Delphi Murders - Blog Posts

Delphi Murderer: A Short Typological Analysis #3

Introduction

I've been interested in psychologically profiling the Delphi murderer for a while. However, this is a difficult undertaking considering the notable lack of crime scene description. So this is going to be a rather short analysis and highly speculative analysis without references to Jung nor personality typologies derived from witness description.

On February 13, 2017, Liberty German and Abigail Williams were visiting the train tracks on a day off school in Delphi, Indiana. During the course of their trek, Liberty German recorded a video using the camera of her phone of a suspicious man following them. The man recorded was a 5'6" to 5'10" heavyset male with reddish-brown hair. The man later had approached the two girls at which point an audio recording was taken where the suspect can supposedly be heard saying, "Hey guys... Down the hill". The bodies of the two girls were later found on February 14th. The case remains unsolved to this day.

Typological Analysis

Serial killers can usually be organized into six typologies each with their own unique incentive, ideas, thoughts and methods of killing. The varieties of these types are the organized killer and disorganized killer and the main types are the visionary killer, the mission-oriented killer, the hedonistic killer (thrill, lust and comfort) and the power-oriented killer.

Typology of the Delphi Killer

Typology of killers using the O/U dichotomy is near useless on its own, but it's all we really have in this scenario. The murderer was most likely of a disorganized variety with an unknown main type. It's unlikely this murder was pre-meditated because, considering the location of the crime, it'd be almost impossible to know when and where the victims would be alone in the days preceding the murder. Murderers who kill children are also more likely to have low scores across all areas of cognitive functioning, were less likely to pre-meditate their murder and were also more likely to have a history of mental illness. So, both the statistical analysis and specificities of the crime fit perfectly into the disorganized killer category.

Interestingly, a moment of insight on his main typology may come from an unexpected source. In Supt. Carter's message to the killer he stated, "we know this is about power to you", in reference to the killer's motivation. This suggests they know of a power-oriented typology. If he is power-oriented it suggests his victims fit a type, are strangers but were stalked beforehand. A power-oriented disorganized mix can be contradictory.

Sadly, we cannot speculate on his big five personality typology considering the lack of crime scene analysis and dialogue between the killer and others.

Speculation, Comparisons to Other Killers, Psychological Profile

Because of his disorganized typology, we can speculate he has a low IQ, has an impulsive personality, is odd and socially awkward, most likely lives near the location of the crime, is sexually incompetent, is highly introverted, made rituals of the bodies after, has father or mother's who's work was unstable, lives alone, was harshly disciplined as a child and is in an unskilled field of work.

From research on child murderers, we can speculate multiple traits of the killer. He most likely has low scores on all forms of cognitive functioning, has a history of mental illness, is aged nineteen to forty-two, has previous child sex abuse charges, partakes in unskilled work or is unemployed, he also most likely killed out of opportunity and actually lived in the area. The idea of him being a local in the area is interesting, considering many people believe he was a local of Delphi. This could mean he had excellent spatial memory or awareness.

Traits that carry across statistics:

-Low IQ

-Local

-Unskilled work or unemployed

From this we can assume he has extremely low conscientiousness.

Outro

The tragic case of Liberty German and Abigail Williams is one of frustration and unanswered questions. It's been four years and no closure have been provided to the family or the concerned public. All we can really do now is speculate and possibly bring to light who this criminal was in other ways.

Sources:

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/liberty-german/@@download.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307819660_The_Traits_and_the_Thrill_of_Serial_Killers

https://www.marshall.edu/forensics/files/Baber_Seminar2014_ODcsp.pdf

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170405144216.htm

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093854817699437

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Exploring-Potential-%E2%80%98Extra-Familial%E2%80%99-Child-Homicide-Pritchard-Sayer/8352eddf79ae0f570a85d1339d96dbefc1f4a841#paper-header

https://www.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh241/files/media/document/201316.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0snT740jhtw&ab_channel=WTHI-TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seWlExTA5Ns&ab_channel=ABC7Chicago

(Note: I am not a psychologist, just interested in criminology)