khoji parkSerial Killer · Pueblo, Colorado · 1973
A Killer Called to Confess. The First Call Failed.
After killing his mother and her friend, Edmund Kemper drove to Colorado and telephoned authorities to surrender.
Read in slides1. The Final Murders in Aptos
In April 1973, Edmund Kemper killed his mother, Clarnell Strandberg, and her friend Sara Taylor Hallett at the family home in Aptos, California. He left the area afterward and drove east with firearms in his car. Investigators had already been dealing with young women’s disappearances around Santa Cruz, but Kemper had not yet been arrested for those killings.
He concealed both bodies inside the residence.
2. Flight Across State Lines
Following the killings, Kemper gathered three firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition into his car. Believing he was the target of an active police manhunt, he drove non-stop across state lines toward Pueblo, Colorado, utilizing caffeine pills to stay awake during the thousand-mile journey. Upon his arrival in Pueblo, he searched local radio broadcasts for news of the murders, but found no reports.
He parked his vehicle and located a public telephone booth.
3. Initial Phone Call to Authorities
After reaching Pueblo, Colorado, Kemper used a public telephone to contact police in Santa Cruz, California. He reported killing his mother and Hallett, but his first call was not taken seriously. Several hours later he called again and asked for an officer he knew. The conversation connected a man far from California with the deaths he was reporting back there.
He decided to contact a specific officer he knew personally.
4. A Second Call Reaches Santa Cruz
During the second call, Kemper repeated his confession and supplied his location in Pueblo. Police there were contacted and took him into custody. His own calls had led officers to him. Once detained, he also confessed to killing six young women, giving California investigators further cases to examine alongside the two deaths at the Aptos house.
Officers secured his vehicle containing the firearms.
5. Extradition and Further Confessions
Following his arrest in Colorado, Kemper waived extradition proceedings and was returned to Santa Cruz County, California. During subsequent interrogations with local detectives, he voluntarily confessed to the murders of six female college students and hitchhikers who had gone missing in the Santa Cruz area over the preceding year, providing detailed accounts of each crime.
Investigators matched his statements to outstanding missing-person files.
6. Indictment and Appointment of Counsel
On May 7, 1973, Kemper was formally indicted on eight counts of first-degree murder by a Santa Cruz County grand jury. The court appointed the Chief Public Defender of Santa Cruz County, attorney Jim Jackson, to represent him. Given the extensive and detailed nature of the confessions provided to detectives, defense counsel determined that the only available legal strategy was to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Preparations began for a formal sanity trial.
7. Court-Appointed Psychiatric Evaluations
The court appointed three psychiatrists to examine Kemper and determine his mental state at the time of the offenses. The evaluators conducted extensive interviews and reviewed his past juvenile records from his stay at Atascadero State Hospital. Although one psychiatrist testified regarding extreme behaviors relayed during interviews, all three court-appointed evaluators ultimately concluded that Kemper was legally sane.
Experts determined he understood the nature of his actions.
8. The Legal Insanity Standard
California courts at the time utilized the M'Naghten standard for legal insanity, requiring proof that a defendant labored under a mental defect such that they did not know the nature and quality of their acts or that what they were doing was wrong. Testimony established that Kemper had shown clear signs of planning, malice, and an awareness of wrongdoing during each offense.
The legal criteria for an insanity defense were not met.
9. Verdict and Sentencing
Kemper's trial commenced on October 23, 1973. Based on the psychiatric findings and his detailed confessions, the jury found him guilty of eight counts of first-degree murder and determined he was legally sane. He requested the death penalty for his crimes, but because capital punishment had been suspended in California, the judge sentenced him to eight concurrent life sentences.
He was transferred to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.
10. Incarceration and Parole Status
Kemper was sent to the California Medical Facility in Vacaville to serve eight concurrent life terms. Parole proceedings continued over the following decades without his release. In 2024, after he declined to attend that year’s hearing, parole was denied again. That dated decision followed a trial which had distinguished psychiatric evidence from the legal test for insanity.
Subsequent parole hearings resulted in continued denials.