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,

Dewitt, Dan. "Serial Killers Feed on Fears and Thrills." St. Petersburg Times 3 Jan 1995: A-4

Wilson, Colin. The Serial Killers. London: W. H. Allen Publishing, 1990.

Thirdly, the serial killer is always without a doubt stereotyped as being a "psychopathic maniac." Well, classifying all serial killers as being "psychopathic maniacs" is completely unjustified and without and doubt false. In fact serial killers are usually the opposite of lunacy, an are rather intelligent individuals. David Berkowitz who is better know as the "Son of Sam." scored a superior level of 118 on an IQ test in 1960. John Wayne Gacy was also quite intelligent. He owned and operated his own contracting business and in 1958 he scored an amazing 134 on his IQ test. Also both Berkowitz and Gacy were found by FBI psychiatric panels to be completely sane at the time of their crimes, and they were both tried as competent individuals. (Carpozi 23)(Deggans) Society has always associated lunacy with serial murder and this is not always true. Berkowitz and Gacy escape the stereotype of lunacy relating to serial killers, and many more serial killers also do not fall under the psychotic category.

Also, relating back to stereotyping the serial killer, today's society has come to terms to believe that if you are a serial killer you also are a "social monster" and

Some common words found in the essay are:
Serial Killer, Helen Morrison, Albert Fish, Wayne Gacy, Berkowitz Gacy, David Berkowitz, serial killer, Jeffery Dahmer, Dewitt Finally, serial killers, Ed Gein, Jack Ripper, type serial, serial murder, type serial killers, petersburg times, today's society, john wayne, lust killer, mass murder, motive types, john wayne gacy, serial killer mass, serial killers serial, st petersburg times,
Approximate Word count = 1740
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)