Psy. D., Antioch University, 2016, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

This study examined the association between serial killer typologies and previously proposed etiological factors within serial killer case histories. Stratified sampling based on race and gender was used to identify thirty-six serial killers for this study. The percentage of serial killers within each race and gender category included in the study was taken from current serial killer demographic statistics between 1950 and 2010. Detailed data was gathered about each case, including past experiences and details of their crimes using publicly available primary and secondary source material. Etiological factors identified for this study include military experience, alcohol use, drug use, whether or not the subject was bullied as a child or sexually abused, whether they displayed assaultive behavior as an adolescent, whether they were physically abused by their maternal figure, and whether they had engaged in animal torture or engaged in fire setting in childhood or adolescence. The presence of these factors was coded dichotomously (present = 1; not present = 0) for each case history. Cases were then divided by inclusion in two typologies: the FBI's organized/disorganized typology and Holmes, Holmes, and DeBurger's intrinsic motivation typology. The etiological factors were examined for interrelatedness and prevalence in the designated serial killer typologies. Results of crosstabulations and chi-squared analysis showed that military experience was significantly associated with the organized/disorganized typology (p<.01). Thus, serial killers within the organized typology were more likely to have prior military experience, while those in the disorganized typology were not. No other statistically significant findings between etiological factors and serial killer typology were found. Statistical analyses indicated that there might be other associations between etiological factors, but not at a statistical significance level with this population size. Considerations for fu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ron Pilato Psy.D. (Committee Chair); Brett Kia-Keating Ed.D. (Committee Member); Maxann Shwartz Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Demographics; Psychology; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

This dissertation examined media rhetoric in the Los Angeles Times about 51 murdered marginalized women in the “Southside Slayer” serial killer cases. The “Southside Slayer” was five different Black men who did not fit the profile of a serial killer and were able to continue murdering women from 1983 to 2007. The victims and/or killers were all associated at one point with the “Southside Slayer” moniker and/or task force, even though some of the killers were later given different nicknames in the press. The goal of this study was to identify harmful narratives against marginalized women victims, and how they were perpetuated through the Los Angeles Times. Through qualitative archival research and a feminist social constructionist lens, language and word/phrase choices in 126 articles from the Los Angeles Times dating from 1985 to 2020 were examined for the use of synecdoche, derogatory language, and negatively connotative language when referring to the fifty-one women. In addition, use of the victims' names, use of the killers' names, and use of killer-friendly language were examined. Using critical discourse analysis and grounded theory, harmful narratives and dehumanization of the women were perpetuated through the underuse of victims' names combined with overused combinations of synecdoche, derogatory, and/or negatively connotative words/phrases. Digital media of today was also examined, and perpetuation or disruption of the harmful narratives and dehumanization varied.

Committee: Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christopher Ward Ph.D. (Other); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Chad Iwertz-Duffy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Rhetoric; Social Structure; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Art History (Fine Arts)

This paper explores the unidentified street style photographs left behind by prolific serial killer Rodney Alcala. Alcala is a convicted rapist and serial killer active between the years of 1971 and 1979. When Alcala was arrested in 1979, he was found to possess hundreds of photographs of women and young girls, all of which he obtained under the guise of fashion photography. By operating as a fashion photographer, Alcala was able to employ his camera as a weapon to lure unsuspecting, yet fashionable young women to their possible death. In 2010 Alcala was subsequently sentenced to death in California for five murders and received an additional 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two more homicides committed in New York. While Alcala's true victim count remains unknown, police speculate that it is highly likely that some of the unidentified women photographed could be additional victims of Alcala. Alcala's photographic collection included a variety of posed portraits and candid snapshots of fashionable yet unsuspecting young women and girls. However, two of Alcala's unidentified street style photographs, containing a set of stylish young women, have particularly seized my imagination. The two images disrupt the truth and reality of what I am seeing, forcing me to question my intense fascination with the mysterious women forever frozen in time and space by a serial killer. By reading these images through the use of visual and material culture methodologies, I reveal the intersecting relationship between the camera, costume, and gender performance as a means to communicate, and capture identity in the hope that I can free these two women from the label of victim.

Committee: Jennie Klein Dr. (Advisor); Jody Lamb (Committee Member); Patty Stokes (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Gender Studies

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Music Composition

Cacophony is a chamber operetta written in one act with an approximate duration of fifteen minutes. It is scored for four sopranos, an actress, B-flat clarinet, cello, and piano. In addition to the acoustic component, there are several important electroacoustic aspects including a soundscape and voice-over. The operetta contains four arias which are intervallically unified by the use of a third followed by a second. The audience is privy to a schizophrenic woman's routine therapist visit. The patient experiences hallucinations of historic female serial killers. They prompt the patient's self-reflection regarding her recent mental state. Each of the characters manifest as hallucinations sings an aria that stylistically represents the era, location, or brutality of their respective crimes. Both the patient and the psychiatrist are portrayed by the actress. This scenario provides a comment on the degrees of self-examination applied to oneself, and the audience shares in the patient's perspective of reality. The libretto aims to create a specific viewpoint and bias--life seen through the eyes of the patient. The operetta is meant to be performed in an intimate theater arranged in the round. The four hallucinations, as portrayed by the sopranos, are placed in the audience. This introduces the idea that the entire audience comprises the patient's hallucinations. The psychiatrist is realized through the use of electronics. The actress pre-records all of the psychiatrist's lines. In performance, this audio is the sole means by which the psychiatrist is realized. The recordings are triggered by a Max patch containing a cuing list wherein corresponding numbers are found in the libretto. An additional electroacoustic aspect is an ambient soundscape which serves as a means by which the setting is established.

Committee: Marilyn Shrude (Advisor); Christopher Dietz (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Germanic Languages and Literature

My dissertation,Criminals and Artists: Detecting the Artist in German Crime Literature of the Twentieth Century, examines how German speaking authors of the twentieth century reflect upon their identity as artists through writing about criminals both real and fictional. Moreover, each case represents a response to a specific era. This project begins with Thomas Mann's crime novel Die Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. Mann's work draws on a long, but rarely examined tradition of linking the criminal to the artist that stretches back to Plato and forward to Michel Foucault. Mann's novel establishes the nexus in which the artist and the criminal are united. Felix Krull, a confidence man, is a unique case because he is simultaneously a criminal deceiving society for one's personal gain, and an artist, performing a role for an audience like a masterful actor. This novel not only uncovers points of intersection for the criminal and the artist, but also reveals the surprising function the public / audience has in differentiating the two.This study also considers a little known and short-lived series of reports on contemporary criminal cases by a variety of authors called the Außenseiter der Gesellschaft. Die Verbrechen der Gegenwart edited by Rudolf Leonhard. The specific volumes discussed are Der Mord am Polizeiagenten Blau by Eduard Trautner, Karl Otten's Der Fall Strauβ, and Freiherr von Egloffstein by Thomas Schramek. This group is responding to the criminalization of the artist in the Weimar Republic which threatens their own personal freedom and livelihood. Interestingly, they discuss contemporary criminal cases without the aid of fiction to defend the freedom of speech and combat the labeling of artists as criminals. The artist and the criminal are also linked by seriality. An analysis of the fictional serial killer in Doron Rabinovici's novel Die Suche nach M, provides a new way to approach the main characters of the work which illuminates new insights to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Todd Herzog (Committee Chair); Katharina Gerstenberger (Committee Member); Richard Schade (Committee Member) Subjects: German literature; Literature