Jennifer Schiermeyer
Concordia University
HISTORY
Ed Kemper was physically and
emotionally abused by his alcoholic
mother as a child. She would often times
lock him in the basement at night all
alone. He ran away from home at the age
of 14, and then went to live with his
paternal grandparents after his father
rejected him. His grandmother was also
abusive to him. He was 6 foot 9 inches tall
and 300 pounds.
VICTIMS & MECHANISMS OF INJURY
o August 27, 1964 Paternal Grandmother- He shot her with a .22
rifle, to see what it felt like.
o August 27, 1964 Paternal Grandfather- He shot him with a .22 rifle,
because he thought he would be angry at him for shooting his
grandmother.
o May 7, 1972 Mary Ann Pesce, 18 years old, manually strangled and
stabbed.
o May 7, 1972 Anita Luchesa, 18 years old, manually strangled and
stabbed.
o January 7, 1973 Cindy Schall, 19 years old, shot.
o February 5, 1973 Rosalind Thorpe, 24 year old, shot.
o February 5, 1973 Allison Liu, 23 year old, shot.
o April 19, 1973 Clarnell Strandberg (his mother) bludgeoned with a
claw hammer, mutilated and decapitated post mortem.
o April 19, 1973 Sally Hallett, 59 years old, fatally strangled.
o If Kemper shot one of his victims he was sure to remove the bullet
so it would minimize the forensic evidence.
o Some of the victims he would throw the remains in ravines.
o Other victims he used their flesh in macaroni casserole.
o The main evidence that they had were the photos. Due to
Kemper being a necrophilia he would photograph the body, have
sex with it, and then dissect, and decapitate it. He would then
have sex with the head and the viscera (abdomen organs like the
intestines).
o Some of the other women he would burry their heads in his
mother’s garden because “she was always wanting people to look
up to her”.
Crime and Investigation (2015). Edmund Kemper: the co-ed killer.
Retrieved from http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crimefiles/edumund-kemper.
o His parents divorced when he was 9 and he was unable to put this
behind him.
o His domineering mother and sisters belittled him and when he was
older they banished him to the basement, because his mother was
afraid of him raping his sister.
o He tortured and killed animals, and he entertained fantasies which
combined sex and violence from an early age.
o His father gave him a .22 rifle in which he shot rabbits gophers and
even though he was told not too, birds. This is how he contained
his aggression.
o After killing his grandparents he called the police and confessed to
the murders. He was sent to Atascadero State Hospital where a
court appointed psychiatrist diagnosed him as paranoid and
psychotic.
o While there he got to know the stories of the serial rapists. He
took note of everything they did wrong to get caught, so that he
would not make the same mistakes.
o He hung out at the Jury Room a bar that was frequented by law
enforcement, and become friends with them. They called him
“Big Ed”.
o Atascadero strongly recommended that he not be returned to his
mother. Against their advice, the Youth Authority sent him
straight to her.
o He bought a car and rigged it so that the passenger door wouldn’t
open. He put knives, plastic bags, guns, and blankets in the car.
For a year he experimented picking up young women until it was
the right moment. After one year of experimenting he killed his
first victims Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchese.
Blanco, J. Murderpedia. Edmund Emil Kemper III. Retrieved from
http://murderedia.org/male/K/k/kemper-edmund.html
o A forensic nurses could’ve been used. One of the biggest areas would’ve been
the forensic nurse keeping impartial. The police were friends with “Big Ed”
and so they had a hard time believing when he called them that he could’ve
been the one that was the “Co-Ed Killer”.
o It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the American public had any knowledge of
forensic nursing and their practices (Lynch & Duval, 2011).
o “Law enforcement agencies should take advantage of all the potential tools
that are available in the every-expanding discipline of forensic science and
would be wise to develop operational agendas with forensic nurses, especially
those trained as sexual assault nurse examiners and who are part of a sexual
assault response team” (Lynch & Duval, 2011).
o “The solution of complex and multijurisdictional serial murder and sexual
homicide cases requires outside-the-box thinking and multidisciplinary
cooperation to bring clinical and criminal investigation together as partners
with a common goal” (Lynch & Duval, 2011).
o Risk for violence directed at others due to constatntly being
berated and humiliated by his mother.
o Risk for violence related to inappropriate thoughts and actions
in dealing with stress and humiliation.
o Disabled family coping because of abandonment by parents
related to impaired ability to manage stressors constructively
secondary to abusive relationship with parents.
o Sexual sadism secondary to the infliction of physical and
psychological suffering on another person in order to elicit a
response from the victim, and it is this response that facilitates
the achievement of sexual arousal.
Edmund Kepmer remains behind bars at this present
time. He remains eager to speak about the crimes he
committed. He is at the maximum security prison at
Folsom for the rest of his life. He takes great pride in his
status as the “genius” serial killer who aided in his own
capture and conviction.
o
o
o
Blanco, J. Murderpedia. Edmund Emil Kemper
III. Retrieved from
http://murderedia.org/male/K/k/kemperedmund.html
Crime and Investigation (2015). Edmund
Kemper: the co-ed killer. Retrieved from
http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crimefiles/edumund-kemper.
Lynch, V., & Duval, J. (2011). Forensic Nursing
Science. (2nd ed.). Saint Louis, Missouri:
Elsevier.