What makes serial killers tick shirley lynn scott

One protective agency wrote that Bianchi's mother was "deeply disturbed, socially ambitious, dissatisfied, unsure, opinionated and overly protective. Loose Moms Some serial killers had their sexually uninhibited mothers to blame.

These mothers overstepped the boundaries, exposing their children to inappropriate sexual behavior. Bob by Jo Long killed women he characterized as whores and sluts, who he said reminded him of his own mom. She had frequent sex according to him with men in the same room where Bob by slept. According to Long, he shared his bed with his mother until he was 13 years old. Charles Manson's prostitute mother Kathy Maddox, indifferently declared his name as "No Name Maddox" for his birth certificate.

She hoisted him off on relatives, and in one story, famous but probably untrue, she traded the infant Charlie for a pitcher of beer. When he was sent to live with his aunt, his uncle told him he was a sissy, and punished him by sending him to school dressed as a girl. Henry Lee Lucas also suffered gender confusion as a child, courtesy of his mother's sadism. She was a heavy drinker and bootlegger. For unknown reasons she dressed him as a girl until he was 7. I was dressed as a girl. I had long hair as a girl.

I wore girl's clothes. At one point, his mom struck him on back of head with a wooden beam, fracturing his skull. Lucas was also apparently exposed to his mother's sexual activities. He killed his mother in Deadly Dads It is usually the sadistically disciplinarian father that pops up in the serial killer's family tree.

John Gacy's dad berated his son, calling him a sissy, queer, and a failure. A violent alcoholic, Gacy's father beat his mother, and shot his son's beloved dog to punish young John.

When Gacy later strangled his young victims, he encouraged them to stay brave while facing death. Albert DeSalvo's father would bring home prostitutes and brutally beat his mother, breaking her fingers one by one as young Albert helplessly watched.

The elder DeSalvo sold his children off as slaves to a farmer in Maine, while his mother went frantically searching for them for six months, as story that has been confirmed by family friends and social workers. I didn't move fast enough. Jeffrey Dahmer had an apparently normal upbringing, yet grew up to be one of the most notorious sex murderers in popular culture.

Lionel, who describes himself as an "analytical thinker," believes that Jeffrey's mother's hysteria and psychosomatic illnesses during pregnancy might be responsible. He describes Joyce as going through a difficult pregnancy, constantly vomiting, as if her body was being sickened by what was germinating, an early biological "rejection" by mother. While pregnant with Jeff, Joyce developed strange fits of rigidity: "At times, her legs would lock tightly in place, and her whole body would grow rigid and begin to tremble.

Her jaw would jerk to the right and take on a similarly frightening rigidity. During these strange seizures, her eyes would bulge like a frightened animal, and she would begin to salivate, literally frothing at the mouth. Father Lionel remains detached and analytical while Mother Joyce is in the midst of a biological warfare, fighting hormones with drugs.

Lionel asks, ominously, "Why was she so upset all the time? The bloody chamber of Jeff's apartment, according to Lionel, had its origins in Joyce's drugged womb. While Lionel implicates Joyce as the biological contaminant in Jeffrey's sickness, he admits to his own destructive inclinations, which may have been passed on to their son.

Little Jeffrey is transfixed by pile of bones, which only seems macabre after the adult Jeffrey's deadly deeds. At the time, Lionel saw it as normal curiosity. At age 4, Jeffrey had a double hernia, and had to have surgery. His hair, which had once been so light, grew steadily darker, along with the deeper shading of his eyes. More than anything, he seemed to grow more inward, sitting quietly for long periods, hardly stirring, his face oddly motionless. It provided a great relief from the chaos I found at home.

He remembers that at the age of 13 he wanted to hypnotize and cast a spell over a girl, "so I could control her entirely. Can we control the inner life of our children?

Lionel warns that "some of us are doomed to pass a curse instead. The first one is that the biological parents may have left their child with deviant genes. We will look into the genetics of serial killers shortly. Finding out that one was adopted may also undermine the sense of identity in a fragile youth, and make the child prone to fantasizing an identity of his "true" parents, either good or bad.

Was the mother a prostitute? A nun? Was the father a gangster? A hero? And why did they "reject" their child? This sense of rejection can have profound consequences on an already unstable psyche. If the child actually meets his biological parent and is again rejected, the damage is worse.

David Berkowitz was deeply hurt when his biological mom brushed him off. According to Bundy biographers Michaud and Aynesworth, Ted's emotional growth was stopped in its tracks after he learned that he was illegitimate at age Of course, he tried out every excuse he could rummage, so it's difficult to take his word on this when his family life appeared otherwise healthy.

It goes without saying that adoption does not create serial killers. At worst, it may dislodge a child's self-identity. But that does not mean that finding oneself in multiple murder is the only option available to adopted children. Witnessing Violence Some lust murderers claim that exposure to violent events ignited their thirst for blood. Ed Gein, among others, said that seeing farm animals slaughtered gave him perverted ideas. But wouldn't that make 4-H a breeding ground for serial killers?

Both Albert Fish and Andrei Chikatilo blamed their sadistic bloodlust on frightening childhood stories. Does this mean we can expect Stephen King's children to top the murder charts? Even truly traumatic experiences don't automatically create a serial killer.

The bomb came with "a horrifying shriek, and as I staggered up, bruised and bewildered, a head rolled against my foot.

So what makes one person become a serial killer, and another a famous artist? Juvenile Detention Reform school in the early 20th century did anything but reform. The stories of sadistic guards and medieval punishments are almost paralleled by the violent behavior of the prisoners who went on to serial killing.

Fortunately, this sort of extreme discipline is no longer openly tolerated. Although 's killer Carl Panzram was an incorrigible juvenile delinquent, the brutal torture he received in reform school aggregated his violent rage.

I made up my mind that I would rob, burn, destroy and kill every where I went and everybody I could as long as I lived. Thats the way I was reformed. Manson said that he was raped and beaten by other prisoners when he was 14, while a particularly sadistic guard would masturbate as he watched. The grandfatherly pervert Albert Fish blamed his sadomasochistic impulses on his experiences at a Washington, D. Lucas, who was already a shy child, was ridiculed because of his artificial eye.

He later said that this mass rejection caused him to hate everyone. Kenneth Bianchi was also a child loner, with many problems.

One clinical report said that "the boy drips urine in his pants, doesn't make friends very easily and has twitches. The other children make fun of him. He later became an alcoholic teenager, routinely ignored by his peers. As the isolation grows more severe, the reliance on fantasies, especially destructive ones, can grow. These fantasies of violence often reveal themselves through two of the three "triads" of predicting criminal behavior, firestarting and animal cruelty.

The Triad Animal Cruelty These secret compulsions are seen as the seeds to greater mayhem. Second, impulsive and erratic behavior discourages friendships," increasing isolation. Torturing animals is a disturbing red flag.

Animals are often seen as "practice" for killing humans. Ed Kemper buried the family cat alive, dug it up, and cut off its head. Dahmer was notorious for his animal cruelty, cutting off dogs heads and placing them on a stick behind his house.

Yet not all serial killers take their aggressions out on pets. Dennis Nilsen loved animals, particularly his dog Bleep, whom he couldn't bear to face after being arrested for fear that it would traumatize the dog. Pyromania Peter Kurten loved to watch houses burn, and Berkowitz, when he tired of torturing his mother's parakeet, became a prolific pyromaniac, keeping record of his 1, fires.

What power I feel at the thought of fire! Oh, what pleasure, what heavenly pleasure! The dramatic destruction of property feeds the same perverse need to destroy another human. Because serial killers don't see other humans as more than objects, the leap between setting fires and killing people is easy to make. Bed Wetting Bed wetting is the most intimate of these "triad" symptoms, and is less likely to be willfully divulged.

Kenneth Bianchi apparently spent many a night marinating in urine-soaked sheets. Conclusion Formative years may play a role in the molding of a serial killer, but they cannot be the sole reason in every case. Many killers blame their families for their behavior, seeking sympathy. In true psychopathic fashion, serial killers are blaming someone else for their actions. If their bad childhood is the primary reason for their homicidal tendencies, then why don't their siblings also become serial killers?

And if these conditions truly created them, serial killers would probably be unionized by now, there would be so many of them a sad commentary on our continuing neglect of children. We must look at other components to see what pushes a serial killer over the edge. Twisted Rationalizations Psychopaths? Victims are dehumanized, flattened into worthless objects in the murderer's mind.

John Gacy, never showing an ounce of remorse, called his victims "worthless little queers and punks," while the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe brashly declared that he was "cleaning up the streets" of the human trash.

In the 19th century, psychopathology was considered to be "moral insanity". Today it is commonly known as "antisocial personality disorder" or "sociopathology.

They are thrill seekers, literally fearless. Punishment rarely works, because they are impulsive by nature and fearless of the consequences. Incapable of having meaningful relationships, they view others as fodder for manipulation and exploitation. Psychopaths often make successful businessmen or world leaders. Not all psychopaths are motivated to kill. But when it is easy to devalue others, and you have had a lifetime of perceived injustices and rejection, murder might seem like a natural choice.

Genetics Tests are showing that the nervous system of the psychopath is markedly different -- they feel less fear and anxiety than normal people. One carefully conducted experiment revealed that "low arousal levels" not only causes impulsiveness and thrill-seeking, but also showed how dense sociopaths are when it comes to changing their behavior. A group of sociopaths and a group of healthy individuals were given a task, which was to learn what lever out of four turned on a green light.

One lever gave the subject an electric shock. Both groups made the same number of errors, but the healthy group quickly learned to avoid the punishing electric shock, while sociopaths took much longer to do so. This need for higher levels of stimulation makes the psychopath seek dangerous situations. When Gacy heard an ambulance, he would follow to see what sort of exciting catastrophe was in the making.

Part of the reason for many serial killers seeking to become cops is probably due to the intensity of the job. Genetics and physiological factors also contribute to the building of a psychopath. One study in Copenhagen focused on a group of sociopaths who had been adopted as infants.

The biological relatives of sociopaths were 4 - 5 times more likely to be sociopathic than the average person. Yet genetics don't tell the whole story; it only shows a predisposition to antisocial behavior. Environment can make or break the psychopathic personality. When a psychopath does inherit genetically-based, developmental disabilities, its is usually a stunted development of the higher functions of the brain.

Infants and children typically have slower brain wave activity, but it increases as they grow up. Not with psychopaths. Eventually, the brain might mature as the psychopath ages.

This may be why most serial killers are under The abnormal brain wave activity comes from the temporal lobes and the limbic system of the brain, the areas that control memory and emotions. When development of this part of the brain is genetically impaired, and the parents of the child are abusive, irresponsible or manipulative, the stage is set for disaster.

Can psychopaths be successfully treated? According to the psychiatrists, "No. They don't want to change. Most psychopaths end up in prison, instead of psychiatric hospitals. Inside the Psychopathic Mind According to Dr. Reid Meloy, author of The Psychopathic Mind: Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment, the psychopath is only capable of sadomasochistic relationships based on power, not attachment. Psychopaths identify with the aggressive role model, such as an abusive parent, and attack the weaker, more vulnerable self by projecting it onto others.

As multiple murderer Dennis Nilsen put it, "I was killing myself only but it was always the by stander who died. Meloy writes that in early childhood development, there is a split in the infant psychopath: the "soft me" which is the vulnerable inside, and the "hard not-me" which is the intrusive, punishing outside neglectful or painful experiences.

The infant comes to expect that all outside experiences will be painful, and so he turns inward. In an attempt to protect himself from a harsh environment, the infant develops a "character armor," distrusting everything outside, and refusing to allow anything in. The child refuses to identify with parents, and instead sees the parent as a malevolent stranger. Soon, the child has no empathy for anyone. The wall has been built to last. In normal development, the child bonds with the mother for nurturing and love.

But for the psychopath, the mother is experienced as an "aggressive predator, or passive stranger. According to Meloy, "This individual perversely and aggressively does to others as a predator what may, at any time, be done to him. The psychopath seeks idealized victims in order to shame, humiliate, and destroy them. By degrading the victim, the psychopath is attempting to destroy the hostile enemy within his own mind. At Gacy's trial, forensic psychiatrist Richard Rappaport said that "he is so convinced that these qualities exist in this other person, he is completely out of touch with reality.

Bundy described it by using the third person: "Since this girl in front of him represented not a person, but again the image, or something desirable, the last thing we would expect him to want to do would be to personalize this person.

Chattering and flattering and entertaining, as if seen through a motion picture screen. But they would be reasonable facsimiles to women as a class. A class not of women, per se, but a class that has almost been created through the mythology of women and how they are used as objects. Deluded Warriors In a manic state, the psychopath is fearless and thinks he is omnipotent, sometimes evil incarnate, as we have seen in Richard Ramirez's "Night Stalker" run. They are completely out of touch with reality.

One psychopath, while in custody, would dress himself as an Indian warrior using his own feces as warpaint. Many serial killers identify with the myth of the warrior. Calavaras County torturer Leonard Lake was fascinated by medieval knights, and on a more modern cinematic note, many serial killers, including Gacy and Kemper, worshipped John Wayne, the American archetype of the lone warrior.

Smooth Talkers Psychopaths know society's rights and wrongs, and will behave as if they sincerely believe in these values. Many psychopaths will read psychology books, and become skilled at imitating other more "sympathetic" mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. They will use any means possible to manipulate their evaluators. Do psychopaths ever legitimately hear voices in their heads?

According to Meloy, "most functionally psychotic individuals do not experience command hallucinations, and those who do generally successfully resist them. He has a high degree of social intelligence or awareness of the proper way to behave in order to influence people," said Eugene Gauron, who evaluated Gacy before the killings began.

Still, he was released. Perhaps the most dramatic duping of the doctors was Ed Kemper's evaluation. Two psychiatrists interviewed him and agreed that he was now "safe. Bundy charmed his way into the good graces of his jailers, only to escape when they became more lax in their watch of him. Lustmord Is serial murderer ultimately a quest for sex or power, or both? It depends on who you ask. Some believe that sexual domination is an expression of the need for power.

According to Bundy, sex was not the principal source of gratification. He wanted total control over his victims: "Possessing them physically as one would possess a potted plant, a painting, or a Porsche. Owning, as it were, this individual. Some serial killers will identify with perceived sources of power, in an attempt to siphon off some of the feeling of control and omnipotence for themselves.

Some will indulge in illusions of religious grandeur, be it Christ or Satan. Others look to the police, and will mimic them, as if their borrowed authority gives the killer the authority to kill others. One of the most chilling power role models, however, is Hitler. As a teenager, British Patrick Mackay was grimly predicted to become a "cold, psychopathic killer" by one of his doctors.

Mackay identified with Hitler, and would pose in his own handcrafted Nazi uniforms. After confessing to killing eleven people, including a Catholic priest with an axe, he declared, "I shan't shed a tear.

Life is full of shocks of all descriptions and they have to be faced. For the "Son of Sam" murderer, sex was not something that involved a willing partner. Instead, his warped sexual fantasies, bred in social isolation, conjured up abstract forces of evil. We usually think of demons as pursuing loftier goals, such as wayward souls, not penises. But for the lust murderer, sexuality, power, and domination are intertwined so tightly they bleed into one another. It is difficult to tell where sexual lust leaves off, and lust for blood takes over.

Sexual Homicide According to Ressler, Burgess, and Douglas in Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives, the number of "murders classified as 'unknown motives' has risen dramatically. Rapists who kill, according to one study cited in Sexual Homicide Ressler et al , "rarely find any sexual satisfaction from the murder nor do they perform postmortem sexual acts. In contrast, the sadistic murderer kills as part of a ritualized sadistic fantasy. Because psychopaths have a low arousal rate, it takes more to stimulate them.

Macabre mutilations excite the lust murderer. For them, killing triggers a izarre sexual fantasy which had developed in the dark recesses of their warped minds. Ressler writes that "since his sexual history is that of solo sex, and he finds interpersonal relationships difficult, if not impossible, he reverts to masturbatory acts even when a real partner his victim is available.

Masturbation generally occurs after death, when his fantasy is strongest. Many of the serial killers we have discussed admit to an abnormally strong sex drive. Ed Kemper, who would often behead his victims before raping them, said that he had a "very strong sensual drive, a weird sexual drive that started early, a lot earlier than normal. It was more or less making a doll out of a human being. Whipping their heads off, their body sitting there.

That'd get me off," he said. Kemper went on to say, "With a girl, there's a lot left in the girl's body without a head. Of course, the personality is gone.

What is it about a personality that these killers find so threatening, that they need to obliterate it? Other killers who had abnormal sex drives include the "Boston Strangler," Albert DeSalvo, who reportedly needed sexual release at least five times a day.

He even went on to blame the murders on his wife's coldness. David Berkowitz compulsively masturbated, and "his preoccupation with oral sexuality," wrote Dr. David Abrahamsen, "suggests his immature sexual development. Their libidinous drive was channeled into other deviant behavior. As a child, he had been warned that sexual contact was dirty and "caused disease. For Ed Gein, who had been sternly taught that sex was sinful and degenerate, it almost seems natural that he would associate his own sexual curiosity with death, the fruit of sin itself.

Killing the Woman Within Henry Lee Lucas, who was forced to dress like a girl as a child, declared, "I was death on women. I didn't feel they need to exist. I hated them, and I wanted to destroy every one I could find.

I was doing a good job of it. Bob by Joe Long, who had an extra X or female chromosome, and grew breasts in puberty, brutally murdered prostitutes, and women who reminded him of his mother's promiscuity. Currently, there is debate over whether serial killers who are "insecure" in their masculinity are the most vicious killers, as if they needed to excavate and destroy the female lurking within.

Joel Norris wrote that if "the killer is especially savage with respect to the bodies of his female victims, police should look for evidence of feminine physical traits on the suspect. Does he have especially fine hair. Are his features disproportionately delicate?

The question and the problem becomes not masculinity but femininity, or rather femininity's invasion of masculinity. This targeting of the "female within" is nothing more than the serial killer's attempt to blame the victim. Morbid Curiosity and Cannibalism: Before they begin killing, many serial killers display a fascination with death. This in itself is not unusual. Perhaps if their antisocial personalities had not gotten in the way, serial killers may have become doctors, scientists, morticians, or even artists.

Gacy worked in a mortuary, sleeping in the embalming room, alone with corpses, but was fired after corpses were found partially undressed. Dennis Nilsen pretended he was a corpse and masturbated in the mirror to his own dead image. As a youngster Berkowitz became fascinated by the morbid: "I always had a fetish for murder and death -- sudden death and bloodshed appealed to me," he said. Jeffrey Dahmer, who loved the dissection in biology class, told a classmate that he sliced open the fish he caught because "I want to see what it looks like inside, I like to see how things work.

The metaphorical hunger for another's companionship becomes a literal hunger. Many describe it as a way to incorporate the other into oneself. Are some children just born "bad"? Some serial killers are precociously demented, fascinated by sadistic violence at a very early age.

As a child, Ed Kemper was already beheading his sister's dolls, playing "execution" games, and once told his sister that he wanted to kiss his second grade teacher, but "if I kiss her I would have to kill her first.

One of first places our society looks to for an explanation is the serial killer's upbringing. In some cases, the abuse of children by their parents is barbaric, and it seems little wonder that anything but a fledgling serial killer would come from such horrible squalor. As a child, the "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo was actually sold off as a slave by his alcoholic dad. Many sadistic murderers portray their childhood as an endless chain of horrifying sexual abuse, torture, and mayhem.

Some stories of torture may be exaggerated for sympathy it is always to the killer's advantage to concoct wicked parents as an excuse but some have been corroborated by witnesses. Even families that appear healthy on the outside may be putting on an act. Children can learn the "Jeckyl and Hyde" routine from parents who are outgoing and social with neighbors and co-workers, but who scowl at their kid's inadequacies when they get home.

As we examine childhood abuse as a possible key to the serial killer's behavior, we must remember that many children have suffered horrible abuse at the hands of their parents, but did not grow up to be lust murderers. Childhood abuse is not a direct link to a future in crime. And while many girls are victimized as children, very few grow up to be sadistically violent toward strangers. Childhood abuse may not be the sole excuse for serial killers, but it is an undeniable factor in many of their backgrounds.

In his book Serial Killers , Joel Norris describes the cycles of violence as generational: "Parents who abuse their children, physically as well as psychologically, instill in them an almost instinctive reliance upon violence as a first resort to any challenge.

Some parents believed that by being harsh disciplinarians, it would "toughen" the child. Instead, it often creates a lack of love between parent and child that can have disastrous results. If the child doesn't bond with its primary caretakers, there is no foundation for trusting others later in life. This can lead to isolation, where intense violent fantasies become the primary source of gratification.

When the child grows up, according to these authors, all they know are their fantasies of domination and control. They have not developed compassion for others. Instead, humans become flattened-out symbols for them to enact their violent fantasies. In looking to the parents for explanations, we see both horrifying mothers and fathers. The blame usually falls on the mother, who has been described as too domineering or too distant, too sexually active or too repressed.

Perhaps the mother is blamed more because the father has often disappeared, therefore "unaccountable. How many abortions have taken place in Canada since ? Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal.

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By Shirley Lynn Scott. Monsters or Victims? The FBI defines serial murder as: A minimum of three to four victims, with a "cooling off" period in between; The killer is usually a stranger to the victim — the murders appear unconnected or random; The murders reflect a need to sadistically dominate the victim; The murder is rarely "for profit"; the motive is psychological, not material; The victim may have "symbolic" value for the killer; method of killing may reveal this meaning; Killers often choose victims who are vulnerable prostitutes, runaways, etc.

Getting Away with Murder We think we can spot lunacy, that a maniac with uncontrollable urges to kill will be unable to contain himself. Mask of Sanity Because of their psychopathic nature, serial killers do not know how to feel sympathy for others, or even how to have relationships.

What Makes a Serial Killer Tick? Wolfmen "Lycanthropy," a combination of the Greek words "wolf" and "man", was another early concept created to describe the horror of senseless sexual murder. Hydes The 19th century gave rise to another chilling predecessor to the serial killer's persona — Dr. Frankensteins As a man obsessed with recreating a human being from dead body parts, Mary Shelley's Dr. Vampires And of course, one of the most popular monster monikers for serial killers is "vampire.

Edmund Kemper. John Wayne Gacy. The Faces of Ted Bundy. Henry Lee Lucas. Some lust murderers have even been known to return to the crime and move the body to a location that will insure the discovery of the victim Dietz Many serial killers keep up with the news and media hoping to hear about their crime, but when the victim has not been found, the killer feels disappointed. The need for publicity of the crime reveals desire to terrorize the whole community instead of one specific person Dietz Investigations of these horrendous crimes can sometimes be hindered by publicity; if the chief of police is under pressure to get answers out to the press, important information or strategies may be leaked and would cause more problems for police Dietz Inside is where their minds are altered to accept all the morally unacceptable things that they do.

Most of the evils they think and do root from abnormalities in their brains, or other imbalances in their bodies. Whether additional faults accompany their irrational behavior or not, serial killers are their own kind of human being. By definition, a serial killer is one who has murdered three or more people with extended periods of time in between each victim, oftentimes with increasing frequency. Analysis of Serial Killers Serial killers are one of the most fascinating and morbid groups of people to study.

A serial killer as defined by Brian and Wilfred Gregg in The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is someone who kills 3 or more people with sufficient time intervals between each known as a cooling off period. The style and motivation of the killings can vary greatly. I choose serial killers for this project because the idea of someone killing another human being on numerous occasions seemed so out there, so fringe, it just had to be studied.

Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. The Psychology of Serial Killers Many things today confuse, yet enthrall the masses. War, murder, medical science, incredible rescues, all things you would see on The History Channel. There is another topic that is also made into documentaries however, serial killers. Dark twisted people that commit multiple murders are of interest to the population, but what caused them to be this way.

What horrible tragic set of events could twist a man to murder one or many people. Could Schizophrenia, psychopathy, or sociopathy? Many people have researched this topic and believe that childhood trauma, heavy drugs during the growing phase of life, as well as many other things have twisted the minds of men such as Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, and David Berkowitz.

Many say that their actions were preventable but many other believe that the warning signs were present and that their behavior could have been modified long before the murders began. The triad is the name given to the set of characteristic that serials killers are evident of in their youth. All of these things correlate to a phase in life in which the young person is curious of certain things new to them. Most children grow out of their interest in fire starting when they first get burnt and bed-wetting when they progress out of the same phase.

Animal torture is slightly different. Many children enjoy pulling the wings off a fly, or the legs off of other insects however grow up into quite productive members of society. Some children are enthused by larger animals. Jeffrey Dahmer was enthused originally by fish. He would gut them and inspect their organs to examined how they worked. Curiosity being the main reason for his actions, he would also nail frogs to trees and collect animals that had been run over by cars. Dahmer was less than characteristic in his choice of animals, the most popular victim being cats.