Case Analysis: Serial Killer Donald Gaskins And His Background

It is recommended that the case you select be one for which information is available from one or more other sources besides the web . The reason is that for most cases, web sources do not provide the level of detailed needed to complete particular sections of the assignment historical background, personality profile, diagnoses. Alternative sources can be obtained from the library, or commercially

(a) Is this individual a psychopath? Using the information you have gathered, rate this individual on the 20 items of Hare’s PCL-R and briefly the rationale for each of your item scores (i.e., as you did for the two other cases we rated in class).

(b) Does this individual meet the criteria for antisocial personality disorder? Why or why not?

(c) Does this individual show features of any of the other DSM-IV personality disorders?

(d) Does this individual show evidence of any other major clinical disorder (e.g., schizophrenia; unipolar or bipolar disorder; alcohol or drug dependence; etc.)?

Nurse that was sentenced to life imprisonment for one murder but suspected  of killing at least ten others. He might have confessed to some of the murders in order to protect others.

Lowell Amos United States 1979?

Detroit businessman sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for the murder of his third wife. Suspected of, but never charged with the deaths of two previous wives and his mother, all of whom died under suspicious circumstances and left life insurance policies to Amos that, at least in one case, Amos himself had bought against the will of the insured.

Bevan Spencer von Einem Australia 1979?

Arrested for three and convicted of one of "The Family Murders", where four teenagers and one young adult, all male, were drugged, kidnapped, raped and mutilated for weeks before their bodies were abandoned in the country near Adelaide. Police believed that von Einem had several accomplices, none of whom were publicly identified or detained, and at the time of his trial it was widely reported that the murders had been committed by a group of 4 to 12 high-profile Australian men; von Einem himself claimed to be the victim of a conspiracy. He has also been considered a suspect in the disappearance of two girls near the Adelaide Oval in 1973 and the high-profile Beaumont children disappearance in 1966.

About Donald Gaskins

It is on record that Donald Gaskins demonstrated the signs of a serial killer right from his childhood days. Upon being an adult, he got the title of being the most prolific serial killer who ever lived in the whole history of South Carolina. He, first of all, tortured his victims, murdered them and sometimes he ate their bodies (Yaksic 7). The authorities described him as someone who was fearless as he did not have any worries regarding his activities as to whether he may be detected. He drove too much terror in the hearts and minds of his victims something that made it impossible for them to escape from him by any standards (White 26). His pattern of murder was through a series of tortures that he subjected his victims through something that was aimed to keep them afraid, too much terrified to the extent that he could do to them anything without them lodging any resistance (Fridel 21). It was not until the year 1975 when Donald Gaskins was arrested at the age of 42 years. The circumstances that led to his arrest involved when a criminal colleague in the name of Walter Neely reported to the police that he had seen Donald Gaskins murder two men (Norris 8). The downfall of Donald Gaskins involved some other persons (White 20). The first person was Walter Neely who was approached by Donald Gaskins to help him with a van that he could use to dispose of the bodies of three people that he had killed. Gaskins made a decision to become a killer for hire since he had opted to start making money out of his serial killing tendencies.

It is at this point that a woman hired him for the purpose of killing her lover whom they had parted ways. Diane Neely who is the woman in question lures the former lover so as to have Gaskins to kidnap him and as a result, the two people are involved in both the murder and the burial of the body of the target person who was her former lover (Simkin 17). At a later stage, Diane Neely and her then lover attempted to blackmail Gaskins over the past killing without knowing that he was a psychopathic killer and he agrees to meet them and hand money over to them for the sake of having the blackmail dispensed with and he uses this opportunity to murder the two (Slee 1067). The two locals who did not know that Gaskins was a serial killer also got killed after having stolen from him and he sought the help of Walter Neely to help him bury the bodies of the two locals (Ressler 8). While all these were happening, the police applied the former kills of Gaskins to search his apartment and it is at this point that the clothes of the victims were found and when Neely was arrested and subjected to questioning, he confessed to all the crimes that they have been involved in (LIEBERT 43). Gaskins confessed that he was responsible for the murder of many people that have been reported to be missing while at the same time indicating the places that he had buried or disposed of their bodies. In the year 1975, December 4^th, Gaskins took the police officers to some land that he owned and it was at this place that the police were able to find 8 of Gaskins’ victims (Yaksic 33).

Psychological Evaluation of Donald Gaskins

Pee Wee Gaskins was born in the year 1963 March 13^th in South Carolina, Florence County. He was nicknamed Pee Wee due to his body frame which was small. His childhood life was marred with a lot of ridicule and violence right from his home where his by then stepfather used to beat him and at school, he is on record for fighting with other kinds virtually on a daily basis something that might have contributed to him becoming a serial killer (Lane 9). Many of his mother's lovers physically abused him. His half-siblings also meted violence on him when his mother financially decided to get married. As a young boy, Gaskin commenced demonstrating violent behavior to the extent that he did not perform well academically while in school. He spent most of his time committing small thefts in town, breaking into homes and engaging in schoolyard fights. At the age of 11 years, he had dropped out of school and took up a part-time job at a local garage where he met two other boys named Danny and Marsh who were also school dropouts in the same age group and together they coined "The Trouble Trio" and continued to commit numerous violent crimes as a set of three.

They broke into homes, raped young boys and solicited harlots. They always threatened the young boys that they raped so that they could be too terrified to report them. The trio eventually parted ways when they were found gang-raping Marsh's younger sister and their parents beat up the boys till they bled as a punishment. Gaskin continued to break into homes while Marsh and Danny left the area. In the year 1946, a lady who knew Gaskin caught him while breaking into a home and she hit him with an ax after which he managed to snatch the ax from her and struck her in the arm and head through the girl did not die (Norris 18). After that Gaskin was arrested and taken to the South Carolina Industrial School for the boys. After being released from the rehabilitation school, he was employed at a tobacco farm where he was also involved in an insurance fraud by way of being involved in barn fires for a fee. When he was questioned by the daughter to his employer concerning the barn fires, he split her skull with the hammer something that led to his subsequent arrest and imprisonment. He committed his first murder while in prison as he tried to become a Power Man. He killed his fellow inmate to stop the others from harassing him.

Antisocial Personality Disorder Assessment

There are several factors from the background of the victim in question that has contributed to his repeated homicide actions and these factors are largely environmental. The first one is to the effect that he lived with abusive caregivers and as such, the violent environment within which he lived in made him develop the homicidal tendencies as he believed that the world and everybody in it hated him (Egger 21). As such, he felt to be very much insecure at all times and as such wanted to be engaged in such abusive activities as the best way of hitting out at the others in the society. In addition to this stepfather and half-siblings who often beat him up and abused him on the basis that he had a small body also drove her into developing the homicidal tendencies made him become a serial killer. It is also on record that he was also raped severally owing to his small body frame something that did not go down well with him since it was out of such an experience that he always raped his victims, tortured them before brutally murdering them. He ensured that his victims were under a great sense of fear since all his life he lived in fear of being constantly abused owing to his small body frame. It thus suffices to say that the victim developed his serial killing behavior from the environment within which he lived.

He was constantly abused by the very people who were supposed to provide proper care to him. He lacked a person to encourage him and provide him with moral lessons since all he was subjected to was a violent environment both at school and back at the community (Canter 472). Such environmental influence made the victim to develop the feeling of fear and unwanted hence making him develop the serial killing tendencies with the primary aim of defending himself and also avenging for the sufferings that he had gone through in the hands of the people he knew too well (Keatley 18). The environment within which one is brought up plays an important role in their future habits hence the need for the parents and the guardian to make sure that they cultivate a good environment that instills moral behavior in the lives of their young ones since this is the only best way of ensuring that such persons are able to put up with the right characters without developing deviant and criminal behavior of any sort (Canter 460).  There are no constitutional or hereditary factors that are revealed through the profile of Donald Gaskins given the fact that he did not know his father and at the same time there is no mention of his biological mother or any of his family members ever being involved in criminal activities that he might have inherited from (Egger 32). As such, it is assumed based on the evidence provided that the serial killing behavior of the victim in question was purely derived from the surrounding environment within which he lived in for all the years as a child both at home and at school.

DSM-IV Personality Disorders Assessment

Based on the evidence collected by the police involved in investigating the heinous acts of the victim, it is evident that the homicide offices of the victim took up particular patterns. The first one is that he often preferred female victims. This is based on the fact that such persons were often easily terrified and as such, he could easily rape them, torture them before killing them in cold blood. He could in some instances eat the bodies of his victims something while he buried the rest in graves he prepared on his land (Bayman 13). He was an organized serial killer by all standards since he was able to properly trap his victims in places where he knew that he could kill them and get away with it without ever getting noticed (Kelleher 7). He was very much organized to the extent that it was impossible for him to be detected or even suspected for being able to engage in such activities as he was someone of a small body frame who was silent most of the time (Woods 100). He was withdrawn from the mainstream society something that is a true testament to the fact that he viewed everybody to be an enemy by all standards something that made him hate everybody around him to the extent of killing them. It thus suffices to argue that the criminal profile pattern of the victim involved raping the victims, torturing and murdering them in cold blood. He could then eat some body parts of the victims before disposing of their bodies by burying them in his land (Fridel 37). It is through such well-organized plans that it was not easy for the police to catch up with him if not for his secrets being spilled by Neely after his apartment was searched and found with the clothes of the victims who had been murdered.

The victim can be well described as a psychopath. This is based on the fact that he had a consistent antisocial behavior. Right from his childhood, he has been involved in heinous criminal acts such as breaking into the homes of people, stealing, fighting fellow students at school and raping both boys and girls. He also engaged in soliciting for prostitutes and all these points to a classic case of someone who was a determined criminal without any sense of remorse of empathy. He was also bold since he was not afraid of either killing or being killed in the process of committing criminal offenses (Canter 480). This is sometimes referred to as sociopathy since the victim under consideration was deeply involved in the anti-social and deviant behavior to the extent that there is no one single time in his life when he was not involved in any criminal activity (Selman 370). He was largely someone who was determined to cause havoc by not hesitating to either kill or steal. He was purely insecure and on the pure path of vengeance. The individual meets the criteria of antisocial personality given the fact that he had been involved in the chains of criminal activities without any breaks and even despite the reforms and rehabilitation that he had attended, there were no signs of reforms in his life since even while under incarceration, he still committed acts of murder to his fellow inmates (Woods 92). He was involved in cases of burglary, rape, and theft among others in the society to the extent that he became a social misfit by all standards (Simkin 11). The individual shows some features of the other DSM-IV personality disorders such as aggression. This is evident when he almost killed a girl with an ax that caught him trying to break into a home. He was so aggressive towards his victims and this is the reason as to why he was able to instill fear in them (Bayman 7). To end with, the individual does not show any sign of a major clinical disorder since he was never diagnosed with any and at the same time there are no records as to whether any medical tests were conducted on him and whether he was involved in any issues of drugs and substance abuse at any one time in his life. This can be a great pointer to the fact that the deviant behavior or rather the serial killing tendency of this person purely derived from the environmental factors and the abuse that he had received during his childhood.

Evidence of Other Major Clinical Disorders

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are several lessons that emanate from the characteristics of this serial killer under consideration. The first one is to the effect that the environmental factors are the leading causes of the emergence of deviant or anti-social behavior in the society. This is based on the fact that people who were brought up in violent environments characterized by all sorts of abuse from their caregivers often end up being criminals. This is because they are induced into developing criminal behavior while they are still young as they learn every step by observation. Such persons are often abused and they live a withdrawn life where they feel as though they have been rejected by the system. The environmental factors are thus the leading causes of deviant behavior hence the need for parents, guardians and other caregivers to make sure that they provide their children with the best environment without exposing them to any kind of abuse of whichever nature. The next lesson is to the effect that serial killers of future offenders normally display such characteristics while they are still young. This is why Donald Gaskin was already involved in minor thefts, home burglaries, and rape cases while he was still young, he was also a bully at school. All these were pointers to a person who was going to be a criminal in future hence the need for the society to be on the lookout and identify children with such traits at an early age and help them to work out on their character for the purpose of reforming them for the better. A criminal character is thus not accidental but is something that develops gradually in a person to the extent that it can be eradicated at an early stage of life.

References

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