The chilling stories about known and convicted serial killers always carry with them the weight of the crimes and the dread of all these heinous acts. Psychiatrists would always claim that these individuals had an unconscious need to get caught, to take credit for their murders, and to be in the spotlight. And, while many of them did indeed make clumsy mistakes and were caught in the most peculiar and bizarre circumstances, some still remain unknown. This is a list of both known and unknown serial killers and their confirmed and presumed victim count.
Tommy Lynn Sells: Coast to Coast Or The Cross Country Killer – 1 Victim
Tommy Lynn Sells was a serial killer who lived from 1964-2014 and was convicted of only one murder, but believed by the authorities to have committed an additional 21 or more. Tommy was diagnosed with various personality disorders and substance abuse before. In 1992, he was panhandling the sign ‘I will work for food’ and a 19-year-old girl took him in front of her home to give him some food. Sells repeatedly violated her, stabbed her, and beaten her with a stool. He also killed a mother with a child in 1985 and another 13-year-old girl in 1999. It was said that Sells was ‘working the system’ by making bargains to confess murders he didn’t commit.
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield - 2 Victims
Ed Gein also called ‘The Butcher of Plainfield,' had lived in America from 1906 to 1984, in Plainfield, Wisconsin. It was discovered by authorities that Gein exhumed bodies from the graveyards to make trophies from their skin and bones. He also confessed to the murders of Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden. Although he was found guilty, Ed was declared legally insane and spent the rest of his life at the Mendota Mental Health Institute. Gein died there of illness and his remains are buried in a grave that is said to be unmarked nowadays.
Tsutomu Miyazaki: Dracula - 4 Victims
Tsutomu Miyazaki, nicknamed ‘The Otaku Murderer,' was a serial killer, a necrophile (someone physically attracted to corpses), and cannibal from Japan. He abducted and killed four young girls and for that, he was also called ‘The Little Girl Murderer.' His murders transpired in Tokyo Prefectures and Saitama, from 1988 to 1989, and also included vampirism and keeping trophies. For this, Tsutomu was also referred to as Dracula and he was hanged on June 17, in 2008. Upon searching his property, the police found that Tsutomu was an avid fan of slasher horror movies and anime.
Jack the Ripper: Whitechapel Murderer/Leather Apron – 5 Or More
Jack the Ripper was the most famous unidentified and never-caught serial killer, who killed in London from 1888 to 1891. The media and the Scotland Yard were getting numerous letters at the time, all claiming to be the killer. One had a part of a victim’s organ earlier removed and was signed with ‘Jack the Ripper’ which was why the name stuck. However, many believed that it was all a hoax to fool people. The way the victims were killed did seem to indicate that the killer was a doctor or a surgeon. Jack was never identified and his kill count was believed to have been five or more.
The Zodiac Killer – 5 Victims
The Zodiac Killer was one of the most famous serial killers in history. His identity was never discovered, while he killed from the late ‘60s to the early ‘70s. The nickname ‘zodiac’ came from the killer's series of letters containing cryptograms, which he sent to the local newspapers. He claimed that his identity could be discovered from them if deciphered. He also allegedly murdered 37 people in the letters, while only five were confirmed, while two people had actually survived the attacks. They described the killer as a 25 to a 30-year-old white male, with short brown curly hair, and weighed around 170-200 lbs.
Aileen Wuornos: The Monster - 7 Victims
Aileen Wuornos was a famous serial killer, who was the main character in the 2003 movie Monster, which earned Charlize Theron an Oscar Award. Aileen murdered seven men from 1989 until 1990, all by point-blank range gunshots. She claimed all of her victims violated her or attempted to while she worked as an escort and that she acted only in self-defense. Aileen had later claimed that the police was aware of her killings and allowed her to continue. Although it was testified that Aileen suffered from mental illness, she was executed by lethal injection in October 2002.
Charles Manson: No Other Aliases - 9 Victims
Charles Manson was a criminal, musician, and a cult leader who founded his Manson Family in 1967. The members of this quasi-commune committed nine murders from 1969 to 1971. Charles was convicted of the nine murders in the 1st degree and for the conspiracy to murder such people, though he had never actually directly killed anyone. His followers were carrying out his instructions when committing the killings and Manson got the death sentence. But in 1972, the death penalty was removed from California’s constitution and he got life in prison instead. Charles died in 2017, at 83, of complications due to colon cancer. While in prison, he released songs and recorded music.
Dr. Henry Howard Holmes: H. H. Holmes – 9 Victims
H. H. Holmes or Dr. Henry Howard Holmes was a serial killer who lived from 1861 until 1896. He confessed to killing 27 victims, of which only nine were proven and some of them turned out to be alive. However, Holmes allegedly killed up to 200 people, mostly in a building that he owned, located near the 1893 World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition. It was supposedly a hotel; hence, the name ‘The Murder Hotel’ came to be used. Holmes finished Medicine and Surgery at the University of Michigan, but he was also a con artist, bigamist, and involved in numerous lawsuits. Holmes was executed in May 1896.
Donald Henry Gaskins: The Hitchhikers' Killer Or Pee Wee – 9 Victims
Donald Henry Gaskins, known as ‘Pee Wee’ and also often referred to as the ‘meanest man in America,' was a serial killer who lived from 1933 until 1991. After spending virtually his entire childhood and teenage years in prison, and being regularly violated and ‘owned,' Gaskins’ first kill was the prison’s most feared inmate. Gaskins divided his succeeding kills into ‘coastal’ and ‘serious.' Coastal usually involved hitchhikers he picked up driving around the southern USA, hence 'The ‘Hitchhikers’ Killer’ nickname. The serious murders were of people whom Gaskins had a personal quarrel with. In his memoir book, Gaskins claimed to have killed up to 110 people but was convicted for nine.
Dennis Lynn Rader: BTK - 10 Victims
Dennis Lynn Rader is a convicted serial killer who chose his own nickname - BTK, to stand for Bind, Torture, Kill. He used it as a signature. He killed ten people from 1974 to 1991, in Wichita, Kansas. His MO included sending taunting letters and packages to the police during the whole crime spree, and then again after a 10-year hiatus from killing. This led to Rader being arrested in 2005 and he pleaded guilty to all charges. He's currently serving ten consecutive life sentences. Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and an author, corresponded with Rader for five years and wrote Confession of a Serial Killer, which was based on Rader's life.
Edmund Kemper: Co-ed - 10 Victims
Edmund Kemper is a convicted serial killer and necrophile, who is imprisoned for life for the murder of ten people. Among his victims were his own mother and grandparents, while Edmund is also known for scoring 145 on his IQ test. Most of his other victims were co-educational institution students, which was why he earned the nickname ‘Co-ed Killer.' Kemper was born in 1948, while his murders were committed between 1964 and 1973. Edmund had turned himself in and was hoping for the death sentence, but instead got eight life sentences.
Dennis Nilsen: The Muswell Hill Murderer – 12-15 Victims
Dennis Nilsen was a convicted serial killer and a necrophile who killed from 1978-1983 in London. He murdered at least twelve young men but was convicted for six murders and two murder attempts. His MO was luring the victims through guile in order to strangulate and sometimes drown them. Afterward, Nilsen would sometimes keep the bodies. He would bathe and dress them up, dissect the bodies and dispose of them by incineration or lavatory flushing. Nielsen later wrote a complaint about the blocked drains, which, upon inspection, contained human flesh. Nielsen was arrested, confessed to everything, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 2018 due to a blood clot.
Joseph Christopher: The Midtown Slasher – 12+ Victims
Joseph Christopher was a serial killer infamous for his killings during the ‘80s. It was presumed that Joseph killed at least 12 people and wounded many more. Christopher was born in 1955 and began killing in 1980. He enlisted and continued his killings during service. After he attacked a soldier who survived, he was imprisoned, attempted to commit suicide, and later stated he had to murder black people. He admitted to 13 murders and was tried and convicted. Christopher died in prison in 1993, aged 37, from a rare instance of male breast cancer.
Joseph James DeAngelo: Golden State Killer – 13 Or More
The search for the "Golden State Killer" as crime writer Michelle McNamara called him, only recently produced a suspect. In April 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo, aged 72, a U.S. Navy veteran and a former policeman, was charged for several 1st-degree murders. Based on the DNA evidence, DeAngelo was found responsible for over 13 killings, over 50 violation acts, and over 120 burglaries attributed to the Golden State Killer. He is currently in custody and is being charged for the 13 killings, while his violation acts from the ‘70s could not be used due to the statute of limitations in California.
Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker - 13 Victims
Richard Ramirez was a highly publicized burglar, violator, and serial killer who committed his crime spree in the Los Angeles and San Francisco area from 1984 to 1985. He chose random homes and random people and committed these acts in little over a year. On his first trial hearing, Ramirez said ‘Hail Satan’ as he dedicated all his acts to Satan. Ramirez even had fans while imprisoned and married Doreen Lioy. His pending appeals would have postponed his death sentence, had he not died in 2013 at age 53, due to B-cell lymphoma.
Harold Shipman: Dr. Death - 15 Victims
Harold Shipman, known as Dr. Dreath, was a serial killer who lived in the second half of the 20th century, in Nottingham, England, where he worked as a general practitioner. His MO was murdering patients in his care, mostly the elderly, by administering them lethal diamorphine doses. Shipman would later falsify their death certificate, indicate poor health as the cause of death, and usually cremate them to get rid of evidence. He was caught when the high death rate caused suspicion among his colleagues and his daughter was also involved in his detection. Shipman was convicted for the murder of 15 people, but his total victim count was estimated at 250.
Jeffrey Dahmer: The Milwaukee Cannibal - 17 Victims
Jeffrey Dahmer, who was also called the Milwaukee Cannibal or Monster, was a convicted violator and a serial killer from Wisconsin. He had lived from 1960 until 1994. Dahmer was legally sane and was convicted of killing 15 people in February 1992. However, it was determined that he killed, violated, and dismembered 17 boys and men, usually involving necrophilia and cannibalism. Dahmer had even kept parts of some of the victims’ skeletons. The court later sentenced him for the murder of his 16th victim. Dahmer died in prison after fellow inmate Christopher Scarver beat Jeffrey to death.
Georgia Tann: No Other Alias – 19+
Georgia Tann was a child trafficker and the head of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society adoption agency. She used the orphanage as a cover to sell newborns on the black market from the ‘20s until the ’50 when authorities closed the orphanage down. They investigated Tann for multiple fraud instances but she died before being arrested and before the details were released to the public. Nineteen kids died in the orphanage alone, due to Tann’s neglect and abuse and she buried them in the Elmwood Cemetery, in Memphis, in an unmarked grave lot.
Patrick Wayne Kearney: The Freeway Killer – 21 to 43
Patrick Wayne Kearney, known as the Trash Bag Killer or the Freeway Killer, was born in 1939 and claimed he killed up to 43 victims from 1965 to 1977. After the police were getting close to uncovering his crimes, Kearney confessed to 28 murders and seven more after. His guilty plea enabled him to avoid the death penalty and he got 21 life sentences. Police had claimed that they lacked the evidence to connect Kearney to more murders. Kearney preyed on men, from children to adolescents, and his MO was driving around on his car and picking up male hitchhikers who later became his victims.
William Bonin: The Freeway Killer – 21 to 36+
William Bonin shares his nickname ‘The Freeway Killer’ with two other serial killers. He was a convicted violator and serial killer, who committed torture, violation, and murders of at least 21 young men or boys from 1979-1980. Bonin operated in southern California and his victims were mostly discovered by the side of the freeway, which was how he earned the epithet. Although convicted of 21 murders, it was suspected that Bonin had at least 15 more murders in his portfolio. He was executed by lethal injection in 1996, after fourteen years spent on death row.
Earle Nelson: The Dark Strangler & The Gorilla Man – 22+
Earle Nelson was a convicted serial killer who was America’s first known serial violator/murderer of the 20th century. He was born in 1897 in San Francisco and as a child, Nelson was already showing bizarre behavior followed by head injuries from an accident. He began his violation/murder spree in 1926 and was captured in Canada in 1928, where he was tried, convicted, and hanged for two murders in Winnipeg. His full murder count was later discovered - over 22. Nelson’s MO was targeting middle-aged women, who were landladies offering rooms for rent. After renting rooms and getting close, Nelson would strike, strangle them, and perform indecent acts after the victim was dead.
Fritz Haarmann: The Wolf-Man – 24 to 27+
Fritz Haarmann was a convicted serial killer from Germany. He committed indecent assault, murders, dismemberment, and mutilation of at least 24 young men and boys from 1918 to 1924. Fritz operated in Hanover, Germany, and for this, he was dubbed the Butcher of Hanover, while The Wolf-Man and the Vampire of Hanover nicknames were due to him leaving his teeth marks on his victims’ necks. He was tried for 27 and was found guilty for 24 murders, receiving the death penalty, though he might have killed more. He was decapitated by guillotine in 1925.
Belle Gunness: Hell’s Belle – 25 to 40 Victims
Belle Gunness was a serial killer from the second half of the 19th century. She was born in Norway but lived in Indiana and Belle and killed approximately 14 to 40 people. In 1908, in Belle’s home in La Porte, Indiana, the police found the partial remains of close to 20 people. Among them, there were three kids and a body resembling hers. It was later discovered she planted her likeness but it was never discovered if she indeed died that day. Belle killed for money and to evade capture, as it was disclosed, she even placed an ad for male companionship and killed the man who answered it.
Charles Edmund Cullen: The Angel Of Death – 29 to 35, Rumored Up To 400
Charles Cullen is a serial killer from New Jersey, who was born in 1960 and worked for 16 years as a nurse. It is confirmed that Charles killed between 29 and 35 hospital patients by giving them overdoses of their medications intravenously. However, the experts who researched Cullen’s case had claimed that he might have killed up to 400 people, which would be the highest murder count in history by a serial killer if proven true. He is currently serving his 18 consecutive life sentences in the New Jersey State Prison.
Ted Bundy: Various Fake Names – 30 Or More
Ted Bundy was a kidnapper, burglar, violator, necrophile, and a serial killer who lived between 1946 and 1989 and presumably killed during the ‘70s. His victims were girls and young women, whom Bundy would charm and befriend. His MO was that he would fake an injury, disability, impersonate a figure of authority to earn the trust and sympathy of his victims. He would then attack and kill them. He would often revisit the decomposing corpses to violate them further. Ted confessed to 30 killings, with the actual number suspected to be higher. On January 24, 1989. Bundy was electrocuted in Florida State Prison. His trial and last days were caught on camera.
John Wayne Gacy: Killer Clown - 33 Victims
John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer and a violator from Illinois, who lived from 1942 to 1994. From 1972 until 1978, John indecently assaulted, violated, tortured, and killed a minimum of 33 young men and teenage boys. Gacy performed all of his known murders in his ranch house, in Norwood Park, where the victims were taken either by deception or by force. John was also involved in charity and usually performed at his events as ‘Patches the Clown’ or ‘Pogo the Clown,' which was why he was later nicknamed ‘Killer Clown.' Gacy was sentenced to death and was executed on May 10, 1994, by lethal injection.
Samuel Little: Samuel McDowell – 34 to 90 Victims
Samuel Little is a convicted serial killer, who's serving a life sentence for three murders he committed in California from 1987-1989. The authorities, however, claim that Little might be responsible for murders across nine states, which began in 1982. Little himself claims to have murdered 90 people. The investigation has indeed linked him to 34 at least. Little was also involved in numerous crimes, which included assault, armed robbery, fraud, attempted violation, and more. He was apprehended on September 5, 2012, and despite being found guilty and imprisoned, he claimed innocence until 2018.
Serhiy Tkach: Pologovsky Maniac – 37 Victims
Serhiy Tkach was born in 1952 and he was a serial killer based in Soviet Russia and Ukraine. He was convicted of killing 37 girls and women from 1980-2005. Tkach was making money as a criminal investigator, working for the Kemerovo Oblast police. His MO was violating, suffocating, and then performing acts of necrophilia on the victims’ bodies, who were girls aged 8 to 18. Because Tkach was acquainted with police procedure, he misled the investigation and covered up his tracks skillfully. Tkach was discovered when he attended the funeral of a victim and the children there recognized that he was with the victim prior to her death.
Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer – 49 Victims
Gary Ridgway is a serial killer convicted of 49 killings, but he confessed to 71. His confirmed murder count is the highest in the history of the U.S. Ridgway preyed on women and teenage girls who were usually runaways or female escorts. He killed during the ‘80s and the ‘90s, in Washington. After his first five victims were discovered in the Green River, he was dubbed The Green River Killer. Ridgway mostly killed via strangulation and also dumped the victims' bodies in King County’s wooded areas, often engaging in necrophilia later. A DNA test linked him to the murders and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Alexander Pichushkin: The Chessboard Killer – 49 Victims
Alexander Pichushkin is a convicted serial killer from Russia, who is serving life for killing anywhere from 49 to 60 people from 1992 to 2006, all in Bitsa Park, Moscow. Pichushkin suffered a head injury as a child, which presumably damaged his frontal cortex and produced poor impulse control. He was further bullied at school while showing high intellectual capacity. For this, he began playing chess and was very good at it, but the bullying continued. Following the death of his grandfather and high alcohol consumption, his urges grew and he began killing. Pichushkin aimed at killing 64 people, the number of chessboard squares. He was arrested and convicted in 2007.
Andrei Chikatilo: The Butcher of Rostov – 52 Victims
Andrei Chikatilo was a serial killer who lived from 1936 until 1994, in Soviet Russia. He was said to have violated, murdered, and also mutilated a minimum of 52 women and kids, from 1978 to 1990. Chikatilo was convicted for 52 murders but added at least four more to his legacy. He was executed by a gunshot to the head, in 1994. His victims were of Russian, Ukranian, and Uzbekistani nationality, and the killings took place mostly in Rostov Oblast. For this, Chikatilo was nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov and the Rostov Ripper.
Daniel Camargo Barbosa: Manuel Bulgarin Solis (False Identity) – 72 to 150 Victims
Daniel Camargo Barbosa was a convicted serial killer from Colombia. It was believed that he violated and killed between 72 and 150 girls during the ‘70s and the ‘80s, in Ecuador and Columbia. At first, Camargo used drugs to violate girls but did not kill them. He served time in jail after being caught. He was again imprisoned for violating and killing a 9-year-old girl, but after escaping prison in Colombia, he fled to Ecuador and a girl aged 10 disappeared the day after. After his final incarceration, Camargo confessed to murdering 72 young girls. He died after being stabbed in prison by Geovanny Noguera, a nephew of one of Camargo’s victims.
Luis Garavito: The Beast – 138 Victims
Luis Garavito, called ‘La Bestia’ or ‘The Beast,' is a convicted serial killer and violator, who has so far confessed to the killing, torturing, and violating 138 kids and teenagers. After his arrest, Luis drew maps to his burial sites and continues to add more murder confessions, which could very well exceed 300. Luis is from Colombia, and while Pedro Alonso López, also Colombian, holds the Guinness World Record for the serial kills of the largest scale, Luis still leads in terms of victim count. Garavito currently serves a sentence of 1853 years and 9 days in prison.