MEANINGLESS CRIMES: Edmund Kemper "The Co-ed Killer"

Edmund Kemper "The Co-ed Killer"

Quick Facts

NAME: Edmund Kemper
OCCUPATION: Serial Killer
BIRTH DATE: December 18, 1948 (Age: 63)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Burbank, California
ZODIAC SIGN: Sagittarius

Best Known For

A serial killer, Edmund Kemper killed six young, college-age women in the Santa Cruz, California, area and several members of his family.

In 1964, when Edmund Kemper was 15, he shot his grandparents, killing them both. He'd been imagining this act for some time and had no regrets. The California Youth Authority detained him in Juvenile Hall so that they could put him through a battery of tests administered by a psychiatrist. Since the results indicated that he was paranoid and psychotic, he was sent to Atascadero State Hospital for treatment. There he learned what people thought about his crime and worked hard to convince his doctors that he had recovered. Although he was labeled a sociopath, he actually worked in the psychology lab to help administer the tests to others. In the process, he learned a lot about other deviant offenders.
Kemper was released five years later, although he remained under the supervision of the Youth Authority. His doctors recommended that he not be returned to his mother's care, but the Youth Authority ignored this. After Kemper murdered and dismembered eight women over the next five years, these same doctors affirmed his insanity defense. In fact, even as he was carrying parts of his victims around, a panel of psychiatrists judged him to be no threat to society.

Grandparents' Murder

Kemper hated living on his grandparents’ farm. Before going to North Fork, Kemper had already begun learning about firearms. His grandparents took away his rifle after he killed several birds and other small animals. On August 27th, 1964, Kemper turned on his grandparents. The 15-year-old shot his grandmother in the kitchen after an argument. (Some reports also indicate that he stabbed her as well.) When his grandfather returned home, Kemper went outside and shot him by his car and then hid the body. He called his mother who told him to call the police and tell them what happened.
Later, Kemper said that he shot his grandmother to see what it felt like. He added that he killed his grandfather so that the man wouldn't have to find out that his wife had been murdered. For his crimes, Kemper was handed over to the California Youth Authority. He underwent a variety of tests, which determined that he had a very high IQ and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Kemper was eventually sent to Atascadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

First Murders

In 1969, Kemper was released. He was 21 years old. He was advised not to live with his mother because of her past abuse and his psychological issues involving her. Ignoring this recommendation, Kemper eventually joined his mother in California. Clarnell Kemper had moved there after ending her third marriage and took a job with the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Kemper attended community college for a time and worked a variety of jobs. He eventually went to work for the California Highway Department in 1971. Kemper applied to become a state trooper, but he was rejected because of his size—he weighed around 300 pounds and was 6 feet 9 inches tall, which led to his nickname “Big Ed.” He did, however, hang around some of the Santa Cruz police officers. One gave him a training-school badge and handcuffs, while another let him borrow a gun, according to Whoever Fights Monsters by Robert K. Ressler and Tom Shachtman. Kemper even had a car that resembled a police cruiser.
The same year he began working for the highway department, Kemper was hit by a car while out on his motorcycle. His arm was badly injured, and he received a $15,000 settlement in the civil suit he filed against the car’s driver. Unable to work, Kemper turned his mind toward other pursuits. He noticed a large number of young women hitchhiking in the area. In the new car he bought with some of his settlement money, Kemper began storing the tools he thought he might need to fulfill his murderous desires, including a gun, a knife, and handcuffs.
At first, Kemper picked up female hitchhikers and let them go. He offered two Fresno State College students—Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa—a ride on May 7th, 1972, but they never made it to their destination. Their families reported them missing, but nothing was known of their fates until August 15th, when a female head was discovered in the woods that was later identified as Pesce’s. Luchessa’s remains, however, were never found. Kemper later explained that he stabbed and strangled one of the women and stabbed the other. After the murders, he brought the bodies back to his apartment and removed their heads and hands. Kemper also reportedly engaged in sexual activity with their corpses.

Murderous Spree

In January of 1973, Kemper continued to act on his murderous impulses. He picked up hitchhiker Cindy Schall and shot her. While his mother was out, Kemper went to her home and hid Schall’s body in his room there. He dismembered her corpse the following day, and threw the parts into the ocean. Several parts were later discovered when they washed up on shore.
Kemper’s mother got him a campus parking sticker so that he could pick her up at the university. On February 5th, 1973, he used that sticker to facilitate a double-murder. Kemper drove to the campus after a fight with his mother and gave a ride to two students, Rosalind Thorpe and Alice Liu. Shortly after picking them up, he shot the two young women. Kemper drove past campus security at the gates with two mortally wounded women in his car.

After the murders, Kemper decapitated his two victims and further dismembered the bodies, removed the bullets from their heads, and disposed of their parts in different locations. In March, some of Thorpe’s and Liu’s remains were discovered by hikers near Highway 1 in San Mateo County.

Mother's Murder

Kemper’s last two killings took place in April of 1973. On Good Friday, he went to his mother’s home, where the two had an unpleasant exchange. Kemper attacked his mother after she went to sleep, first striking her in the head with a hammer and then cutting her throat with a knife. After removing her larynx, he put it into the garbage disposal in the kitchen. Kemper then hid her body and went out to a bar frequented by his police officer friends.
In another odd twist, he invited over a friend of his mother’s, Sara “Sally” Hallett. (One source says he invited her to dinner and a movie while another says that he wanted her help with a surprise party for his mother.) Kemper killed Hallett shortly after she arrived at the house, and hid her body in a closet. He fled the area the next day.
After driving for several days, Kemper reached Pueblo, Colorado, where he made a call to the Santa Cruz police to confess his crimes. At first, the police could not believe that the guy they knew as “Big Ed” was a killer. But he soon led them to all the evidence they would need to prove that he was the infamous "Coed Killer."

Trial and Imprisonment

Charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, Kemper went on trial for his crimes in October of 1973. He was found guilty of all of the charges in early November. When asked by the judge what he thought his punishment should be, Kemper said that he should be tortured to death. He instead received eight concurrent life sentences.
At present, Kemper is serving his time at California Medical Facility in Vacaville. He was up for parole in 2007, but the state parole board denied his request. The next time that Kemper will be eligible for parole is in 2012.
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