asylumnurse-blog

[asylumnurse-blog]

THE CLEVELAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING

Brenda Spencer was sixteen years old on the 29th January, 1979, when she asked her father if she could stay home from school. She murdered two people and injured nine, when she shot at Cleveland Elementary School from the window of her family home right across the road. The two people who died were the principal and custodian.

Spencer lived with her father. They were extremely poor and shared a single mattress laying on the floor. In 2001, Spencer accused her father of sexual assault and child abuse. These allegations were denied by her father. In early 1978, Spencer was referred to a programme for problem students where she expressed her suicidal tendencies. Spencer was also arrested in 1978 for shooting at windows with a BB gun at Cleveland Elementary School. That December, after a psychiatric evaluation, it was suggested that Spencer was admitted to a mental hospital, but her father denied permission. It was her father who gave her the gun for Christmas. ‘I asked for a radio and he gave me a gun,’ Spencer said, ‘I felt like he wanted me to kill myself.’

At the time she told authority that ‘it was a lot of fun seeing children get shot.’ The principal was shot while trying to protect the children, and the custodian was shot when trying to pull him to safety. A police officer was also shot.

After the shooting, Spencer locked herself in her house for seven hours. She told police she was going to come out shooting, and those who had been shot made easy targets. During the time barricaded in the house, Spencer had several phone interviews with journalists. Eventually she surrendered, and police investigators found whiskey and other bottles scattered around her. She didn’t appear to be under the influence, and tests proved this.

Spencer’s was the first recorded school shooting. She plead guilty to first degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon and given 25 years to life in prison. When asked why she did it, she simply said ‘I don’t like Mondays.’

[asylumnurse-blog]

ED GEIN

Edward Gein was a murderer and body snatcher from America. He was known as a harmless bachelor who did odd jobs and babysat local children. Also known as the Butcher of Plainfield, Gein was discovered after one of his two victims was reported missing. He was arrested the afternoon after her son, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, discovered bloodstains on the floor of her hardware store. Gein had been seen with her just before her disappearance.

The Waushara County Sheriff’s department searched the Gein farm that afternoon and discovered Bernice Worden’s decapitated body in one of the sheds. She was hung upside down with a crossbar at her ankles and ropes binding her wrists, ‘dressed out like a deer’.

After searching Gein’s property, police found the following; - Whole human bones and fragments - A rubbish bin made of human skin - Chairs covered with human skin - Skulls mounted on bedposts - Female skulls with the tops sawn off - Bowls made out of human skulls - A corset made from the skin of a female torso - Leggings made from the skin of human legs - Masks made from the skin of several female heads - Worden’s entire head in a sack, and her heart in a plastic bag - Nine vulvae in a shoe box - A young girl’s dress - Vulvae of two females of around fifteen - A belt made from female nipples - Four noses - A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring - A lampshade made from the skin of a human face - Female fingernails These items were photographed and later destroyed.

When questioned, Gein admitted to investigators, that between the years of 1947 and 1952, he made up to forty visits to three local graveyards and dug up recently buried bodies. He stated that on about thirty of those visits, he left the graveyard empty handed. On the other visits, he dug up the graves of recently buried individuals that he believed to resemble his mother. After Gein’s mother’s death he boarded up the areas of the house where she went the most and moved into a single bedroom. The boarded up parts of the house remained pristine but the rest of the rooms deteriorated. He mostly kept to himself and lived as a hermit. He looked up to his brother and idolised his mother. His other main interest was stories of headhunters, cannibals, Nazis and other atrocities.

Three test graves identified by Gein were dug up to prove that he had stolen the bodies. This was done as it was hard to believe that Gein, who was small and skinny, was able to single handedly dig up a grave.

Gein stated that he began to dig up bodies after his mother died, to create a ‘woman suit’, so he could ‘literally crawl into her skin.’ He stated that he did not have sex with the bodies as they smelt too bad. He also admitted to killing Mary Hogan. This confession was later dismissed, as it was discovered that the questioner assaulted Gein, and smashed his face into a brick wall.

At his trial in 1957, Gein was charged on one count of first degree murder, and pleaded not guilty on account of insanity. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found mentally incompetent and unable to stand trial. He was admitted to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and later transferred to Mendota State Hospital. In 1968, doctors decided he was fit for trial. A psychiatrist testified that Gein was unsure whether the death of Worden was accidental or not. Allegedly, while Worden was showing Gein a gun, it discharged and killed her. He stated that he did not remember firing the rifle, and could not remember what else happened that morning. Gein was rule ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ and sent back to the Central State Hospital. Gein spent the rest of his life in mental institutions. He died due to respiratory failure in 1984 at age 77.

[asylumnurse-blog]

NIKOLAS CRUZ’S PHONE CONTENT & INTERNET HISTORY* *Some items redacted, irrelevant

Search history;

November 14, 2017: ‘shooting people massacre’

November 15, 2017: ‘rape caught on video’, ‘armed robber gets shot buy every customer’

February 6-8, 2018 ‘is killing people easy’, ‘crime scene cleaner’

February 9, 2018: ‘little teen pirn’ (porn), ‘therapist for homicidal’, ‘best ar-15 sights’, ‘how to get into a relationship’, ‘how to get a girlfriend’, ‘how not to be afraid of the girl you like’, ‘reckloose’ (recluse), ‘grand theft’

February 10-11, 2018: ‘hot middle school girl in dress’, ‘porn uniform’, ‘womens viagra for sale’, ‘school shooters’, ‘ar-15′, ‘virginia tech massacre’, ‘columbine diary’, ‘ar-15 close quarter combat’, ‘real combat footage’, ‘school shooter footage’

February 12-13, 2018: ‘when a girl says ok’, ‘school shooters’, ‘pistol grip shotgun’, ‘can I buy a pistol grip shotgun in Florida’, ‘How long does it take for a cop to show up at a school shooting’, ‘pekka shooting (Finland)’, ‘i wanna die’, ‘good songs to play while killing people’, ‘school shooting mv’

February 14, 2018: ‘school shooter’

Internet history;

February 1-5, 2018: Pumped Up Kicks (song), pornography

February 6-8, 2018: Video on how to build an airsoft assault rifle, anime, political articles, pornography, Spotcrime.com – Searching Coconut Creek location, websites for Asian mail-order brides

February 9, 2018: Pornography, Psychcentral.com: Homicidal Thoughts and Urges, various websites on rifle scopes, anime, videos depicting people defending themselves with guns

February 10-11, 2018: Pornography, anime, Wikipedia: School Shooting, Wikipedia: Marshal County High School Shooting, Wikipedia: Red Lake Senior High School, Rolling Stone article: How the AR-15 Became Mass Shooters’ Weapon of Choice, videos made by VT shooter, Columbine documentaries, AK-47 Combat Tribute Music Video, Columbine dramas, VT shooting documentaries, Phillippine Special Forces fighting ISIS, Police shooting videos, Documentary on school shooting simulator

February 12-13, 2018: Scenes from shooting video games with “Pumped Up Kicks” playing, Columbine documentaries, Active shooter training video by Columbus Police Department, Russian army recruiting videos, Pro-Ukranian army campaign video, Japanese anime, “I put Spongebob Music Over a School Shooting”, Columbine/Pumped up Kicks, Gun range videos, Videos of dogs catching/killing rabbits, Videos about YouTubers turned killers, Videos of Airsoft guns, Trailers for violent video games, Cop confrontation videos, “Kill Everybody” by Skrillex – Song

February 14, 2018: Video clip from Wolfenstein video game, KKK and Nazi themes, anime, pornography, Knife Game song, Pumped Up Kicks (song)

http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MSDHS/Meetings/November-Meeting-Documents/Nov-14-1045-am-Cruz-Cell-Phone-and-Internet-John-S.aspx

[asylumnurse-blog]

ADAM LANZA & MENTAL ILLNESS

Adam Lanza was twenty when he shot up Sandy Hook Elementary, killing a total of 27 people, including his mother. Most of his victims were children aged six to seven.

Lanza is said to have struggled with mental illness from a very young age.

He was three when he was referred to a special ed centre due to obsessive compulsive behaviours which made it difficult for him to interact with other children his age. By age ten, he was diagnosed with anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. By age thirteen, he was withdrawn from public education due to major anxiety problems and placed in a program for children ‘too disabled, even with supports and accommodations, to attend school.’

His mother refused to believe these diagnoses, and refused medication and further help from psychiatrists, insisting her son was just gifted and highly intelligent, despite experts saying Lanza had average intelligence for his age. Lanza’s mental health therefore further deteriorated. He became more and more socially withdrawn and isolated, and likely even developed anorexia. The mass shooter was 6ft tall and just 112 pounds. This would have given him a BMI of approximately 16. A BMI this low meant Lanza likely also had brain damage due to his malnourishment.

At age fourteen, Lanza underwent a study at the Yale Child Study Centre which stated that a ‘strategy of accommodating Adam Lanza, rather than addressing his underlying needs, would lead to a deteriorating life of dysfunction and isolation.’ The Yale Centre suggested that he received extensive treatment, but these suggestions were ignored by his mother. At this point, Lanza himself was refusing treatment and denying his diagnoses. The report on Lanza also stated that his mother was enabling him.

Lanza was socially isolated, sticking to keeping his social interactions in the virtual world. He was involved with the online community, obsessing over serial killers and mass murderers. In an interview with the FBI, an unidentified person told them that Lanza had not left his bedroom for three months prior to the shooting, and his mother was only able to communicate with him through email, even though they lived in the same house. Black garbage bags covered Lanza’s windows to keep out the light.

Lanza was left completely untreated and struggling with various mental illnesses, unmedicated and with little to no help, due to his mother’s tendency to accommodate his illnesses rather than treat them. There was no responsibility over Lanza’s health and wellbeing.

It is not certain whether further treatment would have prevented Lanza’s crime, though it has been implied. A report by the Connecticut Child Advocate suggested that it was rather ‘severe and deteriorating internalized mental health problems’ mixed with his obsessive interest in violence, murder and unlimited access to weapons which ‘proved a recipe for mass murder.’

[asylumnurse-blog]

CHRISTOPHER DUNTSCH

Dubbed Dr Death, Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon whose gross malpractice resulted in the death and permanent mutilation of several of his patients. Over just two years, 31 of his patients were seriously injured or even paralysed, and two died. It is a story of drug abuse and overconfidence.

Duntsch graduated from the University of Memphis with an undergraduate degree and received an M.D and Ph.D from the University of Tennessee Health Centre.

According to an ex-girlfriend, Duntsch was witnessed eating a paper blotter of LSD and take prescription painkillers on his birthday. She said he kept cocaine on his dresser, and once after an LSD and cocaine fuelled night of partying, he still went to work in his surgery. He is also said to have refused drug tests but still been allowed to continue in the surgery.

After performing one surgery with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute, Duntsch was fired for leaving no one to look after his patient and flying to Las Vegas. Another surgery which he performed on a friend of his, left the man paralysed and quadriplegic. He had incomplete paralysis, meaning he could still feel pai, but  could not move. Duntsch even botched a relatively comon procedure on a 55 year old woman with chronic back pain. She bled out in an intensive care unit and became Dr Duntsch’s first death. He was fired after each of his botched surgeries but still managed to get himself hired at new institutes. Shortly after his first surgery at a new institute, a woman suffered a major stroke after Duntsch cut through her vertebral artery. The day of this death, Duntsch performed another surgery. The CT scan after this surgery revealed that he had amputated a nerve root and inserted screws nowherr near where they should have been.

After many more months of horrific surgery practice, Duntsch finally lost his surgical license after two of his fellow surgeons reported him to the Texas Medical Board.

In July 2015, Duntsch was sentenced to five counts of aggravated assault and one count of harm to an elderly person.  Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison in Fenruary 2017.

[asylumnurse-blog]

THURSTON HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING

On May 21st 1998, fifteen year old Kipland Kinkel murdered two students and injured 25 more at the high school he had been expelled from for gun possession the day previous. Kinkel also shot his parents the afternoon of his expulsion.

Classmates described Kinkel as morbid and odd. He allegedly was obsessed with murder and death, constantly talking about violence. He told his friends he wished to join the army after graduating, to find out what it was like to kill someone.

After his trial, it began to be speculated that Kinkel suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Doctors stated that Kinkel had described hearing voices which told him what to do and paranoid delusions and hallucinations. Kinkel claimed that he suffered from these because he was being punished by God.

Kinkel carried two hunting knives, his rifle, and two types of pistols. After shooting and fatally wounding one student, he continued on into the cafeteria where he shot the remaining 48 rounds. When stopping to refill his weapon, he was tackled and restrained by seven students until police arrived.

On September 24th 1999, Kinkel plead guilty to murder and attempted murder. In November he was sentenced to 112 years in prison without the option of parole. He is now 35.

[asylumnurse-blog]

JODI ARIAS

Travis Alexander was thirty years old in 2008 when he was murdered by his then 27 year old girlfriend Jodi Arias. Alexander suffered multiple stab wounds as well as a gunshot to the head. Alexander and Arias dated for over a year, a mainly long distance relationship. Friends of Alexander did not like his girlfriend and described her behaviour as ‘worrying.’

Investigators were able to recover photos taken of the two in sexually suggestive poses, and also a photo of Alexander that is speculated to have been taken just before his murder. Arias told investigators multiple stories. She originally told police she had not even been in the city when the murder occurred. She then claimed two intruders had attacked her and killed him. Two years after her arrest she insisted the murder was self-defense.

Friends discovered Alexander’s body after becoming concerned because they couldn’t contact him for days. They found a key to his bedroom. When they walked in the discovered pools of blood. Alexander’s dead body was in his shower. When they called 911, they specifically mentioned Arias as a subject, stating Alexander had expressed concern that he was being stalked by her.

A CBS reporter who interviewed Arias in 2008 stated that he ‘had never met someone as excited to be interviewed as Jodi.’ She told him her claims about the intruders, which he said were almost ‘impossible to take seriously because they were so unbeleivable.’ He also suggests that ‘if that was something made up on the spot so effortlessly, what other lies was she capable of telling?’

In 2013 Arias was convicted of first-degree murder and given life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[asylumnurse-blog]

CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTING

Dylann Roof was 21 years old when he shot and killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. Three others were injured. Roof was a white supremacist and a self-proclaimed sociopath. He stated that he wished to start a race war with this shooting.

The Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was one of the oldest black churches in America ageing 203 years old. It was often used for organisation during civil rights movements. Roof specifically chose the church because of the history. Roof entered the Church and sat with the members during Bible study. He disagreed with the pastor when discussing the Scripture, and then pulled out a gun. When one of the victims asked why he was attacking churchgoers, he simply replied ‘I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taken over our country. You have to go.’ Roof reportedly told one survivor that the only reason he was leaving her alive was because he was going to kill himself and he needed a witness. According to another survivor, he tried to shoot himself but upon discovering he was out of ammo, attempted to flee.

Roof openly expressed his white supremacist beliefs on social media. He posted images of himself posing with various racist symbolism, including the Confederate flag. He also posed with a burning American flag in one photo. He reportedly told friends and family members about his plans, but they were dismissed and not taken seriously. In one of his social media posts, he writes about how he looked up ‘black on white crime’ and after trawling through pages upon pages of this, he had ‘never been the same since that day.’

The case was treated as a hate crime. Roof was discovered after family members recognised him in security photos on the news and turned him in. He was charged with 33 counts of federal hate crime and murder, and separately nine counts of murder. He was sentenced to death on the 10th of January, 2017, after pleading guilty to the separate nine murder charges to avoid a second death sentence. He received life imprisonment for each charge.

After being incarcerated, Roof has spoken out about his crime multiple times. He stated that he ‘would like to make it crystal clear. I do not regret what I did.’ He also insisted there was nothing wrong with him mentally, and even insisted on withdrawing an insanity plea, stating that he’d rather have a death sentence than a mental diagnosis.

[asylumnurse-blog]

SERIAL KILLERS & BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Those struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder have often been demonised in the media. While the conclusion can be drawn that individuals with BPD have a tendency towards self-mutilation, this does not mean that every individual with BPD has aggressive tendencies.

In a study at a female prison, 28% of the inmates met the criteria for BPD. Another study at a male prison in Spain suggested that 41% of the inmates met the criteria. Three more studies at various prisons suggested that the population of those meeting the BPD criteria was 45.7%, 29.4% and 47.4%. Those with BPD being more likely to commit offences can also not be concluded. Evidence also suggests that those with BPD may be more likely to be physically violent with loved ones, and have criminal tendencies such as stealing. This is not to suggest that every individual with BPD has these tendencies.

Few studies have suggested that BPD presents itself often in serial killers. Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrei Chikatilo, Aileen Wuornos, Jodi Arias, Alyssa Bustamante, Rodney Alcala and Theresa Knorr are among those who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Many serial killers struggle with other personality disorders, such as Schizophrenic PD, Schizotypal PD and Antisocial PD.

[asylumnurse-blog]

MARY BELL

The second youngest recorded serial killer, Mary Bell was just ten years old when she murdered for the first time.

Mary’s mother was a sixteen year old prostitute who reportedly told doctors to ‘get that thing away from me’ at her birth. Although her mother was mainly absent, Mary was subjected to various forms of abuse. Two significant supposed accidents occurred during her childhood - she fell out of a window and overdosed on sleeping pills. Her mother’s work as a prostitute had her specialising as a dominatrix playing a BDSM role. Mary witnessed this behaviour. By age four, Mary’s mother had even begun attempting to prostitute her too. Mary was subjected to various forms of sexual violence from a young age.

The day before her birthday, Mary strangled four year old Martin Brown and left him in an abandoned house. When his body was discovered, there were no obvious signs signalling what had happened. This led to the toddler’s murder being written off as an accident. Before Brown’s funeral, Mary showed up at his family’s house and asked to see him. After being told gently that he had died, Mary told the grieving family that she was aware he was dead. She wanted to see his dead body in his coffin. Bell seemed desperate to be caught. She and her friend thirteen year old Norma Bell (no relation) told their classmates that they were responsible for the murder, and wrote notes about it, leaving them to be found. These were written off as morbid pranks.

Two months after the murder of Brown, Mary and Norma strangled three year old Brian Howe. This time, however, Mary mutilated his body. She cut and scratched him, and mutilated his genitals. She also scratched an M into his body with a razorblade. They hid his body with bricks. When his body was found, they had to come to the conclusion that based on the lack of force used to kill him, it may have been a child’s doing. On the day of Howe’s burial, Mary was seen outside laughing.

Mary was called in for an interview about the death. She told investigators that she had seen an eight year old boy with Howe on the day of his death. The boy, she said, was carrying a pair of scissors. This turned out to be her mistake. Howe’s mutilation had not been revealed to the public yet. Mary quickly broke down after further questioning. Norma was called in too, and both girls attempted to pin the blame on the other.

At trial, Mary was only tried for murder, as she showed obvious signs of psychopathy and could therefore not be held totally responsible for her actions. She received twelve years imprisonment for manslaughter, and Norma was tried as a coerced accomplice.

Mary was given a new identity upon release and is now a grandmother.

[asylumnurse-blog]

THE ANGEL OF DEATH & THE BEAUTIFUL BEAST

Josef Mengele was an SS physician who used Auschwitz prisoners to practice inhumane medical experiments.  Irma Grese was a guard at Auschwitz who managed to rise to the second highest rank available to women, Senior SS Supervisor, and used this to her advantage. Irma Grese had many lovers including Mengele.

Many of Mengele’s subjects ended up dying or were even murdered so they could be used for post-mortem examination. However, he is most famous for his experiments on twins. His mentor, Verschuer, was interested in using twins to determine the genetic origins of hereditary disease. It is said that at one point, Mengele requested that his assistant bring him fourteen pairs of twins. Upon arrival, Mengele injected the twins straight into the heart with chloroform. They died instantly. Mengele then performed detailed dissections. He also performed an operation where he created manmade conjoined twins. They became riddled with infection and died. Mengele had other special medical interests, such as heterochromia. He tended to collect the eyeballs of his victims. His victims were tortured. Starved, injected with various diseases, placed in pressure chambers, and much more.

Grese was just nineteen when she began to work at Auschwitz. She is said to be one of the most sadistic guards they had. She physically and mentally tortured the inmates. Some women were beaten to death and she often shot the inmates with no reasoning. Three lampshades made out of the skin of her victims were found in her hut after her arrest. Grese also raped inmates while forcing other inmates to stand watchSupposedly, Grese also personally selected victims for Mengele and assisted him with his experiments.

Mengele escaped jail by going to South America, where he died in 1979. Grese was arrested for her war crimes and hung in 1943.

[asylumnurse-blog]

CASSIDY GOODSON

Cassidy Goodson, aged fourteen, gave birth in her Florida home’s bathroom. She then strangled her newborn boy and hid him in a shoebox in her room. The dead infant was discovered three days later by Goodson’s mother, who insisted she had no idea her daughter was pregnant. Goodson’s mother called the police on her daughter.

Cassidy Goodson went into labour on the 19th of September 2012. She delivered the baby into the toilet and used a pair of scissors to assist in pulling it out. She lifted the baby out of the toilet and searched for a pulse. Upon finding one, she placed her hands around the newborn’s throat and strangled him until he stopped breathing. There is a video of her demonstrating how she did this, using a Santa doll. Goodson then attempted to clean up the bathroom, bathed herself and the dead baby, and hid him in a shoe box.

When her mother discovered the mess in the bathroom, she took the teenager to the hospital. Goodson claimed she miscarried.

Goodson stated that she hid the pregnancy from her mother by concealing her growing bump with baggy clothing and giving her false pregnancy tests. She didn’t want to disappoint her parents. It is this logic which clearly shows that Cassidy Goodson was not using mature reasoning in her decision. Goodson was nearly tried as an adult and therefore would have received a life sentence. Within the courtroom, however, the judge was satisfied that Goodson did not pose as a threat to anyone else. By giving her a life sentence, not only was her newborn’s life lost, but another child would lose her life too.

Goodson received an 18 month sentence with a chance of probation. If she violated that sentence, she would have received up to fifteen years imprisonment.

[asylumnurse-blog]

SANDY HOOK MASS SHOOTING

In December of 2012, 20 year old Adam Lanza killed twenty children and six adults in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. That morning, Lanza also shot his own mother dead.

At 9:35am, Lanza shot through a window next to the locked door leading into the reception of the school. The principal and psychologist of the school immediately approached him, resulting in them both being shot to death. Lanza then continued on to the classrooms of the school. In the first classroom. Lanza shot fourteen children along with their teacher. In the second classroom, he shot an additional six children and their teacher. Also murdered was a teacher aide, and a behavioural therapist. Two other staff members were shot but only injured. Lanza then turned his gun on himself.

Medical examinations revealed that each victim had been shot multiple times. The majority of the victims were just six/seven years old.

Lanza was obsessed with mass shootings. He even created his own in-depth spreadsheet detailing every mass murder/shooting since the late 1700′s. He was active in online chatrooms relating to the Columbine massacre and detailed discussions about guns.

It is also suspected that Lanza was severely anorexic, although this was only suggested after his medical examination. Standing at 6′ft (1.82m) tall, Lanza weighed just 112lb (50kg). This resulted in a BMI of just 15.1, a BMI which suggests that the individual is severely emaciated and is likely suffering brain damage.

The Sandy Hook shooting became well-known after it was used in many political debates discussing gun control. There are also many conspiracy theories about the shooting, infamously brought about by Alex Jones. These theories are controversial, and Alex Jones has stooped as far as attacking families that had their children murdered in this shooting, claiming that they are crisis actors and that the whole shooting was a Liberal stunt to aid in their fight for gun control.

[asylumnurse-blog]

SERIAL KILLERS & AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

In 2014, a controversial study was released by the journal ‘Aggression and Violent Behaviour’ called ‘Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers’. This study claimed that Autistic Spectrum Disorder (or Asperger’s Syndrome) may have a direct link to serial killers and mass murderers. The study refuses to conclude whether or not those with ASD are more likely to commit crimes of this nature, and drawing a conclusion such as this remains controversial. Many of those who oppose this study have stated that it is directly harmful to individuals with ASD and furthers the stigma that there is something fundamentally wrong with these individuals. ASD is a high-functioning form of autism with symptoms such as an inability to connect socially, hyper fixations, anger, compulsive behaviour, aggression, isolation, poor motor skills, anxiety, and sensory sensitivity.

The researchers insist that this report is superficial and cannot draw a sound conclusion due to the assumptive nature in which the facts are drawn. Lead researcher, Clare Allely, made it clear that the study was not intending to suggest that those with ASD are going to become serial killers or are even more likely to. ‘It’s way too early to make any statement like that.’

The research examined 239 serial killers and mass murderers. Of that 239, 55% did not appear to have any neurodevelopmental issue. 28% were said to have ‘definite, highly probable, or possible’ autism, and 21% had a ‘definite or suspected’ head injury.

The problem with this study is its irresponsible nature. Although it is supposedly scientific, the majority of the evidence is not scientific, it is purely an assumptive work. By grouping those who definitely had ASD with those who they assumed had the diagnosis worked in their favour to prove their hypothesis. Releasing the study under the facade of science can only be described as harmful and irresponsible. Representation in the media is becoming increasingly important, and so far those with ASD are being portrayed as criminals and this study is not helping that stigma. The study also stated that the media overemphasised the link between the disorder and the killers. The way in which the media reported crimes committed by those with ASD is instigating a harmful stereotype.

The most famous serial killer this study focused on was Jeffrey Dahmer A psychiatrist had access to Dahmer during his trial, and not once did ASD appear on his list of concerns. Although he had many traits that may have indicated ASD, such as the inability to connect socially, difficulty with understanding facial expression, and a general sense of ‘oddness’, this does not prove that he was autistic.

Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters, is also an example. His parents described him as ‘introverted, isolated, and often angry, sullen and disrespectful.’ He tended to have meltdowns that would take a while to recover from. He was a socially inept loner, who was unable to connect with others. He also had strange special interests that he couldn’t relate to his peers with, such as classic philosophers and renaissance literature, which is typical of someone with ASD. However, he was also never formally diagnosed with autism, and therefore is more purely assumptive evidence.

Others have suggested that those who are assumed to be autistic but have also committed serious crimes, be separated from ASD altogether and be diagnosed with Criminal Autistic Psychopathy to avoid enforcing a stigma.

It is not uncommon for serial killers to have Autistic Spectrum Disorder, but this does not necessarily mean this is a direct correlation between the two. It is something that many serial killers may struggle with, but it is not the cause for doing what they have done.

[asylumnurse-blog]

THE MILWAUKEE CANNIBAL

Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer, rapist, and necrophile. His murder spree began in 1978 and continued until 1991 after one of his potential victims was able to escape and notify the police. Further investigation revealed dead bodies, severed limbs, decapitated heads and multiple photographs of his victims throughout Dahmer’s apartment. After being taken into custody, Dahmer easily confessed to his crimes.

During his teens, Dahmer attempted to satiate his desires by collecting and examining roadkill, as well as abusing alcohol. Dahmer was just eighteen when he murdered his first victim.

Dahmer is perhaps most famous for his attempt to create ‘sex zombies’. What Dahmer wanted was a live body that he was physically attracted to, which would operate as a sex slave - always obeying him, always submitting to him. He attempted to lobotomise four of his final victims with a drill, he even trialled dripping acid into the holes. All four attempts resulted in death within two days.

Dahmer’s remorse is what set him apart from many other serial killers. Dahmer’s abhorrent actions are inexcusable, but he is often painted as a psychopath. He did not relish in the pain of his victims, he dealt with his own pain and desires in the wrong way. Perhaps if he had intervened early on and ventured to get help, seventeen young men and boys would not have lost their lives. He felt he could no longer curb his desires but still tried to prevent elongating the torture of his victims. He himself was always drunk when he murdered.

Unlike many prolific serial killers, Dahmer was under no narcissistic impression that he did not deserve what he got. Although he felt remorse, it was perhaps not felt as strongly as it should’ve been. He was well aware what he was doing was wrong, and he knew he should have felt worse about what he had done. Once in an interview, he said ‘Yes, I do have remorse, but I’m not even sure myself whether it is as profound as it should be. I’ve always wondered why I don’t feel more remorse.’

He was declared ‘sane, but very sick’ at his trial, despite his lawyer’s insistence that Dahmer could not control his actions. Ultimately, Dahmer was able to decipher between right and wrong, and he was aware of his actions. This led him to receive sixteen back-to-back life sentences. He was beaten to death in prison, on November 28th, 1994, by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver.

Dahmer’s last words were ‘I don’t care if I live or die. Go ahead and kill me.’