Note: This article on America’s famous serial killers was originally published on September 7, 2008 and has since been updated to include profiles of additional American serial killers.
In our original look at some of America’s famous serial killers, we looked at thirteen of the most notorious serial killers in American history. But those murderers are far from the only serial killers our nation has seen.
Now let’s add five more names to the list — more American serial killers you might (or might not) have heard about.
Dean Corll, also known as “The Candy Man,” didn’t act alone. He worked with two accomplices — Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks. Corll is thought to have murdered at least 28 boys in the Houston area from 1970 through 1973. The boys were beaten and raped while tied to a plywood “torture board.” Victims were killed with a gun or by strangulation.
Dean Corll wasn’t prosecuted for his crimes. He was killed by one of his accomplices (Henley). While Henley was convicted of six murders, he wasn’t charged with killing Corll. That was ruled to be self-defense.
Amy Archer-Gilligan ran a convalescent home in Connecticut. Oddly, her murders inspired the comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace.” She killed residents of her nursing home by poisoning them with arsenic and strychnine shortly after they’d paid her large sums of money. It’s also believed that she killed her wealthy second husband for the inheritance. According to the New York Daily News, “it’s estimated that at least 20 people, and some estimate as many as 100, including her husbands, died by her hand.”
She was only tried for one murder — that of Franklin R. Andrews. She was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1917 and was granted a new trial on appeal. This time she pleaded insanity. She was again found guilty and this time sentenced to life imprisonment. She was moved to a hospital for the insane in 1924. She died there in 1962.
Juan Vallejo Corona is a Mexican American serial killer who preyed upon the workers he supplied to fruit ranches in California. It is believed that Juan Vallejo Corona killed at least 25 laborers whose bodies were found buried in the orchards they worked at. No clear motive was ever given for the killings.
Corona was found guilty of the 25 murders in 1973 when he was issued 25 life sentences. His conviction was overturned in 1978 and he was tried again in 1982. He was again convicted of the crimes. He is still serving time at the Corcoran State Prison in California.
The Boston’s Strangler’s true identity still hasn’t been confirmed, although Albert DeSalvo confessed to being the notorious northeast killer. This unknown serial killer murdered at least 13 women in Boston between 1962 and 1964. Most of the women were sexually assaulted before being strangled, although one elderly victim died of a heart attack and at least two victims were stabbed. Victims’ ages ranged from 19 to 85.
Albert DeSalvo confessed to the stranglings in 1964 after being caught and charged with other sexual assaults (where the victims were not murdered). He was sentenced to life in prison, later escaped but turned himself in, and was ultimately stabbed to death while he was incarcerated.
Many people still believe DeSalvo lied about being The Boston Strangler however, due to inconsistencies and inaccuracies in his claims, DNA evidence that would seem to clear him in at least one case, and the belief that the crimes were too different to all be committed by the same person.
The Zodiac Killer, who has never been identified, attacked couples around San Francisco in the late 1960s. The Zodiac Killer claimed to have committed 37 murders in total, but only seven have been confirmed so far. They included three young couples and a young man. The known victims were either shot or stabbed.
The killer himself came up with the “Zodiac” name when he used it in letters to the press. He sent them four coded messages (cryptograms). Only one of them has been definitively solved — by a high school teacher. In that letter, the killer expressed his joy in killing, calling it “so much fun.” And he claimed that the people he murdered would become his slaves in the afterlife.
Read on for our original list of America’s famous serial killers or leave a comment to tell us about a serial killer we haven’t covered here.
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Serial killers — you’d be hard-pressed to spot them in a crowd. They look just like everyone else. In fact, most of them are soft-spoken and polite. Their monstrous nature comes through only when you delve deeper into their personalities, actions and habits.
Reading the gruesome tales of serial killers sends a chill up the spine. Most of them seem to have had a dysfunctional family setting and were abused as children — emotionally, sexually or verbally. It’s as if this activates some psychological trigger in their minds, increasing the feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness, and causing them to seek out their own heinous form of release.
There have been hundreds of serial killers in the history of America, and there are a few that tend to stay in the minds of citizens, becoming “famous.”
Here are just a few of the (in)famous serial killers that have walked the streets of our nation, in no particular order. There may be many others that are notorious or have killed more people, but we picked a few of the more famous killers that truly shocked us.
Known as history’s most inspirational killer, his character became a central element in many films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho and the character of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, among others.
Gein was a serial killer who skinned his victims, exhumed corpses, and decorated his home with parts of his victims’ bodies. Human skin was used to make dust bins, furniture, and even clothes.
Gein was born in 1906 as the younger of two boys. He had a weak alcoholic father and a domineering mother who was deeply religious. He was said to be very attached to her. She taught them about immorality and the evils of women and sex and discouraged their sexual desires. He turned into an effeminate and shy boy.
His father died as a result of his alcoholism and later his brother Henry, who used to criticize his mother about Gein’s unhealthy attachment to her, died in a mysterious fire. The younger boy was later suspected.
With nobody to control him after his mother passed away, Gein became obsessed with sexual fantasies and female anatomy. Fascinated by the human experiments performed in Nazi camps, he started robbing graves to perform experiments of his own, including exhuming his own mother’s body. The experiments became gruesome and cannibalistic. He had the desire to turn himself into a woman and would create breasts out of human skin and drape them over himself. He believed that for a sex change, he would need fresh bodies and thus started his killing spree, which was said to be because of his love-hate relationship with his mother.
When police finally caught up with him, they found a variety of gruesome sights — hanging corpses with their throats and heads missing, bowls made of skulls, pieces of jewelry made of human skin, hanging lips, skin upholstery for chairs, and masks made of facial skin and vulva (including his mother’s) that were painted silver. The most shocking discovery was perhaps his mother’s heart, which was found in a pan on the stove.
Police counted 15 women as his victims. Gein told the police that he never had sex with any of the dead women as “they smelled too bad.” His fascination with women was because of the power they held over men. Gein was admitted to Waupan State Hospital and died of cancer at the age of 78.
Ted Bundy proved that even the devil can be attractive. Bundy was one of the most infamous serial killers in American history. He was handsome, charming and cultured, all traits playing a role in his ability to rape and murder numerous young women. He even engaged in necrophilia (sexual attraction or involvement with corpses).
Bundy had unique techniques of luring his victims. He would drink alcohol before approaching potential victims, even in a crowd or in broad daylight, and gain their trust by faking an injury with his arm in a fake cast or a sling. He would at times act as a policeman or fire department personnel. After luring victims to his car, he would hit them on their head with a crowbar. He then raped and assaulted them sexually before strangling and mutilating them.
This good looking maniac used to visit the corpses several times at the Taylor Mountain body dump site, apply makeup to them, and sleep with them till they putrefied.
One of the theories says that he started killing people as early as 14 years old. Many of his victims are said to have a physical resemblance to his first girlfriend.
Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell in 1946 in Burlington, Vermont to an unmarried mother of 22. He gets his name from his stepfather. He was made to believe by his grandparents that he was their son and that his mother was actually his sister.
He was a good student, and like most young people devastated when his first love left him. Bundy didn’t deal with the grief as most people do though. He spent years trying to get her back, and when he did he started killing innocent people and then dumped his girlfriend just as she dumped him.
He was executed in 1989 after confessing to 40 murders.
Before his execution, he revealed that his addiction to pornography led him to do what he did. He said that there are many people out there who were addicted and nothing is being done about them.
One of Bundy’s famous quotes – “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.”
Better known as the Son of Sam or the .44 killer, David Berkowitz is a New York City serial killer who killed six people and wounded many others. His crimes became famous because of his letters to the media and the police, in addition to the reason he committed these crimes.
Berkowitz gave an odd reason for killing – he claimed that to keep the demons quiet, he started doing what they wanted. When dogs howled, he started believing that these dogs were demons asking him to kill women. He was convinced that his house owners, Jack and his wife, were part of the demon conspiracy and Jack was the commander in chief of all the dogs.
Later he shifted into another apartment but was still controlled by the demons in his mind. His new neighbor, Sam Carr, had a black Labrador which Berkowitz believed was possessed. He shot the dog. That did not provide any relief as he began believing that Sam Carr was possessed by the biggest demon, and perhaps Satan himself. Each night these demons told Berkowitz to kill and quench their thirst for blood.
He also used to write letters to the police and media, essentially taunting them with details of his killings.
David Berkowitz, born 1953, was an adopted son of a middle class family in the Bronx. Although his parents loved him, Berkowitz carried a lot of anger and guilt inside him as he felt responsible for the death of his natural mother, who he was told died giving birth to him. Experts believe that could be the reason for his aggressive behavior.
He was devastated when his mother died of cancer and his father remarried and relocated to Florida, leaving him behind when he was 18.
Later he found out that his natural mother was alive and that he had a sister. There was a reunion, butit was too late for him by then as he preferred his isolation and delusions.
Berkowitz received a 365 year prison sentence and told the FBI that he invented the “Son of Sam” stories to convince the court that he was out of his mind. He then said the real reason he killed was partly because he hated his mother for leaving him and partly his failure with women. He felt sexually aroused when he killed women, and he killed six of them.
A respected member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a precinct captain in the local Democratic party, the owner of a contracting business and a performing joker at children’s parties, John Wayne Gacy seemed as normal as they come.
He came to be known as one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.
Gacy lured his victims into handcuffs in the pretext of showing them a pair of trick handcuffs he used in his clown act. He’d then dare the youth to free themselves. Once the boys were handcuffed, he would use either a rope or a board across their throats to kill them while he raped them.
Gacy was born into a blue-collar family in 1942 and had two sisters. His father was an abusive alcoholic who verbally and physically abused his children. Gacy deeply loved his father and strived to please him, but failed.
He had the ability to persuade an manipulate people, likely because of how normal and harmless he seemed on the outside. He later got married and had two kids of his own, but his wife left him when he was arrested for trying to coerce a fellow employee into homosexual acts.
Another thing to note is that he injured his head by falling off a swing when he was 11 years old. He suffered from blackouts until he was 16, and then was diagnosed with a blood clot and the condition was corrected.
When Gacy realized that police were about to arrest him, he surrendered himself. He told them, “There are four Johns” (similar to multiple personalities) — one was a contractor, another a clown, one a politician, and the fourth went by the name Jack Hanley, and he did evil things.
Gacy confessed to more than 24 murders and drew a map to 28 graves under his house and garage. He also said he threw five others into the Des Plaines River.
He was executed with a lethal injection on May 10, 1994. His last meal consisted of fried chicken, Coke, French fries and strawberry shortcake. His last words were, “Kiss my ass.”
This Milwaukee serial killer murdered boys of Asian and African descent. His murders were gruesome and involved torture, forced sodomy, dismemberment (removing their limbs), necrophilia, and cannibalism.
He was arrested first when caught fondling a 13-year-old boy in Milwaukee and was sentenced to one year in a work release camp. After serving ten months, he was released on probation for his good behavior. That’s when his killing spree began.
He committed his first murder at the age of 18, shortly after being released, and his first victim was a 19-year-old hitchhiker.
There was a much-talked about story about a 14-year-old boy who almost escaped Dahmer in 1991. He wandered into the streets without clothes, with Dahmer in pursuit. Police believed Dahmer’s story that the boy was 19 years old and was his partner, and took the boy to Dahmer’s house. In spite of noticing a weird smell there, they left without investigating. Soon after, the boy was killed and Dahmer kept his skull as a souvenir.
Dahmer was the son of an analytical chemist, and as a child he had a fascination with dissecting dead animals. By the time he was a teenager, he was an alcoholic and a loner. He dropped out of college and his father forced him to enlist in the Army. After just two years, he was discharged because of his heavy drinking. Since he did not want to face his father, he moved in with his grandmother and lived with her for six years. His grandmother asked him to move out when he was arrested for exposing himself in public.
Dahmer was caught by the police when a would-be victim escaped and alerted them. He was held responsible for 15 murders, sentenced to 15 life terms. Dahmer then expressed remorse and wished death upon himself. He was beaten to death by a fellow inmate and died of severe head trauma.
“I hate most prostitutes. I did not want to pay them for sex. I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away, and might never be reported missing.” These were the words of one of the worst slayers in American history, who was said to have killed more women than any other serial killer — Gary Ridgway.
The Green River Killer drama unfolds at Aurora Avenue on the banks of the Green River where hundreds of prostitutes hang around, and where on July 15, 1982 the body of a 16-year-old prostitute was found. She was the first victim of the infamous Green River Killer and was raped and strangled to death. He had the habit of finding a landmark and leaving a group of dead bodies in ‘clusters,” to remember easily. Driving by these clusters and remembering them gave him a high.
The killings continued and police couldn’t find a clue, so the “Green River Taskforce” was formed in 1984. The death toll had reached 26 by then.
Another serial killer, Ted Bundy (who was sitting on a death row), offered to assist the police and gave them several clues into the working of a serial killer’s mind until the time he was executed.
Ridgway was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and he had two brothers. He had a domineering mother who constantly yelled at their father and controlled Ted completely, and she was never pleased with what he did. Ridgway’s IQ was 80, which signified a slight mental deficiency. He had a troubled adolescence and stabbed a six-year-old kid when he was 16. He always had an obsession with prostitutes.
He was married for fourteen years and he managed two totally different identities: one the life of a wonderful husband going on romantic vacations, and the other of the infamous serial killer.
The Green River Killer caused mayhem for two and half years during the 1980s. He pleaded guilty to 48 charges in 2003, but claimed to have killed 71 women. A controversial plea bargain he entered into spared him execution in exchange for helping to locate the remains of all of those women by providing details. This created a lot of controversy as many people believed that a person who murdered so many people should not be spared the death sentence.
He was sentenced to 48 life sentences and is currently incarcerated in Washington at the Washington State Penitentiary.
Unlike many other female killers, Gunness didn’t poison her victims — she slaughtered them. She was a 42-year-old Norwegian immigrant who purchased a property in La Porte, Indiana using her first husband’s insurance after his death. Her husband and two of her children were said to have died mysteriously, although she wasn’t suspected. After moving to La Porte with the rest of her children, she married Peter Gunness who died after just nine months. She collected another insurance payment. Over the next few years, other men that came into her life vanished without trace.
She became famous for being a black widow — killing several of her husbands, ranch workers and adopted children.
She would place matrimonial ads in newspapers and promised men marital bliss and a life filled with love. Several hopefuls traveled to La Porte carrying their life savings with them. She would then drug them and cut them up as she cut her hogs. She would then wrap them up with oilskin and bury them at her farm.
A letter she wrote reads – “My heart beats in wild rapture for you, My Andrew, I love you. Come prepared to stay forever.”
There are various accounts of her background. She was said to be one of eight children and was born in Stoersetgjerdet in Norway. One story goes that she got pregnant with a man and he kicked her in her stomach in public causing her to lose her child. He disappeared soon after. According to her sister, Belle was said to be crazy for money.
In 1908, Gunness’ farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. When it was put out, the remains of several people were discovered — men, children, and even a woman. The children were identified as hers. The woman was assumed to be Gunness herself, although there was no head. It was thought she died in that fire.
Many butchered bodies were found around her property, carved like turkeys. The heads were cut off, arms removed, and legs sawed off at the thigh.
Despite the assumption that she died, her ranch hand and lover, Lamphere, claimed that he helped Belle fake her own death and run away when he was arrested. Officially, she was presumed dead.
She was said to have killed 49 people.
Called the “most dangerous man” and the “devil,” Charles Manson was the terror of the 60s.
He was born in 1934 to a 16-year-old mother who was a troublemaker. She left him with his aunt or grandmother most of the time. She was arrested on armed robbery charges and sent to a penitentiary, leaving Manson to live with his aunt and uncle. Even after she was released, his mother didn’t want the responsibility of looking after him. She was even willing to trade him for a drink. His father was never in the scene from his birth.
Manson turned out to be a troublemaker himself, and he was sent to a reform school at the age of nine. By the time he was 26, he was charged with rape, drug charges, stealing, pimping, and more.
He was religious and used this to manipulate people into following him. When he was 34, he formed the “Charles Manson Family” by attracting a group of followers — mostly young women with troubled pasts. He used amphetamines to alter their personalities and they started calling him “Jesus Christ” and did everything he wanted, including physical favors.
He was a music lover who believed that the “Beatles’” were prophets sent to earth to warn of an upcoming revolution. Manson focused on an Armageddon, where the blacks would rise to power and kill all whites and the Manson family would be the only white family living. He felt the blacks wouldn’t be able to stay in power because of an inferiority complex and that the Manson family would then rule the world.
When this did not happen, he started having people killed by his “family” members.
His first murder was that of Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski. The next was the LaBianca family. He was sentenced to death but later reduced to life imprisonment, when California Supreme Court eliminated death penalties temporarily. He is currently an inmate at Corcoran State Prison.
Albert Fish may have been America’s most vile pedophile, serial killer, and cannibal. He is known by many names — Gray Man, Brooklyn Vampire, The Boogeyman, and the Werewolf of Wysteria. He was a gentle-looking and benevolent grandfather, a total contrast to the monster within him. His wife considered him a wonderful husband and his children believed he was a model father. Some of his crimes seem unbelievable.
Hamy Fish (his birth name) was born in Washington D.C. as the youngest of four children. Several of his family members had mental health problems. After his father’s death, he was put in an orphanage by his mother and he was whipped at the orphanage frequently. That’s said to be when he began to realize that he enjoyed physical pain and felt aroused by it. Then he entered into homosexual relationships at the age of 12 and was introduced to other perverse practices of drinking urine and coprophagia. His weekends were spent visiting public baths to watch boys undress. This led to male prostitution, which continued even after his marriage and the births of his six children.
He also developed an unusual interest in castration and visited brothels where he got himself whipped and beaten. He pushed needles into his body, including his genitalia. X-rays later revealed a total of 27 needles inside him.
It was at the age of 55 that he started experiencing hallucinations. He believed God ordered him to castrate young boys. This was diagnosed as religious psychosis and is what led to the several mutilations and murders he committed.
Although he was a suspect in five killings, he stated that he “had” around 100 children in all states. Nobody knew whether he was talking about cannibalization or molestation. He was executed on an electric chair.
Mudgett’s criminal career started as a medical student who stole corpses from the University of Michigan. He used those corpses to collect insurance money on policies taken under fictitious names. He then started a drug store empire and constructed a huge hundred-room mansion with trap doors, lime pits, fake walls, acid vats, and secret entrances.
He would rent rooms to visitors and then try and collect the insurance when they were killed there. He also used to lure women to his “torture castle,” promising marriage. He would then throw them down the elevator shaft and gas them to death. But before he did that he would force them to sign all their life savings over to him.
Herman was born in New Hampshire and his father was very strict, often bullying his son. He had a well-known fear of the local doctor’s office and because of this other students in his school would often force him to touch human skeletons. What was meant to be a scare turned out to be a fascination, which led to him stealing corpses while in medical school.
He started using the name “H.H. Holmes” after moving to Chicago and got engaged in a lot of shady activities. He is also a bigamist, married a second time and a third time while still married to the first wife. He was known to be a charmer and a ladies’ man.
His huge castle with secret passages had a drugstore and other shops on the ground floor and the upper areas were used as his office. There were more than a hundred rooms without windows, and there were doorways that opened into brick walls. There were also stairways to nowhere, doors that could not be opened from the inside and several other such oddities. This was to become his killing den.
It was here that the killing spree sprouted over a period of three horrible years. Female victims were mostly his employees who were required to take a life insurance policy where Holmes would pay the premiums. Soundproof rooms with gas lines fitted in were used to kill people. These victims were asphyxiated and their screams went unnoticed as they suffocated. There was a chute that took the bodies to the basement, where some bodies were dissected, flesh removed and turned into skeletal models. He sold these skeletons and other organs to medical schools.He also performed illegal abortions in the castle and many of his patients died.
Eventually police grew suspicious about the activities in the castle and when he knew he was getting caught, he burnt the castle and vanished. Remains of more than two hundred people were found in the charred debris. He was later caught and hanged.
Watts was the first known serial killer in the nation’s history to have legally acquired immunity, and at one point it even looked as if he would be released in 2006 in spite of having committed between 80-100 murders. When a detective said that he did not have enough fingers and toes to count all the murders he committed, Watts replied that there were not enough fingers and toes in the room. (There were four men in the room.)
Usually serial killers are said to kill people of their own race. However Watts, who was an African American, killed whites mostly.
He admitted to killing females because he saw evil in their eyes. He drowned women in a bathtub in order to prevent their spirits from escaping.
He was not caught for many years because he killed in different jurisdictions and different states. DNA tests also didn’t prove anything because he did not dally with his victims, unlike other serial killers.
Watts would drive a couple of hours to commit his murders. He stalked women in his car, would park ahead of them, get out of the car, and then approach them. He killed females between the ages of 14 and 34 by strangulation, drowning, and stabbing. Occasionally he also used tools and other metal objects.
He started killing at the age of 20 but did not rape them, and some of his murders occurred without him even touching the women. For him, the thrill came from the hunt and attack.
Watts’ parents divorced when he was two and he lived with his mother and step-father. He was said to act weird when he was a kid. He was never good at academics but excelled in boxing.
He started having morbid dreams when he was 12, always revolving around killing women. In his dreams, he would punch their evil spirits and he usually fell off his bed. When asked by psychiatrists later whether these dreams disturbed him, he said, “No, I feel better after having them.”
These dreams slowly turned into reality when he started watching, stalking, and looking into the eyes of women to find evil. By the age of 15, he began hitting and choking them. Ultimately it wasn’t enough for him to hurt those women — he had to kill them.
Due to lack of evidence of murder, a plea bargain granted immunity from murder if he confessed to his murders and gave details. Due to this and his good behavior, Watts could have been released in 2006. However, after Watts confessed to about 80 murders, the Michigan authorities refused to go in with the deal and got witnesses to come out and speak about a couple of murders. Watts was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, he died of prostate cancer in 2007.
Angelo was a killer with a different mindset from all others. He made the entire nation scared of hospitals. The desire to be a hero in others’ eyes made him a monster. He was 26 when he went to work at the Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island in New York. He was a former Eagle Scout and always tried to do good things and help others.
His inability to achieve the level of praise he always desired made him a dangerous serial killer of a totally different kind.
He took advantage of the graveyard shift at the hospital to satisfy his desires. He would inject Pavulon and Anectine into patients and bring them to a near-death states. He would tell them that he was giving them drugs that would make them feel better. After injecting these drugs, the patients begin feeling numb and their breathing became constricted. They also lost their ability to communicate with the doctors and nurses. Then he would show his heroism by helping to save his victims, impressing everyone in the hospital.
Death came upon many of these patients as he was unable to intervene and save them from his deadly injections.
Angelo was a former boy scout and always wanted to be a hero. He was said to crave for attention from his parents and everyone else around him.
He is said to have killed 25 people and was caught when one of his victims managed to use the call button for assistance after being injected. One of the nurses then took his urine sample and the test proved positive for the drugs, Anectine and Pavulon, which had not been prescribed by the doctors. All the bodies of suspected victims were tested and found positive for drugs.
Angelo confessed and said, “I had no confidence in myself. I felt very inadequate.”
He was charged for second-degree murder on multiple counts and sentenced to 61 years to life imprisonment. He is currently in the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York.
Andrew Phillip Cunanan, a soft-spoken intellect who had a flair for languages and discussing world affairs, was a handsome, lavish and boastful young man who associated himself only with the social elite. He earned many dubious distinctions. One was for killing the famous fashion designer, Gianni Versace, and the other is being listed by the FBI on their Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He was the first person from San Diego to get onto the “prestigious” list.
There was no modus operandi discovered for Cunanan. In the beginning he killed his former lovers who he felt were having an affair behind his back. The others that were killed may also have had connections with him, but nobody knows for sure. They were killed differently and with different weapons.
Cunanan was born in National City, California and was a homosexual since high school. He was known for his erratic ways. He graduated in 1987. He was also rumored to be a lover to older and wealthy gay men. His mother called him a “high-class homosexual prostitute.” However his father denied his homosexuality, calling him “an altar boy” who has a good Catholic upbringing.
It is said that in homosexual circles, once a person crosses mid-20s he is considered old. When Andrew turned 28, he was deserted by his wealthy lovers. He was left to pay off credit cards which exceeded limits, and this left him broke. He stopped taking care of his usually very trendy appearance and gained a lot of weight.
At this point another emotion reared its ugly head — jealousy. He spotted two of his young lovers seeing each other behind his back. Another thing that bothered him was the fact that both of them had reached great heights professionally while he remained stagnant.
The jealousy grew to such an extent that he eventually went to visit them, killing both of them just days apart from each other, beginning his life as a serial killer.
One of his victims was Gianni Versace, the Italian designer. The FBI found Andrew, as he left his name signed on the pavement in front of Gianni’s house. The FBI felt that it was his way of trying to get attention, saying “Look at me. I’m the one that did this.”
He led authorities on a massive manhunt for his killings. He killed himself eight days after killing Gianni Versace. He shot himself to avoid capture.
What you have witnessed here is just a fragment of the world of savage and sadistic minds who have transformed this act of murder from a monstrous anomaly into an everyday horror. These mythic monsters capture the attention of the entire nation and end up as terrifying household names.
Looking into the psyche of a serial killer, doctors say that every individual develops positive attitude towards life and people in their early years, and this attitude is rendered negative with abuse — physical and emotional. That abuse can also come in the form of refusal to acknowledge the boundaries of an individual through excessive expectations, possessiveness, and doting, all of which are as abusive as incest or beatings.
Researchers attempting to understand how fantasies warp the serial killer’s mind say that bizarre fantasies thrive in isolation and eventually the killers feel the need to live them out. They dwell on the murder act for days before committing it, completely caught up in their fantasy. But they find that even murder never fulfills the fantasy completely, and this leads to the serial nature of their crime — always looking for satisfaction they never actually find. Many of these serial killers also keep souvenirs of their crime which helps refuel the fantasy.
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WHAT ABOUT RICHARD!!!??? PLUS THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER AMAZING MEN AND WOMEN YOU FORGOT, LIKE WHAT ABOUT ANDRE CHIKATILO? OR THE MOST AMAZING WOMEN EVER, AILEEN WUERNOS? ... OR HOW ABOUT OTIZ TOOLE & HENRY LEE LUCAS FOR EXAMPLE, JUST TO NAME A FEW ... ??? AND ESPECIALLY RICHARD ... HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN UP THERE MOST DEFINITELY <3
hivers Says:
May 4th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Rick,
Bundy, Dahmer, Berkowitz and Manson are definately not Jewish, they were Christian. Jack the Ripper was never identified, so they never knew if he was a jew"
I will start this real slow for you since you are incapable of searching for the truth. Fact is 985 of all serial killings are committed by Jews but blamed on whites. That is they give the Jewish name but claim they are white when this is not the truth. Jack the ripper was identified as Arron Kasminsky a Jew. The only reason Kasminski was never tried and executed was because Swartz, another Jew refused to testify because he said he would not have the death of another Jew on him. This still goes on today in the Jewish community and many Jews are set free by the Jewish controlled judicial system and the Jewish controlled media helps in covering up for a fellow Jew. If you don't know this then you are very sheltered or plain ignorant of what is really going on in America and abroad.
Evidence that Jack the Ripper was a Jew is here:
http://judicial.coolpage.biz/32ejack_the_ripper_was_a_jewish_man.htm
I will continue to prove the rest are Jews also in the future. This is what I am working on and plan to make it into a book to prove the myth of the white Serial killer and that it is really the Jew. From the beginning of time Jews have always been the first to murder in great masses and the first murderer of history was in fact a Jew, that being Cain or Kain in the holy Septuagint or Bible as you may know it.
Be it known also that it is common practice for Jews who have been caught to convert to christianity in order to hide their Jewishness from the public and not leave a stain upon the Jewish community. It is the media who hypes up this so-calle christianity of these serial killers because they are overwhelminly Jwish controlled. And you bought it hook line and sinker. Bundy is in fact a Jew, so is Berkowitz, Manson and Dahmer. look them up in any Jewish geneology site. You will be amazed.
Serial killers are fuc*ing loners who kill people that outstage their pathetic lives....their so emo and disgusting. They also say mexicans and blacks are crazy....look at that list stupid white fuc*s killing other races and inoccent poeple. Im glad these people are in jail or dead...there fuc*ing stupid. EVEN THOUGH THIS IS AWESOME TO READ SINCE ITS REALLY INTERESTING....BUT TO THINK THEY ACTUALLY DID SHIT LIKE THAT ITS SO WRONG..
Rick,
You are an idiot! I can hardly bare to reply to your insolent and ridiculous claims. NONE OF THEM ARE JEWS!!!!!!! It is that simple!! Jack the Ripper was NEVER found!! I am (happily) not American, I am English and I know this for a fact! Don't be a dick. You are just a racist and you clearly can't see that! Do you really think you can write a book filled with absolute bollocks and get it published?! Perhaps if you looked at any site or book with any credibility at all then you might learn something. Until you do I suggest you stop making such stupid and RACIST remarks!!!
shooting someone over a $5 crack rock makes sense? lmao
u know your killers ashleigh, good girl :)
Sure while were naming political serial killers can we throw Queen Liz in there slaughtered thousands of Irish took our land, still lays claim to part of it to this day, 200 years later. Come on what the hell, theres always going to be wars and conquests its just in our nature, form the words of one of my favourite bands Ocean Colour Scene, We dont wanna fight no more, but theres no profit in peace, boy we gotta fight some more. C'mon give it a rest about the politics
peter sutcliffe is such a violent sadist, and my second favorite serial killer. the most violent remorseless, and the way sutcliffe killed his victims is pimp as hell!!
Chivers90 Says:. NONE OF THEM ARE JEWS!!!!!!
Uhhh, stupid I just proved that one of them was a Jew and you have the gull to determine that this one wasn't? did you ever look through a Jewish geneology site to compare names that are Jewish. Are you that inept or are you so well trained through the Jewish controlled media that you fear the truth? Are you Jewish, is that why you defend the truth with your ranting and name calling when you can't prove otherwise?
If telling the truth makes me racist then I am proud to be a racist and wear it like a badge of honor. Oh and you forgot to call me " anti-semite! But since Jews are not Semites than I do not fear the name which has no teeth. The racist card is a silly attempt which shows your ineptness to rebut me through intellect . Oh and it does not take much intellect to call someone a "Dick." It actually shows your ill upbringing and lack of intellectual words to explain yourself.
Oh and since you zionistly state that all serial killers are white , can you name one black serial killer. Do you even know they exist? You won't since the Jewish controlled media will not tell you about them because it will incense the white man and then there will be a white uprising.........but its coming. Here is a small list to begin with. And oh, they will be included in my book also along with many many, more black serial killers.
Black Serial/Mass/Spree Killer List:
1. Matthew Emanuel Macon (Murdered and Raped 5 White Women in Lansing)
2. Jimmie Reed (Murdered his wife and his 2 month old daughter and set them on fire)
3. Shelly Brooks (Murdered 7 prostitutes in Detroit Cass Corridor)
4. Justin Blackshere (Stabbed two white cooks at Cheli’s Chili downtown Detroit)
5. Jervon Miguel Coleman (Murdered three people.)
6. Donell Ramon Johnson (Murdered a mother and a daughter)
7. Brian Ranard Davis (6 women known murdered by nigger)
8. Paul Durousseau (Seven women)
9. Mark Goudeau “The Baseline Killer” (Eight women and a man in 2005-2006)
10. Coral Eugene Watts (11 women in Texas & 1 in Michigan)
11. Anthony McKnight (Five girls and young women)
12. Derrick Todd Lee (8 Women)
13. Charles Lendelle Carter (4 known murders; admits to ‘hunting’ Atlantans for 15 years!)
14. The Zebra Killings (71 White people)
15. Chester Turner (L.A.s most prolific killer 12 women killed.)
16. Lorenzo J. Gilyard (Kansas City, MO.—13 victims)
17. Eugene Victor Britt (Gary, IN.–3 known murder/rapes.)
18. Reginald and Jonathan Carr (The Wichita Massacre–6 Whites murdered)
19. Ray Joseph Dandridge and his uncle, Ricky Gevon Gray (Richmond, VA.–Murdered 7 people in 7 days, including an entire White family.)
20. The Tinley Park Murderer (Suspect hasn’t been found but has been described as black – murdered 5 women in a store.)
21. Henry Louis Wallace (Raped and strangled 5 women to death.)
22. Charles Johnston (Murdered 3 unarmed white men in hospital)
23. Craig Price (Brutally murdered 3 women)
24. Harrison Graham (Brually Murdered 3 women)
25. Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton (Murdered 6 Whites at the Kirkwood, MO. city council. )
26. & 27. Darnell Hartsfeld & Romeo Pinkerton (Abducted and Murdered 5 from a restaurant)
28 &29. John Allen Muhammad & Lee Boyd Malvo (Sniped 11 people from a car in DC, 9 died.)
30. George Russell (3 women, WA state)
31. Timothy W. Spencer (5 killed, Arlington, VA and Richmond, VA)
32. Elton M. Jackson (12 gay men killed, Norfolk, VA area)
33. Carlton Gary (3 killed in Columbus, GA)
34. Mohammed Adam Omar (16 women, Yemen. Omar is Sudanese.)
35. Kendall Francois (8 women, Poughkeepsie, NY and surrounding areas.)
36. Terry A. Blair (8 women, Kansas City area)
37. Wayne Williams (33 many of them children!, Atlanta, GA)
38. Vaughn Greenwood (11 killed in LA)
39. Andre Crawford (10 killed in Chicago – southside)
40. Calvin Jackson (9 killed possibley more in NY)
41. Gregory Klepper (killed 8, Chicago – southside)
42. Alton Coleman (Killed 8 in the Midwest)
43. Harrison Graham (killed 7+ in N. Philadelphia)
44. Cleophus Prince (6 killed in, San Diego
45. Robert Rozier (7 killed in, Miami)
46. Maurice Byrd (killed 20 + in St. Louis)
47. Maury Travis (17 and rising, St. Louis and possibly also Atlanta)
48. Hulon Mitchell, a.k.a. Yahweh Ben Yahweh (killed 20+ in Florida)
49. Lorenzo Fayne (killed 5 children in East St. Louis, IL)
50. Paul Durousseau, (killed 6, two of which were pregnant women, Jacksonville, FL; Georgia.)
51. Eddie Lee Mosley (killed 25 to 30 women, south Florida)
52. Henry Lee Jones (killed 4 in, south Florida; Bartlett, TN)
53. Richard “Babyface” Jameswhite (15 killed in, New York; Georgia.)
54. Donald E. Younge, Jr. (killed 4), East St. Louis, IL; Salt Lake City, UT.
55. Ivan Hill (killed 6 in Los Angeles area).
56. Michael Vernon (Bronx, NY. Killed at least seven people – )
57. Chester Dewayne Turner (12 women killed in, Los Angeles
58. Eddie Lee Moseley (16+)
http://blackpeoria.wordpress.com/list-of-black-serial-killers/
I guess that kills your theory that all serial killers are white!!!
There were many expressions of shock and surprise voiced in the media in 2002 when the “D.C. Sniper” turned out to be two Black males. Two of the stereotypes surrounding serial killers are that they are almost always White males and that African American males are barely represented in their ranks. In a sample of 413 serial killers operating in the United States from 1945 to mid-2004, it was found that 90 were African American. Relative to the African American proportion of the population across that time period, African Americans were overrepresented in the ranks of serial killers by a factor of about 2. Possible reasons why so few African American serial killers are known to the public are explored.
In answering this question, this study suggests that the media’s fear of racism accusations constrains its coverage of heinous crimes committed by Africa-Americans, compared with the zealousness of its coverage of such crimes committed by Whites. Also, African-American serial killers may have been more hidden from the mainstream culture when their victims were other African-Americans, particularly in the early 20th century. Criminological studies of serial killers also neglect to point out Black overrepresentation in crimes generally considered a White domain. The myth that serial killers are rarely African-Americans has had two detrimental effects. First, Whites tend to argue that Blacks are not sufficiently psychologically complex or intelligent to commit a series of murders without being caught. Second, police tend to neglect the protection of potential victims of serial killers in African-American communities.
Last we have Philip Jenkins of Pennsylvania State University, who quickly puts to rest the myth that serial killers are white males and provides a list Black killers you may not have known anything about:-
Cases of Extreme Serial Homicide (8 or more victims) by African-Americans:-
Nathaniel R. Code Louisiana 1984-1987
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois 1984
Carlton Gary Georgia 1970-1978
Kevin Haley and Reginald Haley Southern California 1979-1984
Calvin Jackson New York 1973-1974
Milton Johnson Illinois 1983
Devernon LeGrand New York 1968-1975
Michael Player (Marcus Nisby) Southern California 1986
Freeway Phantom? Washington D.C. 1971-1972
Southside Slayer Southern California 1983-198
Important points to remember
Here’s another reason for the variance. Many databases from which the racial breakdowns are derived contain data from 1800 to the present. Others go back to 1900. In either case Africans were segregated from American society and among them serial killings - if any – were not reported. Depending on how far back a researcher goes, this would lower the African-American percentage of known offenders.
3. With the exception of Fox and Levin’s findings of Hispanic offenders at 4%, all studies in my limited survey seemed to include Jews, Arabs, Mestizos, Mexican Indians, and other forms of mystery meat in the ‘white’ category.
4. The FBI is fully aware of the disproportionate representation of African offenders among serial killers.
http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/serial_killer_white_out/
This is part of a study showing negroids actually dominate in the field of serial killing. This myth of whites being the majority of serial killers and pedophiles must be dispelled!!
A lack of understanding of base rates can lead to misinterpreting research findings and forensic results.4 Consider the oft-quoted fact, “Serial killers are usually white males.” While technically correct, at least for the United States, this statement is incomplete. To understand it properly, the relevant base rates also must be considered. Three different studies of serial murderers found black offender proportions of 16, 20, and 20 percent, and female offender proportions of 9, 10, and 16 percent. According to the 2000 census, the U.S. population is 75 percent white and 49 percent male. So, while disproportionately male, the only reason most serial killers in the United States are white is because most of the population is white. More important, all else being equal, serial killers are less likely to be white in predominantly black or Hispanic areas.
Now, let’s take a look some studies. Pay particular attention to the dates of the data included in each study’s database and its affect on the percentage of African-American serial killers:-
The major source of information on serial killers was the encyclopedias of serial killers written by Newton (1990, 1992, and 2000) and by Wilson and Seaman (1983, 1990), as well as the works of other authors. Newspaper and Internet sources were used for cases that occurred after 1999. The study identified 90 African-American serial killers and 323 White-American serial killers within the time frame of the study. African-Americans were represented among serial killers at a rate approximately twice their average percentage in the population (approximately 10.5 percent) across the 58-year time frame. Why, then, does the media limit its coverage of African-American serial killers?
In answering this question, this study suggests that the media’s fear of racism accusations constrains its coverage of heinous crimes committed by Africa-Americans, compared with the zealousness of its coverage of such crimes committed by Whites. Also, African-American serial killers may have been more hidden from the mainstream culture when their victims were other African-Americans, particularly in the early 20th century. Criminological studies of serial killers also neglect to point out Black overrepresentation in crimes generally considered a White domain. The myth that serial killers are rarely African-Americans has had two detrimental effects. First, Whites tend to argue that Blacks are not sufficiently psychologically complex or intelligent to commit a series of murders without being caught. Second, police tend to neglect the protection of potential victims of serial killers in African-American communities.
[…] in the mid twentieth century, black offenders were among those claiming the largest number of victims. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, there was a group of such cases including Jarvis Catoe, Jake Bird, and Clarence Hill, all of which can be described as fitting the classic stereotypes of serial murder {Jenkins 1989, 1994}.”
Cases of Extreme Serial Homicide (8 or more victims) by African-Americans:-
Nathaniel R. Code Louisiana 1984-1987
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois 1984
Carlton Gary Georgia 1970-1978
Kevin Haley and Reginald Haley Southern California 1979-1984
Calvin Jackson New York 1973-1974
Milton Johnson Illinois 1983
Devernon LeGrand New York 1968-1975
Michael Player (Marcus Nisby) Southern California 1986
Below is a non-comprehensive list of black serial murderers.
(# of victims in parentheses.)
Daniel Andrew Bowler (3), Richmond, VA
George Russell (3 women), WA state
Timothy W. Spencer (5), Arlington, VA and Richmond, VA
Elton M. Jackson (12), Norfolk, VA area
Carlton Gray (3), Columbus, GA
Mohammed Adam Omar (16 women), Yemen. Omar is Sudanese.
Kendall Francois (8 women), Poughkeepsie, NY and surrounding areas.
Terry A. Blair (8), Kansas City area
Zebra Killers (78), San Francisco
Wayne Williams (33), Atlanta, GA
Some Negro (15), Indianapolis, IN
Vaughn Greenwood (11), LA
Andre Crawford (10), Chicago – southside
Calvin Jackson (9+), NY
Gregory Klepper (8), Chicago – southside
Alton Coleman (8), Midwest
Harrison Graham (7+), N. Philadelphia
Cleophus Prince (6), San Diego
Robert Rozier (6), Miami
Craig Price (3), Warwick, RI
Devine Jones (3+), St. Louis
Maurice Byrd (20+), St. Louis
Maury Travis (17 and rising), St. Louis and possibly also Atlanta
Coral Eugene Watts (13 confessed to, possibly 80), Texas, Michigan, Canada
Hulon Mitchell, a.k.a. Yahweh Ben Yahweh (20+), Florida
Lorenzo Fayne (5 children), East St. Louis, IL
Henry Louis Wallace (9), Charlotte, NC
Reginald and Jonathan Carr (5), Wichita, KS
John Allen Muhammad (a.k.a. John Allen Williams) and John Lee Malvo, (Suspected in 13 to 19 and rising fast), Maryland; Virginia; Montgomery, AL; Baton Rouge, LA; Tacoma, WA; Georgia; Tucson, AZ
Torey Miller (2 homicides, one of which was a freeway drive-by, and the attempted ambush-murder of one St. Louis City police officer), St. Louis, MO.Derrick Todd Lee, (5 women), southern Louisiana
Paul Durousseau, (6, two of which were pregnant women), Jacksonville, FL; Georgia.
Troy Sampson (3), Las Vegas
Edward James (3), Las Vegas (This and the previous Las Vegas worthie were both “thrill” serial killers, who brutally murdered innocent and unsuspecting white people they never even met — EPH)
Eddie Lee Mosley (25 to 30 women), south Florida
Henry Lee Jones (4+), south Florida; Bartlett, TN
Richard “Babyface” Jameswhite (15), New York; Georgia.
Donald E. Younge, Jr., (4), East St. Louis, IL; Salt Lake City, UT.
Lorenzo J. Gilyard (12 women), Kansas City, MO. (May be Missouri’s worst serial killer ever, according to the Kansas City Star.)
Michael Vernon (7), Bronx, NY. Killed at least seven people – 5 in a shoe store for not having his sneaker size and 1 pizza delivery person and 1 gypsy cab driver.
Lamon J. McKoy (2, maybe more). Geneva, NY.
Jake ( ?) Bird, Tacoma, WA. He offed two in Tacoma in the 1940s and admitted to murdering many others nationwide.
Chester Dewayne Turner (12 women), Los Angeles
more to come:
I like how your list includes several individuals that are not considered serial killers by definition. Take Jimmie Reed for example, he killed those 2 individuals in a very short time, most serial killers have down time in-between killings.
interesting. interspersed between radical political debate, a few posts here are about the significance of murders. why do people slay others, especially those they have no underlying connection to? moreover, why does america host so many serial killers? when compared to the amount of killings one hears about in other countries, it would seem that america is quite ill. well, part of that lies in the fact that we mostly hear about serial killers here because it is home, so a killer will draw more attention here than in another country, especially a place far away, because it would be difficult for the media to hype one up a killer who poses no real threat to the average media consumer. serial killers gain notoriety in part out of the small amount of fear that they bring out of the average american, sort of a "what if it happens to you" effect. on a more complex note, american citizens stand out in a very profound way. we are very independent.
human independence and individualism have been developing in leaps and bounds ever since radio and then tv hit us with commercials and programs directed at us, making us feel significant. each american citizen became more self aware than we ever were in a more conservative america of a hundred years ago, and as cultural revolution hit in the fifties and roared in the sixties, spurred on by movements that told women, children, minorities, and every person of every age, race and gender that they are special, (which by the way is an astounding message that i agree wholeheartedly with), the unfortunate ugly side of this coin came full circle as serial killers popped up, most under the unique impression that they have some special importance. this often degenerates from trauma in their childhood, and being prompted out of individualism to look around and be compared to other children, bombarded with messages in our culture of importance and the significance of being yourself, an insecurity becomes an obsession, and an off development leads to a mentally skewed adulthood. this is tied hand in hand with the alarming trend of mental disorders never diagnosed before these last 50 years. where did these suddenly come from? certainly advances in medical science coupled with the movement of psychology as less of a soft science and more a credible field of study has certainly led to breakthroughs, i will be the first to admit this. however, much of this also has to do with the amount of self examination we do as a society, comparing ourselves one person to another is something americans do better (and therefore worse) than any other culture in the world. this is likely where many of our mental disorders come from, and certainly many of our nation's serial killers as a result.
i could certainly babble on, but i am hungry, and my culture wants me to know that I'm lovin' McDonalds, and that i should probably go there and have it my way. ah convenience, the great replacement for patience!