Rex Heuermann's Dark Thoughts Started Young: LISK Gilgo Beach

About this episode

The episode explores Rex Heuermann's early dark thoughts and psychological development as revealed in a documentary featuring therapy sessions.

Rex Heuermann told the therapist working with his family that the dark thoughts started in high school. He knew they weren't healthy. He couldn't name what they were. But he knew something inside him wasn't right. He said he started reading books about death — one in particular called Death Scenes, filled with images of mutilated bodies, severed limbs, pure carnage. That's what was feeding his mind during the years when most teenagers are figuring out who they want to be. For Rex, sex and violence were merging into something that would eventually become unstoppable. He said one thought fed another fed another, deeper and deeper, until it consumed him. He said he couldn't put the brakes on it. He said his outlet was to kill. The Peacock documentary gave the world something no courtroom or police interrogation ever would have produced — extended therapy sessions with one of the most methodical serial killers in American history. Rex described a four-day kill cycle. He timed his body dumps with a stopwatch. He built his kill room in the bedroom where he grew up. And John Douglas — the FBI profiler who wrote Mindhunter, a book Rex himself referenced in his planning document — called…

People in this episode

Guest: Shavaun Scott

Topics covered

• psychological development
• serial killers
• violent fantasies
• therapy sessions
• true crime
• LISK
• Gilgo Beach

Keywords

• Rex Heuermann
• Gilgo Beach
• serial killer
• psychopath
• therapy
• violent fantasies
• John Douglas
• Death Scenes
• Mindhunter

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Peacock

Books & works: Mindhunter, Death Scenes

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