Reason First: Was It All In His Head? -The Gerald Eugene Stano Case

With forty-one confessed homicides to his name, Gerald Eugene Stano represents the mixed-up murderer. At first, he was in a bad way as he practiced coprophagia (eating of one’s feces) as a child in a foster home. Born Paul Zeininger, Stano was adopted by Nurse Norma Stano who adored the young boy. Like other serial killers, he experienced bullying early on. But Stano was having none of this. He stole, bribed people, and performed poorly in school, excluding music class.

His killing spree didn’t officially start until 1973, nevertheless, he was thought to have been linked to the murders of girls who lived in his area in the late 1960’s. Most of his victims included prostitutes, wayward girls, and hitchhikers. He perpetrated his vicious deeds mainly in New Jersey and Florida, the state which executed him on March 23, 1998.

Stano should be studied. He was not particularly bright, only moderately cunning and charming, and though most serial killers experience some abuse in childhood, correlation certainly does not equal causation; most bullying victims do not grow up to become serial killers, especially if they have loving parents, which Stano certainly did. Therefore it’s likely research would uncover some organic cause for his disordered thinking patterns, perhaps even chemical imbalances in his brain.

His adoptive parents treated him well, and only scolded him. When he stole money from his father’s wallet to bribe some boys from school to make it look like he’d won a running competition he actually lost.Stano’s persuasive nature made it easy for him to pick up the women he victimized; he had no problem playing them like a mandolin. By displaying a gentlemanly air and a willingness to go beyond just being a pleasant fellow, Stano impressed his soon-to-be victims. His meticulousness when cleaning his crime scenes helped evade capture, and his lack of empathy made it easier for him to act on impulse to satisfy his urges. In fact, there’s no evidence he ever tried to seek help to quell the raging forces in his psyche, and hindsight makes it obvious he must’ve been suffering some undiagnosed neuroses at the very least. In all likelihood, Stanos killed to feel a sense of power over unpleasant emotions of some kind. He never raped his victims, or defiled their corpses, but his wide variety of killing methods—stabbing, shooting, strangling—suggest a person experimenting with different means of asserting life and death control over other human beings. Stano’s harsh way of dealing with the opposite sex squashed any chances of him developing a winning relationship with any of them.

Stano’s long list of murders was a result of his psychopathic drive to terrorize as many women aged twelve to fifty. A surge of power coursed through his veins as he sliced the women to death and then meticulously cleaned up the scene of the crimes. His victims received stab, gunshot, and strangulation wounds but Stano never raped them alive nor defiled their corpses.

His murderous ways surfaced and their fates had been sealed. What Stano failed to do lies with his days as a mediocre student and childhood miscreant. He wanted to steal money, glory, fame, and ended up thieving lives.

It’s impossible to have ever gone in Stano’s head. No psychiatric officials could have even entered into his mind. Ans since no evidence shows him receiving behavioral healthcare, it is impossible to see his vicious roots, mentally. So, Stano will forever go down as someone without a clear distinction of why he commited his wicked crimes. For his ugly ways, he will also be placed in the hall of shame of serial killers.