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Ed Kemper: The Serial Killer Who Outsmarted Investigators · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: He's six foot nine, has an IQ of 145, and
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Speaker 1: he was charming enough to earn the trust of everyone
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Speaker 1: around him, including the police. But behind that calm, intelligent
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Speaker 1: facade was one of the most cold-blooded serial killers in
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Speaker 1: American history. Edmund Kemper murdered 10 people. And the way
0:20
Speaker 1: he spoke about those crimes later will chill you to
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Speaker 1: your core. So this is a story of one of
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Speaker 1: the most intelligent, cunningest, and... largest serial killer in history.
0:32
Speaker 1: And trust me, the deeper we go, the more.
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Speaker 2: Disturbing it'll get. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder.
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Speaker 1: All things that I love to consume, and I know
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Speaker 1: you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded freak.
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Speaker 2: And yeah, I'm standing up today, okay? I'm feeling, I'm
0:49
Speaker 2: feeling amped.
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Speaker 3: I'm feeling, ow.
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Speaker 2: Well, now I'm upset. I have a weird amount of
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Speaker 2: energy today. Sorry if I bit bop around.
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Speaker 4: I don't know.
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Speaker 2: I really hate this guy. I really don't like this guy.
1:00
Speaker 1: He's like not my favorite serial killer, but the one
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Speaker 1: that makes me the most upset. The one that just,
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Speaker 1: I don't know why, but he's just, he's up there.
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Speaker 1: One I want to fight personally. Couldn't though, because he's
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Speaker 1: literally six foot nine. Terrifying beast of a man. Without
1:16
Speaker 1: further ado, let's get into it. I'm going to stop rambling.
1:18
Speaker 1: So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach
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Speaker 1: 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust
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Speaker 1: through this windshield into this massive serial killer together. So
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Speaker 1: Edmund Emil Kimmer was born in Burbank, California on December 18th, 1948.
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Speaker 1: And he weighed a whopping 13 pounds. And now it
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Speaker 1: doesn't end well for his mother in all of this.
1:56
Speaker 1: And it turns out didn't start out really well either
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Speaker 1: for her. She damn near got ripped in half right
2:01
Speaker 1: at the beginning. But anyway, he was the middle child
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Speaker 1: of three children and the only son born to Clarnell
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Kemper, who was a native to Montana, and Edmund
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Speaker 1: Emil Kemper Jr., his father, who was actually a World
2:13
Speaker 1: War II veteran who, after the war, tested nuclear weapons
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Speaker 1: at the Pacific Proving Grounds before returning to California, where
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Speaker 1: he would eventually work as an electrician. And Clarnell Edmund's
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Speaker 1: mother often complained about her husband's menial electrician job.
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Speaker 2: And Edmund Jr.
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Speaker 1: Ed Kemper's father, later stated that, quote-unquote, You know, his wife?
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Speaker 2: And he would go on to say that, Oh! Damn!
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Speaker 1: If that doesn't tell you who Clarnell is like a
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Speaker 1: person though, I don't know what will. She's not fun
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Speaker 1: to be around to say the least. Poor guy would
3:00
Speaker 1: rather be on the front lines and have dinner with
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Speaker 1: his wife. So it's not starting out great for little
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Speaker 1: Ed Kemper. Or should I say big Ed Kemper? Because
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Speaker 1: Ed Kemper being that 13 pound baby and all was
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Speaker 1: a head taller than all his peers by the age
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Speaker 1: of four.
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Speaker 2: He was just a.
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Speaker 1: giant baby man. And Ed's childhood parallels that of many
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Speaker 1: serial killers. His parents, Clarnell and E.E. Kemper Jr., had
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Speaker 1: a very stormy marriage, as we know. And they would
3:27
Speaker 1: actually separate when Ed was only nine years old and
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Speaker 1: divorce four years later after that. And Ed actually really
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Speaker 1: loved his dad, so this did a number on him
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Speaker 1: when he left. So he would just pine and pine
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Speaker 1: for his real father through a succession of stepfathers because Clarnell,
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Speaker 1: Clarnell got around and she didn't last long because as
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Speaker 1: we know, most men would rather be on the front
3:50
Speaker 1: lines than go to a movie with her, you know? So,
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Speaker 1: Clarnell would pack up the kids and move to Helena,
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Speaker 1: Montana and Ed's mother and sisters would just... berate and
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Speaker 1: belittle Ed on a daily basis. And as Ed would
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Speaker 1: grow older, his gem of a mother would banish him
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Speaker 1: to the basement. So he wouldn't have a room, he
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Speaker 1: would just have to literally live in the basement.
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Speaker 2: Anytime he was in the house.
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Speaker 1: Because she considered him sharing a room with his sisters unseemly. Which,
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Speaker 1: Fair was probably the right call. You know, she's not
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Speaker 1: mother of the year, but she made the right call there, Steve.
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Speaker 1: And his mom thought this specifically because Ed reportedly loved
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Speaker 1: to rip the heads off his sister Barbie dolls and
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Speaker 1: also do obscene things with them.
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Speaker 2: And he's like a young kid at this point.
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Speaker 1: And since he was growing, rapidly, even when he was
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Speaker 1: a preteen, which he was at this point. And Clarnell
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Speaker 1: constantly reminded him of this and made him feel bad
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Speaker 1: about this. But this is what made him so scary
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Speaker 1: to Clarnell and his sisters, is that he's just this
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Speaker 1: giant rage monster. And instead of his mom, you know,
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Speaker 1: getting him help, the help that he clearly needed, she
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Speaker 1: just thought, you know, Let's just belittle and trap a
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Speaker 1: rapidly growing giant violent monster.
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Speaker 2: In the basement, you know? What could go wrong? Turns
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Speaker 2: out a lot.
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Speaker 1: But although Clarnell seems kind of like the villain right now,
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Speaker 1: which she partly is for sure, not so Lil Eddie
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Speaker 1: was a very difficult child to say the least. Because
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Speaker 1: Ed reportedly could not sustain friendships and he basically thought
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Speaker 1: that he was above all of his peers. Because he
5:30
Speaker 1: was very smart, but a little too smart, you know?
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Speaker 1: Little narcissistic, which, you know, first ingredient in the serial
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Speaker 1: killer pot of stew. And another little ingredient is that
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Speaker 1: he also liked to torture and kill animals. Let's just
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Speaker 1: put a few in there. That's, you know, serial killer 101.
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Speaker 1: So while most kids were playing catch and playing patty cake,
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Speaker 1: Big Ed was killing cats.
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Speaker 2: Specifically, two of his family-owned cats.
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Speaker 1: In one, he had strangled and buried in the yard,
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Speaker 1: and the other, he had completely dismembered and then hid
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Speaker 1: in his closet. And he would also place the head
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Speaker 1: of the cat on an altar of sorts, and his
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Speaker 1: mother would find it later on. So, you know, the
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Speaker 1: reasons for putting him in the basement kind of start
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Speaker 1: to add up, but I mean... mental health and all
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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff wasn't as prevalent as it is
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Speaker 1: at this time.
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Speaker 2: So can we blame Clarnell? I mean, you know, nature nurture.
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Speaker 1: I don't know.
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Speaker 2: If I've been saying Carnell, it's Clarnell. I apologize.
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Speaker 1: And at this point in his life, he would entertain
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Speaker 1: the dark fantasies he was having, which combined.
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Speaker 2: and violence from a very early age.
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Speaker 1: And in interviews after Ed's eventual incarceration, Ed would recall
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Speaker 1: his mother keeping him in the basement. He said that
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Speaker 1: he believed that he must have been a constant prickly
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Speaker 1: reminder to his mother. He said he hated her, but
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Speaker 1: often spoke as if he understood her motives and behaviors.
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Speaker 5: My mother and my sisters or my sisters themselves would
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Speaker 5: go up to bed upstairs where I used to go
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Speaker 5: to bed upstairs. I had to go down to the
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Speaker 5: basement and an eight year old child had a tough
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Speaker 5: time differentiating the reason in that. Why am I going
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Speaker 5: to the basement? I'm going to hell, they're going to heaven.
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Speaker 1: And in different interviews, he described his fear and anger
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Speaker 1: growing up along with things he envisioned doing. And he
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Speaker 1: said that he killed the family cat placing its head
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Speaker 1: on an altar and he felt empowered after persuasively.
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Speaker 2: Lying about it to his family.
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Speaker 1: And he would basically eventually hone this ability to present
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Speaker 1: a public facade that people trusted while his private world
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Speaker 1: contained much darker ideas. So it's like he was in
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Speaker 1: constant training to be the ultimate serial killer. And by
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Speaker 1: the time he was 10, he was already thinking about
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Speaker 1: females in violence.
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Speaker 4: Terms.
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Speaker 2: He was basically just developing a violent inner world of
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Speaker 2: his own.
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Speaker 3: He would say, quote unquote, When I was in school,
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Speaker 3: I was called a chronic daydreamer, and I saw a
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Speaker 3: counselor twice during junior high and high school, and that
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Speaker 3: was very routine. They didn't ask me a lot of
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Speaker 3: questions about myself, and that was probably the most violent
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Speaker 3: fantasy time I was off into.
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Speaker 1: And stories from his sisters involved disconcerting memories to say
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Speaker 1: the least. One of his sisters goaded him to kiss
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Speaker 1: his teacher. And this teacher was one that Ed had
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Speaker 1: a crush on. And Ed apparently said that if he did,
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Speaker 1: he'd have to kill her, you know? as 12-year-olds do.
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Speaker 1: And he would go on to stalk that teacher with
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Speaker 1: the thoughts of killing her, but luckily he wouldn't go
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Speaker 1: through with it. And instead, that's when Kemper would slaughter
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Speaker 1: his own pet cats, as we know, and stuff the
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Speaker 1: remains in his closet, which his mother would find. So again,
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Speaker 1: instead of getting him any sort of professional help, his
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Speaker 1: mother would take him out of the basement and ship
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Speaker 1: him off to Los Angeles to live with his father
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Speaker 1: and his new stepmother. Which Ed did kind of like
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Speaker 1: because he missed his dad, he loved his dad, so
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Speaker 1: he was actually kind of excited to live with his
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Speaker 1: dad and to get away from his mom and sisters
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Speaker 1: who constantly belittled him. But his dad and stepmom's reaction
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Speaker 1: to him was not ideal.
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Speaker 2: It was kind of the same as his mother's.
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Speaker 1: Because his strangeness and hugeness was threatening. And they quickly
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Speaker 1: were just at their wits end for something to do
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Speaker 1: with him. So completely fed up. Kemper Jr., which is
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Speaker 1: Ed's dad, shipped Ed off again to his grandparents. So
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Speaker 1: Ed's just going through multiple family homes just not being
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Speaker 1: wanted by anyone. Like, way to stir the f *
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Speaker 1: * * ing stew. Way to heat the pot up.
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Speaker 2: Like, what?
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Speaker 1: Just not good. Not good for Ed. Ed's already having
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Speaker 1: a lot of trouble at this point. I'm not giving
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Speaker 1: him any sympathy because he's a literal monster.
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Speaker 2: But, you know.
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Speaker 1: The nurture is definitely a causation in this factor, for sure.
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Speaker 2: On top of the nature, because that's there. We know that.
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Speaker 1: So Maude and Edmund Kemper Sr., which are Ed's grandparents,
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Speaker 1: a lot of Eds, had a 17-acre farm in North Fork, California.
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Speaker 1: And Ed would be brought there during the Christmas holidays
10:00
Speaker 1: of 1963. And Ed was, he was not happy about
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Speaker 1: being left at his grandparents' farm when the holidays ended,
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Speaker 1: but he would begin school anyway and seemed to actually
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Speaker 1: make a lot of progress at this point. And his
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Speaker 1: teachers at Sierra Joint Union High School in nearby Toll House, California,
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Speaker 1: found him actually just quiet and that he kept to himself.
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Speaker 1: He wasn't really bothering anybody, he wasn't doing anything nefarious
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Speaker 1: at this point.
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Speaker 2: That we know, you know?
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Speaker 1: So he didn't really cause much trouble to anyone at
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Speaker 1: this time and he made average grades even though he
10:32
Speaker 1: probably could have easily made really really good grades, he
10:34
Speaker 1: just didn't really care. And he drew really no bad
10:37
Speaker 1: attention to himself apart from his massive size. So time
10:42
Speaker 1: would go on and he would kind of be on
10:44
Speaker 1: the up, you know? But then things would get tense
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Speaker 1: at home, at his grandparents' home. But it was still bearable.
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Speaker 1: Because they would find Ed, again, odd and unsettling at times,
10:55
Speaker 1: as his mother and father did. But he would keep
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Speaker 1: busy and out of the way with his dog and a.
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Speaker 1: 22 rifle given to him by Kemper Senior, his grandfather.
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Speaker 1: Which is just, you know, yeah man, give a gun
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Speaker 1: to an animal slaughtering.
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Speaker 2: Giant psycho child. What could go wrong? What do I
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Speaker 2: know though? I don't have kids.
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Speaker 1: So anyway, Ed would go on to shoot rabbits and
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Speaker 1: gophers and he would also shoot birds even though his
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Speaker 1: grandmother told him he cannot shoot birds. And by kind
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Speaker 1: of letting his aggression out by, you know, quote unquote hunting,
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Speaker 1: It would evidently contain his anger to.
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Speaker 2: This one outlet for a little while.
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Speaker 1: And at the end of the school year, he would
11:35
Speaker 1: actually return to his mother and sisters in Helena to
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Speaker 1: spend the summer. But within two weeks, he was back
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Speaker 1: at grandma and grandpa's farm because his mom could not
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Speaker 1: take it.
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Speaker 2: She just really didn't like it.
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Speaker 1: So when he returned back to his grandparents being rejected
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Speaker 1: again from his mother, His grandmother commented that he had
11:55
Speaker 1: completely regressed at this point. He seemed more sullen and ominous,
12:00
Speaker 1: and now he wasn't in school anymore because he was done.
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Speaker 1: And he didn't have a whole lot to do at
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Speaker 1: this point either but hang out on the farm and
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Speaker 1: continue his various.
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Speaker 1: Hobbies of, you know, killing animals with his. 22 rifle.
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Speaker 1: And Ed personally found his grandparents to just be nags
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Speaker 1: and bores, and his violent fantasies would return full tilt.
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Speaker 1: And this time, his fantasies would star Maude, his grandmother.
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Speaker 1: For example, he would imagine Maude in the outhouse, and
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Speaker 1: he would shoot it full of holes in his imagination.
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Speaker 2: You know, with the guns. He was gifted by his grandfather.
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Speaker 2: Great gift, by the way. That's sarcasm.
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Speaker 1: And although those were fantasies, he would even go as
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Speaker 1: far as to line her up while she was obviously
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Speaker 1: unaware in his rifle sights. And he would think about
12:48
Speaker 1: what it would feel like.
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Speaker 2: To kill her.
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Speaker 1: So as tension at the farm started to mount, his
12:53
Speaker 1: grandmother grew very nervous, which is totally fair. I mean,
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Speaker 1: she's got this, you know, massive, angry grandson who has
13:02
Speaker 1: a weapon.
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Speaker 2: Like, I can't even imagine.
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Speaker 1: And he has nowhere else to go. So she would
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Speaker 1: take Kemper Sr., her husband, who's Ed's grandfather's,. 45 caliber
13:11
Speaker 1: pistol with her on her outings for fear that it
13:14
Speaker 1: would fall into Ed's hands, which... I don't know if
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Speaker 1: she forgot that he had a. 22, but I feel
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Speaker 1: like she took it partly for protection for herself and
13:24
Speaker 1: partly just to have another gun out of the reach
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Speaker 1: of Ed. But on August 27th, 1964, Ed would sit
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Speaker 1: at the kitchen table with his grandmother. And they would
13:32
Speaker 1: be going over proofs from a children's book that she
13:35
Speaker 1: was writing, because she was a writer. And she would
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Speaker 1: look up and she would notice that Ed had a
13:39
Speaker 1: very odd stare and a frightening look that she had
13:43
Speaker 1: seen many, many times before.
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Speaker 2: Just the... 30-yard Kubrick stare, just the.
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Speaker 1: And she would tell him, like, hey, stop it. Like,
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Speaker 1: stop what you're doing right now. You're freaking me out.
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Speaker 1: And after a moment, Ed would just pick up his gun, whistle,
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Speaker 1: and leave out the door with his dog, saying that
14:02
Speaker 1: he was headed out to go shoot some gophers, as
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Speaker 1: he did many times before. And Maude would warn him again,
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Speaker 1: like she did many times before, not to shoot any birds.
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Speaker 1: And she would just return her attention back to her
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Speaker 1: work as Ed left. But Ed would turn around upon
14:16
Speaker 1: exiting the house, and he would watch her through the
14:19
Speaker 1: screen door. And her back was to him at this point,
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Speaker 1: and that's when he would raise his rifle, take aim,
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Speaker 1: and shoot at Maude's head. He would fire once, and
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Speaker 1: Maude would slump onto the table completely. And then he
14:33
Speaker 1: would fire once more, hitting her in the back. Now,
14:36
Speaker 1: inside the house again, he would stab her multiple times
14:39
Speaker 1: on top of already shooting her.
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Speaker 4: Just.
14:42
Speaker 1: an aggressive, violent kill, like just pure frenzy rage, because
14:48
Speaker 1: at this point she was already dead. And then he
14:50
Speaker 1: would wrap her head in a towel and drag her
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Speaker 1: body into a bedroom. And within a few minutes, Kemper Sr.,
14:56
Speaker 1: his grandfather, would return home from buying groceries. And as
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Speaker 1: Ed Kemper Sr. began to unload the truck, Ed took
15:04
Speaker 1: aim with his rifle again and shot him in the
15:06
Speaker 1: back of the head. And Ed, at this point, was
15:09
Speaker 1: immediately upset. Not only because he realized what he had done,
15:13
Speaker 1: but because he knew he'd be caught. Because his grandparents
15:16
Speaker 1: weren't the sorts to take off all of the sudden
15:19
Speaker 1: for an extended vacation. So even if he hid the bodies,
15:22
Speaker 1: his family and friends would notice that they went missing immediately.
15:25
Speaker 1: So not knowing what else to do, he would call
15:27
Speaker 1: Mommy Dearest in Montana, who would advise him to call
15:30
Speaker 1: the sheriff.
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Speaker 2: Surprisingly, He did.
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Speaker 1: And then he would obviously be taken into questioning. And
15:35
Speaker 1: soon he confessed to both murders, saying he'd often thought
15:40
Speaker 1: of killing his grandmother and that he basically just killed
15:42
Speaker 1: his grandfather in an act of mercy to protect him
15:46
Speaker 1: from seeing his dead wife and possibly having a heart attack.
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Speaker 2: Oh, how sweet. What the f * * *? So
15:53
Speaker 2: you killed him because you thought that he would die anyway?
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Speaker 2: It's just, it doesn't make any sense. It's basically just psychotic, selfish,
16:00
Speaker 2: insane behavior.
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Speaker 1: So Ed would be incarcerated in Juvenile Hall while the
16:04
Speaker 1: California Youth Authority decided what to do with him. And
16:07
Speaker 1: a court appointed psychiatrist diagnosed Ed as paranoid and psychotic.
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Speaker 2: We knew that, thanks.
16:13
Speaker 1: And the Youth Authority committed him to Atascadero State Hospital.
16:16
Speaker 1: And he would enter the facility on December 6th, 1964.
16:18
Speaker 1: And at this point, he was not even 16 years
16:23
Speaker 1: old yet. So off to Atascadero State Hospital he would
16:27
Speaker 1: go and definitely where he should have stayed, but we
16:31
Speaker 1: know he didn't. So Ed would take an extensive amount
16:33
Speaker 1: of tests while there and began to gain insight, if
16:37
Speaker 1: not into the nature of his own crime, into what
16:40
Speaker 1: others thought of the crime. It's like Ed Kemper was
16:44
Speaker 1: always studying, again, how to become a better criminal. So
16:49
Speaker 1: he never accepted actual responsibility for his crime, saying it
16:53
Speaker 1: had been beyond his control, but he worked hard at
16:56
Speaker 1: learning the language of treatment and appearing recovered. Basically, the
17:01
Speaker 1: guy was an Oscar-winning actor, essentially, because he would actually
17:04
Speaker 1: go on to even work in the psychology laboratory and
17:07
Speaker 1: help administer tests to other patients. And by work, I
17:10
Speaker 1: mean he was still a patient, but he would basically assist.
17:13
Speaker 2: And he took a.
17:14
Speaker 1: Lot of pride in doing this job, which his doctors
17:17
Speaker 1: interpreted as a very good sign. He's rehabilitating. Wow, he's
17:21
Speaker 1: turned a new leaf. No, you idiots.
17:24
Speaker 2: He's Meryl Streep.
17:25
Speaker 1: But because at the time, sociopaths, which Ed had been
17:29
Speaker 1: diagnosed as, were usually reluctant and uncooperative to work with.
17:34
Speaker 1: But Ed always seemed really eager to do his best.
17:36
Speaker 2: So he was just too.
17:37
Speaker 3: Smart, basically.
17:39
Speaker 1: Because again, I know I've said this before, but he
17:40
Speaker 1: had a genius IQ of 145.
17:43
Speaker 2: Just a f * * * ing.
17:44
Speaker 1: Recipe for a final boss serial killer. So he would
17:48
Speaker 1: thrive in his new hospital environment, learning everything how to
17:51
Speaker 1: be a better serial killer. And he would make some
17:54
Speaker 1: friends along the way, including a serial grapist who shared
17:58
Speaker 1: stories of his own crimes with Ed. And all of
18:02
Speaker 1: these just up stories would leave a massive impression on
18:06
Speaker 1: teenage Ed. And his rapidly developing awareness would become inextricably
18:11
Speaker 1: linked with domination and violence. Just classic 1960s mental health care,
18:18
Speaker 1: you know? So Ed's violent fantasies would become more and
18:22
Speaker 1: more intricate and intense.
18:24
Speaker 2: I mean, he's just sitting in a hospital.
18:27
Speaker 1: Like, not being treated because everyone thinks he's better, basically,
18:30
Speaker 1: so what else does he have to do but just
18:33
Speaker 1: think about what he's gonna do when he gets out?
18:36
Speaker 1: And he would take note of what the incarcerated around
18:40
Speaker 1: him had done wrong. They had been caught because they
18:44
Speaker 1: hadn't been smart and left witnesses and evidence.
18:47
Speaker 2: They would attack women.
18:49
Speaker 1: That they knew or they would.
18:51
Speaker 2: Attack in too public a place.
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Speaker 1: So over time, he would just file this information in
18:56
Speaker 1: the corner of his mind basement dungeon, only to go
19:00
Speaker 1: down there and get this.
19:01
Speaker 2: Information after he was let out.
19:02
Speaker 1: So obviously, he was smart enough to know that he
19:05
Speaker 1: couldn't share these evolving violent fantasies with his doctors, so
19:10
Speaker 1: he didn't, and he would just continue to behave as
19:12
Speaker 1: a model inmate. And as the icing on the get-out-of-jail cake,
19:16
Speaker 1: He even claimed religious conversion and took to looking up
19:20
Speaker 1: biblical references that he had heard. So with this Oscar-winning
19:25
Speaker 1: bullshit performance, he would be released on December 18th 1969
19:30
Speaker 1: when he was 21. But Ed being inside for most
19:34
Speaker 1: of his formidable years was a bit of a shell
19:36
Speaker 1: shock when he walked out into the long-haired hippie culture
19:40
Speaker 1: that had emerged from the 60s. Especially because Ed just
19:43
Speaker 1: wasn't that kind of guy. He was kind of a
19:45
Speaker 1: f * * * ing square. With his short hair
19:48
Speaker 1: and serial killer glasses and neat mustache, he actually wished
19:52
Speaker 1: to be a law enforcement officer. But his hopes, fortunately,
19:56
Speaker 1: I think, would be dashed. Because in addition to minimum
19:59
Speaker 1: height requirements, both the local state police had maximum height limits,
20:04
Speaker 1: which is so weird to me. Like, wouldn't you want
20:07
Speaker 1: a giant hulking man on your force? I don't really
20:10
Speaker 1: understand that. But anyway, he didn't get on the force,
20:12
Speaker 1: which is for the best. So alas, Ed was a
20:15
Speaker 1: little bit too tall to be a cop. So to
20:17
Speaker 1: cater to his disappointment, he would buy a motorcycle. And
20:20
Speaker 1: with it, he could at least feel like a cop.
20:23
Speaker 1: This guy always wanted to cosplay as a cop. But meanwhile,
20:26
Speaker 1: he actually did really well with his studies, and after
20:28
Speaker 1: three months, he was paroled for another 18 months. And
20:31
Speaker 1: his doctors at Atescadero had recommended strongly that he not
20:36
Speaker 1: be returned to his mother, who had actually relocated to
20:39
Speaker 1: Santa Cruz, California. But against their advice, the youth authority
20:42
Speaker 1: would send him straight to her.
20:45
Speaker 4: Bam.
20:46
Speaker 1: So Ed would go home to his ever-loving mother, Clarnell,
20:50
Speaker 1: who at this point was twice-revorced now, just a charmer.
20:53
Speaker 1: And at this point in her life, she had held
20:55
Speaker 1: the position as an administrative assistant on the University of
20:59
Speaker 1: California at Santa Cruz campus. And Clarnell, outside of her home,
21:02
Speaker 1: was actually very liked, and she allegedly enjoyed her life
21:06
Speaker 1: a lot now with her son away. But now he
21:09
Speaker 1: was back. So upon Ed's return home, the fights continued.
21:12
Speaker 1: would wake up the neighbors daily. And she would still
21:15
Speaker 1: harass and belittle and just blame him for everything. And
21:19
Speaker 1: Ed would actually say later in an interview after he
21:22
Speaker 1: got caught, My mother.
21:23
Speaker 3: And I started right in on horrendous battles. Just horrible battles.
21:27
Speaker 3: Violent and vicious. I've never been in such vicious verbal
21:30
Speaker 3: battle with anyone. It would go to fists with a man,
21:33
Speaker 3: but this was my mother and I couldn't stand the
21:35
Speaker 3: thought of my mother and I doing these things. She
21:37
Speaker 3: insisted on it and just over stupid things. I remember
21:40
Speaker 3: one roof raiser was over whether I should have my
21:44
Speaker 3: teeth cleaned. So obviously not wanting to be home ever,
21:47
Speaker 3: Ed would seek solace at the jury room, which was
21:50
Speaker 3: a local bar frequented by off-duty police officers. And he
21:53
Speaker 3: was obviously still very fascinated by law enforcement and was
21:57
Speaker 3: incredibly smart and knew now how to converse with people very,
22:02
Speaker 3: very well. So he would naturally befriend the local police
22:06
Speaker 3: and he would be very well respected by him. And
22:08
Speaker 3: they even gave him a.
22:09
Speaker 2: Nickname, Big Ed. Very fitting.
22:12
Speaker 1: So Ed would continue to make friends with the local police,
22:14
Speaker 1: but since he couldn't be one of them, and since
22:17
Speaker 1: he wanted to avoid his mother at all costs, he
22:20
Speaker 1: got a job. So Ed took various positions as a laborer,
22:24
Speaker 1: and finally secured one at the divisions of highways, which
22:27
Speaker 1: enabled him to move out of his mother's home and
22:29
Speaker 1: into an apartment at Alameda, which he shared with a friend.
22:32
Speaker 1: But still, he said later that his mother would still
22:35
Speaker 1: continued to berate and belittle him. Guy can't catch a break.
22:39
Speaker 1: And little did she know how much she was poking
22:41
Speaker 1: the literal bear. So Ed's job would be good, but
22:45
Speaker 1: it would be somewhat short-lived, because he actually wrecked his
22:48
Speaker 1: motorcycle twice. And since it wasn't his fault, he would
22:51
Speaker 1: actually receive $ 15, 000, which is about $ 106, 000 in today's money
22:58
Speaker 1: in a settlement in a civil lawsuit that he filed
23:01
Speaker 1: against the other driver. So the Division of Highways gave
23:03
Speaker 1: him some time off to recuperate his broken left arm
23:06
Speaker 1: and because of the second accident as well. And with
23:09
Speaker 1: the out of court settlement, he would buy a car,
23:12
Speaker 1: specifically a 1969 Ford Galaxy that looked very much like
23:17
Speaker 1: an unmarked police vehicle.
23:19
Speaker 2: How convenient. So the guy was, like I.
23:22
Speaker 1: Said, basically cosplaying as a cop for his own nefarious reasons,
23:26
Speaker 1: we will see. So he would go all in with
23:28
Speaker 1: his car and equipped it with a transmitter and a
23:31
Speaker 1: microphone and a large whip antenna. And he would begin
23:34
Speaker 1: to pick up hitchhikers.
23:36
Speaker 2: Don't Hitchhike! I will say it till I die.
23:40
Speaker 1: And his specific targets were petite, pretty female hitchhikers. And
23:44
Speaker 1: at this point, he wasn't killing anybody. He wasn't even
23:47
Speaker 1: hurting anybody. He was just wanting to see how they would.
23:50
Speaker 2: React to him.
23:51
Speaker 1: He was literally studying them. So when he could finally
23:56
Speaker 1: do it, It would be perfect because these are the
23:58
Speaker 1: patterns he did in the mental hospital.
24:00
Speaker 2: He figured out.
24:01
Speaker 1: How to talk to people, how I'd be able to
24:05
Speaker 1: get away with a crime if I wanted to, how
24:08
Speaker 1: to trick the doctors, how to trick the police. He's
24:11
Speaker 1: just unfortunately, incredibly smart. So he would learn to make
24:15
Speaker 1: these hitchhikers trust him fully, basically just using them as
24:19
Speaker 1: his test subjects. So he would deliver them safely to
24:22
Speaker 1: their destination and privately he indulged in his violent fantasies,
24:26
Speaker 1: imagining what he would do to them. So now that
24:29
Speaker 1: he amassed all of this knowledge of acquiring a victim
24:33
Speaker 1: with zero consequences, he began to outfit his car for
24:36
Speaker 1: his future violent plans. So the antenna came off and
24:40
Speaker 1: the passenger door was rigged to keep it from being
24:43
Speaker 1: opened from the inside.
24:45
Speaker 2: Just my worst nightmare.
24:47
Speaker 1: It just reminds me of Death Proof, that scene where
24:50
Speaker 1: she gets in the car, the first girl gets in
24:51
Speaker 1: the car and then she can't open.
24:53
Speaker 2: Oh my God, it's so scary. Well, Pam, which way
24:56
Speaker 2: are you going?
24:57
Speaker 5: Left or right?
24:58
Speaker 1: So he would also pack plastic bags, knives, guns, and
25:03
Speaker 1: a blanket into his trunk. And then Ed would hit
25:06
Speaker 1: the road and start picking up girl after girl. Picking
25:09
Speaker 1: each girl up as kind of an experiment, just waiting
25:12
Speaker 1: for the right girl and the right opportunity. Like this
25:16
Speaker 1: guy was extremely patient. Ed was the definition of an
25:20
Speaker 1: organized serial killer. So more than a year of picking
25:24
Speaker 1: up girls and letting them go would pass by. But
25:28
Speaker 1: on May 7th, 1972, Ed's moment finally came. Marianne and
25:33
Speaker 1: Anita were students at Fresno State College, and they were
25:37
Speaker 1: hitchhiking to Stanford University after a couple of days at Berkeley.
25:40
Speaker 1: So Ed would roll up and offer them a ride.
25:43
Speaker 1: And after driving for an hour, he managed to reach
25:46
Speaker 1: a secluded wooded area near Alameda, with which he was
25:50
Speaker 1: very familiar with because he worked at the highway department.
25:53
Speaker 1: And he would do all this without alerting his passengers
25:56
Speaker 1: at all and just saying that he had to change
25:58
Speaker 1: directions because he went the wrong way. Just perfectly practiced
26:02
Speaker 1: and perfectly... and unfortunately executed. So after driving them around
26:08
Speaker 1: for a bit, he actually took his gun out from
26:10
Speaker 1: under the seat and pulled off into a deserted area.
26:14
Speaker 4: When that gun was pulled out, I launched it out,
26:16
Speaker 4: and I had it under my leg, out of sight.
26:19
Speaker 4: parallel to my to my leg in the seat and.
26:22
Speaker 1: Very quickly he would stop and put anita in the
26:24
Speaker 1: trunk of his car and turn his attention toward marianne
26:28
Speaker 1: he would quickly handcuff her and then lay her across
26:31
Speaker 1: the back seat face down and that's when he would
26:33
Speaker 1: put a plastic bag over her head and then he
26:36
Speaker 1: would attempt to strangle her with a length of terry
26:39
Speaker 1: cloth But Marianne would bite a hole into the bag
26:42
Speaker 1: and the cloth would snap. So frustrated, Ed would pull
26:45
Speaker 1: out his knife and just stab her repeatedly. And eventually,
26:49
Speaker 1: after stabbing her multiple times, he would also slash her throat.
26:52
Speaker 1: And that's when he would go to the trunk and
26:54
Speaker 1: remove Anita. And that's when he would grab an even
26:57
Speaker 1: larger knife and he began.
26:58
Speaker 2: To stab her as well. Just heartbreak, just awful, like
27:02
Speaker 2: f * * * ing monster.
27:04
Speaker 4: I just killed a young woman. I slammed down the
27:07
Speaker 4: lid of the trunk. She isn't dead. She's dying.
27:09
Speaker 1: But after he was done, he would put the bodies
27:12
Speaker 1: into his trunk and he would drive around with the
27:15
Speaker 1: bodies in his car, just deciding what he should do next.
27:18
Speaker 1: And eventually he brought Marianne's body into his apartment where
27:22
Speaker 1: he would undress her and... fully dissect her. And he
27:25
Speaker 1: would also behead Anita's body. And Marianne's body would be
27:28
Speaker 1: buried in the plastic bag he had used to suffocate her.
27:31
Speaker 1: But he would keep both of their heads for a while,
27:34
Speaker 1: eventually disposing of them in a ravine. And Marianne's would
27:37
Speaker 1: be found and identified in August. And neither Anita's head
27:41
Speaker 1: nor her body were ever found.
27:43
Speaker 2: Which is just, again, just f * * * ing soul-crushing.
27:47
Speaker 1: Just heartbreaking. Like, I can't even imagine the family. Like,
27:50
Speaker 1: my heart just goes out to the families and obviously
27:51
Speaker 1: the victims as well. But So the girls' families would
27:57
Speaker 1: shortly realize that the girls went missing and they would
28:00
Speaker 1: both file a missing persons report. Though it was really
28:03
Speaker 1: hard to get the police to pursue this case in
28:06
Speaker 1: any sort of serious way because there were so many
28:09
Speaker 1: runaways and transient in the Bay Area at this time.
28:12
Speaker 1: And obviously no one suspected polite, clean cut friend of
28:16
Speaker 1: the police, Edmund Kemper. So he would just continue to prowl.
28:20
Speaker 1: And on the evening of September 14th, 1972, he would
28:22
Speaker 1: pick up A 15 year old dancer who was on
28:28
Speaker 1: her way to her dance class. She was waiting for
28:30
Speaker 1: the bus at the bus stop, but it was kind
28:31
Speaker 1: of taking too long and she needed to get to
28:33
Speaker 1: dance class. So she decided, to hitchhike. And that's when
28:36
Speaker 1: Ed would roll up seeing a very obvious opportunity. So
28:39
Speaker 1: Aiko would get in, but it would not take her
28:42
Speaker 1: long to catch on to his plan. She would actually
28:45
Speaker 1: see his gun and start to panic. And with Ed
28:48
Speaker 1: quick thinking, he would convince her that he was actually
28:50
Speaker 1: just planning to use the gun on himself and that
28:53
Speaker 1: if she didn't try to signal police or pass her by,
28:57
Speaker 1: he would not harm her.
28:58
Speaker 2: So having absolutely no.
28:59
Speaker 1: Choice because she was in a moving vehicle with a
29:02
Speaker 1: literal psychopathic giant, she reluctantly agreed to just stay in
29:07
Speaker 1: the car. And that's when Ed would drive off into
29:09
Speaker 1: the mountains and turn off the main road and park
29:12
Speaker 1: out of sight. And after Ed parked, he would tape
29:15
Speaker 1: Aiko's mouth shut and also try to suffocate her with
29:19
Speaker 1: his thumb and index finger in her nostrils. And she
29:22
Speaker 1: would fight with her life back, but she would unfortunately
29:25
Speaker 1: go unconscious, only to wake up moments later again. And
29:29
Speaker 1: that's when Ed would begin to suffocate her again, and
29:32
Speaker 1: this time continuing until she completely stopped breathing. And that's
29:36
Speaker 1: when he would remove her from the car, lay her
29:39
Speaker 1: on the ground, and have his way with her body.
29:42
Speaker 1: And with her own scarf, he would also begin to
29:44
Speaker 1: strangle her. And when he was absolutely sure that she
29:48
Speaker 1: was dead, he put her body in the trunk and
29:50
Speaker 1: drove away from the scene like nothing happened. So again,
29:54
Speaker 1: he would drive around just trying to figure out what
29:56
Speaker 1: to do, and that's when he would stop at a
29:58
Speaker 1: local bar. And he would just have a couple beers,
30:01
Speaker 1: like literally nothing happened. But before he would actually go
30:05
Speaker 1: into the bar, he would pop the trunk in a
30:08
Speaker 1: public open parking lot to make sure that she was
30:11
Speaker 1: really dead. And in his words, to admire her.
30:15
Speaker 2: Just Disgusting.
30:17
Speaker 1: And he would recount this moment in a later interview saying,
30:20
Speaker 1: quote unquote.
30:21
Speaker 3: I suppose I was standing there looking. I was doing
30:24
Speaker 3: one of those triumphant things to admiring my work and
30:27
Speaker 3: admiring her beauty. And I might say admiring my catch
30:31
Speaker 3: like a fisherman.
30:32
Speaker 2: I just it makes my. stomach turn.
30:36
Speaker 1: But after leaving the bar, he actually went back to
30:39
Speaker 1: his mother's house. And later that night, similar to his
30:43
Speaker 1: other victim, he would bring Aiko's body into his apartment
30:47
Speaker 1: and place it on the bed. And he would dissect
30:49
Speaker 1: her just as he did Mary Ann and Anita. And
30:52
Speaker 1: he would dispose of her head and hands immediately. in
30:55
Speaker 1: different locations from the rest of her body as well.
30:58
Speaker 1: And very little ever turned up and her disappearance was
31:01
Speaker 1: not thought to be related to Marianne and Anita at all,
31:04
Speaker 1: because there was very little investigation going on in the
31:07
Speaker 1: first place at this point. So four months would go
31:10
Speaker 1: by and other victims from other killers were found in.
31:13
Speaker 2: The Bay Area, which like, leave, leave the Bay Area.
31:18
Speaker 1: So bodies were popping up left and right, and obviously
31:21
Speaker 1: police concerns were aroused, but Big Ed was under no
31:25
Speaker 1: suspicion of any of the killings, so he would just continue.
31:29
Speaker 1: So on January 8th, 1973, Ed would buy a. 22
31:33
Speaker 1: caliber automatic pistol, even though he was forbidden to use
31:36
Speaker 1: any firearms given his prior crimes. But he had no
31:39
Speaker 1: trouble with this purchase in spite of his record, but
31:42
Speaker 1: he did fear that eventually the police might catch on
31:45
Speaker 1: to the fact that he was in a legal possession
31:47
Speaker 1: of a handgun. But regardless, he would hit the road
31:50
Speaker 1: with his gun and his car and continue his hunt. So,
31:54
Speaker 1: Ed went driving around Cabrillo College campus when he picked
31:57
Speaker 1: up 18-year-old student Cynthia Ann who is Cindy, Shaw. And
32:02
Speaker 1: he would drive her into the hills near Watsonville, where
32:05
Speaker 1: he would force her into the trunk and shot her
32:08
Speaker 1: with his new gun. And at this point, Ed had
32:10
Speaker 1: actually recently moved back in with his mother. So he
32:14
Speaker 1: brought her body to the duplex in Aptos, and into
32:17
Speaker 1: his room there. So when Clarnell left for work the
32:20
Speaker 1: next morning, Ed would have intercourse with Cindy's corpse. And
32:25
Speaker 1: then he would go on to dissect her in the bathtub,
32:28
Speaker 1: taking great care afterward to wash away all traces of
32:32
Speaker 1: anything that he had done. And then he would remove
32:34
Speaker 1: the bullet from her skull and then bury the head
32:37
Speaker 1: in his mother's backyard. And he would even say that
32:40
Speaker 1: he actually buried the heads to be looking up to
32:43
Speaker 1: his mother's window, like her bedroom window, just for an
32:47
Speaker 1: extra f.
32:47
Speaker 2: * * * you, basically, which is just beyond f
32:51
Speaker 2: * * * ed up.
32:51
Speaker 1: And later, he would throw all the body parts, which
32:54
Speaker 1: he had in plastic bags, off of the cliff. And
32:56
Speaker 1: this time, however, the body was discovered within 24 hours.
33:01
Speaker 1: So Ed took notice to this, noting that he got
33:03
Speaker 1: a this wouldn't worry him enough to stop what he
33:08
Speaker 1: was doing. At this point, he basically just thought he
33:10
Speaker 1: was invincible. But he knew now that he had to
33:12
Speaker 1: be really, really careful. And within a month, he was
33:15
Speaker 1: ready to kill again. So now we're having a way
33:19
Speaker 1: quicker cool-down period. So on the night of February 5th, 1973,
33:23
Speaker 1: Ed and his mommy had a massive fight and Ed
33:26
Speaker 1: would storm out of the apartment, keyed up and ready
33:29
Speaker 1: to kill. But with heightened suspicion of a serial killer
33:32
Speaker 1: preying on hitchhikers, specifically in the Santa Cruz area, students
33:36
Speaker 1: have been advised to accept rides only from cars with
33:39
Speaker 1: university stickers.
33:40
Speaker 2: On them, which is just so dumb in hindsight.
33:43
Speaker 1: Because like if the, serial killer watches the news and
33:46
Speaker 1: knows that he needs a sticker, he's just gonna go
33:48
Speaker 1: get a sticker. Like, I just, I don't under, I,
33:51
Speaker 1: just so dumb. Just take rides from people that you
33:53
Speaker 1: actually know really well, you know? So Kemper, not being,
33:56
Speaker 1: you know, a f * * * ing idiot, was
33:58
Speaker 1: able to obtain a sticker as his mother worked at
34:01
Speaker 1: the UC Santa Cruz campus. So Ed would get his
34:04
Speaker 1: sticker and and he would go to the campus to hunt.
34:06
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, 23-year-old Rosalind Heather Thorpe and 20-year-old Alice Helen
34:13
Speaker 1: Allison Liu would be on the UCSC campus that fateful night.
34:17
Speaker 1: So he would pick up Rosalind first and engage in
34:19
Speaker 1: conversation with her. And in a short while, he stopped
34:22
Speaker 1: for another hitchhiker, which was Alice. And she had no
34:25
Speaker 1: trepidation about getting in the car, especially with Rosalind already
34:29
Speaker 1: being in the car and having the UC Santa Cruz
34:32
Speaker 1: parking sticker promptly displayed on his car as well. So
34:35
Speaker 1: they would ride around for a while. And this time,
34:38
Speaker 1: Ed didn't even stop the car to start his killing.
34:41
Speaker 1: He would draw Rosalind's attention to a lovely view off
34:45
Speaker 1: the passenger side. And as she looked out the window,
34:48
Speaker 1: he would slow down and he would draw his. 22
34:51
Speaker 1: and shoot her directly in the head. And Alice was
34:54
Speaker 1: in the back seat, just horrified and freaking out. So
34:58
Speaker 1: Ed would quickly turn around and point his gun at
35:01
Speaker 1: Alice in the back seat and fire several times. And
35:04
Speaker 1: unlike Rosalind, she didn't die immediately. So he would shoot
35:07
Speaker 1: her again point blank once he got out of town.
35:10
Speaker 1: And that would unfortunately kill her. So after he killed
35:14
Speaker 1: both the girls, he would pull off into a cul-de-sac
35:16
Speaker 1: and quickly transfer the bodies into the trunk. And then
35:19
Speaker 1: he would go stop for gas, and then he would
35:21
Speaker 1: go to his mother's duplex, which he quickly left again,
35:25
Speaker 1: claiming he needed cigarettes. And once outside the apartment, he
35:28
Speaker 1: pulled the car to the street, opened the trunk, and
35:31
Speaker 1: beheaded both the bodies. And that following day, he brought
35:34
Speaker 1: Alice's body inside and would also have sex with it
35:38
Speaker 1: in his room. And he also brought in Rosalind's head
35:41
Speaker 1: so he could remove the bullet that had been lodged
35:43
Speaker 1: inside of it, as he had done before with Cindy's body.
35:46
Speaker 1: And then he would drive away to Santa Cruz to
35:48
Speaker 1: dispose of most of the body parts, then on to
35:52
Speaker 1: Pacifica to get rid of the.
35:54
Speaker 2: Heads and hands.
35:55
Speaker 5: So all.
35:55
Speaker 1: But during this, Clarnell, Ed's mother, never showed any suspicion
36:00
Speaker 1: of Ed.
36:01
Speaker 2: Committing these heinous crimes.
36:03
Speaker 1: And she probably didn't suspect that she'd become one of
36:06
Speaker 1: his victims as well. So on Easter weekend, about a
36:09
Speaker 1: month after the killings of Rosalind and Alice, he decided
36:13
Speaker 1: the time had come to get rid of her. It
36:15
Speaker 1: was time to rid of the real source of all
36:18
Speaker 1: of his anger, hate, and just violent rage he had pent.
36:22
Speaker 2: Up after all of these years.
36:24
Speaker 1: So he would wait all night while his mother was
36:26
Speaker 1: in her room sleeping, carefully considering what he was.
36:29
Speaker 3: About to do.
36:30
Speaker 1: So at 5.15 a.m., Ed would grab a hammer from
36:34
Speaker 1: the kitchen and he would go to her bedroom. And
36:37
Speaker 1: he would stand over her for a moment and then
36:40
Speaker 1: swiftly strike her once. Very, very hard. And then for whatever...
36:46
Speaker 1: up reason, he would also slash her throat. So within
36:49
Speaker 1: 60 seconds, he had killed and beheaded his mom. And
36:53
Speaker 1: he would also remove her larynx in the process. The
36:56
Speaker 1: larynx being the hollow tube in your throat, otherwise known
37:00
Speaker 1: as the voice box. And he would also try to
37:03
Speaker 1: put her voice box in the garbage disposal, but the machine.
37:07
Speaker 2: Spat it back out.
37:08
Speaker 1: Which Ed later would find darkly appropriate and unsurprising. Because
37:12
Speaker 1: he basically, in later interviews, would just say, she would
37:15
Speaker 1: never shut up. So that's why I did it.
37:18
Speaker 2: This is just so up and so, oh my God.
37:21
Speaker 3: It's just a nightmare.
37:22
Speaker 2: It's like a horror movie.
37:23
Speaker 4: I hit her in the head with a hammer. She
37:25
Speaker 4: was senseless. And sadly, some people have analogized that to
37:28
Speaker 4: a slaughter of a cow.
37:29
Speaker 1: So that's when he would hide her body in the
37:31
Speaker 1: closet and try to clean up a bit, and then
37:33
Speaker 1: he would just leave the house. So that afternoon, after
37:36
Speaker 1: pondering what he had just done, decided that if someone
37:39
Speaker 1: else was to find his dead mother, then suspicion might
37:43
Speaker 1: point away from him. Because at this point, no one
37:45
Speaker 1: suspected Ed of doing anything. He wasn't any sort of
37:48
Speaker 1: suspect of anything. So it wasn't a terrible plan, especially
37:52
Speaker 1: with people getting murdered left and right right now in
37:55
Speaker 1: their area. It wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that somebody
37:58
Speaker 1: came into the house and murdered his mother. So after
38:01
Speaker 1: figuring out his plan, Ed would return back to the
38:03
Speaker 1: duplex and he would call Sarah Halett, a friend of
38:07
Speaker 1: his mother's, to invite her to dinner. And he wasn't
38:09
Speaker 1: able to reach her immediately and he actually started to
38:12
Speaker 1: panic a bit. But unluckily for Sarah, she got back
38:16
Speaker 1: to him around 5 p.m. And he would tell her
38:19
Speaker 1: that he was doing a surprise dinner for his mother
38:21
Speaker 1: and that she should come over for dinner as well.
38:24
Speaker 1: So Sarah would say, yep, I'm on my way. And
38:26
Speaker 1: she would head over there. And as soon as she
38:28
Speaker 1: walked in, Ed would strangle her immediately. First manually and
38:32
Speaker 1: then with the scarf that he had obtained from Ico,
38:36
Speaker 1: one of his previous victims. And then he would remove
38:38
Speaker 1: Sarah's clothes and put her on his bed. And sometime
38:42
Speaker 1: that night, he attempted to have you know what.
38:44
Speaker 2: With her corpse. Just f * * * ing sick.
38:48
Speaker 1: And on Easter Sunday morning, he left town driving east
38:52
Speaker 1: in Sarah's car. But he started to realize being in
38:55
Speaker 1: Sarah's car would look suspicious as hell. So he rented
38:58
Speaker 1: another car and dropped off Sarah's car at the gas station,
39:01
Speaker 1: telling the attendant that it needed repair. So he would
39:03
Speaker 1: drive for 18 hours, stopping only for gas and sodas.
39:08
Speaker 1: And then he would be stopped for speeding in Colorado.
39:11
Speaker 1: But his smooth talking, calm, and collected demeanor didn't draw
39:15
Speaker 1: any unwanted attention. He just paid the fine and moved on.
39:19
Speaker 1: And finally, exhausted and finalized on his decision of what
39:22
Speaker 1: he wanted to do, he stopped in Pueblo, Colorado, and
39:26
Speaker 1: he would place a call to the Santa.
39:28
Speaker 2: Cruz Police Department.
39:29
Speaker 1: Where he already knew several of the officers because they
39:33
Speaker 1: were his bar buddies, and he would begin his marathon confession.
39:38
Speaker 1: And the initial contact required several calls. Because first he
39:42
Speaker 1: had to convince the Santa Cruz police he wasn't a
39:46
Speaker 1: prank caller, which is crazy. And then he had to
39:50
Speaker 1: help them find where he was using points of interest.
39:53
Speaker 1: Because he was disoriented and how to lead the police
39:56
Speaker 1: to the Pueblo phone booth from which he was placing
39:58
Speaker 1: the calls was kind of complicated. So when he was
40:00
Speaker 1: finally taken into custody, a party of investigators from Santa
40:04
Speaker 1: Cruz headed for Pueblo, where they would question him about
40:07
Speaker 1: the crimes for which he claimed responsibility, in which they
40:10
Speaker 1: couldn't believe, because this was just Big Ed from the bar,
40:14
Speaker 1: the guy that just loves to hang out with cops
40:16
Speaker 1: for some weird reason and ask a lot of weird
40:18
Speaker 1: questions about, you know, how to... hide evidence and where
40:21
Speaker 1: they patrol and all that weird stuff. That's crazy, man.
40:25
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
40:26
Speaker 2: But as the tape.
40:27
Speaker 1: Recorder rolled, Ed just yapped, giving incredibly explicit and detailed
40:33
Speaker 1: confessions to eight of the recent murders, because the other
40:37
Speaker 1: two were his grandparents, which he was already punished for.
40:40
Speaker 1: So upon his return to Santa Cruz, Ed led investigators
40:43
Speaker 1: to various disposal sites he had used and continued his
40:47
Speaker 1: seemingly endless confession. Guy loved to And when he was
40:51
Speaker 1: finally finished, he'd been so thorough that he left his
40:55
Speaker 1: court-appointed public defender, James Jackson, no avenue for defense except
41:00
Speaker 1: that of insanity. Because he literally said every single, that
41:04
Speaker 1: there was no defense. The lawyer lost before anything started.
41:08
Speaker 1: And a series of witnesses was brought in to try
41:10
Speaker 1: to establish that Ed was not responsible for his crimes.
41:13
Speaker 1: But the prosecutor undermined the testimony of each one. And
41:17
Speaker 1: prosecutor witness, Dr. Joel Fort, did the most damage to
41:21
Speaker 1: Ed's insanity defense. He had spent quite a bit of
41:23
Speaker 1: time reviewing Ed's case, going back to his diagnosis after
41:27
Speaker 1: killing his grandparents and during his time at Atescadero. And
41:30
Speaker 1: he had also interviewed Ed, eliciting previously unknown information.
41:34
Speaker 2: About his s * * *.
41:35
Speaker 1: Practices with the bodies. And even, allegedly, cannibalism. So Ed
41:41
Speaker 1: was not a paranoid schizophrenic, Fort said. He was just
41:45
Speaker 1: obsessed with.
41:46
Speaker 4: S * * *.
41:47
Speaker 1: And violence and just craved attention, going so far as
41:51
Speaker 1: to slash his own wrists with a ballpoint pen during
41:54
Speaker 1: the tribal in a futile sluerslide attempt.
41:58
Speaker 2: But he was not insane. Just a giant attention whore.
42:02
Speaker 1: Basically, he was insanely smart and very aware of what
42:05
Speaker 1: he was doing. Just remember the planning. He did over
42:08
Speaker 1: a year of surveillance before he even decided to kill someone.
42:12
Speaker 1: That's premeditated as it gets, basically. And furthermore, Fort said
42:16
Speaker 1: if he were ever released, he would absolutely kill again.
42:20
Speaker 1: And he would kill the same sort of victim. So
42:22
Speaker 1: during the three weeks of trial, no witness, not even
42:27
Speaker 1: Ed's sister or his doctors from Atescadero was able to
42:30
Speaker 1: convince the jury that Ed was insane. Not to mention,
42:33
Speaker 1: Ed would take the witness stand himself and say the
42:36
Speaker 1: most awful shit. For the co-ed killings specifically, he would say,
42:40
Speaker 1: quote unquote, Alive.
42:42
Speaker 2: They were distant.
42:43
Speaker 3: Not sharing with me, I was trying to establish a
42:46
Speaker 3: relationship and there was no relationship there. When they were
42:49
Speaker 3: being killed, there wasn't anything going on in my mind
42:51
Speaker 3: except that they were going to be mine. That was
42:53
Speaker 3: the only way they could be mine.
42:55
Speaker 1: He would even go on to say that that's why
42:57
Speaker 1: he killed those two cats, his family cats, because They
43:00
Speaker 1: had more affection for his sisters, so if he killed them,
43:03
Speaker 1: they would be his.
43:04
Speaker 2: So that's where that stemmed from.
43:06
Speaker 1: But his desire to possess the coeds led Kemper even
43:09
Speaker 1: further than murder. In his fantasies, he literally made the girls,
43:13
Speaker 1: quote unquote, a part of me by eating parts of them, which.
43:17
Speaker 5: Is just.
43:20
Speaker 2: So f * * * ing sick. Like, disgusting.
43:23
Speaker 1: And of all of his co-ed victims, he said, They
43:26
Speaker 1: were like spirit wives.
43:27
Speaker 2: I still had their spirits. I still have them.
43:31
Speaker 1: And regarding his mother's killing, he would go on to
43:33
Speaker 1: say that the desire to punish his mother did not
43:36
Speaker 1: end with a fatal hammer blow. As we know, he
43:39
Speaker 1: cut off his mother's head and would go on to
43:41
Speaker 1: say in court, Put it on a shelf and screamed
43:43
Speaker 1: at it for an hour, threw darts at it, and
43:46
Speaker 1: then smashed her face in.
43:48
Speaker 4: I cut off her head. And I'm... And I... Humiliated
43:53
Speaker 4: her court.
43:54
Speaker 2: It just happened. I have no words like Jesus Christ.
43:57
Speaker 1: So the jury would deliberate for only five hours and
44:00
Speaker 1: they would find Ed guilty of first-degree murder in all
44:03
Speaker 1: eight counts.
44:04
Speaker 2: Thank God.
44:06
Speaker 1: But Ed would make a statement about the verdict saying quote-unquote.
44:10
Speaker 3: I really wasn't surprised when it came out that way.
44:12
Speaker 3: There was just no way they could find me insane.
44:15
Speaker 3: Society just isn't ready for that yet. 10 or 20
44:18
Speaker 3: years from now, They would have, but they're not going
44:21
Speaker 3: to take a chance.
44:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody's ready for that ever. Hey, 10, 20 years
44:24
Speaker 2: from now is right now?
44:25
Speaker 3: F * * * no.
44:26
Speaker 5: No.
44:26
Speaker 1: So after a short observation stint at Vacaville Medical Facility,
44:30
Speaker 1: he was sent to a maximum security prison at Folsom
44:33
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life.
44:35
Speaker 2: Thank you.
44:37
Speaker 1: And Ed Kemper remains behind bars to this day. Guy
44:41
Speaker 1: is still alive, somehow. And Ed, being the attention-grabbing asshat
44:46
Speaker 1: that he is, remains very eager to speak of his
44:48
Speaker 1: crimes to the public and basically anyone who will listen.
44:51
Speaker 1: He has done extensive interviews with Robert Ressler of the FBI,
44:56
Speaker 1: which were aimed at building the FBI's nascent serial killer
44:59
Speaker 1: profiling program. If you've ever seen Mindhunter, which I highly
45:02
Speaker 1: recommend you see, it's one of my favorite shows, you'd
45:04
Speaker 1: know that many episodes were actually based on these exact
45:07
Speaker 1: encounters with Ed Kemper. And the actor is terrifyingly good.
45:12
Speaker 1: It is just, it's fantastic. I highly recommend watching it.
45:16
Speaker 1: And in 1988, he participated along with notorious John Wayne
45:20
Speaker 1: Gacy in a satellite broadcast during which each killer described
45:24
Speaker 1: his crimes. And he has done quite a few other
45:27
Speaker 1: interviews as well. One of which was extremely chilling. After
45:31
Speaker 1: the interviewer was done wrapping up the interview with Ed,
45:34
Speaker 1: Ed finished by saying this.
45:36
Speaker 2: You haven't asked the question I expected a reporter to ask.
45:39
Speaker 2: The reporter said, what do you mean? Give me some examples.
45:42
Speaker 3: Ed would say, oh, what is it like to have
45:44
Speaker 3: s * * * with a dead body? What does
45:46
Speaker 3: it feel like to sit on your living room couch
45:48
Speaker 3: and look over and see two decapitated girls' heads on
45:50
Speaker 3: the arm of the couch? The first time, it makes
45:53
Speaker 3: you sick to your stomach. What do you think now
45:56
Speaker 3: when you see a pretty girl walking down the street?
45:58
Speaker 3: One side of me says, wow, what an attractive chick.
46:01
Speaker 3: I'd like to talk to her. date her. And the
46:03
Speaker 3: other side of me says, I wonder how her head
46:06
Speaker 3: would look like on a stick. I literally just got
46:08
Speaker 3: full body chills. It's just f * * * ing disgusting.
46:10
Speaker 1: Monster. I hope you're f * * * ing rotting
46:12
Speaker 1: in jail, you piece of shit waste of oxygen. That
46:16
Speaker 1: quote was actually used in one of my actual favorite movies,
46:20
Speaker 1: which just makes me sick now, but it's American Psycho.
46:23
Speaker 1: And he actually, Patrick Bateman, misquotes and says it was
46:26
Speaker 1: Ed Gein that says it. Then that goes all in
46:28
Speaker 1: another thing that he was actually imagining all this stuff
46:31
Speaker 1: in the movie and it's all this. There's a lot
46:32
Speaker 1: of stuff to go into. Either way, just all around
46:37
Speaker 1: piece of of shit. Ed Kemper was just a monster.
46:42
Speaker 1: And I mean, they obviously used it in the movie
46:44
Speaker 1: American Psycho because he's supposed to be a monster too.
46:47
Speaker 1: And as always, he was very explicit and he seemed
46:51
Speaker 1: to have garnered quite a bit of psychological insight into
46:55
Speaker 1: the nature of his crimes. And in watching him, you
46:59
Speaker 1: see he almost thrives off getting reactions from the listeners
47:03
Speaker 1: or the interviewers. He always wants them to know that
47:06
Speaker 1: he has the upper hand in the conversation and literally
47:09
Speaker 1: because he's a literal giant. But in prison where he
47:13
Speaker 1: is now, he's very well behaved and very cooperative. Just
47:17
Speaker 1: like he was in the hospital as a teenager, just
47:19
Speaker 1: molding into society to better himself and seems to just
47:23
Speaker 1: take great pride in his status as a genius serial
47:27
Speaker 1: killer who if he had not turned himself in, is
47:31
Speaker 1: sure he would still be out there killing today. But
47:34
Speaker 1: Ed Kemper's story is more than just a record of brutality.
47:37
Speaker 1: It's a chilling example of what happens when a dangerous
47:40
Speaker 1: mind learns how to hide in plain sight. He was intelligent, calculating,
47:45
Speaker 1: and deeply deeply disturbed. And while he seemed harmless to
47:49
Speaker 1: those around him, inside he was spiraling into something monstrous.
47:53
Speaker 1: And in the end, the only reason he stopped was
47:56
Speaker 1: because he chose to, which I think is the scariest
48:00
Speaker 1: part of all of this. But with that, that is
48:03
Speaker 1: the deep dive on Ed Kemper. Let me know what
48:06
Speaker 1: other deep dives you want me to do down below,
48:08
Speaker 1: and don't hitchhike!
48:10
Speaker 3: Thank you.
48:10
Speaker 2: I want you to be safe. baby girl. Thank you
48:12
Speaker 2: for being here. Thank you for listening to the episode.
48:14
Speaker 5: I love you.
48:15
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, and I will see you beautiful face
48:17
Speaker 1: in the next episode, okay?
48:18
Speaker 2: Be safe.
48:19
Speaker 5: Bye.