A notorious serial killer and necrophile honed his craft by killing his own grandparents years before a bloody crusade that ended with him having sex with his own mother’s decapitated head.
Of all the wrong un’s currently rotting in high-security US jails, it could be strongly argued that Edmund Kemper is the worst – such is his prodigious hate and disregard for human life.
Standing at an imposing 6ft 9ins tall, Kemper endured a troubled childhood which played a part in transforming the 73-year-old into the monster who would butcher ten people.
READ MORE: Serial killer had sex with mother’s decapitated head before ripping out her larynx
Kemper’s mum Clarnell Stage was an alcoholic who often mocked and belittled her son and turned a blind eye to his macabre tendencies, such as murdering cats.
When he was just 15, a juvenile Kemper got into an argument with his grandmother while staying at their home in California.
Rather than stew on this like any normal teenager would, Kemper returned to the house with a shot gun and killed both grandparents.
Authorities were stunned a child could commit such an act, so he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and swiftly moved to a psychiatric hospital.
Ever the wily psychopath, Kemper made a huge effort to impress doctors at the facility, even teaching fellow inmates how to complete the hospital’s tests.
That surprised medical professionals, who hadn’t ever seen a diagnosed sociopath be such a “good worker”, one said.
His IQ of 136 also helped him appeal to the intelligence of doctors.
At 21 Kemper was released and moved back in with his abusive mum, even attending community college.
He wanted to become a cop, but was rejected from the academy for being too tall.
Yet Kemper’s reform act was just that, and he soon started picking up young women hitchhikers with plastic knives in handcuffs in the glove box.
(Image: Bettmann Archive)
It wasn’t till his mid-20s that Kemper acted on these impulses.
Previously he had let women go, driving some 150 around harmlessly.
But those who get in Ed Kemper’s car between May 1972 and April 1973 weren’t so lucky.
Over this 11-month period, he killed 6 female student passengers before chopping off their heads, raping them and then dismembering the bodies entirely.
Five of his innocent young victims were college students and another was a high schooler, earning him the nickname of the “Co-Ed Killer”.
(Image: Handout)
And chillingly, psychiatrists said these twisted killings were just a surrogate for his “ultimate victim” – his mum.
One night after she came back late from a party, Ed finally took out his buried revenge on her.
He slit his 52-year-old mum’s throat before bludgeoning her face in.
Ed even threw darts at her beheaded corpse and yelled at it for hours.
In the ultimate conclusion of his terrifying rage, he pulled out her larynx and tongue and threw them down the garbage disposal chute before having sex with her head.
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Ed’s mum’s throat was too strong for the system to break down.
After strangling her best friend, Kemper handed himself into the police who initially didn’t believe him.
He pleaded guilty to all of his crimes and begged authorities for ‘death by torture’ – a demented request that was rightfully refused.
He avoided the death penalty on a legal technicality and has been incarcerated for almost 50 years.
He is next up for parole in 2024, when he will be 74.
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