Let’s jump right into it shall we? We will start with
Kemper’s backstory/troubled childhood. Born Edmund Emil Kemper III on December
18th 1948 in Burbank, California. Kemper was the middle child to
Clarnell Elizabeth Kemper and Edmund Emil Kemper II. Kemper’s father was a WW2
veteran, and after the war he tested nuclear weapons in the Pacific Proving
Grounds, before returning to California and working as an electrician. Kemper’s
mother [who was known as a raging alcoholic] often criticized his father’s job,
stating that it was “menial.” Kemper’s father once stated “suicide missions in
wartime and the later atomic bomb testings were nothing compared to living with
Clarnell.” He also stated that she affected him “as a grown man more than 396
days and nights of fighting on the front did.” Kemper was very aware of his
parents’ issues, and I believe it was definitely a component to his later behavior.
Kemper was a very large person, when he was born he weighed 13lbs and by the
age of 4 he was already a head taller than all of his peers. Kemper showed
signs of high intelligence at an early age, but his high intelligence was
paired with antisocial and psychopathic behaviors…starting with cruelty towards
animals.
At the age
of 10, Kemper buried the family cat alive, waited a few days and then dug up
the dead body, decapitated it and put its severed head on a spike. At 13, he
killed another family cat for favoring his younger sister Allyn, dismembered it
and kept the pieces in his closet until they were eventually discovered and
discarded by his mother. Kemper was also known for enjoying preforming strange
rituals with his sisters’ dolls. Kemper’s favorite childhood games included
“gas chamber” and “electric chair” where he would have his sisters tie him up
and he would then writhe around on the floor pretending to be dying from the
poison gas or electric shock. Kemper also apparently had a sick obsession with
his 2nd grade teacher, and he would sneak out of his house and take
his father’s bayonet and go sit outside his teacher’s window and watch her walk
around her house. Kemper’s older sister hated him so much that she attempted to
murder him on two separate occasions…once she tried pushing him in front on an
oncoming train, and once she pushed him into the deep end of the community
swimming pool, that time she had almost succeeded since he nearly down.
Kemper’s
father was the only member of his family in which he was close with and so he
was extremely devastated when his parents divorced in 1957 and he was made to
move to Helena, Montana with his mother and sisters all of which hated him, and
the feeling was mutual. Other than being a raging alcoholic, Kemper’s mother
was also known as being neurotic and having a domineering personality. It has
been speculated that his mother suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder.
She often belittled, humiliated and verbally abused Kemper, and also made him
sleep in the basement. Often, his mother would taunt him for his large size [he
stood at an astounding 6’4’’ before hitting puberty.] She referred to Kemper as
a “real weirdo,” and stated that she was so mean to him so that she wouldn’t
“turn him gay.” Kemper apparently reminded her of his father, and so she would
tell him that no woman would ever be able to love him. Kemper later described
her as a “sick and angry woman” So, when Kemper was 14 he decided to run away
from his hellish home in Helena, Montana where he had suffered the wrath of his
mother and sisters for long enough, and went to stay with his father in Los
Angeles, California. However, Kemper’s father had already remarried and had
acquired a stepson. Kemper really didn’t fit into his father’s new life so
after only a short time of living with him and his new family, his father sent
him away to live with his grandparents on a ranch in the mountains of North
Folk, California. Kemper absolutely hated living with his grandparents, he
referred to his grandfather as “senile” and he chose to project his hatred of
his mother onto his grandmother, later stating that she “was constantly
emasculating me and my grandfather.”
So… we have
learned a lot about the troubled childhood that Kemper was subjected to and
with all the different elements of rejection it definitely makes since that he
chose to start acting out violently and eventually became a serial killer, or
at the very least shows why. Part of me feels bad for the guy. Now let’s delve
into his first murders…
It was
during the early evening hours of August 27th 1964 that this double
homicide took place. Kemper’s
grandmother was sitting at the kitchen table working on her latest children’ s
book, when she and Kemper got into an argument. At the end of said argument,
Kemper left the kitchen and swiftly returned holding the .22 caliber-hunting
rifle is grandfather had gifted him. When his grandmother saw him return to the
kitchen with the gun she told him not to go shooting any birds…his reply was to
shoot her once in the head and twice in the back. [Some accounts of the murder
state that she also suffered multiple post mortem stab wounds, but I can not
confirm that this in fact did happen, although based on his later serial
murders it would seem to be his style.] Afterwards, Kemper dragged her body
into her bedroom where he decided to leave her. When Kemper’s grandfather
returned home from grocery shopping, Kemper shot him dead in the driveway.
After killing his grandfather, Kemper decided to call his mother and ask her
what he should do. She told him to call the local police, which he did and then
waited for them to show up and arrest him. When questioned as to why he
committed these murders, Kemper simply stated that he “just wanted to see what
it felt like to kill grandma.” And that he killed his grandfather so he
wouldn’t have to find out his wife was dead.
Psychiatrist
Donald Lunde [Who interviewed Kemper in his adulthood] stated that with these
murders “in his way [Kemper] had avenged the rejection of both his father and
mother.” Court appointed psychiatrists deemed Kemper’s crimes to be
incomprehensible for a 15 year old to commit and they diagnosed him with
Paranoid Schizophrenia and he was sent to Atascadero State Hospital. The
strange thing is though, that upon his arrival to Atascadero the California
Youth Authority psychiatrists assessed him and they all had the same thing to
say about Kemper’s previous diagnosis made by the court appointed
psychiatrists, and that was that they all strongly disagreed with the
diagnosis. They reported that Kemper showed “no flight of ideas, no
interference with thought, no expression of delusions or hallucinations, and no
evidence of bizarre thinking.” They also stated that he retained his mental
acuity from his early childhood and that he tested with an IQ of 136, and was
later re-tested and received a score of 145. The psychiatrists then
re-diagnosed Kemper with Personality Trait Disturbance- passive aggressive
type.
During the
duration of Kemper’s stay at Atascadero he gained the trust of both the staff
and the psychiatrists by becoming a model prisoner. The psychiatrists even
trained Kemper to preform psychiatric tests on the other inmates. One of the
psychiatrists who trained Kemper to preform said tests, stated, “He was a very
good worker and this is not typical of a sociopath. He really took pride in his
work.” Another achievement that Kemper made during his stay at Atascadero was
that he developed new tests and new scales on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory; Specifically, an “Overt Hostility Scale.” After Kemper’s eventual 2nd
arrest, he stated that being able to understand how these tests worked had
allowed him to manipulate the psychiatrists at Atascadero and even admitted
that he learned a lot from the sex offenders to whom he administered the tests
to; For example: they told him that it was best to kill a woman after raping
her to avoid any witnesses.
Upon Kemper’s 21st
birthday [December 18th 1969] he was released on parole and into the
care of his mother. Atascadero psychiatrists highly recommended that he NOT be
released into his mother’s care, but he was nonetheless. Kemper’s mother had
since remarried and was living in Aptos, California near the University of
Santa Cruz where she worked. Kemper
continued his manipulation of his psychiatrists, now giving them the idea that
he was completely rehabilitated; and so it was on November 29th 1972
that all of his juvenile records were permanently expunged. Kemper’s last report
from his psychiatrist is as follows:
“If I were
to see this patient without having any history available or getting any history
from him, I would think we’re dealing with a very adjusted young man who had
initiative, intelligence and who was free of any psychiatric illnesses… It is
my opinion that he has made a very excellent response to the years of treatment
and rehabilitation and I would see no psychiatric reason to consider him to be
of any danger to himself or to any member of society… Since it may allow him
more freedom as an adult to develop his potential, I would consider it
reasonable to have a permanent expunction of his juvenile records.”
After his
juvenile records were expunged, Kemper attended community college, and had the
hopes of becoming a California State Trooper. Kemper’s dream did not come true
however, as he was denied due to his size [a whopping 6’9”] he had received the
nickname “Big Ed” from his peers. Despite being rejected [something we know he
did not handle well] Kemper kept close relationships with the Santa Cruz police
officers and even frequented the Jury Room, which was the local bar where
police hung out. Kemper went on to work several odd jobs until he eventually
secured employment with the State of California Highway Department [now known as
Caltrans.]
From the
time of Kemper’s release from Atascadero at the age of 21, all the way until
her death, Kemper’s relationship with his mother remained extremely toxic and
hostile. They engaged in frequent explosive arguments, which were almost always
overheard by their neighbors. Kemper saved up his money and eventually moved
into an apartment with a friend in Alameda, California… Although Kemper still
could not get away from his mother because she plagued him with frequent phone
calls and unannounced visits, and due to having low funds he ended up having to
return to live with her.
The year
that Kemper was first hired on to the Highway Department proved to be an
eventful one… Kemper was hit by a car while out riding his motorcycle and
received $15,000 in the subsequent settlement that took place. Kemper then
purchased a 1969 Ford Galaxie with the money he had received. In Kemper’s many
drives around town he noticed several young women hitchhiking; So he decided to
start carrying plastic bags, knives, blankets and handcuffs… All things he
wanted to gather to satisfy his murderous desires. Kemper then picked up many girls
[he stated around 150] and let them go [although they all fit the “type” of
girl he would eventually kill] before he had any real desire to rape and murder
anyone; Kemper calls those types of thoughts “Little zappies.” Kemper’s
murderous spree took place between May 1972 and April 1973… It started with 2
college students and ended with his mother and her best friend.
Kemper’s
killing ritual would start by picking up female students needing rides, and he
would drive them to secluded areas. Once Kemper had them where he wanted them
he would shoot, stab, smother or strangle the girls. After killing them, he
would take them back to his house and have sex with their corpses, or their
severed heads and then dissect and dismember them.
Kemper
stated in interviews after his eventual arrest, that he would choose to go
“hunting” for victims after his mother would have an outburst towards him.
Kemper would get angry that she wouldn’t introduce him to any of the young
girls who attended college where she worked and stated that she would tell him
“You’re just like your father. You don’t deserve to get to know them.”
Psychiatrists and even Kemper himself thought that the young women that he
chose to kill were surrogates for his ultimate target- his mother. This was
later shown to be true after the humiliating acts that Kemper preformed on his
mother’s corpse after killing her.
There is a
lot of knowledge on just exactly when and how he killed his other victims…but I
don’t want to go into that much detail about all of them… for one, it’s really
repetitive and two, I would much rather discuss his mother and what he did to
her in detail. Now like I stated earlier, his childhood, especially where his
mother is concerned caused him his many issues. His mother may not have forced
his hand in any of his murders… But I’d be lying if I said that while
researching Edmund Kemper and his life, that I did not feel disgust towards his
mother, and it is my firm opinion that she made him into the monster that he
became.
Now, let’s
get onto how he murdered her and how he mutilated her afterwards…
It was the
night of April 20th 1973; Kemper sat up waiting for his mother to
return from a party she had attended earlier that evening… Ultimately Kemper
fell asleep while waiting, but was woken back up by her eventual arrival.
Clarnell was sitting in her bed reading when she noticed Kemper enter her room,
she asked if he was planning on sitting up all night talking to her, which he
replied “no, goodnight.” Kemper then waited for his mother to fall asleep
before re entering the room to bludgeon her to death with a claw hammer and
slit her throat. Kemper then decapitated her and sat her severed head on the
counter to yell at it for an hour, before he threw darts at it and eventually
smashed her face in. Kemper then tore out her tongue and vocal cords put them
into the garbage disposal and turned it on, however the disposal could not
process the vocal cords and spat them back into the sink. Kemper later stated
“that seemed appropriate as much as she’d bitched and screamed and yelled at me
over so many years.” Kemper eventually had sex with the corpse, hid it in a
closet and proceeded to go have a drink.
Kemper
later invited his mother’s best friend over, and killed her upon her arrival.
Kemper left a note for the police and took off in her car and drove towards
Pueblo, Colorado. On his drive, Kemper heard no news on the radio of his
murders so he found a phone booth and called the police. Kemper confessed to
the murder of his mother and her best friend, however the police did not
believe him. Kemper waited a few hours and then called again and asked to speak
with an officer who he was familiar with, at which time he confessed to all his
previous murders, he was believed this time and so Kemper waited in his car for
police to come and arrest him. After
Kemper was arrested he was asked what made him turn his self in and his reply
was as follows:
“The
original purpose was gone… It wasn’t serving any physical or emotional purpose.
It was just a pure waste of time… Emotionally I couldn’t handle it much longer.
Towards the end there, I started feeling the folly of the whole damn thing, and
at the point of near exhaustion, near collapse, I just said to hell with it and
called it all off.”
Kemper was
indicted on 8 counts of 1st degree murder on May 7th
1973. Due to his very detailed confession, his only real option was to plead
not guilty by reason of insanity. Kemper made two failed suicide attempts while
he was in custody, and so his trial went forward and was held on October 23rd
1973.
Although
Kemper tried to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, 3 court appointed
psychiatrists found Kemper to be legally sane. Before coming to this
conclusion, Dr. Joel Fort investigated Kemper’s juvenile records from when he
had previously been diagnosed as psychotic. Dr. Fort also interviewed Kemper
using a truth serum [a term for various psychoactive drugs that can be used on
a person who is either unable or unwilling to provide information needed]
During the interview, Kemper revealed that he had engaged in cannibalism by
means of slicing flesh from his victims’ legs and cooking them into a
casserole. Although all of the available
information may sound psychotic… Dr. Fort was certain that Kemper had remained
cognizant in each case and even went as far as to say that he believed Kemper
thoroughly enjoyed the prospect of infamy that was associated with being
labeled a serial killer.
The state
of California used the M’Naghlen Standard for sanity which states that in order
for a defendant to establish a defense on the grounds of insanity, it must be
able to be clearly proven that at the time of the crime, the accused was
laboring under a lack of reasoning, from disease of the mind, and did not know
it was wrong. Kemper had appeared to have known that not only were the natures
of his crimes were wrong, but also showed signs of malice afterwards. So it was
on November 8th 1973 that the jury assigned to Kemper’s case [6 men
and 6 women] deliberated for 5 hours before declaring Kemper to be guilty on
all counts. Kemper requested the death penalty… Specifically “death by torture”
but at the time there had been a moratorium placed on all capitol punishment by
the Supreme Court and so Kemper was sentenced to 7 years- life for each count
instead. Kemper was sent to the California Medical Facility to serve his time.
Kemper
ended up in the same cellblock as Herbert Mullin [who committed his murders
around the same time and also in Santa Cruz] and the infamous Charles Manson.
Kemper was up for parole in 2007 and 2012 and on both occasions he told the
parole board that he felt he was unfit to return to society and so his parole
was denied. Kemper is/was up for parole again this year and stated that he had
no plans to even attend the parole hearing.
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