Analyzing the Most Notorious US Serial Killers with Former FBI Profiler Jim Clemente

Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente analyzes the behavior and motives of some of America’s most notorious serial killers.

The conversation kicks off with long-term abductor and murderer Gary Heidnik, who had six victims at one point.

“He chose his victims well. What he did was basically take advantage of people who were mentally disabled, and of prostitutes who didn’t have anybody to look out for them,” Clemente said of this serial killer. “Nobody really knew they were missing until well into this problem.”

Heidnik started out with one victim, then branched out with another one, and another, and so on. “He basically dug a dirt hole, threw them in there, and put plywood over it with sandbags on top so they couldn’t get out.” Heidnik was sadistic in nature and used horrendous torture methods against his victims, including pouring water in the hole where they lived and then electrocuting them – the way one woman died.

Clemente said this killer gave his victims a system of punishments and rewards to control their behavior. “Basically he saw himself as a god and wanted to start a whole new society, he wanted to populate the earth. The way he was going to do it was have these women hostages - he raped them, he wanted to impregnate them.”

Also discussed are the so-called Speed Freak Killers, Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine. “They were basically meth-heads and were looking for something exciting to do. Literally on the flash of the moment they would decide, ‘Hey, see that car over there, let’s go kill whoever is in that car.’”

Victims were random and they would just choose people who were somehow in their path. “But on the other hand, they would target women they wanted to rape. So they did a lot of vile, disgusting things… All of it though was aimed at, let’s see if we can top what we did before.”

Regarding Louisiana serial killer Ronald Dominique, Clemente calls him “a pathetic example of humanity.” “This guy was the king of rationalization,” he noted about this murderer linked to 29 male victims.

“When they did catch him and they brought him in, he basically said, ‘Well, actually I accidentally killed them because I was so afraid they were going to rape me.’ So here’s a guy who’s entrapping, and tying up, and raping men, and he’s killing them because he says he’s afraid they were going to rape him. I mean it was so ridiculous, but he really tried to sell that.”

He points out that it wasn’t until there were nine dead men - one actually a teenager - before police finally launched a task force to investigate Dominique as a serial killer.

Clemente calls Israel Keyes likely the most “criminally sophisticated” serial killer in recent times. “He’s a very brilliant guy, a very tactically-oriented guy. We don’t know how many people he killed – we believe it’s at least 36 – but it could be more.” He admitted to 11 of those after he was captured.

“He actually set up operation in Alaska because he knew it was the least populated state, he knew the least number of cops would be there, and that they wouldn’t be looking for a serial killer up there.”

He explained that Keyes would first rob banks and then purchased all necessary items for his “kill kits.” Typically, he would travel far from where he lived to carry out the killings, and was meticulous about covering his tracks and getting rid of evidence before returning home.

“The thing about him was, he was absolutely random, a very enigmatic killer because his victims were a random pool, it could a guy this time, it could a woman the next time, it could be a couple that time. And it was all about building a web, and then seeing who fell into it.”

Watch the full episode for more serial assessments, and to hear Clemente’s view that Jesse Matthew - the suspect in the Hannah Graham abduction who is also suspected in the disappearance of another woman who was found dead - exhibits potential serial killer characteristics.