Ten confirmed victims, heinous murders ranging from necrophilia to cannibalism. The violence grew exponentially over the months, even days. The climax was reached with the woman who shaped his life the most: his mother. Edmund Kemper falls on the list of the most gruesome serial killers in American history, a profile analyzed by experts for his complex personality and the inner conflict he faced throughout his life. A maniac who was so angry with society that he targeted what society liked best: beautiful and rich girls. But also a brilliant manipulator capable of misleading psychiatrists and experts in the criminal industry.
traumatic childhood
Edmund Kemper was born on December 18, 1949 in Burbank, the only son of veteran Emil Kemper Jr. and Clarnell Strandberg. A brilliant kid with above average intelligence, it shows mental disorders from a young age. “Ed” feels rejected by his parents, especially his father. The quarrels between his parents are the order of the day and the upbringing is one of the rigid ones where there is no affection for the children. As a result, Kemper loses self-esteem and self-confidence, a feeling that will not diminish even after his parents’ divorce, on the contrary.
In 1957 the mother found work in the Montana and the family has to move. The two sisters sleep in the same room on the first floor while he is forced to sleep in the basement. The upbringing is getting stricter, between screams and hits, between slaps and straps. The beginning of a love-hate relationship that will develop dramatically. The future student killer has few friends, is shy and speaks little. So the anger starts to grow and start having strange fantasies about the mother.
Edmund Kemper begins to fantasize Deaththink of scenes from Violence and it’s fine. He even comes to talk about the gas chambers. Distorted and dangerous images, as confirmed by the domestic cat’s tragic end: beaten, buried alive and finally decapitated. At the same time he starts playing strange games with his little sisters and even cuts off the hands and head of a barbie. Or he stages another execution in the electric chair: he is tied up by the two sisters and imitates the brutal death.
The murder of grandparents
In the fall of 1962, Edmund Kemper runs away from home and goes to California, wishing to reconnect with his father. The man has remarried and his wife – visibly shocked by the teenager’s behavior – wants nothing to do with him. “Ed” is then taken to North Fork, Arizona, come on Grandparents Edmund and Maude Kemper. There he leads a boring, lonely, tiring life. And the strict upbringing continues in his mother’s footsteps: among the many bans, he is not allowed to watch cartoons or read comics.
On August 27, 1964, he decided to act and realized his long-cherished wish: themurder from grandparents. Edmund Kemper notices his grandmother at the kitchen table, takes aim and fires three shots. Then he waits for his grandfather to come home and catches him cold with a blow to the neck. A double murder that gives him relief, he likes that. So much to dream of doing again as soon as possible. So he calls his mother and tells her everything. The terrified woman orders him to end the call to contact the sheriff immediately. Kemper immediately confesses without hesitation. She admits that she often thought about ending her grandmother’s life.
Declared paranoid and psychopathic – therefore not punishable – Edmund Kemper is interned in the criminal psychiatric clinic Atascadero. Out of 1,600 prisoners, 24 were murderers and 800 were convicted of sex crimes. He’s a model patient, so much so that he almost immediately found employment as a janitor in the psychology lab. He undergoes tests and therapy and approaches religion. In 1969, after five years, he was released with an honorable mention and managed to keep his criminal record secret. Doctors are confident of Ed’s recovery, so he is put back in his mother’s care.
The Birth of the Student Killer
Back to his usual life, Edmund Kemper immediately finds work at a gas station. He makes a good impression of himself and becomes everyone’s friend. A “normal” existence, with some friendships (cultivated in the Jury Room Bar, which is frequented mainly by cops), even some relationships. The Burbank giant lives alone and finds employment as a laborer in California Highways and Bridges Department. So all good. So much so that the head of the Santa Cruz Police Department’s mobile team allows him to go out with his daughter and often invites him to dinner.
However, the stability does not last long, a few months. Edmund Kemper decides to listen to the voices that have been buzzing in his head for years. In his viewfinder they end hitchhiker, but not the classic hippies. “Ed” wants girls who are pretty and well dressed, rich and from good families. The ideal of the perfect student, the model of the American family.
May 7, 1972, Santa Cruz. Edmund Kemper offers a ride Mary Ann Fisch And Anita Luchessa, students at State College of Fresno. He takes her to the hills near Alameda and strangles her. He rages unhappily with the stab wounds. A little awkward but keeping a cool head, he takes the two eighteen-year-olds back to his apartment, where he undresses them and photographs them with a Polaroid before tearing them apart. Then she takes a head, takes it to the bedroom and performs oral sex. The next day he loads the bodies into the car and then unloads them in the mountains.
necrophilia and cannibalism
Four months pass and Edmund Kemper strikes again. On September 14th the third victim, Aiko Koo. The young Korean accepts the tall man who, after two and a half hours of chatting, transforms: he pulls out the knife and decides to strangle her with a scarf. I don’t pay, he gets her out of the car, puts her on the ground and abuses her body. Bring the corpse back to your home and snap some daring photos. He then dissects the body and dismembers it. He will later reveal that he kept pieces in the fridge and ate them.
In January 1973 the fourth victim, Cindy will. No knife, this time she pulls a .22 caliber automatic pistol. Edmund Kemper forces her into the trunk and shoots her in the head. He then goes to his mother’s house, sexually abuses the corpse, and then cuts it into pieces. Remains thrown into the sea the next day, except for the head, which is buried in the garden by the mother’s window.
A month goes by, new double murder. At the end of a furious argument with his mother, Edmund Kemper meets each other Rosalind Thorpe And Alice Liu. He loads her into the car and promises the usual ride, but in reality he’s taking her to a “safe” area. There he shoots them both and repeats the usual ritual: rape and dismemberment with his head and hands severed. He manages to make everything disappear away from Santa Cruz, on the Bay Highway to be precise.
The anger against the mother
Edmund Kemper is trying to stop, also for fear of possible investigations into his account. But he doesn’t succeed, at least not before he gives free rein to his childhood fantasy: to kill her Mother. The serial killer goes into action on April 20, 1973, Good Friday. He pounds her in her sleep and then decapitates her with a knife. But that’s not all, here he reaches the zenith of cruelty: he cuts off her tongue and tears her vocal cords, then ends up in a garbage disposal. And then consummate a relationship with the mother’s head.
Edmund Kemper doesn’t stop there and decides to kill too Sally Hallett, his mother’s best friend: he stuns her with a punch to the head, chokes her, and leaves. So he starts roaming around in his car and getting drunk. Escape to the east, aimless. He drives twenty-eight hours straight, a hell of a feat, on caffeine pills. Once in Pueblo, Colorado, he contacts the police and states his intention to turn himself in, listing the crimes committed.
trial and sentencing
When questioned by the authorities, he confesses everything and chronicles his criminal ventures with clarity, never feeling remorse or remorse. The trial lasts about twenty days and in the end he is found guilty of first-degree murder for all eight of the crimes he is charged with. After a period of observation in the Vacaville Psychiatric Hospital, he was locked up in the psychiatric ward Folson Prisonwhere it still stands today.