"I know I made a hole in a lot of people's hearts
and souls, but probably I had the biggest."
- Keith Chul Weaver, Korean adoptee who murdered his American adopters.
ADOPTED KILLERS ** See Copyright Warning at Bottom of Page **
A Casey Family Programs/Harvard Medical School study finds
On 9-17-07, after years of political waffling on his own theory of Adopted Child Syndrome, New York Psychotherapist David Kirschner, MD, finally acknowledged "The Connection Between Adoption and Murder," and targets sealed adoptions, at http://www.crimemagazine.com/07/adoptionforensics,0919-7.htm. This was five years after Lori Carangelo's revealing book CHOSEN CHILDREN, originally published in 2002 by scholarly book publisher, Schenkman Books Inc. Carangelo found that competing interests of parents, adopters and adoptee, and how the adoption itself is perceived and handled in the adoptive family, even in so-called "open" and stepparent adoptions, is crucial to the child's outcome.
"CHOSEN CHILDREN 2012" contains not only updated statistical and other research but also in-depth issues and case histories and articles about the ADOPTED KILLERS below to explain WHY they killed.
Click on a category to skip to that section of photos.
- Adopted Child Syndrome (ACS)
- Adoptees Who Are Serial Killers
- Adoptees Who Killed Their Adopters/Adoptive Relatives
- Adoptees Who Killed Their Biological Parents
- Adoptees Who Mass Murdered
- Adoptees Who Killed Strangers
- Adoptees Who Attempted Murder
- Orphaned/Abandoned Killers
- Adopted Prisoners
David Burkowitz
Son of Sam
Bianchi-Bono
Hillside Stranglers
Ted Bundy
Co-Ed Murderer
Joel Rifkin
Dark Son
The Facts & Stats
While many factors come into play with regard to criminal behaviors, the fact of the adoption, and Adopted Child Syndrome is purposely overlooked at trial because it is "politically incorrect" to explore adoption's negative effects on the adoptee. In FBI statistics, 76% of the world's serial killers are in the United States; 90% are male.
- In a study of "Serial Killers" on Internet by Dr. Mike Aamodt, Radford University, 14% of (225) serial killers are adopted.
- The FBI estimates 500 serial killers currently in the U.S; about 80 or 16% have been identified as adoptees. Since government stats indicate adoptees represent "only 2-3% (5-10-million) of the general population," 16% that are serial killers is an "over-representation" compared to the general population. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/serialkiller.htm
- Most adoptees who kill were adopted at birth.
Serial killers have been a fascination for forensic psychologists who profile killers by their crime scenes. Separating this group from other adoptees who kill is the fact that they kill strangers. Researchers have noted that, "to an adoptee, everyone is a stranger." Dr. David Kirschner told a New York Times reporter, "I've personally been involved in 12 cases of adoptees who have killed... including a tiny but significant group who become serial killers. And while many undergo therapy, unfortunately, there is barely ever a mention of the impact adoption has on their lives. It's a subject no one ever wants to talk about, particularly adoptive families."
For further information, see article, "Killer Adoptees: Don't Shoot the Messenger" at: http://www.amfor.net/messenger.html AmFOR's comments about actual outcomes of "Famous Adoptees" listed at the pro-Open Adoption site at http://www.adoptionopen.com/famousadoptions.html can be found at http://AmFOR.net/FamousAdoptees.
Adopted Serial Killers
(Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)
Charles Albright
Cesar Francesco Barone
Guergen Bartsch
Bill J. Benefiel Jr.
David Berkowitz
Kenneth Bianchi
Gary Ray Bowles
Ian Brady
Sandra Camille Bridewell
Ted Bundy
Alton Coleman
Rory Conde
Albert Desalvo
Gaetan Dugas
Guy Georges
Harrison T. Graham
Joseph Kallinger
Joseph Kondro
Rex Allan Krebs
James Munro
Steven Howard Oken
Joel Rifkin
Dayton Leroy Rogers
Tommy Lynn Sells
Richard Speck
Gerald Eugene Stano
Jane Toppan
Billy Ray Waldon
Stewart Wilken
Aileen Carol Pittman Wuornos
Robert Lee Yates
Adoptees Who Killed Their Adopters or Adoptive Relatives
(Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)
Note: Alton Coleman & Joseph Kallinger, listed above as Adopted Serial Killers, also killed their adopters; and some adopter killers, below, killed another adoptive family member or other person, but can't be classified as Serial Killer, due not only to too few killed but also to primarily targeting adopters.
Jeremy Bamber
Gerard "Gerry" Belmonte
Clifford Holt Boggess
Sean Carter
Steven Catlin
Joshua Cooke
Robert Otis Coulson
Heather Marie D'Aoust
Joel Lee Domingues
Markum Duff-Smith
Charles Allen Fuss
John Frank Gebauer
Thomas Ronald Lewis Harries
Holly Harvey
Matthew Heikkila
Roger Scott Helm
Daniel Joe Hittle
Robert Hoskins
Aaron Howard
Joshua Jenkins
Joshua Komisarjevsky
Bruce Lisker
Justin Ryan Long
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Taylor Melissa Mary Marks
Jason Massey
Jonathan McMullen
Robert Henry Moorman
Gregory Richard Mox
Brenda & Katherine O'Connell
Robert Jeffrey Pelley
Jacquiline "Nikki" Reynolds
Ricky Rodriguez
Ionut Silviu Savin
Sean Sellers
Timothy Scott Sherman
Kurt Alan Struebing
Timothy Sturgel
Martin "Marty" Tankleff
Cameron Richard Terhune
Carlton Turner
Arnell Van Duyne
Marcus Wallace
Lee Welche
Codee Wheeler
Tavares Eugene Williams
ZIMMER, Peter,
Adoptees Who Killed Their Biological Parents
(Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)
Billy Lynn Hendricks
Mass Murdering Adoptees
(Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)
Throughout recorded history, mass-murdering, genocidal villains have been depicted as having been abandoned and/or abused, or felt rejected by one or both parents in childhood, including adoptees...
Even non-adopted, mass murdering children, are triggered by family rejection:
William Freund
Thomas Hamilton
Julian Knight
Michael James Perry
Seth Privacky
Evan Ramsey
Jeff Weise
Charles Andrew "Andy" Williams
Luke Woodham
Adoptees Who Killed Strangers
(alphabetically, single incident killing of other than their adopters, with age at time of crime if known.)
Daphne ABDELA
Donald Beardslee
Timothy Berner
Joseph John Cannon
Marcus Carter
Joseph John Cotton
Andrew Dalzell
John Patrick Eastlack
Patrick Hunter Ford
Clayton Gerlach
Spencer Goodman
Matthew Grant
Marjorie Hagen
Edwin Ray Hall
Ernest Lee Hargon
Bryan A. Harr
Daniel Patrick Hauser
Charles Michael Hedlund
Brandi Lynn Hungerford
John William King
Marjorie Knoller
Paul W. Kreutzer
Walter & Karl Lagrand
Christian Longo
Alexander Rey Martinez
Lisa Montgomery
Darci Pierce
Marcelino Ramos
John Loveman Reese
Peter Saunders
Catherine "Gypsy" SHARE
Eric Smith
Steven Stein
Garry Steinman
Douglas Christopher Thomas
Marvin Matthew Triplett
Fred Daniel Van Dyken / Long Soldier
Peter Woodcock
David Wayne Woodruff
Attempted Murder by Adoptees
(Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)
Robert Lee Bennett Jr.
Michael Devlin
Lucas (Luke) John Helder
(teenage juvenile, so first name was not published) James
Alvario S. McCray
Christopher Monks
Orphaned/Abandoned Killers
(including adoptive grandparents who also raised them)
(Listed alphabetically, with age at time of crime if known.)
Mary Bell
Robert Black
William Bonin
Joseph John Cannon
Harvey Louis Carignan
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer
Albert Hamilton Fish
Joseph Paul Franklin
Johnny Frank Garrett
Carlton Gary
Gary Gilmore
Barbara Graham
Gary Heidnik
Adolph Hitler
Edmund Kemper
Alex King
Derek King
Robert Wesley Knighton
Charles Manson
Earle Nelson
Dorothea Puente
Patrick Purdy
Moses Sithole
Richard Tingler
Jack Unterweger
Joseph Wesbecker
US SUPREME COURT ABOLISHES JUVENILE EXECUTIONS (3-1-05)
KILLER ADOPTEES - DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
Kari Sable's True Crimes Site Map
http://www.karisable.com/truecrimes.htm
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Warning
Each of AmFOR's hundreds of web pages on this website are copyrighted. The ADOPTED KILLERS page has been copyrighted since 2002 and has since been especially popular and especially prone to being copied in its entirety on other websites, without permission or acknowledgement. AmFOR's pages are for public information and stories about each Adopted Killer includes the Source from which it was excerpted including if from the person's letters or direct interview for which they've provided their signed permission and waiver of privacy. Similarly, excerpting any part of AmFOR's original or compiled material for educational puposes, not just for sensationalism, is fine, but, as with any copyrighted material, it is legally required that you request permission to do so and credit AmFOR with the compilation. Legal remedies will be pursed against anyone who simply plagerizes AmFOR's material or compilations as their own, or without mention of AmFOR as the additional Source. Plus, ya really don't wanna upset any of the folks whose stories are on this page.
