Edmund Kemper
On May 7, 1972 Edmund Kemper began his series
of murders. His first two victims
were both students at Fresno State College.
They were hitchhiking to Stanford
University, but they made the tragic
mistake of excepting a ride from Kemper.
After driving them around for
while, he pulled into a remote deserted area. He
forced Anita Luchese into
the trunk of the car, and turned his attention to his
first victim Mary Ann
Pesce. He put in the back seat face down, and placed a
plastic bag over her
head. He then attempted to try to strangle her with a piece
of cloth. But,
his efforts were not successful at first, because even though she
was
handcuffed, she was able to bite a hole in the bag and to make Kemper
even
angrier the cloth broke. By this time Kemper became extremely frustrated
with
his efforts. He then proceeded to pull a knife and repeatedly stabbed
Mary Ann,
and eventually slashed her throat. Anita’s death was much quicker,
after
Kemper removed her from the trunk he stabbed her with a different
and larger
knife. She fought and screamed for little bit, but finally wore
down, and she to
died a senseless death. Afterward, Kemper drove around for a
while with the
bodies still in his car, while trying to decide what to do
with the bodies. He
eventually brought Anita’s body into his apartment, where
he undressed her and
dissected her body. He then beheaded both women’s
bodies. Kemper disposed of
Mary Ann’s body in the plastic bag he tried to
suffocate her with, and buried
her body. Kemper later lead the police to the
location of her body. He kept
their heads for a while before dumping them
into a ravine. Anita’s remains
were never found. Kemper drew no suspicion
from these two murders, so he
continued to prowl. On September 14, 1972, he
picked up Aiko Koo, a
fifteen-year-old dancer of Korean descent. She was on
her way to dance class
when she became tired of waiting for the bus and
decide to hitchhike. Like his
first two victims Aiko made the fatal mistake
of hitching a ride with Edmund
Kemper. Aiko figured Kemper’s plan out and
began to panic. Kemper was able to
convince her that he was going to shoot
himself, and if she did not try to
signal the police she would not be harmed.
He then drove the two of them into
the mountains and turned the car off of
the main road. He tried to suffocate her
by taping her mouth shut and
sticking his fingers in her nostrils. But this did
not kill her, it only
rendered her unconscious and she awoke moments later.
Kemper then began
to suffocate her again, and this time he did not stop until
she ceased to
breathe completely. He then pulled her out of the car and raped
her limp
body. He proceeded to strangle her with her own scarf, and when he
was
positive she was dead he placed her body in the trunk and drove away from
the
scene. From there, he left for his mother’s house, but not before
stopping at
a local bar for a couple of beers. Periodically he would open the
trunk and
admire his great conquest. Later that night he took Aiko’s body
into his
apartment and placed it on his bed. He then dissected her body as he
had done to
Mary Ann and Anita, and disposed of her head and hands in a
different location
than the rest of her body. Very few parts of her remains
were ever found, and
her disappearance was not thought to be associated with
that of Mary Ann and
Anita. Four months had gone by. Victims of other
murderers had turned up, but
still Kemper drew no suspicion. Even though
Kemper was legally aloud to buy a
gun do to a prior crime, he had no problem
purchasing a .22 caliber handgun. But
he feared that the police would find
out about the gun, and that lead him to
step up his killing activities
beginning that very day. He picked up a woman
named Cindy and drove her into
the hills near Watsonville, where he placed her
into the trunk and shot her
with his brand new gun. Edmund brought the body to
his mother’s apartment in
Aptos where had recently moved back in. He waited
for his mother Clarnell to
leave for work the next morning, and then he had sex
with her lifeless body.
He then dissected her body and removes the bullet from
her skull. He buried
her head in his mother’s back yard and disposed of the
rest of her body by
throwing it over a cliff. This time the body was retrieved
within 24 hours,
but Kemper did not worry about being caught. On month later he
was ready to
kill again. On the night of February 5, 1973, Edmund and his mother
had a
monumental argument. He stormed out of the apartment, fired up and ready
to
kill again. Again, he picked up a hitchhiker by the name of Rosalind. He
then
picked up a girl named Alice. She had no worries about getting into the
car
because of the presence Rosalind. After riding around for a while, Kemper
did
not even bother to stop the car to kill his victims. He drew
Rosalind’s
attention to the pretty view, and when she turned her head, he
placed one bullet
in the back of her head. He then immediately pointed the
gun to the back seat
and fired a few shots at Alice. She did not die right
away, but he shot her at
point blank as soon as they got out of town. He
quickly stopped the car and put
the bodies into the trunk. After stopping for
gas he went on to his mother’s
apartment, which he left again quickly
claiming to need cigarettes. Once he
pulled the car onto the street, he
opened the trunk and beheaded the bodies. The
next day he took Alice’s body
into his room and had sex with her body. He also
brought in Rosalind’s head
so that he could remove the bullet from her skull.
He drove away to
dispose of most of the body parts, and on to Pacifica to get
rid of their
heads and hands. The last of Kemper’s murders was on Easter
weekend, a month
after he killed Rosalind and Alice. Edmund finally decided it
was time to get
rid of his mother who had caused him so much mental anguish. At
5:15 AM
he went and grabbed a hammer from the kitchen and hit his mother in the
head
and then slashed her throat while she was sleeping. He then proceeded
to
behead his mother’s body and removed her larynx in the process. He hid
her
body in the closet and left the apartment. That afternoon he decided that
if
another body was found with his mother’s, that he not draw any suspicion.
He
got in touch with his mother’s friend Sara Hallet and invited her over
for
dinner that evening. When Sara arrived Kemper strangled her, first
manually and
the n with the scarf he got from Aiko. From there he put Sara’s
body on his
bed and sometime that night he had sex with her. On Easter Sunday
morning he
took Sara’s car and headed toward Pueblo, Colorado where he was
eventually
captured after leading the police to his location. II.
Biohistorical Information
Edmund Kemper’s childhood parallels that of
many serial killers. His parents,
Clarnell and E. E. Kemper Jr. had a
stormy marriage, and they were separated by
the time Kemper was nine. They
divorced four years later, and Kemper longed for
a father through a
succession of stepfathers. In their new home in Helena,
Montana his
dominant mother and sisters belittled him, as they grew older Kemper
was
banished to the basement, because they felt that sharing a room with
his
sisters was inappropriate. Not that his parents did not try, both of them
were
much more engaged in his upbringing and wellbeing than many parents
were. But
Edmund was difficult. He was afraid of being hurt by others in
school and was
unable to attain friendships with his peers. The pain of his
parent’s divorce
was tough for Edmund to deal with. He entertained fantasies
of sex and violence
at a young age. He tortured animals and beheaded them
like he would later do to
his victims. At his request his mother sent to Los
Angeles to live with his
father and stepmother. In 1963 Edmund was sent to
live with his grandparents in
North Fork, California. Although not happy
living with grandparents, Kemper
showed improvement in his behavior at
school. His teachers said that he was
quiet and meek. He made average grades
and drew no attention to himself, aside
from his size. He would shoot
rabbits, gophers, and birds (although he was
warned not to) but it evidently
contained his aggression. During the summer he
went back to stay with his
mother, but within two weeks he was sent back to his
grandparents. Upon his
return, his grandmother had stated that Kemper had
regressed. His violent
fantasies had returned. This time his fantasies starred
his grandmother whom
he found a nag. He would imagine her in the outhouse and
shot it full of
holes. He took it even farther to aim the gun at his
grandmother, and
imagined her what it would be like to kill her. His grandmother
would take
the .45 caliber pistol that belonged to his grandfather, when she
left the
house, because she feared that it would fall into Edmund’s hands.
Edmund
took this lack of trust as an insult, and a fire began to grow inside
him. On
August 27, 1964, Edmund sat at the kitchen table with his grandmother
going
over a children’s book she was writing. She noticed that Edmund had an
odd
and frightening look on his face that she had seen on many occasions
before.
After being told to stop looking at her like that he grabbed his
gun and said he
was going to shoot gophers. His grandmother warned him not to
shoot the birds.
As he left he watched her through the screen door. He
then took aim and fired
once, then he fired twice more and hit her in the
back with both shots. He
wrapped her head in a towel and dragged her into the
bedroom. Shortly after, his
grandfather returned home, and Kemper shot him in
the back of the head. Edmund
was upset because of what he had done and also
because he knew he would be
caught. Confused, he called his mother and she
advised him to call the sheriff.
He quickly confessed to both murders,
saying that he often thought of killing
his grandmother, but his grandfather
was a mercy killing. Because he thought
that his grandfather would have had a
heart attack if he had seen his dead wife.
Edmund was held in a juvenile
hall while the authorities decided what to do with
him. A psychiatrist
diagnosed him as paranoid and psychotic, and he was
committed to the
Atascadero State Hospital. He entered the facility on December
6, 1964.
He was not yet sixteen years old. At Atascadero State Hospital Edmund
took an
extensive battery of test and began to gain insight, if not in the
nature of
his own crimes, but what others thought of them. He began to work hard
to
learn the language treatment and appearing recovered. He worked in
the
psychology lab and helped administer tests. He took pride in doing a good
job,
which his doctors interpreted as a very good sign. He got to know the
others
that were at the hospital, including serial rapists who shared stories
about
their crimes with him. From this his violent sexual fantasies became
intricate
and intense. And took note what the incarcerated rapists had done
wrong.
Although he hadn’t yet made any concrete plan, he knew each fact,
and each
story would be useful to him later. He them claimed religious
conversion, and
took to looking up any biblical reference he heard. When
Edmund was released in
1969 the changes in the outside world shocked him.
He began to attend a
community college near the hospital, while he was still
under the supervision of
the Youth Authority. Edmund longed to become a law
enforcement officer, but
those hopes were quickly dashed. These hopes were
dashed because he was too
tall. To at least feel like a cop he went out and
purchased a motorcycle. Edmund
was doing very well in school. And because of
that he was paroled for another
eighteen months. His doctors strongly advised
him not to return to his mother
who had relocated to Santa Cruz. Against
their advice the Youth Authority sent
him right back to her. His mother now
held a responsible position at the
University of California at Santa
Cruz. The time without Edmund gave her several
years of peace. But upon the
arrival of her son, the arguments began again. To
avoid the arguments with
his mother, Edmund would frequent the Jury Room, which
was a bar for off –
duty cops. There he was well – liked, and even referred
as "Big Ed." Edmund
took various jobs as a laborer, and finally secured one
with the Division of
Highways, which enabled him to move out of his mother’s
home. Still, his
mother continued to berate and belittle him. He wrecked his
motorcycle, and
then purchased a car that resembled an unmarked police car. He
put in a radio
transmitter and microphone, and also a large whip antenna. He
then began to
pick up hitchhikers. Small, pretty hitchhikers. He delivered them
safely to
their destinations, and privately, he indulged in his violent
fantasies,
imagining what he would do to his captive hitchhikers when he finally
got all
the details taken care of. He began to outfit his car for his future
plans.
He took off the antenna, and he rigged the passenger doors so they could
not
be opened from the inside. Plastic bags, knives, blankets, and guns
were
placed in the trunk. Edmund picked up girl after girl, treating each as
an
experiment, waiting for his moment. It took a while, more than a year of
picking
up girls and letting them go, but on May 7, 1972, Edmund’s moment
finally
came.
Bibliography
www.angelfire.com,
www.crimelibrary.com