From cold-blooded couples to brutal romances, these are the twosomes and
sometimes threesoms, who carved their names into the history books for all the
wrong reasons.
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown
Maybe people shouldn't be surprised that a boy who had to endure the
nickname "Pissy" because of a tendency to wet his pants would grow up
to be one of America's most savage spree killers. And it certainly didn't help
that Pissy would go to prison on a robbery charge and emerge two years later
with a tendency to dress in women's clothing and a desire for rough sex.
Whatever the reasons, Alton Coleman and his girlfriend Debra Denise Brown will
go down in history as a short-lived U.S. version of Great Britain's multiple
sex-slayers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
Martha Beck and Raymond
Fernandez
The story of a desperately lonely overweight woman who lets herself
fall into partnership with a man who murders women for money. The so-called
Lonely Hearts Murders, entwined in voodoo magic and kinky sex, becomes one of
the most sensational cases of the 1940s.
The Birnies
David's insatiable sexual
appetite caused him to enlist wife Catherine into abducting, raping, and
eventually, brutally murdering four women in the their Perth, Australia, love
nest and torture chamber at 3 Moorhouse Street. David's cruelty finally got to
Catherine who couldn't stand to participate in another murder. The victim
escaped and resulted in the capture of the two serial killers.
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde robbed their way across Depression-era America and
have been immortalised as the ultimate crime couple. Police officers and
innocent members of the public were gunned down by their gang, but most
historians agree Bonnie herself didn't kill anyone. She was very much a part of
the posse, though, and was shot to death alongside her beloved in a police
ambush that left their car looking like Swiss cheese.
Burke and Hare
In the murky alleys of Edinburgh in the 1820s, Burke and Hare plied
their vicious trade. The friends would murder innocent people – from old ladies
to helpless children – and sell their bodies to a local surgeon who needed
bodies to dissect in medical lectures. It's a story so bizarre we still
remember it today, but only Burke paid the ultimate price – being hanged on a
rainy day in front of a 20,000-strong crowd. Hare was released after testifying
against his brutal buddy, and where he ended up remains a mystery to this day.
The Columbine Killers
There have been school massacres before and since, but Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold's rampage through the corridors of Columbine High School remains
the most notorious of them all. Caught on camera, decked out with weapons,
casually strolling around shooting their fellow students – loudly proclaiming their
hatred for jocks in particular – the pair eventually killed themselves. The
tragedy has haunted America ever since.
The Copelands
Ray & Faye Copeland, a serial killer team from America's heartland,
were senior citizens when they began their murder rampage. Ray and Faye were
convicted of killing five men, and none of them were crimes of passion.
Frances Creighton and Everett
Appelgate
New York classic story of a black widow and a psychopathic ladies man
who create havoc in their community with pedophilia, arsenic poisoning and bad
parenting.
July 16, 1936, her time had finally come. Laying helplessly in her bed,
delirious from fright and too weak to move, Frances was loaded onto a
wheelchair at 11:00 p.m. "Semi-comatose, her head lolling against the back
of a wheelchair," said one reporter, "Mrs. Creighton was trundled
into the death chamber late last night." She was rolled down the darkened
corridor toward the death room, the only prisoner ever taken to the electric
chair in an unconscious state. "An old and broken woman at
thirty-eight," said another press account, "a strange caricature of
the Borgia she had been called." Prison guards lifted the pathetic figure
up and strapped her firmly to the wooden chair. She showed no outward signs of
life.
Kevin
Crump and Allan Baker
Two career criminals murdered Ian Lamb, a
complete stranger for $20, a package of cigarettes and a couple of gallons of
gasoline. Then, they kidnapped Virginia Morse, a young mother of three, from
her home. Morse was raped and tortured repeatedly while Crump and Baker drove
to neighboring Queensland. And killed her.
Gary and
Thaddeus Lewingdon
During the late 1970s, the city of Columbus, Ohio and outlying areas
were plagued by a series of indiscriminate and brutal murders, which claimed
the lives of 10 people.
Gerald and Charlene Gallego
Gerald and Charlene kidnapped and killed ten people, mostly teenage
girls, lured and captured in well-planned schemes, the ultimate goal of which
was to provide a steady procession of disposable "love slaves."
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris
Prison-buddies, Norris and Bittaker constructed a van called the Murder
Mack and collected pretty teenage girls to rape, torture and kill in the San
Gabriel Mountains. In the isolated mountain areas, they went to work on their
young victims with vice-grip pliers, urging them to scream into their tape
recorder before they were killed, all actions caught on tape.
Loren Herzog and Wesley
Shermantine
Loren Joseph Herzog and Wesley Howard Shermantine Jr., both now 44,
grew up to turn into meth-heads and killers, ultimately getting themselves
dubbed the "Speed Freak Killers."The two frequently used
methamphetamine, or speed, while they roamed around California's San Joaquin
County for approximately 15 years, terrorizing the residents of the mostly
rural region and allegedly killing a number of people, frequently women.
Lucas And Toole
Along with psychopath sidekick Ottis Toole, he traveled the U.S.
raping, robbing, killing, and mutilating men, women & children. Originally
thought to have killed 360 people, some of his confessions are now discredited.
Whatever number of murders he and Toole committed, these two serial killers set
a new standard in depravity.
Judith and Alvin Neelley
18-old Judith Neelley lured teenagers to a horrible death, but only
after they had been raped and tortured. It was the consensus of those who
listened to the various witnesses that Judith was the brains behind the most
serious of the couple's offenses. It was she who had persuaded Alvin to
participate with her in the brutal crimes, not the other way around.
Fred and Rose West
Fred and Rose West was a match made in hell. Both hailed from abusive
families, and they carried on the cycle of violence in their own horrendous
household. Here, they tortured and raped a string of young women and girls,
including their own family members. Fred later hanged himself in prison, while
Rose is serving a whole life sentence.
The Hillside Stranglers
The Hillside Strangler
is the media epithet for two men, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, who were
convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing ten and women ranging
in age from 12 to 28 years old during a four-month period from late 1977 to
early 1978. They committed their crimes in the hills above Los Angeles,
California. Buono died in prison, Bianchi remains incarcerated at the
Washington State Penitentiary.
The Ken and Barbie Killers
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka earned their ominous nickname thanks to
their glowing, wholesome good looks. But this golden couple was revealed to be
among Canada's worst killers. Bernardo was a brutal rapist who actually coerced
Karla into drugging her own young sister and letting him assault her. She died
during her ordeal, and the pair went on to rape and kill again and again before
they were finally caged.
The Krays
They were the brothers who ruled East London's gangland in the 50s and
60s, but Ronnie and Reggie Kray weren't just mobsters. They were full-on
celebrities, mixing with the likes of Frank Sinatra of the day. Their glitzy
lifestyles came to an end when they were imprisoned for two murders (one in
full view of drinkers in a London pub). Ronnie eventually died in Broadmoor,
while Reggie languished in jail until he was released on compassionate grounds
as he was dying from cancer.
Lake and Ng
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng were two of America's most depraved men.
Both former marines, they forged a friendship based on sadism and evil,
shacking up in a ranch that served as a torture chamber for the many people
they kidnapped, raped and killed. Whole families were wiped out before they
were caught by one simple error: Charles Ng shoplifting in a DIY store. Lake
killed himself with a cyanide pill, while Ng was destined to take his place on
death row.
Leopold and Loeb
It was dubbed the "trial of the century" when Nathan Leopold
and Richard Loeb were hauled into court for their 1920s murder of a teenage
boy. They were brilliant, clean-cut young men – Leopold had been a child
prodigy with genius-level IQ, for example. But they were also bent on executing
the "perfect crime", which meant luring a 14-year-old into their car
and stabbing him to death with a chisel. Loeb was later killed in prison, but
Leopold was paroled 33 years later, going on to work in a hospital.
The Lonely Hearts Killers
Raymond Fernandez was a World War Two veteran who believed he had
powers of black magic over women. His M.O. was to answer lonely hearts ads in
newspapers in order to swindle and rob women, but things got worse when he
contacted Martha Beck, who became his partner-in-crime, posing as his sister to
the women they contacted and eventually murdered. They were eventually caught
and sent to the electric chair. Among Martha's last words: "My story is a
love story."
The Hostel Murders
William Holbert and Laura Reese left murder and mayhem in their wake
when they fled from the U.S. to the laid-back beaches of Panama's Bocas del
Toro where they ran a hostel and continued their campaign of lying, stealing
and allegedly killing at least seven people.
The Moors Murderers
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley was an apparently ordinary young couple who
led an unthinkable double life. Fascinated by Nazism and sadism, the couple
stalked, kidnapped and killed five children in the 1960s, even being so callous
as to return to the burial sites to pose and take snaps. Their black-and-white
mug shots made them icons of evil and the most despised couple in the country.
Ricky
Davis and Dena Riley
Career criminal and meth-addicted mommy link up
to fulfill Ricky's lifetime ambition torturing, raping and killing women on
video. Just as police got an important tip, this depraved couple escaped,
abducted a young girl and planned their suicide.
The Sunset Strip Killers
Carol Bundy and Doug Clark are responsible for therape and murder of 20
women, but there is some belief that Bundy and Clark were responsible for many
more murders than those with which they were charged—possibly as many as fifty
(and based on Bundy's testimony about 47).
Christopher Worrell and James
Miller
Australia's first serial killer partnership was made up of a
charismatic psychopath and a dependent drifter who went on a killing spree that
left seven women dead. - Bird
