Edmund Kemper

Last Updated on July 4, 2026

Edmund Kemper, aka the Co-ed Killer, is a serial killer who murdered 8 people in 1972-73, including his own mother.

Kemper also murdered his grandparents in 1964, when he was 15 years old.

Ed Kemper is known for his height, standing at 6 ft 9 inches, and his high intellect, with an IQ of 145.

Ed Kemper Victims

1972

Edmund Kemper picked up friends Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa on 7th May 1972.

The pair were hitchhiking to Stanford University.

They were unaware that Kemper was driving them in the wrong direction and instead drove them to a secluded area.

Edmund killed Anita first; she was stabbed and strangled to death whilst Mary Ann was locked in the trunk.

He also stabbed and strangled Mary Ann.

Ed was pulled over by a police officer on the ride home for a broken taillight, but the officer did not inspect the vehicle.

Ed Kemper took both corpses home to his apartment, where he took photographs and had sex with the corpses.

He dismembered the bodies and dumped the parts in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Mary Ann’s skull was discovered in August 1972; these are the only remains that have been found.

Aiko Koo had missed her bus to a dance class when she was picked up by Edmund Kemper on 14th September 1972.

Edmund drove her to a secluded area and pulled a gun on her.

He choked her, sexually assaulted her and killed her.

After the murder of Aiko Koo, he drove to the nearby bar “The Jury Room”.

Here, he would drink with local policemen before taking her corpse to his apartment.

Back at his apartment, he had sex with her corpse and dismembered her.

He disposed of her body parts in the mountains in California, but no remains have been recovered.

1973

Edmund Kemper picked up Cindy Schall from Cabrillo College before driving her to a secluded spot on 7th January 1973.

Here, he shot her before taking her body back to his mother’s house.

He placed the corpse in his wardrobe before placing her in the bathtub, where he had sex with the corpse and dismembered her.

Kemper threw most of her remains off a cliff, and these were discovered over the following weeks.

He buried her head in the garden underneath his mother’s window in a passive-aggressive display.

Infuriated after an argument with his mother, Edmund Kemper picked up Rosalind Thorpe and Allison Liu on the 5th February 1973.

Edmund shot both of them in the car and beheaded them.

He took both bodies into his mother’s house, where he had sex with the bodies and dismembered them.

He dumped the remains at various places along Highway 1.

Edmund Kemper Murdered His Mother

Ed Kemper murdered his mother Clarnell Stage Strandberg, on 20th April 1973.

After she had fallen asleep, he bludgeoned her with a hammer and slit her throat.

He then beheaded her, performed a sex act on her head and used her head as a dartboard.

He mutilated her head and placed her body in a cupboard.

After killing his mother, Ed Kemper hit a local bar and invited his mother’s best friend, Sara, aka Sally Hallett, over for a movie.

When she arrived, Edmund strangled her, decapitated her and spent the night with her dead body.

Ed Kemper left the crime scene, leaving her body in a closet with a note for the police and stole her car, fleeing to Colorado.

Edmund Kemper’s crimes are covered in more detail in Edmund Kemper: The Life of the Co-Ed Killer (AD*)

Confession

Ed Kemper left a note at the crime scene of his final murder confessing to the crime.

When there was nothing on the news about the killing, he telephoned the police.

Kemper confessed to all of the murders he had committed.

They initially didn’t believe that their drinking buddy Big Eddie was being serious.

However, he revealed details of the crimes that proved Kemper was a killer.

Big Ed Kemper was questioned using a truth serum and confessed to acts of cannibalism.

He confessed to eating the flesh of victims and using human flesh in a casserole.

He later recanted this confession.

Edmund confessed that during the murder of Mary Ann, he had accidentally touched her breast.

He was embarrassed and had apologised to her.

Trial and Sentencing

On 7th May 1973, Edmund Kemper was indicted on eight counts of first-degree murder.

His defence proceeded with a plea of not guilty due to insanity.

Edmund attempted suicide twice before his trial.

Several psychological experts declared that Kemper was sane despite earlier diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia and a personality disorder.

Edmund took the stand during the trial and told the court that he wanted the women as his possessions.

He claimed he was insane as it was like another person taking over when he killed.

The jury was not convinced and found him guilty on all counts.

At sentencing, Edmund Kemper requested the death penalty.

However, the death penalty was suspended at the time after being abolished by the Supreme Court of California.

Prison Life and Media

Edmund Kemper was imprisoned in the same prison block as Herbert Mullin and Charles Manson.

Ed was said to have hated Herbert, who killed hitchhikers in the same area, at the same time as Kemper.

He was a model prisoner and was given prison jobs in administration and the library, where Ed Kemper narrated audiobooks.

He retired from the roles in 2015 after suffering a stroke in prison.

From the prison, he gave several interviews for documentaries, including The Killing of America and Murder: No Apparent Motive.

He told interviewers he was willing to take part to be able to stop others like him from committing murders.

Kemper was featured in Mindhunter, based on the real-life interviews with members of the FBI to help them understand the minds of serial killers.

Some of his conversations are featured in Ed Kemper: Conversations with a Killer: The Shocking True Story of the Co-Ed Butcher (AD*)

Where is Ed Kemper now?

Ed Kemper today is alive, 70 years old and remains in the California Medical Facility within the general population.

The hitchhiker killer first became eligible for parole in 1979.

He has been denied parole on numerous occasions.

Kemper has declined the opportunity for parole hearings on many occasions due to his belief that he will never be released.

His most recent parole refusal was in July 2024, and he is due for his next hearing in 2031.

District Attorney Jeff Rosell said that Kemper was “untreated” and likely to reoffend.

This was based on psychiatric reports and a 2022 assault on a staff member, where he grabbed their buttocks.

Early Life of Edmund Kemper

During his childhood, Ed displayed alarming behaviour.

He stalked his teacher and was cruel to animals, and he killed two of his family’s pet cats.

One cat he buried alive, and the other he butchered with a machete.

Edmund’s mother was a cruel, abusive alcoholic who ridiculed him.

She forced him to sleep in the basement, fearful he would molest his sisters.

After his father left the family, he ran away to join him.

His father had started a new family and sent him to live with his grandparents.

Edmund was just 15 when he murdered his grandparents, Maude and Edmund Emil Kemper, by shooting them both with a rifle.

He was committed to a state hospital rather than a juvenile facility after he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Kemper was released from psychiatric care after just 5 years, and on his 21st birthday.

At the time of his release, he was deemed no longer be a threat to others…

He worked many jobs before he worked for the highways department.

Kemper was rejected in his application to be a state trooper because of his height.

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