Question for true crime aficionados on serial killers

[Graphista]

Been binge watching criminal minds lately.

Leads me to googling real life serial killers who are often referenced on the show. I noticed a LOT of them were born in the decade after wwii ended.

A little more investigation revealed its recognised there was a "peak" of serial killings in the late 60's, 70's and 80's.

Now I know there are a lot of theories as to what "creates" a serial killer with most experts agreeing it's a "perfect storm" type deal

Biological
Psychological
Socialisation

But on the biological aspect I'm amazed after googling how little research seems to have been done as to the seemingly obvious correlation between quite a number of them being the children of parents who were involved in or exposed to nuclear testing/radiation.

I'm not daft enough to think I'm the first to consider this but I'm struggling to find any info on it.

You think radiation causes serial killers?

I think it could be a factor in making someone be predisposed to becoming one yes.

Radiation can cause all kinds of birth defects that includes brain physiology which is contributory to many illnesses and disabilities that predispose people to violence.

but how do you know that these individuals' parents were exposed to radiation ?

I actually thought this was a known phenomenon, but nothing to do with radiation and more to do with men who were exposed to the horrors of war, or children who were raised by a generation of traumatised men?

As in it's not just a radiation thing but a more age related thing

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-45324622

This article explains it better :) it does give a biological factor (lead exposure) as a contributing factor.

The lead exposure theory has nothing to do with the war, though — it’s about car emissions and lead in old paint. And @CloudyVanilla, if that were so, it would suggest there should be far more serial killers in Europe where more people fought in, and were traumatised by, WW2, rather than the US, surely?

Most theories suggest it’s not a one-factor thing — violent crime was high in the 80s in general, people moved around more, DNA evidence wasn’t yet in use, so murders harder to detect, big info-sharing crime databases in their infancy etc?

I read a book on them once- biggest trend I noticed was that many of them were raised by mothers who resorted to sex work while their kid hid under the bed etc.

If you listen to a podcast called Making a Monster, the Drs on there will tell you that it's mostly nurture not nature that creates a serial killer.

Also I think contributing factors could be firstly DNA testing - maybe lots of guys who would like to commit these kind of crimes don't because they know the chances of getting caught are higher. And what allows them to resist their urges is the ready availability of porn etc on the internet.

A lot of serial killers have a major head injury before their first kill.

Another trend I’ve noticed, as an American (because we have so many), is that the killers often dealt with repressed feelings of homosexuality (often their fathers were God-fearing, dominant, violent types who would mock their child for appearing gay, with a nice big hammering of rejection. The mothers had no voice and couldn’t shield their children, totally cowed by their husbands ).

70s and 80s America was a drug den. Drug use had an unprecedented grip on our society like never before and it crossed all social lines.

A lot of serial killers have a major head injury before their first kill.

Absolutely and what’s more, repeated head injuries at the hands of parents, typically a father.

There's actually probably more weight behind the suggestion that environmental lead levels (due to petrol/car pollution) are a bigger risk factor. The drop off in serial killers coincides with the introduction of unleaded fuel

Sorry just realised that's already been mentioned!
Yes also agree with childhood trauma etc
It is multifactorial. There's the interesting case of the neuro doctor who performed mri's on lots of killers then did himself and found he has a 'serial killer brain' - his family have a history of killers too, but his incredibly loving childhood basically overrode his biology

Head injury is one of the most common factors in serial killers. If lead and or radiation levels were the case; would there be an equal amount of females killing in the same way?
Does the sex difference suggest nurture is more of a factor too?
Aileen Wornoss(apologies for spelling) was not socialised really, living in a car near the family home in all weathers from her early teens and then wandering the highways from there on in (rough sketch). Was this a reason why she became a killer in a male format?

Add better criminal forensics to the list too. I suspect there are a number of murderers in prison who'd have killed more, but they got caught using tech not available before.
Lead in the environment is probably a factor too.

Graphista with regard to the seemingly obvious correlation between quite a number of them being the children of parents who were involved in or exposed to nuclear testing/radiation can you please name all the serial killers whose parents were involved in nuclear testing or whose parents were exposed to radiation?

I'll wait.

Early parenting. Abuse, physical, emotional and sexual. Neglect in all its forms.

Wow people have taken this surprisingly personally 😅

The article I linked wasn't supposed to be proof of the war directly having an impact, I just found it while googling and thought it would be interesting as it literally gives some answers to ops question.

I have been listening to Serial Killers podcast recently which I've only just come across, I've listened to episodes about 4 different killers and 2 out of the 4 have had accidental head injuries not caused by fathers/loved ones, which I found really interesting (the Gorilla Killer and the Classified Ad Rapist)

I thought they were putting too much stock in the head injuries but it definitely seems to contribute directly to violent behaviour which is very interesting from a psychological and moral stand point.

Totally agree/understand its multifactorial.

My thinking came about because it was mentioned on the show about many serial killers being raised by men who’d served in wwii but in looking up the particular serial killers mentioned in addition many of their fathers had served in areas related to nuclear testing.

In one episode it was mentioned that a particular area of California at one point was a serial killer capital and it was a place a lot of nuclear testing had occurred.

I’m aware of the theories/thinking behind lead poisoning and head injuries/brain injuries too but radiation can also cause poorly developed/damaged frontal lobes too.

And yes definitely noticed the “nurture” aspects too. As I said in op I’m aware it’s broadly a trifecta, a “perfect storm” occurring:

Damage to frontal lobe either developmentally or as a result of illness or injury

Psychological - being predisposed to psychopathy/sociopathy

Socialisation - abusive Parenting from the obvious physical abuse to the emotional trauma caused by witnessing abuse and things like a mothers sex work

All contribute. But I was just surprised so little research or interest in a possible nuclear/radiation factor.

“There's the interesting case of the neuro doctor who performed mri's on lots of killers then did himself and found he has a 'serial killer brain'” this is kinda what I mean though - WHY have they those brains? Is it purely genetics or could it be in some cases due to radiation exposure or damaged Sperm?

Part of it is that mothers are still often the focus of the potential cause of genetic conditions when there seems little research into sperm quality.

“would there be an equal amount of females killing in the same way?” Perhaps any damage caused by such factors is more likely to affect boys? Is carried on Male creating genetic material? Influenced by testosterone?

“Add better criminal forensics to the list too. I suspect there are a number of murderers in prison who'd have killed more, but they got caught using tech not available before.” I’m sure true for some but I’m not sure better forensics would particularly deter people with a strong urge to kill/hurt others.

Certainly I wouldn’t consider the criminal justice system a massive deterrent even in USA. I fear many such men “only” rape instead and we all know the issues with getting those cases to court let alone a conviction! I wonder indeed if a significant number of past serial killers were really “just” interested in raping and did so in order to kill potential complainants and as it seems now easier than it has been for several decades to get away with even serial rape they’re just not bothering as they’re fairly confident their victims are unlikely to report let alone get a conviction.

@shatnerswig

Ok I’ll admit to maybe getting things slightly wrong as the exact occupations of many are unknown but it certainly isn’t a huge stretch that many men of fathering age/stage in the 40’s and 50’s particularly in the USA in California, nevada and New Mexico would likely have served in the military and been exposed to radiation.

But mainly from a little more digging it’s looking more like the killers themselves could have been exposed.

Berkowitz served time in Korea himself

William Bonin served in the Air Force as a an aerial gunner at a time when such roles were often trained for at places nuclear testing was also happening

Edmund Kemper - also born and raised in California when a lot of testing was done

Randy Kraft served time in California working on test planes

Lake and Ng both served in the military and in areas with access to armaments

Dennis Rader served time in Japan

Arthur Shawcross served in Vietnam and in USA as an armoured - at the time he was serving very likely involved nuclear armaments

Charles Whitman trained as a marine sniper in 1959 he served at camp Lejeune which had major issues with contamination of water and has apparently been discovered to have been used as/near to a radioactive dump site.

Quite a few serial killers trained and served as marines around this time and could well have been affected by this issue.

Robert Lee Yates served as a pilot in a variety of war zones

As I say I completely agree it's multifactorial with parental abuse seeming to be the main factor, but of course sadly millions are abused by parents and they also don't become serial offenders so that's not a sole answer either (plus there's been cases where serial offenders have claimed they were abused and it's been proven they weren't).

I just find it interesting.

What about all serial killers pre-war? No radiation or nuclear testing for them.

And you think it’s more likely that exposure to radiation in the army made them all serial killers than they all liked killing so they joined the army so they could legitimately kill people......?

What about all serial killers pre-war?

At no point have I said I think it's the ONLY cause.

But there is acknowledgement that there was a big spike in serial killing and the number of serial killers around especially in the USA in the 60's, 70's and early 80's and those serial killers were born during/soon after wwii when the amount of radiation in the world also spiked.

Then there was quite a sharp decline in the generations after

@FenellaMaxwell I fully acknowledge these were people already predisposed to being and enjoying being violent, but WHY? And it's also possible that prior to exposure they were able to control their urges but that exposure - to both more violence/the ravages of war AND radiation and possibly other toxins too is what led to them moving from being "ordinarily" violent people into people who couldn't control that urge to kill.

There was a spate of women rapes and murders in the late 70’s/80’s. Pre DNA testing, there was an interesting program on that recently. Where men were just getting away with it.
Sadly it’s not stopped it, but it’s not at the levels it was.