Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Co-Ed Killer” - Edmund Kemper

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

Verbally abused and psychologically tortured by his mother, young Edmund Kemper's mind turned towards vicious daydreams and perverted nightmares. Before he even reached adulthood in California, Kemper showed the world how truly violent he could be. The Co-Ed Killer went on to murder ten people between 1964 and 1973.  Sponsors! Blue Apron - Get your first 3 meals free at BlueApron.com/KILLERS. Caffé Monster - Available in Mocha, Vanilla, and Salted Caramel! Caffé Monster: Chill it down, Shake it up, Enjoy! Robinhood - Robinhood is giving listeners a FREE stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint to help build your portfolio! Sign up at SerialKillers.Robinhood.com. SimpliSafe - Go to SimpliSafe.com/KILLERS and save 25% off your SimpliSafe system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Watch only on Prime. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is at This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Ed Kemper detested his mother. She belittled him and mocked him. She refused to show him affection because she didn't want him to behave effeminently. She drove away his father.

She drank heavily. She forced him to sleep in a dark basement, away from the rest of the family. Ed's hatred for his mother consumed his every waking thought. He dreamed about beating her, stabbing her, killing her. He even dreamt about defiling her corpse. For years his anger festered. It grew into a monster that controlled Ed's every waking thought. And like all monsters, Ed's hid in the darkness,

in the space under the bed, just waiting for his victims to fall asleep. I'm Greg Poulson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to take a deep dive into the life of Edmund Emil Kemper III, also known as the Coed Killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. Many of you have been asking us how you can support the podcast. If you enjoy the show, one of the best ways to help us is to leave a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts. While you're there, you can listen to previous episodes of serial killers, as well as podcasts,

other podcasts. A new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network or in our website, parkast.com. Ed Kemper killed his first victims at age 15 on August 27, 1964. He later killed eight women between 1972 and 73. He stalked the streets of Santa Cruz, California, killing and dismembering female hair. hitchhikers. But he became most famous for killing his own mother and for the lengthy interviews that he did with FBI agent Robert Ressler. Those interviews later helped Agent Ressler build the FBI's serial killer profiling program. Edmund Kemper III was born in Burbank, California on December 18th, 1948 to Edmund Kemper the second and Clarnel Kemper. Both of Ed's parents were tall,

standing over six feet. But while they stood ahead above everyone else, Their marriage ran on short fuses. Ed remembered his mother being a domineering and demanding woman, and his father, who went by E.E, as being timid and passive. Ed's mother constantly demeaned and mocked his father's job as an electrician. She found the job to be menial and unimpressive, especially compared to E.E.'s former career. E.E. had been a soldier on the front lines of the battlefields during World War II.

After the war, E.E. continued working with the military, testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific proving grounds. E.E. told Ed's stories about suicide missions, bombing runs, and military life, and Ed's respect for his father grew exponentially. Ed saw Clarnel's disrespect for his dutiful soldier of a father as emasculating and born from a place of misandry or man-hating, as Ed put it. Ironically, Ed also seemed to think that some of his mother's treatment of him and his father was motivated by a desire to, to raise Ed as a real man. Clarnel often denied Ed any signs of compassion,

and when E.E. showed any care for the boy, she derided E.E. for coddling their son. Clarnel feared that showing any affection for young Ed would, quote, turn him gay, just like the fairy boy who lived down the street, end quote. Clarnel's strict efforts to keep Ed from becoming passive and timid like his father had the exact opposite effect. Despite being extremely intelligent, young Ed performed poorly in school, and his shyness and abnormal height resulted in him being

bullied by his classmates. Bullied at home and bullied at school, Ed became increasingly disconnected from the people around him, including his sisters, Susan and Allen. In 1957, when Ed was nine, E.E. had had enough of Clarnel's constant viciousness. E.E. divorced Clarnel and later said, suicide missions in wartime and the atomic bomb testings were nothing. compared to living with her. It's likely that Clarnel harbored some resentment towards men

and that she unleashed said resentment on her husband and son. This seemed all the more plausible when we consider the fact that Clarnel treated her daughters extremely well and that her daughters considered her a good mother. However, psychiatrists who analyzed Clarnel's personality after her death believe something else may have been the cause for her extremely unpleasant behavior. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology. and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist,

but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. After analyzing Clarnel's behavior, some psychiatrists have hypothesized that she suffered from borderline personality disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, quote, borderline personality disorder is a mental illness marked by an ongoing pattern of varying moods, self-image, and behavior. These symptoms, often result in impulsive actions and problems in relationships. People with borderline personality disorder may experience intense episodes of anger, depression, and anxiety that can last from a few hours to days. These intense periods of negative emotion correlate with Ed's memory of his mother.

When she would chastise him or his father, he remembered her repeatedly yelling about things for days at a time. When she wasn't yelling, she would withdraw from their presence and hard speak to them at all. The National Institute of Mental Health states that people with borderline personality disorder also tend to view things in extremes, such as all good or all bad. They also have difficulty trusting, which is sometimes accompanied by irrational fear of other people's intentions, and inappropriate intense anger or problems controlling anger. This could also explain why Clarnel distrusted men, and why she thought that E.E. treating his son in an affectionate way, was an attempt to, quote, turn Ed gay.

Despite E.E. having a stable and relatively lucrative job as an electrician and being a present family man, if he did anything wrong, Clarnel saw him as all bad. Clarnel's difficulty trusting men also extended to her own son. Unfortunately, her distrust of Ed only drove Ed to become more untrustworthy. After E.E. left his family, Clarnel moved herself and her three children to a new home in Helena, Montana. Here she began drinking habitually, and her distrust of her quickly-growing boy

caused her to fear him. Instead of letting him sleep in his own room, Clarnel forced Ed to sleep in a dark, damp, cold basement without any windows. She sincerely believed that Ed would someday attack her or his sisters, so she locked the basement door to keep him contained. In an interview with a French journalist

named Stefan Borgone, Ed described the effect this had on his young mind. Quote, well, at a certain time of the evening, the family left the center room, the living room of the house. My mother and my sisters, or my sisters themselves, would go up to bed upstairs, where I used to go to bed upstairs. I had to go down to the basement,

and an eight-year-old child had a tough time differentiating the reason in that. Why am I going to the basement? I'm going to hell, and they're going to heaven. Earth is the living room, and I'm going to deal with demons and monsters and ghosts and all the things that scare me. They don't have to, end quote. The unfairness of the situation and the darkness of his environment drove Ed to further separate himself from the outside world. He began to daydream, imagining himself at the center of dark fantasies. Some of those fantasies involved everyone else in the world dying, and Ed being left alone to do whatever he pleased.

As the inner thoughts of nine-year-old Ed began to darken, so did his interactions with his siblings. While he mostly got along with his sisters, he began to convince them to play morbid games with him. After hearing news about the execution of a criminal on death row via a gas chamber, Ed invented his own play version of the event. He had his sisters tie him to a chair, then throw objects at him. They would leave locking Ed in the room. Then he would writhe on the floor pretending to suffocate to death. Another game he played involved tightly wrapping Alan in a rug

and seeing how long it would take her to wiggle out of it. They would compete to see who could wiggle out of the rug fastest, but Ed wasn't just in it for the fun of competition. As they played, he was absorbing what it looked like to see a woman in a helpless situation. His mother drank more and more often, and her verbal abuse continued to be a constant torment for Ed. As Ed descended further into his imagined,

world. His resentment and anger towards his mother was soon expressed through violence. When N was only 10 years old, he grabbed the family cat and dragged it to the backyard. He dug a hole, threw the cat inside, and buried it alive. He waited for the cat to suffocate. Then he dug the cat back up. He grabbed a knife and cut the cat's head off. Then he dissected the body and examined the cat's insides. He mounted the cat's head on a spine. He grabbed the cat's head on a spike and admired his handiwork. Once his morbid curiosity was satisfied, he buried the cat's remains back in the hole. When Clarnel discovered the cat had gone missing, she rightfully blamed Ed. She hounded him about the cat every chance she got. Ed spoke less and less,

his silence only causing his mother to grow more upset with him. Ed enjoyed the torment he had inflicted on the cat, and the pain the cat's loss had caused his mother. This first Further reinforced Ed's already dangerous penchant for violence. When Ed was 12, he developed a crush on one of his teachers. His sister Susan teased him about the crush and told Ed that he should just kiss his teacher and see what happened. Ed replied by saying that the only way he could kiss his teacher was if he killed her first.

Ed had already proven his desire to commit violent acts, but this was the first time Ed's dark thoughts were also shown to be sexual in nature. It reflected his low self-esteem and showed that he believed no girl would ever willingly kiss him. Ed's 12-year-old mind was a terrifying place, but at the same time, full of heartbreak. When Ed was 13, the family got a new cat. The cat seemed to prefer Alan over Ed, and he decided the cat had made the wrong choice. He cut it to pieces with a machete. He hid most of the cat's body outside, but he kept some select pieces in his clobiles.

closet as souvenirs. Weeks later, Clarnel discovered the cat's mutilated body parts when their rotting smell started to fill the house. Clarnel saw this as proof that her son was dangerous. She started physically abusing him. She'd slap Ed when she thought his behavior was out of line. Unfortunately, Clarnel failed to understand that her attempts at good parenting were a major factor in Ed's increasingly violent tendencies. Ed's hatred towards his mother continued to build until he just couldn't take it anymore. When Ed was 15, he ran away from home. He took buses and hitched rides down to Van Nuys, California, where his father lived.

Having lived apart from his father for six years, Ed had grown to idolize EE to a fanatical degree. He compared his father to his favorite actor, John Wayne. Both John Wayne and E.E. Kemper were tall, large men with a substantial presence. Ed liked to think of his father as commanding an equivalent amount of authority and moral clarity as many of the characters John Wayne played. Ed believed he would return to his father, and his father would welcome him in like the Duke himself. However, things didn't go quite as Ed had hoped.

Ed's arrival at E.E.'s doorstep was a complete surprise, although E.E. had a bombshell of his own to share. E.E. had remarried, and Ed now had a stepbrother whom he had never met. E.E. convinced his new wife to allow Ed to stay with them, but Ed soon wore out his welcome. At six feet four inches tall, 15-year-old Ed towered over most people. He was a giant of an adolescent with a violent fantasy life and a stark lack of social skills. Ed's stepmother and stepbrother found Ed to be intimidating and unsettling. It didn't help that Ed felt like his father had purposefully replaced him. Ed treated his stepbrother poorly. he would often refuse to participate in conversations

and instead glare his stepbrother into silence. He didn't treat his stepmother with respect either. One night his stepmother left the bathroom after showering only to find Ed standing outside the door. When she asked him to move, he simply stood silent, staring at her breasts. She pushed past him to her room, only to have Ed follow her to the door.

Ed's violent fantasies had grown increasingly more sexual. His impulse to prey upon women was stronger than his ability to contemplate the consequences. Ed's stepmother rightfully felt frightened by Ed's behavior. Later that day, she told E.E. that his son could no longer stay with them. Either E.E. would kick Ed out or she was leaving. E.E. felt helpless. He had already abandoned Ed when he was younger, and he felt somewhat responsible for how Ed had turned out. He knew he shouldn't have left Ed alone with his mother, but E.E. felt it was too late for him to change that now.

E.E. decided Ed had to leave, but he wasn't going to force the boy to return to Clarnel. Instead, E.E. asked his own parents, Edmund D'Emile Kemper I and Maud Matilda Huey Kemper to take over raising the boy. After only a few weeks of living with his father, Ed was sent to live with his grandparents on their ranch in the mountains of Madera County, California. E.E. thought his grandparents might be the key to preventing disaster. Tragically, they would only fall prey to Ed. We'll explore more of Ed Kemper's depravity after a quick break. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th,

and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavatheater.com. Only at Yamava Resort and Casino. celebrating its 40th anniversary. U.N. must be 21 to enter. Now back to the story. Ed Kemper was 15 years old when he moved in with his grandparents, 72-year-old Edmund Kemper the first,

and 67-year-old Maude Kemper. Immediately upon arrival, Ed grew displeased with the move. Maude was a tough old woman. She had spent most of her life living on the ranch, and she took no guff from her children or grandchildren. She was confident in her abilities to parent. and she believed that by taking Ed into her home, she could correct all the mistakes Clarnel had made raising him.

Maud often insulted Clarnel in front of Ed. While the two held a similar disdain for Ed's mother, what could have served as a common ground only drove the two further apart. For Ed, hearing Maud complain about his mother only made him think of Maud as an extension of his mother. He thought of Maud as equally domineering and controlling his Clarnel, and he only saw more similarities in how Maude treated his grandfather. Edmund Kemper I was growing senile in his old age.

For most of their married life, Edmund I had provided for Maude as a stable but quiet partner. As he grew older, he would often have lapses in memory and judgment that made it difficult for Maude to trust him. Maude and Edmund Sr.'s relationship changed as he slowly lost his ability to care for himself. Maude often found herself chiding the man like she would a child. Unfortunately, Ed only saw how Maude treated Edmund Sr. in their old age, and he wrongly assumed that she had always treated Edmund poorly. As a result, Ed saw his grandparents' relationship as an expression of Maude's bitterness towards men, just like his mother's relationship with his father. While Maude and Ed's relationship was strained from the beginning, Edmund I first tried to bond with the boy.

He would take Ed hunting, and he even bought Ed his own rifles so Ed could practice shooting on his own. Ed enjoyed going on hunting trips with his grandfather, but Edmund's ever-encroaching senility interfered with their ability to make a meaningful connection. To make matters worse, Maud wouldn't allow Ed to leave the ranch on his own. After hearing from Ed's father about how he had behaved with his stepmother, Maude worried that Ed would cause more trouble if he was allowed to be alone in public. She made Ed spend most of his time alone on the ranch.

Ed grew to hate living on the ranch, even more than he hated living with his mother. He felt trapped in his own personal hell by a dottering old dope and a nagging old hag. Ed began to act out. Maud would tell Ed not to stare at her. Ed would give her a deathly glare. Maud would refuse to give Ed an allowance. Ed would steal money from Maud's purse. Maud would tell Ed not to shoot any birds. Ed would immediately go out and shoot down the first bird he saw. Tensions between the two continued to escalate.

Maude distrusted Ed, and Ed despised Maude. His violent fantasies began to focus on ending Maude's life. On August 27, 1964, the 72-year-old Edmund Kemper, went to town to shop for groceries. 15-year-old Ed Kemper and 67-year-old Maude Kemper were on their own at the secluded ranch. Ed stared at his grandmother. Maude grew uncomfortable. Maud began to chastise Ed for all his usual offenses. Ed grew angry and started to yell back.

The two began yelling. Their argument became more intense than any they had had before. Ed stormed out of the kitchen to blow off steam. As he marched out, he heard his grandmother yell at him, Don't you dare shoot any birds this time. Ed marched to the shed and grabbed his hunting rifle. He loaded bullets into his gun. He marched back into the king.

kitchen. Maude yelled at him to put the gun down. Ed shot her once in the head and twice more in the back. It wasn't enough. Ed still wasn't satisfied. He grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his grandmother with reckless abandon. Once Ed had gotten his fill, he dragged her body to her bedroom and put her on the bed. He stared at her corpse, exhilarated. He hadn't shot any birds. She had to be happy with him now. Edmund Sr. pulled up the driveway. Ed looked to the front door, then looked at his grandmother's corpse. While Ed enjoyed the sight of her permanently closed mouth, he knew it would be too horrid for his grandfather to bear. He decided to do his grandfather a favor. Ed grabbed his rifle and headed to the driveway. As Edmund looked through the groceries in the back of

his truck, Ed snuck up behind him. Before Ed, Edmard, and knew what was happening. Ed raised his rifle and shot his grandfather through the head. Ed looked at his grandfather's corpse. He hadn't enjoyed that as much as he enjoyed killing his grandmother, but he felt that it had to be done. The only question was what to do next. Ed was 15. He didn't know how to drive. And he was alone at the ranch miles away from the nearest town. He didn't have a job. He didn't have any friends. He had no idea what to do. Ed's only resource was. was the house phone. He realized that if he wanted to leave the ranch,

he had to call someone. Ed couldn't call his father. He had just killed his father's parents. He couldn't bear the thought of telling his father exactly what he had done. Ed realized there was only one person in the world he could call. Clarnel picked up the phone. Her 15-year-old son told her everything.

Clarnel's greatest fears had been realized. everything she suspected about her son, everything that had made her paranoid about the darkness inside his heart, everything she had been trying to snuff out, had finally exploded in a violent rage. Clarnel urged her son to turn himself into the police. It was his only option.

Ed calmly agreed. He hung up the phone and called the local police station. The police arrived at the ranch to find Ed waiting for them outside. They were surprised to see that the... six-foot four-inch tall youth was calm, cordial, and cooperated with their every request. He told the police everything that he had done. And when they asked him why he had done it, Ed said, quote, I just wanted to know what it felt like to kill grandma, end quote.

They asked why he had killed his grandpa, too. And Ed told them that he didn't want his grandfather to know that his wife had died. He only killed his grandfather to spare him the pain of knowing what his grandson had done. Ed was taken to prison to await his court date. Psychiatrists were brought in to analyze Ed's mental state. They were shocked by how well-spoken and cooperative he was. They were also shocked by how clearly Ed conveyed how he had committed his crimes. The court psychiatrist simply could not understand how a boy like this could commit such a heinous murder.

They declared that the only way a 15-year-old boy could brutally murder his grandparents was if that boy was criminally insane. The court psychiatrist diagnosed Ed Kemper with paranoid schizophrenia. According to the Mayo Clinic, schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenics display a number of symptoms. They can suffer from hallucinations, often hearing voices, or seeing things that are not there. Some of the psychiatrists interpreted Ed's vivid violent fantasies as signs of hallucinations. Schizophrencophrenics can also display disorganizing.

thinking and poor motor control. The actions and words taken by a schizophrenic can make little to no sense, as their thinking does not connect logically from one point to the next. The court psychiatrist saw the murder of his grandparents as behavior that made little to no sense without a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenics can also suffer from delusions, strong beliefs that are not based in facts or reality. In 1964, paranoid schizophrenics were believed to suffer sole from paranoid delusions, believing that everything and everyone was out to get them. In recent years, psychologists have determined that paranoia is actually just one symptom of schizophrenia, so the term paranoid schizophrenic is no longer used as its own specific diagnosis.

However, at the time, the court psychiatrist saw Ed's hatred of his grandmother's nagging and his disdain for his mother's treatment of him, has evidence of paranoid delusions. instead of accurate portrayals of his mother and grandmother's personalities. The court psychiatrist, therefore, saw enough evidence to deem Ed a criminally insane, paranoid schizophrenic, and he was put on trial. Ed successfully won a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to an indefinite length of time at the Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum security mental health facility designed to house and treat California's population of a criminally insane man. While the doctors worked to cure Ed Kemper's violent tendencies,

his stay at Atascadero would only serve to help Ed become a more violent and proficient killer. We'll learn more about Ed's time at Atascadero after this. And now back to the story. In 1964, the 15-year-old Ed Kemper was admitted to a Pasadero State Hospital with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. The prison introduced true structure into Ed's life, and because he was a minor, he was able to continue his education. Within the new rigid environment and free from his mother's interference,

Ed began to excel in his coursework. He was polite and well-behaved, and the doctors began to suspect that there was something special about this murderous teen. The psychologists and psychiatrists in charge of Ed's rehabilitation decided to see exactly how smart Ed really was. They gave him an IQ test, and were shocked at how well he did. The average person has an IQ of 100.

On Ed's first testing, he scored incredibly high with an IQ of 136. Only 2% of people in the entire world have an IQ above 130, which means that Ed Kemper had the IQ of someone who was intellectually gifted. After a few months, the psychologists tested him again, and he scored even higher, demonstrating an IQ of 145. Only 0.25% of people in the world can boast such a score. Ed Kemper was a bona fide genius. This stunned the psychologists.

Paranoid schizophrenics were normally unable to organize their thoughts well enough to score high on any test, let alone an IQ test. In fact, a study published in Biological Psychiatry in September 2001 titled Intelligence Quotient and Neuropsychological Profiles in Patients with Schizophrenia and in normal volunteers, found that even intelligent schizophrenics suffer from an impaired ability to think clearly. Ed's high IQ was highly improbable

given his diagnosis as a paranoid schizophrenic. The psychologist looked more closely at Ed and soon found that he displayed almost no symptoms of schizophrenia. He did not suffer from delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or impaired motor function. The psychologist soon declared that in the haste of the trough, the court psychiatrist had dreadfully misdiagnosed Ed.

The psychologists interviewed Ed themselves, trying to get to the bottom of the boy's problems. After weeks of intense deliberation, the psychologist gave Ed a new diagnosis, passive-aggressive-type personality trait disturbance. In earlier versions of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, passive-aggressive-type personality trait disturbance,

or passive-aggressive disorder, is defined by a pattern of behaviors wherein negative feelings are expressed in an indirect way. The most current version of the diagnostic manual, the DSM-5, lists passive-aggressiveness as a personality disorder, trait specified. To emphasize that passive-aggressiveness is a personality trait, not a diagnosed personality disorder on its own.

Most people display some passive-aggressive tendencies, but psychiatrists believe that Ed displayed those tendencies to a pathological degree. Passive aggressive types, as described in previous versions of the DSM, passively resist fulfillment of routine social and occupational tasks. Basically, when they're asked to do something that they don't like or they're asked to do something by a person they don't like, they will outwardly agree to do the task and then simply not do it.

When they're confronted about failing to fulfill their obligations, they'll often make excuses for their behavior or claim they simply first. got. Ed behaved himself while incarcerated, but psychiatrists cared more about his home life. Ed reacted poorly to requests from his parents and grandparents, often failing to do anything asked of him in an effort to avoid being controlled. The passive-aggressive type also tends to complain. They exaggerate their own misfortune and believe that they're misunderstood by the people around them. Fifteen-year-old Ed complained about almost everyone in his life, but he often ignored the importance of his own behavior with regard to his relationships. The psychiatrist felt that Ed truly did have passive-aggressive personality disorder.

This new diagnosis actually made them optimistic about Ed's chances of being successfully treated. A criminally dangerous paranoid schizophrenic has very little chance of psychologically improving. However, a passive-aggressive person can be treated if they really want to change. The psychiatrist felt sure that the person. they could help this bright young man become a healthy and productive member of society. Ed noticed the psychiatrist's interest and optimism in him. He realized that he might be released from the mental hospital if he could convince the psychiatrist that he made real progress towards sanity.

So he began to cooperate with the psychiatrist wholeheartedly. While the doctors thought they were curing Ed's violent mind, in reality, Ed was simply learning how to hide his violent tendencies. He kept his behavior in line with his doctor's expectations, but he continued to fantasize about sexual violence in what he called his vicious world. Ed became a model prisoner and a model patient. He followed orders to a T, and he didn't fight with his fellow inmates.

The psychiatrist felt that the young man could use some responsibility, and they decided to give him some work that Ed could be proud of. They started to let Ed assist them with their psychological study of the other inmates. At first, the doctors had Ed do clerical work. They would have him bring interview files from place to place, then sort, organize, and deliver them throughout the hospital. Ed later admitted that while he wasn't supposed to look at the other inmates' files,

he used these delivery runs as opportunities to learn how to cheat the system. Ed began studying these files. He memorized the questions the psychiatrist were asking and looked at their notes to see what answers they liked and what answers. they didn't. Instead of using his intellect to gain a better understanding of himself, Ed used his mind to gain a better understanding of the psychiatric system. Ed also began to genuinely enjoy the work he was doing. He asked to be more involved, and the psychiatrists eventually allowed Ed to sit in on

interviews with other inmates. He listened to murderers, sex offenders, arsonists, and psychopaths relive their crimes. Ed absorbed their stories, remembering tips at the same. remembering tips and tricks for later use. One specific thing he remembered learning from the interviews with rapists was that it was better to kill your victim. That way there would be no witnesses left to go to the police. At At Atascadero, Ed became fascinated with the criminal mind.

He took extreme pride in the work that he was doing. After a few years, the psychiatrist began allowing Ed to conduct psychiatric exams on his own. He was so invested in his work that he even claimed to have created new tests and personality scales on the Minnesota multifacic personality inventory, a test used by psychiatrists to measure their personality and psychopathy of patients. One specific scale that he claimed to have created was the overt hostility scale, a measure of how openly antagonistic a person was willing to be with those around them. The psychiatrists were so impressed with Ed's work that they also encouraged him to join

the United States Junior Chamber, a civic society dedicated to. training young people in leadership skills, business management, community service, and other areas for leading a successful professional life. The junior chamber had had such notable members as Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Bill Gates. Ed Kemper was proud to be a member of that group. The psychiatrists in charge of Ed's case were increasingly impressed by the young man's progress. They believed that Ed's temperament had grown, along with his stature. By the time Ed was 20, he stood at a hulking six feet nine inches tall.

The psychiatrist felt confident that the murderous 15-year-old who had entered a Tascadero years earlier had been turned into a mostly gentle giant. The only hitch in his progress was Ed's still apparent hatred for his mother. Ed had successfully hidden his violent fantasies for years, but he couldn't hide his persistent disdain for Clarnel. No system is perfect. and all patients still have things to work through when they're released from their respective mental institutions. Despite Ed's desire for match aside, the psychiatrists deemed Ed Kemper ready for release back into society. On December 18, 1969, on his 21st birthday,

a Tascadero released Ed and put him in the care of the California State Authority. They gave him some parole requirements and said that his continued freedom depended on him enrolling in college courses. The CSA was in charge of setting Ed up with a place to live. Even though Ed was 21, he had spent the past six years of his life in prison, and he lacked the knowledge necessary for acquiring a job and his own residence. The psychiatrist gave the CSA one strong recommendation. Ed Kemper should not be returned to his mother's custody. The CSA contacted Ed's father, who promptly refused to take Ed back.

E.E. was furious that the state would ever be. ever let Ed's step foot on the street again. Ed's stepbrother claims that E. Kemper vowed to kill his own son if he ever saw him near his family. Whether E.E. would have actually killed Ed is debatable, but either way, Ed was not going to live with his father. The CSA also asked Ed's sisters to take him in, but they both refused. Neither wanted Ed back in their lives after what he had done to their grandparents. The CSA also looked into placing Ed in a halfway house so he could gain some independence and be more closely monitored. Unfortunately, most of the halfway houses in California were at maximum capacity.

The CSA finally presented Ed with two options, move back in with his mother or return to a Tascadero. Ed contemplated the matter. Even though he hated his mother, he still secretly longed for her approval and her love. Clarnel's life had changed since Ed was imprisoned. She had gotten remarried and divorced. then remarried a third time and divorced a third time.

Her name was now Clarnel Strandberg. The fact that Clarnel had been in three unsuccessful marriages also lends credence to the idea that she suffered from borderline personality disorder. She had proven herself unable to maintain a healthy relationship with any man, whereas she had perfectly fine relationships with her daughters and female friends. This double standard indicates that Ed's claims about her hatred towards men may have held some truth. Still, just like Ed still hoped for some love from his mother,

Clarnel still hoped for some love from a man, like mother like son. After her third divorce, Clarnel had moved from Montana to Santa Cruz, California, where she had acquired a job as an administrative assistant. This job paid well, and she was fairly good at it. Ed hoped that Clarnel's third divorce, her move to a new city, and her fulfilling job would have changed her in some way. He hoped that it would make her more satisfied with herself and more loving towards him. He hoped that moving back in with his mother might turn out to be a good thing. Plus, he didn't have much of a choice. A day after his release, Ed Kemper moved back in with his mother. Some sources report that for the

next month, Ed and Clarnel managed to maintain a healthy relationship with very little conflict. During this time, Ed enrolled in community college in accordance with his parole requirements. But after spending six years behind bars, moving to Santa Cruz was a shock to Ed. The world had moved past him, and Santa Cruz had become a hotbed for the freewheeling, anti-authoritarian, somewhat chaotic philosophy of the 1960s. Ed decided that he wanted to become a police officer. He respected the police and their authority. He appreciated the structure that his prison life had given him,

and he wanted to help impose order upon the chaotic world that he had been. thrust into. Unfortunately, Ed's home life began to descend into chaos. His short-lived peace with Clarnel gave way to their old dynamic. Ed himself talked about this period of his life. He said, quote, my mother and I started right in on horrendous battles, just horrible battles, violent and vicious. I've never been in such a vicious verbal battle with anyone. It would go to fists with a man, but this was my mother, and I couldn't stand the thought of my mother and I. doing these things. She insisted on it and just over stupid things. I remember one roof razor was over whether I should have my teeth cleaned, end quote. Ed's mental health degraded

quickly. His violent fantasies would soon become too harsh and disturbing to ignore. Soon, Ed was consumed by thoughts of murdering his own mother. Next week we'll talk about Ed's mounting impulse to kill as we cover Ed Kemper's vicious murder spree that earned him the nickname the Co-Ed Killer. We'll also cover the events that led to his capture, his life in prison working with the FBI, and his subsequent fame in pop culture. The country would watch in fascination

as Ed Kemper's gruesome temper turned Santa Cruz into the corpse-filled murder capital of the world. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. You can find more episodes of Sincorraine. serial killers, as well as all of podcasts, other podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, CastBox, tune-in, or your favorite podcast directory. Several of you've asked how to help the show, and if you enjoy the show, the best way to help is to leave a five-star review.

We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Michael Langsner, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Giles Hoveseth and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Ryan Reynolds here from MintMobil.

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then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Seeful terms at mintmobile.com. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed. And there was a fool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.