Serial killers kill for the power and control they experience during the murders and for the added ego boost they get in the aftermath from community fears, media coverage, and the police investigations.
In reality, serial killers are of average intelligence.
In reality, those rare few cases with good forensic evidence are the ones that make it to court.
The accepted definition of a serial killer is a person who kills at least three times with a cooling off period in between his murders.
Most well-known serial killers have victims numbering in the dozens, have sent taunting letters to the police or have done bizarre things to the bodies.
Often, a serial killer has no felony record.
Police are reluctant to label a murder as a possible serial homicide.
The most important issue for the killer is the ability to get a victim easily and successfully.
While there are many wonderful police investigators out there doing some very fine work, the majority of the time it is not brains that catches serial killers.
The one noticeable similarity with almost all serial killer victims is their short height and low weight.
Using MO to link crimes can be problematic.
Many of the less prolific killers' stories go unheard because they simply don't make good books.
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theatres, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
All serial killers want to win. They choose victims they can kill successfully.
Last but not least among serial killer methodologies, we have women who kill their own children.
Nowadays, with much more racial and ethnic mixing, we are seeing serial killers murdering a variety of victims; whoever comes along will most likely do.
Often I am asked if there is any such thing as a female serial killer.
Outside of dumb luck, the number one way serial killers are caught is through the help of the public.
Serial killing is not about sex at all, but about power and control and revenge on society.
Telling the community a serial killer is out there stirs up a lot of unpleasant attention.
