refer to Southern California, with its wealth of displaced individuals and potential victims, as a “playground for murder.”

Table 9.3 displays a state-by-state (including the District of Columbia) comparison of population, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offences and rates known to police, 1988 (Flanagan & Maguire, 1990), and serial murder counts and rates. The serial murder counts are an average of three studies: (1) cases of serial murder in which one or more victims were killed, 1800 to 1995 (Hickey 1997); (2) serial murder victims by state, mid-1800s to 1989 (Cavanagh, 1993); and (3) location of serial killer operation, 1880 to 1993 (Rossmo, 1995a). The serial murder rates are adjusted for both population (per 10,000,000 people) and overall murder (per 1000 offences).

States with the highest counts of serial murder (more than twice the mean) are, in order, California, New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, and Georgia. States with the highest per capita rates of serial murder (more than twice the overall rate for the U.S.) are, in order, Alaska, Nevada, California, District of Columbia, and Oregon. States with the highest rates of serial murder per all murders (more than twice the overall rate for the U.S.) are, in order, Alaska, Vermont, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, North Dakota, Nevada, Washington, Delaware, and Wisconsin. Figure 9.2 shows a map of per capita serial murder rates by state.

The degree of confidence in these findings should be tempered by the fact that each study used different methods of counting51 and covered dissimilar time periods. Furthermore, many states had only small numbers of recorded serial murder cases and therefore little reliability should be placed in their ranking. Once population or overall murder levels (a proxy for both population and propensity for lethal violence) are accounted for, many of the geographic differences noted by previous researchers disappear. There is still some evidence, however, for higher serial murder rates in the west.

9.2.3Case Descriptions

The serial murder cases selected for more detailed analysis include: (1) Richard Chase; (2) Albert DeSalvo; (3) Clifford Olson; (4) Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi; (5) Peter Sutcliffe; (6) Richard Ramirez; (7) David Berkowitz; (8) Jeffrey Dahmer; (9) Joel Rifkin; and (10) John Collins. In order to explore the impact of violating certain selection criteria, an additional 3 cases were included: (1) Aileen Wuornos; (2) Ian Brady and Myra Hindley; and

(3) Jerry Brudos. These 13 cases, representing 15 serial murderers, 178 victims, and 347 crime locations, comprise the microlevel SFU serial murder data set.

51 Also, Hickey presents his frequency counts as ranges (e.g., Washington, 6 to 10 cases), requiring use of the midpoint (e.g., Washington, 8 cases).

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Table 9.3 Serial Murder Counts and Rates by State

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Table 9.3 Serial Murder Counts and Rates by State (continued)

Figure 9.2 Serial murder rates by state.

Summary histories for each of the selected murder series follow. For the purposes of the study, a victim and associated crime sites were connected to a serial killer case if the offence was one of murder, attempted murder, or a violent crime (rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, abduction, or any attempt thereof), the circumstances of which were such that the person had a substantial likelihood of being killed.

While workplace is an important component of activity space, reliable information on occupation was not available for this sample, and offender work site was therefore not analyzed. Certain locations that appear to have been key offender anchor points were noted. All residences are included in cases involving two offenders or where the killer moved in the midst of the murder series.

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9.2.3.1Richard Chase

Richard Trenton Chase, the Vampire Killer, was a chronic paranoid schizophrenic who believed that his blood supply was being dried up by aliens (Biondi & Hecox, 1992; Ressler & Shachtman, 1992). He therefore reasoned the only way he could stay alive was through drinking the blood of others. Released from a mental institution in 1976, Chase began a rampage of murder in Sacramento County, California, in late December of 1977, killing six people — male and female, adult and child — while engaging in postmortem evisceration, anthropophagy, and vampirism.

Often used as an exemplar for the disorganized murderer type, Chase lived in the area of his crimes, at one point leaving a vehicle stolen from one of his victims just around the corner from his home. Consistent with a disorganized murder series, Chase’s hunting area was localized and limited in size. With one exception, the body dump and encounter sites are equivalent. His last crime scene involved four victims. Apprehended in January 1978 through police neighbourhood canvassing efforts that were informed by a psychological profile, Chase was eventually convicted of six counts of firstdegree murder. In 1980, he committed suicide by poison while in prison.

9.2.3.2Albert DeSalvo

Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler, murdered 13 women during the 1960s in and around Boston, Massachusetts (Frank, 1966; James, 1991; Newton, 1990a; Time-Life, 1992b). Married with a family, he had a particularly abusive childhood history and was eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic. DeSalvo is believed to have committed over 300 sexual assaults and hundreds of burglaries in four states before and after his murders. He began to strangle his victims in June 1962, often leaving their bodies displayed with an elaborate bow tied in the ligatures around their necks.

DeSalvo commuted into Boston from his home in Malden and drove aimlessly through rundown and “Bohemian” neighbourhoods in the Back Bay area. He picked target locations from building types likely to house students, transients, or the elderly. DeSalvo was often familiar with these places from his travels throughout the city as his maintenance position for a construction company required him to work at different sites. He conned his way into a victim’s apartment by pretending to be the building plumber. DeSalvo was really a poacher who did not search for victims close to home. The body dump and encounter sites in his crimes are equivalent.

A Medical-Psychiatric Committee mistakenly profiled his crimes as the product of two separate individuals, in part because DeSalvo altered his choice of victims, first killing elderly women and then younger females. His final victim, killed on January 4, 1964, was left with a card reading “Happy New Year” by her feet. DeSalvo then returned to sexual assaults and was

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