “rage killer” are others, but they have nothing in common with serial killers beyond multiple victims. The sexual component isn’t there, and they are motivated by anger, insanity or payment.
I’m not current on my Ripperology, but I understand the best theory is that his four victims were involved in different degrees in a scheme to blackmail Prince Albert Victor. He seems to have been more of a “cleaner” than a serial killer (Think of Mike Ehrmentrout from Breaking Bad). Absent some amazing break in this very cold case, I don’t think Jack the Ripper is particularly relevant to an inquiry about serial killers.
This is a commonly-believed myth. Actually, it’s pretty rare for mentally ill people to hear voices, and in fact when people claim to hear voices, or say the voices told them to do it, or something along those lines, it usually means that person is trying to fake being crazy (as part of an insanity defense, most likely).
Why does anybody stop doing anything they really enjoy(ed) ? One gets bored. Maybe they move on to advanced self-mutilation, or necrophilia, or law school. But I repeat myself.
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Didn’t BTK stop for a good 15 years before they caught him?
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Zodiac also abruptly stopped. Jack the Ripper too.
That’s for the really famous ones, I’m sure plenty flew under the radar (because making bodies disappear is really not *that *hard particularly if one lives near the coast, and there are hundreds of people who just up and vanish without a trace every year in the US alone). Possibly some “landed” under the radar as well.
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• Jeffrey Gorton killed his first victim in 1986 and his next victim in 1991. He did not kill another victim and was captured in 2002. Gorton engaged in cross-dressing and masturbatory activities, as well as consensual sex with his wife in the interim. http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/pu…/serial-murder
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