* Disclosure- This weeks story is a bit graphic, I put a * next to anything that is graphic as a warning, it will also have one at the end to let you know the graphic part is over.
Edmund Emil Kemper III was born December 18th, 1948 in Burbank, California weighing 13 pounds at the time of his birth. His parents were Edmund Kemper II and Clarnell Kemper, Edmund II was a World War II veteran who later said that suicide missions in wartime were nothing compared to living with Clarnell. So it's probably no surprise that they separated in 1957. Ed was devastated by his parents separating, he had a close relationship with his father, but ended up being raised by his mother in Helena, Montana. Clarnell was a monster, she was a neurotic, domineering alcoholic who's favorite pass time was to belittle, humiliate and abuse Ed. She often made him sleep in a locked basement. She regularly mocked him for his large size (he was 6ft 4in by age 15,) she refused to coddle him for the fear that it would "turn him gay." Ed said that she would tell him that he reminded her of his father and that no woman would ever love him, Ed later described her as a "sick angry woman." Clarnell was such a peach wasn't she?Ed had an IQ of 136, but definitely exhibited antisocial and psychopathic behavior. *At the age of 10 he buried a pet cat alive, once it was dead he dug it up, decapitated it and mounted its head on a spike, he later stated that he derived pleasure from successfully lying to his family about killing the cat. At age 13 he killed another cat with a machete and kept the pieces in his closet.* He would perform bizarre sexual rituals with his younger sisters dolls that culminated in him removing their heads and hands. When his older sister found out that he had a crush on one of his teachers she asked why he didn't try to kiss her, his response? "If I kiss her, I'd have to kill her first." As a kid my favorite games were Twister, Operation, Candyland.... Ed's favorite childhood games were "Gas Chamber" and "Electric Chair." He would have his younger sister tie him up, flip an imaginary switch and he would topple over and writhe on the floor, pretending to die of electric shock or gas inhalation.
At age 14 he decided to run away from home, he went to Los Angeles in attempts to reconcile with his father. He found that his father had remarried and had a stepson. He stayed for a little while until he sent Ed to live with his Grandparents, Edmund and Maude Kemper on their ranch in North Fork, California. Ed referred to Maude as being constantly emasculating to him and to his grandfather, his grandfather was "senile" according to Ed.
August 27th, 1964, Maude was working on her latest children's book when her and Ed got into an argument. Ed was enraged, he left the room, grabbed the .22 caliber rifle his grandfather had given him for hunting and returned to the kitchen. Maude told him to not shoot any birds...well he didn't...instead he fatally shot her in the head before firing 2 more times into her back. When Edmund came back home Ed went outside and fatally shot him in the driveway before he had a chance to see what happened to his wife. In a state of confusion and panic he called his mother, who told him to call the police. He did just this and waited at the ranch for them to come. When he was questioned by police he said "I just wanted to see what it felt like to kill grandma," and that he killed his grandfather so he wouldn't have to find out his wife was dead. Court psychiatrists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and sent him to Arascadero State Hospital to have a stay in the criminally insane unit.
While he was there social workers and California Youth Authority psychiatrists strongly disagreed with this diagnosis. They stated he had "personality trait disturbance, passive- aggressive type," he didn't show interference with thought, expression of delusions or hallucinations or evidence of bizarre thinking that would fit into the paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis. He was a model prisoner and was even trained by the staff to administer psychiatric tests to other prisoners. "He was a very good worker and this is not typical of a sociopath. He really took pride in his work." On December 18th, 1969 it was Ed's 21st birthday, his gift was being released on parole. He was released into the care of...his mother. It was against the recommendation of psychiatrists at the hospital.
Ed attended community college, he wanted to become a police officer, but because of his enormous size he wasn't eligible. He did spend a lot of time at a bar called The Jury Room, it was across the street from the Santa Cruz Courthouse. There he spoke with a lot of officers and was able to pick their brains about police work. The officers gave him the nickname of "Big Ed," later he got a job with the State of California Highway Department. During this time his relationship with his mother remained toxic and hostile, "My mother and I started right in on horrendous battles, just horrible battles, violent and vicious. I've never been in such a vicious verbal battle with anyone. I couldn't stand the thought of my mother and I doing these things. She insisted on it, and just over stupid things."
The same year he began his job he started dating a 16 year old high school student to whom he would later become engaged to. Also during this year he was hit by a car while out on his motorcycle. His arm was badly injured and he received a $15,000 settlement in the civil suit he filed. He was able to purchase a car with the settlement money and it was then that he began picking up hitchhikers, Ed stated he picked up around 150 girls, but let them all go peacefully.
By May of 1972 Ed was no longer able to suppress his violent urges. He ended up murdering 2 hitchhikers by the names of Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Mary Luchessa. He handcuffed Mary Ann and locked Anita Mary in the trunk, he then stabbed and strangled Mary Ann, shortly after he killed Anita Mary in a similar manner. Ed later confessed that while handcuffing Mary Ann he "brushed the back of his hand against one of her breasts and it embarrassed him," he even said he apologized to her, despite murdering her minutes later. Ed put both of their bodies in his trunk and started heading back to his apartment, he was pulled over for a broken taillight, but because he was able to keep his cool nothing happened and he continued on his way. *When he brought the dead bodies back to his apartment he had sex with them, and...their severed heads. Then he would fully dismember them and dispose of their remains.*
September 14th, 1972, Ed picked up 15 year old student Aiko Koo who decided to hitchhike after missing her bus. He drove her to a remote area, pulling a gun on her, in the mix of everything Ed accidentally locked himself out of his car. He had gained her trust and SHE LET HIM BACK IN! He ended up killing her, putting her body in his trunk, going to a bar for a couple drinks then went back to his apartment. Where he did the same thing to her as he did the first 2 victims.
By January 7th, 1973 Ed had moved back in with his mother. He was driving around Cabrillo College campus when he picked up 18 year old Cindy Ann Schall. Same MO as the others, but this time he took the body back to his mothers house. He kept Cindy's body in a closet in his room, when his mother left for work the next day *he dismembered and decapitated her body in his mothers bathtub. He kept the head for several days, regularly having sex with it.* He then buried the head in his mothers garden, facing upward toward her bedroom. He later remarked that his mother "always wanted people to look up to her." Yikes! He threw the rest of her remains over a cliff.
After a heated argument with his mother on February 5th, 1973 he left the house and found 23 year old Rosalind Thorpe and 20 year old Alice Helen Liu. Same Mo yet again. He dumped their remains the next morning at Eden Canyon.
April 20th, 1973, his 11 month killing spree would come to an end, but not before killing the one woman/monster he had dealt with his entire life. This night he waited for Clarnell to come home from a party. She arrived home and got into bed to start reading a book, Ed comes into the room and she says "I suppose you're going to want to sit up all night and talk now," Ed replied "No, good night." He waited for her to fall asleep, he returned to her room then bludgeoned her with a claw hammer and then slit her throat with a knife. (This next part is pretty gruesome) *He decapitated her and engaged in irrumatio (a form of oral sex where a man thrusts his penis into someones else's mouth) with her severed head before using it as a dart board. He states he "put her head on a shelf and screamed at it for an hour, threw darts at it," and in the end "smashed her face in." He also cut out her tongue and larynx, throwing them in the garbage disposal, however it could not break down the tough vocal cords and ejected the tissue back into the sink "That seemed appropriate," Ed later stated, "as much as she'd bitched and screamed and yelled at me over so many years." He then had sex with his mother's corpse and hid it in a closet and went out to drink.* Upon returning from his much needed alcohol consumption he invited his mother's best friend Sara Hallett over to the house for dinner and a movie. He then strangled her to death when she arrived and spent the night with her decapitated body, he stuffed her corpse in the closet and left a note for police, Appx. 5:15 AM Saturday. No need for her to suffer any more at the hand of this horrible "murderous butcher." It was quick-asleep-the way I wanted it. Not sloppy and incomplete, gents. Just a "lack of time." I got things to do.
Ed left in Sara's car and drove until he arrived in Pueblo, Colorado, after not hearing any news on the radio about their murders he found a phone booth and called the police. He confessed to the murders, but they didn't believe him and told him to CALL BACK LATER. He called back later, but specifically asked to speak with an officer that he knew, he waited in his car for the police to show up. They arrived, took him into custody and he also confessed to the murders of the 6 students. They asked him why he turned himself in and he said "The original purpose was gone...It wasn't serving any physical or real or emotional purpose. It was just a pure waste of time...emotionally, I couldn't handle it much longer. Toward the end there, I started feeling the folly of the whole damn thing, and at the point of near exhaustion, near collapse, I just said to hell with it and called it all off."
Ed Kemper was found guilty on eight counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison on November 9th, 1973, spending his time in the California Medical Facility state prison.
He was incarcerated in the same prison block as other notorious criminals such as Herbert Mullin and Charles Manson. Ed wasn't fond of Herbert, he stated " Mullin was just a cold-blooded killer...killing everybody he saw for no good reason." Ed also commented on the fact that his statement was hypocritical considering what he had done. Ed manipulated and physically intimidated Mullin who he nicknamed "Herbie," Ed stated Mullin "had a habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to watch TV, so I threw water on him to shut him up. Then, when he was a good boy, I'd give him peanuts. Herbie liked peanuts. That was effective, because pretty soon he asked permission to sing. That's called behavior modification treatment."Ed is considered a model prisoner. He participated in a program known as "The Blind Project," where inmates created books on tape for the blind. Ed ran the program and has readings of several hundred books to his credit. He is in charge of scheduling other inmates' appointments with psychiatrists as well as being a skilled craftsman of ceramic cups. He has participated in a multitude of interviews, his interviews are notable for their contribution to understand the mind of serial killers. FBI profile John Douglas described Ed as "among the brightest prison inmates" Ed is upfront about his crimes and the nature of them, he stated he participated in interviews in hopes it would save others like himself from killing. "There's somebody out there that is watching this and hasn't done that- hasn't killed people, and wants to, and rages inside and struggles with that feeling, or is so sure they have it under control. They need to talk to somebody about it. Trust somebody enough to sit down and talk about something that isn't a crime. Thinking that way isn't a crime. Doing it isn't just a crime, it's a horrible thing, it doesn't know when to quit and it can't be stopped easily once it starts." Ed is currently 70 years old and is happy with his life in prison.
Ed's interviews with John Douglas are featured prominently in the book "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit." Netflix also has a series based off of this book called Mindhunter.
Whew! Thanks for sticking with me on this one! This case really peeks my interests due to the psychological aspect of it. How years of psychological and mental abuse starting at such a young age can potentially cause someone to do such heinous acts.
What are your thoughts about Ed Kemper? I would love to hear them! See you guys next week.
Resources:
https://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kemper-edmund.htm
https://allthatsinteresting.com/edmund-kemper
https://peoplepill.com/people/edmund-kemper/
https://www.oxygen.com/kemper-on-kemper-inside-the-mind-of-a-serial-killer/crime-time/ed-kemper-then-now
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