Edmund Kemper

Edmund Kemper (born December 18, 1948, Burbank, California, U.S.) is an American serial killer who, between 1964 and 1973, murdered 10 people in California, including his mother, his paternal grandparents, and several female hitchhikers. Kemper, who was called the “Co-Ed Killer,” often decapitated and dismembered his victims’ bodies and engaged in necrophilia. He was arrested in 1973 after turning himself in, and later that year he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Early life

Kemper was one of three children born to Clarnell (née Stage) Kemper and Edmund Emil Kemper II. His parents argued often, and they divorced in 1961. Afterward Edmund Kemper III’s mother took him and two sisters to live in Montana. There his mother wed again, but both of her subsequent marriages ended in divorce. However, she retained the surname of her third husband, Harold Magnus Strandberg.

Kemper had a turbulent relationship with his mother, whom he accused of abuse. According to Kemper, she often belittled and emasculated him. She also made him sleep in the basement, reportedly because she was worried he might hurt his sisters. “He was terrified of this place,” Kemper’s father said. “There was only one way out. Someone had to move the kitchen table and lift the trapdoor. I put a stop to it and threatened her with the law.”

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First murders and hospitalization

As a child, Kemper displayed signs of violence and a fascination with death. At about age 10, he killed the family’s cat by burying it alive. When he was 15, he was sent to live with his father’s parents in central California. In August 1964 an argument with his grandmother, Maude Kemper, ended with Edmund Kemper shooting her with a hunting rifle. Kemper reportedly told police that he killed her “to see what it felt like.” When his grandfather, Edmund Kemper, Sr., returned home, the younger Kemper also shot and killed him.

A court psychiatrist diagnosed Kemper as paranoid schizophrenic, and he was sent to a state hospital. Psychiatrists there, however, disagreed with the diagnosis, determining that he did not experience delusions or hallucinations. Under the care of professionals, Kemper seemed to thrive. Extremely intelligent, he helped test other patients and reportedly memorized answers to evaluation tests, which may have contributed to his release at age 21. Kemper went to live with his mother in Santa Cruz, California, and the tensions between the two continued.

Kemper wanted to become a police officer, but he exceeded the department’s limit for physical height—he was 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 meters); he also weighed close to 300 pounds (136 kg). He later spent time at a bar frequented by police, becoming friendly with numerous members of law enforcement, who nicknamed him “Big Ed.” Kemper ultimately found a job with the California Division of Highways as a laborer. He moved to the town of Alameda, near Oakland, and rented an apartment with a friend.

“Co-Ed Killer”

In May 1972 Kemper murdered two college girls, Mary Anne Pesce and Anita Luchessa, whom he picked up as hitchhikers. He later dismembered their bodies and committed acts of necrophilia, a pattern that continued in subsequent murders. Four months later he raped and killed a 15-year-old hitchhiker, Aiko Koo. Kemper murdered three more women—Cindy Schall, Rosalind Thorpe, and Alice Liu—the following year. By this time he had moved back into his mother’s home, and she was unaware that he committed some of his crimes there.

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In 1973 the strained relationship between Kemper and his mother reached a breaking point. On April 20 Kemper bludgeoned her to death while she slept. He then decapitated her and engaged in acts of mutilation and sexual abuse involving her head. Kemper later invited one of her friends, Sara (“Sally”) Hallett, to the house, and he killed her when she arrived.

Arrest and imprisonment

Kemper spent the next several days driving aimlessly and growing increasingly worried that he would commit more murders. On April 24, 1973, he called the Santa Cruz police from a phone booth in Pueblo, Colorado, and confessed to his crimes. Later that year the 24-year-old Kemper went on trial, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. However, a jury found him “legally sane” and declared him guilty of all eight murders. He received eight life sentences. (At the time, the death penalty was suspended in California.)

Kemper was sent to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where he remains. He reportedly is a model prisoner, notably overseeing a project in which incarcerated people record audiobooks for the visually impaired. However, Kemper is considered likely to reoffend, and he has repeatedly been denied parole.

FBI interviews

During his imprisonment, Kemper participated in numerous interviews with FBI agents who were developing psychological profiles of serial killers. He provided insight into his crimes, and investigators noted behaviors that they viewed as potential indicators of future violence, including his killing of several pets. His interviews with the FBI were dramatized in the TV series Mindhunter (2017–19). In addition, FBI profiler John Douglas released recordings of his interviews with Kemper in a MasterClass seminar called Learning from a Killer: The Kemper Tapes (2022).

Kemper was also the focus of the documentary The Co-Ed Killer: Mind of a Monster (2021), and he inspired the film Ed Kemper: The True Story of an American Psycho (2025). In addition, numerous books have been written about him.