Plot Synopsis

Using rare archival materials and interviews with family and friends, each one-hour episode of DEADLY MEN paints a portrait and examines the complex development of the mind of one of America's most lethal male killers. Subjects include: serial killer Cary Stayner, who was plagued by psychoses since childhood and also influenced by the abduction of his brother by a sexual predator; Edmund Kemper, who spent much of his youth bouncing between parents and grandparents after his parents divorce and whose unbalanced mental condition took the form of cruelty to animals before it escalated to murder at age 15 when he shot and killed his grandparents; John Wayne Gacy, who played the role of a politician, a clown, an entrepreneur and a family man to hide the fact that he was a serial killer who murdered 33 boys and young men; and Andrei Chikatilo, a married man, teacher, and member of the Communist party, who began a life of serial child molestation, rape, and murder in the 1970s followed by his killing and mutilation of runaways, prostitutes, and children throughout the 1980s.