Herbert Baumeister: Serial Killer

Herbert Baumeister, also known as The I-70 Strangler, was a serial killer in Westfield, Indiana who murdered at least 11 men between 1980 and 1996. Baumeister had a fairly normal childhood as the oldest child of four raised by his mother Elizabeth, and his father Dr. Baumeister, a very successful anesthesiologist. Despite having the privilege of growing up in a somewhat wealthy home and facing no abuse or neglect, Herbert struggled with many different social defects and frequently showed no sign of having a sense of right or wrong. He often disrespected school authority by performing vile acts such as urinating on a teacher’s desk. On a separate occasion, he retrieved a dead bird and placed it again, on his teacher’s desk. After these events, …show more content…
The assailant was a woman by the name of Aileen Wuornos. Aileen was born February 29, 1956, in Rochester, Michigan. Unlike Herbert Baumeister, she did not have a good childhood. Her father was legally charged for child molestation after she was born. While in prison, he committed suicide. Her mother abandoned her and her brother, leaving them to be taken care of by their grandparents. People that knew Aileen as a child said that life with her grandparents was not much better. Her grandfather frequently beat her and her grandmother struggled with an alcohol addiction. At the age of 11, Aileen began doing sexual tasks for men and accepting payment in the form of cigarettes, beer, and cash. Three years later at age 14, she had her first child. Her neighbor’s claimed that the father of the child was an older adult friend of her grandfather’s. Additionally, Aileen was kicked out of her home before she even turned 15. Sometime later, Aileen’s brother died of cancer in the early 80s. Following this piece of tragic information, she moved to Florida and began working as a prostitute and performing other criminal acts. On December 1st, 1989, Aileen took the life of her first victim, Richard Mallory. Richard was shot by Aileen after she posed as a hitchhiker and robbed him. The same situation occurred six other times before Aileen’s trial began January 13th, 1992. After being convicted of her crimes, the option of giving Aileen the death penalty came into question. This was to be decided after her psychological stability was tested. Three defense psychologists that had performed a series of tests and evaluations, eventually agreed that “Wuornos suffered from borderline personality disorder at the time of her crime, resulting in extreme mental or emotional disturbance” (The Case of Aileen Wuornos). This again leads to the question of whether nature or