On April 24, 1973 (Easter Sunday) A call comes into the Santa Cruz California Police Department from a payphone 1,300 miles away in Pueblo Colorado. The male caller asks for a specific Lt. but is put on hold after being informed that that officer does not work on weekends. Frustrated, he hangs up but calls back. Stating I have information about all those dead girls, I am the one you’re looking for. I am the Co-Ed Killer. Today’s episode with dive deep into the background, crimes, and fate of Edward Kemper III – confessed Family Annihilator Twice-over, CO-ED Killer, and guiding forefather to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.

This was a scary time for those living in California. As heads and eviscerated body parts were being discovered in wooded areas, the police were left baffled. Initially, they concluded that these crimes had to be related, but the evidence did not connect them. One of these hunters would be labeled by the press as The CO-ED killer.  The male telephone caller, now confessing to being the killer who has terrorized so many for so long, now sits patiently by the phone until the local police come out and arrest him. Identified as 24-year-old Santa Cruz resident Edmund Kemper III, the confessed serial killer would sit in a car with police and the District Attorney as he is transported back to Santa Cruz to await his fate. During the ride, he talked, and he talked, and slowly he can connect the dots to every single case so precisely that they can link all the evidence to his statements to the crime scenes.

On May 7, 1973, Kemper was indicted on the 8 murders to which he had confessed. His trial would begin 9 months later on October 23rd. Kemper pleaded not guilty because of insanity and obtained one of the best legal and forensic teams available.