Serial killer chillingly says murdering young women was his "life's passion"
Speaking with Piers Morgan from behind bars, Bernard Giles revealed why he took the lives of five young women in the early 1970s
Piers Morgan visited the Okeechobee Correctional Institution in Florida to meet serial killer Bernard Giles(Image: Info)
One of America's most notorious serial killers has confessed that murdering young women was his "life's passion", and that each attack left him feeling "extraordinarily hyped".
In a three-month spell in the early 1970s, Bernard Giles killed five hitchhikers, whom he picked up and drove at gunpoint to remote spots, where he sexually abused and murdered them .
His victims were Paula Hamric, a 22-year-old mother-of-two; Nancy Gerry, 18; Carolyn Bennett, 17; and Sharon Wimer and Krista Melton, who were both just 14.
Speaking with Piers Morgan for Thursday's Confessions Of A Serial Killer episode, Bernard Giles also revealed one woman is still, to this day, unaware that she narrowly escaped his clutches.
Bernard Giles typically murdered hitchhikers, whom he picked up and drove to secluded spots at gun point
Giles, pictured at the time of the murders(Image: Canal Crime)
Unlike previous killers Piers had interviewed, he said that Giles was the first one who didn't attempt to prove his innocence, the Mail on Sunday reports.
At the start of the episode, Morgan said: "You are serving five life sentences for killing five young women. My first question is, did you kill those women?"
Giles replied chillingly: "Yes sir, I did."
Giles was one of four children from a stable family who enjoyed a perfectly happy, loving childhood with no abuse.
When he began his murderous rampage he was 20 years old, working as an electrician, and had no criminal record.
At home were Leslie, his 18-year-old wife, and five-month-old baby daughter Heather.
He has since admitted knowing for most of his life that he had an evil and deep-rooted craving for sexual violence against women.
Krista Melton, who was 14 at the time of her murder
Giles took the life of 18-year-old Nancy Gerry
His first violent act came during a game of witch-hunt with a young female neighbour.
When he caught her in a bedroom of her house, he pinned her down.
He said: "I remember straddling her and strangling her. Playing… but that was my initial sexual imprint.
"From that point on, anything that I saw or read that had anything to do with sexual violence against a woman was a sexual impulse.
"As a child growing up, I became obsessed with this."
Describing his motives of murdering these young women, Giles admitted he had just one sinister criterion when picking his victims: "access".
Paula Hamric, 22, was the only one of Giles' victims who was a mother
Victim Carolyn Bennett, aged 17
Most of the young women he butchered had been hitchhiking - a common practice for young people in the United States in 1970s.
Asked whether he remembered their names, Giles said: "Why would someone embrace the names of their victims? I saw these women as objects."
A further three women were spared a grisly fate by engaging him in conversation, thus "humanising" themselves in Giles' eyes.
He added: "Some women actually spared their lives by engaging me in conversations."
Morgan then asked him if he ever got an urge to kill his wife, to which Giles replied: "No, I knew her. I never killed anyone I knew.
"The objectification of the victims, for me, was an important element."
Sharon Wimer was just 14 when she was murdered by Giles
Giles has not seen his daughter, who was an infant at the time of his killings, since he was imprisoned(Image: Canal Crime)
The TV personality and former newspaper editor then showed Giles a recently-taken photo of his daughter, whom he has not seen or heard from since he was locked up.
Morgan asked: "When you look at your own daughter at that age. Smiling, innocent, and happy, what do you feel about the young women you killed?"
Giles responded: "I don’t put those together."
Summing up his twisted desire to kill, he said: "If you like chocolate, you like chocolate. You cannot eat chocolate, but you can’t deny that you like chocolate."
ITV’s Confessions Of A Serial Killer With Piers Morgan airs on Thursday at 9pm