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Profile Of Evil: Ed Kemper (9/27/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
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Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to continue on with our Profile
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Speaker 1: of Evil series, and we're going to talk about Edmund Kemper.
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Speaker 1: And to do that and introduce him to the conversation,
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Speaker 1: we're going to read through his Wikipedia page. So let's
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Speaker 1: dive in and let's meet this sick son of a bitch.
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Speaker 1: Edmund Emil Kemper, the third. born December 18, 1948, is
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Speaker 1: an American serial killer who murdered a total of 10 people,
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Speaker 1: including a 15-year-old girl, as well as his own mother
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Speaker 1: and his best friend, from May 1972 to April 1973.
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Speaker 1: Following his parole for murdering his paternal grandparents, Kemper was
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Speaker 1: nicknamed the co-ed killer as most of his victims were
0:53
Speaker 1: female college students hitchhiking in the vicinity of Santa Cruz County, California.
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Speaker 1: He stands at the height of 6 feet 9 inches,
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Speaker 1: and most of his murders included necrophilia, with some incidents
1:07
Speaker 1: of rape. Born in Burbank, California, Kemper had a troubled upbringing.
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Speaker 1: His parents divorced in early life. As a child, he
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Speaker 1: moved to Montana with his mother, Clarnell, who kept Kemper
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Speaker 1: locked in their basement, which had been frequented by rats.
1:23
Speaker 1: He ran away to be reunited with his father, but
1:26
Speaker 1: he had remarried around Christmas of 1963. and sent Edmund
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Speaker 1: to stay with his paternal grandparents in North Fork, California.
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Speaker 1: It was there, in August of 1964, at the age
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Speaker 1: of 15, that he murdered them. Following the murders, Kemper
1:44
Speaker 1: was briefly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by court psychiatrists and
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Speaker 1: sentenced to the Atascadero State Hospital as a criminally insane juvenile.
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Speaker 1: Released at the age of 21, after convincing psychiatrists he
1:59
Speaker 1: was rehabilitated, the 6'9 Kemper was reportedly regarded as non-threatening
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Speaker 1: by his future victims. He targeted young female hitchhikers during
2:09
Speaker 1: his killing spree, luring them into his vehicle and driving
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Speaker 1: them to secluded areas where he would murder them before
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Speaker 1: taking their corpses back to his home to be decapitated, dismembered,
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Speaker 1: and violated. Kemper then murdered his mother and one of
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Speaker 1: her friends before turning himself in to the authorities. Found
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Speaker 1: sane and guilty at his trial in 1973, Kemper requested
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Speaker 1: the death penalty for his crimes. Capital punishment was suspended
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Speaker 1: in California at the time, and he instead received eight
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Speaker 1: concurrent life sentences. Since then, he has been incarcerated in
2:45
Speaker 1: the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Notably, Kemper and Herbert
2:51
Speaker 1: Mullen overlapped in their 1972-1973 murder sprees, adding confusion to
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Speaker 1: the police investigations and ending with both being arrested within
3:02
Speaker 1: a few weeks of each other after the deaths of
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Speaker 1: 21 people. Early Life Edmund Emil Kemper III was born
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Speaker 1: in Burbank, California on December 18, 1948. He was the
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Speaker 1: middle child and only son born to Clarnell Elizabeth Kemper
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Speaker 1: and Edmund Emil Kemper Jr. Edmund Jr. was a World
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Speaker 1: War II veteran who, after the war, tested nuclear weapons
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Speaker 1: at the Pacific Proving Ground before returning to California, where
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Speaker 1: he worked as an electrician. Clarnell often complained about her
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Speaker 1: husband's menial electrician job. Edmund Jr. later stated that suicide
3:43
Speaker 1: missions in wartime and atomic bomb testings were nothing compared
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Speaker 1: to living with Clarnell, and that she affected him more
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Speaker 1: than 396 days and nights of fighting on the front did.
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Speaker 1: Weighing 13 pounds as a newborn, Kemper was a head
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Speaker 1: taller than his peers by the age of four. Early on,
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Speaker 1: he exhibited antisocial behavior, such as torture of insects and
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Speaker 1: cruelty to animals. At the age of 10, he buried
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Speaker 1: a pet cat alive. Once he died, he dug it up,
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Speaker 1: decapitated it, and mounted its head on a spike. Kemper
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Speaker 1: later stated that he derived pleasure from successfully lying to
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Speaker 1: his family about the killing of the cat. At age 13,
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Speaker 1: he killed another family cat when he perceived it to
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Speaker 1: be favoring his youngest sister, Alan Lee Kemper, over him.
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Speaker 1: He kept pieces of it in his closet until his
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Speaker 1: mother found them. Kemper had a dark fantasy life. He
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Speaker 1: performed rites with his younger sister's dolls that culminated in
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Speaker 1: in his removing their heads and hands. On one occasion,
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Speaker 1: when his eldest sister, Susan Huey Kemper, teased him and
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Speaker 1: asked him why he did not try to kiss his teacher,
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Speaker 1: he replied, I kiss her, then I'd have to kill
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Speaker 1: her first. He also recalled that as a young boy,
5:01
Speaker 1: he would sneak out of his house and armed with
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Speaker 1: his father's bayonet, go to his second grade teacher's house
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Speaker 1: to watch her through the windows. He stated in later
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Speaker 1: interviews that some of his favorite games to play as
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Speaker 1: a child were were gas chamber and electric chair, in
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Speaker 1: which he asked his youngest sister to tie him up
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Speaker 1: and flip an imaginary switch. He would then tumble over
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Speaker 1: and writhe on the floor, pretending that he was being
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Speaker 1: executed by gas inhalation or electric shock. He also had
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Speaker 1: a close to death experience as a child. Once his
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Speaker 1: eldest sister tried to push him in front of a train,
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Speaker 1: and another time when she successfully pushed him into the
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Speaker 1: deep end of a swimming pool where he almost drowned.
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Speaker 1: Kemper had a close relationship with his father and was
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Speaker 1: notably devastated when his parents divorced in 1957, causing him
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Speaker 1: to be raised by Clarnell in Helena, Montana. He had
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Speaker 1: a severely dysfunctional relationship with his mother, an erotic, domineering
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Speaker 1: alcoholic who frequently belittled, humiliated, and abused him. Clarnell often
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Speaker 1: made her son sleep in a locked basement because she
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Speaker 1: feared that he would harm his sisters, regularly mocked him
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Speaker 1: for his large size, He stood six feet four inches
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Speaker 1: by the age of 15 and described him as a
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Speaker 1: real weirdo in a phone conversation to Kemper's father, unaware
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Speaker 1: that her son had been eavesdropping. She also refused to
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Speaker 1: show him affection out of fear that she would turn
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Speaker 1: him gay and told the young Kemper that he reminded
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Speaker 1: her of his father and that no woman would ever
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Speaker 1: love him. Kemper later described her as a sick, angry woman,
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Speaker 1: and it has been postulated that she had borderline personality disorder.
6:42
Speaker 1: At the age of 14, Kemper ran away from home
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Speaker 1: in an attempt to reconcile with his father in Van Nuys, California.
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Speaker 1: Once there, he learned his father had remarried and had
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Speaker 1: a stepson. Kemper stayed with his father for a short
6:56
Speaker 1: time while the elder Kemper sent him to live with
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Speaker 1: his paternal grandparents, who lived on a ranch in the
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Speaker 1: foothills of of the Sierra Nevada on Road 224, about
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Speaker 1: two miles west of the town of North Fork. Kemper
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Speaker 1: hated living in North Fork. He described his grandfather as
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Speaker 1: senile and said that his grandmother was constantly emasculating me
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Speaker 1: and my grandfather. First murders. On August 27th, 1964, at
7:25
Speaker 1: the age of 15, Kemper was sitting at the kitchen
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Speaker 1: table with his grandmother, Maude Matilda, when they had an argument. Enraged,
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Speaker 1: Kemper stormed off and retrieved a rifle that his grandfather
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Speaker 1: had given him for hunting. The rifle had been confiscated
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Speaker 1: because he used it to needlessly shoot animals. He then
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Speaker 1: re-entered the kitchen and fatally shot his grandmother in the
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Speaker 1: head before firing twice more into her back. His grandmother's
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Speaker 1: last words were reportedly, Oh, you'd better not be shooting
7:55
Speaker 1: the birds again. Some account mentions that she also suffered
7:59
Speaker 1: from multiple post-mortem stab wounds with a kitchen knife. When
8:04
Speaker 1: Kemper's grandfather, Edmund Emil Kemper, returned from the grocery shopping,
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Speaker 1: Kemper went outside and fatally shot him in the driveway
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Speaker 1: next to his car. He was unsure of what to
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Speaker 1: do next, so he phoned his mother, who told him
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Speaker 1: to contact the local police. Kemper did and waited to
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Speaker 1: be taken into custody. After his arrest, Kemper said he
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Speaker 1: just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma,
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Speaker 1: and testified that he killed his grandfather so he would
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Speaker 1: not have to find out that his wife was dead,
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Speaker 1: and that he would be angry with Kemper for what
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Speaker 1: he'd done. Psychiatrist Donald Lund, who interviewed Kemper during adulthood, wrote,
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Speaker 1: in his way, he had avenged the rejection of both
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Speaker 1: his father and his mother. Kemper's crimes were deemed incomprehensible
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Speaker 1: for a 15-year-old to commit, and court psychiatrists diagnosed him
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Speaker 1: with paranoid schizophrenia. He was sent to the Atascadero State Hospital,
9:00
Speaker 1: a maximum security facility in San Luis Obispo County that
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Speaker 1: houses mentally ill convicts. Imprisonment At Atascadero, California Youth Authority
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Speaker 1: psychiatrists and social workers disagreed with the court psychiatrist's diagnosis.
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Speaker 1: Their report stated that Kemper showed no flight of ideas.
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Speaker 1: no interference with thought, no expression of delusions or hallucinations,
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Speaker 1: and no evidence of bizarre thinking. They also observed him
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Speaker 1: to be intelligent and introspective. Initial testing measured his IQ
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Speaker 1: at 136 over two standard deviations above average. Kemper was
9:44
Speaker 1: re-diagnosed with a less severe condition, a personality trait disturbance,
9:48
Speaker 1: passive-aggressive type. Later, On his time at Atascadero, he was
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Speaker 1: given another IQ test, which gave a higher result of 145.
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Speaker 1: Kemper endeared himself to a psychiatrist by being a model prisoner,
10:03
Speaker 1: and he was trained to administer psychiatric tests to other inmates.
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Speaker 1: A psychiatrist later said, he was a very good worker,
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Speaker 1: and this is not typical of a sociopath. He really
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Speaker 1: took pride in his work. Kemper also became a member
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Speaker 1: of the Jaycees while in Atascadero and claimed to have
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Speaker 1: developed some new tests and some new scales on the
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Speaker 1: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, specifically an overt hostility scale during
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Speaker 1: his work with Atascadero psychiatrist. After his second arrest, Kemper
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Speaker 1: said that being able to understand how these tests functioned
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Speaker 1: allowed him to manipulate psychiatrists, admitting that he learned a
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Speaker 1: lot from the sex offenders to whom he administered tests.
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Speaker 1: For example, they told him that to avoid leaving witnesses,
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Speaker 1: it was best to kill a woman after raping her.
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Speaker 1: Release and Time in Between Murders On December 18, 1969,
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Speaker 1: his 21st birthday, Kemper was released on parole from a Tascadero.
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Speaker 1: Against the recommendations of psychiatrists at the hospital, he was
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Speaker 1: released into the care of his mother, Clarnell, who had remarried,
11:14
Speaker 1: taken the surname Strandberg, and then divorced again in Aptos, California,
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Speaker 1: a short drive from where she worked as an administrative
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Speaker 1: assistant at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Kemper later
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Speaker 1: demonstrated further to his psychiatrist that he was rehabilitated, and
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Speaker 1: on November 29, 1972, his juvenile records were permanently expunged.
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Speaker 1: The last report from his probation psychiatrist read, It is
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Speaker 1: my opinion that he has made every excellent response to
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Speaker 1: the years of treatment and rehabilitation, And I would see
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Speaker 1: no psychiatric reason to consider him to be of any
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Speaker 1: danger to himself or to any member of society. And
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Speaker 1: since it may allow him more freedom as an adult
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Speaker 1: to develop his potential, I would consider it reasonable to
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Speaker 1: have a permanent expunction of his juvenile records. While staying
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Speaker 1: with his mother, Kemper attempted community college in accordance with
12:28
Speaker 1: his parole requirements and had hoped to become a police officer.
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Speaker 1: though he was rejected because of his size. At the
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Speaker 1: time of his release from Atascadero, Kemper stood at 6
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Speaker 1: feet 9 inches, which led to his nickname Big Ed.
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Speaker 1: Kemper maintained relationships with Santa Cruz police officers despite his
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Speaker 1: rejection from joining the force and became a self-described friendly
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Speaker 1: nuisance at a bar called The Jury Room, a popular
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Speaker 1: local hangout for cops. Kemper worked a series of menial
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Speaker 1: jobs before gaining employment with the State of California Division
13:02
Speaker 1: of Highways. During this time, his relationship with Clarnell remained
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Speaker 1: toxic and hostile, the two having frequent arguments that their
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Speaker 1: neighbors often overheard. Kemper later described the arguments he had
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Speaker 1: with his mother around this time, stating the following. My
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Speaker 1: mother and I started right in on horrendous battles, just
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Speaker 1: horrible battles, violent and vicious. I've never been in such
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Speaker 1: a vicious verbal battle with anyone. It would go to
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Speaker 1: fists with a man, but this was my mother, and
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Speaker 1: I couldn't stand the thought of my mother and I
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Speaker 1: doing these things. She insisted on it and just over
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Speaker 1: stupid things. I remember one roof raiser was over whether
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Speaker 1: I should have my teeth cleaned. When he saved enough money,
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Speaker 1: Kemper moved out to live with a friend in Alameda. There,
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Speaker 1: he still complained of being unable to get away from
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Speaker 1: his mother because she regularly phoned him and paid him
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Speaker 1: surprise visits. He often had financial difficulties, which resulted in
14:01
Speaker 1: his frequently returning to his mother's apartment in Aptos. At
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Speaker 1: a Santa Cruz beach, Kemper met a student from Turlock
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Speaker 1: High School to whom he became engaged in March of 1973.
14:13
Speaker 1: The engagement was broken off after Kemper's second arrest and
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Speaker 1: his fiance's parents request her name not to be revealed
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Speaker 1: to the public. The same year that he began working
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Speaker 1: for the highway division, Kemper was hit by a car
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Speaker 1: while riding a motorcycle that he had recently purchased. His
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Speaker 1: arm was badly injured in the crash, and he received
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Speaker 1: a $ 15, 000 settlement in the civil suit he filed against
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Speaker 1: the car's driver. As he was driving around in the
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Speaker 1: 1969 Ford Galaxy he bought with part of his settlement money,
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Speaker 1: he noticed a large number of young women hitchhiking and
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Speaker 1: began storing plastic bags, knives, blankets, and handcuffs in his car.
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Speaker 1: He then began picking up young women and peacefully letting
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Speaker 1: them go. According to Kemper, he picked up around 150
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Speaker 1: such hitchhikers before he felt homicidal sexual urges, which he
15:04
Speaker 1: called his little zapples, and began acting on them. Later
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Speaker 1: Murders Between May 1972 and April 1973, Kemper killed eight people,
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Speaker 1: all women. He would pick up female students who were
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Speaker 1: hitchhiking and take them to isolated areas where he would shoot, stab, smother,
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Speaker 1: or strangle them. He would then take their bodies back
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Speaker 1: to his home, where he would decapitate them, perform a
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Speaker 1: rheumatio on their severed heads, had sexual intercourse with their corpses,
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Speaker 1: and then dismembered them. During his 11-month murder spree, Kemper
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Speaker 1: killed five college students, one high school student, his mother,
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Speaker 1: and his mother's best friend. Kemper stated in interviews that
15:48
Speaker 1: he often searched for victims after having arguments with his mother,
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Speaker 1: and that she refused to introduce him to women attending
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Speaker 1: the university where she worked. He recalled, she would say,
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Speaker 1: you're just like your father, you don't deserve to get
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Speaker 1: to know them. Psychiatrists and Kemper himself have espoused the
16:06
Speaker 1: belief that the young women were surrogates for his ultimate target,
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Speaker 1: his mother. Mary Ann Pesch and Anita Luqueza On May 7, 1972,
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Speaker 1: Kemper was driving in Berkeley when he picked up two
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Speaker 1: 18-year-old hitchhiking students from Fresno State University, Mary Ann Pesch
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Speaker 1: and Anita Marie Lucasa, with the pretense of taking them
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Speaker 1: to Stanford University. After driving for an hour, he managed
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Speaker 1: to reach a secluded wooded area near Alameda, with which
16:40
Speaker 1: he was familiar from his work at the highway department,
16:43
Speaker 1: without alerting his passengers that he had changed directions from
16:47
Speaker 1: where they wanted to go. It was there that he
16:49
Speaker 1: handcuffed Pesci and locked Lucchese in the trunk, then stabbed
16:53
Speaker 1: and strangled Pesci to death, subsequently killing Lucchese in a
16:57
Speaker 1: similar manner. Kemper later confessed that while handcuffing Pesci, he
17:01
Speaker 1: brushed the back of his hand against one of her
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Speaker 1: breasts and it embarrassed him, adding that he said, whoops,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, or something like that after grazing her breast,
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Speaker 1: despite murdering her. Minutes later. Kemper put both of the
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Speaker 1: women's bodies in the trunk of his Ford Galaxy and
17:18
Speaker 1: returned to his apartment. He was stopped on the way
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Speaker 1: by a police officer for having a broken taillight, but
17:23
Speaker 1: the officer did not detect the corpses in the car.
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Speaker 1: Kemper's roommate was not at home, so he took the
17:30
Speaker 1: bodies into the apartment where he photographed and had sexual
17:33
Speaker 1: intercourse with the naked corpses before dismembering them. He then
17:38
Speaker 1: put the body parts into plastic bags, which he later
17:41
Speaker 1: abandoned near Loma Prieta Mountain. Before disposing of Pesci and
17:45
Speaker 1: Lucchese's severed heads in a ravine, Kemper engaged in irematio
17:50
Speaker 1: with both of them. In August of that year, Pesci's
17:53
Speaker 1: skull was found on Loma Prieta Mountain. An extensive search
17:57
Speaker 1: failed to turn up the rest of Pesci's remains or
18:00
Speaker 1: a trace of Lucchese. On the evening of September 14, 1972,
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Speaker 1: Kemper picked up 15-year-old dance student named Eiko Kuu. who
18:13
Speaker 1: had decided to hitchhike to dance class after missing her bus.
18:17
Speaker 1: He again drove to a remote area where he pulled
18:20
Speaker 1: a gun on Ku before accidentally locking himself out of
18:23
Speaker 1: his car. However, Ku let him back inside despite the
18:27
Speaker 1: fact that the gun was still in the car. Back
18:30
Speaker 1: inside the car, he proceeded to choke her, unconscious, rape her,
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Speaker 1: and kill her. Kemper subsequently packed Ku's body into the
18:38
Speaker 1: trunk of his car and went to a nearby bar
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Speaker 1: to have a few drinks, then returned to his apartment.
18:43
Speaker 1: He later confessed that after exiting the bar, he opened
18:48
Speaker 1: the trunk of his car, admiring his catch like a fisherman.
18:51
Speaker 1: Back at his apartment, he had sexual intercourse with the corpse,
18:55
Speaker 1: then dismembered and disposed of the remains in a similar
18:58
Speaker 1: manner as his previous two victims. Ku's mother called the
19:02
Speaker 1: police to report her disappearance of her daughter and put
19:05
Speaker 1: up hundreds of flyers asking for information, but she did
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Speaker 1: not receive any responses regarding her daughter's location or status.
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Speaker 1: Cindy Schall. On January 7th, 1973, Kemper, who had moved
19:18
Speaker 1: back in with his mother, was driving around the Cabrillo
19:21
Speaker 1: College campus when he picked up 18-year-old student Cynthia Ann
19:26
Speaker 1: Cindy Schall. He drove to a wooded area and fatally
19:30
Speaker 1: shot her with a. 22 caliber pistol. He then placed
19:33
Speaker 1: her body in the trunk of his car and drove
19:35
Speaker 1: to his mother's house, where he kept the body hidden
19:38
Speaker 1: in a closet in his room overnight. When his mother
19:41
Speaker 1: left for work the next morning, he had sexual intercourse
19:44
Speaker 1: with and removed the bullet from Shaw's corpse, then dismembered
19:47
Speaker 1: and decapitated her in his mother's bathtub. Kemper kept Shaw's
19:52
Speaker 1: severed head for several days, regularly engaging in disgusting practices
19:57
Speaker 1: with it, then buried it in his mother's garden facing
20:00
Speaker 1: upward toward her bedroom. After his arrest, he stated that
20:04
Speaker 1: he did this because his mother always wanted people to
20:06
Speaker 1: look up to her. He discarded the rest of Shaw's
20:09
Speaker 1: remains by throwing them off a cliff. Over the course
20:13
Speaker 1: of the following weeks, all except Shaw's head and right
20:16
Speaker 1: hand were discovered and pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle.
20:21
Speaker 1: A pathologist determined that Shaw had been cut into pieces
20:24
Speaker 1: with a power saw. Rosalind Thorpe and Allison Liu On
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Speaker 1: February 5th, 1973, after a heated argument with his mother,
20:35
Speaker 1: Kemper left his house in search of possible victims. With
20:39
Speaker 1: heightened suspicion of a serial killer preying on hitchhikers in
20:42
Speaker 1: the Santa Cruz area, students had been advised not to
20:45
Speaker 1: accept rides from people they didn't know. Kemper was able
20:49
Speaker 1: to obtain a sticker from the university as his mother
20:52
Speaker 1: worked at UCSC. He encountered 23-year-old Rosalind Heather Thorpe and
20:58
Speaker 1: 20-year-old Alice Helen Allison, Lou, on the UCS campus. According
21:05
Speaker 1: to Kemper, Thorpe entered his car first, reassuring Lou to
21:08
Speaker 1: also enter. He first fatally shot Thorpe and then Lou
21:12
Speaker 1: with his pistol and wrapped their bodies in blankets. Kemper
21:15
Speaker 1: again brought his victims back to his mother's house. This time,
21:19
Speaker 1: he beheaded them in his car and carried the headless
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Speaker 1: corpses into his mother's house to have sexual intercourse with them.
21:25
Speaker 1: He then dismembered the bodies, removed the bullets to prevent identification,
21:30
Speaker 1: and discarded their remains the next morning. Some remains were
21:33
Speaker 1: found at Eden Canyon a week later, and more were
21:37
Speaker 1: found near Route 1 in March. When questioned in an
21:42
Speaker 1: interview as to why he decapitated his victims, he explained,
21:45
Speaker 1: the head trip fantasies were a bit like a trophy.
21:48
Speaker 1: You know, the head is where everything is at. The brain,
21:52
Speaker 1: the eyes, the mouth. That's the person. I remember being
21:55
Speaker 1: told as a kid, you cut off the head and
21:57
Speaker 1: the body dies. The body is nothing after the head
22:01
Speaker 1: is cut off. Well, that's not quite true. There's a
22:04
Speaker 1: lot left in the girl's body without the head. Clarnell
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Speaker 1: Kemper Strandberg, and Sally Hallett. On April 20th, 1973, after
22:15
Speaker 1: coming home from a party, 52-year-old Clarnell Strandberg awakened her
22:19
Speaker 1: son with her arrival. While sitting in her bed reading
22:22
Speaker 1: a book, she noticed Kemper enter her room and said
22:25
Speaker 1: to him, I suppose you're going to want to sit
22:27
Speaker 1: up all night and talk now. Kemper replied, no, good night.
22:32
Speaker 1: He then waited for her to fall asleep. Then he
22:34
Speaker 1: sneaked back into her room and bludgeoned her with a
22:37
Speaker 1: claw hammer and slit her throat with a penknife. He
22:40
Speaker 1: then decapitated her and engaged in disgusting behavior with her
22:44
Speaker 1: severed head, then used it as a dartboard. Kemper stated
22:48
Speaker 1: that he put her head on a shelf and screamed
22:50
Speaker 1: at it for an hour, threw darts at it, and
22:53
Speaker 1: ultimately smashed her face in. He also cut out her
22:56
Speaker 1: tongue and larynx and put them in the garbage disposal. However,
23:00
Speaker 1: the garbage disposal could not break down the tough vocal
23:03
Speaker 1: cords and ejected the tissue back into the sink. That
23:07
Speaker 1: seemed appropriate. As much as she'd bitched and screamed and
23:10
Speaker 1: yelled at me over so many years, Kemper later said,
23:13
Speaker 1: Kemper hid his mother's corpse in a closet and went
23:16
Speaker 1: to drink at a nearby bar. Upon his return, he
23:19
Speaker 1: invited his mother's best friend, 59-year-old Sarah Taylor, Sally Hallett,
23:24
Speaker 1: over to the house to have dinner and watch a movie.
23:27
Speaker 1: When Hallett arrived, Kemper strangled her to death to create
23:31
Speaker 1: a cover story that his mother and Hallett had gone
23:33
Speaker 1: away together on vacation. He subsequently put Hallett's corpse in
23:37
Speaker 1: a closet, obscured any outward signs of a disturbance, and
23:41
Speaker 1: left a note to the police. It read, approximately 5.15 a.m. Saturday.
23:47
Speaker 1: No need for her to suffer anymore at the hands
23:50
Speaker 1: of this horrible, murderous butcher. It was quick. Asleep. The
23:54
Speaker 1: way I wanted it. Not sloppy and incomplete, gents. Just
23:57
Speaker 1: a lack of time. I got things to do. Afterwards,
24:02
Speaker 1: Kemper fled the scene and he drove nonstop to Pueblo, Colorado,
24:06
Speaker 1: taking caffeine pills to stay awake for the over 1,000-mile journey.
24:11
Speaker 1: He had three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition
24:14
Speaker 1: in his car, and he believed he was the target
24:16
Speaker 1: of an active manhunt. After not hearing any news on
24:20
Speaker 1: the radio about the murders of his mother and Hallett
24:22
Speaker 1: when he arrived in Pueblo, he found a phone booth
24:25
Speaker 1: and called the police. He confessed to the murders of
24:28
Speaker 1: his mother and Hallett, but the police did not take
24:30
Speaker 1: his call seriously and told them to call back at
24:33
Speaker 1: a later time. Several hours later, Kemper called again, asking
24:38
Speaker 1: to speak to an officer he personally knew. He confessed
24:41
Speaker 1: to that officer of killing his mother and Hallett, then
24:43
Speaker 1: waited for the police to arrive and take him into custody.
24:47
Speaker 1: Upon his capture, Kemper also confessed to the murders of
24:50
Speaker 1: the six students. When asked in a later interview why
24:53
Speaker 1: he turned himself in, Kemper said, the original purpose was gone.
24:57
Speaker 1: It wasn't serving any physical or real or emotional purpose.
25:01
Speaker 1: It was just pure waste of time. Emotionally, I couldn't
25:04
Speaker 1: handle it much longer. Toward the end there, I started
25:07
Speaker 1: feeling the folly of the whole damn thing. And at
25:09
Speaker 1: that point, the exhaustion near collapse, I just said to
25:12
Speaker 1: hell with it and called it all off. The Trial
25:18
Speaker 1: Kemper was indicted on eight counts of first-degree murder on
25:21
Speaker 1: May 7th of 1973. He was assigned the chief public
25:25
Speaker 1: defender of Santa Cruz County, Attorney Jim Jackson. Due to
25:29
Speaker 1: Kemper's explicit and detailed confession, his counsel's only option was
25:32
Speaker 1: to plead not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges.
25:36
Speaker 1: Kemper twice tried to commit suicide in custody. His trial
25:40
Speaker 1: went ahead on October 23rd of 1973. Three court-appointed psychiatrists
25:46
Speaker 1: found Kemper to be legally sane. One of the psychiatrists, Dr.
25:50
Speaker 1: Joel Fort, investigated his juvenile records and the diagnosis that
25:54
Speaker 1: he was once psychotic. Fort also interviewed Kemper, including under
25:58
Speaker 1: truth serum, and relayed to the court that Kemper had
26:01
Speaker 1: engaged in cannibalism, alleging that he sliced flesh from the
26:05
Speaker 1: legs of his victims, then cooked and consumed these strips
26:08
Speaker 1: of flesh in a casserole. Nevertheless, Fort determined that Kemper
26:12
Speaker 1: was fully cognizant in each case and stated that Kemper
26:16
Speaker 1: enjoyed the prospect of the infamy associated with being labeled
26:20
Speaker 1: a murderer. Kemper later recanted the Confession of Cannibalism. California
26:26
Speaker 1: used the... Mingotton standard, which held that a defendant to
26:31
Speaker 1: establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must
26:34
Speaker 1: be clearly proved that at the time of the committing
26:37
Speaker 1: of the act, the party accused was laboring under such
26:40
Speaker 1: a defect of reason from disease of mind and not
26:44
Speaker 1: to know the nature and quality of the act he
26:47
Speaker 1: was doing, or if he did know it, that he
26:49
Speaker 1: did not know what he was doing was wrong. Kemper
26:53
Speaker 1: appeared to have known that the nature of his acts
26:55
Speaker 1: were wrong, and he had shown signs of malice afterthought.
27:00
Speaker 1: On November 1st, Kemper took the stand. He testified that
27:03
Speaker 1: he killed the victims because he wanted them for myself,
27:06
Speaker 1: like possessions. He attempted to convince the jury that he
27:09
Speaker 1: was insane based on the reasoning that his actions could
27:12
Speaker 1: have been committed only by someone with an aberrant mind.
27:16
Speaker 1: He said that two beings inhabited his body, that when
27:20
Speaker 1: the killer personally took over, it was kind of like
27:23
Speaker 1: blacking out. On November 8th, 1973, the six-man, six-woman Jerry
27:29
Speaker 1: deliberated for five hours before declaring Kemper sane and guilty
27:33
Speaker 1: on all counts. He asked for the death penalty, requesting
27:37
Speaker 1: death by torture. However, with a moratorium placed on capital
27:40
Speaker 1: punishment by the Supreme Court of California, he insisted he
27:45
Speaker 1: instead received seven years to life for each count, with
27:49
Speaker 1: these terms to be served concurrently, and was sentenced to
27:52
Speaker 1: the California Medical Facility at Vacaville. Imprisonment. In the California
27:58
Speaker 1: Medical Facility, Kemper was incarcerated in the same prison block
28:02
Speaker 1: as other notorious criminals such as Herbert Mullen and Charles Manson.
28:07
Speaker 1: Kemper showed particular disdain for Mullen, who committed his murders
28:11
Speaker 1: at the same time and in the same area as Kemper.
28:14
Speaker 1: He described Mullen as just a cold-blooded killer, killing everybody
28:18
Speaker 1: he saw for no good reason. Kemper manipulated and physically
28:24
Speaker 1: intimidated Mullen, who, at 5 feet 9 inches, was a
28:27
Speaker 1: foot shorter than him. Kemper stated that Mullen had a
28:30
Speaker 1: habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to
28:34
Speaker 1: watch TV. So I threw water on him to shut
28:36
Speaker 1: him up. Then, when he was a good boy, I'd
28:39
Speaker 1: give him peanuts. Herbie liked peanuts. That was effective because
28:43
Speaker 1: pretty soon, he asked permission to sing. That's called behavior
28:47
Speaker 1: modification treatment. Kemper remains among the general population in prison
28:52
Speaker 1: and is considered a model prisoner. He was in charge
28:55
Speaker 1: of scheduling other inmates' appointments with psychiatrists and was an
28:59
Speaker 1: accomplished craftsman of ceramic cups. He was also a prolific
29:03
Speaker 1: narrator of audiobooks A 1987 Los Angeles Times article stated
29:09
Speaker 1: that he was the coordinator of the prison's program and
29:12
Speaker 1: had personally spent over 5,000 hours narrating books and several
29:16
Speaker 1: hundred completed recordings to his name. Kemper has retired from
29:21
Speaker 1: these positions in 2015 after he experienced a stroke and
29:26
Speaker 1: declared medically disabled. He received his first rules violation report
29:31
Speaker 1: in 2016 for failing to provide a urine sample. While imprisoned,
29:36
Speaker 1: Kemper has participated in a number of interviews, including a
29:40
Speaker 1: segment in the 1982 documentary, The Killing of America, as
29:45
Speaker 1: well as an appearance in the 1984 documentary, Murder, No
29:48
Speaker 1: Apparent Motive. His interviews have contributed to the understanding of
29:52
Speaker 1: the mind of serial killers. FBI profiler John Douglas described
29:57
Speaker 1: Kemper as among the brightest prison inmates he ever interviewed
30:01
Speaker 1: and capable of rare insight for a violent criminal. He
30:05
Speaker 1: further added that he personally liked Kemper, referring to him
30:08
Speaker 1: as friendly, open, sensitive, and having a good sense of humor.
30:13
Speaker 1: Kemper is forthcoming about the nature of his crimes and
30:16
Speaker 1: has stated that he participated in the interviews to save
30:19
Speaker 1: others like himself from killing. At the end of his murder,
30:24
Speaker 1: no apparent mode of interview, he said, there's somebody out
30:27
Speaker 1: there that is watching this and hasn't done that, hasn't
30:29
Speaker 1: killed people and wants to and rages inside and struggles
30:33
Speaker 1: with that feeling or is so sure they have it
30:36
Speaker 1: under control. They need to talk to somebody about it.
30:39
Speaker 1: Trust somebody enough to sit down and talk about something
30:43
Speaker 1: that isn't a crime. Thinking that way isn't a crime.
30:46
Speaker 1: Doing it isn't just a crime. It's a horrible thing.
30:50
Speaker 1: It doesn't know when to quit. It can't be stopped
30:53
Speaker 1: easily once it starts. He also conducted an interview with
30:56
Speaker 1: the French writer Stephen Borwan in 1991. Kemper was first
31:01
Speaker 1: eligible for parole in 1979. He was denied parole that year,
31:07
Speaker 1: as well as at parole hearings in 1980, 1981, and 1982.
31:09
Speaker 1: He subsequently waived his right to a hearing in 1985.
31:11
Speaker 1: He was denied parole at his 1988 hearing. where he
31:19
Speaker 1: said society is not ready in any shape or form
31:22
Speaker 1: for me. I can't fault them for that. He was
31:25
Speaker 1: denied parole again in 1991 and in 1994. He then
31:30
Speaker 1: waived his right to a hearing in 1997 and in 2002.
31:35
Speaker 1: He attended the next hearing in 2007, where he was
31:38
Speaker 1: again denied parole. Prosecutor Eridan Simmons said, we don't care
31:44
Speaker 1: how much of a model prisoner he is because of
31:46
Speaker 1: the enormity of his crimes. Kemper waived his right to
31:49
Speaker 1: a hearing again in 2012. He was denied parole in
31:53
Speaker 1: 2017 and is next eligible in 2024. Psychology While on
32:01
Speaker 1: trial for murdering his grandparents, Kemper was diagnosed with paranoid
32:04
Speaker 1: schizophrenia by a court-appointed psychiatrist. However, California youth authorities... Psychiatrists
32:11
Speaker 1: and social workers at Atascadero State Hospital disagreed on the
32:15
Speaker 1: basis that Kemper showed no flight of ideas, no interference
32:19
Speaker 1: with thought, no expression of delusions or hallucinations, and no
32:23
Speaker 1: evidence of bizarre thinking, further observing him to be highly
32:26
Speaker 1: intelligent and introspective. Kemper was therefore re-diagnosed with personality trait disturbance,
32:33
Speaker 1: passive-aggressive type. Shortly after arriving at California Medical Facility in 1973,
32:39
Speaker 1: Kemper was admitted to psychiatrists for re-evaluation. He was re-diagnosed
32:44
Speaker 1: with antisocial, narcissistic, and schizophrenia personality disorders. Well, folks, if
32:52
Speaker 1: that isn't a profile of evil, I don't know what is.
32:55
Speaker 1: And the fact that they even let this guy out
32:57
Speaker 1: the first time around is just bananas. But now that
33:01
Speaker 1: we have our introduction to this maniac, we're going to
33:04
Speaker 1: add a context episode, and that will be tomorrow morning.
33:08
Speaker 1: All right, folks, that's going to do it for this one.
33:11
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes along with this episode
33:14
Speaker 1: can be found in the description box.