Serial killers of ‘Mindhunter’: Childhood experiences
The first series of the popular TV show Mindhunter focuses on a group of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents interviewing imprisoned male serial killers to understand their crimes and to develop a typology of violent sexual offending. The events covered in the series are based on real world events. The authors claimed to have conducted “the first study of sexual homicide and crime scene patterns from a law enforcement perspective” (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b, p. 2).
There are a wide variety of documentaries and books that focus on the FBI team behind the work, written by and/or about the project team. But as a researcher, I was curious to read the original reports published by the team.
Recently, I provided a brief overview of the background and content for the first report Violent Crime (Ressler & Burgess, 1985a). However, this current post will focus on the childhood experiences of the 36 serial killers interviewed in the study (referred to as offenders from here on).
Early family life and adverse experiences
The offenders grew up in the US in the 1940s and 1950s. In early childhood, the offenders tended to be raised in a financially stable home with a working father and stay-at-home mother (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). They also tended to be the eldest sons within their family, “which gave them a distinct advantage, given the dominant-male attitudes in the country at the time” (p. 3).
Despite experiencing early financial stability, they described unstable, distant and adverse family experiences. Most of the offenders’ fathers had left by the time the offenders were 12. They were then raised by their mothers, who they indicated their relationship with was ambivalent (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). In the context of child development, ambivalent parents inconsistently respond to the child’s needs and this typically results in child anxiety, mistrust and preoccupation with the parent’s emotional availability.
Because they were eldest sons, the offenders did not have older siblings to look up to for emotional support or to compensate for inadequate parenting by modelling positive relationships (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). “Instead, they had to compete with younger siblings in an emotionally deficient environment” (p. 4). The offenders did not have positive role models outside of the home to rely on and learn from because their families tended to be disconnected from the broader community (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b).
riminal activity, substance abuse, and psychiatric problems (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). Approximately 40% of the offenders had lived in out of home care, State homes, detention centres or psychiatric hospitals prior to the age of 18 (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). The study reports information about child maltreatment for 31 of the 36 offenders:
- 12 had experienced sexual abuse (38.7%)
- 13 had experienced physical abuse (41.9%)
- 23 had experienced psychological abuse (74.2%)(p. 4).
Finally, the offenders perceived their childhoods as characterised by unfair treatment from the adults in their lives (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). A sense of injustice is evident in a quotation of one of the offenders (p. 4):
“I had the instinct to feel like I’m getting a rotten deal.”
The offenders indicated that the discipline they received by the adults in their lives was “unfair, hostile, inconsistent, and abusive.” (p. 4).
Research limitations and political context
Violent Crime (Ressler & Burgess, 1985a) is a landmark report and of considerable historical significance in forensic psychology by virtue of being such an early study of people who had committed serial sexual murder. However, as with any research, there are some research limitations and institutional context factors to consider.
The findings are based on self-report information provided by the offenders themselves, most of whom were white and all 36 were male. The offenders were described as having average or superior levels of intelligence (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b).
The summarised findings provide an indication of the typical kinds of experiences that were described by a majority of the offenders (Ressler & Burgess, 1985b). But not all offenders will have had these experiences.
In self-report studies, one of the limitations is that the information is dependent on the memory and perception of the interviewees. The findings of this study were not cross-referenced with other sources (e.g., family members or historical records). An additional limitation is that the offenders were imprisoned and being interviewed by law enforcement personnel; this is likely to have influenced the kind and quality of information shared. It may be that negative childhood experiences impacted the memory of the offenders, or that they wanted to influence the way they were seen by others for some future gain.
The offenders reported a range of adverse childhood experiences, including child maltreatment. Please note that serial sexual murderers are a small and unique group in any society. They do not represent the broader community of adults impacted by child maltreatment. Experiences of child maltreatment are common (link to Australian prevalence data); serial sexual murder is rare.
It is important to consider the political and institutional context that influences any report. There is an interesting body of literature examining the precedence of moral policing practiced by the FBI in service of the US Government. If this interests you, consider reading Better To Reign In Hell: Serial Killers, Media Panics & the FBI.
I am conscious of the emphasis on dysfunctional family relationships and child maltreatment within the report, in the absence of adequate framing within national prevalence rates of parental divorce and separation or child maltreatment. This may have been a strategy of the time for perpetuating conservative ideologies, inciting moral panic about marital separation and single mothers, and stigmatising experiences of childhood maltreatment by conflating these things with extreme violence.
Related posts and podcast episodes
References
Ressler, R. K., & Burgess, A. W. (1985a). Violent Crime. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (August), 54(8). Accessed 12 February 2025. https://leb.fbi.gov/file-repository/archives/august-1985.pdf/view
Ressler, R. K., & Burgess, A. W. (1985b). The men who murdered. In Violent Crime (pp. 2-6). FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (August), 54(8). Accessed 12 February 2025. https://leb.fbi.gov/file-repository/archives/august-1985.pdf/view