A to Z Challenge: E (serial killers)

Edmund Kemper — Co-ed Killer

Fast Facts:

  • Born in 1948 in California
  • Killed 6 women and several members of his family, initially to see what it felt like
  • He called the police and confessed, although at first they didn’t believe him
  • Charged with 8 counts of murder
  • Initially convicted of killing his grandparents for which he served 6 years, he is currently serving 8 concurrent life sentences

The middle child, Kemper lived with his alcoholic mother and two sisters after his parents divorced. He used to cut off his sisters’ dolls and dreamt of killing his mother but started by killing the family cats. When he was 10 his mother, who he blamed for all his problems, forced him to live in the basement as she feared he’d hurt his sisters. Eventually he was sent to live with his grandparents.

Kemper hated his grandparents’ farm and his rage built when they took away his rifle after he killed small animals. At 15 he shot and killed his grandparents, to “see what it felt like”. The California Youth Authority determined he was a paranoid schizophrenic with a very high IQ. He was sent to a maximum-security facility for mentally ill criminals.

Despite advice to the contrary, after his release Kemper moved in with his mother, eventually finding a job after being rejected as a state trooper. He befriended some state troopers, getting a training-school badge and handcuffs and owning a police-style car.

After a vehicle accident he could no longer work. He focused on his murderous thoughts, starting to store tools such as gun, knife and handcuffs. He started picking up hitchhiking young women he’d noticed in the area and letting them go. Eventually he started killing them (before moving to a university campus for victims), then taking the bodies back to his apartment where he removed their heads and hands. It was reported he also engaged in necrophilia. Kemper stabbed, strangled and/or shot his victims, leaving their body parts in different locations.

His last two victims were his mother and her friend. He then fled the area and called the police to confess his crimes. At first the police wouldn’t believe the person they knew was a killer, but he led them to all the evidence to prove he was the Co-Ed Killer.

He was charged on 8 counts of murder. Kemper said he should be tortured to death but received 8 concurrent life sentences which he is serving at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

18 comments on “A to Z Challenge: E (serial killers)

  1. Wow… well, I’m glad he was rejected as a State Trouper. Can you imagine? Best not. :-\

  2. Yikes! Another scary one. But I sense some discrimination here……….. So far there have only been men. Are there any lady serial killers!?

    Dena
    https://denapawling.blogspot.com/

    • “A” was female (and yes, I have a couple more over the alphabet). But there are definitely more male serial killers than female.

  3. This is the creepiest one so far. I can’t believe he was released after killing his grandparents!

    End of the World by McFly

    • I think the only reason he was released was because of his age when he killed his grandparents – although I would have thought killing your grandparents at 15 would have been more of a reason to throw away the key!

  4. Whew, this is one seriously sick puppy. The scariest thing in this story, for me, is the neglect by the people around him. Did his mother and grandparents try to get help for him? Didn’t the police know of his background? It seems as if he was almost unwillingly ramping up his activities just to get people to notice and stop him. The fact that he desired to be tortured to death is very sad.

    E is for (The) End of Absence

    • He definitely should have had help from a young age, but I think his mother was scared of him, so perhaps feared what he would do if she tried to intervene?

  5. A very disturbed individual with a great deal of rage. Very glad he is locked away where he cannot hurt anyone else or himself.
    Tasha
    Tasha’s Thinkings – Movie Monsters

    • It must be tough for the State Troopers who considered him their friend – to have the killer right under their noses and not realise.

  6. Kemper’s a very damaged individual. And if he could befriend State Troopers, then it must not always have showed on the outside.
    Sophie
    Ghostly Inspirations – Sophies A to Z

    • I agree, Sophie. I wonder if wanting to be/friending the State Troopers is like arsonists who are volunteer firefighters, they like to be able to be involved in the aftermath of their actions.

  7. What a nasty piece of work.

  8. That type of person is the scariest . . . killing someone to see what it was like. I can only imagine his mother’s guilt at having sent him to live with the grandparents, only to have him kill them.

    • It must have been heartbreaking for her. She was just trying to protect her other children.

  9. He suggested he should be tortured to death, and I agree. What a monster!

    Returning your visit from
    https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/2018/04/e-is-for-edmonton.html

    • I actually wonder why he suggested that – sympathy? Claim mental illness? Attention? Perhaps he knew it would never happen so he could say it without risk? Guess we’ll never know.

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