List of serial killers who have abused animals. Often when people try to discover what makes an unrepentant serial killer tick, they look at their childhoods. Were there any indications that they could turn into murderers? One of the biggest indications that a person is destined to be a disturbed individual is seeing whether or not they torture of animals. Psychologists point to animal abuse as proof of a lack of empathy and propensity towards violence. While there isn’t any hard data claiming the percentage of serial killers who began their career of pain by hurting animals, many believe that this is a serious warning sign.
Many serial killers have admitted that torturing animals was their first time they realized that they liked to hurt people. Often neighborhood cats and dogs were the earliest victims of these menacing childhood “games,” which often led to painful deaths. Some serial killers began by hurting other types of animals, from goats to crabs. One even began torturing animals after seeing his father do the same.
What serial killers began their path by abusing animals?This list features the serial killers that have openly admitted to hurting and killing animals.
10 Serial Killers Who Abused Animals First,
Albert DeSalvo
Best known as the Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo killed multiple women. As a child, he would trap dogs and cats in a box and would shoot arrows at them.
Andrew Cunanan
Andrew Cunanan murdered five people, including the famous designer Gianni Versace. As a kid, he used to take delight in torturing crabs by gauging their eyes with a match.
Carroll Cole
After being arrested for murdering 35 people, Carroll Cole told officials that the first time he was ever violent was when he strangled a puppy as a child.
David Berkowitz
David Berkowitz is best known as the Son of Sam. He believed God was telling him to kill. At one point during his crimes, he shot his neighbor's dog.
Dennis Rader
Dennis Rader first discovered he enjoyed binding, torturing, and killing when he experimented his method on animals when he was growing up. He later became the infamous BTK Killer.
Edmund Kemper
During his childhood, Edmund Emil Kemper killed cats he found around the neighborhood and displayed their heads on poles. He even killed his own cat and cut it into pieces. Killing animals proved to be a sign of things to come: he killed eight women, including his mother.
Jeffrey Dahmer
When Jeffrey Dahmer was a kid, his hobby was to kill his neighbor's pets. He even impaled a dog's head on a stick and displayed it.
Lee Boyd Malvo
Before becoming one-half of the D.C. Sniper team that killed 10 people in the greater Washington D.C.-area, Lee Boyd Malvo used to torture small animals.
Ted Bundy
When he was a child, Bundy watched as his father tortured small animals. Bundy learned from his example and did the same. Eventually, Bundy went on to kill 40 people.
Brenda Ann Spencer
Brenda Spencer is notorious for shooting a gun into a crowd of children. Eleven children were hit by her bullets with two dying. When she was a child, Spencer lit the tails of cats and dogs, which she found in the neighborhood, on fire.