This post is the last in the section on the debate on serial killers hosted by Southern Business School. Kotie Geldenhuys summarises the key aspects of the speakers in this fascinating insight into the mind of the serial killer.

Serial killers are people who kill, and kill again. They have been the source of fascination ever since Jack the Ripper has stalked the foggy streets of London more than 100 years ago. Serial killers’ acts of murder are usually combined with cannibalism, mutilation, rape and necrophilia.

By Kotie Geldenhuys

During a one day seminar that was held by Southern Business School in February 2009, experts on serial killings explained to the audience amongst other things, what motivates serial killers to take the lives of people in such a violent and perverse way.

The Pistorius Theory

Dr Micki Pistorius, an expert on serial killers, spoke about the origin of serial killers. She said that there are many theories, but that not all psychopaths are serial killers and that not everyone who has grown up in bad conditions becomes a serial killer. She discussed the Pistorius Theory on serial killers, and said that she has found answers on serial killers in Freud’s theories, especially in the psychosexual development phases. The development phases are: the oral phase (0 – 2 years), the anal phase (2 – 4 years), the urethral phase (3 – 4 years), the oedipus phase (4 – 6 years), the latency phase (6 – 12 years) and the genital phase (13 – 19 years). She said that the serial killer will fixate in one of those stages, especially in one or more of the first three stages. That fixation is then the seed of the fantasy which s/he eventually acts out on the crime scene. She said that at a crime scene one looks at the fixation and fantasy of the serial killer.

In the oral phase the child has already had a sadistic fantasy. The child’s oral erotic is the sucking and the oral sadistic is the biting. If something goes wrong in this phase, it can be picked up later in excessive optimism, narcissism, pessimism, demands, addiction, etc displayed by an adult person. On a crime scene bite marks will usually be found on the body and/or the females’ breasts will be mutilated. The case of Stewart Wilken (Boetie Boer) (see SERVAMUS: October 2008) comes to mind. “If one looks at this case, it’s a very good example of him cutting off the breasts to get to the milk, that symbolises the need for love that he never found,” said Dr Pistorius.

The anal phase is the potty training phase. The mother is in control of the child, but the moment she kneels down to the child on his/ her potty, the child takes control – s/he can make a “poo” or not. In this phase feaces become a dangerous weapon in fantasies – the child is “proud” of the feaces, but the mother simply flushes it away. Where something went wrong in this phase, the crime scene is usually neat, s/he will undo what s/he did, for example pull the victim’s clothes neatly etc. Sometimes feaces will be found on the body.

The urethral phase is basically the same as the anal phase. On the crime scene urine will be found on the faces or sexual organs of the victims.
In the oedipus phase, girls are in competition with their mothers as they “fall in love” with their fathers and boys get in competition with their fathers as they “fall in love” with their mothers. In this phase castration anxiety is also experienced by boys, and girls discover that they have no penises as they play “show me yours then I’ll show you mine”. On a crime scene, where something had gone wrong in this phase, one will find for example phallic objects in the victim’s vagina.

In the latency stage the child learns moral and ethical values. Serial killers have no moral and ethical values as they have fantasies of raping and killing. “Serial killers do not have feelings of guilt,” Dr Pistorius said.

Dr Pistorius said that two brothers can grow up in one house and be exposed to the same circumstances but one may become a serial killer, while the other may not. “It is something that is in an individual,” she said. She also said that a signature, for example a bow left on the body, can be part of the fantasy.

One cannot give a serial killer a second chance. If he gets out, he will kill again.

Also see Pistorius’ Theory on the Origin of Serial Killers Part II: Psycho-sexual Developmental Phases.

Dir Piet Byleveld – SA’s top serial killer investigator

Dir Piet Byleveld who has been a policeman for the past 39 years and a detective since 1972 has seen the devastating effects of crime. “One does not only look at the body, one also looks into the tear-filled eyes of loved ones, stand next to the table during a post-mortem and also looks into the face of a serial killer.”

Dir Byleveld has investigated a number of prominent cases including the Leigh Matthews case (see SERVAMUS November 2005 and 2007), on which he is still working. He has also investigated many serial killer cases and his advice to investigating officers is to be patient and never be aggressive towards a serial killer – treat him/her as a human being. To illustrate his point, he referred to the Sipho Dube case, where he took clothes and food to Sipho. Sipho admitted to Dir Byleveld that he murdered certain people. He also admitted to cases the police did not even know of.

According to Dir Byleveld the Wemmerpan case was the most difficult case of his career. Here the serial killer did not have one single modus operandi. First he hit women on their heads with rocks, second he placed his focus on elderly men at their homes and third he started to focus on couples where he shot the men, took their shoes, raped the women often killing them. The theft of the victims’ shoes could have been the Wemmerpan serial killer, Cedric Maake’s fixation (see SERVAMUS: July 2007).

Dir Byleveld said reasons given by serial killers why they kill differ. In many cases the mother was the dominant figure in the house and then they killed women. The Nasrec killer for example, was born in jail and hated his mother for that, so he killed women.

Dir Byleveld urged station commissioners and detective commanders to familiarise themselves with cases at their stations and in their detectives’ dockets. He said that in one incident four different investigating officers had investigated four bodies that were found in one area. The reality was that these were not four unrelated cases, but one serial killer at work. “This can be blamed on the commander who does not know what is going on at his/her station.” During the seminar Dir Byleveld urged youngsters in the police to learn from experienced detectives and he also emphasised the importance of taking a proper statement.

It is always an interesting experience to listen to SA’s top detective and learn from his knowledge. This is a man who does not rest until he catches the killer. “I cannot take time off and relax knowing there is a serial killer on the loose. It is my duty to stop him before he kills another person.”

Dr Irma Labuschagne

The last speaker during the seminar was supposed to be Dr Irma Labuschagne, but due to a court case she had to attend in Port Elizabeth her paper, with the topic “The nature of the beast,” was read to the audience.

According to her the search for any single personality type of serial killer has not yet been fruitful. “Psychologists who provide profiles of serial killers who are still at large, based solely on personality variables, are at best engaging in invalidated clinical judgment and unsubstantiated hunches. Profile information should be based on the collected knowledge from all sectors of criminology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, psychiatry, political science, history and economics. Criminal profiling is a form of retro classification, or classification that works backwards.”

According to Dr Labuschagne a lot of profiling is really only guesswork based on hunches and anecdotal information accumulated through years of experience. It can be filled with errors and misinterpretations. One can never generalise as the human nature is unique and each person has an own personality make-up. Therefore she feels that there is no such a thing as a profile of serial killers. There is no single description that covers in all cases – who they are and why they kill. Behavioural scientists who study serial killers, define them narrowly as killers who, over a period of time, slay three or more victims, compelled by some inner drive that finds release only in killing. But, the experts say, there are as many kinds of compulsions as there are motives for killing, and so there are as many kinds of serial killers as there are motives. “Nevertheless, there are some general truths about these killers. The overwhelming majority has at least an average intelligence, is mostly male (but certainly not always) and they usually fall into two categories: psychopaths and psychotics,” she said.
Psychotics fail to perceive reality correctly. They hear voices or see visions, or sometimes both, and murder is a symptom of their madness. Most serial killers are sane. Psychopaths (also called sociopaths or antisocial personalities) do not suffer from a mental illness, but from a character flaw. They are in touch with reality, know right from wrong, and therefore know killing is wrong. But they simply don’t care.

Psychopaths lack conscience, a vital component of the human personality that most other people take for granted. Psychopaths kill without guilt and without remorse.

There is no certainty about what creates a psychopathic killer. Some theories blame it on genetics, others have an environmental explanation and others believe the truth lies in a combination of genetics and environment – the age-old problem of “nature vs nurture”.

The psychopathic serial killer’s most frightening quality is his/her ability to live unnoticed among people as s/he seems so normal. But beneath the surface there are two traits which are often present in psychopathic killers – a sexual abnormality and an all-consuming need for power. Killing could satisfy them sexually as well as their need for control. One can say – killing gives them pleasure. They kill because they want to, because the can and because they like it.

Criminologists have made a number of attempts to classify serial killers into a topology, based on motive. Four major types have been identified:

• Serial killers with a visionary approach: They believe they are operating on the basis of a “directive from God”.
• Serial killers who are mission-orientated: They believe there is a particular group of people that must be destroyed or eliminated.
• The hedonistic type: They strive for pleasure and feel that people are objects to use for one’s own enjoyment. They gain considerable pleasure from the murder event itself.
• The power/control type: They strive to get satisfaction by having complete control over the victim. Sexual components may be present, but the primary motive is the extreme power over the helpless victim.

Two more types were later added to the list:
Recognition-seekers: They kill primarily for the challenge and the recognition they receive from the media.
Material gain-seekers: They kill for money and material rewards, for example women killing their husbands for insurance money.

Much of what is known about serial killers is gained through interviews conducted with them after they have been incarcerated. Dr Irma Labuschagne has a problem with this as she stated that: “Imprisonment changes people dramatically – they become institutionalised and will manipulate and say what they believe you as a researcher would like to hear. The person who has committed the crimes has changed – often completely – and the researcher must at all times be aware of that fact.”

Dr Labuschagne concluded her paper with a number of examples that gave the audience food for thought:

• The recent case where Chinese manufacturers were found guilty of willfully adding melamine to baby food – knowing full well it would kill. Two manufacturers were given the death sentence. They, according to the definition, killed more than three babies over a period of time. Their motive was clearly evil greed. Should they be labelled as serial killers?
• The case of Eugene de Kock who was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for causing – over a period of time – the death of many political opponents at the time of the Apartheid Regime. His killings were certainly not motivated by anything remotely sexual. A need for power, maybe? Or simply acting on the command of superiors?
• Then there is the taxi- or even bus driver who has no regard for human life – causing multiple accidents over a period of time and where people lose their lives. Are all of them psychopaths? She said there are many more examples one can add to the list – such as Hitler and Mugabe.

Also see The Nature of The Beast by Dr Irma Labuschagne.

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The different views and ideas about serial killers presented during the seminar were interesting and call for discussion, but it was clear that good groundwork by detectives is very important in solving a crime. Some of those attending the seminar felt that a profile is a valuable tool to the investigation, but that evidence found on a crime scene, such as DNA, is important for a conviction. People do not get convicted on a profile, but on evidence.

- Article originally published in SERVAMUS Community-based Safety & Security Magazine: May 2009.