that most of us don’t remember that this appellation is relatively new to the jargon of forensic psychologists and detectives. Before 1982, all multiple killers were called “mass murderers.” Indeed, when I published my book about Ted Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me, in 1980, even he was called a mass murderer on the cover copy—and no one questioned that. It wasn’t until my dear friend, Pierce Brooks, retired Captain of the Los Angeles Police Homicide Unit, invited me to present the Bundy case to the VI-CAP (Violent Criminals Apprehension Program) Task Force in Huntsville, Texas, that I first heard the term “serial killer.”Serial killers kill one or two victims at a time over a long period of time. They are addicted to murder—just as some people are addicted to drugs, alcohol, or gambling—and they do not stop until they are dead or arrested. At first they kill out of curiosity and a deeply imbedded rage, and it gives them a chilling kind of “high.” They may not try it again for a few years.
