Topics: True Crime, Crime, News, US News
Although experts believe that it's possible for serial killers have common personality traits, they might also be more inclined to go for the same job, too.
For example, research has suggested a link between narcissistic personality disorders, aggression and acts of violence.
Of course, it's not always easy to spot a serial killer, but according to research, there's one specific job role that could be linked to hundreds of unsolved murders.
A book released last year by former FBI assistant director for counter intelligence, Frank Figliuzzi, has delved into the subject, citing an initiative set up by the FBI in 2009.
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Figliuzzi's book, Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers, builds on the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative which claims that there's a link between truck drivers and unsolved crimes.
According to the work, at least 850 murders over the past few decades have been linked to truckers.
“There are 25 long haul truckers already in prison for multiple murders,” said Figliuzzi.
“There have been cases in the greater Cincinnati and the larger Ohio area.”
Figliuzzi explained that while most of the cases have been solved, there are around 200 that remain a mystery.
“The suspect pool for all of those within the trucking community is 450 suspects right now,” he added.
To investigate the link, Figliuzzi travelled across the US with a long haul truck driver to try and immerse himself in the lifestyle.
“I rode flatbed, which is a different kind of very active, physical trucking, with a very gracious driver who tolerated me for over 2,000 miles,” he said.
“An 18-wheeler is a mobile crime scene. These killers are grabbing their victims in one jurisdiction, killing or raping them in a second jurisdiction, and dumping the body in a third jurisdiction.
“Most of these remains have no ID on them, whether that’s the trafficking victim deliberately not carrying ID, or whether that’s the trucker taking the ID to make it much harder, sometimes taking the ID as a souvenir."
Figliuzzi added to the Guardian: “A certain type of personality might be attracted to long-haul trucking because of their personality since it is isolated and they’re perfectly fine with that and the lack of engagement with others.
“Does it present to them an opportunity to commit crimes, even murders, largely undetected, exploit the seams in jurisdictions – grab a victim in one jurisdiction, kill them in a second jurisdiction, dump their body in a third jurisdiction – and be on their way before anyone has figured anything out? Yes.”
One criminal, known as the 'Happy Face Killer', was a man named Keith Hunter Jesperson.
Jesperson - a long haul truck driver from Canada - murdered at least eight women between 1990 and 1995.
To remove their 'identities', Jesperson explained how he tied one victim to the underneath of his truck.
“I thought, ‘I can put the body under my truck, drag it down I-80 and get rid of her identification, at least her facial features or fingerprints and so forth'," he said.
Jesperson's nickname originates from the smiley faces he would etch on bathroom walls following his killings.
Figliuzzi emphasised that of course, most truckers are not killers, adding: “[It’s] only about a tiny fraction of truckers who kill. The rest are family people, trying to feed their families, by giving us our food on our table."
