Latest / U.S SECRET CRIMES / The Killer who sat among the police
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- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 The man police never suspected, the co-ed killer of Santa Cruz. 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,700 What if the person police were desperately searching for 3 00:00:07,700 --> 00:00:10,600 was already sitting beside them, drinking with them, 4 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:12,320 listening to their conversations, 5 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:15,280 and watching them investigate his own crimes? 6 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,240 In the early 1970s, the peaceful California seaside community 7 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:23,240 of Santa Cruz was transformed by a terrifying mystery. 8 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:27,040 Young women began disappearing, disturbing discoveries were made, 9 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:29,160 and investigators struggled to understand 10 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:30,920 whether the cases were connected. 11 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:34,480 Meanwhile, a tall, friendly man known to local officers 12 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:39,040 as Big Ed moved through the same community almost unnoticed. 13 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:41,000 His name was Edmund Kemper. 14 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,400 Santa Cruz had once been known for something very different. 15 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,240 Through the 1960s, it was a small beach town, 16 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:50,840 a place associated with surfing, retirement, 17 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,000 and a relaxed coastal lifestyle. 18 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:54,680 Then the University of California, 19 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,120 Santa Cruz appeared in 1965, 20 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,040 and the character of the community began to change. 21 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:02,600 Young people arrived from different parts of the country, 22 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,840 influenced by the counterculture spreading through California. 23 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:07,640 Communes appeared around the county, 24 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:09,360 and the city developed an atmosphere 25 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:13,680 that many people considered open, free, and unconventional. 26 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:15,400 It was exactly the kind of environment 27 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:17,680 that attracted young students and travelers, 28 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:18,720 including young women, 29 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:21,240 who often relied on hitchhiking to get around. 30 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,280 Then, in 1972, 31 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:26,640 the feeling of safety began to disappear. 32 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,000 Missing person reports started to accumulate. 33 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,640 Young women vanished, some after hitchhiking. 34 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,960 Bodies and body parts were discovered in different locations, 35 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:38,720 including areas around the coastline and mountains. 36 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:40,640 Investigators were confronted with cases 37 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:42,960 that seemed to have no obvious connection 38 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:44,520 and no clear explanation. 39 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,080 18-year-old college student Anita Luchesa disappeared. 40 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:50,840 18-year-old Marianne Pesci vanished. 41 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:52,400 15-year-old ballet student, 42 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,040 Ico Koo disappeared after missing her bus. 43 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:56,680 18-year-old Cindy Shaw, 44 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,760 a young woman babysitting to help pay her way through college, 45 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:01,040 also disappeared. 46 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:03,520 Later came Rosalind Thorpe and Allison Liu. 47 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:08,000 The victims were not simply names on missing person reports. 48 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,160 They were students, daughters, friends, workers, 49 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:13,880 and young women trying to build their lives. 50 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:15,400 That distinction matters, 51 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:18,400 because one of the most overlooked parts of stories like this 52 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:20,920 is what was taken away beyond the crime itself. 53 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:24,720 Each disappearance represented an unfinished future. 54 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,280 Families lost daughters, friends lost companions, 55 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:30,880 communities lost their sense of security, 56 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:33,080 and investigators were left trying to determine 57 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,800 whether these apparently separate disappearances 58 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,240 were actually connected. 59 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,360 The media eventually gave the unknown offender a name, 60 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:42,000 the co-ed butcher. 61 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:44,800 The police, however, did not yet know who he was. 62 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,880 The uncertainty created fear. 63 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:50,480 Investigators were dealing with multiple missing persons 64 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:53,320 and homicide cases without a clear pattern. 65 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:54,960 They could immediately prove. 66 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:57,920 Some people wondered whether the counterculture, drugs, 67 00:02:57,920 --> 00:02:59,800 or the changing atmosphere of Santa Cruz 68 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,040 had something to do with what was happening, 69 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,160 but the truth was more complicated. 70 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,840 The killer was not presenting himself as an obvious monster. 71 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:10,560 He was hiding behind an ordinary personality. 72 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:13,880 Then came April 1973. 73 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:16,720 Detective Michael Aleufy was working on 74 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,400 what appeared to be a routine firearms inquiry. 75 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:21,160 A dealer record showed that a young man 76 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:22,720 had attempted to purchase a gun 77 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,080 and his previous record contained information 78 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,800 connected to an earlier murder in Madera County. 79 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:30,400 That man was 25-year-old Edmund Kemper. 80 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,560 Kemper was enormous. 81 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:34,960 He stood around six feet nine inches tall 82 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,000 and weighed close to 280 pounds. 83 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,360 Yet his size was not what had made him familiar 84 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:41,800 to local officers. 85 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:45,480 He was known around a police hangout called the jury room. 86 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,120 Officers remembered him as friendly, outgoing, 87 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:49,640 and easy to talk to. 88 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,040 He was not treated as the terrifying stranger 89 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:53,480 everyone feared. 90 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,360 He was someone the police recognized and accepted. 91 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,960 Aleufy was assigned to confiscate Kemper's firearm 92 00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:01,160 while authorities determined 93 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:02,880 whether he could legally possess it. 94 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,480 There was an easily overlooked moment during that visit. 95 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:10,920 When officers located Kemper, they approached his vehicle. 96 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:12,360 He was cooperative. 97 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:14,720 When they opened the trunk, they found the firearm 98 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:16,640 inside a wrapped bundle. 99 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:19,520 Aleufy noticed something unusual about the trunk. 100 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:21,200 There was no liner inside it. 101 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:23,320 At the time, however, that observation 102 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,720 did not reveal what the investigators would later understand. 103 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,000 The officers took the gun and left. 104 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,400 For Detective Aleufy, it was a routine assignment 105 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:32,720 that appeared to have ended. 106 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:36,320 Two weeks later, at approximately five in the morning, 107 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:38,840 officer Jim Connor received a telephone call. 108 00:04:38,840 --> 00:04:41,600 The caller was Edmund Kemper. 109 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,280 Kemper was in Colorado, inside a phone booth, 110 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:48,840 and according to Connor, he had not slept for several days. 111 00:04:48,840 --> 00:04:51,600 He told the officer that he had done something terrible. 112 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,520 He said that he had killed his mother and one of her friends. 113 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:56,400 Then he asked about Detective Aleufy 114 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,080 and explained that his house could be difficult to locate, 115 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:00,640 but Aleufy would know where it was 116 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:03,600 because he had previously been there to confiscate the firearm. 117 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,920 That conversation changed everything. 118 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,840 Investigators went to Kemper's home. 119 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:13,120 What they discovered there connected the apparently friendly man 120 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:15,080 who had been drinking with police officers 121 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,120 to the mystery that had haunted Santa Cruz for months. 122 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,960 Then Kemper made an even more astonishing claim. 123 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,560 He said he was responsible for the missing college women too. 124 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,360 Suddenly, the investigation had a suspect, 125 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,000 but it also had a much deeper question. 126 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,960 Who was Edmund Kemper before he became 127 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,080 the man investigators we're now dealing with? 128 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:42,200 Kemper was born in 1948 and grew up in Burbank, California. 129 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:44,000 His parents were described in the transcript 130 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:45,840 as strict disciplinarians, 131 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:48,160 and his relationship with his mother, Claarnel, 132 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:49,840 was particularly troubled. 133 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:52,480 His parents eventually divorced in 1957 134 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:54,240 when Edmund was nine years old, 135 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,200 and Claarnel moved away with Edmund and his two sisters. 136 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:01,080 The transcript describes troubling behavior during his childhood. 137 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:03,200 He developed violent fantasies and behaved 138 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:04,960 cruelly toward animals. 139 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,560 He also displayed disturbing behavior toward dolls 140 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:09,280 and made comments that suggested 141 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:11,640 an increasingly dangerous inner world. 142 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:13,880 His mother became concerned enough about his behavior 143 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,640 that she eventually locked him in a basement room at night 144 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,080 because she feared he might harm his sisters. 145 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:22,360 But this is where the story becomes difficult. 146 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:25,520 It is tempting to look backward and say that 147 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,480 every childhood warning sign 148 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:30,760 inevitably pointed toward the murders that came later. 149 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,040 The evidence does not justify such a simple conclusion. 150 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,560 Many people experience difficult childhoods, 151 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,920 family conflict, trauma, emotional problems, 152 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,720 or troubling thoughts without becoming violent criminals. 153 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,160 What the transcript does show 154 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,400 is that Kempper's behavior became increasingly concerning 155 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:50,720 while the adults around him struggle to understand 156 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:51,600 what was happening. 157 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:54,240 As a teenager, Kempper attempted to reconnect 158 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,480 with his father, a man he reportedly admired. 159 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:59,880 Instead, he was rejected and sent to live 160 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:02,040 with his paternal grandparents on their farm. 161 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:07,240 There, in 1964, the violence escalated dramatically. 162 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:10,520 Kempper killed both of his grandparents. 163 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:11,960 He was subsequently diagnosed 164 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:13,640 with paranoid schizophrenia 165 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:16,080 and sent to Adesca Dero State Hospital, 166 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:18,080 a secure psychiatric facility. 167 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:19,320 He was only 15. 168 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:21,760 The next chapter of his life 169 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:24,280 would become one of the most consequential failures 170 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:25,720 in the entire story. 171 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,600 Inside the hospital, Kempper was considered intelligent 172 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:30,800 and cooperative. 173 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:33,720 He eventually became useful to members of the psychology staff 174 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:35,920 and gained access to psychological records 175 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:38,280 and information concerning other offenders. 176 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:40,160 The transcript suggests that he learned 177 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:41,840 about psychological diagnoses 178 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:44,360 and understood what professionals expected to hear 179 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:45,280 from patients. 180 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,600 After approximately five years in the secure hospital, 181 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:50,840 Kempper was released at 20 years old. 182 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:53,000 There had been a recommendation 183 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:54,640 that he should not live with his mother. 184 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,440 That recommendation was not followed. 185 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:00,800 Kempper eventually returned to live with Clark now. 186 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:04,120 That decision became one of the most debated points 187 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:04,880 in the story. 188 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:07,920 Was the system wrong to release him? 189 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:10,000 Was the recommendation about his living arrangements 190 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:11,640 insufficiently enforced? 191 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:14,040 Could the later murders have been prevented? 192 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:15,800 The transcript raises these questions, 193 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:17,760 but it does not provide a simple answer. 194 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:21,240 What happened next was that Kempper entered adulthood 195 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:23,080 carrying a history of violence, 196 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:27,560 severe social difficulties, and increasingly dangerous fantasies. 197 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,920 He described himself as lonely and inadequate around women. 198 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,360 He struggled to form ordinary relationships 199 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,960 while his fantasies increasingly involved control and violence. 200 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,680 By 1972, he had developed a method. 201 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,040 He traveled through central California and toward Los Angeles, 202 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:45,920 observing hitchhikers and conducting 203 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,120 what investigators later described as practice runs. 204 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,000 He learned how to appear harmless. 205 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:53,440 He learned how to gain the trust of young women. 206 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,200 He waited until he believed his approach 207 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,280 was sufficiently controlled before acting. 208 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,240 That preparation is one of the details 209 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,000 that is often overshadowed by the later revelations. 210 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:07,200 The murders were not simply a series of spontaneous events 211 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:08,760 according to investigators. 212 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:10,920 Kempper spent time developing his approach 213 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,000 and refining the appearance of safety 214 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,280 that allowed him to gain access to his victims. 215 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:21,200 On May 7, 1972, he picked up Marianne Pesci and Anita Luccesa, 216 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:24,360 two 18-year-old friends near the University of California, 217 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:25,440 Berkeley campus. 218 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:27,480 They entered his car. 219 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:28,920 They had no reason to believe 220 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:30,640 that the friendly man driving them 221 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,400 would become the last person they would ever see. 222 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,800 The transcript describes how Kempper manipulated 223 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:39,720 the vehicle's door mechanism and then drove the young women 224 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:41,240 away from the area. 225 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:43,160 Their disappearance would eventually become part 226 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,960 of the investigation that transformed Santa Cruz 227 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:48,560 into the center of a terrifying mystery. 228 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:51,920 Later came 15-year-old Igo Koo. 229 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,480 She had missed her bus and was trying to reach San Francisco 230 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:56,840 for a dance class. 231 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:59,480 She was young, vulnerable, and dependent 232 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:02,600 on the kindness of a stranger to get where she needed to go. 233 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,800 That stranger was Edmund Kempper. 234 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,920 Her disappearance became another piece of the growing puzzle. 235 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,440 The investigation continued, 236 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:15,080 while Kempper continued to move through the same community. 237 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,720 And here is perhaps the most unsettling part. 238 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:20,040 He was not hiding completely 239 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,000 from the people investigating the murders. 240 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:23,960 He was sitting with them. 241 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:27,280 Kempper regularly appeared at the jury room, 242 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,680 the local gathering place for police officers. 243 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:31,120 He drank with officers. 244 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:32,840 He listened to conversations. 245 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:34,840 He heard discussions about the missing women 246 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:37,280 and the discoveries being made around Santa Cruz. 247 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:41,320 The investigators were searching for the co-ed butcher. 248 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,320 The co-ed butcher was listening to them talk 249 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:45,600 about the investigation. 250 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:49,080 That proximity reveals an important reality 251 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:51,080 about criminal investigations. 252 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,240 Investigators are not hunting abstract monsters. 253 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:56,880 They are looking for people who can appear ordinary, 254 00:10:56,880 --> 00:10:59,600 friendly, helpful, or even familiar. 255 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:02,640 A person's personality can never substitute for evidence 256 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:06,720 and familiarity can sometimes make a dangerous person harder to suspect. 257 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:10,080 Kempper continued killing until the pattern eventually reached a victim 258 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:11,840 with a personal connection to the police. 259 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:15,720 Cindy Shawl was 18 years old and worked as a babysitter 260 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:17,600 to help earn money for college. 261 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,320 She was trusted by officer Jim Connors' family. 262 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,600 To them, she was someone safe enough to care for their children. 263 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:27,600 That trust makes her story particularly painful. 264 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:31,160 The family believed they had found someone dependable. 265 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:37,160 Instead, she became another victim of the man police were struggling to identify. 266 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:41,960 By early 1973, six young women had been killed. 267 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:46,240 Then came the moment that brought the investigation directly to Kempper. 268 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:50,280 Detective Michael O'Luffy had confiscated his firearm. 269 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:54,200 Kempper became convinced that the police were getting closer to him. 270 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:58,160 Whether a Luffy actually suspected him of being the co-ed killer 271 00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:00,160 was another matter entirely, 272 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:05,040 but Kempper apparently interpreted the firearm incident as a sign that investigators were closing in. 273 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:08,640 His fear of being exposed intensified. 274 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,320 And then he killed his own mother. 275 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:17,080 The transcript describes this as a crime he had reportedly fantasized about for years. 276 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:19,200 He also killed his mother's friend. 277 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:22,520 Afterward, rather than disappearing permanently, 278 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:26,400 Kempper fled California and eventually contacted the police himself. 279 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,560 That decision to call the police is another overlooked moment. 280 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:33,600 After years of avoiding detection, 281 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,200 Kempper voluntarily placed himself in the hands of law enforcement. 282 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:40,360 When investigators processed his mother's home, 283 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:44,200 they found evidence that confirmed the seriousness of what had happened. 284 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,840 Kempper had left a note for police apologizing for the mess. 285 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:51,760 The man who had spent months trying to avoid discovery 286 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:55,440 was now essentially handing investigators the key to the mystery. 287 00:12:55,440 --> 00:12:58,480 And once he began talking, he did not stop. 288 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:02,160 Kempper described his crimes in extensive detail 289 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:05,120 and led investigators to locations connected to them. 290 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:09,600 The transcript portrays him as unusually willing to talk about what he had done. 291 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:13,600 For investigators, this meant that the mystery surrounding the missing women 292 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,560 could finally be connected to a specific offender. 293 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:19,840 But there was another disturbing contradiction. 294 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:24,400 The same man who had committed these crimes could appear calm, 295 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:28,080 cooperative, intelligent, and even personable. 296 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:31,120 During psychological evaluation, 297 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:33,920 one examiner described an abrupt eruption of anger 298 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:36,720 when questions involving women were being asked. 299 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:38,960 The moment was brief, but it demonstrated 300 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,360 how dramatically his presentation could change. 301 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:45,760 In October 1973, Kempper went to trial. 302 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:49,680 The courtroom was no longer dealing with a mystery. 303 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:51,600 It was dealing with the consequences. 304 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:53,440 His recorded confessions were played. 305 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:57,360 Families sat and listened to what had happened to their daughters. 306 00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:01,040 Investigators who had spent months trying to solve the cases 307 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:02,960 finally knew who had been responsible. 308 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:10,720 On November 8, 1973, Edmund Kempper was found guilty of eight counts of first-degree murder 309 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:12,560 and sentenced to life imprisonment. 310 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:16,400 But even after the verdict, one question remained. 311 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:17,840 Why? 312 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,840 Was Kempper shaped by his childhood environment? 313 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,280 Did his troubled relationship with his mother contribute to his development? 314 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,640 Did biological and psychological factors play a role? 315 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:32,080 Did his institutional experiences influence him? 316 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:37,200 Or was there some combination of factors that investigators and psychologists could never fully separate? 317 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:40,400 The transcript presents different perspectives. 318 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:45,440 Some argue that his childhood experiences and family environment were significant. 319 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,880 Others emphasized psychological and biological factors. 320 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:52,880 One expert described serial violence as the interaction of genetic, 321 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:59,520 biological, sociological, and psychological influences rather than the result of one simple cause. 322 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:03,280 Another rejected the idea that people are simply born destined to kill. 323 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:06,080 That distinction is important today. 324 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:13,280 When society encounters an extraordinary crime, there is a natural desire to find one explanation. 325 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,200 We want to say it was the childhood. 326 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:18,560 It was the parents, it was mental illness, it was genetics, 327 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:23,840 it was society, but human behavior is more complicated than a single explanation. 328 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:28,720 Understanding contributing factors is not the same as excusing a crime. 329 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:32,800 And discussing mental illness must be done carefully. 330 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,920 Mental illness does not automatically make someone violent, 331 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:39,680 and most people living with mental health conditions are not violent. 332 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:45,040 The story of Edmund Kempper should not become a reason to stigmatize people who need psychiatric care. 333 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:48,720 Instead, it raises a more difficult question. 334 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:55,040 How does society recognize serious warning signs before they become irreversible tragedies? 335 00:15:55,040 --> 00:16:00,240 The story also exposes another lesson that remains relevant in today's world. 336 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:07,280 Technology has changed dramatically since the 1970s, but the human problem remains. 337 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:10,560 Today, missing persons can be reported rapidly. 338 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:13,680 Information can spread through social media within minutes, 339 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:17,920 and communities can organize searches across enormous distances. 340 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:21,920 Yet speed of information does not automatically mean accuracy. 341 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,280 Modern investigators still have to separate evidence from rumor, 342 00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:28,480 coincidence from connection, and suspicion from proof. 343 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:33,520 The Santa Cruz investigation also reminds us that victims should never disappear 344 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,160 beneath the identity of the person who harmed them. 345 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:37,840 Edmund Kempper became famous. 346 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:42,720 The women he killed should never become secondary characters in their own stories. 347 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,600 Marianne Pesci was 18. 348 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,560 Anita Luchasa was 18. 349 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,040 Ico-Coo was 15. 350 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,600 Cindy Shaw was 18. 351 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:56,320 Rosalind Thorpe was 23. 352 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,880 Allison Liu was 21. 353 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:05,680 They had families, friendships, ambitions, studies, jobs, and futures. 354 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:08,800 Their lives were not defined by the circumstances of their deaths. 355 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:13,600 They were defined by everything they were before those lives were violently taken away. 356 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:18,240 And perhaps that is the most important lesson from the entire case. 357 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:22,960 A community can look peaceful while danger is moving quietly through it. 358 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,160 A person can appear friendly without being safe. 359 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:32,240 A warning sign can look insignificant until viewed years later through the lens of tragedy. 360 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:37,520 A system can identify a problem without necessarily preventing what comes next, 361 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:41,920 and an investigation can fail to see what is directly in front of it until the evidence 362 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,000 finally becomes impossible to ignore. 363 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,760 There is also a lesson for the way true crime is told. 364 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:53,760 The mystery of the killer may attract attention, but the victims are the reason the story matters. 365 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,680 Behind every missing person report is a human being. 366 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:01,200 Behind every photograph is a family. 367 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:06,560 Behind every courtroom verdict is a future that can never be restored. 368 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:11,920 Edmund Kempers case remains disturbing not simply because of the crimes themselves, 369 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:15,280 but because of the unanswered questions surrounding the road that led to them. 370 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:21,760 His childhood, his institutionalization, his release, his return to his mother, his growing fantasies, 371 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:27,280 his ability to appear harmless, and the moments when police unknowingly came close to the truth 372 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:29,920 all form pieces of a much larger picture. 373 00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:34,800 The tragedy is that the warning signs were there, but no single person could see how all of them 374 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:40,880 would eventually connect. And that is what makes the story of Santa Cruz so haunting. 375 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:48,240 The killer was not hiding in some distant world. He was living among the people searching for him. 376 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:52,400 He was drinking with the officers investigating the disappearances. 377 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,920 He was listening to the conversations about the crimes, 378 00:18:55,920 --> 00:19:02,400 and for months the community was looking for a stranger while the man responsible was already part 379 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:09,440 of the scene. When the truth finally emerged in 1973, it did not simply answer the question 380 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:16,720 of who the co-ed killer was. It forced investigators, psychologists, families, and society to confront 381 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,800 a much harder question. Could this have been recognized earlier? 382 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:26,880 And if so, what could have been done differently? Those questions remain relevant today, 383 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:32,800 because every generation faces its own warning signs, its own blind spots, and its own assumptions 384 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:38,880 about who looks dangerous and who does not. The story of Edmund Kemper is therefore not simply 385 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:45,280 the story of a killer. It is a story about victims whose lives were stolen, investigators working 386 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:50,880 through uncertainty, a system that struggled to manage a deeply troubled young man, and a community 387 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:57,040 that discovered that evil does not always announce itself when it arrives. Sometimes it smiles. 388 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:03,360 Sometimes it shakes your hand. Sometimes it sits beside you and listens. 389 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:09,680 And sometimes, while everyone is searching for the person responsible, that person is already 390 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:16,640 standing among them. This is US Secret Crimes podcast. Stick to us for more of information and 391 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:20,680 stories of this nature. See you on the next one.