Watch the Real Interviews With ‘Mindhunter’ Serial Killer Edmund Kemper
By now most of you have probably binged your way through Mindhunter, the new true crime series from executive producer David Fincher — who also contributed his signature aesthetic by directing a handful of episodes of the Netflix series. Based somewhat loosely on the book of the same name, the show recounts how a pair of fictional FBI agents (with the help of a scholar) began crafting the criteria for profiling serial killers. This was done mostly through conducting interviews with actual serial killers, like Edmund Kemper, the disturbingly polite so-called “co-ed killer” with a genius IQ.
Portrayed to charmingly eerie perfection by actor Cameron Britton, Kemper is heavily featured on Mindhunter as the first killer to grant Agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) an interview. Ford, along with his partner Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) pay several visits to Kemper in prison, where the surprisingly genteel killer gives them a walking tour through his psyche and recounts the murders he committed — in full, unnervingly affectless detail.
Those interviews were based on real interviews with Kemper, who is just as well-spoken (and massively tall) as he is in Mindhunter. As Vulture points out, the series took some of Kemper’s dialogue straight from interviews conducted with the incarcerated killer in 1984 and 1991 — several years after Mindhunter’s ’70s setting.
You can watch these videos below, but I must offer a content warning: Just as he does on the show, Kemper discusses the murders in graphic detail, and his completely disaffected tone makes it all the more unsettling to hear how he killed eight women — including his own mother.