Ultraviolence

I let more of my personality come out, and I was suicidal, huh, very disturbed. Grasping out at someone. I had abducted them and I wasn’t going to let them out of the car, because I was tired of people walking away from me. So, some of that was very true. But I manipulated that to allow them to help me to the point of resolving their behaviour until we got to a place where they could be killed. And I have… the biggest problem with that on a guilt basis because, obviously, that entailed unusual trust between the captor or the perpetrator and the victim of the crime. 

The prosecution yesterday rested its case against Edmund E. Kemper III. The state’s final evidence was a videotape showing Kemper’s lengthy confession of eight grisly murders. While the video confession was being played for the jury of six women and six men, Kemper buried his head in his hands. 

His attorney, James Jackson, interrupted the proceedings to ask Judge Harry Brauer if Kemper could be excused. The judge agreed and Kemper was allowed to leave the courtroom. 

Kemper’s confessions were introduced previously in the trial, but the video recording was shown to give the jury an impression of the defendant’s attitude while he was recounting the crimes for investigators last April 28, shortly after he surrendered in Colorado.