Netlfix’s Mindhunter came out October 13th and everybody is already obsessed. Based on a real FBI agent John E. Douglas’s book, “Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit”, it tells how Douglas improved criminal psychology on police departments all over the world.
For those who are not familiar with profiling to catch criminals, it is basically an analysis of the crime scene to understand the behavior of the murderous. Most of the times is applied to catch serial killers as we know today.
The show presents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) as a parallel with Douglas, Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and Dra. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) also based in real people – Robert K. Ressler and Dra. Ann Wolbert Burgess. They worked in the Behavioral Science Unit of FBI, interviewing murderers to formulate concepts on criminal psychology. Most of the criminals revealed on the series are real, and we are going to tell a bit of their stories:
Edward Kemper
Source: Vulture
The first serial killer we know on the show is “Big Ed”, brilliantly played by Cameron Britton. Ed Kemper was accused to murder 10 people including his mother, starting with his grandparents at age 15. Mindhunter tells truthfully the story of one of the most fascinating characters in criminal history.
With completely troubled life, Kemper always had unusual behavior, so, after the first kill, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital which he left at 21 years old. He had dream of being a police officer, which was crashed after many disapprovals because of his height and weight – almost 7 feet tall with over 250 pounds (2,06m; 113 kg). Mindhunter presumes how that also contributed for his attitude later on.
Kemper’s victims were college girls that he kidnapped under the pretext of an innocent car ride. Horrendously, he decapitated this women and had sex with theirs heads.
Kemper turned himself to the police in1973. He remains in prison with 68 years old.
Jerry Brudos
Source: Metro UK
“The Shoe Fetish Killer” raises an interesting issue in the show about how a murderer becomes that cruel – was he born like that or the society and abuses made him that way? Brudos was awfully mistreated by his mother, who was disappointed that he turned out to be a boy instead of a girl, like she wanted.
Fascinated with female shoes, also dressed their clothes, it became a sex fantasy. Developed while he was in psychiatric hospital for abusing, hurting women in exchange of sex and shoes, Brudos realized that it was because he created a hatred of women.
Between 1968 and 1969, Brudos killed four women, keeping as trophies two pair of breasts and the left foot of his first victim, Linda Slawson, 19. After the murder, he used to masturbate himself with theirs high-heels.
He got arrested in 1969 and died of cancer in prison by 2006.
Richard Speck Source: Vulture
A tattoo with the phrase “born to raise hell” helped identify Speck as the murderer of eight women in 1966. A drunk night ended in the murderer killing and raping eight nurses in their own apartment in Chicago. Only one survived because she hidden under the bed and Speck did not saw it.
Speck has a bit of differences related to his crime in the show. Softening his crime but not his cruel personality – I’m referring to the epic bird scene – Mindhunter tells that he only raped one of the victims.
Richard Speck received a death penalty but the Supreme Court revised his case before he was executed. However, he died of a heart attack by 1991.
Darrel Gener Devier
Source: Vulture
Although all crimes above are absolutely terrible, the episode of Devier it’s the most disturbing one. Not only by the crime, but how Holden take it out a confession of the murderer.
The victim is a 12 year old girl that Devier premeditatedly planned raping her, but not her killing. He used to cut trees in the street of her house in Bartow County, Georgia. He watched her every day and even talked to her. Her innocence to be friendly to him leaded to a terrible crime.
Devier was electrocuted in 1995, 16 years after his arrest.
Monte Ralph Rissel
Source: Popsugar
The youngest of the list to start a criminal life, Rissel raped his first victim at age 14. Because he was still in high school, it became hard for the police to prove his crimes, however, they discovered that he used to scape classes.
Rissell was arrested when he was 19 years old for the rape of 12 women and the murder of five of them.
The rapist-murderer still alive, fulfilling four life sentences.
(Possible) Spoiler Alert!
The mystery murder of season 1 made people research and theorize which famous serial killer he may be. By the little hints that the show gave us, fans came to a conclusion that it may be Dennis Rader – the famous BTK serial killer.
We now can only hope that the next season will be as amazing as the first one, with more murder, drama and solving crimes!