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May 15, 2024 · 1861-1896. Born Herman Webster Mudgett in New Hampshire, H.H. Holmes became known as one of America’s first serial killers—responsible for anywhere from 20 to 200 deaths. He admitted to 27 in...
- Harold Shipman, Aka 'Dr. Death,' Killed 218 Patients
- Belle Gunness Married to Kill
- Ed Gein: The Inspiration Behind 'Psycho'
- John Wayne Gacy Performed as A Clown at Children's Parties
- Jeffrey Dahmer Committed His First Murder at 18
- Ted Bundy: The First Televised Murder Trial
- Jack The Ripper: There Are Over 100 Possible Suspects
- H.H. Holmes: A Pharmacist Who Built A 'Murder Castle'
One of history’s deadliest serial killers was a married family man who managed to squeeze in 218 credited murders (and as many as 250) while working as a popular British physician. Harold Shipman began his murderous spree in 1972, and it’s believed he killed at least 71 patients while working at his first practice, and doubled that number at a seco...
The woman who became known as the “Lady Bluebeard” immigrated to America from Norway in 1881, settling in Chicagowhere she married a fellow Norwegian immigrant. The couple had four children (two of whom died young) and ran a candy store. By 1900 the store had mysteriously burned down, and Gunness’ husband was dead. Although both happened under susp...
The man whose macabre and horrific acts helped inspire Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre grew up in an isolated area of Wisconsin. He was an abused child of an alcoholic father and a puritanical and domineering mother who instilled in her son a pathological fear of both women and sex. When his father, brother and mother ...
To most of his suburban Chicago neighbors, John Wayne Gacy was a friendly man who threw popular block parties, volunteered in local Democratic politics and often performed as a clown at local children’s parties. But Gacy, who had already served a stint in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage boy, was hiding a horrific secret right beneath his n...
Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978 when he was just 18. He would go on killing until his arrest in 1991, after an African American man escaped his clutches and hailed down police near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When the victim led police back to his captor’s apartment, they discovered photographs of dismembered bodies, the severed heads a...
Handsome, well-educated and brimming with charm, Ted Bundyseemed the unlikeliest of serial killers. Which made his decade-long, multi-state killing spree all the more surprising—and to some, appealing. Born to an unwed, teenage mother, Bundy never learned his father’s identity and was raised believing that his grandmother was actually his mother (a...
In 1888, London’s Whitechapel district was gripped by reports of a vicious serial killer stalking the city streets. The unidentified madman lured prostitutes into darkened squares and side streets before slitting their throats and sadistically mutilating their bodies with a carving knife. That summer and fall, five victims were found butchered in t...
H.H. Holmes spent his early career as an insurance scammer before moving to Illinois in advance of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair to work as a pharmacist. It was there that Holmes built what he referred to as his murder “castle”—a three-story inn that he secretly turned into a macabre torture chamber. Some rooms were equipped with hidden peepholes, ...
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- Dennis Rader, AKA the BTK Killer. Dennis Rader was a serial killer in Kansas who murdered 10 people over the span of three decades, dubbing himself BTK because he bound, tortured, and killed his victims.
- Ted Bundy. Having been the subject of several films and documentaries, Ted Bundy is well known for his crimes. Having been described as intelligent and charming, Bundy used his good looks to lure his victims in, sexually assaulting and killing at least 36 women across Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Florida between 1974 and 1978.
- John Wayne Gacy. John Wayne Gacy was responsible for the deaths of at least 33 boys and young men in Chicago in the 1970s, but he has also been used as a figure in the media due to his performance as a party clown at children's parties and social events.
- Sam Little. Serial killer Samuel Little was known as one of the most prolific killers in American history. Having gone undetected for decades, Little confessed to killing 93 victims in 19 states between 1970 and 2005.
- Dennis Rader. In January 2022, a new documentary explored the origins, motives and eventual capture of Dennis Rader, also known as the "BTK Killer," who terrorized Witchita, Kansas, starting in the mid-1970s.
- Joseph DeAngelo Jr. Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer, is believed to be the East Area Rapist, also dubbed the "Golden State Killer," who engaged in at least three crime sprees from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s.
- Robert Lee Yates. Robert Lee Yates pleaded guilty to murdering 13 women in Spokane, Washington, killing them and dumping their bodies in rural areas. He was later convicted of two additional murders.
- Chester Turner. Chester Turner was convicted of killing 14 people in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. Most of his victims were raped and strangled. Prosecutors called Turner "one of the most prolific serial killers in the city's history."
Excluding these "Medical professionals and pseudo-medical professionals", with their ability to kill simply and in plain sight, and Serial killer groups and couples (below), this list is a compilation of modern serial killers currently with the highest verifiable murder count.
The United States has by far the largest number of documented serial killers in the world. According to Radford University's Serial Killer Information Center, it has more documented serial killers than the next ten highest countries on the list.
