A paraphilia is sexual behaviour that lies outside conventional bounds, such as exhibitionism. They are of interest in that lust killers commonly also exhibit paraphilias, and they can form an association with killing. Voyeurism sometimes features in association with lust killing, as a gateway activity. A fetish describes sexual arousal to an inanimate object, while a partialism describes sexual arousal to particular body features, such as feet. Serial lust killers often take objects (such as items of clothing) from their victims, in an attempt to recreate the killing, accompanied by masturbation. Sometimes a body part is taken, such as a breast. The term ‘picquerism’ refers to sexual arousal derived from cutting the skin. There are some features in common between non-lethal rape and lust killing. Rape sometimes serves as a gateway activity for lust killing. Some men are attracted to necrophilia without showing violence towards their target.

Some serial lust killers suffer from erectile dysfunction in the context of a consensual relationship with a living human. In one sample of them, 44 per cent indicated erectile difficulties. It appears that some killers can only secure and maintain an erection, if at all, in the presence of a dead body, as with John Christie, or blood, as with Andrei Chikatilo. More speculatively, Robert Lee Yates Jr. also fits this description. It appears that John Christie was mocked for erectile difficulties. He viewed the body of his grandfather, which possibly had a role in the tragedy. It is possible that being gassed in World War I contributed to his pathological sexuality. Andrei Chikatilo is the most famous serial killer from the USSR. His early life in the Ukraine was associated with a multitude of different stressors. His erectile difficulties might have stemmed in part from bullying and taunting.

Some future lust killers had an early identifiable traumatic experience. By the time they become adult, the experience has been relabeled with some positive qualities and forms a target of desire. This appears to be something like fetishes and partialisms linked to objects. Harold Shipman witnessed the death of his mother in association with a medical injection of morphine. Later he sought to repeat the experience on his patients. Shipman is included here as an example of necrophilia, even though we don’t know that he had physical sexual contact. Albert Fish was witness to severe corporal punishment as a child and later inflicted this on others. Anatoly Slivko witnessed a police officer killing a dog and getting blood on his shoes. He also witnessed blood from a boy, a Young Pioneer, killed in a traffic accident. Later he killed a series of boys dressed in the uniform of Young Pioneers.

Some sex-linked killers feel a deep resentment against their mothers. This is often for their treatment in the family, as in harsh punishment and/or favouring siblings. In turn, the resentment fuels a corresponding hatred against women. John Crutchley was a suspect in a number of lust killings, but ws never found guilty. However, his sexual turn on was to abduct women and remove blood from them. Henry Lee Lucas exemplifies a particularly toxic development creating the circumstances for killing. Bobby Joe Long suffered damage to his head, which might well have involved brain damage and harmed his development. He appears to have developed a hatred towards women as a result of what he perceived to be his mother’s immorality. Carroll Edward ('Eddie') Cole shows a similarly based resentment towards his mother. Articulate heterosexual killer Edmund Kemper was harshly treated in his family, particularly by his mother.

A desire for belonging is a fundamental feature of humans. Securing and maintaining a bond is rewarding, whereas abandonment, jilting and loneliness trigger strongly aversive feelings. The chapter’s emphasis is upon belonging,and the theoretical basis of understanding Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen is different from those in the preceding chapters. They seem to be motivated by a combination of sexual desire and an abnormally powerful desire to avoid rejection and loneliness. This led them in a perverse direction whereby the need might even be met by a zombie partner. This raises the question of whether finding early on a conventional secure and compliant attachment could have prevented their killings. There is little or no evidence to suggest that they enjoyed killing or held sadistic desires. Dahmer suffered from neglect. Nilsen seemed to imprint upon the image of his dead grandfather.

This chapter continues the theme of the last two in terms of imprinting on a particular object and event, but the two cases described are somewhat more speculative. They are paired together because of their similarity. Both killers were raised in very squalid conditions under the powerful influence of their mothers. Both were exposed to an animal carcass being strung up by their parents. Both subsequently strung up female victims in a manner comparable to the carcass, suggesting a transformation of something aversive into something attractive. Apart from killing two women, Gein dug up bodies of women,who bore some resemblance to his mother, and used body parts as fetish objects. Gein’s behaviour was not associated with dominance. Pickton was subject to harsh punishment as a boy. He was sometimes high on crack cocaine and his victims were sex workers in Vancouver, who were killed in the act of intercourse.