- 2 years ago
These disturbed criminals paid the price for their horrific crimes. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for terrifying serial killers who were eventually caught and faced justice.
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00:00 - I'm not guilty.
00:01 (laughing)
00:03 Does that include the time I stole a comic book
00:06 when I was five years old?
00:07 - Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:08 And today we're counting down our picks
00:10 for terrifying serial killers
00:12 who were eventually caught and faced justice.
00:14 - For news photographer, Dino Castro,
00:17 who will never forget what he saw through his viewfinder.
00:20 - Joseph James D'Angelo.
00:22 For years, two criminals,
00:23 a serial assaulter and the original night stalker,
00:26 left people in a state of fear in California.
00:28 - I have very vivid memories of what he did
00:32 to this community.
00:33 - Each night, they patrol the neighborhoods
00:35 of Sacramento County's East Side.
00:38 You have people who are scared.
00:40 This is a community where they wanna lock their doors.
00:42 - Both criminals sent mocking communications
00:45 to victims and the police.
00:46 But by 2001, using DNA technology,
00:49 it was discovered these two assailants were the same person
00:52 and the Golden State Killer moniker was soon created.
00:55 - All the witnesses, all the original investigators,
00:58 everybody's going to start passing away.
01:00 It's now or never.
01:01 - In 2018, former police officer, Joseph James D'Angelo,
01:05 was arrested after genetic genealogy
01:07 tracked the killer's DNA through a family tree to him.
01:10 Beginning his horrific spree in 1974 and ending in 1986,
01:15 D'Angelo is believed to have committed
01:17 at least 120 burglaries, 51 assaults and 13 murders.
01:22 In 2020, he pleaded guilty to several charges
01:25 and was sentenced to life imprisonment
01:27 without the possibility of parole.
01:29 In June, 2020, D'Angelo cut a deal,
01:32 appearing in court to plead guilty to 13 counts of murder
01:37 and 13 counts of kidnapping with robbery.
01:39 Eric Edgar Cook.
01:41 Between 1958 and 1963,
01:44 people in Perth, Australia were incredibly worried.
01:47 On top of a host of robberies,
01:49 eight people were murdered with a variety of methods.
01:52 - A killer is at large, stalking at night
01:55 in the suburban streets of Perth,
01:57 killing people at random.
01:59 - However, authorities believed
02:01 two of these slayings were solved
02:02 with two people sentenced for the crimes.
02:05 Yet they were innocent.
02:06 And in 1963, a rifle linked to some of the killings
02:09 was discovered in a bush.
02:11 The police replaced it with a broken one and waited,
02:14 watching for the owner to return.
02:16 Eventually, Eric Edgar Cook arrived and was arrested.
02:19 - As he reaches down and grabs the rifle,
02:22 the detectives move in.
02:24 - Police!
02:26 - Nicknamed the Nightcaller,
02:28 he confessed to the eight murders and 14 other attempts.
02:31 After failing with an insanity plea,
02:33 Cook was found guilty of his spree
02:35 and was executed in 1964.
02:38 - At precisely 8 a.m. on October the 26th, 1964,
02:43 the trap door snaps open
02:45 and one of Australia's most prolific serial killers
02:49 drops to his death.
02:50 - John Wayne Gacy.
02:52 In 1978, teenager Robert Peast's disappearance
02:55 was reported to the police by his family.
02:57 - So he had told an employee and actually his mother
03:01 that he was gonna go talk to a contractor about a job.
03:05 And he then went out the back door
03:08 and he wasn't seen any time thereafter.
03:12 - Rob Peast seemed to have just vanished
03:14 off the face of the earth.
03:16 - This led the police to investigate the home
03:18 of John Wayne Gacy in the neighborhood
03:20 of Norwood Park, Chicago, Illinois.
03:22 After surveilling Gacy and searching his house several times,
03:25 they found human remains in a crawl space.
03:28 - When they executed that search warrant,
03:30 they went in the crawl space
03:32 and the very first shovel that they dug,
03:35 they found human remains.
03:37 - Gacy, who famously worked as a contractor
03:39 and as a clown at parties,
03:41 confessed to taking the lives of around 30 men.
03:44 He had lured people to his home before attacking them.
03:47 In 1980, the killer clown, as he was nicknamed,
03:50 was sentenced to capital punishment
03:51 after being found guilty of 33 murder charges.
03:55 And in 1994, the sentence was carried out.
03:58 - On the 10th of May, 1994,
04:01 John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection
04:05 at Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois.
04:08 - Lucy Letby.
04:09 Between 2015 and 2016,
04:12 something strange was going on at the neonatal unit
04:15 at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England.
04:18 Babies were becoming suddenly extremely ill
04:20 and occasionally they didn't recover.
04:23 - By now, there had been 13 unexplained deaths.
04:28 In September, the Royal College of Pediatrics
04:31 and Child Health urged the trust
04:33 to investigate each death individually.
04:36 That didn't happen.
04:38 - On investigation, the demises of the patients
04:40 were discovered to not be natural.
04:42 Someone was causing it.
04:44 And suspicion fell onto nurse Lucy Letby,
04:47 who was involved in their care
04:48 or seen nearby when things went wrong.
04:50 After she was removed from her position,
04:53 the incident stopped.
04:54 And after much unconscionable delay,
04:56 in 2018, Letby was arrested.
04:59 - When she was arrested in July, 2018,
05:02 Lucy Letby was still working at the trust.
05:05 No disciplinary action had been taken against her.
05:08 - In 2023, she was found guilty
05:11 of causing the demise of seven patients
05:13 and seven charges of attempted murder.
05:15 She was given the strictest sentence in England
05:18 with life imprisonment with a whole life order.
05:21 - Lucy Letby, on each of the seven offenses of murder
05:25 and the seven offenses of attempted murder,
05:28 I sentence you to imprisonment for life.
05:31 - Richard Ramirez.
05:32 In 1984, a spate of terrible crimes
05:35 began in Southern California.
05:37 An intruder broke into homes
05:39 and often toyed with people before slaying them.
05:41 - A trail of murder and brutality left by the Night Stalker,
05:45 one of the most ferocious serial killers
05:47 in the annals of crime history.
05:49 - The criminal was famously handed
05:50 the moniker of the Night Stalker,
05:52 not to be confused with the aforementioned
05:54 original Night Stalker.
05:56 In 1985, the police discovered a fingerprint
05:59 belonging to Richard Ramirez
06:00 in an abandoned car used in a crime.
06:02 - That was exhilarating to know
06:04 that a vehicle had been found
06:06 and he had slipped up and left a fingerprint impression.
06:09 And that's what ultimately led to an identification on him.
06:13 - The hunt was on to find him
06:15 and eventually he was apprehended.
06:17 In 1989, Ramirez was convicted of a huge 43 charges,
06:22 including 13 murders and five attempts
06:25 and received 19 death penalties.
06:27 Justice was served in court,
06:29 but in 2013, Ramirez passed away from natural causes.
06:33 - Dead at 53 of liver failure,
06:35 Ramirez is remembered for his own description of himself
06:38 at sentencing as a servant of Lucifer.
06:41 - I will be avenged.
06:43 Lucifer dwells within us all.
06:45 - Dennis Rader.
06:46 Between 1974 and 1991, a serial killer targeted people
06:51 in Wichita and Park City, Kansas.
06:53 - When BTK came forward, everybody's life changed.
06:57 He would see a woman walking and he would say, "She's next."
07:02 - Calling himself BTK after his MO,
07:04 the criminal would send letters to the media and police
07:07 detailing his horrid crimes, but then he vanished.
07:10 By 2004, he began taunting the media again
07:13 and even planned to restart his fatal attacks.
07:16 The police tricked the murderer into sending a floppy disk,
07:19 assuming he couldn't be traced.
07:21 - And there's the file on there, testa.rtf,
07:24 which was a Microsoft Office, it's a Word document file.
07:28 - And then you see Dennis and then more gibberish
07:33 and you see Christ Lutheran Church.
07:35 - But he was.
07:36 This led them to the Christ Lutheran Church
07:39 and to Dennis Rader.
07:40 After a DNA test, they found BTK.
07:43 In 2005, after changing his plea to guilty
07:46 and detailing his crimes,
07:48 Rader was sentenced to a minimum of 175 years in jail
07:52 after taking the lives of 10 people.
07:54 - Rader was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences
07:58 with a minimum term of 175 years.
08:03 He remains in solitary confinement
08:06 where he will stay for the rest of his life.
08:09 - Dennis Nilsen.
08:10 In 1983, plumbers arrived at a property in London, England
08:14 due to blocked pipes after complaints from several tenants.
08:17 The worker found a strange substance inside,
08:20 which turned out to be human remains.
08:22 - One of the biggest murder investigations ever
08:25 is now underway in London
08:26 after the discovery of the remains of three men's bodies.
08:30 - It was horrific.
08:31 It made the hair in the back of my neck stand up.
08:34 - The cause was traced to the residence
08:36 of Scottish-born Dennis Nilsen,
08:37 an army veteran and former police officer.
08:40 After the cops arrived,
08:41 Nilsen disclosed he had further remains in the flat
08:44 and confessed to slaying around 15 people since 1978.
08:49 - And I sat in the back with Nilsen.
08:51 I said, "Are we talking about one body or two?"
08:57 And he just turned around and looked at me
09:00 and he said, "15 or 16."
09:03 - Later nicknamed the Muswell Hill murderer
09:06 due to committing his crimes in the London district,
09:08 in 1984, Nilsen was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years
09:12 for six murders and two attempts.
09:14 This was later changed to a whole life tariff.
09:17 - He knew perfectly well he would be found guilty
09:19 and he knew he deserved it.
09:21 He knew he should be.
09:22 - Nilsen passed away in 2018.
09:25 Samuel Little.
09:27 Falling into crime as a teenager,
09:29 Samuel Little spent a lot of time in jail
09:31 for various incidents, including assault, kidnapping,
09:34 and robbery all over the US.
09:36 - In his younger years,
09:37 Little was repeatedly arrested for burglaries
09:40 and even assault.
09:42 However, it was in 1970 when things really change.
09:47 - In 2012, after having his DNA taken for a drug charge,
09:51 he was discovered to have been a match
09:53 in three murder cases.
09:54 In 2014, Little was found guilty
09:57 and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
10:00 - Through serial killer Samuel Little's confessions,
10:02 law enforcement and prosecutors from different states
10:05 were able to solve dozens of cold case investigations
10:09 and Little was finally convicted and sentenced
10:11 to multiple life terms of imprisonment for several murders.
10:15 - Then in 2018, he confessed to many, many more slayings.
10:19 From the 1970s to 2005,
10:21 Little stated that he took the lives of 93 people,
10:24 60 of which have been confirmed so far.
10:27 - I wish to hell I didn't,
10:29 but if he can't be tried,
10:31 in fact, it not only hurts,
10:34 but more that I'm regretful for
10:36 and I'm constantly saying I'm sorry.
10:38 - As such, this would make Little
10:40 the most prolific serial killer in US history.
10:44 Ted Bundy.
10:45 Charming and good-looking on the surface,
10:47 Ted Bundy seemed like a nice fellow,
10:49 but in reality, he was a monster.
10:52 - I never wanted to think people were born evil,
10:55 but my opinion about that changed when I met Ted.
10:58 I think he was just born evil.
11:00 - Bundy would use his charisma
11:01 or pretend to be injured to lure women to secluded areas
11:04 before kidnapping them and later taking their lives.
11:07 Even when Bundy was captured,
11:09 on two occasions, he managed to escape
11:12 and continue his terrible crimes.
11:14 - The guard went outside for a smoke.
11:16 The windows were open and the fresh air was blowing through
11:19 and the sky was blue.
11:20 And I said, "I'm ready to go,"
11:22 and I walked through the window and jumped out.
11:24 - But eventually, he was caught in 1978 in Florida.
11:28 Bundy famously ignored his lawyers
11:30 and represented himself in court.
11:32 Yet, his plan didn't work
11:34 and he was sentenced to death multiple times
11:36 for three murders and three attempts.
11:38 Bundy later confessed to 30 killings.
11:40 So far, 20 have been confirmed.
11:43 In 1989, capital punishment was enacted on Bundy.
11:47 - So it ended for Ted Bundy.
11:49 10 years, 28 confessions,
11:51 millions in Florida's legal battle to end his life.
11:55 - Before we continue,
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12:09 Jeffrey Dahmer.
12:12 In 1991, a partially handcuffed Tracy Edwards
12:16 got the attention of police officers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
12:19 - The officers were stopped by an individual
12:23 who claimed he was in the apartment
12:26 and became engaged in a dispute
12:30 with the owner of the apartment
12:32 and left the apartment and called the officers.
12:35 - He told them he had been held captive
12:36 and was threatened by someone
12:38 who had offered him money to model for him.
12:40 The cops followed Edwards to the apartment
12:42 where they found Jeffrey Dahmer within.
12:44 As the officers investigated,
12:46 they discovered photographic evidence of horrific crimes
12:49 and even human remains stashed.
12:51 - Police officers immediately arrested Dahmer
12:54 after finding the remains of some of his victims
12:57 in his apartment.
12:58 - Dahmer was quickly arrested
13:00 and confessed to a litany of crimes
13:02 as further grim evidence was found.
13:04 In 1992, the Milwaukee monster
13:06 received 16 life imprisonment sentences
13:08 for taking the lives of 16 people in Wisconsin and Ohio.
13:12 Then in 1994, Dahmer and convicted killer, Jesse Anderson,
13:16 were fatally attacked by fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver.
13:20 - There were a number of people
13:22 who felt that Jeffrey Dahmer got exactly what he deserved.
13:25 And I called his mother.
13:27 She said, "Well, now everybody got what they want.
13:29 The monster is dead."
13:31 - Which killer was the most heinous?
13:33 Let us know in the comments.
13:35 - Maybe I haven't done enough.
13:36 I might be ashamed of that for not doing enough.
13:39 - Check out these other clips from "WatchMojo"
13:41 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell
13:43 to be notified about our latest videos.
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