Serial killer strategies differ from
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(EDITOR’S NOTE: Despite the lack of an official pronouncement, law enforcement authorities believe that the murder and dismemberment two weeks ago of Terri Lynn Bills, 46, and the brutal slaying of Loretta Jo Gates, 30, in 2012 were the work of the same individual, a serial killer who is highly likely to strike again unless apprehended. The women knew each other, and engaged in high risk behaviors such as drug addiction and prostitution. Their murders were remarkably similar as well. In each, the victim was stabbed to death and then cut to pieces. The body parts were disposed of in different locations and some have yet to be found. The state police and profilers from the FBI Behavioral Science Unit have been called in to assist Niagara Falls City Police in bringing the murderer to justice.)
That rarest of criminal species, serial killer is defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an individual who murders three or more people over a period of a month or more, for psychological or sexual gratification. A prime characteristic of the serial killer is the “cooling off” period between murders, which can be months and even years in duration. Often, the murders are carried out in the same manner. David Berkowitz, the infamous “Son of Sam” killer who terrorized New York City in the late 1970s, used a .44 caliber handgun while the most famous serial killer of all, Jack the Ripper, employed a sharp knife with the skill of a surgeon in going about his grisly business. The last time a serial killer terrorized the streets of Niagara Falls was in 1980, when a racist psychopath named Joseph Christopher launched a two-year reign of terror that may have taken the lives of as many as 13 black men, although he was only tried and convicted in three of the killings. On the morning of Sept. 24, 1980, a 43-year-old black Air Force veteran named Joe McCoy was walking along 11th Street toward Cleveland Avenue when he was approached by a young, blonde white man carrying a brown paper bag. As the two drew closer, the white man pulled a sawed off .22 caliber Ruger rifle from the bag and shot McCoy twice in the head. The McCoy slaying was a carbon copy of two murders that had happened the same week in Buffalo, and the hunt was on for the madman dubbed by the local press as the”.22 Caliber Killer.” After his capture, various authorities offered many insipid explanations for Christopher’s sadistic killing spree. A New York psychiatrist said it was because of a repressed homosexual longing for black men. Law enforcement sources in Buffalo said it was because a black man turned him in for wearing a pistol, an event that ultimately forced him to give up a prized gun collection his father had left him. Joseph Christopher died in a prison hospital of a hopefully painful cancer in March 1993. He never offered any explanation himself. The FBI’s “Crime Classification Manual” places serial killers into three categories: organized, disorganized, and mixed (i.e., offenders who exhibit organized and disorganized characteristics). Some killers descend from being organized into disorganized, or vice versa, as their killings continue.
Organized serial killers often plan their crimes methodically, usually abducting victims, killing them in one place and disposing of them in another. They often lure the victims with ploys appealing to their sense of sympathy. Others specifically target prostitutes, who are likely to go voluntarily with a stranger.
These killers maintain a high degree of control over the crime scene and usually have a solid knowledge of forensic science that enables them to cover their tracks, such as burying the body or weighing it down and sinking it in a river.
They follow their crimes in the news media carefully and often take pride in their actions, as if it were all a grand project.
The organized killer is often socially adequate, has friends and lovers, and sometimes even a spouse and children. They are the type who, when and if they are captured, are most likely to be described by acquaintances as kind and unlikely to hurt anyone. Ted Bundy and the Killer Clown of Chicago John Wayne Gacy are examples of organized serial killers. In general, the IQs of organized serial killers tend to be near normal range, with a mean of 94.7. Organized nonsocial offenders tend to be on the higher end of the average, with a mean IQ of 99.2.
Disorganized serial killers are usually far more impulsive, often committing their murders with a random weapon available at the time, and usually do not attempt to hide the body. They are likely to be unemployed, a loner, or both, with very few friends. They often turn out to have a history of mental illness, and their modus operandi or lack thereof is often marked by excessive violence and sometimes necrophilia and /or sexual violence. Disorganized serial killers have been found to have a slightly lower mean IQ than organized serial killers, at 92.8. Sex is often the primary motive of the classic serial killer, whether or not the victims are dead, and fantasy plays a large role in their killings. Their sexual gratification depends on the amount of torture and mutilation they perform on their victims. The sexual serial murderer has a psychological need to have absolute control, dominance, and power over their victims, and the infliction of torture, pain, and ultimately death is used in an attempt to fulfill their need. They usually use weapons that require close contact with the victims, such as knives or hands. As they continue with their murders, the time between killings decreases or the required level of stimulation increases, sometimes both.
According to the FBI, identifying murders as being the work of a serial killer is the first major challenge an investigation faces, especially if the victims come from a marginalized or high risk population. The law enforcement system in the United States is fragmented and not set up to detect multiple similar murders across a large geographic area. Organization of the structure of an investigation is key to its success, as demonstrated by the investigation of the Green River Killer. Once a serial murder case was established, a task force was created to track down and arrest the offender. Over the course of the investigation, for various reasons, the task force's organization was radically changed and reorganized multiple times – at one point including more than 50 full-time personnel, and at another, only a single investigator. Eventually, what led to the end of the investigation was a conference of 25 detectives organized to share ideas to solve the case. The FBI handbook provides a description of how a task force should be organized but offers no additional options on how to structure the investigation. While it appears advantageous to have a full-time staff assigned to a serial murder investigation, it can become prohibitively expensive. For example, the Green River Task Force cost upwards of two million dollars a year, and as was witnessed with the Green River Killer investigation, other strategies can prevail where a task force fails.
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