Parentlessness and Social Isolation: The Psychopathology of Bundy and Wuornos - Essay Example

16 July Parentlessness and Social Isolation: The Psychopathology of Bundy and Wuornos Serial killers often come from abusive backgrounds, where they endure physical, sexual, or emotional (sometimes all) forms of abuses (Holmes and Holmes 11). Childhood abuses can be particularly damaging, because they can produce enduring effects on the emotional and social development of individuals. For instance, some serial killers, who came from physically abusive biological or foster parents, later developed hate against themselves and others and externalized aggressive behaviors (Holmes and Holmes 11). They began with petty crimes and escalated to murder. Killing gave them pleasure; it released their anger and anxiety (Holmes and Holmes 11). This paper compares and contrasts the backgrounds and murder motives and activities of two prominent serial killers, Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos. These serial killers have different victim profiles, motives, and methods of killing, but they share the same psychological, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, particularly the absence of parents and lasting relationships during their childhood and adolescent years. Wuornos and Bundy are both white and come from working-class families, but they have different sexual, educational, and criminal backgrounds. Their grandparents raised them, and none of them were wealthy. While Bundy was shy, introverted, and most likely graduated high school as a virgin (Bell 5), Wuornos was sexually promiscuous. Michael Newton’s book, Bad Girls Do It!, narrates that: “Aileen later told police that she had sex with Keith at an early age, although acquaintances doubt the story...” (Macleod 5). She was pregnant already at the age 14 and she stayed at the unwed mothers’ home. She had a son, whom she put up for adoption in 1971 (Macleod 2). Ted had no criminal record for violence or petty crimes, while Wuornos had prior criminal record for auto theft, drunk and disorderly behavior, concealed weapon, forged identification, and burglary (Macleod 2). Ted finished college, while Wuornos did not attain this high level of education. Bundy and Wuornos have different target individuals and methods of killing, because they have different motives. Victim selection is more precise for Bundy than Wuornos, because killing serves different motives. He selected his victims, based on their physical appearances, and he methodically planned how to lure them to his vehicle (Bell 5). Bundy killed women, who shared the same physical characteristics as Stephanie Brooks, Bundy’s first love. She broke up with him, because of his lies and inability to have specific goals in life (Bell 2). Killing women, who looked like Stephanie, served as Bundy’s revenge against her. He used a fake cast to feign helplessness and to ask assistance from his target victims (Bell 5). Wuornos, on the contrary, picked up truck drivers in the highway, either luring them with sex, drugs, or alibis that she needed help (Arrigo and Griffin 386). She told the police that she even openly admitted to her victims that she was a prostitute and needed money (Arrigo and Griffin 386). She claimed that they tried to rape her (Arrigo and Griffin 386). Richard Mallory, one of the men she killed, however, did not have any history of attacking prostitutes, whom he had a habit of hiring for their sexual services (Arrigo and Griffin 386). Since Wuornos stole the money and belongings of her victims, her killing has an economic motive too. In the biography “Aileen Wuornos: Killer Who Preyed on Truck Drivers,” Macleod explains that Wuornos steals money to sustain her life and relationship with her lesbian partner, Tyria Moore. Ty no longer worked, because Wuornos promised that she would take care of their financial needs (Macleod 13). As for killing methods, Wuornos and Bundy preferred different instruments. Bundy strangled or bludgeoned his victims, while Wuornos shot then with a .22 caliber gun. Bundy shows personal and intense anger in his methods, whereas Wuornos wants a clean and efficient kill. These serial killers have striking similarities in their relationships with their parents and grandparents; they were both deceived into believing that their grandparents were their parents. Bundy and Wuornos are victims of illegitimacy. Theodore Robert Cowell was born on November 24, 1946. His mother was Louise Cowell, who stayed for three months at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Vermont (Bell 2). Ted did not know his biological father at all, who was an Air Force veteran (Bell 2). After giving birth, Louise moved back to her parent’s house in Philadelphia. While growing up, Ted was led to believe that his parents were his grandparents, and his mother was his eldest sister (Bell 2). This ploy was used to evade the stigma of having an unwed mother in the family (Bell 2). Wuornos also experienced the same illegitimate status. She was born on February 29, 1956 as Aileen Carol Pittman. Her biological mother was Diane Wuornos, who married Leo Dale Pittman, when she was only 15 years old (Macleod 2). Pittman was a psychopathic pedophile, who committed suicide in prison in 1969 (Macleod 2). Aileen's older brother, Keith, was born in 1955. Diane divorced Pittman after two years of marriage, or a few months before she gave birth to Aileen (Macleod 2). Diane felt that being a single mother was insufferable, and in 1960, she left Aileen and Keith to her parents, Lauri and Britta Wuornos (Macleod 2). The Wuornoses told their grandchildren that they were their real parents and that Diane was their eldest sister (Macleod 2). As they grew up, Bundy and Wuornos did not develop close relationships with their biological parents, even after they knew who they were. Aileen discovered the truth by the time she was 12, while Bundy learned about his parentage during his college years. The truth made them angry and more detached from the people around them. These serial killers have different abusive childhood/adolescent experiences. Throughout Aileen’s childhood, she endured abusive care, including emotional, physical, and possibly sexual abuse from her primary attachment figures (Arrigo and Griffin 386). Aileen described sadistic abuse from her grandfather. She remembered the many beatings with a leather strap on her naked buttocks (Arrigo and Griffin 383). On some instances, she was instructed “to lay face down, naked, and spread eagle on the bed for her whippings” (Arrigo and Griffin 383). Aileen said that she was beaten for consecutive days, even while her skin was raw from past whippings (Arrigo and Griffin 383). Her grandfather frequently told her that she was “evil, wicked, worthless [and that she] should have never been born. She wasn’t worthy of the air she breathed” (Russell 11 qtd. in Arrigo and Griffin 383). Britta, Aileen’s grandmother, was an indifferent accomplice to these beatings (Arrigo and Griffin 383). Her silence ensured the continuity of this physical abuse against Aileen and Keith. Britta was an alcoholic, and she died when Aileen was 15 years old (Arrigo and Griffin 383). Ted did not grow up with signs of physical or sexual abuse from his family. Because he was shy and quiet, however, his peers made fun of him. During junior high school, bullies teased and pulled pranks on Ted. Michaud studied Ted's behavior and believed that he was “not like other children, he looked and acted like them, but he was haunted by something else: a fear, a doubt -- sometimes only a vague uneasiness-— that inhabited his mind with the subtlety of a cat” (Bell 2). Hence, Wuornos experienced abuse at home, while Bundy experienced it more at school. Bundy and Wuornos grew up in social isolation, because of the absence of steady relationships during their childhood and adolescent years. Britta and Lauri did not show any physical demonstration of their love for their children or grandchildren (Arrigo and Griffin 386). Ted also grew up not knowing and feeling that his parents loved him. Because of these experiences, they showed an avoidant/dismissing style, that have the features of “detachment, hostility, social withdrawal, impulsive behavior, and poor sensitivity and awareness” (Arrigo and Griffin 386). Bowlby (1969) argues that the incapability to connect or to form attachments and, consequently, to feel empathy for others, is frequently a product of inconsistent or lack of caring, particularly during the person’s childhood (qtd. in Arrigo and Griffin 386). The need for attachment is so great that it serves as the trigger for their serial killing sprees. When Bundy became an adolescent, he expected Stephanie to love him, but because of his lack of direction in life, the latter did not take him seriously, and soon broke up with him. His first heartbreak became his motive for killing women, who looked like Stephanie. Wuornos directed her anger more at male victims. Due to years of physical and emotional (possibly sexual) abuse from her grandfather, Aileen learned to hate men (Russo 260). Aileen’s trigger is the uncertainty of her relationship with Ty (Macleod 13). Macleod states that Aileen promised Tyria that she could take care of her and pay for their trips, rent, and vices (13). Lee soon realizes that “Tyria was greedy and mercenary. And the infusion of cash seemed, until the police net really tightened, to help keep Ty at her side. At least Lee believed it did, and that’s what counts” (13). Hence, these two serial killers started murdering people, as a reaction to a loss or a potential loss of lover. Bundy and Wuornos are so wanting of love and permanent relationships that when they lost or almost lost their lovers, it triggered their underlying psychopathic tendencies. They killed in different ways and targeted different people, but altogether, they killed to get back at the people, who hurt them. As children, their parents abandoned them, and they were deceived about their parentage. Throughout their childhood and adolescent years, they became detached and unable to form lasting social relationships. Without human connections, they lost their humanity, and they transformed into cold-blooded serial killers. Raging inside, their fury escaped and resulted to the death of their conscience, and later on, the successive deaths of their victims. Works Cited Arrigo, Bruce A., and Ayanna Griffin. “Serial Murder and the Case of Aileen Wuornos: Attachment Theory, Psychopathy, and Predatory Aggression.” Behavioral Sciences & The Law 22.3 (2004): 375-393. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 July 2012. Bell, Rachel. “The Ted Bundy Story.” CrimeLibrary.com. No date. Web. 12 July 2012. Holmes, Ronald M., and Stephen T. Holmes. Serial Murder. 3rd ed. California: SAGE, 2010. Print. Macleod, Marlee. “Aileen Wuornos: Killer Who Preyed on Truck Drivers.” CrimeLibrary.com. No date. Web. 12 July 2012. < http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/wuornos/1.html>. Russo, Ann. “Lesbians, Prostitutes, and Murder: Media Constructs Violence Constructs Power.” Feminism, Media, and the Law. Eds. Martha Fineman and Martha T. McCluskey. New York: Oxford U P, 1997. 249-266. Print. Read More