Controversy followed. Some advocates of the death penalty used the tapes to support their cause. Others stated that it was obvious Speck was being forced by other inmates into the acts, and argued for penal reform.
EDMUND KEMPER
It is sometimes claimed that serial killers want to be caught. Increasing sloppiness, risk-taking and taunting yet revealing letters sent to the authorities are often cited as proof. Ultimately, this is nothing more than speculation; we cannot really know. However, it can be said with certainty that Edmund Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer, wanted to be caught, and that’s down to the simple fact that he actually turned himself in.
Edmund Emil Kemper III was born on 18 December 1948 in Burbank, California, the home of the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers. An only son, he had one older and one younger sister. Kemper was named after his father, with whom he was extremely close. In 1957, his parents divorced, and his mother moved with the children to Helena, Montana. There, nearly 2,000 kilometres away from his father, Kemper suffered his mother’s emotional abuse. She would often lock him in the basement, thinking that he would molest his sisters. While still a child he began to torture and kill animals, and used his sisters’ dolls in acting out aberrant sexual fantasies and situations. On more than one occasion, his younger sister found that her dolls had been decapitated. In a favourite childhood game Kemper would dream of his own execution, enlisting one of his sisters to lead him to a pretend electric chair.
At the age of 13 he ran away from home and made his way back to California. His father, who had remarried, was somewhat less than pleased to see him. It was during the trip that Kemper learned he had a stepbrother – a boy who had replaced him in his father’s affections. He was sent back to Montana, where he was equally unwelcome.
As a 14-year-old, he was sent to live with his paternal grandparents, Maude and Edmund Kemper, on their 17-acre ranch in North Fork, California. Already considerably more than six feet tall, he was an awkward boy, both physically and socially. Despite his height, he was easily bullied. According to Kemper, his grandmother was another in a list of tormentors.
On the afternoon of 27 August 1964, the two argued and, taking the rifle given to him by his grandfather the previous Christmas, Kemper shot his grandmother once in the head and twice in the back. It was an impulsive act. His grandfather arrived home and was shot as he got out of his car. Kemper would later say that he killed his grandfather to spare the old man the discovery of his dead wife, killed by his grandson.
After phoning his mother to tell her what he had done, Kemper called the local police and waited on the porch for their arrival. In custody he was diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia and sent to the Atascadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
On his 21st birthday, 18 December 1969, against the wishes of several psychologists, he was released into his mother’s care. She had moved back to California during her son’s incarceration, and was now living in Santa Cruz, a rapidly growing beach town to the south of San Francisco. Kemper attended community college and received high marks. He became friendly with various members of the Santa Cruz Police Department. For a time he planned on becoming an officer, a dream that ended when he learned he was too tall. Now standing 6 feet, 9 inches, and weighing nearly 300 pounds (over 20 stone), Kemper was an imposing figure.
He worked at a number of jobs before settling into a position as a labourer with the California Division of Highways, an occupation that had some relationship to his subsequent crimes. Kemper wasn’t good with money, but he managed to save enough to move out of his mother’s home and share an apartment with a roommate. He also purchased a motorcycle, which played a part in two separate accidents. As a result of one of these, Kemper received a settlement of $15,000. He used this money to buy a yellow Ford Galaxie, and began to cruise the area along the Pacific coast in search of female hitch-hikers. By his own estimation, he generously provided rides to approximately 150 young women and girls, all the while slowly and deliberately gathering items of sinister purpose in his trunk: knives, handcuffs, a blanket and plastic bags.
On 7 May 1972, he picked up his first victims, Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa, who were hitch-hiking 270 kilometres from Fresno to Stanford University. At first the girls felt themselves lucky, as Kemper told them he would drive all the way to Stanford. However, he soon drove off the highway and on to a deserted dirt road. There he stopped, killed both girls, and drove back to the highway with their bodies in his car boot. In a scene reminiscent of a movie cliché, Kemper was almost caught when, as he drove back to his apartment, the police pulled him over and issued a warning for a broken tail light.
Kemper arrived at his apartment to find that his roommate was out. He carried in both bodies, laid them on the floor of his bedroom and began to dissect them, taking photographs to mark his progress. He later admitted that he’d had sex with various severed parts. He disposed of the girls’ bodies in the mountains, burying that of Pesce in a shallow grave which he marked in order to find it on future visits.
During the next four months he continued to give lifts to women, often engaging in conversations about an unknown man who was murdering female hitch-hikers.
On 14 September, he raped and killed Aiko Koo, a 15-year-old girl who had decided to hitch-hike after becoming tired of waiting for a bus. She, too, was taken to the apartment and dissected. The next day Kemper went before two psychiatrists, a requirement of his parole. As a result of the interview, it was concluded that he was no longer a danger. Later, he disposed of Koo’s body parts outside Boulder Creek.
The following January and February, Kemper killed three more women, two of whom he picked up at the University of California’s Santa Cruz campus, where his mother was employed. These same two women he dismembered and beheaded in his mother’s home.
On 21 April 1973, Good Friday, Kemper killed his mother with a pick hammer as she slept. After decapitating her, he sexually assaulted the corpse. The head he placed on the mantelpiece, where he used it as a dart board. He then invited over one of his mother’s female friends, Sally Hallett, whom he strangled and beheaded.
On Easter Sunday, he drove off eastward in Hallett’s car, listening for news reports of the murders he had committed on the radio. After driving 2,400 kilometres without hearing a word on his crimes, Kemper pulled off the road. From a phone booth in Pueblo, Colorado, he phoned his old friends at the Santa Cruz Police Department and confessed to the murder of his mother, her friend and the six female hitch-hikers. However, the officer who took the call, knowing Kemper, did not think him at all capable of the crimes, and considered the call a practical joke made in poor taste. It took several further phone calls to convince the Santa Cruz police that a visit to Mrs Kemper’s house might be warranted.
On 7 May 1973, Kemper was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. While awaiting trial, he twice attempted suicide. The trial began on 23 October and lasted less than three weeks. Kemper’s plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was countered by three prosecution psychiatrists who declared him to be sane. In the end, he was found guilty on all eight counts.
He asked to be sentenced to death, but his childhood fantasy was denied. Kemper is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment in the California State Medical Corrections Facility.
JERRY BRUDOS
The mind of the serial killer seems such a mystery; explanations of their crimes are beyond the realm of the easy answer. Incredibly, some observers have blamed the troubled life and horrific crimes of Jerry Brudos, Oregon’s worst serial killer, on the void created by the absence of a mother’s love.
Jerome Henry Brudos was born on 31 January 1939 in South Dakota, the third child in a family that already included two boys. He would later say that his mother had so hoped for a daughter that the birth of yet another son was a great disappointment. Raised by a mother who viewed him with scorn, Brudos grew up with the knowledge that at least one of his parents thought he had been born the wrong sex. He
sought approval and friendship from other females, but often found himself ignored and very much alone. As he matured, so too did his attraction to women’s shoes and lingerie. The roots of Brudos’ fetishes are quite deep and, unnervingly, can be traced back to a very early age. As a 5-year-old, he uncovered a pair of stiletto-heeled shoes at a local dump, and later was caught wearing them by his mother. Her strong and violent reaction, which included the destruction of his treasure, may very well have served to fuel Brudos’ interest in women’s footwear as something forbidden. At the same age, he was caught stealing the shoes of his kindergarten teacher.
By the age of 17, Brudos’ desire for the feminine had taken a more serious turn. He abducted a 17-year-old girl at knifepoint, and led her to a local hillside in which he had excavated a large hole. Once there, Brudos beat the girl and forced her to remove her clothing. The assault was interrupted by an elderly couple out for a stroll and he was arrested.
As a result, Brudos spent nine months in the psychiatric ward at the Oregon State Hospital, where he openly discussed his fantasies with the attending doctors. He explained that the hillside dugout had been intended as a place to keep girls he wanted to use as sex slaves. One of his more disturbing fantasies concerned dumping women into freezers so that he might later use their stiff bodies in creating sexually explicit poses and scenes. Amazingly, as Brudos provided doctors with details of his various dreams and desires, he was permitted to attend his high school classes. Ultimately, these same mental health practitioners determined that their teenaged patient was suffering from nothing more than a difficulty in adjusting to adolescence. Despite the abduction, the beating and the hole he’d created for sex slaves, the future serial killer was considered a person not prone to violence.
After high school, Brudos enlisted in the military, but was soon discharged as an undesirable recruit. He became an electronics technician and, in 1961, married a shy 17-year-old, five years his junior. At the beginning of their marriage, Brudos insisted that his bride remain naked when at home. Exactly how long this rule remained in place is unknown – it may have lasted until the birth of his children, or perhaps the arrival of his mother. Whatever the answer, there was another rule that remained in place. All were forbidden to enter certain areas of the house – rooms in which Brudos indulged his sexual fantasies. And yet, as the years passed, Brudos’ wife caught glimpses of his secret life: a paperweight in the shape of a breast, photographs of nude women. On one occasion he appeared before her in women’s underwear, garments probably obtained by breaking into other people’s houses. During at least one of these break-ins, Brudos encountered a woman and raped her.
On 26 January 1968, he committed what is thought to have been his first murder. The victim was Linda Slawson, a 19-year-old who was trying to raise money for university by selling encyclopaedias door to door. Brudos lured the young woman into his workshop, where she was clubbed on the head, then strangled. All this took place while, at Brudos’ encouragement, the rest of the family sat eating at a local fast food restaurant. Over the next few days, he dressed, photographed and sexually violated the corpse. Eventually, he disposed of Slawson’s body by throwing it off a bridge into the Willamette River – but not before amputating one of her feet, which he kept and used to model his collection of women’s shoes. When the severed foot had deteriorated to a point at which Brudos no longer found it to be of use, it too was thrown in the river.
Eleven months later to the day, he murdered again. The second victim was Jan Whitney, whom he encountered on a roadside after her car had broken down. Brudos took her to his house, saying that she would be able to wait with his wife, while he returned to repair the car. Instead, he strangled Whitney, sexually violating the corpse before carrying it to his workshop. Again, he took photographs and dressed the corpse in his collection of women’s clothing. For several days he left the body hanging from the ceiling.
Despite his actions, and the fact that his crimes were taking place in a house shared with his wife, his children and, of course, his mother, Brudos seemed to think there was no way he would be caught. It was then that a bizarre accident took place. A car struck his house, damaging the structure to such an extent that passers-by could easily view the inside. Before the police could investigate the interior of the house, Brudos took down Whitney’s body and hid it in a small structure on his property.
When it was time to dispose of Whitney’s body, Brudos cut off her right breast. He had hoped to use it as a mould in making paperweights like the one he had purchased, but was unsuccessful in his attempts.
On 27 March 1969, his next murder victim, Karen Sprinker, was abducted at gunpoint and taken to his home. Unlike the previous women he’d killed, Brudos raped Sprinker before killing her. She was forced to model various items from his collection of women’s clothing, and was eventually hanged. He cut off both breasts, dressed the corpse in a longline bra, and stuffed the cups.
In late April, using a fake police badge and the threat of a charge for shoplifting, Brudos abducted Linda Salee, his final victim. She was bound in his workshop, waiting while he had dinner, before being sexually assaulted and strangled. Brudos later claimed that she was being raped at the moment of death.
The disappearances of all four women remained complete mysteries to the authorities; all appeared to have simply vanished. Then, in May, a man out fishing found decomposing human remains floating in the Long Tom River. After the police arrived, more remains were discovered bound to a car transmission box. The body was identified as that of Linda Salee. The speed with which the authorities zeroed in on Brudos is truly impressive. Among the clues used in identifying the killer was the manner in which copper wire had been used to bind Salee’s body; an unusual technique that indicated someone with training as an electrician.
On 30 May, he was arrested. Just as he had when he was a patient at the psychiatric ward of the Oregon State Hospital, Brudos openly discussed his sexual fantasies. Indeed, while under interrogation, he appeared to seize upon the opportunity presented to share his secret dreams with others. There was no expression of remorse for his victims. What little sympathy Brudos had was directed towards his wife and children – but most certainly not to his mother.
For his crimes, Brudos received three life sentences. He died of natural causes on 28 March 2006. At the time of his death, Brudos was the longest-serving inmate at Oregon State Penitentiary.
THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE
Late in the evening of 21 August 1968, a Tuscan farmer was awoken by a knock at his door. He opened it to find a young boy who, speaking through tears, informed the man that a stranger had killed his mother and ‘uncle’. The boy had been present when the murder had occurred, sleeping in the back seat as the ‘uncle’ had pulled his car off the road. As he’d begun to make love to the boy’s mother, a figure appeared and shot the couple. The unidentified man had then grabbed the boy and dropped him off at the farmhouse door.
The victims that summer night were Antonio Lo Bianco and Barbara Locci. Their bodies were found in Lo Bianco’s Alfa Romeo, which was parked in a Florentine cemetery. A promiscuous woman, Locci made little attempt to hide her extramarital activities, whether from the community or her family. Indeed, her husband, Stefano Mele, had been at home the day before the murder when Lo Bianco and Carmelo Cutrona, another of his wife’s lovers, had each paid visits. Under questioning, Mele told police that he believed any one of a number of his wife’s lovers had committed the murders. Among those he fingered were three brothers – Francesco, Giovanni and Salvatore Vinci – who had each shared his wife’s bed.
Two days after the murder, Mele abruptly abandoned his claims and confessed to killing his wife and Lo Bianco with the aid of Salvatore Vinci. Mele provided a story in which he had roamed the town of Lastra, searching for his wife and son. In the town square he’d encountered Vinci, who proceeded to criticize Mele for allowing his wife to cheat on him. Together they stalked Locci and Lo Bianco. When the couple parked in the graveya
rd, Mele used Vinci’s gun to shoot the couple, then drove off.
It was a story full of holes, not the least of which was Mele’s failure to mention his son and how it was that the boy had arrived at the farmhouse. Also suspicious was the idea that one of Locci’s lovers would encourage Mele to kill his wife over her adultery. Each day that followed brought a new story and sequence of events. Mele retracted his confession, asserting that it was actually Francesco Vinci who had committed the murders. Nevertheless, it was Mele who went to trial. In 1970, he received a 14-year sentence on the grounds of partial insanity.
More bodies
As Mele was serving his fifth year behind bars, on 14 September 1974, the bodies of a young couple, 19-year-old Pasquale Gentilcore and 18-year-old Stefania Pettini, were discovered in the countryside just north of Florence. Gentilcore was seated, half-clothed, behind the wheel of his father’s Fiat. Pettini’s naked, mutilated corpse lay spread-eagled outside the car. Both victims had been shot several times, though Pettini’s death had come as a result of one of 96 stab wounds. There were no witnesses and the suspects, who included a mentally disturbed man who had turned himself in, were quickly dismissed. It seemed that the murders of Gentilcore and Pettini were destined to remain unsolved.
On 6 June 1981, investigators were confronted with another mystery when the bodies of another young couple were found off a country road outside Florence. The body of the male, 30-year-old Giovanni Foggi, was inside his Fiat Ritmo. His throat had been slashed. The corpse of Foggi’s girlfriend, 21-year-old Carmela De Nuccio, lay 20 metres away at the bottom of a steep embankment. Like Pettini, six years earlier, De Nuccio’s genitals had been mutilated. Autopsies performed on the latest victims indicated that they had both died of several gunshot wounds before their corpses were stabbed. There was, however, a more direct link tying the recent murders to those of Pasquale Gentilcore and Stefania Pettini; a ballistics report indicated that all had been killed by the same gun.
The World's Most Evil Psychopaths: Horrifying True-Life Cases Page 11