It would be boring if all those who are convinced that Bamber is guilty sang from the same hymn sheet when trying to understand his personality and behaviour. There is a lot that we really do notunderstand. To me it is a mystery that he became an apparently psychopathic killer and I accept that I do not have insight into the process which in his case led to his developing a personality disorder with such lethal consequences. Yes, there are a variety of grief reactions, some of them culturally mediated. Arguably someone socialised in a public school or military background might be better at submerging their emotions and putting on the traditional stiff upper lip. West African friends, in contrast, tend to display a much more overt expression of grief. However, it is the greed and disregard for the memory of his dead sister which in my eyes is most inappropriate. In another context, where there was clear evidence that Bamber could not have been guilty, such inappropriate behaviour might have been explicable in another way, for example that his personality fitted with a degree of Asberger's Syndrome.
Dillon I agree with your analysis. It is, of course, a mystery how any psychopath develops let alone one as murderous as Bamber. Personally and looking at the evidence I believe Bamber was not 'born bad' but developed psychopathy. Here are some thoughts of mine. I am certainly no psychologist but I have had some psychological training.
They are just ideas that I have according to the evidence.The key moment in his life appears to have been him being sent away to boarding school. This traumatic severence from his mother may have forced him to shut down emotionally in order to protect himself from the emotions that would may otherwise have overwhelmed him. Boarding school can be a very tough, unyielding place where one has to be tough to survive. The shutting down was a way of coping with his surroundings. The problem is, is that the shutting down becomes deeply ingrained and irreversible. Normal emotional development would be stunted and attachments to others become more difficult. At this time a sense of self-reliance and insular arrogance would have developed. The overwhelming belief that whatever he did would be right. This insularity becomes more pronounced as he grew into adulthood where he tries to rationalise himself and his situation. He comes to the conclusion that his parents dont love him and adopted him, shuned him in his hour of need and now use him as a slave simply to work on the farm. This develops later into a full blown hatred of his family and soon develops a distorted view of his own importance and entitlement. His parents are now nothing to him but an ongoing nuisance. The rest of his family -Sheila and her boys also fall into this category. He withdraws completely and treats his family with the contempt he thinks they deserve. It was probably (according to Julie Mugford) around the winter of 1984 when he first entertained thoughts of killing his family. Bamber would have seen every action by his parents in a very negative way. He would have interpreted for example, the incidence when he was a child of his mother accidently dropping him on his head. This would now be seen by Bamber as evidence of her utter neglect and further proof of her distain for him. He would only interpret events that would reinforce the reasons why he must kill them. By early spring 1985 Bamber was probably at the point of no return. He burgled the caravan site because he knew that the family would be dead soon and it wouldn't matter anyway. It was also his way of saying 'I can do whatever I like and I hate you' to his parents. It was also that summer that Bamber has begun to ask Sheila when she would be coming to stay with the twins - something he had never done before. A deadly, concerted plan was clearly underway.
Bamber was now committed to killing them all. The greed was, I believe a secondary issue to the first. The first being to brake free of the control that he felt he parents exerted over him. The inheritance would provide him with the independence he so craved and buy him the lifestyle which he believed to be his by right.
A murderous psychopath was now, in all intents and purposes stalking the family, silently watching, waiting for the opportunity to strike. Bamber got the opportunity on the night of 6/7th August 1985 and he grabbed it with both hands. He had Planned it out very carefully, thinking he'd left no clues. He probably obtained a high degree of satisfaction from the knowledge that he'd committed the 'perfect murder'. A set of murders that he assumed would never be uncovered.
These are my thoughts on the twisted development of Jeremy Bamber. Please feel free to add any.
I think that you make some very interesting points. I wonder whether the seeds of insecurity and a sense of rejection may be sown even in the first few weeks and months of life. Some children put up for adoption in that era of unmarried mothers homes and adoption societies run by the churches may have been deprived of the love, bonding and stimulation that I feel is so important . These could be harsh, moralistic establishments run to strict routines where it must have been difficult for natural mothers who were going to lose their babies anyway to provide the emotional input that is imo needed at this critical stage of a child's development. And probably no fathers or grandparents etc on the scene either.
Everything that I have heard about June and Nevill confirms that they were loving, caring adoptive parents. Sheila and Jeremy appear to have had happy early childhoods in idyllic surroundings, attending kindly, soft local schools.
Then, wham ! Boarding school, and having been through that mill Iknow it can be tough, but how much more so for adopted children. A well intentioned move but possibly very harmful on top of much earlier rejection as infants.
Children in these establishments can be very cruel and it is said that Jeremy acquired the nickname " The b........ " at Greshams having confided in a " friend" that he had been adopted.
Later on Jeremy may have come to feel more and more trapped in the farming life. Hardworking, achieving farmers like Nevill are often desperately keen to see at least one son maintain the dynasty. Farmers often have this huge emotional attachment to their land. So Jeremy would have felt a lot of pressure. It may not have been in his genetics. These farming families go on generation after generation. Then he was being introduced to the joys of the big city with trips to see his sister and perhaps the hippyish, artistic influence of her partner, Colin. and others.
I have mentioned before, that he told someone I knew well at a shoot not long before the murders that his ambition was to work in London in something like the music business and made it clear that he was not interested in farming. Nevill would have probably found it very difficult to understand this sort of ambition.
Speculative, I know, but maybe part way to understanding how he became such a damaged personality. Nevertheless, other people survive backgrounds with such pressures and feelings of rejection so maybe there were also " nature" as well as " nurture " factors involved.
