Today we are going to take a dive into The Kill Kit Killer, Israel Keyes. How did Israel stay under the radar for so long? Why is there very little known about Israel and his killings? The quotes of Israel that are included in this segment come from interrogation tapes from True Crime Bullsh** & FBI.gov. As I enclosed in the first segment of Israel Keyes, “From Child to Monster.” Israel’s Idol in the serial killer world was Ted Bundy. Israel states in an interrogation, “I identify the most with, I don’t know, maybe, just going off of what I have read, Ted Bundy maybe. I don’t have a lot of respect for someone like me, because of the way they lived. I don’t know, I enjoyed reading about them, that’s just who I identify the most with. The first book I read, was called Mind Hunter, it was written by an FBI profiler, John Douglas. It was years and years ago, I was about fifteen to sixteen years old. I was disturbed by it because I don’t know, it’s always been that way, always been like I was kind of reading about myself, in a lot of those books. It’s always been interesting to me.” Like Bundy, Israel was a family man, he was a known member of the community, and anyone who knew him would classify him as a hard worker, a great boyfriend, a great friend, and a great father. When in reality, nobody ever knew Israel Keyes. In one of the interrogations, Israel stated “There is no one who knows me, or who has ever known me, who knows anything about me, really. They’re going to tell you something that does not line up with anything I tell you, because I’m two different people, basically. And the only person who knows about what I’m telling you—the kind of things I’m telling you—is me.” This quote comes from an article on FBI.gov. Israel was well-controlled and planned his murders in advance, some even years in advance. Israel buried and planted kill kits across the United States. These kill kits included guns, zip ties, duck tape, lube, a knife, rope, cash, and draino to help speed up the decomposition process of the victim’s remains. Israel didn’t have a type of victim like most serial killers. He didn’t seek out and choose his victims, he let the victims come to him. His victims were chosen at random, whoever was in the wrong place at the wrong time would be chosen. Israel always paid in cash for his travels, he would fly into airports, rent a car in cash, and travel hundreds to thousands of miles from his destination, he went to great links to ensure he didn’t leave any trace of his movements of where he had been and never left a trace of evidence. Israel controlled his urges by robbing banks, burglarizing homes, and committing arson. The only reason he was caught was because he strayed from all of that when he kidnapped and murdered a teenage girl in Alaska not far from his home where he, his girlfriend, and daughter resided. This is odd to say because Israel talks about a rule he had when it came to killing. He would not kill a parent or kill a child because he had a daughter, but when you think about it, isn’t everyone a child to someone? He has even bragged in interrogations about how he was smarter than other serial killers because he never committed a murder near his home until he did. In an interrogation, Israel says, “Well, back when I was smart. I would let them come to me, just in a remote area. Good thing about a remote area that’s not anywhere near where you live, but that other people go to as well. You might not get exactly what you’re looking for, there’s not much to choose from in a manner of speaking, but there are also no witnesses. Really there’s no one else around, so then when they disappear, a lot of the time, nobody is really surprised because it happens all the time.” As a true crime lover, if you are anything like me & like to listen to confessions of the guilty, I highly recommend checking out the “True Crime Bullsh**” podcast. This is a very detailed and in-depth podcast that dives into Israel Keyes, you can hear how calm Israel is during the interrogations and the amount of times that he laughs during his confessions is uncanny. In one of the interrogations, the FBI asks Israel, “Do you have a type of victim you look for?” Israel laughs and says, “I don’t have a type, I have a preference.” He laughs again, “I prefer lightweight, it’s easier for disposal, but it’s not a deal breaker.” Not only is that horrific to hear, but this statement also rings true that his preference didn’t save anyone from this horrendous monster, one of the two murders that Israel confesses to, he talks about a couple he murdered in Vermont. Neither one of these two people was lightweight in the slightest. Just that tiny bit of information goes to show that nobody was safe from Israel Keyes, anybody with a heartbeat could have easily been a victim of Israel Keyes. Out of all the serial killers I have researched, Keyes has been one of the most difficult to research. Very little is known about Keyes, this is because he was very good at staying under the radar and was good at hiding the bodies. As of today, only one of his victim’s remains have been found. This is only because Keyes guided the FBI to the exact location of their remains. Even in multiple cases, he told the FBI where their remains were and they still haven’t been recovered. Keyes was obsessed with missing person cases, and the FBI recovered images of over forty missing persons on his computer. The True Crime Bullsh** podcast interviews Dr. Katherine Ramslin, a criminal Psychologist, in the interview the host asks if Keyes’s upbringing contributed to Keyes becoming a serial killer, he was raised Mormon, then Amish, he grew up with the Keyho family, who was known racists and later convicted for murder, he had white supremacy roots, he spent a lot of time in the military, seems as if he was molded into becoming a serial killer. Dr. Ramslin, goes on to say that his upbringing did not contribute to him becoming a serial killer, because if that was the case then his siblings would have been killers as well. To summarize, she says there isn’t a formula to what makes someone a serial killer. Anyone that is a serial killer, knows what they are doing is wrong, so from a legal standpoint, they are sane. It’s when they take their fantasies and turn them into their reality is when the game changes. In the next and last segment of Israel Keyes, we will dive into the confirmed murders of Keyes and will go more in-depth into his interrogations and confessions up until he took his own life while in prison. Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a comment and stay tuned!