Creepypasta Magic ☽☉☾

How To Spot A Serial Killer

How would you recognize a serial killer on the street? More than likely, you wouldn't. Until they are caught, they look exactly like us, act like us, and blend into society like us. Unless you're psychic, there is no way to tell who is a serial killer. In addition, everyone has the potential to become a serial killer's victim because they are as varied as serial killers themselves. 

While most individual serial killers have a specific type of person they target, there are no steadfast rules when it comes to deciding who dies. The majority of victims in the U.S. are white, which supports researchers' claims that serial killers kill interracially. More often than not, women become victims, but men and children are also targeted. Age also plays an important role in the killer's choice of victim, with most of them falling between the ages of 18 and 50.

Since most serial killings are carried out to fulfill a sexual fantasy, serial killers have a type of victim in mind to satisfy their needs. Bundy supposedly targeted young women with shoulder-length hair that was parted down the middle. They had to look like they were from upper-middle-class origins, which might explain while the vast majority of his victims were college students. Kemper also had a taste for co-eds, and with the parking sticker he received from his mother, they were easy to pick up.

Prostitutes, strippers, and other sex-industry workers might be targeted because of the associations of their work. If killers are looking to fulfill a sexual fantasy, they are the prime targets to help them out, but they are also easy targets because they are willing to get into a car with the killer. Ridgway targeted prostitutes because he knew they wouldn't be reported missing for a long time, if at all. Despite the fact that prostitutes are easy targets, not all serial killers go after them. In the mind of a serial killer, anyone--teachers, nurses, waitresses, bartenders, etc.--are just as likely to fulfill their twisted needs.

Homeless people, hitchhikers, drug addicts, and alcoholics are at a higher risk of becoming victims, but they are by no means the primary targets. Richard Ramirez would walk around until he found an unlocked door or open window, while Bobby Joe Long looked in the classifieds and called the numbers during the day. If a woman answered, he would assume that the man in her life was at work. He would then go to the house, and if she was alone, he would proceed with the murder.

Serial killers troll for their intended victims. When they are in the trolling phase, they are highly focused, and all of their senses are directed at locating a victim. He will focus all of his energy, thought, and effort on the potential victim and wait for the perfect moment to pounce. Sometimes, when they find the perfect victim, they will wait days or weeks before finally striking. If a serial killer is not in the mood to kill but still finds a potential victim, he will file the information away until he is ready to kill.

The number of victims a serial killer kills depends on opportunity. The most prolific serial killer in the U.S., who has a proven number of victims, is Gary Ridgway (Henry Lee Lucas supposedly killed around 600 people, but his later recantations make it hard to determine if this number is true or not). In his years of killing, he murdered 48 prostitutes. Ted Bundy murdered 35 women, and John Wayne Gacy killed 33 young men. Charles Cullen has been convicted of 29, and Dean Corll took the lives of 27 victims. The list goes on and on. Many of these killers were able to get away with their crimes because they targeted victims that were the dregs of society: prostitutes, hitchhikers, runaways, etc.

There are no set rules when it comes to the victims of serial killers. No one is safe, and anyone can become a target. Although, "Based on the FBI survey of serial killers and their victims, we can say that being white in the United States immediately increases your risk: Ninety-two percent of victims were white. Being female (82 percent), unmarried (80 percent), and between the ages, fifteen and twenty-eight (73 percent) all put you at a higher risk." 1 So how are you supposed to protect yourself when a serial killer is on the prowl? First, always use common sense. For women, that means not traveling alone at night and in areas that you are unfamiliar with. If you have to be in an area, make sure you have something to protect yourself with. Second, never, and I mean never, get into a car with a stranger.