serial
killer
Table of contents.
1. Introduction
2. History
3. Most
famous killers
4. Current
situation
Introduction
A serial killer is typically a person who murders
three or more people, usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with
the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant
period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of
three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two.
Psychological gratification is the usual motive for
serial killing, and many serial killings involve sexual contact with the
victim, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill-seeking,
financial gain, and attention
seeking. The murders may be attempted or completed in a similar fashion. The
victims may have something in common; for example, demographic profile, appearance, gender
or race. Often the FBI will
focus on a particular pattern serial killers follow. Based on this
pattern, this will give key clues into finding the killer along with their
motives.
Although a serial killer is a distinct classification that
differs from that of a mass
murderer, spree
killer, or contract
killer, there exist conceptual overlaps between them. Some debate
exists on the specific criteria for each category, especially with regard to
the distinction between spree killers and serial killers.
History
Historical criminologists suggest that there have
been serial killers throughout history. Some sources suggest that legends
such as werewolves and vampires were
inspired by medieval serial
killers. In Africa, there have been periodic outbreaks of murder by Lion and Leopard
men.
Liu
Pengli of China, nephew of the Han Emperor Jing, was made Prince of Jidong in the sixth year
of the middle period of Jing's reign (144 BC). According to the Chinese
historian Sima Qian, he
would "go out on marauding expeditions with 20 or 30 slaves or
with young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing
their belongings for sheer sport". Although many of his subjects knew
about these murders, it was not until the 29th year of his reign that the son
of one of his victims finally sent a report to the Emperor. Eventually, it was
discovered that he had murdered at least 100 people. The officials of the court
requested that Liu Pengli be executed; however, the emperor could not bear to
have his own nephew killed, so Liu Pengli was made a commoner and banished.
In the 15th century, one of the wealthiest men in Europe and a
former companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc, Gilles de
Rais, was alleged to have sexually assaulted and killed peasant
children, mainly boys, whom he had abducted from the surrounding villages and
had taken to his castle. It is estimated that his victims numbered between
140 and 800.
The Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory, born into one of the wealthiest
families in Transylvania,
allegedly tortured and
killed as many as 650 girls and young women before her arrest in 1610.
Members of the Thuggee cult
in India may have murdered a million people between 1740 and 1840. Thug
Behram, a member of the cult, may have murdered as many as 931
victims.
In his 1886 book, Psychopathia
Sexualis, psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing noted
a case of a serial murderer in the 1870s, a Frenchman named Eusebius Pieydagnelle
who had a sexual obsession with blood and confessed to murdering six people.
The unidentified killer Jack the
Ripper, who has been called the first modern serial killer, killed at least five women, and
possibly more, in London in 1888. He was the subject of a massive manhunt and
investigation by the Metropolitan Police, during which many modern
criminal investigation techniques were pioneered. A large team of policemen
conducted house-to-house inquiries, forensic material was collected and
suspects were identified and traced. Police surgeon Thomas Bond assembled
one of the earliest character profiles of the offender.
The Ripper murders also marked an important watershed in the
treatment of crime by journalists. While not the first serial killer in
history, Jack the Ripper's case was the first to create a worldwide media
frenzy. The dramatic murders of financially destitute women in the midst of the
wealth of London focused the media's attention on the plight of the urban poor
and gained coverage worldwide. Jack the Ripper has also been called the most
infamous serial killer of all time, and his legend has spawned hundreds of
theories on his real identity and many works of fiction.
H. H.
Holmes was one of the first documented modern serial killers in
the United States, responsible for the death of at least nine victims in the
early 1890s. The case gained notoriety and wide publicity through possibly sensationalized
accounts in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers. At the same
time in France, Joseph
Vacher became known as "The French Ripper" after
killing and mutilating 11 women and children. He was executed in 1898 after
confessing to his crimes.
The majority of documented serial killers in the 20th century
are from the United States.
Most famous killers
1. 1. Jack
the ripper
Jack the Ripper was an
unidentified serial
killer active in the impoverished districts in and
around Whitechapel in
the East End of London in 1888. In both criminal
case files and the contemporary journalistic accounts, the killer was called
the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved female
prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of the East End of London. Their throats were cut prior to
abdominal mutilations. The
removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals
that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the
murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and numerous
letters were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard from individuals purporting
to be the murderer. The name "Jack the Ripper" originated in a letter written
by an individual claiming to be the murderer that was disseminated in the
media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax and may have been
written by journalists in an attempt to heighten interest in the story and
increase their newspapers' circulation. The "From
Hell" letter received by George
Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee came
with half of a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the
victims. The public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer
known as "Jack the Ripper", mainly because of both the
extraordinarily brutal nature of the murders and media coverage of the crimes.
Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring
international notoriety on the Ripper, and the legend solidified. A police
investigation into a series of eleven brutal murders committed
in Whitechapel and Spitalfields between
1888 and 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the
murders of 1888. Five victims—Mary Ann Nichols, Annie
Chapman, Elizabeth
Stride, Catherine
Eddowes, and Mary Jane
Kelly—are known as the "canonical five" and their murders
between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to
be linked. The murders were never solved, and the legends surrounding these
crimes became a combination of historical research, folklore,
and pseudohistory,
capturing public imagination to the present day.
Jack the Ripper (Concept art. )
2. 2. Jeffrey
Dahmer
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21,
1960 – November 28, 1994) also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or
the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial
killer and sex offender who committed the murder
and dismemberment of
seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Many of his later murders
involved necrophilia, cannibalism and the
permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton.
Although he was diagnosed with borderline personality
disorder, schizotypal personality
disorder, and a psychotic disorder, Dahmer was found to be
legally sane at
his trial. He was convicted of fifteen of the sixteen murders he had committed
in Wisconsin and
was sentenced to fifteen terms of life
imprisonment on February 17, 1992. Dahmer was later sentenced to a
sixteenth term of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed
in Ohio in
1978.
On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at
the Columbia Correctional
Institution in Portage, Wisconsin.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer
3. 3. H.H.Holmes
Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better
known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an
American con
artist and serial killer, the subject of more than 50
lawsuits in Chicago alone.
Despite his confession of 27 murders (including some people who
were verifiably still alive) while awaiting execution, Holmes was
convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder, that of accomplice and
business partner Benjamin Pitezel. It is believed he killed three of the
Pitezel children, as well as 3 mistresses, the child of one of the said
mistresses and the sister of another. Holmes was executed on May 7, 1896, nine days
before his 35th birthday.
Much of the lore surrounding the "Murder
Castle" along with many of his alleged crimes are considered likely
exaggerated or fabricated for sensationalistic tabloid pieces. Many of these
factual inaccuracies have persisted due to the combination of ineffective
police investigation and hyperbolic tabloid journalism, which are often cited
as historical record. Holmes gave various contradictory accounts of his
life, initially claiming innocence and later that he was possessed by Satan. His
propensity for lying has made it difficult for researchers to ascertain the
truth on the basis of his statements.
Since the 1990s Holmes has often been described as a serial
killer, however, Adam Selzer points out in his book on Holmes, "Just
killing several people isn't necessarily enough for most definitions [of a
serial killer]. More often, it has to be a series of similar crimes, committed
over a period of time, usually more to satisfy a psychological urge on the
killer's part than any more practical motive." and "The murders we
can connect him [Holmes] to generally had a clear motive: someone knew too
much, or was getting in his way, and couldn't be trusted. The murders weren't
simply for love of bloodshed but a necessary part of furthering his swindling
operations and protecting his lifestyle.
Herman Webster Mudgett
Murder Castle
4.
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy (born Cowell; November 24, 1946 –
January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped,
and murdered numerous
young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a
decade of denials he confessed to thirty murders he committed in seven states
between 1974 and 1978. Bundy's true victim total is unknown, and is likely
significantly higher.
Bundy was regarded as charismatic and handsome, traits
that he exploited to win the trust of both his victims and society as a whole.
He would typically approach his victims in public places, either feigning a
physical impairment such as an injury, or impersonating an authority figure,
before bludgeoning them
into unconsciousness and taking them to secondary locations to be raped
and strangled. Bundy
often revisited his victims, grooming and performing sexual acts with the corpses until decomposition and destruction by wild
animals made any further interactions impossible. He decapitated at
least twelve victims and kept their severed heads as mementos in his apartment.
On a few occasions, he broke
into dwellings at night and bludgeoned his victims as they slept.
In 1975, Bundy was arrested and jailed in Utah for
aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a
progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states. Facing
murder charges in Colorado, he
engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults in Florida,
including three murders, before his ultimate recapture in 1978. For the Florida
homicides, he received three death sentences in
two trials. Bundy was executed at Florida State Prison in Raiford on
January 24, 1989.
Biographer Ann Rule described
Bundy as "a sadistic sociopath who
took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his
victims, to the point of death and even after." He once described
himself as "the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever
meet", a statement with which attorney Polly
Nelson, a member of his last defense team, agreed. "Ted,"
she wrote, "was the very definition of heartless evil".
Theodore Robert Bundy
5.
Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman,
also known as “Dr.
Death,” is believed to have killed at least 218 patients, although
the total is quite likely closer to 250. This doctor practiced in London and between
1972 and 1998 worked in two difference offices, killing all the while. He
wasn’t caught until a red flag was raised by several people, including an
undertaker who was surprised by the sheer number of cremation certificates
Shipman was a part of, along with the fact that most of the cases were elderly
women found to have died in bed not at night but rather during the day. Police
mishandled the investigation, and Shipman kept killing until he got greedy and
tried to concoct a will for a victim that named him beneficiary, which led the
victim’s daughter to become suspicious. He was finally convicted in 2000 and
committed suicide while in prison in 2004.
Harold Shipman
Current situation
At any one time, it’s believed that there are
around 25-50 active serial killers lurking in the dark corners of the USA,
stalking the streets and highways for their next potential victim.
While the term serial killer usually conjures
up images of people like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Richard Ramirez, there are a whole host of other serial
killers who are perhaps even more terrifying – for the sole reason they’ve
never been caught.
Here are 9 current serial killers who are
still at large.
1.
The
long island serial killer
One New York serial killer has been plying his grisly trade for
over twenty years now, killing at least ten victims between 1996 and 2010, and
possibly more we haven’t yet discovered.
The Long Island Serial Killer (Art )
Dubbed the Long
Island Serial Killer or
the Craigslist Ripper, the extent of these unsolved crimes is still unknown.
It was only after authorities accidentally stumbled upon human
remains whilst searching for missing sex worker Shannan Gilbert that they
realized Gilgo Beach might be a dumping area for a serial killer.
After initially uncovering four bodies, police widened their
search and discovered another six. Eight of them were women, all escorts
who used Craigslist to advertise their services.
One body was that of a toddler, later discovered to be the
daughter of one of the victims. Another body was that of a cross-dressing male,
adding further mystery to the killer’s motives.
Several suspects were soon identified but none of them with any
conclusive ties to the ten victims found. It’s theorized that the killer
possibly has a law enforcement background judging by how he’s managed to elude
capture for so long.
The mystery of the LISK lives on.
2.
Jeff
davis 8 killers
Between 2005 and 2009, the bodies of eight women between the
ages of 17-30 were found dumped in the swamps of Jefferson Davis Parish near
Jennings, Louisiana.
Interestingly, the victims had several things in common. Several
of them knew each other, one pair of victims even being cousins. Perhaps more
bizarrely was that all of the victims acted as police informants, several of
whom actually reported on other Jeff Davis victims before their own murders.
The investigation into murders of the Jeff Davis 8 never
identified a legitimate suspect, but it led to wild allegations of misconduct
amongst Louisiana police.
Muddling the case further, an investigative reporter later
stated the person (or people) responsible for these killings were most likely
part of law enforcement. Given each victims’ history, this isn’t too
implausible.
The fact that the perpetrator or perpetrators could be
investigating their own crimes makes the Jeff Davis 8 a particularly disturbing
case.
Today, the case is known as a possible example of police
corruption. In October 2019, interest in the case was renewed as a result of
Showtime’s new documentary on the case.
3.
The
west mesa bone collector
In February 2009, a woman out for a walk with her dog discovered
what she believed to be human bones on a mesa near Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Police soon investigated, and to their shock, they subsequently discovered the
remains of eleven women in total along the same stretch of land.
The women ranged between ages 15-32 and were all involved in the
sex trade. Most were of Hispanic descent and one of the women was pregnant at
the time of her murder.
While the case remains unsolved, police do have two major suspects. However, one of them is in prison on an
unrelated charge and the other is dead. Lorenzo Montoya lived in a trailer a
few miles from where the victims were found, but was killed in 2006 by a sex
worker (and most likely his next victim). Joseph Blea was a known rapist in the
area, and when police invaded his home, they found a stash of women’s jewelry
and underwear.
Unfortunately,
police haven’t been able to confirm a definite link between either suspect and
the West Mesa bodies. The case is still open today.
Human bones
4.
Brazil's
rainbow maniac
It’s not just the USA where serial killers go uncaught, it
happens all over the world. The Rainbow Maniac was a serial killer in
Carapicuiba, Brazil who targeted gay men.
Over the span of 18 months between 2007 and 2008, the Rainbow
Maniac killed 13 people execution-style with bullets to the head, all of whom
were killed in Paturis Park and then dumped in nearby bushes with their
trousers around their ankles.
One of his victims he beat to death and his twelfth victim was
shot a grand total of twelve times.
São Paulo, where Carapicuiba is located, has remained one of the
most progressive cities in South America. However, at the time of the murders,
several ultra-conservative groups were highly vocal of their intolerance
towards homosexuality.
It’s possible that the person responsible for these killings was
a vengeful homophobe looking to reduce the numbers of the gay community.
In 2011, a suspect was arrested and trialed in relation to the
killings, but was found not guilty by the deciding jury. So, whoever the
Rainbow Maniac might be is still out there, and it’s very possibly he’s gotten
away with murder.
5.
Lbadan
forest serial killers
While we’re on the subject of overseas murder, here’s some real
nightmare fuel for you.
In Nigeria there’s a place known as the Ibadan Forest of
Horror, or the Evil Forest. Back in 2014, a curious motorcyclist made his way
into Soka forest in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, and what he found was like
something from a HP Lovecraft story.
He found a small colonized area of decrepit buildings, and
inside there were over twenty rotten corpses and severed human skulls, and most
terrifyingly, ten live people chained to slaughter benches.
Other buildings had piles of clothes, boots and passports inside
them. Police have attempted to trace the owners of the passports but have been
unable to find them.
Exactly who might be responsible for such horrors is still
unconfirmed, but rumors state that the place may have been a den for religious
zealots to indulge in ritual sacrifice and flesh-eating.
6.
The
smiley face killers
45 colleged-aged males across a 20-year span. All drowned after
getting intoxicated. However, the kicker is that these drownings happening in
11 different states.
Despite the distance between them, some detectives think that
drownings are actually the work of a serial killer or group of serial killers.
This is dubbed the Smiley Face Murder Theory.
Allegedly, detectives claim that smiley faces have been found
near the sites where at least twelve of the men have drowned. It’s believed
that these men are abducted, murdered and then disposed of in bodies of water
to give the impression of accidental drowning.
It’s definitely a stretch to connect the murders, but they have
a few things in common. Firstly, date-rape drugs were found in the systems of
some of the victims – enough to render them completely unconscious. The victim
profile is very similar in every case – male, white, athletic, successful,
popular.
Lastly is the condition of the bodies. One victim had been
missing for 40 days, but the deterioration of his corpse was nowhere near consistent with someone
who had been in water for 6 weeks. This was also the case for multiple other
victims.
Whether or not you think that the Smiley Face Theory is fact or
fiction, there’s no doubt it’s definitely a little creepy.
Smiley face drownings
7.
Pedro
Lopez -
Monster of the andes
This entry is quite unique, given that we know the serial
killer’s name. However, that’s all we know.
Pedro Lopez was born Columbia in 1948. He was the
son of a prostitute and as a child, was forced to watch his mother partake in
extreme sexual acts. He himself was often molested too, and Lopez claimed that
these events significantly affected his psyche.
By the early 1970s, Lopez had begun to rape and kill young girls
across South America. When an attempted abduction went wrong in 1980, Lopez was
apprehended by locals and handed over to police in Peru.
Once in custody, Lopez spewed out his colorful life story,
including being captured by a native tribe and sentenced to execution for
killing a young girl. He then said he’d killed ‘about three girls’ a week for
two years, raising his total number of victims to 300.
Police were naturally skeptical of such a claim, but Lopez led
police to a mass grave where they found the remains of 53 of his victims.
The details then a little hazy after this, with different
sources reporting different stories, but what is confirmed is that Pedro Lopez
was set free from prison in 1994, despite racking up one of the highest body
counts in known history. He was sent to a mental home for three years and was
then set free.
In 2002, Lopez was suspected of being responsible for a new murder. However, no one has been able to find him
since 1998.
Pedro
Lopez
8.
The
vending machine killer
If you want to go full weird, this entry has you covered.
Japan’s infatuation with vending machines is widely acknowledged.
There are five million vending machines across the country, making an average
of one vending machine per every 23 people.
Between April and November 1985 in Hiroshima, 12 people were
killed as a result of paraquat poisoning and a further 35 were seriously injured.
When authorities looked into the circumstances surrounding these
poisonings, they found that most of the victims had one thing in common: they’d
recently consumed the drink Oronamin C.
Around the same time, the company behind Oronamin C had launched
a marketing campaign offering free bottles of the drink from vending machines
whenever someone made a purchase.
In Japanese culture, sometimes people will place the
Oronamin C drink on top of the vending machine for someone else to take if they
didn’t want it themselves.
Police soon pieced things together and found that someone had
been lacing these Oronamin C drinks with paraquat and placing them back on top
of the vending machine.
It was almost impossible for the police to track down the person
responsible since it was difficult to narrow down where a person had originally
picked up the drink. Most of the vending machines responsible were in quiet
back streets with no CCTV around.
The person who carried out the poisonings was never found.
9.
The
maniac with dull eyes
Also known as the Danilovsky Maniac, the Maniac with Dull Eyes
was a Russian serial killer responsible for at least seven murders between 2004 and 2007.
Over in Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast, Russia, various bodies were
found around the city, dumped in construction sites and in abandoned buildings.
All of his victims were women between the ages of 17-31 and they’d all been
raped prior to their slaughter.
Perhaps most creepily, however, is that with each scene the
killer left a calling card. Police found crude pornographic drawings on the
walls near where every body was found.
After establishing that a serial killer was likely responsible
for these seven murders, police also linked the Maniac with a series of murders
dating back to 1999. He was also suspected in the murder of a young woman in
2010. His total assumed victim count is 17.
The Maniac was never caught and probably still remains out there
today.
An ever-elusive bunch, serial killers are perhaps the most
unsettling phenomenon of modern life. While there are many serial killers out
hunting today, it’s comforting to know that the killers featured
in these serial killer
documentaries aren’t hiding
out in your neighborhood.
|
Decade
|
US
|
International
|
Total
|
|
1900
|
49
|
23
|
72
|
|
1910
|
52
|
23
|
75
|
|
1920
|
62
|
41
|
103
|
|
1930
|
55
|
31
|
86
|
|
1940
|
55
|
45
|
100
|
|
1950
|
72
|
41
|
113
|
|
1960
|
217
|
76
|
293
|
|
1970
|
605
|
160
|
765
|
|
1980
|
768
|
217
|
985
|
|
1990
|
669
|
322
|
991
|
|
2000
|
371
|
295
|
666
|
|
2010
|
117
|
113
|
230
|
Serial killer
frequency by decade (Source – Radford University /FGCU Serial killer database.)
Reference
1.
American Library Association
2.
SERIAL KILLER SHOP (https://serialkillershop.com/blogs/true-crime/9-current-serial-killers-still-at-large )
3.
Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/list/7-of-historys-most-notorious-serial-killers )
4.
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_killer#Characteristics )
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
