Though he is smiling and looks very happy and nice, Edmund Kemper is anything but that. He not only killed hitchhikers but shot his grandparents at the age of 15 and decapitated his mother. He hated both his mother and grandmother and had displaced his anger at his mother onto Maude (his mother). Kemper grabbed a rifle, and when she warned him not to shoot any birds he turned around and fired a bullet at her. It hit her in the head and though she was already did he continued by shooting her in the back twice.

 As a child he lived with his mother and father. He was close to his father, but he divorced his mother in 1957 when Kemper was nine and she moved with him and his siblings to Montana. It was a difficult separation for Edmund him and to toughen him up his mother often locked him in the basement. He hated his mother but spoke as if he understood why she did what she did. In many different interviews, he talked about all of the things he was afraid of and the things he imagined doing.

Kemper began killing because of another killer, Herbert Mullin. What started it, according to what he said in several interviews, was his mother's constant needling and humiliation. He killed what he called "pretty female hitchhikers." He also said that he was afraid that he'd fail in heterosexual relationships something he said he helped fuel his desire to kill women. When he picked them up he drove to a remote area quickly and shot them. He confessed on April 23rd, 1973, he had 10 victims.

Safety tips

• DO NOT HITCHHIKE it is very dangerous, many people have gone missing while doing this.