Serial killer Carroll Cole enjoyed killing kittens

Serial murderer and animal abuser
Cole on November 14, 1984
Name	Carroll Edward Cole
Age	47 (at time of execution)
Occupation
Known Identifiers
Status	Deceased
Involvement	American serial killer who murdered at least 16 women. His case is a textbook example of the progression from severe maternal abuse and childhood animal cruelty to serial homicide.
Punitive Measure	Executed by lethal injection on December 6, 1985.

Carroll Edward Cole (May 9, 1938 – December 6, 1985) was an American serial killer who was convicted of five murders and confessed to at least 11 others between 1971 and 1980. His case is a quintessential study in the developmental psychology of a violent offender, providing a clear illustration of the "Graduation Hypothesis," where childhood animal cruelty serves as a direct rehearsal for adult homicide. His entire criminal career was driven by a displaced matricidal rage, with his victims serving as surrogates for the mother he obsessively hated.

Early life and maternal abuse

Cole's violent trajectory was forged in a childhood of profound psychological and physical abuse inflicted by his mother, Vesta. After his father left to serve in World War II, Vesta began having numerous extramarital affairs. She forced the young Carroll, beginning at age five, to witness these encounters and would beat him to ensure his silence, creating a toxic association in his mind between female sexuality, betrayal, and violence.

The most damaging abuse was a systematic assault on his gender identity. Vesta frequently dressed him in girls' clothing and forced him to serve tea to women, a deep humiliation for a boy who was already being relentlessly teased by peers for his "girly name." This targeted abuse led to what psychiatrists later diagnosed as "confusion concerning sexual identification" and was a primary catalyst for his pathology.

First killings: The Graduation Hypothesis in practice

Cole's first acts of killing were critical developmental steps that directly align with the Graduation Hypothesis, which posits that offenders rehearse on animals before escalating to humans.

The first animal victim

In 1945, at age seven, Cole claimed to have a "blackout" and awoke to find he had strangled the family puppy. This event was the first physical manifestation of his rage and, critically, established **strangulation** as his signature method of exerting power—the same method he would use on nearly all of his human victims.

The first human victim

A year later, at age eight, his violence "graduated" to a human target. He drowned a classmate, Duane, who had been teasing him. Decades later, Cole revealed the true motivation, stating that the act was directly linked to his mother: "I was primed, I had made the mental commitment I was going to get even with my mother, and things just built up and built up and became an obsession." This confession confirms that his violent acts, even from childhood, were a form of displaced matricidal rage.

Later animal cruelty

As an adult, following a period of sexual frustration, Cole admitted that he "got pleasure from killing kittens by wringing their necks." This marks a crucial evolution from reactive rage to proactive, pleasure-seeking violence. It occurred as his violent sexual fantasies intensified and he began non-lethally strangling girlfriends during sex to heighten his excitement, fully fusing the act of killing with sexual sadism.

Adult murders and displaced matricide

The central driver of Cole's murders was his unresolved rage toward his mother. He almost exclusively targeted women he met in bars whom he perceived as promiscuous, as they reminded him of his "adulterous mother." This process of projection allowed him to cast these women as surrogates for Vesta and then symbolically murder her repeatedly, providing a continuous ritualistic release for his inexhaustible hatred.

Failures of the mental health system

Cole's violent career was enabled by repeated institutional failures. He was a man who, possessing a genius-level IQ of 152, understood his own dangerous urges and repeatedly sought help. In 1961, he flagged down a police car to confess his "urges to rape and strangle woman." Despite being diagnosed with "sadistic, abnormal sexual tendencies," he was released. A psychiatrist, Dr. Weiss, wrote the prescient note, "He seems to be afraid of the female figure and ... must kill her before he can [have intercourse with] it," but still approved his release. On another occasion, a doctor dismissed his threats, and Cole killed Essie Louise Buck shortly after being discharged.

Capture, confession, and execution

Cole was arrested for his final murder in Dallas, Texas, in 1980. He subsequently confessed to numerous killings across the country. He showed no remorse, stating, "I knew exactly what I was doing and I'm not sorry for what I did." A dramatic shift occurred after his mother, Vesta, died in 1984. With the psychological engine of his rage extinguished, his life's "mission" was over. He dropped all his appeals and actively sought the death penalty, orchestrating his own execution. Carroll Cole was executed by lethal injection at Nevada State Prison on December 6, 1985.