He turned himself in to police in 1973. More than 50 years later, he's still in the same California prison — now in a wheelchair, denied parole for the 14th time, with his next hearing set for when he'll be 82.
A Violent Childhood
Edmund Emil Kemper III was born December 18, 1948, in Burbank, California. His parents' marriage was troubled, and his mother — Clarnell, whose drinking and harsh personality Kemper would reference throughout his life — separated from his father when Kemper was young. He moved with his mother and sisters to Montana.
By his early teens, Kemper showed clear signs of disturbing behavior: burying a family cat alive at around age 10, killing another cat and decapitating it at 13. His mother became so concerned about his fixation on his sister that she moved him to the basement and refused him contact with the rest of the family, an experience he would later describe as deeply formative in his distorted thinking about women.
Despite an IQ measured at 145 and standing 6'9", Kemper had no stable path forward. At 15, he was sent to live with his paternal grandparents on a remote California farm.
The First Killings
On August 27, 1964, at age 15, Kemper shot and killed both of his grandparents. He later said he shot his grandmother because he wanted to know what it would feel like, and his grandfather to "spare him the sight" of what he had done. He called police himself and was sent to Atascadero State Hospital, a facility for the criminally insane.
There, he was evaluated by psychiatrists and, paradoxically, given significant insight into psychological testing and criminal profiling — knowledge he would later use deliberately to manipulate evaluators. He was found to have made sufficient progress and, against the recommendation of some staff, was released into his mother's custody on his 21st birthday in 1969. He was never supposed to have unsupervised contact with children.
The Santa Cruz Murders
Between May 1972 and April 1973, Kemper killed six young women and teenage hitchhikers in and around Santa Cruz County — mostly students from nearby universities, which gave rise to the "Co-Ed Killer" nickname. He used his friendly, articulate manner to pick up hitchhikers without raising alarm. We're not going to detail the nature of what he did to his victims; it's documented extensively in court records and forensic literature for those who want that level of detail. His crimes were classified among the most extreme in California's criminal history.
On April 20, 1973, Kemper killed his mother at her home in Aptos, then called her friend Sally Hallett and invited her over the next morning, killing her too. He then drove east, apparently expecting a massive manhunt to materialize. When he heard nothing on the radio about being wanted, he called Santa Cruz police from Colorado and confessed, asking them to send someone out to get him. Police initially didn't believe the call was real.
Trial and Conviction
Kemper was tried, found legally sane, and convicted in November 1973 on eight counts of first-degree murder — the six hitchhiking victims plus his mother and her friend. He requested the death penalty during his own sentencing. California had recently suspended executions, so instead he received eight concurrent life sentences.
He has been at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville continuously since his incarceration.
Where Things Stand Now
At 75, Kemper is in declining health. He has diabetes, a history of strokes, coronary heart disease, and uses a wheelchair. His most recent parole hearing was July 9, 2024 — his 14th since becoming eligible. He declined to attend and refused to work with his attorney. Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell attended via video link and stated: "Ed Kemper is one of the most depraved and prolific serial killers of our time. He lacks insight and shows no true remorse for these brutal murders."
Parole was denied. His next scheduled hearing is in 2031, when he will be 82.
Kemper became unusually well known in true crime culture partly through his extensive interviews with FBI agents Robert Ressler and John Douglas in the late 1970s, which contributed to the development of modern criminal profiling methodology. Those conversations were dramatized (not entirely accurately) in the Netflix series Mindhunter. He also narrated audiobooks for the blind for a period in prison, a fact that became widely circulated online and which he apparently found some dark humor in himself.
Sources
Santa Cruz serial killer Ed Kemper denied parole again — Lookout Santa Cruz