Episode 020: Kenneth Allen McDuff, Part 4
on March 11, 2011 in Podcast Episodes, Serial Killers by Brian CombsWhen we left off last week, McDuff had abducted and killed Melissa Northrup, and then disappeared. Slowly, the investigators began to put things together.
You can also download the episode directly.
And feel free to use the comments below for episode discussion.
Sources:
Bad Boy: The True Story of Kenneth Allen McDuff, the Most Notorious Serial Killer in Texas History by Gary M. Lavergne
Free to Kill by Gary Cartwright in the August 1992 Texas Monthly
Rachel Cooke’s Message Board
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Offender Information Search
In this podcast episode, I declared that McDuff was a hedonistic lust killer, although he exhibits many of the signs of a hedonistic thrill killer. I leaned towards this due to his reactionary nature.
The more I think about this, however, the more torn I am.
McDuff appears to have lost all interest in his victims once they were dead, like a thrill killer would. He also was more forensically aware than most lust killers.
This is a great example of the limitations of the Holmes Typology. In many real-world cases, the behavior too easily falls in multiple buckets.