Edmund Kemper Biography

Edmund Emil Kemper III is a convicted serial killer from America. Between 1964 and 1973, he murdered ten people, including his paternal grandparents and mother. A native of California, Kemper, whose mother was an abusive woman, had a turbulent childhood. At the age of ten, he killed the family cat. Five years later, he committed his first set of murders when he killed his paternal grandparents. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he served six years as a criminally insane juvenile at Atascadero State Hospital. At the time of his release in 1969, the California Youth Authority psychiatrists certified him rehabilitated. Despite standing at 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall and weighing over 250 pounds (113 kg), he was considered non-threatening by his victims. His large stature was supplemented by his high intelligence; he had once reportedly registered a score of 145 in an IQ test. His later victims, most of whom were female hitchhikers, did not stand a chance against him. He would offer them a ride and later drive them to remote areas where he would kill them. Then he would take the bodies back to his home to be dismembered, mutilated, and violated. Kemper once confessed to even consuming his victims’ flesh but later withdrew the statement. Following his arrest and subsequent conviction, Kemper asked for the death penalty but was denied. Instead, he was sentenced to eight life sentences.