Serial Killers From Texas

The Phantom Killer, one of Texas history's first serial killers, murdered five people and wounded three others from February to May 1946.

"The"Texarkana Moonlight Murders" sent the border town of Texarkana into a panic. The whole town locked down at sunset for months. Teens met their end on lover's lane. Escapes were harrowing. A killer vanished.

Convicted ofkilling at least three sex workersFrom 1990 to 1991, the "Dallas Ripper" gained another name: the Eyeball Killer. This name tells you everything about him.

Albright surgically removed the eyes of all three victims, as the name suggests.

"The Candyman" became Hollywood horror.

In the early 1970s,Corll drugged, raped, tortured, and murderedat least 27 boys aged 13 to 19 years old.

In the 1930s,Joe Ball's murder spreebecame a huge media event, almost a tall tale. But Ball's many female victims were real. So were the alligators he fed.

Before Jack the Ripper started in England, the killer known as theServant Girl AnnihilatorThis killer terrorized Texas like a demon. Between December 1884 and December 1885, seven women and one man were dragged from their beds while sleeping before being stabbed. The crime remains technically unsolved, but a 19-year-old named Nathan Elgin is strongly suspected.

Elgin had links to all the victims. A club foot matched a footprint at a scene. Elgin was shot dead in February 1886 while trying to stab a woman.

"The Sunday Morning Slasher" is thought to havekilled as many as 100 womenbetween ages 14 and 44, kidnapping and torturing them before killing them. The murders happened in several states, including his home state, Texas.

Watts was active for eight years during the '70s. He died of prostate cancer while in prison.

"The Railway Killer" robbed, raped, andmurdered at least 15 peoplefrom 1986 to 1999, many in Texas.

Resendiz was a nationwide killer, stabbing, bludgeoning, and strangling his way through Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, and California.

"The Lake Elsinore Killer" is one of themost textbook cases of serial murderin American history. From 1974 to 1991, Suff raped, beat, strangled, and stabbed at least 13—maybe more than 20—women in California and Texas. Worse, all those murders happenedafterSuff was released from prison for beating his infant child to death.

He got a 70-year sentence in 1974, then parole after 10 years. He barely left prison for 18 months before starting his decade-long murder spree.

Vickers was a small-time robber with a history of murdering victims over decades. Police finally caught him and convicted him ofkilling a grocery store owner in 1993, and was executed in 2004. As his last words during execution, Vickers confessed to fourteen more murders.One murder involved someone else taking the blame.

In this final confession, Vickers cleared the man. That man had served over ten years in prison for killing his wife.

ThisJohn Robert Williams was an over-the-road truck driver.He killed at least two women and possibly up to a dozen between 2002 and 2003.

His killings spanned several Midwest states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Indiana.

In 1987, the body of a 15-year-old girl surfaced in the Texas desert. Soon after, five other bodies appeared, all showing signs of sexual trauma before being killed and buried.David Leonard Wood was found guilty of these crimes.He received a death sentence in 1993. He still awaits execution.

Wood had previously served time.Before his final killing spree, Wood committed rape, sexual assault, and child indecency.

Prible broke into his best friend's home at night and shot him while he slept. Prible then raped his friend's wife next to her husband's body and killed her. Prible burned the house down to cover his crime, seemingly not caring about the couple's three children.

All were killed in the fire, and Prible was.2002 sentenced Prible to death..

From 1984 to 1986, Wardrip raped and murdered at least five women.He killed in the Wichita Falls area and Fort Worth. A 1986 murder conviction led to his parole in 1997.

In 1999, Wardrip was convicted of four more murders and received a death sentence.

"The Jacksonville Cannibal" was a Florida native. He formed a Bonnie and Clyde type relationship with his lover and fellow serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. The two traveled the country, butchering people, burning them, and eating them. Though not from Texas, Toole did many terrible things in Texas.

Toole's most notable victim was a young boy named Adam Walsh., the son of Hollywood actor John Walsh—the same John Walsh who created the television show Ottis Toole was America's Most Wanted.

You will likely know this outlaw's name and face. A John Wesley Hardin was a gunslinger of folklore and tall tales., Hardin killed between 20 and 50 people in the 1860s and 1870s.

Hardin's story connects to that of another legendary lawman, "Wild Bill" Hickock, who probably killed at least as many people as Hardin.