Edmund Emil Kemper III born December 18, is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered ten people, including his paternal grandparents and mother. Kemper was nicknamed the "Co-ed Killer" as most of his victims were students at co-educational institutions.
Born in California, Kemper had a disturbed upbringing. His parents divorced and he moved to Montana with his abusive mother as a child before returning to California, where he murdered his paternal grandparents when he was He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic by court psychiatrists and sentenced to the Atascadero State Hospital as a criminally insane juvenile.
Released at the age of 21 after convincing psychiatrists he was rehabilitated, Kemper was regarded as non-threatening by his future victims. He targeted young female hitchhikers during his killing spree, luring them into his vehicle and driving them to secluded areas where he would murder them before taking their corpses back to his home to be decapitated, dismembered, and violated.
Kemper then murdered his mother and one of her friends before turning himself in to the authorities. Found sane and guilty at his trial in , Kemper requested the death penalty for his crimes. Capital punishment was suspended in California at the time, and he instead received eight concurrent life sentences. Since then, he has been incarcerated in the California Medical Facility. Kemper has waived his right to a parole hearing several times and has said he is happy in prison.
Weighing 13 pounds 5. Kemper had a dark fantasy life: he performed rituals with his younger sister's dolls that culminated in him removing their heads and hands, [13] and, on one occasion, when his elder sister, Susan Hughey Kemper β , teased him and asked why he did not try to kiss his teacher, he replied: "If I kiss her, I'd have to kill her first. Kemper had a close relationship with his father and was devastated when his parents separated in , causing him to be raised by Clarnell in Helena, Montana.
