Is Edmund Kemper Jewish?
The American serial killer Edmund Kemper – known as the Co-Ed Killer – is enjoying quite the vogue at the moment after being cast as a frequently reoccurring character in the series ‘Mindhunter’ based on the book of the same name by FBI profiler John Douglas.
Recently I’ve seen unevidenced claims that Kemper was in fact jewish. These claims are focused on Kemper’s mother Clarnell Elizabeth Stage not his father Edmund Emil Kemper Jr.
However, Kemper – more correctly Edmund Emil Kemper III – appears to have no jewish ancestry at all.
Kemper’s father Edmund Emil Kemper Jr. was born to Edmund Emil Kemper Sr. and his wife Maude Matilda Kemper (nee Hughey) in 1919. Kemper Sr. was a farmer and electrician (born to Frederick Augustus Reinhardt Kemper and Bertha Anna Haas), while Maude Hughey was from Topeka, Kansas and moved with her family to Los Angeles, California in 1910. (1)
Neither have any suggestion of jewishness in their biographies.
When we turn to Kemper’s mother Clarnell Elizabeth Stage; the evidence is just as non-existent.
She was born March 17, 1921, in Winnett, Montana (2) which is confirmed by her birth certificate. (3)
There is no suggestion of jewishness during her time at school since she didn’t even join any jewish social clubs nor is there any mention of it during her school record that I can find. (4)
The only possible suggestion that she could have been jewish is found in her married name at the time of her death which she took from her third husband: Harold Magnus Strandberg. She married him on 17th May 1964 in Wallace, Idaho. (5)
Despite the surname seemingly to be possibly jewish: it is not. It is in fact Swedish and means ‘Shore Mountain’. (6)
Even if Strandberg were jewish then it wouldn’t been Kemper’s mother Clara was. Although Clara is believed to have had borderline personality disorder. (7)
So, no: Edmund Kemper was a serial killer but he wasn’t a jewish one.
References
(1) https://edmundkemperstories.com/blog/category/edmund-emil-kemper-ii/
(2) https://edmundkemperstories.com/blog/2021/05/08/young-clarnell-stage/; https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stage-84; https://www.sinisterisles.com/post/who-was-ed-kemper-mother-clarnell-stage
(3) https://i0.wp.com/edmundkemperstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/77265868_960403051000396_1082667573494939648_o.jpeg?resize=676%2C583&ssl=1
(4) https://edmundkemperstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Yearbook_full_record_image-copie.jpeg
(5) https://edmundkemperstories.com/blog/category/edmund-emil-kemper-ii/
(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strandberg; https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=strandberg
(7) https://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kemper-edmund.htm