In 1964, 15 year-old Edmund Kemper murdered his grandparents.  When he was asked why he had killed the two people who basically raised him, Kemper reportedly replied, “I just wanted to see what it was like to kill grandma.”

Kemper spent the next five years imprisoned by the California Youth Authority.  He was discovered to have an IQ of 138.  The psychiatrists who examined him all commented on what a friendly and conscientious prisoner Kemper was.  Kemper never caused trouble.  He always cleaned up after himself.  He seemed to be truly happy while incarcerated.

When Kemper turned 21, he was released back into the world.  He moved in with his domineering mother, who worked as an administrative assistant at the local college.  Because it had been determined that he would probably never reoffend, his juvenile record was expunged.  Kemper went to community college.  He hung out at a local cop bar.  (He applied unsuccessfully to be a police officer.)  He got a job with Departments of Highways.  Because he stood 6’9, everyone knew him as the friendly and somewhat dorky “Big Ed.”

Edmund Kemper went on to kill eight more people, including his mother and her best friend.

Kemper turned himself into the police and confessed to his crimes.  At his trial, his lawyers unsuccessfully went with an insanity defense.  When he was convicted, Kemper requested the death penalty, just to learn that the Supreme Court had (temporarily) outlawed capitol punishment.  Kemper was sent to prison, for life.  And that’s where he is to this day.

What’s odd about Kemper is that, once he was back in prison, he again impressed everyone by being a friendly, polite, and conscientious prisoner.  Unlike most convicted murderers, Kemper admitted his crimes and was even willing to analyze the darkness that drove him to commit them.  In the early days of criminal profiling, Edmund Kemper was frequently interviewed by FBI agent Robert Ressler and his insights into his own mind are still frequently used to profile serial killers to this day.  Both Ressler and profiler John Douglas described Kemper as being a sensitive and likable man with a good sense of humor.  Thomas Harris has said that Kemper was one of the inspirations for Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Released earlier this year, Ed Kemper stick fairly closely to the facts of the case.  Brandon Kirk may not be as a tall as the real-life Kemper but he’s still convincing as a socially awkward, somewhat nerdy man who seems to be as shocked as anyone by his crimes.  The majority of the film deals with Kemper’s relationship with his mother (Susan Priver), who is portrayed as being a deranged tyrant who alternates between gently teasing Kemper and telling him that he’s destined to be miserable and alone forever.  Gava gives a convincing performance but, at times, the film almost seems as if it’s putting all the blame for Kemper’s crimes on his mother.  In the end, Kemper’s the one who killed those hitchhikers, regardless of how much his mom yelled at him beforehand.

Ed Kemper is a bit of an uneven film.  Brandon Kirk, Susan Priver, and Brinke Stevens (cast as Kemper’s mom’s best friend) all give good performances but some of the other actors are a bit less convincing in their roles.  The film deserves some credit for not shying away from the darkness of Kemper’s crimes but the pacing is also off, with some scenes dragging forever and others ending quickly.  The film’s best scene comes towards the end, when Ed Kemper is interviewed by the FBI and points out that he could kill the agent anytime that he felt like it.  It’s a tense scene that reminds us that even the likable killers are still killers.

(An earlier version of this review mistakenly listed Cassandra Gava as the actress who played Kemper’s mother.  Gava plays Kemper’s grandmother.  Susan Priver played Kemper’s mother.  I regret the error and I apologize to both actresses.)