True Crime Expert Weighs In On Bed-Wetting & Childhood Trauma In Serial Killers

According to Healthline, one key indicator for future violent behavior is known as the MacDonald triad, and Mike Oh from YouTube's "That Chapter," speaking exclusively to Grunge, says there's some truth to the theory. "The Macdonald triad essentially says that obsession with fire, bed-wetting, and cruelty to animals as a youth are factors which tend to be linked to murderous behavior later in life," he explained. The presence of any or all of those factors doesn't necessarily prove someone will one day become a serial murderer, but they are likely more prone to future violent behavior, he adds.

"I've covered hundreds of cases and dozens of serial killers, and when researching, those three factors appear again and again. It's not always the three together, but at least one will appear in a killer's background," so much so, it's more surprising when you don't see any of them in a serial murderer's profile, Oh continues. Referring to notorious serial killer Israel Keyes (pictured), Oh points to arson early on in Keyes' life. As a teen, Keyes also skinned live deer, Oh says (via Biography). The MacDonald triad is far from a catchall, Oh cautions: Not every child who lives with these experiences grows up to be a cold-blooded killer, he says, "... but cold-blooded killers will nearly always have had at least two of those factors in their childhood."

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