Some serial killers stop. The FBI calls the opposite a myth.

What does the FBI say about killers who stop?

The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit published “Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators” in 2008, drawing on a 2005 symposium in San Antonio, Texas.^1,2,3 Its list of common myths includes the belief that serial killers cannot stop killing. The report says some stop altogether before being caught.¹

“It has been widely believed that once serial killers start killing, they cannot stop,” the report says.¹ The line appears under the heading “Myth: Serial killers cannot stop killing,” and the report answers it directly.¹ Some serial killers, it says, stop murdering altogether before being caught.¹

In those cases, the report says, events or circumstances in offenders’ lives inhibit them from pursuing more victims.¹ These can include increased participation in family activities, sexual substitution, and other diversions.¹

Which killers does the FBI name as examples?

Joseph Otero, 38, Julie Otero, 34, Josephine Otero, 11, and Joseph Otero II, 9, were killed in their home on January 15, 1974.^4,5 Kathryn Bright was killed in April 1974, Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox in 1977, Marine Hedge in 1985, Vicki Wegerle in 1986, and Dolores Davis in 1991.^4,5,6 All ten were killed in and around Wichita, Kansas.^1,4

Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to all ten murders on June 27, 2005, as his trial began in Wichita.^5,7,8 He is the report’s first example: it says he murdered ten victims from 1974 to 1991 and killed no one else before his capture in 2005.^1,7 Police said they did not believe he had killed more than the ten.⁵

Margarette Eby was a provost and music professor at the University of Michigan-Flint, and Nancy Ludwig was a flight attendant.⁹ In January 2003 the Associated Press reported that Jeffrey Gorton, already serving life sentences for Ludwig’s 1991 murder, had pleaded no contest to Eby’s 1986 murder.^1,9 He is the report’s second example: it says he killed his first victim in 1986 and his next in 1991, and did not kill again before his capture in 2002.^1,9

What happened after the 1986 murder of Janelle Cruz?

Janelle Cruz, 18, was killed in her home in Irvine, California, in May 1986, the last known murder in a series of 13.^10,11,12 Joseph DeAngelo was not identified until 2018, through genetic genealogy.^12,13 In June 2020 he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder.^12,13,14

Janelle Cruz was killed on May 5, 1986, while her family was away on vacation.^10,12,15 The series, known in the press as the Golden State Killer case, began in 1975.^12,13,14 Its first victim was Claude Snelling, a college journalism professor in Visalia.^12,14,16

The killings stopped in 1986.^14,16 Joseph DeAngelo, a former police officer, settled in suburban Sacramento and retired as a mechanic.^14,16,17 Investigators held DNA from the crime scenes, but his name had never come up in the investigation.^11,14,16,18

In 2018 investigators used crime-scene DNA to find a distant relative through a genealogy website, then built a family tree that led to him.^14,16 He was arrested at his home in Citrus Heights, a Sacramento suburb, in April 2018.^14,16,18 On June 29, 2020, in People v. Joseph James DeAngelo, he pleaded guilty in Sacramento County Superior Court to 13 counts of first-degree murder.^{12,13,14,16,19}

Does stopping mean the drive is gone?

The FBI’s verb is inhibit: events or circumstances inhibit offenders from pursuing more victims.¹ In July 2005, after Rader’s plea, Ken Landwehr, the Wichita police lieutenant who headed the task force, said Rader was still hunting for victims and would never have stopped.^5,8 Rader had told authorities he had selected an 11th victim, and he acknowledged in his confession that he was planning another murder when he was arrested.^5,8 Landwehr said it was not clear how close he came to killing again.⁵

Did stopping keep them from being caught?

Rader went from 1991 to 2005 without a known killing, Gorton from 1991 to 2002, and DeAngelo from 1986 to 2018.^1,14,16 Rader began writing to the media again in 2004, after years of silence.^1,6 A computer disk in the last of those communications identified him, and DNA testing confirmed it.^1,5,8

Police said a family member’s DNA matched DNA from the Otero, Fox and Wegerle scenes of 1974, 1977 and 1986.^4,5,8 Gorton was arrested in 2002 after police said they had matched his DNA to samples from both murder scenes, the Associated Press reported.^1,9 Lyman and Charlene Smith were killed in Ventura County in 1980.^12,20 DNA taken at that scene led investigators to one of DeAngelo’s relatives in 2018, and then to him.^14,20