Further Reading For Joseph Kallinger
The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic by Flora Schreiber
Info
Joseph Kallinger was a serial killer suffering from severe schizophrenia (similar to Richard Trenton Chase) among other psychiatric disorders caused by extremely severe abuse at the hands of adoptive parents. Isolated from his peers from a young age and treated as nothing more than hired help for his parents’ cobbler shop, Kallinger developed extreme anxiety around sexuality and manifested vicious and violent sexual fantasies as he grew into adulthood.
Kallinger would marry twice and had seven children across both marriages. He subjected both families to the same vicious abuse that he had suffered as a child and was institutionalized several times, officially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1974 Joseph and his teenage son Michael went on a spree of murder and rape in the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They engaged in home invasions under the pretense of being salesmen. The families at home would be subdued, tortured and raped. The spree resulted in three deaths. Among the dead was his son, Joseph Jr. When arrested, Kallinger plead insanity but was found to be legally sane and received life for his crimes, however, repeated attempts to commit suicide by self-immolation resulted in him being committed to a psychiatric hospital. He was on continuous suicide watch for the last 11 years of his life.
Episodes: 356 & 357
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