December 18, 1948 - Edmund Kemper

Kemper's case stands out for the combination of his methodical conduct and his willingness to engage openly with investigators — his lengthy interviews with FBI behavioral scientists became foundational material for the study of serial offenders. His crimes spanned less than a year in the early 1970s but encompassed a range of victims and relationships, including family members, that gave researchers an unusually complete psychological profile to work with. When California's suspension of capital punishment left him with life sentences instead of the death he had requested, he settled into an incarceration that has lasted decades, during which his cooperation with law enforcement continued.

From Wikipedia

Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948) is an American serial killer convicted of murdering seven women, including his own mother, and one girl between May 1972 and April 1973. Years earlier, at the age of 15, Kemper had murdered his paternal grandparents. Kemper was nicknamed the "Co-ed Killer", as most of his non-familial victims were female college students hitchhiking in the vicinity of Santa Cruz County, California. Most of his murders included necrophilia, decapitation, dismemberment and possibly cannibalism.

Found sane and guilty at his trial in 1973, Kemper requested the death penalty for his crimes. Capital punishment was suspended in California at the time, and he instead received eight concurrent life sentences. Since then, he has been incarcerated at California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

⚠ Report a problem with this article