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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. Episode 175. I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Roseland Weyborg Thun.
Tonight, we find ourselves in familiar territory. If you are a classic serial killer aficionado, the United States of America. A killer with a brilliant mind. Young, beautiful victims. Necrophiliac.
A serial killer superstar. Yes, dear listener, it is time for a true TSK classic serial killer expose. The man at hand is none other than the killer giant himself, the Coed Killer, responsible for murdering ten human beings. Edmund Kemper. Enjoy.
As always, I want to publicly thank my elite TSK Producers Club. Their names are...
Marilyn, Meow, Missy, Nick, Oakley, Operation Brownie Pockets, Reed, Richard, Russell, Sabina, Skortnia, Scott, Shauna, Sputnik, The Radio, Tim, Tony, Trent, Vanessa, and Val. You are the backbone of the Serial Killer podcast, and without you, there would be no show. You have my deepest gratitude. Thank you.
I am forever grateful for my elite TSK Producers Club, and I want to show you that your patronage is not given in vain. All TSK episodes will be available 100% ad-free to my TSK Producers Club on patreon.com slash the serial killer podcast. No generic ads, no ad reads, no jingles. I promise.
And of course, if you wish to donate $15 a month, that's only $7.50 per episode, you are more than welcome to join the ranks of the TSK Producers Club too. So don't miss out and join now. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, Burbank, California, the United States of America.
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. Located 12 miles, that's 19 kilometers, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Burbank is home to Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers Studios, and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.
Billed as the media capital of the world and only a few miles or a few kilometers northeast of Hollywood, numerous media and entertainment companies are headquartered or have significant production facilities in Burbank.
The city of Burbank occupies land that was previously part of two Spanish and Mexican-era colonial land grants. The 36,400-acre, that's 147 square kilometers, Rancho San Rafael, granted to José María Verdugo by the Spanish Bourbon government in 1784,
and the 4,063-acre Rancho Provinciada, created in 1821. This area was the scene of a military skirmish which resulted in the unseating of the Spanish governor of California and his replacement by the Mexican leader Pío Pico.
Dr. David Burbank purchased over 4,600 acres of the former Verdugo Holding and another 4,600 acres of the Rancho Providencia in 1867, and built a ranch house and began to raise sheep and grow wheat on the ranch. By 1876, the San Fernando Valley became the largest wheat-raising area in Los Angeles County.
When the area, that became known as Burbank, was settled in the 1870s and 1880s, the streets were aligned along what is now Olive Avenue, the road to the Cahuenga Pass in downtown Los Angeles. These were largely the roads the Native Americans traveled, and the early settlers took their produce down to Los Angeles to sell and to buy supplies along these routes.
The town grew steadily, weathering the drought and depression that hit Los Angeles in the 1890s, and in 20 years, the community had a bank, newspaper, high school, and a thriving business district with a hardware store, liver stable, dry goods store, general store, and bicycle repair shop. The city's first newspaper, Burbank Review, was established in 1906.
The populace petitioned the state legislature to incorporate as a city on the 8th of July 1911, with businessman Thomas Storey as the mayor. The first city seal adopted by Burbank featured a cantaloupe, which was a crop that helped save the town's life when the land boom collapsed.
In 1931, the original city seal was replaced, and in 1978, the modern seal was adopted. The new seal shows City Hall beneath a banner. An airplane symbolizes the city's aircraft industry. The strip of film and stage light represent motion picture production. The bottom portion depicts the sun rising over the Verdugo Mountains.
The growth of companies such as Lockheed and the burgeoning entertainment industry drew more people to the area, and Burbank's population doubled between 1930 and 1940 to 34,337.
Burbank saw its greatest growth during World War II due to Lockheed's presence, employing some 80,800 men and women, producing aircraft such as the Lockheed Hudson, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Lockheed PV-1 Ventura, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and America's first jet fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.
Lockheed later created the U-2 SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 Nighthawk at its Burbank-based Skunk Works. The name came from a secret, ill-smelling backwoods distillery called Skunk Works in cartoonist Al Capp's Lil Abner comic strip.
Dozens of hamburger stands, restaurants and shops appeared around Lockheed to accommodate the employees. Some of the restaurants operated 24 hours a day. At one time, Lockheed paid utility rates representing 25% of the city's total utilities revenue, making Lockheed the city's cash cow. When Lockheed left, the economic loss was huge.
At its height during World War II, the Lockheed facility employed up to 98,000 people. Between the Lockheed and Vega plants, some 7,700,000 square feet, that's 720,000 square meters, of manufacturing space was located in Burbank at the peak in 1943.
Burbank's growth did not slow as war production ceased, and over 7,000 new residents created a post-war real estate boom. Real estate values soared as housing tracts appeared in the Magnolia Park area of Burbank between 1945 and 1950. More than 62% of the city's housing stock was built before 1970.
It was in this post-war boomtown environment that Edmund Emil Kemper III was born on the 18th of December 1948. His parents were Edmund Emil Kemper II, known to friends and acquaintances as E.E., and his wife, Clarnell Kemper.
His mother was a severe alcoholic who favored his two sisters, Susan and Anil, and never missed an opportunity to belittle him. Judging from interviews and contemporary court statements, it is not unlikely that Clarnell may have suffered from borderline personality disorder. His father, E.E., was a World War II veteran who hated his wife.
So much so, he preferred war over being at home with his family. The father is quoted as saying the following about his wife, and I quote, Suicide missions in wartime and the later atomic bomb testings were nothing compared to living with her. End quote. Like many young boys, Ed had a crush on his second grade teacher.
But rather than shower her with hand-picked daisies or leave an apple on her desk, Ed stalked her, peeping through her windows. His tiny fingers gripped tight around the handle of his father's bayonet. At the time, his sister taunted him over this crush and asked him to simply go and kiss her if he loved her so much.
Eight-year-old Ed, as he was usually called, simply replied that if he was to kiss her, he would have to kill her first. As a child, Ed Kemper craved attention from his parents, but never received much. Clarnell didn't want her son turning out to be submissive the way she saw his father, so she was strict with the young boy.
Anytime E.E. was caught showing the boy affection or kindness, he would be chastised for coddling. Ed Kemper spent the formative years of his life feeling isolated. He had low self-esteem and felt unlovable. In school, Ed performed poorly. He saw teachers as extensions of his mother, and he would shy away from adults, expecting the poor treatment he received from his alcoholic mother at home.
His peers could tell something was off with Ed. He was bullied mercilessly for his shyness, poor grades, and astonishing hate. He had a hard time developing relationships with others throughout his life, and as a child, this meant he spent most of his time at school without friends. Again, dear listener, we see how bullying at a young age can have extremely disastrous effects in later years.
In 1957, when Ed was nine years old, his father E.E. left the family house for good. Ed felt abandoned, left alone with a woman who made his life unbearable. Ed got along with his sisters when they were younger, but as he aged and the turbulent storm brewing in his brain began to manifest in his behaviors, they quickly drifted apart. Ed became fascinated with death.
His favorite game to play with his sisters was something called gas chamber. He would have one of his sisters throw pellets at him and lock him in a room. He would then act out suffocating to death, writhing back and forth on the floor. His sisters would play this game with him, but when Ed became obsessed with ripping the heads off their dolls,
They began to refuse, distancing themselves from the child their mother berated on a regular basis. At this stage in his life, Ed was unable to keep his depraved fantasies and obsession a secret the way he was able to later as an adult. He was becoming seriously misanthropic. Ed wished that everyone else in the world would die, and he envisioned killing many of them himself.
His fantasies seeped into his consciousness and had a startling effect on his actions. At ten years old, Ed killed his family's cat. He buried the pet alive in their backyard, and when he was sure it had died, he dug it back up, removed its head, and examined its body. Once satisfied, he placed the severed head on a stick.
Several years later, Ed repeated this ritual with the cat's replacement when he perceived the pet to be favoring his younger sister. He dismembered the second cat and stored pieces of its body in his closet as a reminder of the thrill he had felt while committing the deed. Clarnell Kemper was not unaware of how Ed's behavior was developing into that of a disturbed person.
She had found the rotting remnants of their second family pet in his closet after having smelt the odor of decaying flesh. Her abuse towards Ed escalated during his early adolescence.
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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a family man with three kids, I know firsthand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care. But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable.
For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh. For others, it might be an eating night. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it.
But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Everyone needs someone to talk to, even psychopaths, even your humble host.
Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. She began locking him in the basement at night, forcing him to sleep in the cold, damp space without a bed or blankets.
Her reasoning for this was that she was afraid of him coming and hurting her or her daughters in the night. When Ed was fifteen, he reached a breaking point with his mother. He couldn't take the constant verbal abuse any longer. So he left, hitchhiking to his father's home just outside of Los Angeles. He thought it would be a fresh start, but he quickly fell into old patterns.
Unbeknownst to Ed, his father had remarried since leaving Clarnell and now had a stepson. Ed was outraged. He felt replaced and soon began acting hostile and aggressive towards his father's new family. After one month, EE sent his son back into the arms of Clarnell. Ed did not wish to return to his mother's house, and he wasn't the only one.
Clarnell also did not want to accept her son back into her life. She had been happy when he had run away and told her son she had felt peace for the first time in years while he was away. She refused to take him back in and instead sent him to live with his paternal grandparents.
In doing this, Clarnell was hoping to protect herself and her family from Edmund and his disturbing behaviors. She wanted to prevent a disaster. This decision, however, would result in the exact opposite of what Clarnell claimed she was trying to achieve. In 1963,
At the age of 15, young Ed was sent to live with his paternal grandparents. Maud, aged 66, and Edmund Kemper I, aged 72. At this point in his life, Ed was already dealing with intense feelings of loneliness and isolation from others, feelings that were perpetuated by this rejection.
Ed Kemper's grandparents lived alone on a secluded 17-acre farm in Northern California, neatly tucked away in the mountains of North Fork. They enjoyed a peaceful life away from the cities, dotted across the Golden State. Ed got along well with his grandfather. He was a big man who worked for the highway department. He was kind, and he made an effort to spend time with Ed.
He bought Ed a rifle so the two could go hunting together and so that the passive boy could quote-unquote man up. Now, this part is rather interesting, dear listener. If you, like me, have watched the excellent TV show Dexter or read the books the show is based on, you will know that Dexter's father took him hunting as well.
Dexter's father saw the darkness brewing in Dexter and tried to stem the tide of depravity by letting the boy kill and dismember large animals they hunted.
Of course, this is pure speculation, but by the time young Ed Kemper moved in with his grandparents, they knew very well the various depraved acts he had been up to. It might very well be that Edmund Kemper Sr. was trying to do exactly what the father of Dexter is portrayed as doing, stemming the tide of darkness brewing inside young Ed.
And, if only for a time, it seemed to work. The pair worked well together. Ed finally had the proper father figure, someone he could look up to. However, Edmund Kemper Sr. was getting old, and he was showing more and more signs of debilitating dementia.
While Edmund Kemper Sr. had been the quote-unquote one with the pants on in the household, this power dynamic started to shift along with his developing illness. While Ed and his grandfather had a fairly stable relationship, the same could not be said of the relationship between the teenager and his grandmother. Kemper saw his grandmother as an extension of his own mother,
While she wasn't an alcoholic or physically abusive, Maud was high-tempered and quick to scold. As a freelance writer, Maud was used to spending days at home alone in the quiet. It was hard for her to get her work done with Ed around, especially since Ed required extra supervision. She was often hard on the boy, hoping to shape his behaviors into those of a more positive and productive young man.
As well as being hard on Ed, Maud was also hard on Ed's grandfather. Maud was used to being taken care of by her husband, who for most of their lives had been the main breadwinner in the household. As Edmund Kemper Sr.'s mental health deteriorated, the more care and help he needed from Maud, and Maud berated, humiliated, and scorned him for it.
young ed viewed this behavior of maud's as emasculating to his grandfather and himself it was a repetition of the emasculation he felt and detested from clarnell
By August 1964, Ed had reached a breaking point with his grandmother. He could no longer tolerate Maud's constant criticism, and his curiosity for killing had reached a point that could not be satiated through fantasies or hunting.
And so it was, that on the 27th of August, Ed had been sitting in the kitchen with his grandmother when she began to chastise him, leading to an eruptive argument between the two. Ed went outside to the farm's garage to retrieve his .22 caliber hunting rifle, and when he returned, he shot his grandmother once in the back of the head and twice in the back. She never saw Ed coming.
Simply shooting his grandmother did not satisfy the rage that consumed Ed, though. After Maud lay dead on the kitchen floor, Ed grabbed a large knife from the kitchen drawer and began stabbing his grandmother's corpse. According to himself in later interviews, he could not kill her enough. Several minutes later, Ed dragged his grandmother's body into her bedroom.
He knew his grandfather would be returning home from work soon, and he began to panic. He did not want his grandfather to see that he had killed his wife. When Ed heard his grandfather's truck pull into the farm's driveway, minutes later, he ran outside with his rifle and shot his grandfather once in the head, leaving him to bleed to death.
He justified this murder by saying he wanted to spare his grandfather the sight of his murdered wife's corpse. Through these two brutal acts, Ed Kemper had avenged the rejection he received from his parents, all while living out his greatest fantasy and curiosity. Later, when Ed Kemper was questioned as to why he committed these heinous acts, he gave a chilling answer.
He had always wanted to know what it felt like to take a life. Now he finally knew. What he had not thought through yet was what came next. What was he supposed to do after? So he did what any confused and emotionally turbulent teenager would do. He called his mother. When she answered the phone call from her son, Clarnell went into shock.
Seemingly out of nowhere, her son was calling her and calmly explaining that he had just murdered his two grandparents, and he did not know what he should do next. Clarnell spoke to her son and persuaded him to call local police and tell them what happened, and he complied.
Within an hour, several officers showed up to the ranch to find the shockingly tranquil teenager waiting for them on the front porch in full view of his dead grandfather. Edmund Kemper was immediately brought into custody. The 15-year-old never denied his actions or fought with the authorities. He was always obedient, honest, and cooperative.
But it was clear that the young boy needed help to all those around him. His case was brought before a judge to decide what should be done with him. The judge ordered that Kemper undergo a psychiatric evaluation as a double murder was deemed incomprehensible for a boy as young as Kemper to commit willingly. He must be insane.
The court-ordered psychiatrist diagnosed Kemper with paranoid schizophrenia disorder, and he was placed in California's Atascadero State Hospital for the criminally insane. Edmund Kemper flourished at the psychiatric hospital. It was the first time in his life, truly, that he had structure, which helped him organize his actions and thoughts.
At traditional schools Kemper had struggled, but in the hospital he excelled at learning. Doctors began to realize that Kemper was quite intelligent. Kemper had his IQ tested twice while incarcerated. The first time Kemper scored a 136. Later he scored a 145.
This was astounding to those managing Kemper's case, as both of these scores were considered to designate an individual who is extremely intellectually gifted. Only 1% of the world's population is thought to have an IQ of 136 or above. As Kemper began to excel more and more intellectually, but also personally under the state care,
Doctors began to question his previous diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. The young man was not suffering from hallucinations or delusions, and a true paranoid schizophrenic would have an incredibly difficult time organizing their thoughts well enough to score such a high IQ.
Instead, doctors at Atascadero re-diagnosed Kemper with a passive-aggressive type personality trait disturbance. This new diagnosis meant that doctors at the hospital believed that Kemper could be rehabilitated. Someone with a personality disorder can learn how to work with their difficulties much easier than someone with schizophrenia can.
Kemper's willingness to work with doctors at the hospital also made them believe he was working hard to become a better person, one who could succeed in the world outside of the hospital walls. In reality, doctors at Atascadero had no idea what was going on inside Kemper's brain. Instead, they saw the cooperative young man they perceived Kemper to be,
As Kemper appeared to become more normalized, he was given more and more responsibilities within the hospital. He began assisting doctors in administering psychiatric evaluations to other patients. He took mental notes, learning from sex offenders how to gain a woman's trust, how to choose victims, and other tips like that. It was best to kill a woman after raping her to avoid leaving witnesses.
With his intelligent brain, Kemper was good at reading between the lines of the disturbed individuals. He would listen to their accounts of their crimes and turn the information into a how-to guide of sorts, all while convincing doctors he was overcoming his dark urges and desires.
While in hospital, Kemper actually memorized the responses to 28 different assessment instruments, providing himself with the proper tools to convince those doctors who evaluated him that he would be safe to release upon his 21st birthday. In 1969, after five years of being incarcerated,
Edmund Kemper was deemed ready to be reintroduced into society by the Atascadero State Hospital's team of psychiatrists. They had one strong recommendation upon his release. Kemper should not, under any circumstances, be released back into the custody of his mother. As well as Kemper could conceal the sinister thoughts inside his mind, he could not conceal the hatred he still had for Clarnell.
On the 18th of December 1969, his 21st birthday, Edmund Kemper was officially released from the Atascadero State Hospital. He was required to attend parole meetings and further psychiatric monitoring, but doctors were confident he would be able to lead a fulfilling life.
The California State Authority was in charge of deciding where the troubled young man would go after his release. Although he was 21, he was not ready to live alone. He did not have any money or job prospects, so he was not able to support himself.
Fraught with few options, the state authority decided to place Kemper back into the care of his mother, despite the recommendation made by Kemper's team at Atascadero. And so it is that we come to the end of part one in the saga of Edmund Kemper, the co-ed killer. Next episode will continue his saga, so as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned.
Finally, I wish to thank you, dear listener, for listening. If you like this podcast, you can support it by donating on patreon.com slash theserialkillarpodcast, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, facebook.com slash theskpodcast, or by posting on the subreddit theskpodcast. Thank you. Good night, and good luck.
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