Welcome to the surreal story of Edmund Kemper ‘The Co-ed Killer’ one of the most notorious killers in American history. He committed brutal killings of 10 people however his interviews with FBI agents Robert Ressler and John Douglas brought him his infamous status. The interviews were later depicted in Netflix’s hit series Mindhunter throwing Kemper’s crimes back into the spotlight. It is a case which has always fascinated me and today I am going to unpick and outline some of the key but shocking details.
Childhood.
Kemper was born in 1948 and lived with his mother and two sisters after his parents’ hostile divorce. His mother used to hold absolute power over him, making Kemper sleep in the basement and only letting him out at certain times as she feared he would harm his sisters. This emotional and physical abuse started the deep hatred for his mother which is later key to the crimes committed. When he was allowed out of the basement, he would play disturbing games with his sisters such as gas chamber where they would pull an imaginary lever and he would roll around pretending to choke. He then moved onto cutting body parts off his sisters’ dolls, Kemper later claiming he gained a sexual thrill from popping the heads of these dolls. This fantasy world continued, and the violence only increased, leading to him killing the family cat and dismembering the body parts. His mother later found these body parts and we can only imagine the reaction that followed this. Kemper was then sent off to live with his grandparents which may have seemed as a good idea however his grandmother was much the same as his mother claimed Kemper. With the domineering presence not gone Kemper grew increasing frustrated. Kemper loved to go out hunting however his grandmother despised of this eventually leading to her confiscating his gun. The was the final straw for Kemper and aged 15 he shot and killed his grandmother. He then met his grandad in the driveaway and shot him too so ‘he wouldn’t found out his wife had been murdered’. This seems like a rather cold and callous statement suggesting Kemper has no remorse for these actions. Following the murders Kemper was sent to a secure juvenile centre to begin rehabilitation. Due to his high IQ Kemper was able to lead doctors to believe he had been rehabilitated and would no longer pose a risk to society. Eventually he was released into his mother’s care aged 21, although the doctors recommended, he be kept away from his mother this was not the case due to his lack of family. I should also mention Kemper was now 6'9 and weighed over 250 pounds.
The crimes.
With the fantasies now building in Kemper’s head he began carrying murder tools in his car whilst he fantasied about picking up girls. As he cruised the streets in his car he noticed lots of young women looking to hitch hike. These young co-eds were the perfect target for Ed and he soon began picking these women up but then dropping them at their intended destination, all the while working up the nerve to commit murder again. Unfortunately, Ed could wait no longer and picked up two friends Mary and Anita on 7th of May 1972. As he pulled over in a secluded location he tied up Anita and took Mary into the woods, where he stabbed her multiple times with a large knife he bought at a pawn shop. As he walked back to the car he began thinking ‘I gotta kill her I can’t let her get away’. Once he reached the car he lied and told her that the blood was because her friend got a nosebleed, Kemper later stated he felt like he was sparing her as she didn’t need to know her friend was dead. After this Kemper began a frenzied attack in which he stabbed Anita to death. Later he decapitated both corpse’s and proceeded to engage in sexual activity with the bodies. Just pausing here, it is clear to see how violent these attacks were and how these fantasies had completely taken over Kemper. Later in interviews he claimed how flustered he was committing these crimes. He talks about how he thought he’d locked himself out of the car whilst Anita died inside before panic took over Ed calmed himself and found the keys. Kemper also stated he ‘should have been busted 3 times.’ This statement is shocking but maybe true due to the flustered nature of the crime it is not hard to imagine him being careless. The fact that he wasn’t caught led him to become more brazen for example in one interview he states how he severed 2 human heads at 11:00pm right outside his house. This would suggest he was either becoming too confident or deep down wanted to be caught as he knew he wouldn’t stop killing. Comments in later interviews such as ‘no more girls can die’ leads me to believe the latter however we will never know how true these comments are so can only be taken with a pinch of salt.
Was Kemper remorseful?
Yes
No
In September of 1972 he picked up 15-year-old Aiko Koo, sadly she met the same end as his previous two victims. It can now be inferred that Kemper was becoming increasingly confident and less flustered making him more efficient.
Moving forward into January 1973, Kemper picked up Cindy Schall before he shot and killed her. He then took the body parts back to his mother’s house before dismembering the corpse. Kemper then buried the head under his mother’s bedroom window looking at her. Kemper later stated that his mother ‘always wanted people to look up to her’, this is his sick and twisted way of getting back at his mother for the pain she caused him in prior years. He also engaged in necrophilia with the corpse, this was due to his fear of rejection from women therefore with them being dead he could do what he wanted without being rejected. As much as he blames his mother for the crimes, I think there was also a sexual aspect to this. Due to his size and looks Kemper was not popular with the ladies and I feel many of his crimes were committed out of sexual lust for these women. By killing them and creating a ‘doll’ he could then do as he pleased, within the interviews I have watched I feel this is covered up by the mask of getting back at his mother.
In February 1973 Kemper picked up 2 students before mortally wounding them and then driving past campus security. By this point security were aware of the co-ed murders however Ed’s car contained a university sticker due to the fact his mother worked at the university. Students were told to only expect rides from cars with this sticker, little did they know Kemper was behind the wheel.
Finally, Kemper had had enough and in April 1973 he decided he would kill his mother in a finally act as ‘the killing has to stay between me and my mother’. The statement by Kemper suggests he had been building up to this moment all along, but he finally snapped when his mother asked ‘I suppose you want to stay up all night and talk’. In one interview when talking about this he looked to become visibly upset when revisiting this conversation, however it is again difficult to ascertain how real this is. Later that night Kemper entered her room with a claw hammer swinging it onto her head before he cut her throat. This was a brutal and personal attack, and you almost get the feeling Ed had been building to this his whole life. Once she was dead Ed decapitated his mother and removed her vocal cords shoving them in her mouth to ‘shup her up’. This is a sickening act and really highlights the deep hatred that he had towards his mother. He hadn’t quite finished as he then proceeded to have sex with her head, Kemper later stated he wanted to humiliate her as much as possible. In his own words he ‘humiliated her corpse’.
However, Kemper’s rampage wasn’t over as his invited his mother’s round before strangling her with a scarf. This final crime suggest Kemper knew he would eventually be caught for his mother’s murder and therefore wanted to commit one final act. This crime does not fit in with his story line of just wanting to kill his mother as he had already done this but chose to carry on and kill one last time. Upon killing his mother’s friend Kemper fled and called the police, on the 23rd of April, confessing to the crimes claiming later ‘It had to stop’.
The years that followed.
After his arrest Kemper was sentenced to 8 life sentences in California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Kemper claims however he should have got the death penalty. Within this facility is where Kemper spoke at length with John Douglas and Robert Ressler who were FBI profilers and created the term serial killer. Many of the interviews conducted with Kemper helped the FBI solve other serial murder cases. This was later depicted in Netflix’s Mindhunter series which is why I decided to investigate this case.
See a full interview with Kemper in 1991.
Below are some of the most interesting quotes to come out of these interviews, a top ten list of Kemper’s best quotes if you like.
“I couldn’t please her… It was like being in jail… I became a walking time bomb and I finally blew.”
This was when talking about his mother which just shows how the fractured relationship with his mother had such an adverse effect on him emotionally.
“Maybe they can study me and find out what makes people like me do the things they do.”
This quote highlights how even Ed himself doesn’t know the real reasons which caused him to commit these horrible crimes. It also shows how willing Ed was to talk to people and try to gain an understanding of why he did what he did.
“I decided to mix the two and have a situation of rape and murder and no witnesses and no prosecution.”
Again, this highlights the callous nature in which Kemper talks about his kills, turning his victims into nothing more than objects in his eyes.
“One side of me says, ‘Wow, what an attractive chick. I’d like to talk to her, date her’ The other side of me says, ‘I wonder how her head would look on a stick?”
Kemper clearly had some conflicting emotions when it came to women, one side with completely normal thoughts the other with such abnormal thoughts that would never cross a regular person’s mind. Unfortunately Kemper acted on these irrational thoughts, and seemed to be obsessed with the idea of decapitating his victims. This moves into the next quote where Kemper talks about his reasons for this fascination.
“The head trip fantasies were a bit like a trophy. You know, the head is where everything is at, the brain, eyes, mouth.”
Kemper is implying here he wanted to take as much as possible from these victims but found their heads to be the most precious part. This again sounds very callous and just shows all he cared about was power over his victims.
“Oh, what is it like to have sex with a dead body?... What does it feel like to sit on your living room couch and look over and see two decapitated girls heads on the arm of the couch? The first time, it makes you sick to your stomach.”
This is just another ridiculous statement of fact; I mean just imagine being capable of doing such a thing and then talking about it as if it’s nothing.
“I believe very dearly and honestly there are two people inside of me and at times one of them takes over”
This is Kemper during his cross examination when asked how he would diagnose himself. The District Attorney then stated how he had been described as a sex maniac.
“I just wanted to see what it felt like to shoot Grandma”
Another comment which shows what was going on in his head at just aged 15.
“I squeezed and just lifted her off the floor. She just hung there and, for a moment, I didn’t realize she was dead … I had broken her neck and her head was just wobbling around with the bones of her neck disconnected in the skin sack of her neck.”
This was Kemper talking about the murder of his mothers friend Sally, who he claimed he killed to raise less suspicion when his mother was reported missing. It is difficult to tell what was the real motive for this kill as Kemper himself has changed the version of the story multiple times.
“The killing has to stay between me and my mother”
This further solidifies how the murders were so central to his mother. It’s a great place to end this story. What do you think the real cause of these murders were?
What was the main cause for these murders?
His Mother.
A sexual Motive.
Born with psychopathic traits.
A mixture of all three.
Overall I would say Kemper was a sick individual who lived in a fantasy world, and researching this gave me a better understanding of why he is so infamous in true crime.
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