A Search for the Motive Behind
A Serial Killer 's Deeds
On the night of Sunday, October 30, 1966, Cheri Jo Bates was at the Riverside College Library in California, studying for her classes. Unbeknownst to her, when dark fell, a man found his way to her car and disabled it. After disconnecting the distributor from the rest of the engine so that the vehicle would refuse to start, he waited in the shadows of the Library Annex for his victim. Bates attempted to start the car, but failed. She was stranded when the killer approached under the guise of a helpful stranger. He is believed to have pretended to work with her engine, and then offer her a ride in his car. He managed to lure her to a dark, unpaved drive between two empty houses. The killer slashed her once on the back, three times across the chest, and seven times across the throat with a small knife, later found at the scene. Her body was discovered in the morning, and it was observed that she had been beaten, choked, and nearly decapitated, but she was not raped and her purse was intact. The killer had no monetary or sexual motivation. The Zodiac had struck (Wark) . This was a man 's first murder in a string of murders, estimated at somewhere between eight and forty-nine kills ("Zodiac Killer") . A serial killer was born.
A serial killer is a person who has a history of multiple slayings of individuals, usually unknown to them beforehand, over a long period of time ("Serial Killer") . This definition may not inspire any thoughts, but one must realize that at any given time, between twenty and five hundred serial killers are active in the United States, killing up to three thousand people a year (Burns).
With a danger like that prowling anywhere one may be, one might have a sudden sense of fear. To catch the killers, one must be able to discover why it is that these people kill. One must delve into their pasts and break down their personalities to find their driving
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