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.During the trial, they repeatedly made Satanic symbols and stuck their tongues out at the spectators.A seventeen-year-old killer vampire profiled in Children Who Kill did the exact same thing.The judge called for psychiatric background reports and these found that both of the accused were narcissistic exhibitionists.Such adults have often been ignored or abandoned as children and grow up with a desperate need for attention, even if it’s negative.The judiciary noted that the couple would probably never have killed if they hadn’t met each other.This is undoubtedly true – Manuela would have continued to seek attention through the transgressive club scene and Daniel would have maintained a grip on reality through his work, getting rid of his aggression at skinhead rallies and violent political events.It was only when they became a couple that they dropped out of society and completely immersed themselves in murderous plans.SentencingOn 31st January 2002 Manuela Ruda was sentenced to thirteen years in a secure mental facility and her husband was given fifteen years, also to be served in a psychiatric institution.The court ordered that they must never be allowed to meet again.Surprisingly, neither Ruda was resistant to the order (though they may have secret plans to defy it) and both are now seeking a divorce.18 MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALSTHE ‘ABUSE EXCUSE’Couples who kill tend to fit into distinct categories.That is, a small number who kill for profit, mainly those who murder babies then live off the child allowance or other adoption placement fees.Frances Schreuder (aided by her abused son Marc) also murdered for profit to enjoy her father’s wealth and Louisa Merrifield killed to enjoy her employer’s estate.Similarly, some of Archibald Hall and Michael Kitto’s murders were motivated by the desire to enjoy the trappings of an upper-class life.A second category kill out of fear, notably Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson who killed their newborn infant rather than admit to their families that they’d had sex.A third grouping murder out of jealousy – Diane Zamora and David Graham exterminated a potential rival whilst George Stoner murdered Alma Rattenbury’s husband in order to have her all to himself.This, though, is a subcategory of fear, with the killers murdering to avoid being deserted, a fate which terrifies them.A fourth and much smaller group suffer from serious mental illness – namely the Papin sisters and vampire killers Daniel and Manuela Ruda.There were also traces of mental illness (but not insanity) in the schizophrenic Leonard Lake and the obsessive-compulsive George Woldt.But by far the biggest group kill for power and thrills.Bittaker & Norris, Bianchi & Buono, Corll & Henley, Lake & Ng, Coleman & Brown all fit into this category.All made clear statements of their motivation to their victims, from Roy Norris’s ‘scream bitch scream’ to Lake’s explicit diary about keeping sexual slaves.This power and thrills motivation also applies to many killer couples who aren’t profiled here such as Raymond Fernandez & Martha Beck, David & Catherine Birnie, Judith & Alvin Neelley, Karla Homolka & Paul Barnardo, Gwendolyn Graham & Cathy Wood, Carol Bundy & Doug Clark.(All of the women apart from Martha Beck are profiled in Women Who Kill.)What the individuals in these five groups have in common is that most were from abusive or deeply dysfunctional backgrounds.Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris had suffered emotional and physical abuse throughout their childhoods and Bittaker has spoken of being multiply sexually abused.Angelo Buono also endured a miserable childhood at the hands of his mother after which he hated women.His adoptive cousin Ken Bianchi fared little better, as his natural mother gave him to a childminder who abandoned the infant for hours at a time and only returned to treat him cruelly, then he was constantly spanked and scolded by his adoptive mum.Dean Corll suffered in childhood at the hands of his authoritarian father and obsessive mother.Serial killers often have multiply-married mothers – and Corll’s married five times.His co-killer Wayne Henley had endured poverty and abuse throughout his formative years and was addicted to alcohol by age fifteen.The same formative deprivation holds true for Leonard Lake who was abandoned twice by his mother.Charles Ng suffered even more cruelly as a young boy, for his father – hoping to turn him into an exemplary scholar – bound him and beat him frequently.Such childhood suffering has been described by so many killers that it’s become cynically known as ‘the abuse excuse’ – but most such killers accounts are backed up by eye-witness statements.Many were known by social services to be at risk, whilst others had relatives who knew that they were beaten, humiliated or starved of love.Psychotherapist Gaynor McManus has written that many of her clients in prison are ‘men who were systematically ill-treated as children … men who learned that violence works when they reached the age of sixteen or seventeen and hit their fathers back for the first time.It is only when they ask for therapy in their quest to change their lives that they learn to understand the reasons for their anti-social behaviour and to realise they have choices.’The 2004 London Mayor’s Report also noted that ‘physical punishment of children breaches their fundamental rights to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity’ and added ‘research has shown that its use may cause behavioural problems in childhood and later life
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