PSYCHOLOGY OF A SERIAL KILLER

by Mattia Laudi

For some species of animals it’s perfectly normal to attack and kill each other in order to provide food for 

themselves or their babies, or even in the mating season. For the human being it isn’t, we are a social 

animal, born to live in society,  meant to create a family.

Sometimes it happens that a mother or a father abuses of their son and his mind grows and forms in a 

completely different way than normal, and in the end it turns against his own species.

Crime scene

People with violent tendencies, those that have 

committed three or more homicidies are called 

“serial killers.”

The typical trait of the serial killer is leaving a 

certain amount of time between one murder

and another. This period is called emotional 

“cooling-off,” when the criminal plans another 

murder.

The crucial question when we are having to do with a serial killer is “why is he killing?”. In the last 

years with the work of profilers, psychiatrists, psychologists and detectives we discovered what are the 

most common characteristics of this killers. For the most part of these people had serious cerebral 

damages during childhood, but this trait seems not to be enough to define a murderer. Another typical 

aspect that causes their behavior is the hate towards one’s mother, particularly in the case of a son. The 

hate for the mother may evolve and turns into hate towards the women in general and mysoginism. The 

grudge is too strong to bear and can lead to killer fantasies.

What lately seems to be confirmed is that every serial killer seems to be subjected to violence during 

youth. This usually causes mental shock, with a resulting a distorted view of the emotions and life in 

general and usually they lose the ability of proving empathy towards other human beings.

The thing that is really surprising is that during the act of the murder, the serial killer is exactly conscious 

of what he is doing, and he is able to distinguish between good and bad, but simply he doesn’t care.

Police car parked

The killer can find the motivation of his acts in 

really different aspects of his life:  if he enjoys

abusing the victim because of sexual reasons, and 

he will be called a lust killer, or for the simple fun 

in daring the authorities and the law, in this case he 

will be a thrill-killer.

Another typical classification of a serial killer is the “missionary,” who is motivated by an ethical-moral 

mission, and usually his victims are a precise category of people such as prostitutes, gays, drug addicted 

and drunkards. Very often this kind of person had a negative impact in the killer’s life, like one of the 

parents or a very close relative.

Another kind is the visionary, with really strong mental disorders, who suffers from serious 

hallucinations that show him superior entities (usually God or Satan), that tell him to commit crimes in  

order to obey to a divine plan.

The “dominator” has particular issues with people and usually he is socially inadequate. He wants to 

dominate his victim, have the full control to take his revenge against the society.

He often uses drugs or alcohol to neutralize the resistance. All these classifications are then divided in  

two bigger branches: organized and disorganized.

Organized ones are usually smarter then the avarage, first-born and live with a partner. He abuses of 

alcohol or drugs and during the act he keeps a full control of his emotions. After the murder he hides the 

corpse and usually doesn’t leave any tracks of the event and follows the police investigation.

The disorganized is sexually inadequate and generally not as smart as other serial killers. He usually is at the

Policemen in action

margins of the society. He knows the victim and doesn’t hide the body. He leaves tracks of the

event and often lives near the crime scene.

A serial killer falls into the category that better 

reflects the past of the person. The actions of

the killer will, in a certain way, reflect all the 

greatest suffering in his life. For instance, a killer

named Donato Bilancia suffered from the loss of 

his brother that committed suicide after his wife left him, by jumping off a train; Donato killed three 

women that were travelling on trains as revenge against all the women, because in his mind that was the 

problem that caused him a great pain.

Basically in the mind of the serial killer, that once was a normal person, great pains or abuses and 

violence change the perception of empathy, and all the emotions that allow us to coexist with other 

human beings. The person looks for revenge and a way to exorcize his fears and suffering. Selecting the 

“category” of people that caused his troubles and starts actions aimed to reveal the society blamed what 

pains he suffered.