Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI

by Robert K. Ressler

All the murderers—every single one—were subjected to serious emotional abuse during their childhoods. And all of them developed into what psychiatrists label as sexually dysfunctional adults, unable to sustain a mature, consensual relationship with another adult.

The quality of a child’s attachments to others in the family is considered the most important factor in how he or she eventually relates to and values nonfamily members of society.

Potential murderers became solidified in their loneliness first during the age period of eight to twelve; such isolation is considered the single most important aspect of their psychological makeup.

Nearly half the murderers reported to us that they had never had a consenting sexual experience with another adult. As important, all the murderers knew they had not had normal relationships, and they resented not having them; it was this resentment that fueled their aggressive, murderous behavior.

Most if not all of the organized killers have tremendous anger toward women, often expressed in the belief that a certain female is not “woman enough” to “turn him on.”