Edmund Kemper

Focus on Evidence

According to famous FBI profilers, John Douglas & Robert Ressler, any of the 10 traits can indicate that someone is a serial killer. And Kemper had them all.

Prosecution vs Defense

7. Because of their father's absence, they have trouble with male authority figures. Since they were taken cared by their mothers, they have powerful hostility toward women.

8.They manifest psychiatric problems at an early age & often spend time in institutions as kids.

9.Because of their extreme social isolation & a general hatred of the world, & everyone in it, including themselves, they often fell suicidal as teenagers.

10.They display a precacious & abiding intrest in deviant sexuality & are obsessed with feishism, voyeurism & violent pornography.

• After the death of his mother and her friend, Sally Hallett, Kemper arrived in Pueblo, Colorado, called the police to confess.
• The police did not take him seriously and told him to call back later. He called back several hours later and spoke to an officer he personally knew. Kemper then confessed of killing his mother and Hallett.
• Once in custody, he confessed to the murder of six female students
• Edmund was assigned the Chief Public Defender of Santa Cruz County attorney, Jim Jackson.
• Due to Kemper's detailed and explicit confession, the only option was plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
• Three court appointed psychiatrists found Kemper to be legally sane, as well as a twelve (six men and six women) member jury.

1. Single, white male

2.Tend to be smart, with an IQ of "Bright Normal"

3.Despite their intelligence, they do poorly in school, have spotty employment records, and generally end up as unskilled workers.

4.They come from deeply troubled families.

5.They have long history of psychiatric problems, criminal behaviour, and alcholism in their families.

6.As children, they suffer significant abuse sometimes psychological, sometimes physical often sexual. Such brutal mistreatment can make them feel humiliated and helpless.

Outcome of Trial

Final Verdict

Statements

• charged with 8 counts of first-degree murder.
• Trial took place on October 1973, Kemper was found guilty of all charges in early November
• Kemper requested the death penalty but was given life imprisonment.
• Held in a maximum security prison at Folson.

Conclusion

• One defense psychiatrist was willing to testify to insanity based on the product standard, which allows someone to say that the crime is the product of a diseased mind- Kempers younger sister described the strange acts she had seen her brother do, trying hard to show that he was abnormal
• Fort decided that he had known what he was doing in each incident, was thrilled by the notoriety of being a mass murderer, and had been entirely aware that it was wrong. That was good enough to find him sane. "
• the Atascadero staffs diagnosis of Kemper when he was fifteen. Having a lively fantasy world was not necessarily psychotic.

Kemper,67, is currrently held in a prison at Folton, in charge of organzing appointments for inmates to meet with psychiatrists.

Edmund Kemper

Execution

There were no executions. Although Kemper requested the death penalty, the final verdict was life prisonment.

Edmund Emil Kemper III was born on December 18, 1948 in Burbank, California. He was also known as Edmund Kemper, the Co-ed Killer or the Co-ed Butcher. He was an American serial killer, rapist, necrophile and a cannibal who killed six young women in the Santa Cruz, California area and several members of his family in the early 1970s. He was diagnosed as being psychotic before being sentenced to a 5-year term as a criminally insane juvenile. He was released at age 21, convincing them he was rehabilitated. He mostly targeted young female hitchhikers. He then murdered his mother and one of her friends before turning himself into the authorities.

Victims

• At age of 15, he shot both of his grandparents "to see what it felt like".
• Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa who were strangled and stabbed. He removed their heads and hands and engaged in sexual activity with the corpses. Later that year, on September 14, 1972, his next victim, Aiko Koo experienced the same assault.
• On January 1973, he shot and killed Cindy Schall and scattered her corpses. On February 5, 1973 on the campus of the University of California, Rosalind Thorpe and Alice Liu were also taken and killed.

Victims

• On April 1973, he striked his mother with a hammer and cut her throat with a knife. He also removed her larynx and disposed it in the garbage. He then called his mother's friend, Sally Hallett over and strangled her.

Edmund Kemper

The Co-ed Killer/ Butcher