American Killer Evolution

Evolution of an American Serial Killer Cruelty towards animals, arson, and enuresis. These three factors contribute to what is known as the MacDonald Triad. A method that was used to determine a serial killer in the making (Beck). Though this theory had been disproved, others have taken its place and evolved alongside the serial killer themselves. The first documented American serial killer dates back to the eighteen hundreds, or more specifically eighteen ninety-three, in Chicago, Illinois. Herman Webster Mudgett or known better by his more common moniker, doctor H.H. Holmes, was a medical student who thrived on abducting bodies from graveyards to study. Holmes was first intrigued by human death from a hung display of a human skeleton that resided in a local pharmacy, this introduction would later fuel his morbid obsession. As a child, Holmes was frequently beaten by his devout father, causing Holmes to find asylum in the forest, where he would later experiment on animals, curious to how they functioned (“H.H. Holmes”). In eighteen eighty-six, Holmes bought a plot of land directly in front of his pharmacy to start the construction for his now dubbed “Murder Castle”. He enlisted the help of multiple contractors, always firing them before they could gain any substantial knowledge from the suspicious things Holmes requested be added to the plans. A few of his requested add ons include extra gas pipes and lines to the upper floors, which would later be used to suffocate his victims, trapdoors so he could easily maneuver between rooms and floors, and even a steel chute that lead the basement, which would relocated the bodies quicker to his surgical table and added on wood burning stove used to cremate the evidence and sometimes the bodies. These added commodities made Murder Castle an ideal location to kill and dispose of the evidence in an efficient way. After seven years of construction, the Castle was open to the public and tourist from the World Fair that was happening in a neighboring town, serving as a major profit in business and a body count and therefore, Holmes starting his killing spree with guest who sought lodge at his hotel. In the beginning, Holmes’ motive was the sell the cadavers or skeletons to a medical school for money, seeing as the schools lacked the supply to provide the students and their “no ask” policy, but towards the end of his killing career it became a game, a game that would eventually get him caught and hung for. In eighteen ninety-six, Holmes was tried and convicted for the murder of Pitezel, Holmes later confessed to the murder of twenty seven …show more content…
Ranging from killer clowns to more cannibals, the nineteen seventies held a plethora of noteworthy serial murders. Therefore, in chronological order, the Zodiac Killer is first. Although his killings started in the sixties, it bleed over into the seventies where it eventually stopped in seventy-four, claiming five confirmed victims, but writing about thirty-seven in his letter to the police. The Zodiac targeted young couples in the San Francisco Bay area. The Zodiac killer was never caught, even though two of his victims survived his attack and the majority of his cryptic letters were never properly deciphered. Another killer that was never caught was the Alphabet Strangler, who targeted three adults that had the same first name letter and last name letter in Rochester, New York during the early nineteen seventies …show more content…
The most significant were the Cleveland Strangler, Anthony Sowell, who murdered eleven people in Ohio by strangulation in two thousand and eight and the infamous Long Island Killer whose identity remains unknown. The Long Island Killer murdered an approximate seventeen people he or she found off of Craigslist. Their killing span supposedly dates back to ninety-six and continues to two thousand and eleven.
From H.H. Holmes to The Long Island Killer, serial killers evolved the way they choose to initially kill their victims from stabbing, which indicates rage, to strangulation which is a more intimate way to kill. They evolved in how much longer they could evade the police and their body count. From the average person that walks by you and local restaurant you attend every Wednesday, let's hope no one is lurking in the shadow preparing to