The Most Evil And
Worst Serial Killers
Our society seems to
have both a repulsion and fascination with serial killers stories. Just look at
all the serial killers movies and serial killers documentary out there! But who
are these serial killers and what motivates them to take the life of another
human being? I really don’t know. What I do know is that as humans, we are
capable of gruesome things. Take these torture
devices for example. What sort of mind comes
up with such terrible devices for the specific reason of torture? The entries here are in alphabetical order
only for convenience.
Daniel Camargo Barbosa: Barbosa was a serial killer who was believed
to have raped and killed over 150 young girls in Colombia and Ecuador during
the 1970s and 1980s. He confessed to killing 72 girls in Ecuador since escaping
from a Colombian prison. After being arrested in Quito, he led authorities to
the dumping grounds of those victims whose bodies had not yet been recovered.
He was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to 16 years in prison, the maximum sentence
available in Ecuador. In November 1994, he was murdered in prison by the cousin
of one of his victims.
David Berkowitz: A serial killer known as the Son of Sam or the
.44 Caliber Killer, David Berkowitz carried out a series of shootings in the
summer of 1976. Using a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, he shot six people dead
and wounded seven others. Berkowitz sent a series of taunting letters to police
and the press promising further shootings, terrorizing the people of New York
City. Eventually captured in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to all of the
killings and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each murder. It is
unlikely that Berkowitz will ever be released.
Larry Bittaker and Roy Norris nicknamed ‘The Tool Box Killers’ are two American serial killers
who together murdered five young women in California in 1979. Bittaker and
Norris lured victims into their van and drove them to secluded areas where they
both raped and tortured them horrifically before murdering them. In 1981
Bittaker and Norris were charged with murder, kidnapping and rape. Bittaker was
sentenced to death and remains on death row to this day.[update] Norris was
spared execution in return for his testimony against Bittaker and sentenced to
45 years in prison.
Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono (The Hillside Stranglers) Between late 1977 to early 1978 cousins Kenneth Bianchi and
Angelo Buono carried out a reign of terror in California. The cousins
kidnapped, raped and killed 10 girls between the ages of 12 and 28, strangling
each victim in the hills above Los Angeles. The cousins’ method of killing led
to them being known as ‘the Hillside Stranglers’. Bianchi attempted to plead
not guilty by way of insanity but was found to be faking mental illness, so
instead agreed to plead guilty and testify against Buono. Both were sentenced
to life imprisonment. Buono died of a heart attack in his cell in 2002.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley killed five children between 1963 and 1965, in Greater
Manchester, England. The victims where between 10 and 17 years old and were
sexually assaulted before being brutally murdered. Three of the victims were
discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor and the last victim’s body was
found at Brady’s house. The whereabouts of the fourth victim, Keith Bennett
remains unknown. Both Brady and Hindley were later sentenced to life
imprisonment. Hindley died in prison in 2002 while Brady has since been
confined in the maximum security Ashworth Hospital.
William Bonin: was
also known as the 'Freeway Killer'. Between 1979 and 1980, he raped,
tortured and murdered at least 21 young men. Bonin would dump their
bodies along freeways in South California. After being convicted for 14 of his
killings, he was executed by lethal injection in 1996. His sadistic side was
still seen during his prison sentence where he corresponded with many of
his victims' families about how their children reacted to his torture.
Ted Bundy One
of the most widely known murderers of the 20th century, Ted Bundy was an
American serial killer and rapist who kidnapped or overpowered numerous young
women and girls during the 1970s. Bundy typically approached his female victims
in a public place and led them to secluded areas where he would sexually
assault and kill them. He decapitated at least 12 victims and kept the severed
heads in his apartment as trophies. Repeatedly captured, he twice managed to
escape from police and court houses before going onto commit three further
killings. Convicted of multiple murders he was sentenced to death and was
executed via the electric chair in 1989.
Andrei Chikatilo was a Soviet serial
killer, nicknamed The Butcher of Rostov. He committed the sexual assault,
murder and mutilation of at least 52 women and children in Russia between 1978
and 1990. Believing he was the killer, police carried out surveillance on
Chikatilo which eventually provided adequate grounds to arrest him. He
confessed to a total of 56 murders and was tried for 53 of these killings in
April 1992. Victims’ relatives demanded that authorities release him so that
they could kill him themselves. He was convicted and sentenced to death for 52
of these murders in October 1992 and subsequently executed by firing squad in
February 1994.
Charles Edmund Cullen as a nurse in many hospitals but kept switching
jobs as he was fired for suspicious behaviour from many of them. He confessed
to murdering 40 elderly patients in New Jersey from 1984 to 2003. He did this
by poisoning his patients to death with unprescribed medication. He stated that
he wanted to relieve the patients from their suffering much like an angel
would. Experts say he had more than 300 victims. Cullen has been imprisoned for
life.
Jeffrey Dahmer Also Known as the
Milwaukee Cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex
offender who raped, murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and
1991. He also committed necrophilia and ate parts of his later victims,
dismembering and cooking parts of their bodies. Dahmer was eventually caught
after a would-be victim managed to overpower him and alert police. In 1992
Dahmer was convicted of 15 of the murders and sentenced to 15 terms of life in
prison. However just two years into his sentence he was beaten to death by a
fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution.
Pedro Rodrigues Filho One of the most recent serial killers on our list, Pedro
Rodrigues Filho is a Brazilian serial killer. Arrested in 1973, he was later
convicted in 2003 for murdering at least 71 people and sentenced to 128 years
in prison (although Brazilian law system prohibits anyone from spending more
than 30 years behind bars). Committing his first murder at the age of 14, Filho
began a series of burglaries and carried out a murdering spree against local drug
dealers. By the age of 18 years old he had killed 10 people. Whilst imprisoned,
he executed his own father who was also serving time for murder. Remarkably he
went onto kill at least 47 inmates while imprisoned. His continued killings led
to further convictions increasing his sentence to 400 years. However he was
later released from prison in 2007 after serving 34 years but was later
re-arrested in 2011.
John Wayne Gacy sexually assaulted and murdered 33 teenage boys and young men
in a series of killings between 1972 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. He lured
victims to his home with the promise of work or money before murdering them by
strangulation with a tourniquet. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl
space under his home, before disposing of later victims in the Des Plaines
River. Convicted of 33 murders, Gacy was sentenced to death. He spent 14 years
on death row before he was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.
Donald Henry Gaskins In 1969, Gaskins began killing a series of hitchhikers he picked
up while driving around the coastal highways of the American South, torturing
and mutilating his victims. He claimed to have killed 80 to 90 people. He was
arrested in 1975, when a criminal associate confessed to police that he had
witnessed Gaskins killing two young men. He was convicted of eight murders and
was sentenced to death which was later commuted to life imprisonment without
parole. Remarkably Gaskins went on to commit another murder within the high
security prison, killing a fellow inmate. He is the only man to have ever
killed an inmate on death row.
Luis Garavito Also dubbed by the media as the Le Bestia (The
Beast), the Colombian is probably one of the world's worst serial killers. He
confessed to the torture, rape and murder of 147 young boys. But the number is
believed to be over 300. He was found guilty on 139 counts, which should amount
to 1,853 years in prison. But Columbian law limits it to 30, which is what
he was sentenced to in 1999. He may be released earlier for cooperation
and good behavior.
John George Haigh Known as the “Acid Bath Murderer” John George Haigh was an
English serial killer during the 1940s. He was convicted of the murders of six
people, although he claimed to have killed nine. A professional con man, he
targeted wealthy individuals and charmed them into believing he was a
successful businessman. He lured his victims to a derelict warehouse before
shooting them. He then dissolved their bodies in sulfuric acid before forging
papers in order to sell their possessions and collect their life savings. In
spite of the absence of the victims’ bodies, there was sufficient forensic
evidence to convict Haigh of murder. In 1949 he was sentenced to death and
hanged at Wandsworth Prison.
Jack the Ripper The real killers or killer were
never identified. The name came into being because the victims had
organs missing and judging by procedure the killer seemed to have surgical
experience. Jack the Ripper who was later believed to be a single person killed
female prostitutes in the slums of London between 1888-91.
Patrick Wayne Kearney Also called the Trash Bag Killer, he operated
between 1975 -1977. Kearney had a high IQ but once captured, he confessed
to 32 murders of homosexual men. Kearney would dump their bodies along
California highways and wrapped them in trash bags thus earning the name. He
was convicted of 21 murders, but was sentenced to life because of his
confession.
Edmund Kemper Known as “The Co-ed Killer”, Edmund Kemper is an American serial
killer and necrophile who carried out a series of brutal murders in California
in the 1970s. He murdered his grandparents when he was 15 years old then later
killed and dismembered six female hitchhikers in the Santa Cruz area. He then
murdered his mother and one of her friends before turning himself in to the
police days later. He was found guilty in November 1973 of eight counts of
murder. He asked for the death penalty, but instead received life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole.
Paul Knowles Also known as the Casanova Killer, Knowles
used his charm into making victims believe him and later killed them. He
killed a total of 18 people, although the count might be more. His victims
included men, women and children. The man from Florida was eventually killed by
an FBI agent in 1974 when he was trying to escape.
Pedro Alonso Lopez is a Colombian serial
killer, accused of raping and killing more than 300 girls across South America.
He lured them to secluded areas or inside unoccupied buildings where he raped
each of them before killing them by a range of brutal methods, primarily strangulation.
López was arrested when an attempted abduction failed and he was trapped by
market traders. He confessed to over 300 murders but the police only believed
him when a flash flood uncovered a mass grave containing many of his victims.
Eventually 53 bodies were discovered. Imprisoned in 1980 he served 18 years
before being released from a Ecuadorian prison and was deported to Columbia
where he was rearrested and in 2002 was sentenced to life.
Peter Manuel An
American-born Scottish serial killer known to have killed nine people across
southern Scotland between 1956 and 1958, Manuel is suspected of having killed
as many as 18 people. Police were unable to prove his guilt until his final
murders, when some banknotes Manuel had been using to pay for drinks in Glasgow
pubs were proven to be stolen from one of his victims. He confessed to these
murders after his mother confronted him at the police station where he was
being held. Manuel was hanged at Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison for his crimes in
July 1958. He was one of the last prisoners to be hanged in Scotland before
they ended capital punishment.
Dennis Nilsen The British equivalent of Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Nilsen was a
homosexual killer who murdered 15 gay men in London, England between 1978 and
1983. He dissected his victims’ bodies, then burned or flushed the remains down
the toilet. This led to his capture when human flesh was discovered in his
sewage system. Nilsen was convicted in 1983 of six counts of murder with two
attempted murders and was sentenced to life in prison. He remains imprisoned at
Full Sutton maximum security prison in Yorkshire, England without the chance of
release.
Charles Ng and Leonard Lake These two raped, tortured and murdered between 11 and 25
victims at Lake’s ranch in Calaveras County, California. Their crimes became
known in 1985 when Lake committed suicide after being arrested and Ng was
caught shoplifting at a hardware store. Police searched Lake’s ranch and found
human remains. Ng was identified as Lake’s partner in crime and attempted to
evade police by fleeing to Canada. After a lengthy extradition to the United
States, he stood trial in 1998 on twelve counts of murder and was convicted in
1999. Ng is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Alexander Pichushkin e was also known as the 'Chessboard Killer'
and the 'Bitsa Park Maniac'. His targets were homeless men whom he lured to his
house with vodka. He is believed to have killed 49 people, most of them with
repeated hammer blows to their heads and inserted a vodka bottle into the
gaping skull wound. He initially said he wanted to complete the number of
squares on a chessboard and kill 64 people. Also, it is believed that he was in
competition with another Russian serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted
in 1992 for 53 killings. It was the very same year Alexander started killing.
Dennis Rader (the BTK Killer) murdered 10 people in Sedgwick County, Wichita, Kansas between
1974 and 1991. Obsessed with notoriety, Raider sent taunting letters to police
under the name BTK which stood for ‘Bind, Torture, Kill’. Rader stalked his
victims before breaking into their homes, then bound their limbs before
strangling them. Having disappeared in 1988, BTK reemerged in 2005 when he sent
a floppy disc to the press (this was to be his downfall). Tracing him via the
floppy disc, Rader was arrested and charged upon which he immediately
confessed. He is serving 10 consecutive life sentences with an earliest
possible release date of February 26, 2180.
Richard Ramirez Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez was an American
serial killer and Satan worshiper who terrorized Los Angeles between 1984 and
1985. Nicknamed the “Night Stalker”, Ramirez broke into the homes of many of
his victims and then shot, stabbed, rapped and mutilated them. His victims
ranged between the ages of a nine year old girl to a married couple in their
late sixties. Notably he smeared pentagrams on the walls of his crime scenes.
Captured in 1985, Ramirez was sentenced to death and remained on California’s
death row for 23 years until he died of complications from B-cell lymphoma in
June 2013.
Gary Ridgway One
of the United States most prolific serial killers, Gary Ridgway was arrested in
2001 for four murders though he confessed to killing at least 70 women in
Washington state throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. He avoided the death penalty
by providing detailed confessions and leading police to the dumping sites of
his victims, five of whom he dumped in the Green River which lead the press to
nickname him “The Green River Killer”. He was convicted of 49 murders and
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Arthur Shawcross Known as the Genesee River Killer, Shawcross first killed in
1972 by sexually assaulting and murdering a 10-year-old boy after luring him
into a wooded area in Watertown, New York. He then raped and killed an
eight-year-old girl, for which he was captured and convicted of manslaughter.
Serving 14 years in prison he was released in 1988 and went onto brutally kill
12 female prostitutes between the ages of 22 and 59. Eventually captured at the
scene of his last murder, Shawcross confessed to all 12 murders and was
sentenced to a 250 years imprisonment. He died in prison of cardiac arrest in
2008.
Tommy Lynn Sells Claiming to have killed at least 70 people, Tommy Lynn Sells is
considered one of the most dangerous offenders in Texas and has been convicted
of several brutal murders between 1985 and 1999, including stabbing a 13 year
old girl 16 times. Sells was eventually captured after breaking into the
bedroom of a 10 year old girl, stabbing her, and leaving her for dead. Despite
her injures the girl managed to survive and alert her neighbors. She provided a
detailed description of Sells to police which eventually led to his capture.
Sentenced to death he remains on death row at a high security prison in
Livingston, Texas.
Dr Harold Fredrick Shipman was a English doctor and
is one of the world’s most prolific serial killers in recorded history, proven
to have been responsible for up to 250 murders. A trusted doctor, he was well
respected in his community, however colleagues and local undertakers began
raising concerns over the high death rate in the area and the large number of
cremation forms for elderly women that he had countersigned. Several bodies
were later exhumed and postmortems revealed diamorphine within their system. It
was later established Shipman had purposely injected fatal doses of the drug in
a huge number of patients, causing their death. He then forged their wills so
he could inherit large sums of money and completed cremation requests to
destroy the victim’s bodies. The trial judge sentenced him to 15 consecutive
life sentences and recommended that he never be released. Shipman later hanged
himself in January 2004 in his cell at Wakefield Prison.
Peter William Sutcliffe s a British serial killer known as “The Yorkshire Ripper”. In
1981 Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder
seven others. He targeted prostitutes in Leeds and Bradford causing a climate
of fear across northern England. When arrested in January 1981 (for driving
with false number-plates), police questioned him about the killings and he
confessed. At his trial, he pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of
diminished responsibility, but his defense was rejected by the jury. He was
sentenced to serve life in prison without parole and remains in Broadmoor
Maximum Security Mental Hospital to this day.
Ahmad Suradji The cattle-breeder from Indonesia admitted to
killing 42 girls and women between 1986 to 1997. As a part of his ritual, he
used to bury them waist deep. Bodies were found in a sugarcane field with their
heads facing his house, which he believed would give him more power. Suradji
was sentenced to death by a firing squad in 2008.
Tsutomu Miyazaki He got more names due to his hideous acts.
Some of them were The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer
or Dracula Miyazaki. The reason for this being that he abducted little
girls, killed them and indulged in sexual activities with their corpses. On one
occasion, he not only drank the victim's blood but ate her hand as well. He
also preserved body parts as trophies and sent postcards to the families
describing the murder. His father committed suicide and Miyazaki was hanged in
2008, aged 45.
Fred & Rose West
Between 1967 and 1987
Fred West and his wife Rose tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young
women and girls. The pair were finally apprehended and charged in 1994 after
police obtained a search warrant and located several human bones buried within
the garden and under the floor boards of their home. During his trial, Fred
West hanged himself prior to being convicted. In 1995 Rose West was jailed for
life having been found guilty on 10 counts of murder.
Aileen Wuornos Her story allowed Charlize Theron to win
an Academy Award. She played Aileen in the 2003 movie, 'Monster'. While working
as a prostitute, Aileen killed seven men in Florida for their money and
confessed to shooting them, claiming all of them had either raped or attempted
to rape her. She died in 1992 by lethal injection.
The Zodiac Killer This killer fashioned this name for himself in
taunting letters he sent to the Bay Area Press. He left ciphers to be decoded
and out of the four he sent, only one was definitely solved. The killer operated
in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His last letter said: Me- 37
and SFPD (San Francisco Police Dept.)- 0. He claimed to have killed 37 victims
but the newspapers confirmed only 7. The case file is still open.
Society must look at the past to protect our
future …
As always, stay safe !
- bird
