Ed Kemper: the true story of the serial killer portrayed by Cameron Britton in Mindhunter

Kemper killed his grandmother at the age of 15, before going on to kill nine others including his mother and five college students

Monday, 19th August 2019, 13:48 pm
Updated Friday, 6th September 2019, 16:29 pm
Actor Cameron Britton plays the role of Edmund Kemper in Mindhunter and will return in season two (Photo: Netflix)

The new season of Mindhunter will once again open the files of some of America's most notorious muderers, as FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) return to apply their groundbreaking behavioural analysis to hunting serial killers.

For the uninitiated, Mindhunter is a detective drama based the book by former FBI Special Agent John Douglas, which details the inner workings of the bureau's Elite Serial Crime Unit and its pioneering work on criminal profiling and behavioural science.

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Edmund Kemper, a real-life serial killer, was portrayed in the first season by Cameron Britton, and audiences saw agents Ford and Tench focus on his heinous crimes, while Ford's methods were questioned by Tench and psychologist Wendy Carr when he began to drop his guard around the dangerous criminal.

Kemper is set to return in season two to help the agents investigate the Atlanta child murders, but who was the American serial killer?

Holden Ford and Bill Tench will be back to investigate the Atlanta child murders (Photo: Netflix)

Who is Edmund Kemper?

Kemper is an American serial killer and necrophile who killed 10 people including his mother and paternal grandparents.

Born in Burbank, California, in 1948, it is claimed that Kemper had a troubled and difficult upbringing. Following his parents' separation in 1957, Kemper left Burbank with his mother Clarnell Elizabeth Kemper and moved to Helena, Montana.

From the age of 10, Kemper exhibited dangerous behaviour when he buried the family cat alive. Once the pet died, he dug up the body and placed its head on a spike. Three years later at the age of 13, Kemper killed another cat and kept parts of its body in his closet.

Growing up, Kemper's childhood games also had a macabre undertone. It is believed he used to ask his sister to tie him up and flick an imaginary switch which would imitate the effects of the electric chair or gas inhalation. He also used to decapitate the heads and hands of the dolls that belonged to his sisters.

Due to his dysfunctional relationship with his mother, who used to abuse him and make him sleep in the basement for fear that he would harm his sisters, Kemper ran away to Van Nuys to reunite with his father Edmund Emil Kemper II when he was 15-years-old. But after a short time, Kemper's father sent him away to live with his grandparents.

How did he commit his crimes?

Edmund Kemper, who killed a number of people including his mother and paternal grandparents (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Kemper, now 70, killed his first victim - his grandmother Maude Matilda Hughey Kemper - at the age of 15 with a rifle that had been given to him as a gift from his grandfather. When his grandfather returned home, Kemper killed him, too.

After handing himself into the police, where he reportedly told them that he killed his grandmother because he wanted to know "what it felt like", Kemper was deemed to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and was sent to the Atascadero State Hospital where he remained on the ward for the criminally insane until his 21st birthday in 1969.

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During his time in the unit, further tests discovered that Kemper had an IQ of 145.

Following his release, Kemper returned to live with his mother after he was deemed to have been rehabilitated during his time at the hospital. In the years that followed, Kemper attended college and even applied to join the police force. But due to his height - 6ft 9in - he was rejected.

However, in 1972, Kemper's murder spree began, lasting for eleven months. During that time, he murdered five college students, one high school student, his mother, and his mother's best friend.

His first three victims were all murdered in a similar way. After offering to drive them to their requested locations, he either stabbed, strangled or raped them before taking them back to his apartment and raping them. He later dismembered their bodies and disposed of them in various places.

After moving back in with his mother in 1973, Kemper started to take his deceased victims back to the home he shared with her.

In the April of that year, Kemper killed his mother as she lay in bed asleep. After decapitating her body and hiding it in her wardrobe, he went out for a drink and later invited his mother's best friend round to watch a movie. But when she arrived, he strangled her to death.

Despite fleeing the scene, Kemper called the police and admitted to the murders. According to Peter Vronsky's book, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, Kemper explained why he decided to hand himself in.

"The original purpose was gone... It wasn't serving any physical or real or emotional purpose. It was just a pure waste of time.

"Emotionally, I couldn't handle it much longer. Toward the end there, I started feeling the folly of the whole damn thing, and at the point of near exhaustion, near collapse, I just said to hell with it and called it all off."

When was Kemper sent to jail?

Britton's character will return to season two of the Netflix hit (Photo: Netflix)

Kemper stood trial for eight counts of first degree murder in October 1973.

During the trial, the state of Kemper's mind during the murders was brought into question, with his attorney Jim Jackson citing insanity as the reason for his heinous crimes. However, three court-appointed psychiatrists found the serial killer to be legally sane.

In November 1973, Kemper was found guilty on all counts by the jury. When it came to his sentencing, Kemper requested the death penalty but was given eight concurrent life sentences instead.

Where is Kemper now?

Kemper is currently serving his prison sentence in California Medical Facility. However, during his time in jail, he has featured in a number of interviews and has given investigators an insight into the mind of a serial killer.

After a number of failed parole attempts, Kemper's attorney Scott Currey revealed that his client was content with remaining in prison.

When is Mindhunter on Netflix?

The second season of Mindhunter returns to the streaming service on Friday 16 August.