Ed Gein: The Characteristics Of A Serial Killer

A person who is classified as a serial killer has to have killed 3 or more people with a cooling period of about 30 days between each murder. (Ronald M. Homes, 1998) The people involved in these events are the killers and the victims, whether the killer is murdering people he or she knows and for a specific reason, but sometimes the killer doesn’t know the victims and is just killing them out of pleasure. Serial killers have been around since time began but they have different from then and now. In the past a person would kill someone because they wanted power, or revenge, but now people kill to achieve control over other people. The first recorded cases of serial killings are those of Ed Gein who killed 2 or more people. Ed Gein was not convicted
When you put two people side by side and start comparing traits about them there will be many different things like skin tone, fingerprints, and body features. Genetics are the hereditary passed down by your parents. These affect the system of our minds and how we think. Dr. Sigmund Freud is a neurologist who in 1915 stated that the active stimuli in our brains lead us to make the actions we do. (Bernard Weiner, 1972) If this information is true then humans don’t have control over these actions. An example is our naturally born fight or flight situation, our brain secrets a hormone called catecholamine as well as norepinephrine and epinephrine which causes the psychological reaction that the body is in danger and that you need to either fight or run away to protect yourself. (Walter Bradford Cannon, 1915) Psychological factors of serial killers involved in the process is after the murders are caught, it is gets brought to life whether they are actually mentally ill or just doing the crimes out of desire for killing. Most serial killers go to mental institutions reflecting the beliefs that serial killers are not mentally sound. (Smith, S.E.