Edmund Kemper

Edmund Kemper
Mug shot of Edmund Kemper
Born	Edmund Emil Kemper III (1948-12-18) December 18, 1948 (age 68) Burbank, California, U.S.
Other names	The Co-ed Butcher The Co-ed Killer
Height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Conviction(s)	Murder
Killings
Victims	10
Span of killings	August 27, 1964– April 20, 1973
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	April 24, 1973
Imprisoned at	California Medical Facility

Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948), also known as the Co-ed Butcher or the Co-ed Killer, is an American serial killer, necrophile and suspected cannibal who committed the abduction and murder of several women in the early 1970s, as well as the murders of both of his paternal grandparents and his mother.

Born in California, Kemper had a turbulent childhood. He moved to Montana with his abusive mother at a young age before returning to California where he murdered his paternal grandparents when he was 15. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic prior to his conviction of murder and sentencing to the Atascadero State Hospital as a criminally insane juvenile.

Released at the age of 21 after convincing Atascadero psychiatrists he was rehabilitated, Kemper was regarded as innocent and non-threatening by his victims. He solely targeted young female hitchhikers during his killing spree, luring them into his vehicle and driving them to quiet areas where he would murder them before taking their corpses back to his home to be violated and desecrated, with Kemper often keeping the severed heads of his victims for several days before disposal. He then murdered his mother and one of her friends before turning himself in to the authorities. He was found sane and guilty at his trial in 1973, and requested the death penalty for his crimes, however, capital punishment was temporarily suspended in California and he instead received eight life sentences. Since then, Kemper has been incarcerated in the California Medical Facility.

Kemper is known for his large stature and high intelligence, standing 6-foot-9-inches (2.06 m) tall, weighing over 250 lbs (114 kg) and having a reported IQ of 145, features that left his victims with little chance to overcome him.

Edmund Emil Kemper III was born in Burbank, California on December 18, 1948 to a family of German ancestry. He was the middle child and only son born to Clarnell Elizabeth Kemper (née Stage, 1921–1973) and Edmund Emil Kemper II (1919–1985). Edmund Emil Kemper II was a World War II veteran who, after the war, tested nuclear weapons in the Pacific Proving Grounds before returning to California where he then worked as an electrician. Clarnell Kemper complained about Edmund's "menial" electrician job regularly, and Edmund later stated that "suicide missions in wartime and the later atomic bomb testings were nothing compared to living with [Clarnell]" and that she affected him "as a grown man more than three hundred and ninety-six days and nights of fighting on the front did."