The Making of a Serial Killer | Documentary 

You...yes, you...ad skipper. Hit the hitchhike button to make it count. :)

Really REALLY love the lack of music. Makes it feel much more educational instead of forced creepiness. Brilliant scriptwriting as usual

No matter how many times I see him I am always surprised at how tall Kemper really was. His height had to add to the fear of his victims because he loomed over them so much. I can’t imagine how terrifying it would have been to have him attack a petite person

Elizabeth Wettlaufer, the Canadian serial killer nurse, provided some insight into how the compulsion to kill works and why she didn’t stop of her own accord. She said she would start feeling a high level of anxiety, tension and stress (which only killing would relieve) and the more she tried to fight it, the worse the anxiety got until it reached an intolerable level and all she could think about was killing to gain stasis. She would kill and, afterward, feel tremendous relief and release. The tension would eventually build again, she’d kill again - a vicious circle. I saw an interview of Ted Bundy’s younger male cousin to whom he was close and the boy usually spent part of his summers with Ted. He said one day, well before he was supposed to return home, he saw something overcome Ted, a far off look in his eyes, like he was in another world mentally. He abruptly told the boy he had to leave and promptly drove him to the bus station. He believes it was Ted experiencing the compulsion to kill. A long-term former girlfriend related that she and Bundy had gone rafting as they’d done many times, when he suddenly pushed her overboard and started drowning her when she tried to get back on the raft. She began screaming his name and struggling and there was a look in his eyes she’d never seen before. (I can’t recall how she described it, if it was a look of anger, a blank look, eyes turned black, or what exactly.). He finally stopped and let her crawl back onto the raft. It seems a lot of serial killers are overcome periodically with the single, resolute ‘mission’ to kill. I picture it like a lion when it spots prey and becomes laser-focused on the kill.

Thank you for pointing out the many myths surrounding serial killers. I have adopted and foster kids and one of their grandmothers was not happy because she'd heard about foster parents being stabbed by a foster child. Unfortunately, the media makes this out to be a common occurrence which is bad for these children.

Amazing case study!! I was really glued to this one because of the approach that was taken when discussing subjects like psychopthy and frontal lobe trauma. This had a scientific approach and not an emotional approach and that made this video far more legitimately educational instead of just fear mongering for Entertainment. Very very well done.

Gacy as a clwn was evil in ,itself..if you look at the makeup..the sharp edges of the design is not clown like..clown faces are soft with soft curved features..Gacys clown face was pure evil..was said hed dress up as the clown to commit the act of murder..how terrifying would that have been

Serial killers aren’t just people capable of murder. We are all capable of killing a person , given the right circumstances. Serial killers are DRIVEN to kill. Hunting, planning, killing, cleaning, disposing . It takes a lot of time and effort.

Hamlet wasn't unnaturally interested in his mother's sexuality, he was rightly concerned that she had married her husband's (Hamlet's father), murderer! Add to that the fact that his step-father (and uncle) had committed the mortal sin of regicide via a brutal chemical attack and ursurped the throne by marrying the queen (Hamlet's mother). It's very reasonable he was worried about his mum.

Serial killers have been around since humans existed. The only difference between now and then is the advances in forensic science and psychology. We've gotten better at catching them before they go on a real killing spree.

Jesus, hearing Dahmer's dad describe his mother's completely natural and uncontrollable hypermesis gravidarum and refer to her suffering as "hysteria" and "psychosomatic illness" makes me think he was clearly FAR more of a problematic influence than he realized. Sheesh. All the analytical prowess and not a mirror in sight. Edit- yeah, I spoke too soon. It got worse. A lot worse. Dude was grasping at every single straw.

You have now created the best actuation of a serial killer profile. Great job

This documentary is brilliantly done. Thank you. Going to share it asap!

Got me feeling all kinds of feelings tonight, Doc. This episode hit different tonight.

Once again SKD you've gone above & beyond in providing another truly outstanding video! Your content never fails & I thank you so much for the time & effort you put into your channel. Cheers 🇨🇦

Wow. This may be the best one yet Doc!

Hey, skd not doing well mentally but I'm just popping up to show my love and postive vibes to you much love my friend ❤❤

Great doco! The insight to what a serial killer's mind is like and what some of the psychology and physiology behind it is fascinating. It's terrifying to know that you could be working with, dating, married to, living with a person who has or is about to commit such atrocities. Personally, I find Ed Kemper the absolute most terrifying of all of the famous SKs. It's not his imposing stature, but his imposing IQ. Hearing him speak is a total mind fnck. Eloquent and thoughtful yet so twisted. PS, I absolutely love the outro! I get a kick out of it every time along with the music.

I work in prison and I see many murderers everyday but even after years of working there, they still give me the creeps every time I see them especially the one who killed his wife & children. What's more freaky is the fact that he acts so polite & kind. He has a nice smile. Before I work at the prison, I thought evil people looks ugly & scary but I was gravely mistaken. They look just like us and I think that's even more scarier but I feel the dark vibes whenever I'm near them. They are cold hearted low-quality individuals but they sleep good at night. They are mentally ill but some of them are very intelligent. Some are devil worshippers. We really need God more than ever and you don't have to be religious to know this.

You’ve covered a lot of lesser known cases over the years. You’ve definitely paid your dues discussing the nuances between these killers. It’s very difficult to paint in broad strokes the way you have here while still having something new to say, well done

Welcome back, Best Narrator.

I just wanted to THANK YOU so much for that 3 choices poll you did recently and introduced me to Deadbug! I absolutely love his work and we actually grew up on the same streets at the same time which I found wild. Anyway, if not for you I wouldn't have ever found Deadbug since RU-vid shadow bans him soo badly. But, I went onto his Patreon and all is good 👍 Cheers 🍻

Just out of curiosity, can anyone who is in psychiatry and works with prisoners, or as a court expert witness answer this question? Almost all serial killers, with some exceptions, seem to express this desire to kill as something that builds and builds until they finally gratify it, and it goes away for a time. It sounds kind of like the way people with Tourette's express how it feels to have tics; like a pressure building up until they give in to the tic. My question is:what happens to these people once they are in prison for life? Does that desire to kill keep growing and growing like it did when they were on the outside? Do they have to have jail therapy sessions to "Keep the lid on", so to speak? Does it ever happen that the need to kill after months or years have gone by become so extreme that they just attack the first person that they come in physical contact with? ( e.g. guards, other prisoners, cellmates. ) or do they all live one person to a cell? I know they aren't all on death row, where those cells are solitary. If this doesn't happen, why not? How do they manage to control on the inside, what they couldn't control on the outside? Just something I've wondered.

The guy that said kids have no sympathy is full of it. I had nothing but sympathy as a child.

Henry Lee Lucas was lurking about my hometown Andrews in West Texas just before he got caught. He was working as a cook at a steakhouse in town and a friend worked there as a waitress. She said he always got weird about anyone going near the freezer without him there to keep watch. He hadn’t been moved on too long before they caught him, thanks to Sheriff Farmer who never gets any credit for it.

“Hitchhiker Button”. That’s darkly brilliant humour! Not a typical video for this channel, an interesting essay about what makes these creatures tick!

Great video! It’s rare that a video has me hanging on every single word like this did. Well done

I remember watching "Most Evil" on the old Discovery Crime channel back in 2006. The show interviewed Dr. Johnathan Pincus and he came up with an interesting theory on how serial killers are made. First off, undiagnosed mental illness or defect. Second. Head injuries and brain damage. Finally... The powder keg that sets them off. Horrific, daily, back to back child abuse and if you want perfect examples. Look at the childhoods of Henry Lee Lucas, Otis Toole, Pedro Lopez, Tommy Lynn Sells, and Andre Chikatilo. To me, that makes more sense than the 'MacDonald triad'

"Alienated men with disinterest in continuing the dull lives _with_ which they feel entrapped". Quite a powerful statement and plays true to most, some men buy sports cars some get new gf's and some kill.

Thank you for not discounting how abuse as children can create serial killers instead of saying “a lot of people get abused but don’t murder people”

I have chronic/severe mental health issues since I was younger (I'm in My late forties now). Chronic anger, frustration, rage, stress, borderline homicidal (borderline because I hadn't said/done anything criminal). So, I can SOMEWAT relate on an emotional/mental level. I'm ACTUALLY... surprised. EXACTLY WHAT YOU JUST SAID! SOMETHING INSIDE YOU STOPS YOU FROM TAKING THAT STEP OVER THE LINE! I DIDN'T WANT to go to jail for life! I DIDN'T WANT to be in a psych ward for the rest of My life! THAT ALONE, INSTINCTLY, STOPS ME! I GET IT! Like Dexter! I 100% understand his inner-narration/psychology. The only difference is...I'm not a serial killer. Interesting video. 🤔😁👍🏻 I'm halfway through the video now. The more I listen, the more I relate. I'm NOT "anti-social" or "psychopathic" or a serial killer, but I understand the mentality/psychology. I love this documentary. 🤔😁👍🏻

We seem to have an abundance of dickheads but where are the Alexanders? The Shaka Zulus or the Thors and Lokis of our age? Not one billionaire has mimicked Bruce Wayne? Not one? damn, what a time to live in, absolutely absent of heroes yet a plethora of monsters....

So far absolutely amazing coverage SKD 🇨🇦⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BRAVO @SKD you are the OG of true crime dox. So well done and respectful to the research. Cheers from Dallas!

"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth" "Anonymity breeds the serial killer"

Fantastic Documentary. I thoroughly enjoyed this. The categories were easy to understand and I feel like I've learned more by watching. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys human behavior. Thanks for this Upload. Much love from Toronto, CANADA 🇨🇦 ❤️ 🍁

These videos are the best! Some of the best long form content on RU-vid!

Thank you so much for re-uploading this documentary. Always one of my favorites. 😊

This is a gooood one! Thank you SKD!

Great work as usual, Doc!

An absolutely brilliant insight to how the human mind works. Thank you for yet another amazing video.

Those seizures of Mother has now been called "Stiff person syndrome". Celine Dion has it and so does my friend. It is horrific. It would scare everyone especially children

Excellent video! Good job!❤😊

This was AWESOME!! A collective deep dive! Thank you SKD!

“Lunar lunatics” 🌙🤪 🤣🤣

I can only imagine how many women got away with serial murder working as nurses and such

Such a pleasure to listen to a beautifully written and perfectly read script with correct prepositions and good grammar. It's a rare treat in the RU-vid true crime world. Thank you for this 😊

I loved the original video of this documentary. But now you’ve added the actual audio quotes from the real people, I never thought the best Serial Killer Documentary I’ve seen could get even better.

This is by far the best and most complete and informative documentary about SK I éver saw. Briljant 👌🏻👏🏻

HBO has a good doc on serial killers. It’s about how brain trauma can greatly affect a child to become a serial killer or psychopath. Most killers have a history of abuse and therefore had a great amount of brain trauma

Have learned a lot through your documentaries This was such a great/interesting overview of various SK profiles and excellent breakdown into various ‘theme’ categorisations. Thank you for all of the research/work that you and your narrator put into these! The song bit at the end is so catchy- is it available anywhere?

Amazing documentary!!! What a fascinating deep dive. The intro is spot on. A small part of my fascination is the "how would it be to live that life?" Don't worry. It's not on my to-do list.

This was amazing! I especially liked the section pertaining to Jeffrey Dahmer's parents during pregnancy. Really well written and narrated! 😎 If I could give it 2 thumbs up I would. PS I'd give it 3 thumbs up for the usual SKD outro - 4 evil homies cruising while sipping smoothies and cheering....🤣

Very well done thx for all the time and effort you put into all the content 👍

Knowing that you were the father of Jeffrey Dahmer has got to be the ultimate mindfuck

The case of Ilene Warhaus is sad... she's a person that I feel was an absolute product of her surroundings and childhood. I believe if that was filled with even a little bit of love, her path would have been different. Dahmer and Edmund Kemper were driven by crazy impulses and thoughts. Both admitted in interviews that if they were let out of prison they wouldn't be able to control themselves. Absolutely crazy.

Thank you,SKD!! I was fascinated through the whole video. It's been a loooong time since I read "Hunting Humans" at university. I think I'm going to dig it out of whatever box I've got it hidden in.

Been a student of these types for a long tike, and there's two reasons they do it, first, it's an addiction, like cigarettes or Heroin. Second, it's a personal weakness, so they don't have the empathy to stop themselves from fulfilling their "wants". They're not "needs", food and water is a need

I feel that these people were not strong enough mentally to with stand the injuries to their hearts, psyche, and souls. Abuse, loneliness, neglect and rejection cause so many problems as we know. I'm also confident in saying that jealousy, depression, and a sense of being on the outside looking in also play a role in their decisions to cross that line. I feel sympathy for these people but not to the point where we don't hold them accountable. Far to many men and women have lived out unfathomable abuse, yet turned out to be extraordinary pillars in their communities. But we all know that neglect and abuse and rejection causes life long mental problems. We lock people up for child sexual abuse and physical child abuse, why aren't we stopping the mental and emotional abuse? I'm willing to bet my soul that had someone stepped in and stopped women like Augusta Gein, and men like John Wayne Gacys father, if enough people that cared had stepped in to be there for Alieen Wournos... They never would have killed and we would never have known who they are. Now, no, it's not true in all cases. But I think if we were kinder, held bullies and abusers accountable, we would see less serial killers.

I suffered severe violence at the hands of my mother, as well as poverty, lost 2 homes, was severely bullied everyday, and I haven't killed anyone so far.

Somethinh Hotch said on Criminal Minds that has stuck with me "everyone knows who the killers are but forgets the victims names" when he was listing victims of some of the most notorious SKs. I brought that up because I knew the name of every single persons on the thumbnail but could only remember like 4 of the victims in total.

Dr. Malloy (is that the name?) Is absolutely right. We need to stop giving them attention. Just deal with them as quickly, as adequately, as efficiently as we can, and forgot their names, and don't mark their graves. There must be consequences if we want our world to go on for the rest of us.

11:02 “lulled…….into complacency”. Scary stuff

Thanks sdk, really appreciate 😊

One of the BEST reviews on the psychology of serial killers. Absolutely fascinating material and love how you presented everything!

Great Show Doc !🥰☮️

I absolutely love how thoroughly you did the documentary!! Loved it!!! Thanks

Very well put together...

im sooo sick of the stupidity...CLEARLY the screw ups parents and Trauma in the formative years are CLEARLY the a major part of heir sickness...Lousy parenting is related to most of the worlds problems , including serial killers...But just try to get people to look in the mirror...everybody is innocent and "GOOD" parents...Chya !

Very interesting documentary. You did some excellent work

Yes the lack of creepy music makes this so much easier to watch and understand the mental issues these people face

Poor analysis here. E.g. Ed Kemper NEVER used a 'gentle giant' routine to lure anyone. He simply picked up hitch-hikers & in his mind played a game. 'Let me take these girls to a place where nobody is around & see if I can keep myself from killing them.' Sometimes they won....sometimes not.

Honestly, I feel like it's almost an uncontrollable urge to do those kinds of things. Some might even feel bad about it afterwards but it doesn't stop the uncontrollable need to murder someone or something when that feeling comes.

This is of considerable insight and psychological depth, well researched and precisely put together. Are you a professional psychologist by any chance?

This was excellent!

Jeff didn’t kill the dogs. He found the bodies!

That was the best video on the minds of serial killers I’ve ever seen. Thank you

The problem with every theory is that they don't explain why others with the same issues don't turn out the same. Some people are just evil.

Thanks for this man you are awesome

Hey SKD, just wanted to tell you that I downloaded this, and a couple others from your channel to listen while I crossed the Nevada desert, and literally BLASTED IT when the dancing Jeep murderer song came on! 😂 Love your work ❤

This was AWESOME!!!!!!

At 45:19 Gary Ridgeway has a stranglehold on that poor kitten. Definitely a foreshadowing of things to come considering that's how he killed his victims.

Regarding head injuries, Richard Ramirez should be mentioned @1:14:20 He was knocked out twice as a child and developed epilepsy.

You don't have to be a serial killer to understand what could make you be one What you have to understand is what your triggers are and that the way society is nowadays Yeah, there are things that can make any one of us go off the deep end BUT HAVE THE common sense to know the repercussions ain't good. As a matter of fact, your life depends on it

Right on time for bed.....thank you❤

Thank you! One of the best videos in a long time! It covered everything. Loved it!!👍👏👏😉

Incredibly insightful and fascinating as always. Cant wait for the next video.

I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. Thank you so much.

Very good video SKD 👏

The video at the end has me rollin' still! Lol😂😂😂😂😂

Always interested in the psychology of serial killers and historical figures in general.

Now this is a true documentary that once was like the History Channel back when it was about History, now its shows of everything but history.

Well put Documentary. I like the ending

Great video ! Thanks for putting it together and sharing !

An acquaintance of mine said that serial killers should not be "celebrated" in the media, but where do you draw the line with regard to public safety?

Simple! Some of us understand and realise that evil is evil, some don't understand the concept 🤷🏼‍♂️ i had that feeling and did some bad stuff to some ducks and chickens as a kid ( 14 - 15 ) and at some point the urge got so powerfull and demanding that i had that moment of oh shit.. it's bad and i must stop. And from that point on i keep it in check 24/7.. my rage has no limit yet i must focus to hold it under comand. To bad some people tampt me to unleash it 😂👌 but i spare them 💪💪😎 so yeah.. i guess some of us get it some are to stupid to think 😉👌

I dont think its a new fad and theres more serial killers now, i think its just getting harder for them to hide because of all the new ways we found to get evidence against them and such.

Poor kitty. Gary was cutting off its oxygen right there in the picture.

I use to view these things strictly as scientific, psychological and medical, untill i had an experience with an evil person.

Epic video!