Privately, Baumeister's life was unraveling. The businesses were losing money and heading towards bankruptcy. His marriage was foundering. When the couple split, police interviewed Julie Baumeister. In June 1996, she consented to a search of the grounds of her home. Almost immediately, police found bones. By the end, authorities found seven bodies, four of them identifiable as the remains of missing men.
What was the nature of the crime?.
The killings committed by Herb Baumeister are interpersonal crimes. He would pick up gay men at bars and murder them for pleasure. He did this over and over again until his deadly game was discovered.
What was the motive?.
One thing is certain: Herbert Baumeister fit the niche of the serial killer. The serial killer is typically white, male, between the ages of 25 and 35. He is often married, has children and has full time employment. The majority of the time he will kill white victims His intellect ranges from below average to above average. He does not know his victims nor have any particular hatred for them. Of the four main types of killers - the psychotic, the missionary motive type, the thrill killer and the lust killer, Baumeister fits the last category. The lust killer, the most common type, gets turned on by the killings. They usually torture their victims. The more heinous their action the more they become aroused. He killed because it gave him pleasure and he could not get that pleasure from anything else. Herb Baumeister also had feelings of what is called disassociation, including separation of feelings (able to kill and then on go on to live a normal life with his children) and daydreaming. Baumeister also used trauma re-enforcement, like many serial killers he took out his frustration on his victims. In Baumeister's case this was due to a loss of employment and financial stress brought on by the decline of the Sav-A-Lot stores. Facilitators, such as alcohol and drugs, seem to have served as accessories to Herb's crimes.
