He is your neighbour! He is an old high school acquaintance! His is a well respected individual within your community! Well, what is he you ask? He is the most sinister an malignant type of criminal to walk the face of the earth. He is the serial killer! "The serial killer is your neighbour, he kills one by one while living a seemingly normal life in between murders." (Cahill 6) To be classified as a "serial killer", an individual has to kill at least three people in separate murders with a "cooling off" period in between murders. Today's society has concocted wild misconceptions about serial killers and because of this the serial killer continues to remain a very misunderstood individual.

Firstly, one of the biggest misconceptions relating to serial murder is that a serial killer and a mass murder are the same. The serial killer and the mass murderer are two completely different individuals. A mass murder is someone who will walk into a post office and shoot everyone, and the maybe even themselves. They kill several people in a matter of hours and there is no cooling off period or trademark to the killings. While a serial killer kills several people over a period of days,week

characteristics may seem correct in our minds, they really do only apply to a select few. John Wayne Gacy was a close friend to the mayor of Chicago, he owned his own contracting business, he would dress up as a clown to entertain sick children at the hospital, and he would also plow his neighbours driveways whenever it snowed. Now, does this sound like a social monster, or a loner? No, it sounds like a wonderful man, a caring man, a normal man. Ed Gein who is a renowned cannibal, necrophiliac, and murder used to babysit his neighbours children, and preform odd jobs for them for a very minimal fee. "He just loved doing chores for people and he really wanted people to like him."(Askenasy 109) Albert Fish, along with a number of serial killers was married and had children. Is it or is it not a common trait of a "loner" not to get married? It has been estimated that ". . . about 89% of heterosexual serial killers aged 25 to 35 have been married or had recently been divorced at the time of their killings" (Cahill 87) Although allot of serial killers are divorced, they were once married and this totally rules out being a "loner". The society that we live in today has stereotypes for everything. Serial killers just happen to be the victim of a very big stereotype and because of this they continue to be categorized as a certain class of people but they could vary greatly in their personalities.

Deggans, Eric. "Gacy, Killer of 33 is Executed." St. Petersburg Times 10 May 1994: A-6

s, months and even years. There is a cooling off period and the killer also commits each murder in his own signature style. The serial killer will also go through phases and cycles. Although the serial killer and mass murder are closely related they are very different, and should no longer be considered the same.

Furthermore, a serial murderer will always have a distinct victim and will

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Approximate Word count = 1739
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)