The Life of a Serial Killer: Patrick Wayne Kearney

TABLE OF CONTENTS

        Page

The Life of a Serial Killer: Patrick Wayne Kearney                 2

Childhood                 2

Adulthood                 2-3

Personality                 3

Disorganized Murders                 3-4

Motivation                 4

Past/Relationships                 4-5

Works Cited                 6

Ronaldo Naveo

Ms. Sargent

English 7 Period 1

15 December 2016

The Life of a Serial Killer: Patrick Wayne Kearney

Childhood

Patrick Wayne Kearney, born September 24, 1939, was a known serial killer with the alias name of “The Trash Bag Killer” and “The Freeway Killer.” (Blanco 1) Born in Los Angeles, California, Kearney was the oldest of three siblings and was “raised in a stable family.” (Blanco 1) Although that was the case, Kearney often found himself being bullied at school. Most of the time, it was usually because of his appearance. He usually fantasized about killing people but did not begin until 1965. Around the age of 13, Kearney’s father, George Kearney, taught him how to kill pigs. Learning this skill, he would often find himself killing animals “unsupervised” and “found pleasure rolling around in the blood and guts.” (Cook et al. 1) His family often found themselves moving around California which had Kearney finding a passion for blood. From the ages between 5-16, Kearney has moved around California more than five times. With every school he transferred to, he was bullied. After graduating high school, Kearney left for the air force seeking an adventure he was never going to have.

Adulthood

Kearney joined the air force at the age of 19 and thought he was going to travel the world. Instead of traveling the world, he was stationed in Texas. There he met his gay lover, David Hill. They would both be discharged from the air force and would move in together in Long Beach, California in 1962. Hill would leave him for year and would lead Kearney to kill his first victim, have sex with victim’s body, and then mutilate it. With that aside, Kearney was able to find a job at Hughes Aircraft as an engineer which led him to have a decent living. He seemed to fit into society but nobody really knew what went on his head. From 1962 through 1977, he killed his victims until he was finally caught. He confessed up to 35 murders, but was only convicted for 21 of them. This would sentence him to jail at Mule Creek State Prison in California for a lifetime in which he still resides today.

Personality

Patrick Kearney wasn’t the loudest person in the crowd. He was described as a “slight, quiet, shy boy” who did not have any friends. (Malacco 1) His personality started to grow since the other kids that bullied him called him names like “girly-boy,” “queer-boy,” and “little fagott.” (Malacco 1) He grew up resenting bullies which had him often thinking about killing and murder. When he learned how to hunt at the age of 13, the texts implied that those skills he learned were not planned in hunting animals, but in hunting other humans. He fine-tuned his skills so later on he could be quite skilled at hunting humans. The texts does not say if he had a personality disorder but I can imply that he had antisocial personality disorder and society made him out to become a sociopath. But it wasn’t later on in life of when he killed his first victim.

Disorganized Murders

Patrick was not an organized serial killer. Most of his killings came off of rage and anger. He would usually kill his victims after arguing with David Hill, his lover. He also was a necrophilia and mutilated the victim’s body parts. He picked his victims from picking them up from gay bars or “helping” hitch hikers get to their destination. He killed most of his victims the same way, shooting them in the temple above the ear while he was driving. He also abducted children, but were not his main victims. The victims were only male, but came in a wide range of them. They were mostly male adults but there were many male children raped and killed. After he had the pleasure of having sex with the dead bodies and mutilation, Kearney would put the dismembered bodies into trash bags and throw them out on the highway while driving. Hence, the alias names “The Trash Bag Killer” and “The Freeway Killer.”

 Kearney was captured off a mistake he made. A man named John LaMay went to see David Hill at their house but only Kearney was there. So he invited him in and shot LaMay in the back of the head. Before being murdered, LaMay told a friend where he was heading to and the police was on Kearney’s case. Kearney specified his killings by saying “it excited him and gave him a feeling of dominance.” (Malocco 1) Kearney has had a lot of anger stored up back in his school days from children picking on him to calling him names. This caused him to be the serial killer that he was.