<p>This study proposed the PRIME (Personality disorders and Paraphilias as trophy-taking Motivations Evaluation) model to identify the roles of personality disorders and paraphilias in trophy-taking serial killers. It was hypothesized that trophy-takers would have a higher prevalence of these disorders compared to non-trophy-takers and that their crimes would have a higher frequency of torture, mutilation, victim overkill, and sadism. Of 544 serial killers from the Radford/FGCU Serial Killer Database, 11.6% were trophy-takers; they demonstrated a higher prevalence of antisocial and schizoid personality disorders, torture and mutilation, and necrophilia and sexual assault (but not overkill), distinguishing them from non-trophy-takers. Findings can refine the psychological profile of an offender to link unlinked crimes.</p>