Where Is Ed Kemper Now? Revisiting the Co-Ed Killer’s Murder Spree That Began with His Grandparents 61 Years Ago By Lynsey Eidell

Along with the likes of Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Kemper is one of the most depraved serial killers in history.

Kemper — who stands at a towering 6 feet, 9 inches tall — killed his paternal grandparents when he was 15 years old, according to The New York Times. He was committed to a California state mental hospital for five years as a result, but was eventually released after psychiatrists deemed him “cured.” Kemper was anything but, however.

Upon his release, he embarked on an 11-month killing spree that terrorized Santa Cruz, Calif. Between May 1972 and April 1973, Kemper murdered six young women, primarily hitchhikers. The crimes he committed were both sadistic and horrific: After picking up his victims, Kemper would either stab, strangle or shoot them, then decapitate and dismember their bodies, and perform post-mortem sex acts on the corpses.

Despite his moniker of “The Co-Ed Killer,” Kemper’s victims weren’t only young women. He also brutally murdered his own mother and her friend in April 1973. Afterward, Kemper fled California — only to telephone police from a Colorado phone booth and turn himself in.

Now, 61 years after his first killing in August 1964, Kemper and his crimes have been the subject of several books, documentaries, television shows and films.

From his deceitful intelligence to his gruesome killings, here’s everything to know about Ed Kemper’s trail of terror and where he is today.

Who is Ed Kemper?

Long before he became a serial killer, Edmund Kemper III displayed disturbing tendencies and thoughts as a young boy, according to those closest to him.

Born to Clarnell Standberg and Edmund Kemper Jr. on Dec. 18, 1948, in Burbank, Calif., Kemper was the second of three children, according to the Investigation Discovery 2021 docuseries The Co-Ed Killer: Mind of a Monster. His parents divorced when he was 7 years old, and his mother moved Kemper and his sisters from California to Montana after the split.

It was in Montana that Kemper began to exhibit concerning behaviors. According to psychiatrist interviews conducted with his younger sister, Allyn, Kemper cut the hands off of her doll, beheaded and dismembered the family cat, and fantasized about executions and gas chambers. Kemper also began to resent Clarnell, and in August 1963, he ran away to California to reconnect with his father.

Kemper and his dad had never had a close relationship, Allyn revealed, and that didn’t change when the teen showed up in California. Instead, Edmund Jr. brought his son to his parents’ isolated ranch in North Fork, Calif., under the guise of a Christmas visit and left him there.

It was at the North Fork ranch that Kemper would commit his first murders. On Aug. 27, 1964, the then-15-year-old shot his grandmother, Maude Kemper, three times: Once in the head and twice in the back before stabbing her, according to the Madera Tribune. When his grandfather, also named Edmund, returned home, Kemper shot him dead in the driveway.

What happened to Ed Kemper after he murdered his grandparents?

Following the killings, Kemper called his mother and the local sheriff to inform them of the murders, The New York Times reported.

The teenager changed his story a few times, including that he accidentally killed his grandmother and then shot his grandfather to spare him the sight, per the Madera Tribune. Kemper eventually admitted that it was all deliberate.

“I was striking out at the people who were hurting me the most,” he said about the murders in recorded interviews with Stanford professor and psychiatrist Dr. Donald T. Lunde, according to The Co-Ed Killer.

Kemper was then committed to the maximum-security Atascadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane from 1964 to 1969. After about five years in the state hospital, Kemper was deemed “cured,” despite opposition from the district attorney, and released to the California Youth Authority (later the California Division of Juvenile Justice), which took custody of juvenile offenders, per The New York Times.

However, it was later revealed that Kemper — who has an IQ of 131 — had memorized 28 psychological tests and the acceptable answers during his time at Atascadero. He was ultimately released by the California Youth Authority in 1972. Around the same time, Kemper was also able to have his juvenile murder record expunged when he convinced two court-appointed psychiatrists that he was no longer a danger to society.

Following his release, Kemper resided with his mother, who had moved from Montana to California, where she worked on the administrative staff at UC Santa Cruz, according to Murder and Madness by Lunde.

What crimes did Ed Kemper commit after his 1972 release?

Kemper went on an 11-month killing spree after he was released from the supervision of California’s Youth Authority. Between May 1972 and April 1973, the 24-year-old murdered eight women — including his mother, his mother’s best friend, five college students and a high schooler — throughout Santa Cruz.

The string of killings began on May 7, 1972, when Kemper picked up two female hitchhikers, 19-year-old Fresno State students Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa. He stabbed them both and then had sex with their corpses back at his apartment, before severing their heads and hands and disposing of their body parts in the mountains near Santa Cruz, per The Co-Ed Killer.

On Sept. 14, 1972, Kemper found his next victim: 15-year-old Aiko Koo. The high school student was hitchhiking for a ride to her ballet class (rather than waiting for the bus) when Kemper picked her up. Just like with Pesce and Luchessa, he stabbed Koo to death before dismembering her, according to The New York Times.

In early 1973, Kemper murdered three more young women. He shot and killed hitchhiker Cindy Schall in January 1973, before dismembering her body at his mother’s house, tossing her body parts in the ocean and burying her head in his mother’s backyard.

A month later, Kemper used a UC Santa Cruz parking sticker that he had received from his mother to pick up two college students, Rosalind Thorpe and Alice Liu. They, too, were shot, killed, dismembered and decapitated.

Kemper’s gruesome crimes eventually came to a stop, but not before he directed his violence toward his own mother and her friend. On April 21, 1973, he killed Clarnell after she went to sleep by beating her with a hammer and then cutting her throat with a knife. Kemper also dismembered and decapitated her and performed post-mortem sexual acts, according to taped interviews with the serial killer.

Kemper then lured his mother’s friend, Sally Hallett, to the house, where he proceeded to strangle her to death and then hide her body in a closet, per Biography.com.

How did Ed Kemper get caught?

After killing his mother and her friend, Kemper fled the Santa Cruz area and headed east — driving 28 hours straight, according to his account.

“I drove, just drove, ‘til I couldn’t drive anymore, literally,” Kemper said in taped interviews with Lunde, per The Co-Ed Killer.

But the mass murderer apparently did not want to outrun his crimes: Kemper turned himself in by calling police from a phone booth in Pueblo, Colo., and confessing, The New York Times reported. Kemper also told authorities that he feared he would kill again.

How long has Ed Kemper been in prison?

Kemper has been in custody since April 23, 1973, when Pueblo police arrested him after his telephone booth confession.

He stood trial in the fall of 1973 and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to eight counts of first-degree murder, according to The New York Times. During the trial, his public defender argued that Kemper — who attempted suicide twice over the two-week trial — lived in a “fantasy world” and was an “8 year old” internally. However, the prosecutor emphasized that Kemper was highly intelligent, citing his IQ of 131, and three court-appointed psychiatrists testified that he was legally sane.

After five hours of deliberation over two days, the jury found Kemper to be legally sane and convicted him on all eight counts of first-degree murder. Kemper “expected the verdict,” according to his lawyer.

Kemper was sentenced to life in prison immediately following his trial. Santa Cruz County Superior Judge Harry E. Brauer told Kemper at his sentencing that he would do everything in his power to keep the serial killer behind bars for the rest of his life. After receiving his sentence, Kemper thanked the prosecutor and the judge for their “help.”

Where is Ed Kemper now?

Kemper has been incarcerated in the California Medical Facility state prison in Vacaville, Calif., for the past five-plus decades.

For the majority of his imprisonment, Kemper has been a model prisoner, the East Bay Times reported — going more than 40 years without a rules violation. (His first came in 2016 for failing to provide a urine sample, per Newsweek.)  Kemper even led a program where inmates would record books on tape for blind people, and he provided thousands of hours of readings, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But Kemper’s good behavior behind bars has had no effect on his sentence. The notorious serial killer has been eligible for parole a dozen times since he began his eight concurrent life sentences for the murders, Newsweek reported.

Throughout his time behind bars, Kemper has waived his right to a hearing or been denied parole. At his most recent parole hearing, in July 2024, 75-year-old Kemper was denied parole for the 12th time, per Lookout Santa Cruz. His next hearing date was set for 2031, when Kemper will be about 82 years old.

Kemper appears to be content with his fate, however. “He’s just happy, he’s just as happy going about his life in prison,” Scott Currey, Kemper’s attorney at the time, said in 2007, according to the New York Post.

At Kemper’s most recent parole hearing, it was revealed that he underwent a psychiatric evaluation in April 2024, which found him to be at “high risk” for reoffending. Santa Cruz District Attorney Jeff Rosell emphasized that Kemper was “more dangerous now than he was” at his last parole hearing in 2017, KSBW Action News reported.

A medical review also gave insight into Kemper’s health: He has suffered a stroke and had his left second toe amputated, in addition to having diabetes and a pacemaker due to coronary artery disease. Kemper was also diagnosed with an antisocial disorder, narcissistic disorder and schizotypal disorder.