A Study of Criminal Vampires
Brandi Giordani, John White and David Lester*
Professor of Psychology, Stockton University, USA
Submission:November 11, 2020;Published:November 17, 2020
*Corresponding author:David Lester, Professor of Psychology, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ 08205, USA
How to cite this article:Giordano B, White JW, Lester D. A Study of Criminal Vampires. J Forensic Sci & Criminal Inves. 2020; 14(5): 555898.0096. DOI:10.19080/JFSCI.2020.14.555898.
Abstract
In a sample of criminal cannibals, those who consumed only the blood of their victims were all men, killing non-family members, not abusing alcohol or drugs, and killing alone (rather than with others). They were lust and delusional types and not revenge types.
Keywords: Criminal cannibals; Vampires; Brandi
Introduction
The general public has long been fascinated by cannibalism and one of the most common depictions involving cannibalism is the the vampire. Henry [1] noted. noted that popularity of vampires is shown by their frequent presence in movies and television shows, such as the movie Buffy the These typically portray the vampire as both seductive and sadistic. The question arises, however, as to what characterizes vampires in the non-fictional realm. Many years ago, Karpman [2] saw behaviors such as cannibalism, vampirism and necrophilia (having sex with dead bodies) as essentially sadistic acts committed by individuals who were psychotic. In a classification of criminal cannibalism. Giordano, White and Lester [3] proposed that vampirism was found only in the delusional type of cannibal (committing acts of cannibalism because of auditory hallucinations or delusions such as the belief that one is a vampire), rather than the lust or revenge types.
Vanden Bergh and Kelly [4] presented several cases of vampirism. The first was a 28-year-old who had several nose bleeds when he was eight (produced when he picked his nose), and he felt excited seeing the blood drip onto the floor. At age twelve, he would cut veins in his arms and watch the blood flow while masturbating. Later he learned how to cut his arteries and have the blood spurt directly into his mouth. As a result of this he developed iron-deficient anemia. He had episodes of this behavior through to his early 20s at which time, under the additional stress of examinations, he had a psychotic breakdown and was hospitalized diagnosed with schizophrenia. A second case was of a 20-year-old prisoner who let the other prisoners have sex with him in exchange for drinking their blood. His parents had been physically abusive toward him, often beating him until he bled. He remembered feeling excitement when seeing dogs that had been run over by cars in the street, and on one occasion he touched the blood and tasted it. Soon these fantasies accompanied his masturbation. At age 15, in his first homosexual encounter, which took place in a movie theater, he persuaded the older man to let him cut his neck and drink the blood at which point he had an orgasm. Trading homosexual acts for blood then became frequent. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic, but he was not overtly psychotic at the time of evaluation. Vanden Bergh and Kelly felt that the sadistic element in these acts was minor because, in the cases they reported, there was little pain involved. They saw it as an oral behavior in which blood had symbolic meaning, symbolizing unobtainable objects or forbidden fruit. They saw the blood, therefore, as symbolizing the unobtainable mother and involving, therefore, fixation at the Oedipal level of development (3-6 years of age), but it seems more like fixation at the oral stage (0-1 years of age). Also, it appears that their cases studies illustrate simple classical conditioning.
The present study uses a sample of 55 criminal cannibals, 7 of whom consumed the blood and other parts of their victims while 5 consumed only the blood of the victims. The aim of the study was to identify ways in the which the vampires differed from the other cannibals.
Method
Cases for the study were collected by searching through resource databases, Internet sources, journal articles, newspaper articles, and books that contained case studies of cannibals and murderers. Cases were excluded if they contained survival cannibalism, occurred before the 20th Century, or occurred in indigenous cultures. After all the material was examined, a list of 58 criminal cannibals was compiled. Three cases were removed because of incomplete data regarding offense characteristics, leaving a sample of 55 criminal cannibals (Table 1).
Results
Those who consumed blood
First, those who consumed blood only and those who consumed blood plus other parts of the body (n=12) were compared with those who did not consume blood at all (n=43). The results are presented in Table 2. The significant differences were that none of those who consumed blood were revenge type (0% v. 30%), and there were trends that those who consumed blood were often killing alone rather than with others (92% v. 70%), less often killed family members (0% v. 16%), less often had sex with the victims (17% v. 30%), and less often were alcohol abusers (0% v. 30%). The two groups did not differ in sex, the sex of their victims, previous military service, and drug abuse.
Those who consumed only blood
The results for those who consumed only blood were similar to those reported above but more extreme. All 5 were men, killed alone, killed non-family members, and had no alcohol or drug abuse. Three were classified as the lust type and two as the delusional type. Only one of the five had sex with the dead body. Only one had served in the military, and he had received a dishonorable discharge.
Discussion
The present study found that those criminal cannibals seeking blood were not revenge cannibals, but rather lust and delusional cannibals. Giordano, et al. [3] defined these three types as follow. Lust criminal cannibalism was defined as committing cannibalistic acts due to an intense desire or need, including, but not limited to, sexual desires, monetary desires, desire for power or a desire for acceptance. Revenge criminal cannibalism was defined as committing cannibalistic acts as a way to seek revenge, as displaced aggression onto victims due to someone else’s previous wrongdoings, or to rid the world of a particular type of person that the subject feels has wronged or disgraced the world. Delusional criminal cannibalism was defined as committing acts of cannibalism because of auditory hallucinations, delusions that one’s body is sick and that cannibalism will heal the sickness, delusions that one can gain the victim’s qualities to become stronger, more beautiful, etc., or the belief that one is a vampire needing to feed. The five vampire cannibals in the present study were delusional or revenge types. All were men, killing non-family members, and were not alcohol or drug abusers. This study has some limitations, including the small sample size and the fact that all of the subjects had committed murder. Obviously, as shown by the cases reported Vanden Bergh and Kelly [4], there are individuals who consume blood, but who do not kill their victims and are often content with volunteer victims. However, it may not be easy for researchers to obtain a sample of non-murderous individuals who desire to consume blood and succeed in doing so.
References
- Henry C (2014) Pop vampires, Freud, and primary masochism. Psychoanalytic Review 101: 25-38.
- Karpman B (1934) The obsessive paraphilias (perversions). Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry 3: 577-626.
- Giordano B, White J, Lester D (2012) A typology of criminal cannibalism. American Journal of Forensic Psychology 30(3): 35-44.
- Vanden Bergh R, Kelly JF (1964) Vampirism. Archives of General Psychiatry 11: 543-547.