Leyton, E. (1986) Compulsive killers: The story of the modern multiple killer. New York University Press, 318pp.

OVERVIEW

Some startling American statistics will set the stage for a discussion of the author’s findings:

No other industrial country comes close, according to the author, to American murder statistics. The current homicide rate in the U.S. is 10 murders per 100,000 population. The rate in Canada is 2.5 per 100,000, and rates for European countries lie between 1.5 and 2.5. Leyton estimates that multiple murderers strike successfully about once a month in the U.S. compared to once every two to three years in Canada and Great Britain.

This book studies why the U.S. produces so many more multiple killers. Is there more insanity in America than in other nations? More weapons? Greater leniency? The author, a Canadian anthropologist, spent four years corresponding with both killers and police departments. He examined FBI files, murderers’ confessions, and any writings on the subject. What impresses the author is that the killers in the study are ambitious, discontented, unemployed (or underemployed), working or lower-class individuals who preyed upon victims in a higher social stratum. They seem to be obsessed with a need for recognition, status, and acceptance into a class by which they feel rejected.

"They are among the most class conscious people in America, obsessed with every nuance of status, class and power," Leyton argues. Their murders are a "kind of primitive rebellion against the social order." Their victims were, most often, women they saw as beautiful. But sex is not the primary motivation, the author maintains. It is "a delicious byproduct, or extra dividend, to their adventure." They kill to get even and to dominate. If rape is added to their villainy, it is primarily a violent display of power.

The Boston strangler of the 1960s, Albert DeSalvo, told police he killed women because "I’m not educated and these girls was all college graduates...I made fools of them...I made them do what I wanted and accept me and listen to me."

Edmund Kemper killed his mother, grandparents, and six beautiful young women in the 1970s. He explained that he was "striking out at what was hurting me the worst, which was the area, I guess, deep down, I wanted to fit in the most, and I had never fit in, and that was the in-group."

Leyton believes multiple killings can best be explained anthropologically. In his opinion, these killers are better understood as cultural extremes than as "crazies." Most of them were not diagnosed as having a serious mental disorder. These men "can only be accurately and objectively perceived as prime embodiment of their civilization, not twisted derangement. They can only be fully understood as representing the logical extension of many of the central themes in their culture—of worldly ambition, of success and failure, and of manly avenging violence."

America produces so many multiple murderers, according to the author, because of the way the culture glorifies violence and penalizes failure. Rambo is praised, and those who cannot get ahead are branded as losers. And, in the U.S., there is no cultural solidarity that unites the poor. The culture tends to isolate those who are not successful. Neither of these two factors are as prevalent in other societies.

IMPLICATIONS

1. The extremes of American culture and the heinous crimes of those alienated individuals who suddenly explode must be condemned. These increasingly frequent tragedies are among the many signs begging the U.S. society to assess the quality of life and the values of the culture.
2. Americans shudder with each new episode of serial killing. In morbid curiosity, the society follows such news. It sells newspapers and raises viewing ratings. But how can this help to solve the deeper issues of such crime?
3. There is a troubled segment of the American youth and adult population. Within those segments there are classic types who commit most serial killings and such violence. Those who work with the young should be aware of the desperate need of these individuals for affirmation and life-skills training.