That is our complete list of infamous serial killers and the most notorious serial killers. We thought about creating a top 100 serial killers list or narrowing the list down to the top ten serial killers, but neither were satisfying to us. We hope you enjoy this full list sorted alphabetically. Famous serial killers list with 530 serial ki.er names, descriptions, images, & biographies. American serial killers include shocking details of notorious m.ders & famous murderers. Famous killers of all time recorded as researched. Serial killers assorted by your votes as most interesting. We have searched the internet but have not been satisfied with the other lists of famous serial.
New York has had no shortage of serial killers. Although I don't think this is a complete list, it will give you an idea of the number of killers in this one state. And a few notorious cases hit the streets of New York City. Here are five of the most infamous serial killers who have targeted victims in the five boroughs: Lizzie Halliday. The Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers. New York City: Berkley Books. ISBN 0-425-15213-8. Newton, Michael (1999). Still at Large: A Casebook of 20th Century Serial Killers who Eluded Justice. Washington: Loompanics Unlimited. ISBN 978-1-559-50184-2. Newton, Michael (2009). The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes. New York: Facts on File.
In a world that tends to frown on murdering your fellow man, serial killers are often considered the worst of the worst. Yet, they're very, very real. It's borderline unbelievable that anyone would choose to kill people over and over again. It's even harder to believe that there are actually plenty of people like that out there: According to the Atlantic, the FBI believes that under one percent of all unsolved murders are the work of serial killers. Meanwhile, Thomas Hargrove of the Murder Accountability Project thinks that as of 2019, the U.S. alone had something like 2,100 unidentified serial killers running around. Author and former police detective Michael Arntfield thinks that the number could be as high as 4,000.
Obviously, we have no way to know for sure which of these undiscovered serial killers are most terrifying, because, well, they haven't been caught yet. Still, we definitely do know about some of them ... and what we know is pretty scary. Let's take a look at some of the most dangerous serial killers who are still out and about in 2020.
Pedro Alonzo Lopez may have killed over 300 people
When you're known as 'The Monster of the Andes,' you have a lot of monstrosity to live up to, and according to Biography, Pedro Alonzo Lopez is as terrifying as they come. The Colombian serial killer and diagnosed sociopath wandered around Peru and Ecuador, targeting young girls. While it's estimated that he may have killed over 300 people, he was ultimately convicted for 'just' 110 murders.
What is Lopez doing on this list if we already know who he was and he's already been caught? Well, they did indeed catch him in 1980, but seeing as this was in Ecuador, the country's laws only allowed a maximum prison sentence of 16 years. Out of these, he spent 14 years in a prison. In 1995, he was released for good behavior, and deported to his native Colombia, where he was declared insane and put in a psychiatric hospital. In early 1998, he was declared sane, which proved to be a bad move. Lopez promptly visited his elderly mother to demand his inheritance, and upon learning that she was poor, he sold her possessions (a chair and a bed) on the street. After that, he disappeared without a trace. No one knows where this terrifying man is today, though there is some concern that he may have had a hand in at least one murder since his vanishing act.
The mysterious smiley face drownings
Imagine a group that ruthlessly stalks young, inebriated victims, and kills them in a way that makes it very difficult to tell whether the death was accidental or not. As Rolling Stone reported in 2019, professor of criminal justice Lee Gilbertson and former NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte think this terrifying scenario is a very real thing. Since 2008, they have posited a theory that some sort of gang or a group of 'domestic terrorists' is targeting young, white men with a college education, often after a night of drinking. They abduct them, murder them, and make the deaths look like accidental drownings. The only sign of their involvement is an ominous smiley face graffiti near the alleged crime scenes.
If you think it's more than possible a young guy with some alcohol in his blood stream might indeed drown accidentally, well, the FBI agrees with you. Then again, Gilbertson, Gannon, and Duarte say they've discovered that some of the over 40 victims they believe to have identified have been missing for weeks, yet their bodies only showed signs of having only been dead for days upon discovery. The bodies also have traces of the infamous date drug GHB, which could have been used to incapacitate the victims before kidnapping them. Even more chillingly, the trio think that the 'Smiley Face Killers' might be involved in as many as 335 deaths. Accidental drownings or serial killers, that's a lot of senseless death.
The Freeway Phantom serial killer terrorized Washington D.C.
You'd be forgiven for not being familiar with the Freeway Phantom. According to Cheryl W. Thompson of the Washington Post, this brutal serial killer operated around Washington D.C. during the ruthless early 1970s, when the homicide investigators in the area were up to their eyebrows in murder cases. Nevertheless, this particular serial killer stood out. The murderer's reign of terror started in April 1971, and over the next 17 months, he abducted and killed six young African-American girls and left their bodies near large roads with plenty of traffic. The case became known as the 'Freeway Phantom Murders,' and frighteningly, the killer was never caught. If he's alive, he may well still be out there somewhere.
A large part of why the Freeway Phantom was never caught was the unfortunate fact that he's thought to have been the first serial killer in the area, so apart from the victims' families and a sympathetic detective called Romaine Jenkins, no one really knew (or cared) how to proceed with the investigation, at least until the FBI stepped in ... in 1974. Unfortunately, while their sizable task force was able to comb through every existing lead and go through hundreds of suspects, and despite some lines of investigation with lots of potential, the killer was never found.
The Highway of Tears may be the hunting ground of serial killers
Highway of Tears, as the New York Times reports, is the less than flattering nickname for Highway 16, an isolated, 450-mile stretch of road in Canada's British Columbia. The road has a dark reputation, and for a good reason. Along it and two others roads connecting to it, dozens of girls and women have been murdered ... or they've simply disappeared. Almost all of the victims have been indigenous, and almost all the cases are unsolved.
It's pretty clear that there is a killer about — or rather, several killers, seeing as the Royal Canadian Mounties have connected cases going back to at least 1969. The official number of dead or missing women on the Highway of Tears between the years 1969 and 2006 was 18, but many believe that the number could be as high as 50.
To be fair, it's unlikely that all of these deaths are the work of a single killer. We know this because one serial killer has already been caught: In 2014, Cody Legebokoff was convicted for killing four women near the infamous road. Unfortunately, British Columbia has a reputation for serial killers who target indigenous women, and seeing as Legebokoff was only 24 when he was convicted and his crimes were only a small fraction of all the unsolved cases, the Highway of Tears' fearsome reputation lives on.
The Zodiac killer was never caught
Apart from Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer is arguably the most famous unsolved serial killer case out there. Unlike the Ripper, however, there's a chance that the Zodiac might still be walking among the living, looking to make them dead. As Biography tells us, the Zodiac Killer murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968 and 1969, taunting the press and the police with boastful letters, phone calls, and strange codes. There's a possibility that he also committed other murders before these famous ones.
Despite a robust amount of leads — from fingerprint evidence to eyewitness accounts and a police sketch — and the killer's own, constant messages, no suspect was ever arrested and the killings eventually stopped. While some of the potential candidates to don the Zodiac Killer's hood have already died, the fact that we still have no idea about his identity means that he could very well still be out there ... though he'd probably be at least in his late seventies.
The Monster of Florence is an Italian mystery killer
What's worse than one serial killer? The possibility that there might be more than one. Such is the case with the Monster of Florence, who Encyclopedia Britannica tells us started his reign of terror in 1968 and continued until 1985. The exceptionally brutal murderer targeted couples in the hills near the city, and killed at least 16 people over the years.
As the Atlantic tells us, the hunt for the Monster was a long one, and tens of thousands of men were viewed as potential suspects. The husband of the first victim was actually convicted for the murder and received a 14-year prison sentence, though the killings soon resumed. In 1994, the investigators finally believed they had their man, in the form of a drunken, violent farm worker called Pietro Pacciani. His conviction was promptly overturned, but soon afterward, the police discovered a witness who claimed that Pacciani and a number of accomplices had in fact been killing people at the behest of a devil-worshiping doctor and other 'masterminds.' Pacciani died before his second trial, and though two of his apparent accomplices were eventually convicted, the evidence against them was shoddy at best. As such, some people who are extremely familiar with the case, such as crime journalist Mario Spezi, believed in 2006 that the true Monster of Florence (or perhaps monsters) was still out there ... and, seeing as he still hasn't been caught, might still be.
A serial killer may be at work on Long Island's Gilgo Beach
Gilgo Beach on Long Island, New York, might not seem like the most terrifying place on Earth. However, it just might be the stalking ground of one of the most infamous undiscovered serial killers out there. Ella Torres of ABC News took a look at the information available about the suspected Long Island Serial Killer case in early 2020, and what we have is as creepy as it is shrouded in mystery.
It all started in late 2010, when bodies of missing sex workers and unidentified people started turning up on the remote beach. Over the course of a few months, the remains of no less than 10 victims were discovered scattered around the area. And ... that's all we have, really. The police have not revealed the exact causes of death or the surrounding circumstances, though they have revealed that one of the victims made a frenzied 911 call about a client who was trying to kill her. Then, she disappeared. We also don't know whether this is the work of one serial killer or multiple individuals, though several investigators and experts tend to refer to the culprit as a single 'he,' based on a mocking phone call the killer reportedly made to one victim's sister. Still, there's obviously something very, very strange afoot on Gilgo Beach.
The complex case of the Frankford Slasher
As NBC Philadelphia tells us, the Frankford Slasher terrorized the northern parts of the city of Philadelphia from 1985 to 1990. The serial killer seems to have exclusively assaulted and killed Caucasian women who visited the bars of a specific area on Frankford Avenue, claiming eight or nine victims before the killings stopped. That approximate 'eight or nine' figure, incidentally, is due to the fact that a man called Leonard Christopher was convicted of one of the first eight murders and given a life sentence. Though one more murder happened while he was already incarcerated, he still became the public face of the Slasher at the time, and spent the rest of his days in prison for a crime experts believe he did not commit. The other eight murders remain unsolved.
Though this means that an unknown serial killer might still be on the loose somewhere out there, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. During the investigation, the Philadelphia police did actually find a potential suspect: A middle-aged man claiming to be a minister. Though this person disappeared after initial questioning, the police did secure a DNA sample, which was being investigated with new techniques as of 2019.
The Chillicothe case might be the work of a serial killer
Someone in the small city of Chillicothe in Southern Ohio has a dark secret. As David Lohr of Huffington Post and Jona Ison of the area's own Chillicothe Gazette tell us, over the course of 2014 and 2015, no less than six women disappeared around there. Some of them haven't been seen since, while others have turned up dead at various spots. To be fair, the authorities haven't used the term 'serial killer' quite yet, except in carefully structured sentences that begin with something like, 'No one has said there's a ...' However, the media has been happy to drum up the serial killer angle, and as Michael E. Miller of the Washington Post reported in 2015, the locals certainly seem to think that's what they're dealing with.
While the Chillicothe case remains unsolved at the time of writing, and therefore it's possible that the perpetrator remains on the loose, it's worth noting that a news story from a couple of hours' drive away may or may not shed some light to the situation. As CBS News reports, in 2015, a West Virginia woman fought off an attacker and ended up shooting him with his own gun. The man turned out to be Neal Falls, a suspected serial killer with possible connections to up to 10 deaths.
Colonial Parkway serial killer may have been a cop
The Colonial Parkway is 23 miles of beautiful Virginia road running between Yorktown and Jamestown, and as such, far from a terrifying, serial killer-y location. Still, as crime writer David Lohr of the Huffington Post tells us, the stretch has seen its share of bloodshed in the shape of a suspected serial killer. The Colonial Parkway murders consisted of eight killings between 1986 and 1989, and the similarities between the murders have led some to believe that they might be the work of the same person. Some theories have suggested that the killer might either be a law enforcement officer or impersonating one, because the cars of some of the victims were discovered with the driver's window rolled down.
Incidentally, the case might have faded into obscurity over time, if it wasn't for a former deputy called Fred Atwell, who emerged with a stack of 84 undiscovered crime scene photographs in 2009, and started butting into the revitalized investigation at every opportunity. Despite the red flags Atwell's increasingly odd behavior raised, the case remains unsolved, and the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook page reported his death on December 2018. However, as Alexa Doiron of Williamsburg Yorktown Daily reported on October 2019, the situation might be about to change. There's a TV show about the crimes in the works, and it centers around an ace team of former FBI special agents who feel that they may be able to crack the case.
The I-70 killer disappeared without a trace
In 1992, Interstate 70 was a dangerous place, and it wasn't because of the traffic. As Vox tells us, that year's spring was marked by the bloody trail of a serial killer who murderer six clerks in stores near the I-70 in an identical fashion, starting in Terre Haute, Indiana and ending in Wichita, Kansas. There's little question that it was the same killer every time, seeing as he used the same rifle in all cases, and seemed to exclusively target brunette women — though one of the victims actually turned out to be a guy with a long hair. He didn't just randomly enter gas stations and attack people, either — some of the victims worked in shoe stores, others sold herbs and health products.
There were several eyewitnesses who described the man as 5'7 with 'light brown or red hair,' who wore a gray sports coat and slacks. Despite this, the investigators have found the case impossible to crack. There have been no known murders by the same perpetrator since the events of 1992. No one's even been able to establish a motive, and the killer only took a small amount of money from the stores' cash registers. According to Jon Webb of the Courier & Press, the case was still unsolved as of December 2019, and some of the victims' families have essentially given up on ever finding out the truth behind the deaths.
We've only started to learn about the Chicago Strangler
'Chicago Strangler' may sound like a historical villain who stalked the Windy City sometime during the Great Depression, but as Pam Zekman of CBS Chicago and Daniel Tucker of WBEZ Chicago both told us in 2019, this is one serial killer whose terrifying tale might only be beginning to unfold. For around two decades, Chicago has seen a series of eerily similar strangulation murders. The first victim was found in 2001, and bodies have turned up in empty lots, vacant buildings, dark alleys and even garbage containers ever since then, with only a short period of peace between 2014 and early 2017. The victims have largely been women with a history of sex work or addiction, and there have been a lot of them — in fact, the Chicago Police Department and the FBI are investigating no less than 51 unsolved murders, in an attempt to find out whether they might be the work of at least one serial killer.
If you ask Thomas Hargrove, the chairman of the Murder Accountability Project nonprofit, at least some of them most likely are. Hargrove says that his group has a 'serial killer detector' algorithm, which has been pointing at a serial killer situation in Chicago for years.
The Rainbow Maniac of Brazil
'Rainbow Maniac' might seem like a suspiciously colorful moniker for a serial killer, until you realize it refers to a murderer who targeted gay men. As the Guardian and the Sydney Morning Herald tell us, this ruthless villain started their reign of terror over the Carapicuiba area of São Paulo, Brazil in July 2007. By August 2008, the killer was suspected of murdering at least 13 and possibly as many as 16 people.
New York Serial Killers List
The murders were pretty much the definition of hate crime. The killer scoured for victims in a popular hangout location known as Paturis Park, and shot all but one to death, often with their pants quite literally down to their knees. Though the killings were originally investigated as individual homicides, their ruthlessness and the great number was enough to stand out from the usual violence in the city. The police soon figured out that they were dealing with a homophobe serial killer. 'In his head, he thinks he is doing a clean-up job,' police chief Paulo Fernando Fortunato said. 'He doesn't like homosexuals, he hates them.'
Unfortunately, the Rainbow Maniac may very well still be out there. The police did arrest a retired police officer for the crimes in 2009, but local outlet Agora São Paulo reports that the man was found innocent and acquitted in 2011 ... and it looks like the case hasn't proceeded since.
The vending machine killer may have copycats
In 1985, people in Japan started dying after drinking a popular beverage called Oronamin C, which someone had laced with a herbicide called paraquat, per CBC. The police soon started suspecting that the killer was leaving the tampered drinks in the slots of the country's omnipresent vending machines. There, they were found and eventually consumed by the unwary victims who, according to the New York Times, may simply have assumed that the extra drink was a part of a promotional campaign.
It's estimated that as many as 12 people died because of the poison drinks, and many others became ill. It's hard to say whether all of these deaths were the product of one deranged mind, due to the fact that the high-profile case attracted several copycat poisoners. Regardless of the killer's true body count, they walked free — in fact, the case remains so unsolved that it appears no suspects have ever even been arrested.
The West Mesa murders remain unsolved
It's rare to hear officials throw the term 'serial killer' around before they're fairly certain that their homicide cases involve one. As such, the fact that the City of Albuquerque straight up uses the name 'West Mesa Serial Killer' is a pretty good sign that one is involved.
The West Mesa Serial Killer is an unapprehended and unknown individual who murdered 11 young women, one of whom was pregnant, and buried them in clumsy graves in West Mesa, Albuquerque. The skeletal remains were discovered in 2009, and as the Albuquerque Journal tells us, the police swiftly put together a 40-strong task force to investigate the case. Unfortunately, it turned out that the women had been murdered — strangled, possibly — sometime between 2003 and 2005, so the trail was colder than anyone would have wanted.
While there have been at least two potential suspects, as of 2016 there had been zero arrests. At that point, only a single detective was investigating the case full-time. As such, families of the victims aren't exactly hopeful that they will get answers in the immediate future. What's more, it's possible that the killer may have had even more victims than anyone realizes. In fact, apart from the 11 known victims, at least six other women from similar backgrounds went missing in the area between 2001 and 2006.
Two Cheshire double murders are far too similar
In August 2020, the Sunday Times (via the Telegraph) reported that the otherwise unassuming Cheshire, UK might be the secret hunting ground of a serial killer. According to a 179-page confidential report by a local senior coroner's officer, modern research techniques suggest that two supposedly unconnected murder-suicide cases might be considerably more terrifying than such cases already are, due to the possibility that they might not be quite that unconnected after all.
The two suspected double homicides of elderly couples were particularly bloody, with both sharp and blunt instruments involved. Both happened in the Wilmslow area of Cheshire, in 1996 and 1999 — a mere three years and two miles apart. Reportedly, the text also suggests that further cases should be looked into, and alerts Interpol and the National Crime Agency to look into similar cases in both the UK and other European countries. 'This individual will not stop killing until someone or something stops him,' the report allegedly says.
According to the Guardian, as of August 2020, authorities were looking into no less than five different murder-suicide cases that might be the work of the same person. What's more, the story states that between 2000 and 2019, there have been no less than 39 similar cases in the UK alone. It remains to be seen how this chilling case develops, and how many — if any — of these cases turn out to be the work of the same person.
Article BY Shells Walter - Art by Joaquin MontalvanThe 1800’s brought about some of the most extreme serial killers known. Names, such as Jack the Ripper, Dr. Thomas Neil Cream, were just a few of the murderers we look back on in History. The murders these killers committed were not only grotesque at times, but also more ‘motive’ orientated; sometimes even more cunning.
Poisoning was a popular way of killing. A lot of serial killers in the 1800’s took advantage of light regulations or none at all; such as the regulations on Arsenic.
Another thing that came about in the 1800’s was certain advances in Forensic Science. These advances proved troubling for serial killers of the era. It meant proving certain crimes such as poisoning, became easier. Some of these new advances in Forensic Science included:
The first use of photography in identification of a crime scene, evidence and criminals.
The first use of fingerprints in solving a crime.
The first use of arsenic detection in a jury trial. (James Marsh in 1930 developed a method for arsenic dectection and was the first one to use it in a trial basis.)
Bullet comparison to catch a murderer.
Though these new developments occurred and made things somewhat tricky for serial killers in this time, it didn’t stop them. There are well known serial killers such as Jack the Ripper, and others who killed and were never discovered. Serial killers were also not limited to one country. The killings occurred through out Europe, The United States and in other countries such as Canada.
The killings by these murderers brought shock and anger; sometimes even a mystery to the present day that is still questioned by experts and interested parties a like. The list of serial killers in the 1800’s are from any age group and from any gender as woman often killed too, poison often being their weapon of choice.
The list below is some of the recorded history and research of serial killers in that time period. Due to information that was not kept properly, or crimes not solved, some killers were never discovered and will always remain hidden to us.
Serial Killers of the 1800’s
Austin Axe Murderer
1854-1885
United States
There were at least 7 women who were murdered, most were servants. The murderer would drag the victims from whatever room they were in and proceed to rape them before slashing them to death. There were several of these victims who ended up being stabbed or even spiked in the ears or face. The first victim, Mollie Smith was in 1884. The last two victims were Eula Phillips and Sue Hancock in 1885. The murders were devastating and shocking. There was no one who was convicted of the crimes.
Patty Cannon
United States
She was part of a gang that kidnapped slaves and those who were not to sell, transport them to plantation owners. Thought to have murdered at least 25 victims, many slave traded. Bodies were found on the farm that was owned by Cannon in Delaware by the tenant farmer. The bodies included an infant female, an adult male, a male child and a boy. She was indicted for the four murders in 1829. Cannon died in her cell on May 11th, 1829. Authorities at the time suspected suicide.
Mary Ann Cotton
Approx.1865-1872
United Kingdom
Cotton killed those who were in her care. It is estimated that she had killed between 15-20 victims. Her choice of murder was poison. Cotton would extract arsenic from rat poison as the sale of it was not controlled at the time and give it to people in her care or that she wanted dead. Mary would move about in different areas marrying as she did so her name would change. The deaths were said to be contributed to gastric fever until traces of arsenic were found. She was finally caught trying to unload one of her victims into a warehouse. Arrested on July 18th, 1872 and was hung on March 24th, 1873.
How Many Serial Killers Are Active In New York
Dr. Thomas Neil Cream
1880-1892
The United States and United Kingdom
It is said he has poisoned at least 7 women; the first being his wife Flora. However, with Flora it wasn’t discovered until later where traces of poison were found in her system. It was assumed she had died of consumption in 1877.
Cream had traveled away from Canada to England where he pursued his studies in medicine. A few years after, he returned to Canada where he went into being an
abortionist..
In May 1879, patient Kate Gardener was found dead behind a woodshed smelling of chloroform. She was pregnant at the time of her death. It was later discovered the chloroform was administered by force.
In August 1879 Cream went to Chicago. Another patient, Eleen Stack he gave anti-pregnancy pills that he designed. These pills were laced with strychnine. She died soon afterwards.
Julia Slott had an affair with Cream that would later lead to his capture. After the killing of her husband by poison in the pills, Slott would later turn state’s evidence to convict Cream in 1881. However, Cream was released in July of 1891 and went back to England.
Back in England he posed as a doctor and chose the name Thomas Neil. He poisoned at least two more women while there. He was finally caught again. Cream would not be released this time, but hung on Nov 16th, 1892.
Sarah Dazely
In March 1843, authorities charged Sara Dazely with murder. She had 3 husbands before who had died suspiciously. It was thought that she killed her husband just so she could marry again. Dazely was suspected of poisoning her past husbands as two of her previous husbands’ examination showed lethal doses of arsenic.
On August 5th, 1843 she was hanged after the conviction of two murders. The other corpses of the husbands were too decomposed to test for anything.
Frederick Deeming
1891-1892
Australia
Deeming was noted as having more than one family and disposing of the victims he murdered.
On March 3, 1892, police caught a smell coming from a house numbered 57 Andrew Street. What happened next started the process of catching Deeming. They unearthed the body of a young woman whose throat had been slashed, Emily Williams. It was estimated she had been dead for at least 3 months. The police also found children embedded in the cement laying at the woman’s feet.
Emily Mather was thought to be his wife after the murder of Emily Williams and the children. He took her to Australia where he married her and eventually murdered her.
He was caught on March 1892 in Perth, Australia. On May 23rd 1892 he was hung.
Amelia Dyer
Beginning unknown to 1896
United Kingdom
Amelia Dyer was thought to be trained as a nurse. The money she made was due to baby farming. She would advertise to adopt a baby or nurse a baby for one time payment and clothing. Dyer would then let them starve. If they did not go quickly, she would murder them and collect the fee.
In 1879, she was caught under suspicions of a doctor investigating the sudden deaths of children under her care. She was convicted and served hard labor for the crimes. Upon release she went back to her nursing duties and fell back and forth into mental hospitals.
After her last release from being in a mental hospital, Dyer went back into baby farming. She went further into disposing the bodies herself. She was eventually caught and later hung on June 10th, 1896.
Champ Ferguson
United States
During the height of the civil war, Fergsuson killed union soldiers and civilian supporters. It is thought that he killed over 100 people. He had claimed it was part of his military duty.
On May 1865 he was tried for the murders of only 53 people. He was hanged on October 20, 1865
Hare/Burke
Scotland
William Burke and William Hare started acquiring bodies from graves to sell to universities for money. There were no questions asked, so it was a good deal for them. However, after awhile that proved too difficult and time consuming for them. Instead of digging up the graves of already dead people, they chose to murder. The fresh bodies got them more money and were easier for them.
They strangled their victims in such a way as to suspect no foul play. They were suspected of killing at least 16 people. It was the 16th victim that led to their arrest.
William Hare and his wife gave evidence against Burke for immunity. The evidence sent Burke to the gallows on Jan 28th, 1829. Hare was thought to have died penniless in 1859.
John Hoch
United States
Born in Germany, came to United States in his youth. He moved through out the country marrying illegally and killing them for their money. Hoch would poison them and afterwards remove their organs for no traceable evidence.
He was thought to have murdered 15 people. He was only convicted of the Marie Walcker's murder in which investigators found poison in her body. Hoch was later hung on Feb 23rd, 1906.
In 1955, many of his missing wife’s bones were founding a Chicago home once occupied by him.
H.H. Holmes
1888–1894
United States
In 1884, he was enrolled in Michigan Medical School where he stole corpses and disfigured them under his medical experiments. After graduation he moved to Chicago to practice a more pharmaceutical tendency.
In 1893, Holmes had purchased a 3-story house. This 3-story house was later to be known as his ‘castle’. In the castle, he would lure victims in there. His office was located in the upper two floors. At times his victims would be locked in a vault by his office where he would then proceed to hear them panic, and hear them scream to eventually suffocate.
The victims would then be sent via a secret chute into the basement where at times skin would be removed, dissected or even bone skeletons made. Holmes through his connections was then able to sell organs, bones and even poisons. He also preformed illegal abortions, which in some cases the patients died and he sold their bodies as well.
It is thought that he had killed at least 20 people, possibly more. He was arrested on November 17th, 1894. On May 7th, 1896 he was hung in Philadelphia County Prison.
Frances Knorr
Australia
She was a baby farmer who got the babies from unwed mothers. She also advertised for mothers who wanted babies to contact her. If Knorr was not able to sell the babies, she was thought to have killed at least 13 of them.
There was in inquest held after 3 bodies were found in the backyard of one of her residencies. The doctor who examined one of the children found that it had been suffocated to death. Knorr denied all charges of murdering and hiding the babies.
She was convicted of 3 murders and hung on January 15, 1894.
Delphine La Laurie
United States
Laurie owned slaves in her Louisiana home. With these slaves, she abused them, killed them, mutilated them and often experimented on them.
In 1834, after a fire broke out at her estate, the fire brigade broke into the home to discover many horrible sightings. It was said that she had many slaves chained to the walls, some alive and in cages, some were obviously altered, such as a man who was changed into an attempt to be a woman, and some were medically experimented on. There were even some slaves who had their organs removed and reattached in other areas of their bodies or on other bodies.
After the discover of all the bodies in her home, a lynch mob was formed. However, Laurie escaped never to be found.
John Lynch
1840-1841
Australia
He had told police and others that ‘God’ had told him to commit the murders.
Lynch had killed whole families; including sons, fathers and mothers with a tomahawk. He always killed them from behind. The amount of killings that was thought to be done by Lynch is a total of 9 people.
He was finally caught and put to death by hanging on April 22nd, 1842.
Sarah and John Makin
Australia
The Makins put an advertisement out looking to adopt babies and give them a good home. They would kill the babies after a certain time, but still collect the money for fees. The mothers, often unable to take care of the babies themselves, would go to the Makins to allow them to adopt the baby. They were not allowed to see the babies, told different things that were not true to hide them from their mothers.
On October 1892, James Hanoney was digging into the ground for a clogged drain. In this ground he discovered two babies hidden in clothing that were dead. The police investigated and the property was found to be owned by the Makins. Upon removal of more ground, the police had discovered more bodies; total number of buried bodies at 12.
They were arrested and charged with murder a time later after the bodies were discovered.
The Makins tried to appeal a couple of times, but both were denied. John Makin was sentenced to the gallows and Sarah Makin was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor. She was released after 19 years.
Malachi Martin
Australia
On June 14th, 1856, William Robinson’s body was discovered with throat cut. It was thought that Martin was having an affair with Robinson’s wife. He also killed Jane Macmanamin, her body was discovered in May 1862. Later on two men from Salt Creek city bodies were discovered and attributed to Martin.
However, he was only tried for Jane’s murder and convicted. In 1862, he was hung for his crime.
Alfred G. Packer
United States
In 1872, was hired as a guide by a group of 20 men for a prospect trip into the Suan Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado.
Later a discovery of five missing men and strips of human flesh on the trail Packard had led these men. It was also found later that the five men had been cannibalized. The authorities tracked Packard down under a different name in 1883 to stand trail for the five missing men.
He claimed his innocence as a murderer, saying it was for self-defense and survival. Jury had found him guilty and he was charged with manslaughter. In 1901 he was released where there was nothing more documented of any crimes by him.
Jack the Ripper
1888
The United Kingdom
New York State Serial Killers List
Jack the Ripper is noted for what is considered ‘The White Chapel Murders’. He was thought to have killed only prostitutes and 5 in total ending with Mary Kelly in November 1888. He would remove organs, slash their throats and leave them there to be found without leaving a trace of who he was. The last victim was brutally mutilated which gave suspicion of motives.
The mystery behind Jack the Ripper has caused many experts to debate who the killer was. However, it has not been found who Jack the Ripper really was.
Lydia Sherman
1858-1872
United States
She had poisoned 7 husbands and 3 children.
Sherman went on trail in 1872 and was convicted of second degree murder. She spent the rest of her life in prison.
Jane Toppan
1885–1901
United States
She trained as a nurse. Toppan enjoyed experimenting with combining different drugs. She liked to inject morphine first to put them in a coma state, and then used atropine to revive them which would end up killing them.
However, one victim didn’t die, Ameila Phinney who was one of her patients at the hospital she was at. Later, Toppan confessed to 31 victims. On October 29th, 1901, state police arrested her for the murder of Minnie Gibbs.
In 1902 she confessed to only 11 murders claiming she had an insatiable desire to watch death. Toppan was committed to a mental institution by not guilty by means of insanity.
John Williams and the Ratcliff Highway Murders
1811
United Kingdom
The first attack of the ‘Ratcliff Highway Murders’ took place December 7, 1811 on Ratcliff Highway in east end of London. The victims murdered were Timothy Marr, his wife Celia and 3 month son, Timothy and James Gowan their shop boy.
On December 19th, 1811, the second murders were committed of Williams’s wife, Elizabeth and Bridget Anna Harrington.
Williams was arrested because of a grievance against Timothy Marr when they were shipmates. The full extent of the crimes remain a mystery.
Catherine Wilson
New York Serial Killers List
1853-1862
United Kingdom
Wilson befriended people of wealth who would leave their possessions to her after they died. Her husband she had killed. The doctor wanted to do an examination, but she pleaded saying he didn’t wish to be cut up. He was buried with no further information gathered.
She killed what was thought to be 7 people after they had rewrote their wills to include her by poisoning.
Wilson was only tried for the murder of Mrs. Soames that died in 1856. On September 22nd, 1862 she was the last woman to be publicly hung.
Anna Zwanziger
Germany
Though she mostly committed her murders in the 1700’s, some were spread into the 1800’s.
She was employed as different judges as caregivers to their families. Anna started killing by poisoning either the judges or family members of the judges. Her one appointment with a family turned to be her downfall, as she tried to poison the servants as well, but they survived. She left that house and then wrote letters to the family saying she was so sorry about their infant’s death. It so happened she had poisoned the infant.
Judge Gebhard had the food analyzed after Anna had left and it was discovered to have poison in it. On October 18th, 1809 she was arrested. After 6 months of questioning she broke down and confessed. She was beheaded in July of 1811.