What is a Serial killer?
A: A serial killer is typically a person who
murders three or more people,
usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders
taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of
time between them.
While most authorities set a threshold of three
murders, others extend it to what?
A: Four or lessen it to two.
What is the usual motive for serial killing?
A: Psychological gratification, and many serial killings involve sexual
contact with the victim.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that
the motives of serial killers can include what?
A: Anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking, and
killings may be executed as such.
The victims may have what in common?
A: Demographic profile, appearance, gender or race.
Often the FBI will focus on a particular what?
A: Pattern serial killers follow.
Based on this pattern, this will give key clues into
finding the killer along with their what?
A: Motives.
Vronsky states that the term serial killing first
entered into broader American popular usage when published in The New York
Times in the spring of 1981, to describe what?
A: Atlanta serial killer Wayne Williams.
Subsequently, throughout the 1980s, the term was used
again in the pages of The New York Times how many times?
A: On 233 occasions.
By the end of the 1990s, the use of the term had
increased to what?
A: 2,514 instances in the paper.
How does The Federal Bureau of Investigation define
serial killing?
A: As "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events,
usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone".
Juhani Aataminpoika, a Finnish serial killer also known
as "Kerpeikkari" (which means 'executioner'), was one of the most active
serial killers of the 19th century, killing how many people?
A: As many as 12 people in 1849 within five weeks before being caught.
Historical criminologists suggest that there have been
serial killers throughout what?
A: History.
Some sources suggest that legends such as werewolves
and vampires were inspired by what?
A: Medieval serial killers.
In Africa, there have been periodic outbreaks of murder
by what?
A: Lion and Leopard men.
In the 9th century, who was apprehended?
A: "a strangler from Baghdad”.
He had murdered a number of women and did what?
A: He buried them in the house where he was living."
In the 15th century, one of the wealthiest men in
Europe and a former companion-in-arms of
Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais, was
alleged to have what?
A: Sexually assaulted and killed peasant children, mainly boys, whom he had
abducted from the surrounding villages and had taken to his castle.
It is estimated that he had how many victims?
A: His victims numbered between 140 and 800.
The Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory, born into
one of the wealthiest families in Transylvania, allegedly tortured and
killed how many girls and young women before her arrest in 1610?
A: As many as 650.
Where did the unidentified killer Jack the Ripper kill
at least five women, and possibly more?
A: In London in 1888.
He was the subject of a massive manhunt and
investigation by the Metropolitan Police, during which what were pioneered?
A: Many modern criminal investigation techniques
A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house
inquiries, forensic material was collected, and suspects were what?
A: Identified and traced.
While not the first serial killer in history, Jack the
Ripper's case was the first to create what?
A: A worldwide media frenzy.
The dramatic murders of financially destitute women in
the midst of the wealth of London focused the media's attention on the
plight of what?
A: The urban poor and gained coverage worldwide.
Jack the Ripper has also been called the most infamous
serial killer of all time, and his legend has spawned what?
A: Hundreds of theories on his real identity and many works of fiction.
H. H. Holmes was one of the first documented modern
serial killers in the United States, responsible for the death of how many
victims?
A: At least nine victims in the early 1890s.
Most documented serial killers in the 20th century are
from where?
A: The United States.