Serial killers commit some of the most horrifying acts of violence ever known: Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz (the “Son of Sam”), the Zodiac Killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy and Andrew Cunanan are among the most frightening criminals in history.
Rodney Alcala is an American serial killer whose good looks and high IQ helped him lure victims. His 1978 appearance on the television show 'The Dating Game' resulted in his nickname of "The Dating Game Killer."
Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory is thought to have murdered hundreds of young women in the early 17th century.
American serial killer Israel Keyes is thought to have murdered at least 11 people before his 2012 arrest.
Charles Manson was an American cult leader whose followers carried out several notorious murders in the late 1960s, resulting in his life imprisonment. He died in 2017 after spending more than four decades in prison.
David Berkowitz, known as Son of Sam, murdered six people in New York City from 1976 to 1977, claiming he received orders from a demon-possessed dog.
H.H. Holmes was the alias of one of America's first serial killers. During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, he lured victims into his elaborate 'Murder Castle.'
The Zodiac Killer took credit for several murders in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s. He was never caught.
Known as the 'BTK killer,' Dennis Rader murdered 10 people in the Wichita, Kansas, area from 1974 to 1991, often leaving clues to taunt authorities.
Dubbed the "Night Stalker," Richard Ramirez was an American serial killer who broke into California homes, raping and torturing more than 25 victims and killing at least 13 over a two-year rampage.
In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side.
Serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, murdered at least 49 women in Washington state before he was caught in 2001.
Infamous murderer Jack the Ripper killed at least five London female prostitutes in 1888. Never captured, his identity is one of English's most famous unsolved mysteries.
Convicted serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 males between 1978 and 1991. He was killed in 1994 by a fellow prison inmate.
British serial killer Harold Shipman, who worked in England as a medical doctor, killed over 200 of his patients before his arrest in 1998.
Jack Unterweger was an Austrian serial killer who murdered several women before committing suicide in 1994.
Jerome Brudos was a serial killer and necrophile who murdered four women in Oregon during the 1960s. He was known as the "The Lust Killer" and "The Shoe Fetish Slayer."
Serial killer Edmund Kemper murdered six young women in the Santa Cruz, California, area and several members of his family.
An abused child who later earned her living as a sex worker, Aileen Wuornos was found guilty of killing six men and was later executed in a Florida prison.
Serial killer Bobby Joe Long brutally murdered 10 women in 1984. He was executed in May 2019.
John Wayne Gacy, often called the "Killer Clown," was one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history, raping and murdering at least 33 young male victims.
Wayne Williams is suspected of murdering more than 20 Black youths from 1979 to 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Myra Hindley was a serial killer of small children, murders she committed in partnership with boyfriend Ian Brady.
American serial killer Joel Rifkin killed 17 women in the 1990s before the police pulled him over for a missing license plate and discovered his latest victim in his trunk.