by Scott Bonn
The reality concerning the gender of serial killers is quite different than the mythology of it. Although there have been many more male serial killers than females throughout history, the presence of female serial killers is well documented in the crime data. In fact, approximately 17 percent of all serial homicides in the US are committed by women.3 Interestingly, only 10 percent of total murders in the US are committed by women. Therefore, relative to men, women represent a larger percentage of serial murders than all other homicide cases in the US. This is an important and revealing fact that defies the popular understanding of serial murder.
Female serial killers share certain common characteristics with male serial killers but they also differ from them in significant ways. For example, female serial killers are far less likely to torture their victims before killing them or to practice necrophilia or cannibalism than male serial killers. This is because the psychological motives of female serial killers are generally very different than their male counterparts. As it applies to popular mythology, the news and entertainment media focus on and sensationalize the acts of violence and torture perpetrated by male serial killers. The gory tales of atrocity committed by men provide enticing entertainment content to the public. The shocking and stereotypical depictions of male serial killers serve a large consumer market, so their sensationalized stories are good for business profits. At the same time, however, media distortions do a disservice to the public. Although the graphic images of male serial killers sell countless books and movie tickets, they also perpetuate the myth that all serial killers are demented men.
Nevertheless, there are some similarities between male and female serial killers. Most female serial killers act alone, similar to males, and they are just as effective in the business of killing as their male counterparts. In fact, based on the definition and behavioral criteria of serial homicide used in this book, females actually outperform males in terms of the average length of their killing careers. As reported in a 2011 study, the killing careers of females average between eight and eleven years while the average for male serial killers is two years.4 In terms of their number of victims, the same 2011 study reported that female serial killers have an average of nine victims which is identical to their male counterparts. Therefore, although their average death toll is comparable, female serial killers typically claim their victims over a much longer stretch of time than males.
There are important reasons why the length of the killing career of a female serial killer is so much longer than that of a male. Chief among them is the fact that female serial killers tend to operate under the radar of law enforcement—that is, they are less likely to have a criminal record. In addition, they tend to kill individuals who are emotionally and physically closest to them such as spouses, lovers, or parents. These killings often stretch over lengthy periods because they are carefully planned. Moreover, the “modus operandi” or method of killing employed by a female serial killer is typically very different than that of a male serial killer. Female serial killers tend to use quieter and less messy methods of murder, such as poisoning and smothering, than their male counterparts. Male serial killers, on the other hand, are much more likely to employ a more violent and messy method such as a stabbing or shooting. Because female serial killers normally use more subtle and less gory methods of murder than their male counterparts, their killings are more likely to go undetected and unsolved for longer periods of time. Also, it is important to recognize that the killing methods selected by female serial predators are linked to their motives which, as mentioned, tend to vary significantly from male serial killers. In chapter 5, the significant differences in serial killer motives by gender are discussed in detail.
Perhaps the most infamous female serial killer in US history is Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who killed seven men in Florida during 1989 and 1990. She is a unique exception to the typical profile of female serial killers. Wuornos was driven to kill men out of rage and a desire for vengeance. She sought retaliation for a lifetime of being raped and beaten by men, so she killed clients who picked her up along Florida highways. She used a gun to kill her male victims which is atypical of a female serial killer. Following her conviction, Wuornos was sentenced to death and she was executed by lethal injection in 2002. She rose to infamy after the release of the 2003 blockbuster Hollywood film Monster in which she was played to great critical acclaim by actor Charlize Theron.
I believe that Wuornos rose to infamy because she was atypical of female serial killers. Ironically, she became a celebrity monster and popular culture icon because she killed like a man.
Myth #2: All Serial Killers Are Caucasian.
Reality: Contrary to popular mythology, not all serial killers are white. Serial killers span all racial and ethnic groups in the US. The racial diversity of serial killers generally mirrors that of the overall US population. There are well-documented cases of African-American, Latino and Asian-American serial killers. African Americans comprise the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total. Significantly, however, only white and normally male serial killers, such as Ted Bundy, become popular culture icons. Although they are not household names like their infamous white counterparts, examples of prolific racial minority serial killers are: Coral Eugene Watts, a black man known as the “Sunday Morning Slasher,” who murdered at least seventeen women in Michigan and Texas; Anthony Edward Sowell, a black man known as the “Cleveland Strangler” who kidnapped, raped, and murdered eleven women in Ohio; and Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, a Mexican national known as the “Railroad Killer,” who killed as many as fifteen men and women in Kentucky, Texas, and Illinois.
Aileen Wuornos in court. (photo credit: Associated Press)
The myth that all serial killers are white is related to another commonly held myth that most murders, including serial murders, are inter-racial in nature—that is, that the perpetrator and victim are from different races. The reality is that homicides of all types in the US are generally intra-racial in nature. By a wide margin, most murder victims, including serial murder victims, are from the same race as their killer. In approximately 90 percent of all homicides the killer and victim are from the same race. This is the reality of race and homicide in the US.
The myth that all serial killers are white is routinely fueled and reinforced by the entertainment news media. This situation persists because the major news outlets, particularly television networks such as HLN, are far more likely to provide coverage of homicides and missing person cases involving white victims than incidents involving racial minority victims. This biased reporting practice is most acute when a white victim is female. Crime news stories that become major media events almost always feature an attractive white female as the victim. Nicole Brown Simpson is the quintessential example of this phenomenon. It is hard to think of a recent, high-profile case that did not follow this pattern. The highly publicized disappearance of Laci Peterson, a beautiful, young white woman, who was killed by her philandering husband, Scott Peterson, in 2002 is a another classic example of this reporting trend. Also, the disappearance of high school senior Natalee Holloway in 2005 is another crime story that became a global media event because it involved an attractive, young, white, female victim. The biased news reporting practice of selectively covering missing person cases involving young, white females is known as “missing white woman syndrome” (MWWS).
Unbalanced reporting by the news media sends a message that white victims, particularly females, are more important and deserve more consideration than racial minority victims. The biased pattern of news reporting holds true for serial murder victims just as it does for solo victims. The news media, therefore, are far more likely to cover serial homicide cases involving white, female victims than serial murder cases involving racial minority victims. Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, who both killed young white women and had tremendous coverage of their crimes by the news media, provide powerful examples of this.
As previously explained, white male serial killers normally target young white women as their victims. The myth that all serial killers are white is promoted and perpetuated by the news media when they selectively cover serial homicide cases involving white female victims, which they almost always do. Moreover, the myth that all serial killers are white is also fueled by the entertainment media in films like The Silence of the Lambs which stereotypically depict attractive white female victims and demented white male killers.
Coral Eugene Watts at his sentencing. (photo credit: Associated Press)
State authorities, including law enforcement officials, also perpetuate the myth that all serial killers are white due to their prioritization of cases and allocation of resources. Serial murder investigations are complicated, time-consuming, and very expensive operations to undertake because serial killers are cunning, efficient, make few mistakes, and leave few clues for investigators to pursue. Not only are serial homicide investigations complicated and require tremendous resources to solve, but even determining that a serial killer is operating in a community requires well-trained personnel, sophisticated equipment, and significant financial resources. The reality is that vital law enforcement resources are not allocated equally across the US. State authorities disproportionately concentrate important but limited financial resources, equipment, and personnel in affluent white neighborhoods. Although it may not seem fair, affluent white neighborhoods are given priority over poor, black, or Latino neighborhoods by state officials in the assignment of valuable policing resources. This negatively impacts the ability of law enforcement personnel to pursue serial murder cases in poor racial minority communities.
Unfortunately, it is far more likely that a pattern of serial homicide will be detected and aggressively pursued in an affluent white neighborhood than a poor racial minority neighborhood. Because white serial killers typically live and operate in white neighborhoods and kill white victims, their investigations are more likely to be solved by the well-trained and well-equipped law enforcement officials who patrol those neighborhoods. Stated differently, police departments and the FBI prioritize the apprehension of white serial killers who stalk affluent white neighborhoods and kill white victims, particularly white female victims. A racial imbalance in the allocation of law enforcement resources contributes to the myth that all serial killers are white because the majority of serial killers who are identified and apprehended are white, while racial minority serial killers who target minority victims are less likely to be apprehended or even detected. Thus, similar to the news media, law enforcement authorities are also instrumental in spreading the myth that serial killers are white. In the process, they obscure and deny the truth about the racial patterns of serial homicide in the US.
Myth #3: All Serial Killers Are Isolated and Dysfunctional Loners.
Reality: The majority of serial killers are not reclusive, social misfits who live alone, despite pervasive depictions of them as such in the news and entertainment media, including the socially challenged “Tooth Fairy” serial killer in the film Red Dragon. Real-life serial killers are not the isolated monsters of fiction, and frequently they do not appear to be strange or stand out from the public in any meaningful way. Many serial killers are able to successfully hide out in plain sight for extended periods of time. Those who successfully blend in are typically also employed, have families and homes, and outwardly appear to be non-threatening, normal members of society. Because serial killers can appear to be so innocuous, they are often overlooked by law enforcement officials, as well as their own families and peers. In some rare cases, an unidentified serial killer will even socialize and become friendly with the unsuspecting police detectives who are tracking him. The incredible tale of Ed Kemper, the “Co-ed Killer,” provides an example of this phenomenon in chapter 9.
Serial killers who hide out in plain sight are able to do so precisely because they look just like everyone else. It is their ability to blend in that makes them very dangerous, frightening, and yet very compelling to the general public. Consider two classic examples of unassuming and seemingly mild-mannered serial killers who absolutely defy the stereotype of an isolated, dysfunctional loner.
The first example, Dennis Rader, the “Bind, Torture, Kill” or BTK Strangler, murdered at least ten people in Wichita, Kansas, over a twenty-year period prior to his capture in 2005. He pled guilty and received ten consecutive life sentences. Prior to his arrest, Rader was married for thirty-four years and had two children. He was a Boy Scout leader, was employed as a local government official, and was the president of his church congregation. His alter ego, on the other hand, was a stone-cold killer who sought power, control, and domination of his victims. The torture of his victims gratified BTK, and strangling the life out of them made him feel like God.
Dennis Rader in court. (photo credit: Associated Press)
The second example, Gary Ridgway, the infamous “Green River Killer,” was one of the most prolific serial killers in US history. He confessed in 2003 to killing forty-eight women over a twenty-year period in the Seattle, Washington, area. He pled guilty to avoid the death penalty. In exchange, he was sentenced to 480 years without the possibility of parole. Ridgway was married three times, had a son, served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and held the same job at a truck factory for thirty-two years. He also attended church regularly and read his bible at home and at work. In shocking contrast, the Green River Killer strangled young prostitutes and runaways whom he picked up in his truck. In the beginning, he used a chokehold to kill his victims. In his later killings, Ridgway used a ruler to twist fabric around the necks of his victims. Sometimes he killed them inside his house and other times he killed them in the woods. He engaged in necrophilia with the corpses of some of his victims. In a confession that reveals the extent of his psychopathy, Ridgway said that he sometimes used a picture of his son to disarm his intended victims and lure them into his truck. He also admitted to killing one of his victims while his young son waited for him in his truck. When asked if he would have killed his son had the boy realized what he was doing, his chilling answer was “yes.”
In summary, despite pervasive media stereotypes to the contrary, the majority of serial killers are not social misfits who live in isolation without interacting with others. In fact, many are highly functioning and appear to be completely normal.
Myth #4: All Serial Murderers Travel Widely and Kill in Multiple States.
Reality: The roaming, homicidal maniac such as Freddy Krueger in the cult film A Nightmare on Elm Street is another entertainment media stereotype that is rarely found in real life. Among the most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy is the rare exception who traveled and killed in various states in the US. Bundy twice escaped from police custody and committed at least thirty homicides in the states of Washington, Utah, Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, and California. Articulate, educated, well-groomed, and charming, Bundy was truly atypical among serial killers in his cross-country killing rampage. Unlike Bundy, most serial killers have very well-defined geographic areas of operation. They typically have a comfort zone—that is, an area that they are intimately familiar with and where they like to stalk and kill their prey. Jack the Ripper provides the classic example of this geographic preference because he stalked and killed exclusively in the small Whitechapel district of London in the fall of 1888.
Gary Ridgway at his sentencing. (photo credit: Associated Press)
The comfort zone of a serial killer is often defined by an anchor point such as a place of residence or employment. Crime statistics reveal that serial killers are most likely to commit their first murder very close to their place of residence due to the comfort and familiarity it offers them. John Wayne Gacy (“The Killer Clown”) buried most of his thirty-three young male victims in the crawl space beneath his house after sexually assaulting and murdering them. Serial killers sometimes return to commit murder in an area they know well from the past such as the community in which they were rai
sed. Over time, serial murderers may extend their activities outside of their comfort zone but only after building their confidence by executing several successful murders while avoiding detection by law enforcement authorities.
As noted by the FBI in its 2005 report on serial murder, the crime data reveal that very few serial predators actually travel interstate to kill. The few serial killers who do typically fall into one of three categories: 1) They are itinerant individuals who periodically move from place to place, 2) they are chronically homeless individuals who live transiently, or 3) they are individuals, such as truck drivers or those in the military service, whose job function lends itself to interstate or transnational travel. The major difference between these individuals who kill serially and other serial murderers is the nature of their traveling lifestyle, which provides them with many zones of comfort in which to operate. Most serial killers do not have such opportunities to travel, and therefore keep their killings close to home.
Myth #5: All Serial Killers Are Either Mentally Ill or Evil Geniuses.
Reality: The images presented in the news and entertainment media suggest that serial killers either have a debilitating mental illness such as psychosis or they are brilliant but demented geniuses like Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Neither of these two stereotypes is quite accurate. Instead, serial killers are much more likely to exhibit antisocial personality disorders such as sociopathy or psychopathy, which are not considered to be mental illnesses by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). An examination of psychopathy and sociopathy, and an in-depth discussion of the powerful connection between antisocial personality disorders and serial homicide, is presented in chapter 4.