The real monsters of Mindhunter

Mindhunter proves truth is often more terrifying than fiction. Here are the real life sadistic serial killers who appear through the two seasons of the hit television show.

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In the very early hours of May 22, 1981, a young police recruit was staking out a bridge in the US city of Atlanta. He was there as part of a massive operation to capture a serial killer who had been murdering African-American boys and dumping their bodies across the metropolis.

About 2am, the officer was startled by a loud splash and seconds later saw a white station wagon appear over the crest of the bridge.

Wayne Williams. Picture UPI/David Tulis

When officers swooped on the car, they found Wayne Bertram Williams, a wannabe player in the music industry who they came to believe was responsible for up to 28 murders across Atlanta.

Two days after they stopped that white car, a body was found just down river.

This horrific case is played out in the second season of Mindhunter, the popular Netflix series about the early days of the FBI’s legendary Behavioural Science Unit — a group of profilers who study violent criminals and use their learnings to predict, and hopefully catch, others.

Mindhunter, based on the book of the same name by former profiler John Douglas, proves truth is often far scarier than fiction, with the killers they talk to during the two seasons having committed some of the most heinous crimes in modern history.

David Berkowitz, also known as "Son of Sam". Picture: AP Photo/File

In a break from the police genre, the show doesn’t focus on the crimes themselves but delves into the psychology of the men who commit them.

It taps into an even deeper nerve when you know that more such men — and they are almost always men — are out there preying on victims as you watch.

You end up watching people as you walk down the street, questioning if they’re sizing you up as Victim X.

The killers the show’s protagonists interview across the two series are real.

The actors who play them have an uncanny likeness to the monsters they are portraying — Cameron Britton, who played “co-ed killer” Ed Kemper was even nominated for an Emmy for his eerie performance.

So who were the real killers of Mindhunter and what did they do that was so bad as to attract the attention of the FBI’s monster hunters?

EDMUND KEMPER

Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) talks to serial killer Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton) in a scene from Netflix drama Mindhunter.

Known widely as the ‘co-ed killer’ as his victims were mainly female college students, Ed Kemper’s reign of terror between 1964 and 1973 could have been even worse had he not decided to turn himself in. After being institutionalised for killing his grandparents when he was 15, Kemper convinced authorities he
was reformed and was released six years later. He went on to kill six young women, then his mother and her best friend.

MONTIE RISSELL

When Montie Rissell was handed five consecutive life sentences for killing five women between August 1976 and May 1977 in Virginia, he was just 18 years old. Enraged after receiving a letter from his girlfriend calling their relationship off, the teenager took out his anger on the first person he saw — a woman living in his own apartment complex.

JERRY BRUDOS

Jerry Brudos murdered four women between 1968 and 1969, the first a travelling encyclopaedia salesperson, who made the tragic mistake of knocking on his door. His mother is said to have been devastated when she gave birth to a boy instead of the girl she wished for and never showed a young Brudos any love which is a common history among these killers.

RICHARD SPECK

Richard Speck.

Richard Speck is a mass murderer rather than a serial killer who ended the lives of eight young nurses in one horrific night during a stabbing frenzy in July 1966. One woman survived the attack after hiding under a bed. Speck initially claimed he had no recollection of the bloodbath before making a full confession.

DAVID BERKOWITZ

David Berkowitz.

The Son Of Sam killings terrified New York between July 1976 and July 1977 and made David Berkowitz one of the world’s most infamous serial killers. Originally labelled by the press as the .44 Killer because of the weapon he used, Berkowitz would shoot couples as they sat in their cars. He killed six and wounded seven. Berkowitz wrote cryptic letters to police and the media and was captured because of a parking ticket.

WILLIAM “JUNIOR” PIERCE

Very little is known about Pierce, despite him being convicted of killing nine people across three US states in the 1970s. One of those victims was the daughter of a South Carolina state representative.

ELMER WAYNE HENLEY JR

He may have been found guilty for his part in the murder of six young men in the early 1970s, but Elmer Wayne Henley Jr was part of a bigger serial killing horror that claimed the lives of almost 30. Henley helped paedophile and murderer Dean Corll lure victims to Corll’s house where they would be sexually abused, tortured and killed. He was just 15 when he started ‘working’ for the older Corll and shot him dead two years later.

DENNIS RADER

Dennis Lynn Rader.

With a family, job and active church life, Dennis Rader was not your run-of-the-mill serial killer. The Kansas native murdered 10 people between 1974 and 1991, including four members of the same family. But it wasn’t until 2005 that he was caught after his ego got the better of him. He contacted police to claim credit for a murder previously unattributed to him. Rader, known as BTK (Blind, Torture, Kill), sent them a floppy disk which police were able to trace back to his computer at the church where he was a Lutheran deacon.

WAYNE WILLIAMS

Wayne Williams. Picture: UPI/Mike Pugh

At least 28 African-American boys and young men were murdered in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981. Wayne Williams was caught after a cop, who was part of a massive stake-out of the city’s bridges, heard a splash before Williams was seen speeding off. Days later a body was found down river. This is one of the most controversial of serial killer cases as Williams has always maintained his innocence and many think he is innocent. Williams was only charged and found guilty of murdering two adults but none of the kids despite police closing the cases after his conviction.

Originally published as The real monsters of Mindhunter