At what point do cops consider you a SERIAL KILLER?

[Juno Styles]

at what point do police consider you a serial killer? maybe after 3 killings that are similar or would it be more?

[Tsinogatorp Eht]

A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than thirty days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings. The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common; for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group.

Source -- Wikipedia.org

[Juno Styles]

ha, so i my guess was right. thanks for the obvious source. i got random conflicting results from google.

[Tsinogatorp Eht]

You're welcome. Whenever I begin to research something, I type it in my address bar like this : research term wiki

jfk assassination wiki
the number 5 wiki
asian actors wiki

Just imagine if they had Wikipedia when we were in elementary school. No need to read through that set of 28 encyclopedias every family had.

[BeefMissile]

In general at least 3 different homicides with the same pattern or MO(Latin; modius operandi or mode of operation) qualifys as a "serial killer".

Mostly US serial killers are white males, 25-35 years old when they start and have some serious event or trama that encites them to start killing. A few women have been convicted and called serial killers(see; Monster with Charleze Therzon, www.imdb.com ).

For research and details read about the FBI special agents; Robert Ressler, Clint VanZant and John Douglas. Douglas started and ran the FBI's behavioral sciences unit in Quantico, VA; www.FBI.gov . I take issue with some of his statements and methods. Robert Ressler also discredits some of John Douglas' work.

Most law enforcement experts agree that at any given time there are about 15 active serial killers in the US.

BeefMissile

[NikeeGoddess]

Mostly US serial killers are white males, 25-35 years old when they start and have some serious event or trama that encites them to start killing.

this is partially why it took so long to catch the DC Sniper(s) a few years. a black man in his forties and a teenager working together. that was freaky.

[BeefMissile]

The DC-NOVA(north VA) sniper case was very complex. Charles Moose(the VA area police chief who led the multi-agency investigation) wrote 3 Weeks in October. I take issue with some of Moose's methods & idealogy for a number of reasons but the non fiction book provides a lot of insight into the events.

The Atlanta child killings which took place in the late 1970s were put on a young black male named Wayne Williams. John Douglas worked the criminal case as a FBI agent and writes about the case in his book.

In my opine, the DC sniper case was distorted by a terrorist or terror group being the root cause NOT a serial killer/duo.

What I found most disturbing was Malvo's intent to use the mass killings to conceal his intent of shooting his ex-wife at her Michael's store job.