Ed Kemper
By now, many of you probably heard about the Netflix original show “MINDHUNTER“.
The Netflix show is based on the infamous psychology book “Mindhunter”, in which FBI agents John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker describe their interviews with America’s most notorious serial killers. I didn’t read the book yet, but it went straight to my top 5 books to buy and read.
The TV adaptation of the book shows the agents travelling across US to try to understand some of the infamous murderers. One of them is very noticeable: Ed Kemper.
Ed Kemper was a serial killer who went on a killing spree in the 60’s and 70’s. He murdered 10 people and on April 23, 1973 he made a call to the Santa Cruz police and confessed his crimes. Yes, he turned himself in.
During his interviews with the two agents, at one point he estimates there are “far more than 35” serial killers at that time. But was he right? Or close to the truth?
According to information from the Radford University/FGCU Serial Killer Database, in the 60’s there were 217, yes 217 active serial killers in US. See table bellow.
| Decade | US | International | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 49 | 23 | 72 |
| 1910 | 52 | 23 | 75 |
| 1920 | 62 | 41 | 103 |
| 1930 | 55 | 31 | 86 |
| 1940 | 55 | 45 | 100 |
| 1950 | 72 | 41 | 113 |
| 1960 | 217 | 76 | 293 |
| 1970 | 605 | 160 | 765 |
| 1980 | 768 | 217 | 985 |
| 1990 | 669 | 322 | 991 |
| 2000 | 371 | 295 | 666 |
| 2010 | 117 | 113 | 230 |
Ed Kemper was right when he said “far more”, however he was really underestimating the number.
So you can say that his estimation was far from the real number, but definitely he was right.
