<p>Or would they invariably show signs that psychologically they weren't right? I'm watching The Fall, where a serial killer is in the middle of his spree, but without his wife or work colleagues noticing any strange or abnormal behaviour, and wondering if that could really happen IRL?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-01T13:00:14.263Z
I'm not sure that this question belongs on psych.SE (as opposed to history.SE), but in any case, it is too broad and vague for this forum.  Serial killers obviously go unnoticed before they are caught, otherwise they would have been caught earlier.  "Friends" and "colleagues" are people with varying knowledge of the perpetrator, and hence, varying likelihood of noticing anything strange, and varying likelihood of such strangeness being concerning to them.  You can check out a list of serial killers online and see whether their backgrounds meet your definition of going unnoticed.
Arnon Weinberg
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2020-09-04T08:14:05.443Z
@Arnon Weinberg then I suppose the question is could a trained psychologist tell?
Oliver Walters
<social-psychology><criminology>
Could a serial killer continue undiscovered by friends, family, work colleagues?
Oliver Walters
# Could a serial killer continue undiscovered by friends, family, work colleagues?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-01)

Or would they invariably show signs that psychologically they weren't right? I'm watching The Fall, where a serial killer is in the middle of his spree, but without his wife or work colleagues noticing any strange or abnormal behaviour, and wondering if that could really happen IRL?

**Tags:** social-psychology, criminology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm not sure that this question belongs on psych.SE (as opposed to history.SE), but in any case, it is too broad and vague for this forum.  Serial killers obviously go unnoticed before they are caught, otherwise they would have been caught earlier.  "Friends" and "colleagues" are people with varying knowledge of the perpetrator, and hence, varying likelihood of noticing anything strange, and varying likelihood of such strangeness being concerning to them.  You can check out a list of serial killers online and see whether their backgrounds meet your definition of going unnoticed.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 then I suppose the question is could a trained psychologist tell?  

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