im not a psycho...

i know my paper was on ted bundy and gary ridgway and that they are serial killers but im not fascinated with them or anything. I'm a huge lifetime movie buff and I have seen both of their movies and read two books about them so I just knew alot about each one and they seemed to be good to compare in my mind...
im not a psychopath
i promise :)

compare contrast paper

still in the works, but it will be up this evening

compare/contrast

Kaeli Jones

Aiken English 1101

compare/contrast

10/22/09

When someone thinks of the words "serial killer," they usually think of mass murders who all have some kind of serious mental disorder. This statement is very true; however, serial killers are actually very different in what they do and how they think. Yes, they all have the same motives but when you actually look at the reasons for those motives you notice that they go off in a completely different direction from each other. The two most notorious serial killers, in my opinion, are Gary Ridgway and Ted Bundy. Two very similar serial killers, yet drastically different.

When looking into backgrounds of serial killers, everything seems to start in their childhood. As this seems true for Ted Bundy, it doesn't make sense for Ridgway. Ted Bundy grew up thinking his mother was his older sister, and that his grandparents were his biological parents up until high school. Once he found out he became emotionally detatched from his family because there were rumors that his grandfather had gotten his own daughter pregnant and he was the outcome and they covered it up by telling him his mother was his older sister. However, Gary Ridgway had a normal childhood. He grew up in working class in Washington, had siblings and a hardworking father. Growing up, Ridgway only remianed close to his very religious and domineering mother.

They were both very intelligent. They both graduated from high school, however only Bundy went on to further his education. Bundy went to college to study psychology, he wanted to know what made people "tick." Ridgway got a job, and immediately after high school he started his fascination with prostitutes.

Ted Bundy graduated and on the outside looked like a very sophisticated psychologist. He started dating Elizabeth Kluepfer who, had a daughter, and thought that Bundy was their new start. He loved the attention. On a business trip, he met up with an ex girlfriend, who he still loved, to prove to her that he had made something of himself. He asked her to marry him and she said yes, even though he was still dating Elizabeth. The day before the wedding, he called it off and immediately started his murderous rampage. His victims were all white, middle class females. He would lure them in on school campuses by having his arm in a slng and asking them for help in carrying books to his car. While in his car he would bludgeon them and then strangle them. He was obsessed with necrophilia. He was finally caught and arrested for kidnapping when twelve year old Kimberly Leach went missing. He never told police where to find her body. To this day they still haven't found hers, among others.

After Ridgway graduated from high school he started messing around with prostitutes. He started killing them because he didn't like the concept that he had to pay them for sex. All of his victims were prostitutes because he figured they were already away from their families or runaways and no one would notice they were missing because prostitutes go from place to place. The ages ranged from twelve to thirty-eight. He would pick them up and get them to trust him by showing them a picture of his six year old son, and then during sex strangle them and dump their bodies near the green river. That's why he got his most known name as "The Green River Killer." He has confessed to killing more women than any other American serial killer. He killed women through out the 80's and 90's and was finally arrested in 2001 because they finally found his DNA.

Both of these men were everyday normal people, they had families, they had children, and yet they still felt at a loss for control. Killing innocent women were the only way they could feel like they were in control of their own lives. Psycologically they were in the same boat even though their motives and ways of gaining control were different.

Difficulties in a Child called it

The books themselves are heart tearing books.  Not only was I crying in these books for this poor child, I was angry at the Mother through the entire series.  I really wanted to hit her through the books.  In my last paragraphs I try to tie back the point of forgiving in order to let go. I personally struggle with that statement.  I want so much to let go of somethings from my past, but in order to do that I actually have to bring myself to forgive my parents which in all honesty may never happen, I may tell them I forgive them but on the inside i dont think I can ever fully let myself go and it scares me. That was the toughest thing about writing this story...it made me realize how scared I was.