81 Facts About Edmund Kemper

Edmund Emil Kemper III was born on December 18,1948 and is an American serial killer convicted of murdering seven women and one girl between May 1972 and April 1973.

Years earlier, at the age of 15, Kemper had murdered his paternal grandparents.

Edmund Kemper was nicknamed the "Co-ed Killer", as most of his non-familial victims were female college students hitchhiking in the vicinity of Santa Cruz County, California.

Edmund Emil Kemper III was born in Burbank, California, on December 18,1948.

Edmund Kemper was the middle child of three children and the only son born to Clarnell Elizabeth Kemper, a native of Montana, and Edmund Emil Kemper Jr.

Edmund Kemper later stated that he derived pleasure from successfully lying to his family about killing the cat.

Edmund Kemper was known to harbor dark fantasies and have a morbid imagination.

Edmund Kemper stated in interviews in his later life that some of his favorite games to play as a child were "Gas Chamber" and "Electric Chair", in which he asked his younger sister to tie him up and flip an imaginary switch; he would then tumble over and writhe on the floor, pretending that he was being executed by gas inhalation or electric shock.

Edmund Kemper came close to death several times as a child.

Edmund Kemper had a close relationship with his father, and was notably devastated when his parents separated in 1957 and divorced in 1961.

Edmund Kemper was sent to live with his mother Clarnell in Helena, Montana.

Edmund Kemper had a severely dysfunctional relationship with his mother, a neurotic, domineering alcoholic who frequently belittled, humiliated, and beat him with a belt.

Edmund Kemper refused to show Kemper affection out of fear that she would "turn him gay" and told the young Kemper that he reminded her of his father and that no woman would ever love him.

Edmund Kemper later described her as a "sick, angry woman," and it has been postulated that she had borderline personality disorder.

At the age of 14, Edmund Kemper ran away from home in an attempt to reconcile with his father in Van Nuys, California.

Once there, Edmund Kemper learned that his father had remarried and now had a stepson.

Edmund Kemper stayed with his father for a short while until the elder Edmund Kemper sent him to live with his paternal grandparents, who lived on a ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada on Road 224, about two miles west of the town of North Fork.

Edmund Kemper phoned his mother, who told him to call police.

Edmund Kemper told police that he "just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma", and later said he killed his grandfather because he would be angry with Edmund Kemper.

Edmund Kemper was sent to Atascadero State Hospital, a maximum-security facility in San Luis Obispo County that houses mentally ill convicts.

Edmund Kemper endeared himself to his psychiatrists by being a model prisoner, and he was trained to administer psychiatric tests to other inmates.

On December 18,1969, his 21st birthday, Edmund Kemper was released on parole from Atascadero.

Edmund Kemper later demonstrated further to his psychiatrists that he was rehabilitated, and on November 29,1972, his juvenile records were permanently expunged.

Edmund Kemper worked a series of menial jobs before gaining employment with the State of California Division of Highways in 1971.

Edmund Kemper later described the arguments he had with his mother around this time, stating the following:.

Edmund Kemper insisted on it and just over stupid things.

When he had saved enough money, Edmund Kemper moved out to live with a friend in Alameda.

Edmund Kemper often had financial difficulties, which resulted in his frequently returning to his mother's apartment in Aptos.

Edmund Kemper, who was then in his early twenties, met a female student from Turlock High School at a Santa Cruz beach, and the two became engaged in March 1973.

Edmund Kemper's parents requested her name not be revealed to the public; she was reportedly 17 and still attending high school at the time.

Edmund Kemper's arm was badly injured in the crash, and he received a $15,000 settlement in the civil suit he filed against the car's driver.

Edmund Kemper first picked up young women hitchhiking, then peacefully let them go; according to Kemper, he picked up around 150 hitchhikers who were in line with this pattern.

Between May 1972 and April 1973, Edmund Kemper killed eight people.

Edmund Kemper would pick up female students who were hitchhiking and take them to isolated areas where he would shoot, stab, smother, or strangle them.

Edmund Kemper has stated in interviews that he often searched for victims after having arguments with his mother and that she refused to introduce him to women attending the university where she worked.

On May 7,1972, Edmund Kemper was driving in Berkeley when he picked up two 18-year-old hitchhiking students from Fresno State University, Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Mary Luchessa, with the pretense of taking them to Stanford University.

Edmund Kemper later confessed that while handcuffing Pesce, he "brushed the back of [his] hand against one of her breasts and it embarrassed [him]", adding that he said, "'Whoops, I'm sorry' or something like that" after grazing her breast, despite murdering her minutes later.

Edmund Kemper put both of the women's bodies in the trunk of his Ford Galaxie and returned to his apartment.

Edmund Kemper was stopped on the way by a police officer for having a broken taillight, but the officer did not detect the corpses in the car.

Edmund Kemper then put the body parts into plastic bags, which he later abandoned near Loma Prieta Mountain.

Edmund Kemper again drove to a remote area, where he pulled a gun on Koo before accidentally locking himself out of his car.

Edmund Kemper subsequently packed Koo's body into the trunk of his car and went to a nearby bar to have a few drinks, then returned to his apartment.

On January 7,1973, Edmund Kemper, who had moved back in with his mother, was driving around the Cabrillo College campus when he picked up 18-year-old student Cynthia Anne "Cindy" Schall.

Edmund Kemper then placed her body in the trunk of his car and drove to his mother's house, where he kept her body hidden in a closet in his room overnight.

Edmund Kemper kept Schall's severed head for several days, regularly engaging in irrumatio with it, then buried it in his mother's garden facing upward toward her bedroom.

On February 5,1973, after a heated argument with his mother, Edmund Kemper left his house in search of possible victims.

Edmund Kemper was able to obtain a sticker, as his mother worked at UC Santa Cruz.

Edmund Kemper separately encountered 23-year-old Rosalind Heather Thorpe and 20-year-old Alice Helen "Allison" Liu on the UCSC campus.

Thorpe entered the front passenger seat and, believing Edmund Kemper to be a fellow student, began chatting amiably as he drove.

Edmund Kemper stopped his vehicle, and Liu entered the back seat of his car.

Edmund Kemper then dismembered the bodies, removed the bullets to prevent identification, and discarded their remains the next morning.

Edmund Kemper then beheaded her and "humiliated her corpse," as stated in a 1984 interview.

Edmund Kemper hid his mother's corpse in a closet and went to drink at a nearby bar.

Edmund Kemper subsequently put Hallett's corpse in a closet, obscured any outward signs of a disturbance, and left a note to the police.

Edmund Kemper drove non-stop to Pueblo, Colorado, taking caffeine pills to stay awake for the over 1,000-mile journey.

Edmund Kemper had three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his car, and he believed he was the target of an active manhunt.

Edmund Kemper confessed to the murders of his mother and Hallett, but the police did not take his call seriously and told him to call back at a later time.

Several hours later, Edmund Kemper called again, asking to speak to an officer he personally knew.

Edmund Kemper confessed to that officer of killing his mother and Hallett, then waited for the police to arrive and take him into custody.

Edmund Kemper was indicted on eight counts of first-degree murder on May 7,1973.

Edmund Kemper was assigned the Chief Public Defender of Santa Cruz County, attorney Jim Jackson.

Fort interviewed Edmund Kemper, including under truth serum, and relayed to the court that Edmund Kemper had engaged in cannibalism, alleging that he sliced flesh from the legs of his victims, then cooked and consumed these strips of flesh in a casserole.

Nevertheless, Fort determined that Edmund Kemper was fully cognizant in each case and stated that Edmund Kemper enjoyed the prospect of the infamy associated with being labeled a murderer.

Edmund Kemper testified that he killed the victims because he wanted them "for myself, like possessions", and attempted to convince the jury that he was insane based on the reasoning that his actions could have been committed only by someone with an aberrant mind.

Edmund Kemper asked for the death penalty, requesting "death by torture".

Shortly after arriving at California Medical Facility in 1973, Edmund Kemper was admitted to psychiatrists for re-evaluation.

Edmund Kemper was re-diagnosed with antisocial, narcissistic, and schizotypal personality disorders.

Edmund Kemper is a Christian and stated in an interview that he had "learned to live with myself and God".

Edmund Kemper showed particular disdain for Mullin, who committed his murders at the same time and in the same area as Edmund Kemper.

Edmund Kemper remains among the general population in prison and is considered a model prisoner.

Edmund Kemper was in charge of scheduling other inmates' appointments with psychiatrists and was an accomplished craftsman of ceramic cups.

Edmund Kemper was a prolific narrator of audiobooks for a charity program that prepared material for the visually impaired; a 1987 Los Angeles Times article stated that he was the coordinator of the prison's program and had personally spent over 5,000 hours narrating books with several hundred completed recordings to his name.

Edmund Kemper was retired from these positions in 2015 after he experienced a stroke and was declared medically disabled.

Edmund Kemper received his first rules violation report in 2016 for failing to provide a urine sample.

Edmund Kemper's interviews have contributed to the understanding of the mind of serial killers.

Edmund Kemper is forthcoming about the nature of his crimes and has stated that he participated in the interviews to save others like himself from killing.

Edmund Kemper was denied parole that year, as well as at parole hearings in 1980,1981, and 1982.

Edmund Kemper subsequently waived his right to a hearing in 1985.

Edmund Kemper then waived his right to a hearing in 1997 and in 2002.

Edmund Kemper attended the next hearing in 2007, where he was again denied parole.

Edmund Kemper was denied parole in 2017, and after declining to attend a parole hearing in 2024, Kemper was denied parole again.