Serial killers, psychopaths etc

[pennydreadful]

When we say 'crossing state lines' though, is that in the sense of crossing the lines to murder in another state, or crossing lines for the purpose of body disposal or evading capture?

I'm not sure about how common it is for serial killers doing the former, but I'm sure I've read about them doing the last two quite frequently. Generally, that's when the FBI get called in.

There have been some instances where I recall specific serial killers with victims in multiple states; Larry W Eyler for one.

They do tend to start out in areas where they're familiar with the geography though.

Interestingly enough, on the subject of serial killers and geography, there were three (totally independent from one another) serial killers operating in the late 70's - early 80's in California, (more details under the spoiler as I don't want to bother anyone who'd rather not know):

Spoiler:

who were all dumping their victims' bodies by the California Freeway. The police actually thought that it was all the work of one killer as, despite the homicide methods varying, the victims were all young males. For all three serial killers, the majority of their murders were all committed in California, and none of the serial killers knew one another. Given that serial killers are meant to be a tiny, tiny fraction of the population, I think it's very interesting that three serial killers could be operating in one area during the same time. One of those "the truth is much more frightening than any kind of fiction" sort of things, I suppose.

(For anyone who wanted to do more reading on this, the serial killers I'm referring to here are Patrick Kearney, Randy Kraft and William Bonin).