• This type of crime appears to be on the increase: It has been 110 years since Jack the Ripper became the first official "serial killer." Since that time the number has grown dramatically. By the 1950s there were only about 10 known serial killers in the U.S. prison system. Currently there are about 114. (These numbers change because of executions and believe it or not releases! Many of these men have been arrested multiple times, convicted, serve time where they are typically model prisoners, and then are sent back out into the community to kill again.

• No place is safe; According to one FBI agent, at the present time each major city is thought to have an average of two serial killers at work. In the Dallas area there are thought to be two that are targeting adult women and at least one that is targeting children. Women and girls have been taken from their own homes, cars and in one case the missing girl was last seen leaving a small town police station! These men very often have a fascination with law enforcement and or military related jobs. They frequently have been dishonorably discharged from the military or fired from jobs a policemen and many have worked as security guards. Although not everyone who crosses paths with a serial killer becomes a victim, (Ted Bundy dated numerous women whom he never harmed.) some have been known to establish a casual or dating relationship in order to lull the victim into a false sense of safety before killing them.

• Serial killers have a lot in common with ordinary people (ordinary white males, that is); With exceedingly rare exceptions, serial killers are white males between the ages of 18 and 55. They are often bright, charming and can blend in, sometimes to the point of becoming community and business leaders. On the darker side they often hide violent tempers and strong a need to dominate their environment. Their personal relationships are typically only superficially good. Privately they are shallow and lacking in the ability to experience empathy and intimacy.

• Psychotic versus Psychopathic? Psychotic serial killers are mentally ill, often suffering from untreated paranoid schizophrenia or paranoid delusional disorder. Most people agree that these individuals should be housed in psychiatric facilities for life. Because they are often harmless on medication, they do, however, get released and then stop taking their medication and deteriorate again, often killing again. These people may understand that it is wrong to kill, but their distorted thinking and paranoid internal state lead them to believe that they have no choice. It is important to remember that the vast majority of people who suffer from mental illness, including paranoid schizophrenia, are not serial killers and are not usually dangerous in any way. With or without mental illness, no one knows what makes one person kill and another not.

• Psychopathic serial killers, on the other hand, have no treatable mental illness. They are typically diagnosed with an anti-social personality disorder. The words psychopath, sociopath, and anti-social personality disorder all refer to similar traits. These individuals simply do not have the ability to empathize with or connect with other individuals and therefore have absolutely no conscience. They cannot even comprehend that anyone would care that they have killed another human being. They often are very bright and have the ability to be a chameleon. They mimic appropriate behavior and say the correct words, but they have no ability to feel any of the human caring associated with those words. Interestingly, many psychopathic serial killers have tried to feign mental illness in order to avoid imprisonment. Kenneth Bianchi and John Wayne Gacy both claimed at times to have multiple personality disorder and there are many who believe that David Berkowitz, or the Son of Sam, faked his mental illness. As with psychotic individuals, not everyone with anti-social tendencies becomes a killer. In fact it is widely believed that the most successful college and graduate school students and businessmen are those with a tendency toward anti-social thinking. They are the risk takers, the innovators, the trail blazers, if you will. Remember our country was founded by men who refused to conform to the social rules and laws of England at the time.

• The smart ones are very difficult to catch and some never get caught; Some experts say that it takes at least four murders for a useful profile to be developed to help identify the suspect. Many are meticulous planners and have elaborate systems for selecting and securing their victims. They often have a wide territory that keeps police from detecting that a single killer is at work. As John Douglas pointed out in his book Mind Hunter:

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