Cliques of Killers

In high schools around the world, different cliques are grouped together. You have your band kids, your athletes, your drama kids, and so on. They form groups based on similar interests and personalities. Well, same goes for serial killers. There are all kinds of serial killers but based on their reasons for killing or how they kill, they are grouped into three different categories. The visionary killers, the mission-oriented killers, and the hedonistic killers. The website I found for research was really informative, but there was no author listed so I question its credibility. https://sites.google.com/site/psychologyofpsychopaths2a/what-is-the-profile-of-a-serial-killer-1/what-are-the-different-types-of-serial-killers

The visionary killers are those types of killers that have gone psychotic and begin to listen to the "voices" in their head. They're your all-natural crazies that have lost touch with reality. They are the ones that claim "God made me do it." This type of serial killer is also categorized as "disorganized" because of their mental illness and impulsiveness. They usually don't aim to kill a specific type of person, they kill people based on their indiscernible logic.

Then there's your average mission-oriented killers. These killers believe that they are doing all of us a favor by "ridding the world" of a certain type of person. They kill a population of people that they believe is undesirable, such as prostitutes or African Americans. Mission-oriented killers think that they are changing society for the better by killing off a certain group of people, therefore; they believe that their actions are justifiable. They are usually not psychotic like visionary killers.

Lastly, your most famous, well-known serial killers, are the hedonistic killers. Hedonistic killers are generally the ones that you hear about on the news and they make up the majority of serial killers. These are usually the ones that scare me the most. They end up giving me the creeps at some point of my research for this type of killer. (Note to self: DO NOT procrastinate on researching the topic of serial killers late a night. It is really not a good idea.) The category of hedonistic killers is further broken into three subcategories: comfort killers, lust killers, and thrill killers.

Comfort killers kill for material gain and profit. They're victims are mostly family members or friends. Just think about it, being murdered by someone close to you. Yikes. Talk about a backstabber (literally). Lust killers are the ones whose primary motives are sex. A lot of fantasy is involved in their killing and they use weapons that require close contact, such as hands or knives. Some lust killers cannot get sexual satisfaction without means of violence, while others, use violence just to intensify the sensation.

Last but not least, we've got the thrill seekers. They are consider to be most monstrous of all types because they just kill for the pleasure of killing. These sadistic killers like to invoke pain and fear into their victims. The more their victims suffer, the more excitement they get. They seem a little messed up in the old noggin to me. Thrill killers can plan their killing for weeks while looking for just the right target. One of the most famous of this type is the Zodiac killer.

Linked to at least five murders in 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac killer summed up his reasoning as "I like killing people because it is so much fun." He taunted the police and made threats through letters. Then after 1974, any further communication stopped suddenly. To this day he still has not been found.


Citation: "What Are the Different Types of Serial Killers? - Psychology of Psychopaths 2a." What Are the Different Types of Serial Killers? - Psychology of Psychopaths 2a. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.