Serial Killer "Ed Kemper" Narrated Over 500 Books for the Blind

[fred&edna]

According to a Los Angeles Times article published in 1987, Kemper ran a program in which inmates at the California Medical Facility State Prison at Vacaville recorded audiobooks that would be donated to those in need. By the time the article was written, Kemper had been doing the program for 10 years, and had recorded hundreds of books.
"I can't begin to tell you what this has meant to me, to be able to do something constructive for someone else, to be appreciated by so many people, the good feeling it gives me after what I have done," the murderer told the Los Angeles Times.

http://www.refinery29.com/2017/10/178117/serial-killer-edmund-kemper-narrated-books-for-the-blind


PS Anyone watching Mindhunter on Netflix?! (I'm on episode 3, and I'm thinking maybe there should be a WS thread... anyone else?)

 

[PMLsmom]

(Start one, I binge watched the whole season, and now have to wait until 2019 for season 2 , quite the cliffhanger!)

 

[Bit of hope]

Binge watched it today... Interesting.....

 

[human]

Ugh. I would not want to listen to it.

 

[Harmony 2]

I started watching Mind Hunter but only got halfway through episode one because I thought it was so boring. Do the other episodes get better?

Interesting article though.

 

[fred&edna]

I started watching Mind Hunter but only got halfway through episode one because I thought it was so boring. Do the other episodes get better?

Interesting article though.

Better? Well, yes and no.

These days we know so much more about serial killing, criminal behavior, etc etc... (particularly those of us who are intrigued by crime).
But, it is interesting to see the beginning of this type of study. The early steps of the FBI's involvement/advancement of the BSU (and tough-sell to the hierarchy already in place) as to the importance of "investigation" into the mind of the then-labeled "sequence" (not yet called "serial") killer.

“How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks?”

and

"... if we’re looking for a motive we can understand, and suddenly find there is none. It’s a void. It’s a black hole. Now we have extreme violence against strangers. Where do we go when motive becomes elusive?"

Even today (i.e. Stephen Paddock) we are still learning... and I wonder how far we've actually come in this endeavor.

The series may not be exciting, nor terribly intellectual, nor highly entertaining, but (imo) it's important to know the beginning... and Mindhunter does a fine job with that.

 

[iliketotalk15]

When I first heard this, I thought I could not do it because of how distinctive his voice was, but then realized that was just Mindhunter's Ed. Real life Ed's voice is much less distinctive, I believe.

Good for him, I guess. A nearby prison here does a lot of work for the blind as well, including creating a map for the blind at my school. It is impressive work.

 

[fred&edna]

The LA Times article from 1987

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-01-29/news/mn-2252_1_blind-couple



For the more curious (a list of books he narrated) but ONLY if you want to hear Kempers voice (uneventful imo):

https://web.archive.org/web/2015070...alog_search_results.php?reader_name=ed+kemper

 

[Hazelnutty]

Mindhunter's Edmund Kemper pegs out on the creepy scale. I just watched last episode of Season one. I'm eagerly awaiting Season 2.

Mindhunters thread?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J320A using Tapatalk

 

[fred&edna]

Mindhunter's Edmund Kemper pegs out on the creepy scale. I just watched last episode of Season one. I'm eagerly awaiting Season 2.

Mindhunters thread?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J320A using Tapatalk

I didn't start one because...

a) I wasn't sure where it should go (heading?)
b) I wasn't sure there was a lot of interest

I say go for it... if you'd like

 

[Bit of hope]

Better? Well, yes and no.

These days we know so much more about serial killing, criminal behavior, etc etc... (particularly those of us who are intrigued by crime).
But, it is interesting to see the beginning of this type of study. The early steps of the FBI's involvement/advancement of the BSU (and tough-sell to the hierarchy already in place) as to the importance of "investigation" into the mind of the then-labeled "sequence" (not yet called "serial") killer.

“How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks?”

and

"... if we’re looking for a motive we can understand, and suddenly find there is none. It’s a void. It’s a black hole. Now we have extreme violence against strangers. Where do we go when motive becomes elusive?"

Even today (i.e. Stephen Paddock) we are still learning... and I wonder how far we've actually come in this endeavor.

The series may not be exciting, nor terribly intellectual, nor highly entertaining, but (imo) it's important to know the beginning... and Mindhunter does a fine job with that.

Couldn't have said it better. No it is not very "deep". We know so much more nowadays, thanks to this pioneers. I find it also interesting from a viewpoint what it does to people/LE having to deal with this horrific murderers.

 

[fred&edna]

Ugh. I would not want to listen to it.

I was unimpressed by his narrating.

However, my mother suffered decreased vision for years until finally she was blind. Before all this she was an avid reader (also a lover of art and music). It pains me to think she might have been listening to a murderer but, at that time there was not an abundance of actor-narrated audiobooks, so she didn't have much choice. Often the "readers" were just monotone voices, and obviously she certainly didn't enjoy audio-reading as much as actual reading. But, these books kept her a little more connected to life... they kept her thinking and living. She didn't complain. She's been gone a few years now, but I honestly think that if I could tell her she might have been listening to Edmund Kemper, she'd eventually just ask if she could call him up and give him some pointers on voice projection, acting, and how to better the whole dang process. She probably would have thanked him, also.

 

[fred&edna]

And, for those who are enjoying Mindhunter...

Here's a great article (history and questioning thoughts on the FBI's criminal profiling) including the models for the characters of the series:

Dangerous Minds - Criminal profiling made easy (New Yorker - 2007)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/11/12/dangerous-minds

 

[LadyL]

creepy

 

[Bob4444]

I can't help but feel that Ed done it more for vanity, then again I'm not a psychologist.