Between the years of 1982 and 1989, Edmund Alan White (b. 1946) terrorized Northern California and Oregon, committing at least five murders in that seven year span.
During his killing spree, Edmund White was dubbed "The Balloon Mask Killer" thanks to several grisly details not appropriate to reference in a school project.
The new methods the FBI used to to identify, locate and capture White in 1989 revolutionized criminology for the "age of information", so this is a totally appropriate topic for computer class.
Edmund White was born in 1946 to upper-middle class parents living in Reno, Nevada. A lot of psychological analysis was done on his childhood after his arrest, especially when details about his untreated obsessive-compulsive disorder became public information. However, besides the panic attacks, White's psyche seemed normal and his childhood was otherwise happy. He married young at the age of 19 and moved with his wife Sally to Cupertino, California where he worked as a salesman for his father's shoe company. Unusually for a serial killer, Edmund White never committed a single crime until his first ritual murder in 1982 at the age of 36.
Not much else is known publicly about Edmund's life before he became a murderer. In his interviews after his capture he said his life was mostly boring and he started killing people to spice it up with his wife. He was the "suburban murderer" and people were really shocked about that, he was "the nicest guy you'll ever meet." Police think that is how he was able to almost get away with it.
Edmund and Sally White are believed to have lured Lena Randall, a college student home for the summer, into their home under the pretense of hiring her as a baby sitter. The specific details of Lena's death became well known when the videotapes were mailed to several news stations on the West Coast. This first tape is mostly silent except for the sounds of the victim. The police had to scramble to stop a murderer who was using technology to share his evil deeds, and maybe they would use technology or math to stop him..
Edmund White (1946-present)
Sally White (1951-1990)
Lena Randall, the first victim of the Balloon Mask Killer.