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Born a Killer

Vanessa Izaguirre
Born a Killer
3/20/16

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Born a Killer

Abstract
Throughout this paper, we will examine the lives of two well known serial
killers. There seems to be a debate on whether murderers were born killers
or if their childhood caused their mind to warp and gave them a justified
reason to kill. The first killer is Ted Bundy, the infamous serial killer, claiming
the lives of over thirty women. Secondly, we look at the killer Aileen
Wuornos, who claimed the lives of six men. Her early childhood may have
been the cause of her skewed way of thinking. Both of these killers claimed
the lives of innocent people however, we will look into whether their actions
caused by nature or nurture.

As my mom woke up from her daily nap, I was confused on why her face was
filled with a look of terror. I had about seven or so knives surrounding her. I
had always loved playing with knives. I dont know why exactly, I just
enjoyed the feeling of the shiny knives in my hands. They were much too big
for my hands but somehow seemed to fit perfectly. About five years later, I
witnessed a small cat get ran over by a car. It was small and helpless. It
couldnt move and all I heard was its little purrs as it cried for help. Instead of
helping the cat out, I just stared at it. For some odd reason I didnt want to
help it. In fact, I felt a bit of happiness from seeing the cat in pain. Days
passed and the only thing on my mind was the happiness I got from seeing
the cat die in front of my eyes. I wasnt until I was in college that I fell in love

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with a girl. She had everythingmoney, class, and influence

(biography.com). I was devastated when she broke up with me. I had
unexplainable anger, anger that I felt could only be resolved by one thing,
something I have never done before. Not long after, I took it into my own
hands to create my own happiness. I lured a powerless young lady into my
car pretending to be injured and asking for her help. We talked and drank all
night just before checking into a hotel. As soon as I felt she was vulnerable, I
attacked. Her kindness proved to be a fatal mistake (biography.com). I felt
nothing, no remorse or guilt.
There is a distinct difference between whether a person is born with
psychological imparities that cause them to commit unthinkable crimes or if
a person was abused as a child impairing their reasoning skills causing them
to commit the same unthinkable crime.

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Nature?
Is a killer born a killer? Are serial killers born with predetermined genes that
play an integral part in creating their homicidal tendencies? Some serial
killers are precociously demented, fascinated by sadistic violence at a very
early age (crimelibrary.com). What exactly can be described as a serial killer?
A psycho killer is defined as having a minimum of three to four victims, with
a cooling off period in between. The killer is usually a stranger to the victim
and the murder is rarely for profit, the motive is psychological
(crimelibrary.com). "A psycho killer, I should make clear, is not a regular
murderer. A murderer has a vendetta, a nice specific personal thing against
his victim" (Corin). Lets take a look at the infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy.
Bundy was born in Vermont on November 24th, 1946. As a child, Bundy
showed an unusual interest in gruesome and gory activities. At the age of
seven, Teds second grade teacher noticed a disturbing uneasiness after
Bundy broke a ruler over his hand and punched a classmate in the face
(Petrolini). He was also known to snoop through his peers windows and
would not hesitate in stealing things that he desired. During his high school

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days, stealing quickly escalated to burglarizing and auto theft. Ted was
incredibly shy, self-doubting and uncomfortable in social situations (Bell). He
was introduced to pornography at an early age (Petrolini). He later became
addicted to hardcore and violent pornography and as the years went by, porn
could no longer satisfy his fantasies. He needed to perform the disturbing
acts that he craved. It wasnt until 1974 that Bundy first started his
murderous rampage. No one is certain why he started the killing spree,
killing over thirty innocent women, over a four year period. Many conclude
that it resulted from getting his heart broken from his first love. Bundys
girlfriend had broken up with him during in 1968 during his college days,
claiming that he had no future. Ted never recovered from the break-up.
Nothing, including school, seemed to hold any interest for him and he
eventually dropped out, dumb-founded and depressed over the break-up.
Bundy became obsessed with this young woman. It was an obsession that
would span his lifetime and lead to a series of events that would shock the
world (Bell). It is not surprising that most of Bundys victims resembled his
first love, having long dark hair and being rather attractive. Bundy was
caught years later and many psychological tests were taken on him during
his time spent in prison. The tests showed that Ted Bundy was classified as a
high factor one psychopath. The components of a factor one psychopath
include a grandiose sense of self, pathological lying, conning-manipulative
behaviors, lack of remorse, lack of empathy, and a failure to accept
responsibility (Petrolini). Psychopaths can also be labeled as having antisocial

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personality disorder or ASPD. Those who have this personality disorder are
charming and likeable at first but much like Bundy, are in fact conniving and
deceitful. Most people with antisocial personality disorder believe as though
social regulations do not apply to them. They chose to live in the present and
have no consideration for the past or future. Like Ted Bundy, they feel no
remorse for their wrong-doing and violate the rights of others (Petrolini). The
reasoning of Ted Bundy gives during an interview show his cognitive failure
as he presents his justification on his criminal behavior:

I learned that all moral judgments are value judgments, that all value
judgments are subjective, and that none can be proved to be either right or
wrong. [. . .] is there any reason to obey the law for anyone, like myself,
who has the boldness and daringthe strength of characterto throw off its
shackles. [. . .] I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had
to become truly uninhibited. And I quickly discovered that the greatest
obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in
the insupportable value judgment that I was bound to respect the rights of
others. I asked myself, who were these others? Why is it more wrong to kill
a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your
life more to you than a hogs life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice
my pleasure more for the one than for the other? Surely, you would not, in
this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked

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some pleasures as moral or good and others as immoral or bad? In any

case, let me assure you, my dear lady, that there is absolutely no
comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham and the
pleasure I anticipate in raping and murdering you. That is the honest
conclusion to which my education has led meafter the most conscientious
examination of my spontaneous and uninhibited self. (Zavaliy)
Bundy was not treated for his illness and was later sentenced to death.
Bundy died on the electric chair on January 24, 1989, in Florida.

Nurture?
We now take a look at a second well known killer, Aileen Wuornos. She has
admitted to killing as many as seven men with a 0.22 caliber handgun.
Wuornos would hitchhike and prostitute herself along the Florida highways
(Arrigo, Griffin). In order to look more into the life of Aileen Wuornos we must
look into her childhood. Wuornos was born on February 29th, 1956. Wuornos
was described as incorrigible, possessing a fighting temper. Her angry

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outbursts were often unpredictable and frequently unprovoked (Arrigo,

Griffin). For much of her life, Aileen believed that Lauri and Britta Wuornos
were her parents, when in fact they were her grandparents. Lauri and Britta
did not have a happy marriage and showed little to no affection to one
another. Wuornos had four brothers and sisters, many of which left the house
when Aileen was just a toddler. Keith, Aileens brother, and whom she grew
up with, was only eleven months older than Wuornos. Both Aileen and Keith
experienced severe bouts of victimization at the hands of Lauri Wuornos,
their grandfather (Ahern). Wuornos would describe countless sadistic
beatings committed by her grandfather claiming there were frequent
occasions where she was beat with a leather strap on her bare buttocks and
was required to lay naked and face down on the bed. She even recalls her
skin being raw, days after the beatings. Aileens grandfather often told
Wuornos she was evil, wicked, worthless and should have never been born,
She wasnt worthy of the air she breathed. (Russell). Wuornos grandmother
did not intervene with the abuse that her husband brought on to Keith and
Aileen. She was in fact an alcoholic and was described as emotionally frail
and nervous despite her sturdy, physical appearance (Arrigo, Griffin). At
eleven years old, Wuornos was told that her so called sister was actually her
mother. This affected Wuornos heavily and further more seemed to alienate
her from her grandparents. Throughout her youth, Aileens grandfather did
not allow her to date but Wuornos did not obey his rules. She started to date
Leo Pittman, which was later known to be her biological father. Pittman was

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described as moody and possessed a violent and short temper. However,

their relationship did not last long with Leo ultimately serving a life sentence
in prison for kidnapping and viciously raping a seven year-old girl. As a
teenager, Wuornos did not socialize well with her peers. She did not seem to
have many friends but she did have a close knit relationship with her brother
Keith. Friends of Keith claim to have witnessed incest between the brother
and the sister and say that Aileen would also perform sexual acts with boys
for cigarettes and loose change. (Arrigo, Griffin). Aileen later gave birth to a
baby. Several rumors circulated that the babys father was her brother Keith
(Arrigo, Griffin). Wuornos grandfather demanded that the baby be given up
for adoption and his wishes were met. Shortly after, Aileen dropped out of
school and was displaced from her grandparents home (Ahern). Shortly after
the adoption, Wuornos grandmother died from liver failure. Her grandfather
blamed Aileen for the death. This can later explain why Wuornos blamed
herself for the death of her brother, five years later. Keith died from throat
cancer. At the age of twenty, Wuornos was married for a total of a month.
The man was fifty years older than her and during this time, she drank
heavily, stayed out all night, and spent a lot of money (Kennedy). Aileens
husband filed for a divorce and a restraining order against her for beating
him with his own cane (Russell). Aileen would have trouble with the law for
quite some time after her divorce including charges for driving under the
influence, assault and battery, and several arrests for weapon offenses. In
1981, Wuornos robbed a convenience store, walking away with only thirty

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five dollars and a two pack of cigarettes. For this crime, Aileen was
sentenced to three years of jail time and charged with Robbery with a deadly
weapon. Later in life, Wuornos developed a romantic relationship with a
female named Tyria Moore. Their romantic relationship lasted four and a half
years, spanning the time during which Aileen committed murder and her
arrest (Arrigo, Griffin). Throughout their relationship, Moore and Wuornos
lived from hotel to hotel, often not finding a place to stay. Prostitution, deceit,
excessive drinking, violence, jealousy, and grandiosity were a part of Aileens
daily life (Ahern). According was said to prostituting herself sometimes thirty
times a day. In her thirties, Wuornos got fat and could not attract the
attention she sought after. We further look into the murders committed by
Wuornos. In each of the murders committed, Aileen would roam around the
Florida highway looking for men to seduce. She would often disguise herself
as a hitchhiker and once inside the car admit that she was actually a
prostitute. The victims would park in secluded area and Wuornos would
undress herself, encouraging her victims to do the same. As soon as the men
undressed, Wuornos would exit the car and shoot her victims. She would
scream at her victims, alleging that I knew you were going to rape me!
(Russell). Aileen would then redress, take the personal belongings from her
victims, and return home to her girlfriend Moore. Wuornos was later taken
into custody and gave different stories on what exactly happened during her
encounters with the men. For example, in one of the stories, she indicated
that the murders were the result of anger when her companions refused to

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have sex with her (Court TV). In another, Wuornos reported that the men
became abusive, demanding that she have intercourse with them, she
endeavored to protect herself from being raped (Ahern). In spite of her
claims, Aileen found guilty and sentenced to death. She died on October 9th,
2002.

Nature vs. Nurture?

Both Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos killed numerous innocent people. We will
look more into the motives of both killers and conclude if their killings were
caused by the same reasons. One can argue that Ted Bundys life was far
different than the life of Aileen Wuornos. Wuornos's childhood was a troubled
one. She and her brother were raised by their grandmother after her father,
a child molester and a psychopath, hung himself in prison and her mother
abandoned them (Biography.com). During Aileens childhood, she
experienced inconsistent care, as well as emotional, physical, and possible
sexual abuse at the hands of one of her primary attachment figures (Arrigo,
Griffin). Aileen got pregnant at only the age of fourteen by her brother, the
only person she had a close-knit relationship with. Years later, after falling in
love with Tyria Moore, a waitress, she would hitchhike around the United
States working as a prostitute. They could not survive solely on Wuornos
income from prostitution and decided they would rob men and then shoot
them to make ends meet (biography.com). Unlike Aileen Wuornos, Ted
Bundy did not kill for material gains. Ted Bundy received pleasure from

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raping and murdering his countless victims. Even Teds mother considered
him to be the ideal son. She did not have many complaints about him aside
an irregular love for knives. He did not have a troubling childhood in which he
was abused physically, mentally, or sexually. Many of Bundys friends
described him as intelligent and witty. They were convinced that he would
one day become a governor or a senator.

The photo above shows Bundy immersed in happy domesticity, opening a

bottle of wine as he sits with a girlfriend. At the moment the photo was
taken, Bundy had already abducted and murdered twenty-four women and
committed nightmarish necrophilia acts with their bodies (Simon). Ted

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Bundy, unlike Aileen felt no remorse for his actions. Bundy perceived
genuinely surprised that society was making a fuss over the girls whom he
was accused of murdering, and that their families so deeply mourned their
losses. "What's one less person on the face of the earth?" Bundy asked, and
referred to his victims as "cargo" and "damaged goods." (Simon). Wuornos
expressed remorse for her actions and did not kill for pleasure rather for
material gains to survive. While on death row, she feverishly read the bible,
created drawings, helped others with their appeals and began writing about
her life (biography.com)

The picture above is Aileen Wuornos, an abused child who later earned her
living as a sex worker. Aileen Wuornos was found guilty of killing seven men
and was later executed in a Florida prison (biography).

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What does this mean?

It is clear to see that both Aileen Wuornos and Ted Bundy have done things
that are unthinkable. There should be more done in order to prevent serial
killers from killing innocent people. Although there is a visible difference in
why they both committed these horrendous acts, both of these serial killers
acts could have been prevented. Wuornos was brought up in a house that
lacked love and attachments. There were countless of bystanders, who
observed her get abused and did nothing about it. If these bystanders went
to officials, it is likely that Wuornos could have gotten help she needed and
further more prevented her lack of self respect and dignity causing her to
kill. Aileens childhood was filled with abandonment, abuse, and neglect.
Wuornos did not clasp the ability to bond or form attachments and, therefore,
lacks the ability to develop empathy for others. This is often a result of
inconsistent or lack of caring, especially during the persons childhood
(Arrigo, Griffin). With the help of the authorities, Aileen could have gotten the
psychological help she needed to overcome the abuse from her childhood.
Wuornos could have been placed in a home, which would have gotten her

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away from her abusive grandfather. On the other hand, Ted Bundy did not
have an abusive childhood, rather he was born a psychopath lacking the
ability to love or even establish a meaningful relationship. Although, there
were no clear early signs of Bundys psychological problems, I feel that his
killings could have been prevented had his elders looked deeper into his
childhood actions. Schools should require their students to take yearly tests
that clearly show the childs psychological problems. For instance, if Aileen
were to take the test, it would show signs of child abuse and alert the
teachers of her home life. In Bundys instance, it would show signs of the
ASPD. This would alert the teachers to provide the information to their
parents. It will then lie in hands of their parents whether or not the child is to
receive psychological help. None the less, the ability to know if a child posses
the traits of having a psychological disorder can come as an advantage. A
childs mind can hold so many answers and these tests can in theory prevent
killers from roaming our streets by helping them cope with their inner
demons at a young age.

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References
Zavaliy, Andrei G. "On Rational Amoralists." Journal For The Theory Of Social
Behaviour 42.4 (2012): 365-384. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16
March. 2016.
Ted Bundy. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:03, March 17,
2016, fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/ted-bundy-9231165.
Petrolini, Andrea. "AntiSocial Personality Disorder: The Case of Theodore
Bundy." The Case of Theodore Bundy. Info Board, May 2002. Web. 16
March. 2016.
Aileen Wuornos. (2016). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:59, March
17, 2016, fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/aileen-wuornos11735792.

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Corin, Lucy. Everyday Psycho Killers: A History for Girls. Tuscaloosa, Alabama:
The University of Alabama Press, 2004. Print.
Kennedy, D. (1992). On a killing day. Chicago, IL: Bonus
Simon, R. I. (2000). Serial Killers, Evil, and Us. National Forum, 80(4), 23.
Arrigo, B. A., & Griffin, A. (2004). Serial murder and the case of Aileen
Wuornos: attachment theory, psychopathy, and predatory aggression.
Behavioral Sciences & The Law, 22(3), 375-393. doi:10.1002/bsl.583
Court TV. (1999). Mugshots: Aileen Wuornos.

Bell, C., & Fox, M. (1996). Telling stories of women who kill. Social and Legal
Studies, 5, 471494

Ahern, A. (2001). A biography of Aileen Wuornos. Retrieved 10:56 Dec. 11,

2014, from
http://www:courttv:com/onair/shows/mugshots/indepth/wuornos:html

Russell, S. (1992). Damsel of death. London: BCA.

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