Mariah Fisher

ENG 1201

22 November 2019

Are Serial Killers Born or Made?

For decades, serial killers have been a popular topic in our culture in the United States.

Whenever we hear names like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, or Jeffrey Dahmer, we can’t help

but perk an ear. I know I’m not alone in my fascination with them, which is why I decided to

write about this topic for my paper. For years I’ve been interested in serial killers and their

unique stories. I’ve watched numerous documentaries and read articles about the most infamous

serial killers in history and it has always left me with one question…are serial killers born with

the predisposition to kill or has their environment shaped them into a killer? After conducting my

own research, I have finally come to the conclusion that even though your genetics play a huge

role in who you are, your environment is the deciding factor in who you will become.

Before we dive into the fascinating and complex world of serial killers, we need to understand

what the definition of a serial killer is. A serial killer is a person who carries out at least three

murders over more than a month with an emotional cooling off period in between. There are

some misconceptions about serial killers that are important to point out. The first being that all

serial killers are insane or more widely referred to as psychopaths. While some might actually

have a mental illness, most were never diagnosed with having one. Usually, serial killers show

what is known as antisocial personality disorders, such as sociopathy or psychopathy; but these

are not considered to be mental illnesses by the American Psychiatric Association (Bonn). This

meaning that in order for a serial killer to be classified as legally insane by the court, they have to

not understand that their murders were wrong. Another misconception is that all serial killers are

evil geniuses. This has been portrayed in the media and it’s actually not accurate at all. While
 Fisher 2

some serial killers come off as highly intelligent because they’re able to keep from being caught

by the police (like the Zodiac killer) it’s actually more of the obsession and psychopathic

personality that keeps them from being detected for long periods of time.

So what is a psychopath exactly? In James Fallon’s book, “The Psychopath Inside: A

Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain”, he tells of his own story of

discovering that he had the brain of a psychopath after conducting brain scans on himself and his

family (just out of plain curiosity of what he might find). According to Fallon there is no real

psychiatric diagnosis of a psychopath, but as previously mentioned, it’s usually related to having

antisocial personality disorder. The traits of psychopathy can be sorted into four different

categories and then scored on what is known as the PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist, Revised).

The first is the interpersonal category that encompasses traits like superficiality, grandiosity, and

deceitfulness. The second is the affective category that includes; lack of remorse, lack of

empathy, and refusal to accept responsibility for one’s actions. The third is the behavioral

category which includes traits like impulsivity, lack of goals, and unreliability. Then finally, the

antisocial category includes; hotheadedness, a history of juvenile delinquency, and a criminal

record (Fallon 12-13). It’s important to note that not all psychopaths are impulsive or physically

violent, which is why there is also another category where some people show strong signs of

psychopathic traits but are not murderers and that’s where James Fallon falls.

Fallon continues to talk more in depth about the brain and discusses how he has studied about

15 different serial killers’ brain scans (many that were famous, but he was unable to say whose

for legal reasons) and they all had similar things in common. Fallon’s description of a

psychopathic killer’s brain is fairly complex, but to simplify there are two areas of the brain that

particularly stand out. The first thing is that they had significant decreased activity in their orbital
 Fisher 3

and prefrontal cortex. In a healthy brain this area prevents people from not only being impulsive,

but also effects their social behavior, ethics, and morality. The next thing is that they had damage

to the front of their temporal lobe, including their amygdala, which is in charge of processing

emotions, thus leading to their cold behavior (Fallon 57). All these areas of loss in the brain

make up this major chunk that regulates emotion. Since psychopaths have this low functioning

part of their brain, the other part of it is almost supernormal. So without them having the bother

of conscience and empathy, they’re able to appear like they care and fool everyone around them.

Fig. 1. This is the brain scan that shows James Fallon’s brain on the right and his son’s on the left

(Fallon 63).

The next part in Fallon’s book describes his bloodline and how he discovered that he actually

came from two long lines of killers. This leads him into discussing how our genetics affect our

behavior. Basically, in many mental disorders like bipolar disorder, sleep and eating disorders,

schizophrenia, and psychopathy, the neurotransmitter, serotonin, breaks down this enzyme that

produces a gene called MAOA. This gene is associated with aggressive behavior and is often
 Fisher 4

referred to as the “warrior gene.” When someone possesses this gene, it leads to an

underproduction of this enzyme and you end up with too much serotonin. That sounds great

considering serotonin is known as the “feel good” chemical in your brain, but according to

Fallon, the brain is way more complex than that and you never want too much of anything. For

example, let’s say someone that has this gene is in a situation where they become really angry.

There’s lots of serotonin being released but not enough receptors and neurons to turn that anger

on and off. This leads to some of the key characteristics seen in serial killers such as aggression

and impulsiveness.

If a serial killer has all these brain functions of a psychopath and the genetics of an aggressive

and violent person, then one might assume that this genetic makeup is bound to produce a serial

killer. Well, in Fallon’s book he states this analogy, “The genome is the book you inherited at

birth, the epigenome is the way you read that book” (Fallon 94). To break that down, a genome

is the complete set of genes that make up a cell or a whole organism and the epigenome is like

alterations to the genetic code that can be brought about by environmental stressors. At a young

age you can be drastically affected by your environment. If you’re not being raised in a nurturing

and loving home, this can cause damage to your emotional and cognitive development and later

behavior as an adult. What I came to understand after reading Fallon’s book, especially reading

about his own experience with having the brain and a few similar traits of a psychopath, is that

you can have all those things but the childhood abuse is what triggers that darkness inside you

that ultimately can make you a killer.

According to Nicola Davies in her article, “From Abused Child to Serial Killer: Investigating

Nature vs Nurture in Methods of Murder”, there are four types of serial killers: lust and rape,

anger, power, and financial gain. There are also three categories of child abuse; physical,
 Fisher 5

psychological, and sexual. She states in her article, “Data shows that a much higher percentage

of serial killers were abused as children than the population in general. It certainly makes sense

that the type of abuse received as a child could influence a serial killer’s behavior and choice of

victim” (Davies). There is actually an association and almost a predicter of what type of serial

killer someone could be that suffered from a certain type of childhood abuse. For example,

physical childhood abuse is found to be associated with the rape/lust type of serial killer as well

as showing behaviors like, carrying out the murder quickly, tying up the body, and leaving the

body at the crime scene. Another example is with cases of serial killers having experienced

psychological abuse as a child. This type of abuse was usually associated with the killer using

torture with their victims (Davies).

There are many similar characteristics and traits that are common in serial killers, some that

you can even detect at an early age. There are three childhood traits that characterize serial

killers as being potential psychopaths. It is known as the Macdonald triad and it includes; arson,

bedwetting, and the torturing of animals. In Gabriella Simon’s article, “The Traits and the Thrill

of Serial Killers”, she discusses the many environmental factors of a serial killer’s childhood that

contribute greatly to why they turned to being murderers. These things include abuse from a

family member (sexual, physical, psychological), neglect, sadistic parents, parent was a

prostitute, no parents, or sent to an orphanage at a young age. Many serial killers have had a

damaging and traumatic upbringing which of course could cause them to lack moral values and

not have an understanding of what’s right and wrong, this in turn could cause them to not possess

a guilty conscience. That would make it pretty easy for a serial killer to be able to sleep at night

if they had no grasp of what’s good or bad and wasn’t able to feel remorse about what he/she

was doing. Simon states in her article, “Childhood trauma may create irreversible changes in the
 Fisher 6

structure of the brain, due to which it begins to think in a different way… many of those who

were abused in their childhood will take revenge in their adulthood.”

While a lot of times people will try and label serial killers as insane, in a lot of cases serial

killers are able to be high functioning members of society and even have a family. By leading

this double life, they can continue to commit their murders and not be caught. This brings me to

the psychological processes a lot of serial killers go through before, during, and after they

commit these murders. In A.L. Carlisle’s article, “The Divided Self: Toward an Understanding

of the Dark Side of the Serial Killer”, he talks about how a lot of serial killers experience what is

known as the concept of the altered self. Basically, they have this “splitting of consciousness”

and they become almost like two different people. Traumatic memories from someone’s past are

stored in their subconscious, which later in life can be triggered and have strong affects to the

emotional state and future behavior of that person. They can also go through this process of

disassociation, which is when someone blocks out memories and emotions that are too

distressing to handle. This is considered a normal psychological process, but for a serial killer

who is pushing out their dark childhood trauma, it can cause them to block out the other things

they’re doing (like committing horrendous murders).

Another type of process that allows serial killers to avoid feeling the pain from their traumatic

memories and create excitement instead, is to produce fantasies or illusions. These fantasies,

over time, can generate into reality. For example; if that person is experiencing anger, they may

use that anger as the motivating factor that plays out their fantasy and then in turn creates that

excitement and relief. Over time as that dark side is manifesting, it starts to take over that person

because the good side is the side that’s holding all the pain and guilt. In turn, the dark side takes

control and that person no longer has to feel that pain. Consequently, the monster has formed
 Fisher 7

into a full-fledged murderer that may no longer be aware or have control of what they’re doing.

For serial killers like the famous Ted Bundy, who is a prime example of a killer trying to

undergo these two separate identities… on the outside he was the epitome of a perfectly normal

and outstanding citizen; but behind the scenes was known for being one of the most horrific

serial killers of all time. He tried to manage these identities and keep them separated in order to

have this appearance of normalcy, but the more time that went on and the more murders he

committed, the harder it was for him to keep these identities separate.

The definition of what a serial killer is was mentioned at the beginning of this paper and it

stated that there is usually a “cooling off” period in between the murders. This is explained by

Carlisle in his article depicting how even though the “bad side” has taken over, the “good side”

isn’t completely gone. Some killers may not necessarily want to kill and may feel overwhelmed

by what they have just done, but it’s also the only sense of relief they can get from the painful

traumatic memories of their past. So they’ll stop for a period of time and then that urge to feel

that excitement and power will overcome them, and they will give in to it again. Carlisle also

says in his article that the homicides are often not as satisfying for the killer as their first one was

and that they usually don’t create the level of satisfaction they thought it would from their

fantasies (Carlisle 31). The killer’s search for the ultimate high becomes obsessive. In some

instances, like with the Zodiac Killer, they become so repulsed by their acts that they actually

reach out for help. The Zodiac Killer wrote a letter to an attorney saying that he was afraid he

was going to take another person’s life and that whatever is inside him won’t let him get help.

There are a lot of times where serial killers will become sloppy when killing their victims

because they either don’t care to be caught or want to be caught in order to get relief from all the

horrible things they’ve done. Now of course not all serial killers fit the psychological processes
 Fisher 8

that were just discussed, but it has been found that many serial killers who have had some sort of

trauma or abuse happen to them as child will have this overwhelming darkness overtake them,

control them, and become obsessed with the killings.

In these next few paragraphs, I’m going to give some examples of a few of the most notorious

serial killers in our history and how their own terrible childhoods caused them to be the horrific

serial killers we still know today. The first is Ed Gein who was infamously known as the

“Butcher of Plainfield”. He was born in 1906 in a small farming community in Wisconsin.

Growing up, Gein and his brother were very isolated and only ever left the house to attend

school. The reason for this is that their mother taught them that basically the world was evil, all

men were unworthy because their father was a raging alcoholic, and that all other women are

prostitutes. They weren’t allowed to have friends and she wanted to deprive her sons of their

sexual desires. By keeping them isolated from the town, she thought she was ridding them of any

immorality. She would also verbally abuse them by telling her sons that they wouldn’t amount to

anything in life. Despite all this, Ed was very close and attached to his mother and absolutely

adored her. When Ed and his brother got older, the brother started to resent his mother for her

beliefs and spoke badly of her to Ed. Ed got mad about this and killed his own brother. Soon

after his mother died, he was of course devastated. In the film, “America’s Serial Killers Portraits

in Evil”, it said that he started raiding nearby cemeteries and digging up women and skinning

them. He also murdered other women and would do the same to their dead bodies and use them

to make lamps, blankets, dustbins and masks (Simon 40).

The next serial killer is Albert Fish, known as the “Vampire of Brooklyn”. He was born in

1870 in a family plagued with mental issues. His mother had regular hallucinations, his uncle

was diagnosed with mania, and his brother was in an asylum. His father died when Albert was
 Fisher 9

very young so when his family was no longer fit to look after him, he was sent to an orphanage.

The caretakers at the orphanage would beat all the children and in the film I mentioned earlier, it

said that the caretakers would even encourage the children to beat each other. Albert started to

enjoy the pain from the beatings and liked to watch the other children get beaten as well. He

would inflict pain to himself by sticking himself with needles. He became obsessed with

torturing and eating young children. After he was caught, he didn’t waste a second confessing to

the police of all the murders he had committed.

The last serial killer is John Wayne Gacy, also known as the “Killer Clown”. Gacy was born

in 1942 in Chicago and was one of three children. From an early age Gacy was verbally and

physically abused by his father who was an alcoholic. His father would constantly beat him for

no reason and insult him by telling him he was dumb and that he acted like a girl. This didn’t

deter Gacy from admiring and wanting approval from his father. In the film, it also said that he

was molested at the age of 7 by a friend of the family, but kept it a secret from his parents in fear

that his father would punish him. Everyone who knew Gacy would’ve never expected him to be

a serial killer. He had a family of his own and was a good citizen who supported and employed

unskilled workers, entertained kids at hospitals, once was elected “man of the year”, and would

dress up as “Pogo the Clown” at charitable fundraisers. This earned him the nickname “Killer

Clown” (Simon 39). Meanwhile, he was molesting teenage boys in his basement. After his first

kill of a teenage boy, he figured out that during the kill he had become sexually aroused. This

would lead him to molest and kill 33 teenage boys before he was finally caught and confessed to

the murders in 1978.

The question remains whether serial killers are born or made and continues to be a widely

debated question whenever the most horrible and notorious serial killers in United States history
 Fisher 10

are mentioned. Throughout my research, I have seen arguments from both sides and most people

would agree that it’s a combination of both your genes and your environment. In an article by

Berit Brogaard called, “Do All Serial Killers Have a Genetic Predisposition to Kill?” she states,

“… the majority of the most prolific and dangerous serial killers were genetically disposed to

behave anti-socially and furthermore grew up in an environment that cultivated a disregard for

the lives of others.” Even if someone has anti-social personality disorder or better known as a

“psychopath”, we know from the neuroscientist James Fallon’s book that you can possess traits

and even have the same brain as a serial killer, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be one.

There are genetic factors that might contribute to someone being a serial killer, like having the

“warrior gene” that causes aggression; or having low functioning parts of your brain that affect

your ability to feel empathy. But like Fallon, he was able to lead a perfectly normal life as a

functional human being, without a thought in his head of killing anyone. Some might say he just

got lucky, but I believe it had to do with him growing up in a loving and caring home.

Would these serial killers have chosen a different path in life if they had grown up in a loving

environment? Although it’s highly unlikely that we will ever be able to prevent someone from

becoming a serial killer, we can at least be able to recognize the traits and characteristics they

have in common. For instance, the early childhood signs like setting fires or torturing animals.

Then of course there is the one primary common factor that plays into most of the serial killers

throughout history, even as far back as the 1800’s, and that’s the horrible environment they grew

up in. The specific killers I mentioned were only a small fraction of killers that experienced

similar abuse. In conclusion, I believe that genes play an insignificant role and that someone

placed in the wrong environment can trigger the killer that otherwise never would have surfaced.
 Fisher 11

Works Cited

Bonn, Scott. “Serial Killer Myth #1: They're Mentally Ill or Evil Geniuses.” Google, Google, 16

June 2014, www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-

deeds/201406/serial-killer-myth-1-theyre-mentally-ill-or-evil-geniuses%3famp. 19 Oct.

2019.

Brogaard, Berit. “Do All Serial Killers Have a Genetic Predisposition to Kill?” Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 26 Mar. 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-

superhuman-mind/201803/do-all-serial-killers-have-genectic-predisposition-kill. 19 Oct.

2019.

Carlisle, A. L. “The Divided Self: Toward an Understanding of the Dark Side of the Serial

Killer.” American Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 17, no. 2, Sept. 1993, pp.23-36.

EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1007/BF02885951. 18 Oct. 2019.

Davies, Nicola. “From Abused Child to Serial Killer: Investigating Nature vs Nurture in

Methods of Murder.” Psychiatry Advisor, 28 Jan. 2019,

www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/violence-and-aggression/from-abused-child-to-

serial-killer-investigating-nature-vs-nurture-in-methods-of-murder/. 18 Oct. 2019.

Fallon, James H. The Psychopath inside: a Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side

of the Brain. Current, 2014. 18 Oct. 2019.

Hayne, Jeff, and Ian Warfield. America's Serial Killers Portraits in Evil. Mill Creek

Entertainment, 2009. 18 Oct. 2019.

Simon, Ürmósné Gabriella. “The Traits and the Thrill of Serial Killers.” Internal Security, vol. 7,

no. 2, July 2015, pp. 33–42. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5604/20805268.1212110. 18 Oct. 2019.