A
bigger enthusiast of serial killing you will not find. I don’t condone the
actual acts of carnage, although I find them fascinating. Peter James’ Twilight
depicts the tale of a respected anaesthetist obsessed with finding the precise
moment in time when a soul leaves the body. That exact nanosecond when a person
travels from the realm of the living to death. As a child he collected hundreds
of execution photographs, studying them at length to see if it was possible to
see the life leaving the body. My similar fascination is not so morbid,
although barely so. Studying the backgrounds of serial killers, even as far
back as the childhoods of their parents, I long to find that exact moment in
time when the boundaries of morality are blurred so that they cease to
understand right from wrong. Is there a cause for it? Is there a specific
experience as a child that short circuited their brains so as to convince them
that heinous acts are acceptable? Or further still, are these acts actually
deplorable? Is there even a right or wrong or is it relative to time and
culture?
One individual I’ve been highly interested in is Edmund Kemper, otherwise known as the Co-Ed Killer. Serial killer and necrophile, he operated in California during the early 1970s killing 10 people. His perception of right and wrong was so off kilter that he killed his own grandparents when he was only 15. It would be the pinnacle of knowledge to know what made that young adolescent tick so as to know what despair drove him to murder his own family. It was known that he had a turbulent childhood. Born the notorious middle child he was highly intelligent but deranged. He loved to torture animals and repeatedly stabbed the family pet cat to death. He also had a peculiar sexual practice involving his sister’s dolls His sexuality became so much of a problem that his mother had to lock him in the basement to sleep in order to prevent him from raping his sister. After his parents’ divorce Kemper was raised by his mother whom he loathed, (Then his grandparents who he regarded as senile.) she humiliated and belittled him and it is said that she suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder. If that was the case his genetics could be partly responsible for his later behaviour. Could it be genetics and a difficult upbringing that made this young boy a killer? Or did he make the conscious choice to become evil?
On August 24, 1964 Kemper’s grandmother was working at the kitchen table when he shot her in the head, then stabbed her corpse. Once his grandfather returned home he confronted him in the driveway before executing him, because he would have been angry for what he had done to his grandmother. In a panic he called his mother who urged him to dial 911. Once questioned on why he committed murder he calmly stated, “Just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma”. Kemper was hospitalised at Atascadero State Hospital where his natural charm and I.Q. of 136 helped him befriend his psychiatrist, he even went on to become his assistant. Against the wishes of several doctors at the hospital he was released after serving less than 5 years. Now reaching 6ft 9 and weighing 280 pounds this charming psychopath was released into the care of his mother. A few years later after working several menial jobs, he went on to butcher 6 female students. He drove them to rural areas where he stabbed, shot and smothered them before taking them back to his apartment, where he had sex with their decapitated heads before dissecting them. His killing spree reached a climax when on Good Friday 1973 he battered his sleeping mother to death with a claw hammer before using her decapitated head for oral sex. He then tore out her vocal chords and tried to dispose of them down the sink but the incinerator failed to break down the tough body part and spat it back up. After arrest he said it “Seemed appropriate, she'd bitched and screamed and yelled at me over so many years.” Afterwards Kemper invited his mother’s best friend over, once she entered the house he immediately strangled her to death before leaving the scene.
Aged 63 Edmund Emil Kemper III is now incarcerated at California Medical Facility, sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. If you wish to correspond with Kemper you can write to him at:
Edmund Kemper
California Medical Facility
PO BOX 2000
Vacaville CA 95696 – 2000
USA
