Shahar Madjar, MD, Journal columnist

In my previous article, I told you about Jacob, the first serial killer apprehended in Israel. Jacob confessed to eight murders over an 11 year period. Among them, the killing of his father, and of his mother who was his last victim.

Have you ever wished to become an FBI agent, or a homicide investigator? Here is a short exercise to test your detective powers. I will describe how researchers categorize serial killers and more about Jacob and you will have a chance to decide which category of serial killers Jacob fits best.

Holmes and Holmes categorize serial killers, according to their motives, into four different groups: The Visionary, The Missionary, The Hedonistic and The Power-Control serial killer.

The Visionary serial killer hear voices and sees visions that instruct him to kill certain types of people. These voices and visions are delusions and hallucinations. They exist only in the psychotic mind of the Visionary serial killer.

The Mission-oriented serial killer, on the other hand, constructs in his mind a world in which he is called to target certain types of people whom he considers “evil.” He has no psychotic symptoms, no delusions, or hallucinations, only a “sense of mission.”

The third type of serial killer, The Power/control killer, wants to have power over his victims (and sometimes over the crime investigators)–he finds satisfaction in domination and control over his victims. He tends to meticulously plan his crime, and typically fully controls the crime scene.

The last type, The Hedonistic serial killer (the most common type) is motivated by lust, thrill, or comfort. Lust killers find sexual gratification through violence. Some of them find pleasure in eating their victims, dismembering them or torturing them. Thrill killers enjoy the process of killing itself and comfort killers find gratification through personal gain or profit.

Which group does Jacob fit best? Jacob came from a dysfunctional family. He was the fourth in a family of six children. His father was a violent alcoholic who used to beat Jacob’s mother and the children. Jacob was an insecure, fearful child who often found comfort at night in his mother’s bed. He was considered the “black sheep” of the family. He was often absent from school. By age 18 he had a rich criminal record, had been arrested several times and was under the supervision of a parole officer. He became a drifter, wandering around the country and working, for short periods of time, in unskilled jobs. He sought the professional help of psychiatrists several times, but has never kept his appointments for long enough. One psychiatrist found that he had an immature personality, impulsivity, and “sexual problems.” Jacob told his psychiatrists that his uncle used to sexually abuse him, and that his mother had “sexual needs.” His mother complained to her neighbors that Jacob wanted to have sex with her. At one time, Jacob was seen with a girlfriend.

At age 25 Jacob killed an elderly homosexual, his first victim, about whom he later said, “He was like a father to me,” and later, “he deserved to die because he was a pervert.” His victims were all solitary individuals who lived alone, some of them solitary beggers. He later admitted that he gained his skills in his youth when he used to slaughter chickens and goats.

In the weeks that followed Jacob’s arrest, he seemed a bit restless, withdrawn, with a somewhat paranoid stare in his eyes, but several psychiatrists have determined that he had demonstrated no overt psychotic symptoms. There was no ground for his legal team to claim an insanity defense, it seemed. He was sentenced to four times life imprisonment and additional sixty years.

But later, in prison, Jacob had become overtly psychotic. He was admitted several times to the prison’s psychiatric ward. His psychiatrists noticed disturbances in his thought process, poor grasp of reality, and delusions. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was receiving anti-psychotic medications for years. He claimed to have special connections with God, and described rituals of praying and purification he took before and after each murder. “I believe I am a messenger of God,” he declared. He explained the murders he committed, by saying ” it’s like being a missionary in the jungle … I do charitable deeds, for God, and it’s real …”

Did you figure out which group does Jacob fit best? And perhaps the most interesting question for me is: Is serial killing (or any other misdeed) a matter of a person’s free will, or is our behavior, and misbehavior, pre-determined, written in our genes, dictated by the environment in which we grew up, designed in the structure of our brains, and the architecture of our minds? I will try to explore these questions in this series of articles.

Editor’s note: Dr. Shahar Madjar is a urologist at Aspirus and the author of “Is Life Too Long? Essays about Life, Death and Other Trivial Matters.” Contact him at smadjar@yahoo.com.