Piquerism is a form of sadism; the term comes from the French word Piquer, which means “To Prick”. This is the act of penetrating flesh with a sharp object. Often the jabbing will penetrate the skin of what we think of as a private area: the bottom, breasts, etc. but not always.
Have you ever noticed in certain cases that the motive seems sexual but there’s no apparent intercourse or even molestation? Sometimes the killer will think of the knife as a phallus. Piquerism can be the act of stabbing multiple times with an object, biting, or even cutting; sometimes it’s just one purposeful jab. It could also be the reason for some cases of overkill, a person who continues stabbing away even after death, or begins stabbing postmortem. Sometimes it’s self inflicted, or the person receives sexual satisfaction through being penetrated by others.
A good example of this is serial killer Albert Fish. He enjoyed having pins and needles inserted into his own groin – even constructed himself a paddle with many nails sticking out of it. Upon arrest an xray showed more than 2 dozen pins still penetrating his pelvic area. He was definitely a sadist who enjoyed killing and eating children; we know Fish killed at least 3, but it’s believed his true body count is much, much higher- some say triple digits.
Another is Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. He was impotent, and his blade became a physical extension of himself. Andrei was a teacher known for molesting, mutilating, and killing at least 52 women and children throughout a 12 year period; he was executed for his crimes.
Sometimes the person doesn’t kill at all: in 2007 a 25 year old Staten Island man named Frank Ranieri was busted after hiring multiple young girls to poke themselves in their private areas with pins, needles, pens, nails, just an assortment of different sharp things. He had been known to pay $500 per poking season. At one point Frank had been a NYPD recruit, but never graduated from the academy; he would tell these girls that he was an officer and bribe them to do as he wished. The oldest of these victims had been 15, she was paid 6 grand for recurring sessions throughout a year and a half. Frank, now known as “The Staten Island Pin Pervert”, would get himself off while watching, he never physically touched the girl; this is how he justified his actions. He never touched her, so he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Thankfully the law disagreed with that reasoning. Frank was charged with two felonies, 2nd degree assaults which were sexually motivated; he was sentenced to 10 years probation.
This is one of the things Danish u-boat murderer Peder Madsen did to his victim Kim Wall.
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