1. Interview With A Serial Killer 1994
2. Interview Serial Killer
3. Interview Of A Serial Killer
4. Interview Of A Serial Killer Man
5. Interview With A Serial Killer
6. Interview Serial Killers Youtube

• GUYS, PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING Please click here for the version with NO background music over the interviews, improved sound quality and extra footage.
• Interview With A Serial Killer. A compelling interview with Arthur Shawcross, the Genesee River killer, found guilty of killing 2 children and 11 prostitutes. We learn the dark tales of one of America's most notorious killers.

Interview with a Serial Killer 2008 16+ 44m Crime Movies In this jailhouse interview, Arthur Shawcross, the Genesee River Killer, shares candid details. “In an interview, whether it's a serial killer or any type of violent offender, I'll never challenge them or be negative toward them,” Douglas says. “I'll never do anything like that. Arthur John Shawcross (June 6, 1945 – November 10, 2008), also known as the Genesee River Killer, was an American serial killer active in Rochester, New York. His first known murders were in 1972 when he killed a young boy and a girl in his hometown of Watertown, New York.Under the terms of a plea bargain, Shawcross was allowed to plead guilty to one charge of manslaughter.

Interviewing Serial Killers

1.Why is it important to interview serial killers?

1. “An in-depth analysis of interviews with convicted murders allowed us to retrieve first-hand information about their patterns of values and beliefs, patterns of information storage, levels of recall on the crimes, and admission of responsibility for the murders” (Profilers, p. 109).
2. “An understanding of some of the dynamics behind sexually deviant behavior provides law enforcement officials some insight into the suspects they are trying to identify and apprehend” (Profilers, p. 81).
3. “Although our interviews were conducted with murderers already convicted and incarcerated, we believe our observations provide insight for interviewing suspects in order to identify a killer” (Profilers, p. 109).

2.Why do serial killers allow themselves to be interviewed? (Profilers, chap. 9).

2. They want people to have a better understanding about them.
3. If they did not admit guilt, they may want to show why it was impossible for them to have committed the crimes.
4. Some want to “teach” police how the crimes were committed and motivated.

3.How to interview serial killers (Profilers, chap. 9)

3. Terms of the Interview

a)Before the interview: Become familiar with pertinent existing information (crime scene photographs, records, files, etc.). This interest shows respect for the suspect, which will make it easier to get to the point of the interview more quickly.

b)Convince the subject that the interview is beneficial to him/her

3. The Communication Link

a)Gain rapport by mirroring the subject’s spoken and unspoken behavior (by matching the words of the subject, adopting aspects of his posture, speaking in a similar tone and rate of speech).

3. Eliciting Information

a)First, questions were asked about the what/where/when descriptions of the crime. Next, questions were asked about the victim selection. Finally, questions were asked about thoughts, feelings, and images.

b)Within the interview, questions were organized around the four phases of murder:

i)Precrime Phase: Try to establish a conscious motive by asking what triggered the murder. Murderers with conscious intent were able to describe this in detail.

ii)The Murder Event: Memory varied in offenders. Murderers who deliberately planned the murder through fantasy were generally able to remember more details. If a subject avoids a certain topic, it shows that strong emotions may exist. “The interviewer should concentrate on important aspects of the event, such as how the suspect gained access to the victim; conversation and behavior involving the victim; transporting the victim from one location to another; what the murderer did sexually before, during, and after the victim’s death; methods of torture; behaviors after the victim’s death (such as mutilation or amputation); and thoughts and feelings during these acts” (Profilers, p. 111).

iii)Disposal of the Body: Fantasy is often important in disposing of the victim’s body. Ask questions on what was done with the body, how the offender left the scene, what was taken from the body or the crime scene, and what thoughts and feelings were experienced during those acts.

iv)Postcrime Phase: Ask what was done right after the murder, what was thought and felt, if he dreamed about the murder, whether or not he returned to the crime scene, whether he attended the funeral, whether he read about the murder or talked to the police about it. Include questions about the recovery of the body (did the offender assist the police or observe the recovery of the body?).

D)Specific Techniques

a)Offenders with a long-standing fantasy life may not be very open to talk about it. Often a low-key approach is successful in encouraging the discussion of fantasy.

b)Many offenders were emotionally stimulated by fantasies and a sense of power and control. Some offenders were so concerned with their detailed plans that they became enraged when the victims interrupted their plans. “These murderers were very sensitive to being called crazy or maniacal, as they associated those characteristics with carrying out acts in ways that are stupid, foolish, and not in control” (Profilers, p. 112).

E)Continuum of Admission

a)There are three positions regarding guilt (admitting to the crime, admitting lack of total recall, and not admitting the crime). Most murderers admitted their crime.

b)What to do when confronted with an individual who did not admit their crime after their convictions of murder:

i) “When confronted with such individuals, the interviewer should attempt to determine if the individual is lying (which implies conscious intent) or if the individual is denying (which implies subconscious intent).” (Profilers, p. 113).

ii) Identify lies based on the amount of detail provided. Fantasy worlds or delusions are typically very detailed, so if the story appears inconsistent and lacking in detail, the subject may be trying to feign psychosis or delusion.

iii) It is important to try to maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect, even if the interviewer suspects the subject is lying.

v)Reasons that a subject might lie: Protection from legal action or psychological impact of admitting the crime.

vi)When a subject denies a murder, it often helps to use an imaginary third person.

4.Results from interviews: (Profilers, chap. 5)

FBI special agents conducted interviews with 36 incarcerated murderers.

A.Background information

a)All male

b)Predominantly white

c)Usually eldest sons (first or second born)

d)Most had pleasant general appearances – heights and weights were within the norms and few had distinguishing handicaps or physical defects.

e)Majority were of average or above-average intelligence (1/3 had superior intelligence)

f)Majority began life in two-parent homes. One-half had mothers who were homemakers. The majority had fathers who worked at unskilled jobs. Only five of them men reported living in a substandard economic level.

B.Family background

a)Half of the offenders’ families had members with criminal histories.

b)Over half of the families had psychiatric problems

c)Nearly 70% of the families had histories of alcohol abuse.

d)One-third of the families had histories of drug abuse.

e)Almost half of the offenders’ families had (or were suspected of having) sexual problems among family members.

f)One-third grew up in one location; 17 experienced occasional instability; 6 reported chronic instability or frequent moving.

g)Twenty-five had histories of early psychiatric difficulties.

h)Families had minimal attachment to the community.

i)In 17 cases, the biological father left home before the boy reached the age of 12.

j)In 21 cases, the mother was the dominant parent of the offender.

k)Sixteen of the men reported cold or uncaring relationships with their mothers; 26 reported a cold or uncaring relationship with their father.

l)Twenty of the men had no older brothers; 17 had no older sisters.

m)Frequently, the offenders reported that discipline was unfair, hostile, inconsistent, and abusive.

C.Individual development

a)Twenty offenders had rape fantasies before they were 18 years old (seven of these men acted out these fantasies within a year of becoming aware of them).

b)Physical abuse (13/31), psychological abuse (23/31), childhood sexual abuse (12/31).

c)Sexual interests: 81% pornography, 79% compulsive masturbation, 72% fetishism, 71% voyeurism.

D.Performance

a)Often poor performance in academics, employment, sexual relationships, and military service.

b)Majority did not finish high school.

c)Most had poor work histories in unskilled jobs; only 20% held steady jobs.

d)Half had entered the military.

e)Sexual performance was generally autoerotic (masturbation).

f)Many had low self-esteem prior to the murders.

E.Resultant attitudes and beliefs

a)Devaluation of people

i)low social attachment

ii)detachment from family and peers

iii)loners, felt different from others their age

b)World viewed as unjust

c)Authority in life viewed as inconsistent

d)Obsession with dominance through aggression

e)Autoerotic preference

f)Fantasy is reality

F.Deviant behaviors

a) Rape, mutilation, torture, murder

5. Profiling serial murderers (PVC, chap. 7)

A) Not only is understanding serial murders important for the reasons mentioned above, but they are also important due to the possible increase in serial killers. While this is a debated topic some researchers have suggested that serial killing is at an epidemic proportion.

B) In order to have an idea of what kind of a serial killer one is going to deal with Holmes and Holmes have classified serial killers into six different types.

C) Types of serial killers

1. Visionary serial killer

a. Propelled to kill by the voices they hear or visions they see. However, it doesn’t have to be a chronic state, they can also be lucid and aware but other times lose reality.

b. They are “outer directed” by the voices or even apparitions of the devil, demons, or God.

c. Harvey Carignan was convinced that God spoke to him, demanding that the kill young women. He believed himself to be the instrument of God doing his part to rid the world of “evil.”

d. Usually declared insane or incompetent during a trial.

e. Does not engage in any crime scene “staging,” and usually kills quickly.

2. Mission serial killer

a. Feels a need on a conscious level to eradicate a certain group of people. This person is in touch with reality and daily living, but also has a self-imposed duty to rid the world of some identifiable group of people.

b. Usually an organized nonsocial offender typology. Stalking, controlled crime scene and penile penetration is usually the MO for a mission killer’s crime scene.

Example: a man thought any woman walking in the streets early in the morning was a prostitute. Since it was his mission to rid the world of prostitutes, when he attacked one of them he would make them choose to have sex or to die, all of his victims were found dead. His rationale was only a prostitute would consent to sex; “good” women would rather die than to have sex with a stranger, even at gunpoint.

3. Hedonistic serial killer

a. The lust or thrill killer subtype

i. This person has a vital connection between sexual gratification and personal violence. These individuals murder because killing is an eroticized experience.

ii. Crimes are process focused; take time to complete, and including things like anthropophagy (cannibalism), dismemberment, necrophilia, torture, mutilation, domination, or other fear-instilling activates.

b. Comfort-orientated serial murders

i. Kill for personal gain (e.g., assassins killing for profit.

ii. Type of serial killer more likely to be female.

iii. Gain is the overall purpose for these killers; these can include money or property.

c. Hard to catch, especially if geographically mobile; apprehension may be delayed for years.

4. Power-control serial killer

a. Receive sexual gratification from the complete dominance of his victim. Controlling another’s life is the ultimate form of domination for many of them.

b. Has a stable mental mentality, but may have a diagnosis of sociopathy or character disorder.

c. This type of killer is aware of social and culture norms but chooses to ignore them. He lives by his own personal rules and norms.

d. Focused killings, prolong the killing scene as long as possible in order to obtain the most gratification, and also generally uses a hand on weapons but has a tendency to strangle his victims.

6. Serial murderers general characteristics (PVC, chap. 7)

Interview With A Serial Killer 1994

A. It is impossible to speak in absolute terms when dealing with these varying personalities, but there is a framework that can apply to many cases. This is important to the interviewing stage also because it will help one ask the right questions to get a response.

1. Male

2. White

3. Range in age from 25 to 34 years

4. Intelligent (“street smart”), charming, and charismatic

5. Police groupies or interested in police work

B. Victim selection

1. It is true that serial killers have an “ideal” victim in mind, but in reality that “ideal” is never realized. The hunt for the victims and take what they know they can take easiest, and if they wait around until the perfect victim they may not get to quench their compulsions for violence. So while they have a picture of this “idea” their victim could have half or less of the characteristics.

C. Perception of potential victims

1. Almost always true he knows absolutely nothing about his victim and he doesn’t care

2. Doesn’t believe his victim to be within the sphere of real-life human beings. They are there for his purposes only, nothing more than a mere object. Before he even has a victim selected they are already stripped of all humanity in the killers mind.

3. However this ability to depersonalize his victims doesn’t happen over night. It is part of a cycle.

Stage 1: Distorted thinking

-Mind pictures of violence and fantasy provide him with gratification.

-Feeds on it so much that he requires a powerful means of gratification such as specific fantasies of causing harms to those near him.

Stage 2: The fall

-During his fantasies which he has played over in his head several times, something clicks for him and it becomes an all important for the killer. That he needs to live his fantasies for the most gratification. The event that triggers it can be trivial or something most would over look but for the killer is all that matters.

-He may use outlets like violent pornography and masturbation, but these are only temporary and short term symbolic responses.

-Once the fall has happened physical release is a necessity and the stalking process begins. There can be no return to distorted thinking after the fall.

Stage 3: Negative inward response

-Feeling of inadequacy are present in the serial killer (e.g., “I’m too important and I don’t have to take this” mentality

-He must validate his self-status and will do so by means of violence.

Stage 4: Negative outward response

-This is necessary for the serial killers’ self-affirmation of personal superiority.

-The killer has no thought or care relating to possible consequences of his actions.

-Once he commences to validate and affirm his personal superiority, he is not in command. He chooses vulnerable victims because he cannot risk a further negative reality message.

Stage 5: Restoration

-His status has been reestablished and now the serial killer will think of the potential dangerous consequences of his behavior and realize that he must take care in the proper disposal of the victim. None of these concerns enter his head until stage 5.

-He must now take steps to minimize his personal risk.

-Once that is done He returns to stage 1 and the cycle is complete.

4. Perceptions during violence

1. The acts the killer carries out on victims is done very much like he is put on autopilot. This is believed to be the case because they have acted these scenarios many times in their fantasies and so it is just like revisiting them.

2. They just want to see their victim in the way in which he receives gratification reducing them to the very lowest depths of misery and despair.

5. Additional crime scene analysis of suspected serial murder cases (see Table 1 at the end of this document)

6. Integrative experience: Discussion questions

A)Look at the biographies of the serial killers listed below. Are their histories consistent with the findings of the interviews conducted by the FBI special agents? What parts of the biographies fit in with the findings, and what parts do not?

B)Many of the characteristics found in the study of the 36 serial killers apply to the larger portion of the population than just the serial killers. For example, most people who fit the background information (oldest white male child with pleasant appearance and above average intelligence) do not grow up to be serial killers. Do you think it is still important to gather this information? Does it help in identifying possible serial killers in an open investigation, or are the descriptions to vague?

Biographical Information on Some Serial Killers (from Wikipedia)

David Berkowitz

John Vincent Sanders writes that 'David's childhood was somewhat troubled. Although of above-average intelligence; he lost interest in learning at an early age and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania.' He was an avid baseball player, and earned a reputation as something of a bully in his neighborhood. Berkowitz's tense relationship with his father became even more strained, and he disliked the woman Nathan later married. Berkowitz joined the U.S. Army in 1971, and was active until 1974 (he managed to avoid service in the Vietnam War, instead serving in both the U.S. and South Korea.) Afterwards, he toyed with Christianity and located his birth mother, but after a few visits, Berkowitz learned the details of his conception and birth, and they fell out of contact with one another. Berkowitz worked at several jobs, and was employed by the U.S. Postal Service at the time of his arrest.

Jeffery Dahmer

Dahmer was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His family soon moved to Bath, Ohio. He reportedly dissected already dead animals as a child. He struggled with substance abuse and suffered from extremely low self-esteem. After years of constant fighting, his parents underwent a divorce when Jeffrey was 18. Dahmer committed his first murder at the age of 18, killing Steven Hicks. Dahmer attended Ohio State University, but he dropped out after one term. Dahmer's father then made him sign up with the Army. He signed up for a six-year stint in the Army, but was released after only two years because of his excessive drinking. In 1982, he moved in with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin, where he would live for six years. In 1988 he was arrested for sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy, for which he served one year in a work release camp and was required to register as a sex offender. He convinced the judge that he needed only psychological help, and he was released with a 5 year probation on good behavior. Shortly thereafter, he began the string of murders that would end with his arrest in 1991.

Ted Bundy

Interview Serial Killer

Bundy is believed to have been a sociopath. He is usually described as an educated, handsome and charming young man despite the brutality of his crimes. Typically, he murdered young women and girls by bludgeoning them, and sometimes by strangulation. Bundy was born on November 24, 1946, at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont. His mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell, was a young department store clerk. His father's identity has never been authoritatively established. For the first nine years of his life, Bundy and his mother lived with his maternal grandfather (who, according to some family members, was mentally unstable and prone to violence) in Philadelphia. To avoid the stigma of an illegitimate pregnancy, many neighbors and friends were told that Eleanor's parents had adopted Bundy, and that he was actually Eleanor's younger brother. According to some sources, Bundy may have believed his mother was actually his older sister throughout most of his childhood and adolescence. When he was three years old, Bundy is alleged to have appeared at his aunt Julia's bedside, smiling as he brandished several knives and laid them beside her on the bed. Bundy was a good, if not spectacular, student at Woodrow Wilson High School, and was active in the local Methodist Church and the Boy Scouts. However, as he told Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth, authors of The Only Living Witness, he had no natural sense of how to get along with other people. 'I didn't know what made people want to be friends,' he told the authors. 'I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions.' Bundy remained shy and introverted throughout most of his high school and early college years. Bundy's criminal activities began at an early age, before he was even out of high school. He was a compulsive thief, a shoplifter, and on his way to becoming an amateur con man, and also claims to have indulged in voyeurism and window-peeping as a young teenager. Bundy described the part of himself that, from a very young age, was fascinated by images of sex and violence, as 'the entity,' and kept it very well hidden. It should be noted, however, that by the time Bundy was talking about 'other selves' he was trying to appeal his death sentence. Later, friends and acquaintances would remember a handsome, articulate young man. Bundy worked and campaigned for the Washington State Republican Party as an adult. He also worked as a volunteer at a Seattle suicide crisis center, alongside fledgling crime reporter Ann Rule who, ironically, wrote articles on the 'Ted' murders that, unbeknownst to her, her young friend was committing.

Interview Of A Serial Killer

References

Interview Of A Serial Killer Man

Campbell, J. H., & DeNevi, D. (Eds.). (2004). Profilers: Leading investigators take you inside the criminal mind. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Interview With A Serial Killer

Holmes, R. M., & Holmes, S. T. (2002). Profiling violent crimes: An investigative tool (3^rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Serial killer Arthur Shawcross was born on June 6, 1945, and died on November 10, 2008 while serving a life sentence for the murder of 11 women. From his birthplace of Kittery, Maine, his family moved to Watertown, a small town near Lake Ontario in New York State, when he was still a child. Shawcross claims that his adolescence was turbulent, and cites a difficult relationship with both parents, particularly his domineering mother, for his later troubles. He says he also exhibited behavioral problems at an early age, including bed-wetting and bullying.

Interview Serial Killers Youtube

Shawcross also made extreme reports about his early sexuality. He claimed his aunt sexually molested him when he was 9, and that he had sexual relations with his younger sister. He also admitted to his first homosexual encounter at the age of 11, which he says was followed by experimentation with bestiality.

In contrast to these claims, however, his parents and siblings maintain that he had a normal childhood, and the described events were largely the product of his imagination. There is no way of knowing whose version represents the reality of his upbringing, but what became clear, later on, was that Shawcross would change his stories at will, as he was interviewed by various professionals in the course of their investigations.

From school records it can be independently verified that he was an inveterate truant, with a particularly low IQ, a tendency to bullying and violence and that he came under suspicion for a series of juvenile arson attacks as well as burglaries. He dropped out of school after failing to pass the ninth grade, and the next few years were punctuated with violence and jail sentences. He received his first probationary sentence in December 1963 for smashing a shop window.