Sociopathic Personalities / Serial Murders
by Joanne Wickenburg
Read comments on this article.
Transcribed and edited from a lecture originally given
at the 1994 ISAR Conference.
I got into this particular research project on a fluke.
Having all of the planets on the setting side of my chart, I find that
almost everything I do in life is started on a fluke, and I'm always
surprised at the outcomes.
As far as statistical research is concerned, I am a
novice, and even a bit naive regarding the appropriate strategies that
should be used when approaching research projects. One day several years
ago my phone rang. It was a detective with the Homicide Division of the
Seattle Police Department. He wanted me to look at something and asked if
he could talk to me about a murder that had just occurred in the Seattle
area. The particular modus operandi was worrisome because it appeared to
be the birth of a new serial killer. I said, "Sure, come on
out". Then I wondered what in the world I could do. I had no idea
what to look for as far as a serial killer was concerned. But I was a
great detective novel buff so I thought meeting the gentleman would be
interesting if nothing more.
He came to my home with the birth date of a young man who
he suspected might be the culprit. An ax murder had just occurred, he told
me. A block away from the murder site the detective had found a man
sitting alone in his car very late at night. He started talking to the
young man and discovered that he was a Tibetan Buddhist who believed in
reincarnation. This made him a suspect in this detective's eyes. Needless
to say, my eyebrows rose slightly.
We had a little talk about how many people believe in
reincarnation. He wasn't very happy with what I had to say but I offered
to do a solar chart of the young suspect just to see what I could see. When I
looked at the chart I noticed that the young man was in the middle of a
Saturn return; at the same time transiting Pluto was going over his Sun. I
thought certainly he was going through a major life transition but does
this mean he was a serial murderer? I felt a sense of dread about saying
anything about the young man's chart. I asked the detective if he could
find out the birth time. He told me he would try.
I was scheduled to speak at an astrology conference the
following week. Because of this new interest in research I attended some
of the research presentations, and also talked to Lois Rodden. She had
just come out with her new book, "Profiles in Crime". I learned
about the ISAR-Rodden data base, got home, ordered all of the charts of
murderers and realized that if I was actually going to profile a serial
murderer I needed to select only those people who were in fact serial
murderers. I decided, before entering the data into my computer, that I
would only use those people who had committed the crime singularly. I
already knew the FBI profile for serial murderers and had read many books
on the subject. So I selected only charts of people who had committed more
than one murder that was classified as a sex crime and fit the FBI
profile. I researched the killers' bios to make sure their crimes fit
within the parameters I had set.
At that same conference, I met with Alphie Lavoie. He had
developed a user-friendly Astrological Research Program. I could simply
press a button and it would go through all of the charts in a certain file
and tell me the percentage of the group having planets in a certain sign,
house, aspects or any number of vast possibilities.
I ended up with 44 clean charts of killers who fit the FBI
profile of a serial murderer. The charts were classified as A, AA, and one
or two might have been B. All charts classified as A were verifiably
accurate records of birth time and place. B rated data had come from an
autobiography or a biography. I decided before I started that I would not
use any of the dirty data, or data that had not been verified as accurate.
Almost all of these charts were for people born in the 20th century so I
knew that I could not do much with the outer planets unless they were
aspected to personal or social planets (Moon through Saturn). Otherwise I
would find almost all of them shared things like the Neptune/Pluto sextile
that had been going on for decades.
Now 44 charts does not a research project make; however it
seemed to be enough to get an idea if something was going to show up. Here
are some of the things that I found:
Thirty-one out of forty-four had sun or moon in
Sagittarius or Capricorn. That's 74%. And while Gemini sun-signs stood
out, only four of the Gemini's were not included in the
Sagittarius/Capricorn moon group.
I suspected that I would find "signatures" that
described men who were very intense, such as an emphasis of Moon in
Scorpio. To my surprise, not one of these killers had Moon in Scorpio!
From a statistical perspective I realized that it was not
important to know the interpretative value of my findings, but of course I
was curious and gave it considerable thought. I decided that I should look
at my findings from a statistical perspective only – do up a profile and
without interpreting the profile, have some data with which to prove a
significant fact. If for example, I was going to work with the police
department and go through a list of suspects, I could prioritize or
categorize things based on the astrological profile that I was attempting
to create.
None of these people had the Moon in Scorpio. Was I
surprised? You bet I was! In fact, only 9% had the Moon in a fixed sign.
Only two people had the Sun in Scorpio.
There was only one Aquarius Moon; no Aquarian Suns.
I also found that 32% had the ruler of the ascendant in
either Sagittarius or Capricorn. Everything kept going back to those same
two signs.
In 41% of the cases the Moon was either the highest, most
elevated or the lowest planet in the chart. Even though the interpretation
of this may not be significant from a statistical perspective, the FBI
profile of serial murderers places a strong emphasis on a dysfunctional
family and issues around the mother (there I go interpreting).
Saturn was the most elevated planet in 25% of the charts.
The Capricorn, Saturn, Moon, emphasis seem to be a strong signature. The
mean-average of Saturn rising or in the 12th house would be 16%. In 38.5%
of serial murders it was here.
For the Moon phases, 77.3% had the Sun and Moon within 45
degrees of the new or full moon. That was in both directions. Basically we
are dealing with incredible differences. The first quarter phase and the
third quarter phase were not well represented in the charts. I have heard
that there are more people born at the time of the full moon than at any
other phase. I don't know if that is true or if any study has actually
been made about that but it is something that should be considered before
drawing any conclusions.
I did find that the Mars-Sun angle seemed to be
significant. Of these people, 56.8% were born when the Sun was within 45
degrees on either side of Mars. On a mean-average it is about 25%. We are
finding more than double of what we should expect to find.
55.4% had Pluto between the ascendant and the MC. That is
interesting from an interpretive perspective. Pluto has to do with what we
are living out in terms of where we are on the social evolutionary cycle
of things, and how we, as individuals, are contributing to either the
evolution or destruction of mankind. 73% had Pluto in the northern half of
the chart.
I suspected to find more of the personal planets
retrograde, because retrogrades ask us to look at who we are and
understand how we differ from the masses. I was surprised to discover no
significant emphasis of retrogrades. On the average, 19% of all people
have Mercury retrograde in their charts. 22.7% of the serial murderers
did. Not enough to be significant. On an average 37.5% of the people have
Saturn retrograde in their charts. 50% of the serial murderers did. From
my calculations 41.6% of the people had Uranus retrograde and 59% of the
serial murderers had Neptune retrograde. I expected to find an emphasis of
Venus and Mars retrograde. Actually they were retrograde less frequently
than average. However, I did find an interesting emphasis of Mars and
Venus in New and Balsamic phase, while none of these people had this
planetary pair in full phase.
Shortly after my initial experience with the Seattle
Police detective, my daughter started working for the SPD as a 911
operator and radio dispatcher. She is now one of the first
"civilians" to work with the SWAT team, going to the scene of
major incidences and functioning as the central communications
coordinator. In other words, as she likes to say, she "tells the cops
where to go and what to do" and handles all of the radio
communications between the various officers. Now she's married to a cop!
(Yes, my life is one big fluke!) Because this has given me access to the
police department, I have been able to visit her at the job and I have had
an first-hand opportunity to learn a great deal about police procedure. I
am hoping that I will be able to acquire more data on criminals and expand
my current database to include other types of crimes. If any of you have
access to confirmed data on serial murderers, I would certainly appreciate
it if you could send it to me.
I never thought that I would be interested in statistical
research, but now I find it quite exciting. I encourage all of you to look
into things from a statistical perspective. I think you will find that
some of our traditional beliefs about certain aspects, midpoints or so
forth simply don't stand up to scrutiny. On the other hand, the new
perspectives and facts that emerge out of research can be invaluable.
Thank you very much.
|
|
Joanne Wickenburg
web3.foxinternet.net/jwickenburg
jwickenburg@foxinternet.net
Joanne Wickenburg was one of the first authors to develop the
psychological dimension of astrology in straightforward language. A
practicing astrologer of long experience, she has conducted classes and
workshops throughout the USA and Canada, and has designed and teaches an
internationally recognized Correspondence Course in astrology.
Joanne is one of the founding Board Members of The Kepler College of
Astrological Arts and Sciences. She currently Chairs the Board of Trustees
as well as serving on the Curriculum Committee. Kepler College is the
first-ever liberal arts college to offer undergraduate and graduate
degrees in astrology. The entire Kepler curriculum is presented through
the lens of astrology.
Joanne has served as both President and Treasurer of the Washington
State Astrological Association, who presented her with the Most
Inspirational Astrologer award in 1982. She was a nominee for the 1998
International Regulus Award in Education. She has professional
certification through both the American Federation of Astrologers and the
Washington State Astrological Association. She Chaired the Certification
Committee for the Washington State Astrological Association between 1983
and 1995. Joanne has lectured for numerous astrology associations and has
been a faculty member at many conferences throughout the US and Canada,
including AFA, UAC, NORWAC, SWAC and ISAR. She has served on the Steering
Committee of the Association for Astrological Networking.
Joanne is the author of many popular books on astrology, many of which
are used as classroom texts by teachers throughout the country.
Your
Hidden Powers: Intercepted Signs & Retrograde Planets
In
Search of a Fulfilling Career
A
Journey through the Birth Chart
Co-author of:
The
Spiral of Life
The Digested Astrologer
When Your Sun Returns
Joanne has also written chapters in two of Llewellyn's anthology books
-- "The Planets" and "How to Personalize the Outer
Planets" and has published several articles on astrology.
Don't miss
our Links page
for the most extensive
annotated list
of astrology research
articles and resources
on the web.
|
