H.H. Holmes was a serial killer and con artist in the late 1800s who built a hotel he called the "Murder Castle" designed to confuse and trap his victims. The castle contained soundproof rooms, doors that could only be opened from the outside, and chutes that led to the basement where he committed murders. He is believed to have killed around 200 people. John Wayne Gacy dressed as a clown for children's parties but lured and killed at least 33 teenage boys and young men, burying many in the crawl space of his home. Jeffrey Dahmer's childhood involved neglect and abuse, and as an adult he killed 17 victims, keeping body parts as souvenirs. All three killers

1. Serial
Killer
Slides
Student: Shannon Metcalf
American Public
University
Comm 110
Professor: Matthew Loux

2. What Makes A Psychopath?
According to (Catalina, 2014, para 2) from a
psychological point of view, Serial murderers,
like all humans, are made from their ancestry,
the way they were raised, and the choices
made throughout their lives.
Also stated by (Catalina, 2014, para 2),
Antisocial personality disorder, characterized by certain bad
patterns of not caring about others’ rights, begins when the sufferers
are children or in their early teen years and continues through their
adulthood. The signs of this disorder include: responsibility, unstable
interpersonal relationships, deceitfulness, manipulations, etc., and
etc.

3. The Physiological Statistics
As stated by (Catalina, 2014, para 2),
“…90% of them are men (15% - 30-34 age group/ 12% - 25-29 age
group/ 8.7% - 18 years old). They are generally white males, but
contrary to the popular belief, serial killers span all racial groups as
they are especially African- American, Hispanic and Asian.”

4. Criminology
Before one can begin to explain some of the
most notorious serial killers in the
history of the U.S., one must know what
Criminology is.
Criminology, to put it simple, is the study of the criminal
mind.
According to, (Netterville, 2014, para 2), “Primary contributors to the
classical school of criminology include Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794)
and Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832).”

5. Criminology Cont’d.
(As qtd. by Beccaria, 1764, in Netterville,
2014), “For punishment to be effective in
preventing future crimes…it must be swift
and certain.”
He believed that the criminal would be unable
to learn from his/her mistakes if the punishment
was not just for the crime committed.

6. Let Us Move On To The Serial
Killer Slides

7. John Wayne Gacy
“The Killer Clown”
Figure 1
John Wayne Gacy
(Serena, 2017).

8. A Look Into Gacy’s Past
John Gacy was constantly abused physically and mentally by his father, John Wayne Gacy Sr.
Due to the fact that Gacy Jr. enjoyed gardening and more feminine activities than supposed masculine
ones, such as fishing, his father would abuse him even more. Gacy Jr., struggled with his sexuality
throughout life, though hid it when he was first married. Over time, however, his homosexuality arose as
he sodomized his first victim. A conviction of 10 years was given to him, though he only served a mere
18 months of that sentence.
His father died while he was in prison and his mind must have broken. Gacy thought his father’s
discovery of his sodomizing someone caused him to pass away. Gacy would dress up as Pogo the
Clown to entertain children. The costume reduced him to a child-like mentality. Although, after he was
done, he would lure young boys into his house where he would rape and murder them.
(Stated from, “John Wayne Gacy Biography”, 2015, in Rodriguez, B. n.d.),

9. What He Did
Also stated by (L. J. Palmer, 2008),
…Gacy’s swift decline started with the disappearance of Robert Piest, a fifteen
year old kid who first disappeared on December 11th, 1978. Gacy had picked
up Piest near a pharmacy in Des Plaines, Illinois. The young man spoke to his
mother and stated he was going to meet with someone to discuss a job
during the summer, being a construction worker. He was never seen alive
again.

10. Gacy’s Conviction:
Gacy admitted to the murder of the boys and
claimed he buried a lot of them in his basement,
as well as tossed others into the rivers nearby his
house.
He was charged with murdering 33 young and
adolescent boys. On February 6th, 1980, the trials
began. Since more than half of his murders were
convicted after Illinois re-instated the death
penalty, he was sentenced to death for 12 of them,
and life in prison for the rest.
His execution came on May 10th, 1994, from
which he died of lethal injection. (L.J. Palmer,
2008).

11. Jeffrey Dahmer
Figure 2
Jeffrey Dahmer Mugshot
(AP Photo/Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department, 1991 as found in
F.B.I. Serial Killers Part 7: Jeffrey Dahmer, 2014).

12. A Look Into Dahmer’s Past
Jeffrey Dahmer grew up with a
father who was a chemical
engineer, and a mother who
suffered from multiple mental
illnesses ranging from depression,
to hysteria, and even suicidal
tendencies.
(Martens, W. H. J., (2011)
When Jeffrey’s brother, David was born,
he had to share the attention of his
mentally traumatized mother as well as
his father who was focusing more on
obtaining his doctorates degree. This was
the first time he felt neglected.
(Martens, W. H. J., 2011)
As stated by, (Palermo, 2008, in
Martens W. H. J., 2011), Dahmer
grew up with arguing parents
and had to deal with kids
treating him poorly in school.
By only the age of eight, Dahmer had
moved three times which induced
withdrawal from other people,
bewilderment, and uneasiness within
him.
(Martens, W. H. J., 2011)
As stated by, (Dahmer, 2008, in
Martens, W. H. J., 2011), During
adolescence, he was prone to
very violent bouts of anger and
that his lying behavior was
punished whenever he was
caught.
Though he did admit to
whatever he did when he was
caught.
By the age of twelve, Dahmer
had begun entering forests
to scavenge for dead
animals. It was then that he
started cutting them to
inspect their insides.
(Martens, W. H. J., 2011)
It only took until the age of
seventeen, when he began to have
fantasies about necrophilia, the act
of having sex with dead bodies.
(Martens, W. H. J, 2011).

13. What He Did
Dahmer stated that his first victim was claimed
when he turned eighteen. This was two years after
being honorably discharged from the army, where
he resided with his grandmother to try and stop
his alcoholism and homosexuality, (which he
discovered while in high school).
(Martens, W. H. J., (2011)
He found the boy half naked and
picked him up. Upon wanting to
take control of the situation at hand,
the boy wanted to leave. Dahmer,
being upset at the abandonment,
murdered and raped the body.
(Martens, W. H. J., (2011)
(As stated by Master’s 1993, in
Martens, W. H. J., 2011), Dahmer
would go on to have sixteen more
victims. He wanted to zombify them
through getting them drunk off of
sleeping pill induced alcohol. He
would then drill a hole into their
heads, squirting acid into their brains
soon thereafter. This process failed
multiple times, to which he
responded with murder.
Over time, his obsession would
grow. He began to save the body
parts of his victims and eat their
flesh.
(Martens, W. H. J., (2011)

14. What He Did Cont’d.
According to “Serial Killers Part 7: Jeffrey Dahmer”, (2014),
A number of body parts were found belonging to many different victims.
His fridge was full of different limbs and he dissolved a lot of the victims
in acid.
Evidence recovered, which included physical remains and tools that
Dahmer used to torture and dissect his victims, was sent to the F.B.I.
headquarters for analysis.
Soon after he was arrested, Dahmer did confess to the torture and rape
of over a dozen victims.
He was charged with 15 murders
and sentenced to over 930 years of
life in prison. He was brutally beaten
with a metal bar, by a fellow
prisoner and pronounced dead on
November 28th, 1994.
(Montaldo, C. (2018).

15. H. H. Holmes
Owner of Murder Castle
Figure 3
H. H. Holmes
[Digitally Uploaded Photo]
(April 2nd, 2014)

16. A Look Into Holmes’ Past
Holmes wasn’t always his name. He was
born as Herman Webster Mudgett, on
May 16th, 1861.
(“H.H. Holmes” 2014).
As qtd. by (Borowski 2003;
Dobbert, 2009, in Brown et al,
2015), Holmes’ parents were very
strict and abusive. His father did
most of this abuse.
According to (Stone, 2007 as qtd.
in Brown et al, 2015), Holmes’
father would abuse him with
either prolonged isolation or
even food deprivation. He developed an interest in
medicine, to which he responded
with the surgery of animals. (“H.H.
Holmes” 2014).
Holmes’ crime sprees never truly
started until he began scamming and
committing fraud.
(“H.H. Holmes” 2014).
As a medical student at the University of
Michigan, Holmes would steal corpses
and used them to make fake claims of
insurance. (“H.H. Holmes” 2014).
As qtd. by (Jones, 2010;
Ramsland, 2013, in Brown et
al, 2015), Holmes’ father
would also cover his and
other children’s mouths with
kerosene soaked cloths
whenever they cried.
During these abusive times,
Holmes found safety in the woods.
(Brown et al, 2015).
As stated by (Bailin, Borowski,
2003; 2008; Schechter, 2003, qtd.
in Brown et al, 2015), Holmes was
locked into a doctor’s office in
school, where the hands of a
skeleton were constantly put up
against his face.

17. What He Did
Holmes meticulously created his murder castle, and it was completed in 1892.
(Brown et al, 2015).
As qtd. by (Bailin, 2008; Reeder & Mayer, 2009 in Brown et al, 2015), He would use his open “vacancy”
rooms as a way to lure people in from the World’s Fair in Chicago.
As stated by(Gibson, 1953; Schecter, 1994, in Brown et al, 2015), The inside of “murder castle” had an
operation room, torture chamber, a mortuary, and even a room for performing human experiments.
According to (Seltzer, 1998, qtd. in Brown et al, 2015), the castle was built to be like a maze. It had
corridors that lead to nowhere. Concealed passages were found behind walls. There were numerous
sliding panels, secretive staircases, peepholes made in the back ends of pictures, and an abundance of
metal chutes that all lead to Holmes’ basement.
One can clearly see that the murder castle was made to confuse and scare the victims of Holmes. Which
he did very well.

18. What Happened to Him?
Holmes was convicted of the murders and sentenced
to death.
He was hung to death at Moyamensing Prison on
May 7th, 1896. as stated by (Bailin, 2008; Borowski,
2003; Murray, 2007; Reeder & Mayer, 2009, in Brown
et al, 2015).
Interesting Fact:
(Borowski, 2003; Schechter, 2012 qtd. in Brown et al,
2015) state that,
Holmes was very cautious as to others trying to exhume
and rip apart his body. According to his will, he wanted
his casket filled with cement and have an added two feet
on top of his casket, after being put in the ground.

19. Works Cited:
Elena-Cătălina, I. (2014). Notorious cases of serial
killers. EIRP Proceedings, 9(1), 441-444.
F.B.I. Serial Killers Part 7:
Jeffrey Dahmer
Retrieved from,
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/serial-killers-part-7-jeffrey-dahmer
Biograpy.com Editors (2014, April 2nd)
H. H. Holmes Biography. Retrieved from,
https://www.biography.com/people/hh-holmes-
307622
Brown, J., Hickey, E., Harris, B., Wilson, A., Price, D., Olson, J.,
& Oberoi, P. (2015), H.H. Holmes: One of America’s First
Recorded Serial Murderers. Retrieved from,
www.online.csp.edu:
file:///C:/Users/Shann/Zotero/storage/9G7H5NU7/hh-holmes-
serial-killer.html

20. Work’s Cited Cont’d.
Netterville, A. E. (2014). Criminology, history of. In J. S. Albanese, Wiley series of
encyclopedias in criminology and criminal justice: The encyclopedia of criminology
and criminal justice. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wil
eycacj/criminology_history_of/0?institutionId=8703
Martens, W. H. J. (2011). Sadism linked to loneliness:
Psychodynamic dimensions of the sadistic serial killer jeffrey
dahmer. Psychoanalytic Review, 98(4), 493-514.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy2.apus.edu/101521prev201198449
3
Garau, A. (2017, April 29th), The H.H. Holmes
House in Chicago. Retrieved from
https://allthatsinteresting.com/h-h-holmes-house
Gacy, John Wayne. (2008). In L. J. Palmer, Encyclopedia of capital punishment in the
United States (2nd ed.). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/mcfc
pus/gacy_john_wayne/0?institutionId=8703

21. Work’s Cited Cont’d.
Serena, K. (2017) John Wayne Gacy, the Chilling Story of the Real-
Life Clown Killer, Retrieved from,
http://allthatsinteresting.com/john-wayne-gacy
Rodriguez, B. (n.d.) The Criminological Dissection of Pogo the
Clown. Retrieved from
https://www.oswego.edu/writing-across-the-
curriculum/sites/www.oswego.edu.writing-across-the-
curriculum/files/pbj_rodriguez_3-22-16.pdf