Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - The Serial ‘70s: Edmund Kemper

Episode Date: July 4, 2022

It’s been five years since the Serial Killers podcast debuted, and to celebrate the anniversary, we’re reexamining a grisly time in America: the serial killer boom of the 1970s. Edmund Kemper was one of the first serial killers to be profiled by the FBI. His deep-rooted issues with his mother, extremely high IQ, and ability to outsmart police allowed him to kill all the co-eds he wanted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, listeners, it's Carter. Here to tell you about an incredible event celebrating the launch of Parcast's first book, Colts. On July 13th, crime junkies Ashley Flowers and Parcast founder Max Cutler are coming together for a night of true crime to remember. And you can be part of it virtually on Spotify Live or in person. The evening will take place in Los Angeles and feature discussions about the book, a live Q&A, and so on. much more. All ticket sales up to $125,000 will be matched by Max Cutler and donated to Season of Justice, a nonprofit founded by Ashley Flowers that provides financial resources to help solve cold cases and support families impacted by unsolved violent crimes. It's a wonderful cause and an

evening perfect for any true crime fan. But time is running out. Register for your spot today at Parchast.com slash colts. All attendees will receive a special signed copy of Pardcast's new book, Cults. So don't wait, sign up at Parchast.com slash cults. Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, sexual assault, mutilation, necrophilia, and animal cruelty. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. It was going to be another scorcher.

August in the Sierra Nevada foothills could be punishingly hot. And though it wasn't noon yet, the sun already felt suffocating. But the heat didn't bother 15-year-old Edmund Kemper. He ran cold like a reptile his mother had once told him. Besides, he had a mission today, and he wasn't about to let the weather stop him. Ever since he'd been sent away to live on his grandparents' ranch, Kemper's only source of joy had been hunting. In a rare lucid moment, his grandfather had given him a 22-caliber rifle and showed him how to find easy prey. The foothills were crawling with wild turkeys, deer, rabbits, and more.

Hunting had given the teen a sense of purpose and made him feel less alone in this isolated stretch of land. Now he stood in his grandparents' kitchen, rifle in hand, staring out of the window, gearing himself up for the kill. His grandmother sat behind him at the table, writing. Kemper could feel her irritation from where he stood. His very presence made her crazy, and she didn't make much effort to hide it. Finally ready, Kemper tightened his grip on his gun and headed toward the front door. His grandmother looked up, frowning, and snapped, You'd better not go shooting the birds again.

Kemper paused. Let the anger surge through him. Then in one smooth movement, he turned, back toward his grandmother, raised the rifle, and fired. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. Welcome to the serial killers fifth anniversary special. For five years, we've been taking you into the minds of serial killers from around the world. Now we're going to put our armchair expertise to use in this four-part series.

I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Over the next four episodes, we'll re-examine four of the most legendary serial killers of all time through the lens of the mythology that surrounds them. We'll dig into what created these killers' macabre appeal, how they shaped public perception of serial murder, and what impact their cases had on law enforcement.

We're beginning our journey with the story of Edmund Emel Kemper III, the co-ed killer. As one of the first serial killers to be profiled by the FBI, Kemper played a key role in our understanding of what, What makes a murderer? We're going to break down exactly why that is and strip back the mystique that gives Kemper his power. We've got all that and more coming up.

Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the Unit Bomber. it's tedious work to find what you're looking for.

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For people prone to anxiety, it's also strangely comforting to learn as much as you can about the darkest corners of the world. We want to understand how evil works and where it comes from, so we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from it. Statistically, your odds of being murdered at all are extraordinarily small, let alone by a stranger. Yet despite how rare this danger is, it's incredibly compelling to us. Ever since the term was popularized 50 years ago, serial killers have played a central role in pop culture.

But not all of them are mythologized equally. Some murderers have become legendary, taking on a larger-than-life quality akin to fictional villains like Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates. Others, meanwhile, fade into obscurity. So what is it that separates a Kemper or a Zodiac from your more obscure killers? Part of the equation is timing. All four of the men were going to discuss in this series emerged during the same era. The 1970s has been called a golden age of serial murder, and it's thought of as a time when serial murder was on the rise.

Back then, law enforcement agencies were developing more sophisticated ways of tracking and prosecuting murder. Specifically, the FBI formed its behavioral science unit in response to an uptick in violent crime and developed the process we now know as criminal profiling. According to crime historian and author Peter Vronsky, media coverage also played a huge role in mythologizing serial killers around this time. As we'll discuss over the coming weeks, some of these killers were headline friendly in their own ways. They reinforced beliefs that the public already held about serial killers, and that reinforcement gave them a twisted allure.

So perhaps serial killers didn't become more prevalent in the 1970s, they were just being better tracked and categorized and more extensively covered by the media. But either way, statistically, there was a huge uptick in murder around this time. According to Peter Vronsky, in the 25-year period from 1970 to 1995, there was a 10-fold increase in active serial killers compared to the 169 years between 1800 and 1969. And he and other experts have some theories as to why that might be. Before we continue with the psychology for this episode, please keep in mind that neither Vanessa or myself are licensed psychologists or psychiatrists, but we've done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg.

In his book Sons of Cain, a history of serial killers from the Stone Age to the present, Dr. Vronsky points out that a huge percentage of infamous killers were born during or just after World War II. These killers then grew up during a unique moment of global trauma and at a time where, when mass bloodshed had been normalized by the conflict. Many soldiers returned home deeply disturbed by what they'd experienced and had no access to mental health care. At the time, post-traumatic stress disorder wasn't yet recognized as a diagnosis, and most veterans were simply expected to reintegrate into society and get on with their lives. Vronsky emphasizes that most men who returned after fighting in World War II

did not harbor murderous impulses or pass them on to their children, but it's significant that many serial killers who were active in the 1970s and 1980s grew up during the aftershocks of the war. Many of them had fathers and grandfathers who lived with some form of untreated PTSD. This was reflected in the pop culture of the time. During the post-war era, a new kind of publication began to appear on newsstands, known as Men's Adventure Magazines. They featured images of women being hunted, raped, tortured, and murdered.

Crucially, these magazines were aimed not only at returning veterans, but also at their young sons. Edmund Kemper's father, Edmund Jr., was a World War II veteran who'd served in a special forces unit, and he struggled to adapt to civilian life after returning. He tried to attend college, but fought with his instructors, and eventually dropped out. Ultimately, he walked out on the family when Kemper was still a child. Surely this must have been a devastating blow, perhaps even devastating enough to explain Kemper's eventual dissent into violence. In any episode of this show, it just might be that

turning point. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. According to Kemper, his mother was the real problem in his life, and that troubled maternal relationship is central to his gruesome infamy. Like so many famous killers, Kemper's story resonated because it seemed to confirm a perception that people already had about violent crime. In this case, the idea that an overbearing mother is to blame. Psychiatric professionals have historically been quick to blame mothers for their children's dysfunction. Bad mothering has been claimed as a cause of depression, substance abuse, and even schizophrenia. This idea was vividly dramatized in Alfred Hitchcock's landmark 1960 thriller, Psycho. The film introduces the indelible character of Norman Bates, a serial murderer whose

cruel and possessive mother becomes one of his first victims. But he's too dependent on his mother to let her go, So he preserves her corpse, dresses up in her clothes, and has one-sided conversations with her. Psycho caused a huge stir when it was released. Its infamous shower murder scene was so shocking to audiences that it created a kind of mass hysteria. There were widespread reports of moviegoers hyperventilating and fainting mid-film. Some called for it to be banned. Despite, or perhaps because of its reputation, Psycho became Hitchcock's most commercially successful film, and has influenced countless horror filmmakers ever since.

By extension, it also helped solidify what many people think of when they hear the term serial killer. Comparing Norman and Kemper, the parallels are striking, and they surely contributed to Kemper's enduring appeal. They may even have been deliberate on Kemper's part. As we'll see later in this episode, there are times when Kemper seemed to be consciously behaving like Hollywood's idea of a serial killer, hamming it up for an imaginary. camera. But before we get there, let's dig a little deeper into Kemper's early years. After his dad

left, his mother, Clarnel, turned her anger against her son. Later, Kemper described how she forced him to sleep in a windowless basement room. Locked down there alone, Kemper's thoughts became just as dark as his pitch-black surroundings. He wanted to destroy things, take them to pieces, so he developed a habit of stealing his sister's dolls and dismembering them. He then moved on to living creatures. He started out by torturing insects, then tortured and killed the family's cat, which we all recognize as a serial killer red flag. Cruelty to animals has long been seen as a precursor to homicide,

and Edmund Kemper is one of the reasons why. The Homicidal Triad, also known as the MacDonald Triad, was first introduced during the 1960s. It identifies three behaviors in children that may be signs for future homicidal tendencies cruelty to animals, bedwetting, and setting fires. It was adopted by the FBI's behavioral science unit during the 1970s when agents began interviewing serial killers to try and understand their psychology. These agents spoke with Kemper on multiple occasions.

Given how perfectly he fits the pattern, it's likely that his statements actually played a major role in solidifying, the then-nacent McDonald triad. But in recent years, the triad has come under more scrutiny. In 2018, researchers at the University of Kent took a critical look at its validity. At the end of their study, they concluded that there is an association between the behaviors described in the triad and subsequent violence. However, they also noted that the triad works better as a way of identifying children

with dysfunctional home environments and or poor coping skills than it does as a predictor of violent crime. In other words, the triad only indicates a correlation, not a causation. A child growing up in an unstable or abusive household is more prone to the three triad behaviors, and statistically they may also be at a higher risk for violent offending. But the researchers concluded that the triad isn't a particularly helpful way to identify red flags in children, which was its original intent. In Kemper's case, however, his sadistic behavior towards family pets really was a harbinger of things to come. At 15, he shot his own grandparents dead.

After his arrest, a court psychiatrist diagnosed Kemper with paranoid schizophrenia, but this diagnosis didn't actually fit him at all. Other psychiatrists and social workers pointed out that he had none of the symptoms of schizophrenia, no hallucinations, delusions, or detachment from reality. But he did have was an unusually high IQ. And here's another reason why Kemper has been mythologized. He fits neatly into one of the most popular stereotypes about serial killers, that they are all manipulative geniuses.

As we'll explore later in this series, this idea is largely a myth. But Kemper's intelligence has made him a compelling interview subject over the years. He was able to clearly articulate his reasons for killing, and that made him appealing

both to profilers and to true crime fans. In one interview, Kemper explained that he murdered women as a way of possessing them, since he'd internalized the idea that no woman would ever be interested in him. This struck him

as perfectly logical. He said, to possess them in the way I wanted to, I had to evict them from their human bodies. Kemper's M.O. was so perverse that it's hard to imagine how he could hide it, but he'd seemingly developed quite the talent for acting. Despite Kemper's grotesque and incomprehensible crimes, he appeared perfectly normal to the outside world. Nobody in his life noticed anything amiss, not his mother and not even the police, who he spent a lot of time with. He was friendly with several local cops, and when he began his murder spree in May of 1972, he used his relationship with the police to get inside information on the investigation. This wasn't a one-sided relationship.

The local cops genuinely liked Kemper, so much so that when he eventually called to confess to murdering eight women, the officer thought he was joking around. Again, Kemper's intelligence and charm were critical to his success. These traits allowed him to hide in plain sense. sight, right under the noses of the police officers who were supposed to be investigating his crimes. Hanging around with cops might seem like an unnecessary risk for any killer to take. But in fact, many murderers share Kemper's fascination with law enforcement. According to FBI profiler John Douglas, when he asked Kemper why he wanted to be a cop, his answer was simple.

Power. Strange as it sounds, successful criminals and police officers possess some of the same psychological traits, one of those traits is known as fearless dominance, which is associated with psychopathy and involves high stress tolerance, self-confidence, and a tendency toward risk-taking. In many careers, fearless dominance is an adaptive trait that can translate to great success. Research suggests that CEOs often display this trait, as do American presidents, but it also can make a killer able to smoothly, calmly commit murder without any distress. Kemper had fearless dominance in spades. All the information we have about his murders suggests that he barely broke a sweat at any point,

but we're getting ahead of ourselves. So far, we've started to chip away at the mythology surrounding Kemper's crimes. His rage and fear towards his abusive mother, his desire for absolute control over women, and his unusual insight into his own behavior. Now that we've covered the broad strokes of the psychology behind Kemper's crimes, It's time to see those pieces in context. In a moment, we'll delve deep into Edmund Kemper's troubled childhood. Hi, listeners, it's Carter with some truly exciting news.

To commemorate the launch of Colts, Parcast's first book, Crime Junkies Ashley Flowers and Parcast founder Max Cutler are coming together on July 13th for an in-person and virtual experience you do not want to miss. The evening will take place in Los Angeles and feature a live Q&A about the book, an exclusive meet and greet, and a discussion on all things true crime. All ticket sales up to $125,000 will be matched by Max Cutler and donated to Season of Justice. A nonprofit founded by Ashley that provides funding to law enforcement agencies and families to help solve cold cases. It's an amazing organization near and dear to both Ashley and Max,

and another great reason to enjoy this wonderful night. And it's just days away, so visit parkast.com slash cults to register today. You can also catch the event virtually on Spotify Live, if you were unable to join us in person. All attendees will get a signed copy of the book, and a night they'll never forget. July 13th is fast approaching, so be sure. to join Ashley Flowers and Max Cutler for a very special evening celebrating the release of Parcast's new book, Colts, all for an incredible cause. Register today at parcast.com slash cults. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two

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Now back to the story. Thanks to all the interviews he's given over the years, Edmund Kemper has played an outsized role in creating his own mythology. There are even moments when his grisly crimes feel like a performance, as if he was planning to go down in his, But before we can really unpack the full impact of his infamy, it's helpful to understand

a twisted route that got him there. Born in 1948 in Santa Cruz, California, Kemper spent his childhood in a state of intermittent terror. His mother, Clarnel, was domineering and cruel, and made no effort to hide her disdain for her son. His parents had a deeply unhappy marriage, and Clarnel often projected her anger at her husband onto Kemper, who looked a lot like his father. as well as sharing his name.

When Kemper was nearing adolescence, Clarnel became convinced that he was dangerous. She worried that he was going to molest his younger sister and took extreme measures to prevent that. Starting from the age of 10, she forced Kemper to sleep in the windowless basement. The only way in and out was a trapdoor underneath the kitchen table, which was heavy and hard to move.

In other words, Kemper couldn't escape the basement unless someone let him out. Being kept in captivity, worsened whatever dark impulses were already simmering in Kemper. According to John Douglas, who interviewed Kemper in prison, he was made to feel dirty and dangerous without having done anything wrong. At least, that's how Kemper tells it. It's worth noting that Clarnel may have had good reason to worry.

Given her son's later behavior, it's possible she saw some genuine red flags that made her fearful for her daughter's safety. But even if that were the case, locking a child away like her child, a prisoner is unforgivable abuse, and it's possible that it turned her fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy. All alone in his pitch-dark basement cell, full of rage and shame, Kemper began to fantasize about violence. As we mentioned earlier, he rehearsed by mutilating his sister's dolls, and later escalated to the family cats. And he made no effort to hide his vicious streak. On one In one occasion, Kemper's sister discovered that he had a crush on one of his school teachers.

She teased him about it, asking why he didn't just go ahead and kiss her. Kemper's reply, if I kissed her, I'd have to kill her first. Kemper might have said this to shock his sister and to defiantly play up to his mom's expectations. If you say I'm sick, I'll show you sick. But he meant it. Whenever he fantasized about kissing a woman, she was always dead. Kemper's fascination with death went deep. One of his favorite games was called Gas Chamber.

He'd ask his younger sister to tie him up and then play the role of his executioner. After she flipped an imaginary switch, he would collapse and writhe around on the floor, play acting a slow death from gas inhalation. These grisly fantasies were Kemper's way of escaping from the reality of his home life. but in the fall of 1963, when he was 14, he finally escaped for real. He slipped out of the house while his mother was at work and hitched a ride 300 miles south to Van Nuys, California, where his father lived. When Kemper arrived at his dad's house, he begged to be taken in.

The elder Edmund was now remarried with a stepson and wasn't sure how his son would fit into the picture. Nonetheless, he agreed to let him stay for a while. But after only a few days, it became clear the arrangement wasn't going to work out. Edmund Jr.'s new wife didn't like Kemper. Supposedly, she was so unsettled by his presence that she developed migraines.

Forced to choose between his son and his new family, Edmund Jr. told Kemper that he couldn't live with them. But he wouldn't force him to go back to his mom's house either. He sent his son to live with the boy's paternal grandparents who had a ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was an isolated, hard-scrasseled. travel area, nothing like the city he'd grown up in. After just a short time on the farm, Kemper soon began to field he'd escaped the frying pan,

only to end up in the fire. His grandfather had dementia, so he was often effectively alone with his grandmother, who he hated. According to Kemper, his grandmother had a personality just like his mother's, and constantly derided both him and his grandfather. More specifically, Kemper said she emasculated them. This may be true, but it's all. also possible that by this point, Kemper would feel emasculated by the presence of any woman.

His rage toward his mother was all-consuming, and he projected it wherever he could. There was just one thing Kemper liked about his lonely new existence, hunting. Soon after his arrival, his grandfather gave him a 22-caliber rifle and taught him how to hunt rabbits and turkeys. Unsurprisingly, given his history, Kemper didn't restrain himself to wildlife. He began killing domestic farm animals and even local pets, realizing that he couldn't be trusted. His grandparents soon took the rifle away from him. But Kemper knew where the gun was kept.

He couldn't stop thinking about it and about what he'd like to do with it. He knew he was a time bomb, but he didn't want to be diffused. He knew the explosion was coming, and he was all too happy to let it happen. On August 27, 1964, Kemper was at home alone with his grandmother. She was sitting at the kitchen table reading. With no warning, Kemper took out the rifle and shot her in the head. For good measure, he shot her twice again in the back and then stabbed her over and over, making sure she was dead. Then he took a seat at the table across from her slumped body and waited for his grandfather to return from working on the farm. As soon as he saw the old man through the window, Kemper walked out into the yard and shot him

dead. After the fact, he made no attempt to cover up his crime. In fact, he called his mother and told her exactly what he'd done. Both during this phone call and once the police arrived, Kemper was completely calm. As they arrested him, an officer asked why he'd killed his grandparents. Kemper responded, I just wondered how it would feel to shoot Grandma. After a court psychiatrist diagnosed him as schizophrenic, Kemper was sent to the Atascadero State Hospital. a secure facility for the criminally insane. There it became clear that whatever was wrong with Kemper, it wasn't schizophrenia. Kemper appeared perfectly sane.

He was a model prisoner and was so popular with the hospital staff that they soon put him to work. He was trained to administer a psychological test to other prisoners, asking them questions about their crimes and their mental health history. Kemper took real pride in his work, but he was also mentally sucking away information that he knew could be useful to him. He paid close attention to how the tests worked and the terminology that was used. He wanted to know exactly how criminals like him were assessed. Then he used what he learned to manipulate his own psychiatrists, convincing them that he was a reformed character. And so, in the final weeks of 1969, about five years after he killed his grandparents,

Kemper was released into the custody of his mother. The authorities had no idea just what a bad idea this was. In their eyes, Clarnel was a respected, well-liked administrative assistant at the University of Santa Cruz, and she seemed more than willing to care for her son. What could go wrong? Besides, Kemper had been an exceptionally well-behaved prisoner, so they decided to give him a reward. The date they paroled him was his 21st birthday, which also happened to be just a week before Christmas. That meant Kemper would be home just in time for a double celebration with his dear mom. And benance to the court that had just released him, this reunion would be a horrific tipping point.

It would complete Kemper's evolution into one of history's most notorious monsters. Coming up, Kemper embarks on his sadistic killing spray. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen baby. favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen.

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Now back to the story. Six years after running away from home, 21-year-old Edmund Kemper was right back where he'd started. Clarnel had always told her son that he was sick and dangerous, and now that he'd proven her right, she went harder on him than ever before. By this stage, Clarnel was divorced for a third time and blamed Kemper for her bad luck and love. She told him that thanks to him,

she hadn't had sex with a man in five years. Given this, you might expect that she'd be eager for Kemper to start building a life of his own, but in fact, she seemed determined to sabotage him, at least when it came to other women, she was both dismissive and possessive of him. She sometimes took Kemper with her to work at the University of Santa Cruz. It's not clear why she did this,

but Kemper tried to take advantage of the opportunity. He'd hang out on the campus trying to pick up women. When his mother got wind of what he was doing, she mocked him. She told him, those women are too good for you. You could never get a woman like that. But Kemper knew she was wrong.

He could get a woman like that. Admittedly, maybe not in the way his mother meant. While none of the college co-eds he tried to pick up ever showed any interest in him, Kemper wasn't put off. He had a plan, and he was willing to be patient. He knew that in order to make his own way in the world, he had to find work, and he already had a career path in mind. In the early 1970s, he enrolled in community college and started trying to become a police officer.

Even after he was rejected from the Santa Cruz PD for being too tall, he was 6'9, Kemper still found a way to involve himself in the world of law enforcement. He started hanging out at a local cop bar named the jury room and befriended several officers there. According to Kemper himself, they considered him a friendly nuisance. Undeterred by his rejection from the police, Kemper kept trying to find work. Eventually, he landed a position with the California Highway Department. Once he was making enough money, he moved out of his mom's house into a small place of his home. Even then, he found it hard to get away from his mother.

Perhaps threatened by his new independence, Clarnel called her son constantly and would show up unannounced at his apartment. The only way to avoid her was to be home as little as possible. So whenever he wasn't at work, Kemper began taking long drives, with no particular destination in mind. During those aimless drives, the next stage of his plan came in. to focus. Kemper had sought out a job with the police department because he'd craved power. Now, he started envisioning a different way to find it. He fantasized about killing a woman so that he could possess her completely. And driving along the California highways, Kemper noticed just how many women were out there for the taking. They'd stand on the side of the road,

thumbs outstretched, waiting eagerly to get into a passing car. At the time, hitchhiking was undergoing a resurgence. Despite the obvious dangers, it had become synonymous with the counterculture. A whole generation of young people embraced hitching a ride as an anti-consumerist, free-spirited ride of passage. Kemper was only too happy to join in the movement. In early 1972, he began picking up young female hitchhikers and ferrying them to various destinations around Santa Cruz. But he didn't lay a hand on any of them. For now, he was just rehearsing. Kemper knew that his large size made him intimidating, so he worked hard to come off as a gentle giant. He used these early hitchhiking encounters to hone his persona, figuring out what put women at ease and what made them nervous.

Finally, after several months of practice, he finally felt ready to put his plan into action. On May 7, 1972, 23-year-old Kemper saw two young women hitchhiking on a freeway ramp. Mary Ann Pesha and Anita Lucchessa were, both students at Fresno State University, and were trying to hitch a ride back east. They were exactly the kind of co-eds Kemper had tried and failed to pick up on campus. But when he invited them into his car that day, they didn't hesitate, not when he had something they needed. Kemper drove Marianne and Anita out to a remote wooded area he knew well.

There he handcuffed them at knife point and bound them. At one point, Kemper's hand accidentally brushed against Anita's. breast and he quickly apologized. He later said he considered it improper to touch a woman sexually while she was still alive. Moments later, he stabbed both women to death. During the actual killing, he didn't feel much of anything. He didn't get a rush out of the violence itself. Rather, he was already preoccupied with what he knew would come next. They were going to be his. He bundled Marianne and Anita's bodies into his trunk. and drove them back to his apartment.

There, he mutilated them, cut off their heads, and took Polaroid pictures of them. Then, just as he'd fantasized about for so long, Kemper had sex with his victim's bodies. As we discussed earlier, Kemper had no real interest in living women. But once they were dead, in his mind, they became his possessions, his dolls. They couldn't reject him, and that made them infinitely more attractive. After finishing his repulsive ritual, Kemper put the women's remains into plastic bags and drove them out to a remote area of the hills near Santa Cruz. He buried their body parts in different locations and made sure to cover his tracks. It's striking that Kemper didn't seem to need any time to ramp up to this horrific ammo.

Mutilation, dismemberment, taking Polaroids of victims. These are all behaviors people think of when they imagine a textbook serial killer. Kemper was new to this, and yet he behaved as if he'd been doing it for years, because at least in his own mind, he had been. All those years of rehearsing had finally paid off. Afterward, he couldn't get Anita out of his head, so he periodically went back to the site where he'd buried her body, just to be near her again.

At first, the memory of the crime was enough to keep him sated, but not for long. Four months later, Kemper struck again. He kidnapped, raped, and murdered 15-year-old Aiko coup in September of 1972. The following day, he drove to an appointment with his probation psychiatrist, with Iko's dismembered body in the trunk of his car. In his notes from that day, the psychiatrist noted how much progress Kemper had made, so much, in fact, that he recommended that Kemper's juvenile record be permanently expunged. As far as his doctors were concerned, he was no longer a risk to anyone.

That's a pretty bold conclusion to reach. After all, it's not as if Kemper had committed petty theft. He'd killed his own grandparents eight years earlier and shown no remorse whatsoever. But Kemper's gentle giant persona was so convincing that even trained professionals couldn't see through it. His victims never stood a chance. Shortly after killing Iko, Kemper moved in with his mother once more

for reasons that aren't clear. And back under Clarnel's roof, his dark impulses intensified. Sometimes, while his mother was asleep at night, Kempers snuck into her room with a hammer. He walked slowly over to her bed where she lay facing upwards. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he gazed at her face,

the face he'd hated and feared for so many years. He held the hammer aloft, just a few feet from his mother's skull, and imagine what it would feel like to kill her. But he couldn't do it. Not yet. Every night he lowered the hammer and took himself back to bed. Around this time, Kemper began killing at a more frenzied pace,

and as more and more young women started turning up dead, fear began to spread in Santa Cruz. The university posted a warning to its female students, instructing them not to go out alone after midnight, to walk in pairs and to tell a friend if they were leaving campus. The notice ended with an all-capped sentence, imploring them not to hitching them. arrived. During the first two months of 1973, Kemper kidnapped and murdered three more young women,

18-year-old Cindy Shawl, 23-year-old Rosalind Thorpe, and 20-year-old Allison Lou. His MO remained the same, mutilation and necrophilia. But it was becoming increasingly clear, even to Kemper himself, that these victims were all surrogates for the one woman he really wanted to kill. After killing Cindy, he buried her sister. severed head in his mother's backyard, facing up toward her bedroom window. He did this as a kind of macabre joke. He'd always felt that his mother wanted people to look up to her. It bears taking a moment to really think about the significance of this act. Kemper went to the

trouble of bearing Cindy's head in a different location from the rest of her body, a location that would clearly tie her death to him, just for a laugh at his mother's expense. And the only person in on the joke was him. But perhaps Kemper knew that that would change one day. It was as if he was playing to an imaginary audience, sowing the seeds for the entertaining story he'd one day tell about his crimes. Or maybe he was simply trying to cheer himself up. Because truth be told, Kemper was starting to lose the will to kill.

He was exhausted, beaten down by years of trying to escape his mother, and he knew he was delaying the inevitable. His real target was right there for the table. On Easter weekend of 1973, Kemper was finally ready to stop procrastinating. Just before dawn, he walked into his mom's bedroom like he'd done countless nights before. But this time, when he raised the hammer, he brought it down onto her head with as much force as he could muster. Then, for good measure, he slit her throat. Watching his mother bleed out, Kemper said he was struck by how small she seemed.

for his entire life she'd been a formidable, terrifying force, but in the end, she was just as powerless as any of his other victims. And so he treated her just the same. Kemper decapitated his mother and had sex with her head. He also took out her larynx and put it down the garbage disposal. It was his final taunt. At long last, he said to himself, he'd found a way to silence her. Once again, Kemper was a way to silence her.

making a twisted joke for an audience that didn't yet exist. Consciously or not, he was starting to self-mythologize, seemingly performing for the history books. Looking down at his mother's body, Kemper knew he should be feeling something, not remorse, of course, but excitement or relief, anything. For years, his rage toward his mother had been his driving force. He'd redirected that rage first onto his grandparents, and later onto the young women who flagged him down for a ride. But now that he'd finally vanquished Clarnel herself, he felt strangely empty. And that alarmed him. His entire life had been building to this moment.

What was he supposed to do now? On a whim, he called his mom's best friend, Sally Hallett, and invited her over for dinner. When Sally arrived, Kemper knocked her out, strangled her to death, and then decapitated her. He said later that at the time he was thinking of making it look like the two had gone off on vacation together and vanished. It was a half-hearted act of desperation, and Kemper knew it. He was chasing a thrill that simply wasn't there anymore. He left Sally's decapitated head in his own bed and went to sleep in his mother's room.

The next day, he put the corpses in closets and left a note for the police. Then he went on the run. He drove east through Nevada and Colorado with the vague aim of outrunning the authorities, but after a few days, he realized that nobody's. was chasing him. In fact, nobody had even found his latest victim's bodies yet. He was exhausted and felt like he was losing his grip on reality. And he knew that unless he put a stop to a spree, he was going to spiral out of control and kill it random with no rhyme or reason. He hated that idea. And so, in late April of 1973, Kemper pulled over to a payphone at the side

of the road and turned himself in to the police. Speaking about his decision, he said, vision later, Kemper said, toward the end there, I started feeling the folly of the whole damn thing, and at the point of near exhaustion, near collapse, I just said to hell with it and called it all off. There's probably some truth in that, but it's also possible that Kemper was acting out of a narcissistic urge to control his own narrative. By turning himself in, he could retain the feeling of power that he'd always been chasing. When Kemper went to trial in October of 1973, his case was catnip for the media.

Charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, Kemper ticked a lot of stereotypical boxes for serial killers. He had mommy issues, was supposedly a genius, and consistently outsmarted the police. Kemper took the stand during his trial and tried to convince the jury that he was insane. He and his lawyers argued that there were two separate beings occupying his body, one a gentle, law-abiding citizen, and the other a vicious killer.

The jury wasn't convinced and declared Kemper sane and guilty on all counts. In yet another dramatic moment that seems to highlight his hunger to be seen as unique, Kemper asked for the death penalty. Specifically, he asked for death by torture. He didn't get his wish in that regard. He was sentenced to seven years to life for each of his crimes. Kemper remains behind bars in Vacaville, California to this day. But Kemper did get exactly what.

wanted in a broader sense. Through his testimony at trial and the hours and hours of interviews he's given from prison, he's been able to craft and shape his own legacy. That legacy is a terrifying one. But once you break down his mindset and his backstory, Kemper starts to feel a little smaller. His larger-than-life persona is less imposing when you understand the sad, twisted man behind the facade. And now that we've pulled back the curtain on Kemper, it's a little bit of the same. It's a little bit of time to turn our attention to another notorious killer, a man whose crimes shocked the world and forever shattered the illusion of safety in the suburbs. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers.

We'll be back next time with the next episode of our anniversary series about the mythology of American murderers. In episode two, we'll delve into a horrific murder spree that no one noticed until it was too late and explore how it changed the way people think. About Clowns. You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time.

Have a Killer Week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler, sound designed by Carrie Murphy, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, and Carly Madden. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Emma Diggins, Libdin, edited by Joel Callan, fact-checked by Haley Milliken, researched by Brian Petrus and

Chelsea Wood, and produced by Joshua Kern. Serial killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hi, it's Carter, here to remind you that a very special evening with crime junkies, Ashley Flowers, and Parcast founder Max Cutler, is just days away. It's an event celebrating the release of Parcast's first book, Colts, and you. can be a part of it virtually on Spotify Live or in person. The evening will take place in Los Angeles on July 13th and feature discussions about the book, a live Q&A, and more.

Plus, all ticket sales up to $125,000 will be matched by Max Cutler and donated to Season of Justice. A nonprofit founded by Ashley Flowers that provides financial resources to help solve cold cases and support families impacted by unsolved violent crimes. This has all the makings of being the true crime event of the year. So don't miss out. Register for your spot today at parcast.com slash cults. All attendees will receive a special signed copy of Parcast's new book, Cults.

That's pardcast.com slash cults to sign up today. 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. You in? Must be 21 to enter. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again.

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