Making of the Serial Killer Couple: Fred and Rose.

CASE BACKGROUND

House number 25, Cromwell Street, Gloucester, UK- now packed with the rush of hundreds of tourists, was once home to the most gruesome murders the country had ever seen. This is the case of the serial killer couple- Fredrick and Rosemary West. In this blog, we will try and understand how nurture plays a role in creating criminals- throwing the childhood of the serial killer couple into the spotlight. 

THE CHILDHOOD

Both Fred and Rose had been through a disturbed childhood. Fred was one of the six children his parents had. He was fifteen when he left school to become a full-time labourer at his parent's farm. At sixteen, he and his brother began socialising at a youth club, later where he was found harassing girls. His mother was known to be overprotective of him and encouraged his bestiality. He was arrested for repeatedly raping his own sister, and during the investigation, it was found that his mother introduced him to sex at the age of twelve. His reply to being questioned about molesting girls was, “Doesn’t everybody do it?” A major highlight from his childhood was his exposure to hunting animals as a child. However, despite everything, he got away with everything because his sister did not testify in court. 

Rosemary, on the other hand, had faced repeated abuse throughout her childhood from her father. She, along with her siblings, was beaten up and often bullied by him. During her teen years, her father forbade her from dating boys of her age and it resulted in a rebellion with her being disturbingly sexually active. She would be found naked in her house and engaging in inappropriate acts with her younger brothers. Later, she became more involved with older men. A few years later, she met Fred and became pregnant with his child. What followed next was a horrifying series of crimes committed by the couple, together. 

ANSWERING THE ‘WHY’

Many pieces of research have been conducted to find and assess the correlation between a disturbed childhood and psychopathy or serial killing. A valid explanation given by scientists for this was that when a separation or disturbance is experienced by an individual from their caregivers, more often, mothers, they learn to suppress empathy. The statistics tell us that about 74% of serial killers suffered psychological abuse in their childhood and 42% experienced physical abuse (Mitchell & Aamodt, 2005). Fred and Rose’s case brings us to an important insight: Are abuse and trauma in childhood the main ingredients in the recipe of a serial killer? 

The Macdonald triad, given by psychiatrist J.M. Macdonald, lays down three signs that indicate whether someone will grow up to be a serial killer or a violent criminal. This triad included: (1) cruelty or abuse towards animals and pets (Fred would go rabbit hunting as a child) (2) setting fire to objects or other acts of arson (3) bedwetting regularly. Macdonald, after his study, found that many of his subjects exhibited these behaviours in childhood that led to violent behaviours in adulthood. Daniel Hellman and Nathan Blackman conducted a study attempting to understand Macdonald’s claims in 1966 and found that 88 people convicted for murder and other violent acts exhibited similar results to Macdonald’s original findings. Even though plenty of people show these behaviours in childhood and do not grow up to be serial killers or criminals, these behaviours indicate abuse or disturbance during childhood. Children engage in these three acts as retaliation against authoritative, neglectful and abusive parenting. It becomes a doorway to vent out helplessness generated by abuse which with time shuts down the empathy and sensitivity mechanisms of these children, especially in adulthood. 

Based on the Macdonald triad, a study was conducted in 2004, which gave us the repeated violence theory which suggested that repeated violence and cruelty towards animals make individuals more likely to engage in violent crimes, having siblings could also increase the chances of repeated animal cruelty, which further increases the tendency of an individual to be a violent criminal. When the Macdonald triad was reviewed in 2018, it was additionally found that it was greatly successful in predicting and understanding whether a child has had a dysfunctional home environment. 

THE MURDERS

The victims were caucasian females, in their late and early twenties, most of them seeking jobs from them. When they would finally get hold of the victim, they would torture and rape them in peculiar bondage acts, in the end, killing them by either strangling or suffocating and burying them in their backyard. Before burying the dead bodies, Fred would often cut off their finger, toes and kneecaps. Fred and Rose are responsible for the rape and murder of more than 12 innocent girls, including Fred’s first wife and stepdaughter. 

GETTING INTO THEIR MINDS

Firstly, to answer what sadism is: it is the act of inflicting pain or suffering for sexual gratification and sadistic killer go on finding new ways to make people suffer. After a point in their killings, Fred and Rose would have started enjoying seeing their victims beg for mercy, cry in pain and ultimately give up all in dread. Sadistic methods of serial killing often end up being an endless loop. One kill would not have satisfied the couple. The pleasure they gain from torture killings became the motivation for their next kill. Fred and Rose barely had an empathy-generating mechanism which made it nearly impossible for them to feel their pain. Unfavourable, dysfunctional and abusive childhood and impaired sexual development during those years contribute a great deal to the formation of a sadistic personality–largely applicable to Fred and Rose’s case. Apart from this, sadism can also be learned in childhood years and from what it’s known, Fred’s mother was believed to encourage his bestiality from a very young on which could have proven to be counterproductive. 

CONCLUSION

It is for us to ponder on the impact their upbringing had on their functioning as human beings who killed so many without the slightest guilt and the degree to which it made them derive pleasure from others’ sufferings. In the end, Fred West died by taking his own life in prison awaiting trial and Rosemary West is serving life imprisonment for her crimes. 

About the Author

Anaika Desai, Subhead, PsyCreative column

Psychology committee, SDSOS, NMIMS.

Anaika is currently 18 years old and studying applied psychology. She believes a little kindness does the right magic. She is very inquisitive, picks up new hobbies occasionally, loves petting cats, and puts all her love in a batter and bakes it into beautiful cakes. She organises her thoughts on a piece of paper and calls it spending quality time with herself. She hopes one day the world will win through love and kindness, till then she will keep doing her part. She has a warrior spirit and will rise above the hurdles life puts her through, at her own pace though. She aspires to see herself as a psychologist one day and for that she works on herself every day a little bit. 

References

Levin, J., Fox, J.A. (2008). Normalcy in Behavioral Characteristics of the Sadistic Serial Killer. In: Kocsis, R.N. (eds) Serial Murder and the Psychology of Violent Crimes. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-049-6_1 

Zuniga, Vivian A., "A Descriptive Study of Serial Killers and the Presence of Macdonald Triad Symptoms" (2021). Masters Theses. 1013. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/theses/1013

Homepage. (2022, December 13). A+E Networks EMEA. https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/macdonald-triad-predicting-a-serial-killer-fact-or-myth

Staff, I. (2021, September 15). Fred and Rose West timeline: What happened and how were they caught? The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/fred-rose-west-what-happened-victims-b1920716.html

Sharma, Meher, "The Development of Serial Killers: A Grounded Theory Study" (2018). Masters Theses. 3720. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/3720