Giant 6ft 9in serial killer 'kept victim's head for horrific reason' then murdered mother

Giant 6ft 9in serial killer 'kept victim's head for horrific reason' then murdered mother Edmund Kemper III murdered his grandparents when he was just 15-years-old, before being released from a psychiatric hospital and going on to kill six young women Early indicators can often point to the possibility that a child may develop into a serial killer , and young Edmund Kemper III certainly displayed several of them. He took pleasure in torturing and killing animals, and disturbingly, he performed peculiar rituals with his sister's Barbie dolls, decapitating them and removing their hands. The towering Californian, who would reach a height of 6'9" in adulthood, spent most of his childhood confined to the locked basement of his mother's house. In a new podcast about Kemper's life, true crime expert Kristina Collins reveals: "As Ed would grow older, his gem of a mother would banish him to the basement. So he wouldn't have a room. "He would just have to literally live in the basement anytime he was in the house. because [his mother] considered him sharing a room with his sisters unseemly." At 15, Kemper was sent to live with his grandparents, marking the onset of his murderous spree. Following a dispute with his grandmother, Maude Kemper, he shot her once in the head and twice in the back with his .22 rifle, then proceeded to stab her multiple times. As Kemper's grandfather returned home, he was also immediately shot dead. Kemper then calmly phoned the police and awaited their arrival. When interrogated, he chillingly confessed to the officers: "I just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma." Read more: Expert shows what drove serial killer Rose West to murder Read more: I unknowingly let the 'babysitter killer' care for my grandchildren Yet, this was only the beginning of his horrific crimes. Following his conviction for the murders of his grandparents, Kemper received a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and was committed to the maximum-security Atascadero State Hospital. During his time there, he became an exemplary prisoner, achieving impressive scores on intelligence assessments and being entrusted with positions of responsibility. One psychiatrist at Atascadero observed: "He was a very good worker and this is not typical of a sociopath. He really took pride in his work." Kemper would later reveal that his role administering psychiatric evaluations to fellow inmates enabled him to understand the system's workings and deceive his own psychiatrists. He also acknowledged gaining insights from the sex offenders he assessed: "He had a genius IQ of 145, just a recipe for a final boss serial killer," Kristina explains. "So he would thrive in his new hospital environment, learning how to be a better serial killer. And he would make some friends along the way, including a serial rapist who shared stories of his own crimes with Ed." Kemper successfully persuaded the authorities that he had been reformed and, upon turning 21, was granted parole. Returning to live with his mother, tensions immediately reignited: "My mother and...

Preview: ~500 words