Most Notorious Serial Killers

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994), the Milwaukee Cannibal or Milwaukee Monster, killed and raped 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. Dahmer also committed dismemberment. Many later murders included necrophilia, cannibalism, and keeping body parts, often entire or partial skeletons. Dahmer had borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and a psychotic disorder, but the trial found him legally sane. He received a 15-year sentence.

Charles Milles Manson (born Maddox, November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and cult leader. In mid-1967, he started the Manson Family, a group based in California. Manson's followers committed nine murders at four spots in July and August 1969. The Los Angeles County district attorney stated Manson planned a race war, but Manson and others disputed this reason. In 1971, he received a conviction for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for seven deaths. Although the prosecution co

John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) killed, raped, and tortured at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Cook County, Illinois, near Chicago. Gacy committed all known murders inside his Norwood Park ranch house. He forced or tricked victims to his address. Gacy killed all victims except one by strangulation or asphyxiation using a makeshift garrote; his first victim received a stab wound. Gacy buried 26 victims in his home's crawl space.

Theodore Robert Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer and necrophile who kidnapped, raped, and murdered many young women and girls during the 1970s or earlier. Before his 1989 execution, he confessed to 30 homicides across seven states from 1974 to 1978. The actual victim count is unknown and possibly higher. Many of Bundy's young female victims found him handsome and charismatic, traits he used to gain their trust. He would typically approa

Dennis Andrew Nilsen (November 23, 1945 – May 12, 2018) was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men between 1978 and 1983 in London, England. The Old Bailey convicted Nilsen of six murder counts and two attempted murder counts; he received a life sentence on November 4, 1983, with a recommendation for a minimum of 25 years. Nilsen served time at Full Sutton maximum security prison later on. Nilsen committed all his murders at the two North London addresses where he lived from 1978 to 1983. His victims would be lu

Dean Arnold Corll (December 24, 1939 – August 8, 1973) killed at least 28 teenage boys and young men. He abducted, raped, tortured them, and murdered them between 1970 and 1973 in Houston, Texas. Two teen accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, helped Corll. Henley fatally shot Corll, revealing the Houston Mass Murders. Authorities saw these crimes as the worst serial murder in U.S. history. Corll lured victims with party offers or rides to various addresses.

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (Russian: Андре́й Рома́нович Чикати́ло; Ukrainian: Андрій Романович Чикатило; 16 October 1936 – 14 February 1994) was a Soviet serial killer. He earned nicknames like the Butcher of Rostov, the Red Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper. Chikatilo sexually assaulted, murdered, and mutilated at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 across the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, and Uzbek SSR. Chikatilo confessed to 56 murders. He faced trial for 53 killings in April 1992. A judge convicted him and sentenced him to death for 52 murders in October 1992. He was executed in F

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, child rapist, and cannibal. He held names like the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man. Fish once claimed he "had children in every state" and stated his victim count was near 100. People do not know if he meant rapes or cannibalism, nor if the statement was true. Fish was a suspect in five murders during his life. Fish confessed to three murders police were investigating.

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK or the BTK Strangler. Rader named himself "BTK" (for "Bind, Torture, Kill"). Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in the Wichita, Kansas area. Rader sent taunting letters detailing his crimes to police and newspapers. After a ten-year break, Rader sent letters again in 2004. This led to his 2005 arrest and guilty plea. He serves ten life sentences at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.

Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004) was an English general practitioner and one of history's most prolific serial killers. On January 31, 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of murdering 15 patients under his care. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment, recommending he never be released. The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year investigation led by Dame Janet Smith, examined all deaths certified by Shipman. The inquiry found 215 victims and estimated his total victims at 250, about 80% of whom were elderly.

Aileen Wuornos acted in "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer."

Ian Brady, born Ian Duncan Stewart on January 2, 1938 in the Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland, is a notorious Scottish serial killer. Brady committed a series of murders in Greater Manchester between 1963 and 1965. Police called these the Moors murders because victims were buried along the Saddleworth Moor near Oldham in Lancashire.

Gary Leon Ridgway, born February 18, 1949, is an American serial killer, also known as the Green River Killer. He faced a plea bargain, adding another conviction to his 48 initial murder convictions, reaching 49 total. This made him the second most prolific serial killer in U.S. history based on confirmed murders. Ridgway killed many teenage girls and women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s. Most Ridgway's victims were alleged sex workers and other women in vulnerable situations, including under

Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann (October 25, 1879 – April 15, 1925) was a German serial killer. He became known as the Butcher of Hanover, the Vampire of Hanover, and the Wolf-Man. Haarmann sexually assaulted, murdered, mutilated, and dismembered a minimum of 24 boys and young men between 1918 and 1924 in Hanover, Germany. Haarmann was found guilty of 24 of the 27 murders he was tried for and received the death sentence of beheading in December 1924. Also, German practice revoked his honorary citizenship rights. He died by execution in April 1925.

David Richard Berkowitz, born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer. Berkowitz pleaded guilty to eight shooting attacks starting in New York City during the summer of 1976. Using a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, he killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977. As victims grew, Berkowitz escaped the biggest police manhunt in New York City history. He left letters mocking the police and promising more crimes, which the press widely reported. The killing

Herman Webster Mudgett, born May 16, 1861 and died May 7, 1896, became known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, or H. H. Holmes. He confessed to 27 murders, but only nine murders stand as plausible. Several people he claimed to kill were still alive. He reportedly killed about 200 people, though that number only comes from 1940s pulp magazines. Many victims reportedly died in a mixed-use building he owned, situated about three miles (5 km) west of the 1893 World's Fair: Columbian Exposition, supposedly called the Worl

Donald Harvey (April 15, 1952 – March 30, 2017) was an American serial killer and orderly. He claimed to murder 87 people, though official estimates range from 37 to 57 victims. Harvey said he started killing to "ease the pain" of patients. As time passed, he enjoyed it more and more, becoming a self-described "angel of death." Harvey served 28 life sentences at the Toledo Correctional Institution in Toledo, Ohio, after pleading guilty to murder charges to avoid the death penalty.

William George Bonin (January 8, 1947 – February 23, 1996), also known as the Freeway Killer, was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender. He committed the rape, torture, and murder of at least 21 boys and young men in 1979 and 1980 in southern California. Bonin is suspected of 15 more murders. A prosecutor described Bonin at his first trial as "the most arch-evil person who ever existed." Bonin was convicted of 14 of the murders linked to the "Freeway Killer" in two separate trials in 1982 and 1983. He spent 14 years on death row.

Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes occurred around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. Authorities learned of Gein after he exhumed corpses from local graveyards and made trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954, and Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957. Gein initially appeared unfit to stand trial and was confined to prison.

Carl Panzram (June 28, 1892 – September 5, 1930) was an American serial killer, rapist, arsonist, robber, and burglar. In prison confessions and his autobiography, he claimed 100 murders, most uncorroborated, and over 1,000 sodomies of boys and men. After several imprisonments and escapes, Carl Panzram was executed in 1930 for killing a prison employee at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.

Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948) is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered ten people, including his paternal grandparents and mother. Kemper is known for his large size, 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m), and high IQ of 145. Kemper earned the nickname "Co-ed Killer" because most victims were students at co-educational schools. Kemper had a disturbed childhood. He moved to Montana with his abusive mother at a young age before returning to California. There, he murdered his paternal grandparents when he was 15. Kemper was diagnosed as paranoid.

Joseph Michael Swango, born October 21, 1954, is an American licensed physician and an admitted serial killer. Swango faced estimates of 60 fatal poisonings of patients and colleagues, though he admitted to four deaths. In 2000, a judge sentenced him to three consecutive life terms without parole. Swango now serves that sentence at the ADX Florence supermax prison near Florence, Colorado.

Arthur John Shawcross, known as the Genesee River Killer, was an American serial killer in Rochester, New York. Shawcross killed a young boy and girl in Watertown, New York, in 1972. A plea bargain let Shawcross plead guilty to manslaughter, serving 14 years of a 25-year sentence. Shawcross killed most victims in 1988 and 1989 after early parole, causing criticism of the justice system. Shawcross worked in food service and walked the streets.

Gilles de Rais, Baron de Rais (French: [də ʁɛ]), was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou, and Poitou. He led the French army and fought alongside Joan of Arc. People know him as a confessed serial killer of children after his conviction. Gilles de Rais belonged to the House of Montmorency-Laval. His maternal grandfather taught him, and marriage increased his wealth. The Duke of Brittany favored Rais, admitting him to the French court. From 1427 to 1435, Rais commanded in the R

Kenneth Alessio Bianchi, born May 22, 1951, is an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. Bianchi also committed the Hillside Strangler murders with his cousin Angelo Buono in Los Angeles, California. He also murdered two more women in Washington state alone. Bianchi currently serves life imprisonment in Washington State Penitentiary for these crimes. Bianchi is a suspect in the alphabet murders, three unsolved murders in his home city of Rochester, New York.

Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer believed active in impoverished areas around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. Criminal case files and news reports called the killer the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron. Attacks attributed to Jack the Ripper targeted female prostitutes in the East End of London slums. These attacks involved cutting throats before abdominal mutilations. Removing internal organs from at least three victims prompted proposals that thei

Frederick Walter Stephen West (born September 29, 1941; died January 1, 1995) killed at least 12 people between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, England. His second wife, Rosemary West, was involved in most of these murders. All victims were young women. At least eight murders involved the Wests' sexual gratification, including rape, bondage, torture, and mutilation. The Wests buried the dismembered bodies in the cellar or garden of their Cromwell Street home in Gloucester, known as the "House of Horrors." Fred also committed at least two murders on h

Jane Toppan (August 17, 1854 – October 29, 1938), born Honora Kelley, was an American serial killer nicknamed "Jolly Jane." After the police arrested her in 1901, she admitted to 31 murders. She stated her ambition was "to have killed more people—helpless people—than any other man or woman who ever lived."

Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo (November 1, 1962 – May 6, 1989) was an American serial killer, drug dealer, and cult leader for a gang called The Narcosatanists (Spanish: "Los Narcosatánicos"), which the media nicknamed him The Godfather ("El Padrino"). His cult members called him The Godfather ("El Padrino"). He led the cult with Sara Aldrete, whom followers nicknamed "The Godmother" ("La Madrina"). The cult carried out multiple ritualistic killings in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, including the murder of Mark Kilroy, an American student killed in Matamoros in 1989.

Javed Iqbal Umayr (October 8, 1956 – October 8, 2001) was a Pakistani serial killer. He was found guilty of the sexual abuse and murder of 100 boys.

Charles Edmund Cullen (born February 22, 1960) is an American serial killer. Cullen confessed to authorities that he killed up to forty patients during his sixteen years as a nurse in New Jersey. However, police, psychiatrists, and journalists later learned he killed many more people he could not name. Experts estimate Cullen may be responsible for 400 deaths, making him the most prolific serial killer in recorded history.

Nannie Doss (born Nancy Hazel, November 4, 1905 – June 2, 1965) was an American serial killer who killed 11 people between the 1920s and 1954. Nannie Doss earned nicknames like the Giggling Granny, the Lonely Hearts Killer, the Black Widow, and Lady Blue Beard. A newspaper called her a "self-made widow." Doss confessed to the murders in October 1954, after her fifth husband died in a small hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She killed four husbands, two children, her two sisters, her mother, a grandson, and a mother-in-law.

Arnfinn Nesset, born October 25, 1936, was a Norwegian nurse, nursing home manager, and convicted serial killer. He murdered at least 22 people, attempted murder, forged documents, and embezzled funds. He may have killed up to 138 people. In 1983, he was convicted for poisoning 22 patients and received a 21-year prison sentence. He served 12 years and 10 years of supervision; he likely lives under another name.

Michael del Marco Lupo (January 19, 1953 – February 12, 1995) was an Italian serial killer. He worked in the UK. Lupo operated from the Yves Saint Laurent boutique on Brompton Road, London during the 1980s.

Amy Duggan "Sister" Archer-Gilligan (October 31, 1873 – April 23, 1962) ran a nursing home in Windsor, Connecticut, and was a serial killer. She poisoned at least five people. Her second husband, Michael Gilligan, was one victim; the others were nursing home residents. Authorities counted 48 deaths at the "Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm." This case gained wide attention and inspired the play Arsenic and Old Lace and Frank Capra's work.

Rosemary Pauline "Rose" West (née Letts; born November 29, 1953) is a British serial killer. She was convicted in 1995 for ten murders and now sits at HM Prison New Hall, Flockton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Rose killed her 8-year-old stepdaughter, Charmaine, in 1971. Her husband, Fred, committed suicide in prison awaiting trial, and he likely helped her torture and murder at least nine young women between 1973 and 1987. Most of these murders occurred at their home, 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester.

Mary Ann Cotton (née Robson; October 31, 1832 – March 24, 1873) was an English serial killer. She was convicted and hanged for poisoning her stepson, Charles Edward Cotton. She likely murdered three of her four husbands, possibly to collect insurance money, and many others. She may have killed up to 21 people, including 11 of her 13 children. She mostly used arsenic poisoning, which caused stomach pain and a quick decline in health.

Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 12, 2001) was an American serial killer. Lucas was arrested in Texas. Texas Rangers relied on his confessions to attribute hundreds of unsolved murders to him and officially close those cases. Lucas was convicted for murdering 11 people and faced the death penalty for one case involving an unknown victim. A newspaper exposed the impossible logistics of Lucas's confessions taken together, and the Texas Attorney General's study found Lucas made false confessions.

Robert William Pickton (October 24, 1949 – May 31, 2024) was a Canadian serial killer. In 2007, he was convicted of second-degree murders of six women. Police arrested him in 2002. A long investigation found evidence of many other murders. Pickton faced charges for twenty more deaths, many from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, but the Crown stayed those charges in 2010. Pickton received a life sentence with no parole for 25 years, the longest murder sentence under Canadian law.

Kristen Heather Gilbert (born Kristen Heather Strickland, November 13, 1967) is an American serial killer. She was a former nurse. Gilbert was convicted of four murders and two attempted murders at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Northampton, Massachusetts. She caused cardiac arrest in patients by injecting intravenous therapy bags with large doses of epinephrine, an untraceable heart stimulant. She then responded to emergency codes, often reviving the patients herself. Gilbert's known victims include Stanley Jagodowski, Henry Hudon, and Kenneth Cutting.

Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) killed six people in one month in Sacramento, California. People called him "The Vampire of Sacramento" because he drank their blood and ate their bodies.

Miyuki Ishikawa (石川 ミユキ, Ishikawa Miyuki, born 1897, death date unknown) was a Japanese midwife and serial killer. She is believed to have murdered many infants with accomplices during the 1940s. Estimates place her victims between 85 and 169, with 103 being the general figure. The Tokyo High Court gave her a four-year sentence upon capture. This sentence seemed light given her high death toll, unmatched by any other serial killer in Japan, according to a Children's Rain report.

Juana Barraza (born December 27, 1957) is a Mexican former professional wrestler and serial killer. She was known as La Mataviejitas (Sp. "The Old Lady Killer"). She was sentenced to 759 years in prison for killing 42 to 48 elderly women. The first murder attributed to Mataviejitas occurred in the late 1990s or on November 17, 2003. Authorities and the press offer estimates for the total number of victims, ranging from 24 to 49 deaths.

Albert Henry DeSalvo (September 3, 1931 – November 25, 1973) was a Boston, Massachusetts criminal. He confessed to being the "Boston Strangler," murdering 13 women in the Boston area from 1962 to 1964. DeSalvo faced prison time for a series of rapes. People dispute his murder confession; debate continues over his actual crimes. In July 2013, DNA matched seminal fluid from the Mary Sullivan rape and murder to DNA from DeSalvo's nephew, linking DeSalvo to the murder and excluding 99.9% of the rest.

Robert Lee Yates Jr. (born May 27, 1952) is an American serial killer from Spokane, Washington. From 1996 to 1998, Yates murdered at least 13 women, all sex workers on E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane. Yates also confessed to two murders in Walla Walla in 1975 and one in Skagit County in 1988. In 2002, Yates was convicted of killing two women in Pierce County and received a death sentence. Washington State outlawed the death penalty in 2018, and his sentence was commuted to life without parole. Yates currently serves life in prison.

Beverley Gail Allitt (born October 4, 1968) is an English serial child killer. She was convicted of murdering four children, attempting to murder three others, and causing serious harm to six more. Allitt committed these crimes over 59 days between February and April 1991 at the children's ward of Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire, where she worked as a State Enrolled Nurse. Allitt gave large insulin doses to at least two victims. A large air bubble was found in another victim's body, but police could not figure out how all the attacks happened.

Earle Leonard Nelson (born May 12, 1897 – January 13, 1928), also called the "Gorilla Man," "Gorilla Killer," and "Dark Strangler," was an American serial killer, rapist, and necrophile. Nelson was the first known American serial sex murderer of the twentieth century. Born and raised in San Francisco, California by his Pentecostal grandmother, Nelson showed strange behavior as a child. Head injuries from a bicycling accident at age ten made this behavior worse. After minor offenses in his early adulthood, Nelson was institutionalized in

Randy Steven Kraft (born March 19, 1945) is an American serial killer known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer. Kraft murdered a minimum of 16 young men between 1972 and 1983, most of them in California. Kraft is also believed to have raped and murdered up to 51 other boys and young men. Kraft was convicted in May 1989 and sits on death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California. Investigators named him the "Scorecard Killer" after discovering a

Leonard Thomas Lake (October 29, 1945 – June 6, 1985), also known as Leonard Hill and other names, was an American serial killer. During the mid-1980s, he and Charles Ng raped, tortured, and killed an estimated 11 to 25 victims at a remote cabin in Calaveras County, California. This cabin sat in the Sierra Nevada foothills, 150 miles east of San Francisco. Lake died four days after being arrested in 1985 on charges including illegal weapons, auto theft, and fraud. Lake swallowed cyanide pills he had sewn into his clothing.