Inside Serial Killers’ Minds: What Makes a Monster?

You can’t walk into a room full of true crime fans and drop the words “serial killer” without seeing a few eyes light up. It’s not the blood and guts that draw people in — it’s the question that keeps us up at night: Why? What makes a person cross that line, again and again, until the body count stacks up and the headlines start to blur?

The Question

That’s the question I set out to tackle in the latest episode of my podcast, MJonCrime. “Inside Serial Killers’ Minds” isn’t about glorifying the monsters. It’s about stripping away the myths, getting past the Hollywood nonsense, and looking at the raw, uncomfortable truth. What drives these people? And how do the folks on the other side — the cops, the profilers, the ones who have to look these killers in the eye — hunt them down?

The Blueprint of a Killer

Let’s get one thing straight: there’s no single mold for a serial killer. Sure, you’ll hear about childhood trauma, head injuries, or the classic “Macdonald triad” (bedwetting, fire-setting, animal cruelty). But the truth is messier. Some killers come from broken homes, others from white-picket-fence suburbs. Some are loners, others blend in so well you’d trust them to water your plants.

What they do share is a kind of emptiness — a hole they try to fill with control, power, or just the thrill of the hunt. Psychologists call it a lack of empathy, a failure to connect with other people’s pain. But that’s just the start. Some chase a fantasy, others act out of rage or revenge. The motives twist and turn, but the end result is the same: lives shattered, families left with questions that never get answered.

Hunting the Hunters

Back when I wore a badge, we didn’t have fancy criminal profiling units or DNA databases at our fingertips. We had gut instinct, long hours, and a Rolodex of informants who owed us favors. But even now, with all the tech in the world, catching a serial killer is never easy.

The best investigators know how to read a scene. They look for patterns — victim type, method, location. They speak with people who knew the victims, not just those who make the news. They build timelines, chase down dead ends, and sometimes, they get lucky. But luck isn’t a strategy. The real work happens in the details: the cigarette butt left behind, the way a body is posed, the phone call made at 2 a.m. to a number nobody recognizes.

On the podcast, I break down a few cases that stuck with me. The ones where the killer slipped through the cracks for years, hiding in plain sight. The ones where a single mistake — one fingerprint, one witness who wouldn’t stay quiet — brought them down. I talk about the toll it takes on the people who chase these ghosts, the sleepless nights, the marriages that don’t survive, the partners who drink too much to forget what they’ve seen.

The Dark Corners

People ask me if I ever get used to the darkness. The answer is no. You learn to live with it, to carry it without letting it eat you alive. You remember the victims, not just the killers. You tell their stories because they deserve more than a footnote in someone else’s nightmare.

This episode, Inside Serial Killers’ Minds, isn’t about answers — it’s about asking the right questions. It’s about understanding that evil doesn’t always look like a monster. Sometimes it seems like the guy next door, the woman at the grocery store, the quiet kid in the back of the class.

If you want to know what makes a serial killer tick, you have to be willing to look where most people won’t. You have to listen to the stories nobody wants to tell. That’s what we do on MJonCrime. We shine a light in the darkest corners, not because we like what we find, but because the truth matters. And sometimes, the only way to fight the darkness is to drag it out into the open and stare it down.

That’s the story. No frills, no sugarcoating. Just the facts, the scars, and the questions that keep us coming back for more.

Remember, folks, every crime has a story. My Mission, Tell It.

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