- 6 weeks ago
From the shadows of history emerge monsters in human form. Join us as we delve into the twisted minds and horrific crimes of the most notorious murderers ever documented. Our countdown examines the methodical madness of killers who haunted our nightmares, from psychopathic doctors to bloodthirsty couples, cannibalistic predators to seemingly ordinary neighbors harboring dark secrets.
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00:00As far as I'm concerned, that was not me. I hate that name. I despise that name.
00:05Which name?
00:05That moniker, Son of Sam.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be discussing history's most heinous and troubling serial murderers.
00:14You don't think a killer of women is going to be a good-looking, articulate young man.
00:21You're not thinking in terms like that.
00:25Michael Baer and Susan Carson.
00:27The Carsons confessed to one killing in a news conference, saying they had a list of targeted celebrities and political figures.
00:34It's more than a bit morbid, really, to consider the minimum number of victims required for an individual to be considered a serial killer.
00:41Michael Baer and Susan Carson earned this terrible and infamous distinction after they murdered three people over the same number of years, between 1981 and 1983.
00:52Michael feared witchcraft. He sought witchcraft everywhere.
00:56People that tried to control your mind through psychic behavior.
01:01The pair indoctrinated themselves into the New Age movement, living in the Haight-Ashbury area of California and living under self-imposed rules of occult theory and mysticism.
01:11Baer and Carson killed their roommate in 1981, while Michael committed a second murder a year later, shooting Clark Stevens.
01:18Finally, both Baer and Susan killed the driver of a car that picked them up while they were hitchhiking near Bakersfield in 1983.
01:26I think it was the perfect storm. I think it was an untreated mental illness, long-term use of psychedelic drugs, LSD, and also involvement with, you know, a really obsessive, you know, individual.
01:40I thought of Vlado as a very strange type. A strange type.
01:47I thought of him as kind of unsociable and a strange man. Not friendly.
01:52This Macedonian serial killer committed self-destruction before justice could be carried out against the allegations that charged him with at least three murders.
02:01Vlado Toneski was a journalist who actually wrote articles that contained detailed information about these crimes, details that hadn't been released to the public by authorities.
02:10The motives for all three of these attacks seem to be driven and related to the accidental overdose of Toneski's mother in 2002.
02:18Everything changed for Vlado. At that point, Vlado's attachment to her would have really been laid bare because he was clearly very strongly attached to her.
02:30But a strong attachment to a parent doesn't always mean love. Sometimes it can also mean hatred or resentment.
02:35All three of his victims knew his family and shared the same occupation as his mother.
02:40They were also violently assaulted prior to being strangled with some manner of cord or wire.
02:46I was right. She was in danger. I just didn't realize the danger was me.
02:53Ahmad Siraji
02:54There was a disturbing ritualistic methodology to the murders committed by Ahmad Siraji between 1986 and 1997.
03:09A mystical quality whereby Siraji believed that, by positioning the remains in a certain way, he could somehow gain metaphysical power by gazing at his victims.
03:18Siraji routinely kept the human remains buried in a similar fashion, keeping them in a field near his home.
03:24All of them had been women, and all were strangled, with their heads above ground level, facing in the direction of Siraji's house.
03:30The killer believed that he was a sorcerer, and he didn't have to travel far in search of new victims, since he was visited often by those seeking his aid.
03:38Ahmad Siraji was eventually executed by firing squad for his crimes.
03:48Nanny Doss
03:54She was known colloquially as the Giggling Granny, a reputation earned by images such as Natalie Doss' infamous 1954 mugshot.
04:02Her story is a sinister one, a tale where that creepy smirk on Doss' face belies the legacy of her allegedly being responsible for at least 11 murders.
04:11Doss' methodology leans largely into Black Widow stereotypes that still permeate true crime culture today, whereby four of her husbands perished while married to Doss.
04:22She also confessed to killing her mother, sister, mother-in-law, and grandson, with financial gain often coming up as a motive for her crimes.
04:30Meanwhile, Nanny Doss' final husband, Samuel Doss, died from arsenic poison during his brief, fatal marriage to this Giggling Granny.
04:39You have to laugh to keep the deep darkies in a cave.
04:48William Bonin
04:49In spite of the fact that William Bonin's brain did not develop normally, and he did not have the capacity for normal affiliation and empathy, he still had this longing for connection.
05:04The story of serial killer William Bonin was just one that's been associated with the word freeway over the years, with Bonin earning the nicknames of the freeway strangler and the freeway killer.
05:15Bonin's early home life was troubled, while his teenage years didn't fare much better.
05:20Years of trauma and abuse eventually spilled into a killing spree that left Bonin with 14 convicted homicides.
05:26Bodies are discovered in Ventura County, and even up in Kern County.
05:32We know there was one from San Bernardino County, and many of them from L.A. County, and eventually some from Orange County.
05:39Although a potential 36-plus victims have been attributed to his roadside rages.
05:45William Bonin was eventually executed by lethal injection, after indulging in a somewhat famous last meal of three packs of Coca-Cola,
05:52two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, and three pints of coffee ice cream for dessert.
05:58His execution was scheduled for February the 23rd, 1996.
06:02David McVicker was a witness.
06:04Now I will also be able to visualize him being dead.
06:08John Alled Muhammad and John Lee Malvo.
06:11Somebody was saying something about, it's got to be two guys working as a team, one as the spotter and one as the shooter.
06:17So then I knew that Lee was with him.
06:19We often take our minds back to the 1970s and 80s, when it comes to history's most profoundly disturbing serial killers.
06:26Yet the reign of terror overseen by John Alled Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, the Beltway Snipers,
06:32isn't something of the faraway past, but a comparatively more recent story from the 21st century.
06:37I heard them actually break the window out.
06:41Within a couple minutes we heard, we've got the suspects, they're handcuffed, they're under control.
06:45The cold and detached methods by which Muhammad and Malvo took out their victims was clearly terrifying.
06:51Yet news outlets at the time also picked up on some disturbing calling cards left at the scenes.
06:57Items such as the tarot card for death inscribed with the phrases,
07:01Call me God, for you Mr. Police, and do not release to the press.
07:05John Malvo trained me to be a killer.
07:08Everybody thought it was John's son because he was just a kid, he was always with John.
07:12Richard Speck
07:14In a controversial move, police superintendent O.W. Wilson holds Speck's photo up at a press conference
07:20and names him as the murderer.
07:23The lives and crimes of serial killers have routinely served as inspiration for both television and the silver screen.
07:29There's absolutely nothing glamorous about 1976's Born From Hell, however,
07:34a film that loosely adapts the shocking murders of eight Chicago-area student nurses by Richard Speck in 1966.
07:41The film, which was also released under the title Naked Massacre,
07:45captures the troubling depravity that characterized Speck's life and crimes,
07:49a gritty grindhouse affair that ties into Speck's legacy as one of America's most morally bankrupt mass murderers.
07:56Oh, Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
07:59Oh, Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
08:02There's no reason to be frightened.
08:03Oh, Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
08:06The truth was definitely stranger than fiction here, however,
08:09as stories of Speck's anti-social behavior continued long after his incarceration to his death in 1991.
08:16Do you like women?
08:17Yeah, I like in their place.
08:19In their place.
08:21That was Speck's view of women.
08:23A growing hatred that resulted in the gruesome slaughter of eight young nurses.
08:28Nepropetrovsk Maniacs.
08:30Al mismo tiempo, Igor y Viktor ya estaban en la calle.
08:33Habían salido de cacería.
08:35Armados con el que se convertiría en su herramienta preferida, un martillo,
08:40recorrieron algunos barrios hasta llegar a este.
08:43The Internet certainly wasn't meant for situations like this one.
08:46The Nepropetrovsk Maniacs is the term used to describe Viktor Sayenko, Igor Soprunyuk,
08:52and their accomplice Alexander Hunza.
08:54The two former boys routinely committed heinous and violent acts with a hammer,
08:59resulting in 21 victims, before Sayenko and Soprunyuk were finally apprehended in 2007.
09:05What's even more troubling was how the murder of one of these victims,
09:08Sergei Yatschenko, was uploaded to the Internet in graphic detail.
09:12Further video evidence also emerged during the trial,
09:15including clips of reprehensible and disrespectful visits by Sayenko and Soprunyuk
09:20to the burial sites of their victims.
09:31Elizabeth Bathory.
09:33Born in 1560, Elizabeth Bathory was one of four children
09:37and a member of one of the most powerful families in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary.
09:42Her legend was so fearsome that she was receiving cinematic adaptations as early as 1971.
09:48Elizabeth Bathory was her name, a Hungarian noblewoman who was said to have bathed in the blood
09:53of young girls and women in order to preserve her youth.
09:56Hammer horror icon Ingrid Pitt famously portrayed a character inspired by Bathory
10:01in 1971's Countess Dracula.
10:03Countess Dracula While metal bands such as Venom
10:13and, yes, Bathory, have composed songs dedicated to her infamous memory.
10:18This is a situation where historians debate how much truth lies within the events that allegedly
10:23took place between 1590 and 1610.
10:25Was Elizabeth Bathory framed, a victim of a political smear campaign designed to remove
10:31her from power, or was she truly a blood countess?
10:34You decide.
10:35The Countess drank her victim's blood.
10:39But unlike Dracula, Elizabeth was cruel fact.
10:45Belle Gunness.
10:46Did Belle Gunness escape from her burning home only to get away with murder?
10:50Some historians think so, since the corpse that investigators claims to be Gunness was headless
10:56and differed in physical details to this real-life Black Widow.
11:00Speculatory evidence connects Gunness to between 14 and 40 victims, some of them children, and
11:05many of them suffering fatal accidents on her property.
11:09She had an allure.
11:12Many men came and thought they weren't going to be staying, but they did.
11:16Belle Gunness also frequently married, only for husband after husband to suffer similar
11:21fates while under her care.
11:23Gunness, or Hell's Belle as she's sometimes been called, would then retain an insurance
11:28policy and carry on to her next victim.
11:31We have to go after what we want.
11:34And sometimes it's not so easy.
11:38But you have to ask yourself if it's worth it.
11:43It's worth it.
11:44Alexander Pekushkin.
11:46There was a notable gap between the crimes committed by Russia's Alexander Pekushkin,
11:50also known as the Chessboard Killer.
11:52This serial murderer was intelligent, despite suffering a childhood injury that allegedly
11:57contributed to a brain injury that influenced Pekushkin's violent and antisocial tendencies.
12:02This injury left Pekushkin angry and violent, with Chess serving as the killer's primary
12:07outlet for his aggression.
12:08He knew perfectly well what was going on.
12:11He knew what he was doing.
12:13This wouldn't last, however, with Pekushkin's first murder occurring in 1992.
12:18He took a break after that year and didn't resume these actions until 2001, with each attack
12:23becoming known for Pekushkin's violent habit of bludgeoning his victims to death.
12:27Convicting Pekushkin had taken nine months' strenuous work.
12:31It had been very hard and stressful.
12:3724 hours a day, seven days a week.
12:39An awful lot of work.
12:41Angel Resendis.
12:42My victim was approximately 50 yards from the railroad tracks.
12:45He entered through a window.
12:46He chose a weapon of opportunity in the home to commit the murder with, and he beat her to death.
12:51There was only one victim of Angel Resendis' violent assaults that lived long enough to tell the tale of their encounter with the railroad killer.
12:59Holly Dawn Pendleton was walking along a set of railroad tracks with her boyfriend Christopher Mayer when they were attacked by Resendis.
13:06The killer earned his nickname via his propensity for hitching rides on rail cars in order to avoid immigration officials.
13:13The whole time, I memorized his face.
13:15I memorized his, he had a tattoo on his arm.
13:18He had, you know, I was thinking, if you have any scars, I'm going to remember your scars.
13:23I'm going to remember your face.
13:24I'm not going to forget it, because if I live through this, I will get you.
13:29Although Resendis also utilized this method of travel in between his attacks.
13:33Resendis usually sought out victims that were smaller than he was, and he bludgeoned Mayer to death before turning his attention to Pendleton.
13:40The latter eventually escaped, however, and detailed her harrowing experience to outlets such as The Guardian.
13:46I talk about the trial as the hardest day of my life.
13:50What I was most worried about, I think, when I testified was seeing him again.
13:56Leonard Lake and Charles Ng.
13:58But Lake's property still held many mysteries.
14:02Agents feared they would never know the complete story of the Calaveras County murders unless they found Charles Ng.
14:09Leonard Lake seemed to know that the end was near for his murder spree, since this serial killer escaped retribution for his crimes by intentionally swallowing cyanide pills upon his arrest in 1985.
14:20His accomplice, Charles Ng, was eventually implicated and incriminated via the evidence authorities found after searching Lake's home.
14:27The pair had collaborated on murdering at least 11 victims, with some estimations placing their final total at 25.
14:35Although they eventually linked 25 missing people to Lake's property, they only had enough evidence to charge Charles Ng with 12 counts of murder.
14:44Lake and Ng utilized a remote cabin to commit many of their murders, while both were also military veterans with varying degrees of trauma after their time in the service.
14:53The pair also filmed some of their attacks, leaving gruesome snuff videotapes in their wake.
14:59Only once Charles Ng comes to trial, and only if he decides to be more cooperative than he has hitherto, will some semblance of the full truth ever emerge about the crimes which were committed in the hills outside San Francisco.
15:14Robert Pickton.
15:15There's been a lot of retroactive discussion among true crime enthusiasts when it comes to the failures and shortcomings of police investigations.
15:30Personal bias often comes up as a reason why the screams from so many victims of serial killers, such as Canada's Robert Pickton, historically go unheard.
15:39Pickton's focus on sex workers plays into the larger narrative of marginalized peoples not being considered as valid reasons for intense investigation, based upon either their occupation or ethnicity.
15:51Yesterday, charges against Pickton related to the murders of 20 other women were stayed, and as a result, the publication ban is now lifted.
16:00Pickton was convicted of taking six lives, but confessed to nearly 50, a potential 50 voices that were forever silenced, perhaps needlessly so, due to stunted or hamstring police work.
16:11He had bragged to an undercover police officer he had killed 49 women.
16:16Those families are reliving that now, and they're the ones who should be remembered.
16:21Joel Rifkin.
16:22Soaring the night of the arrest, when you guys spoke to him, how did his confession go?
16:27Well, he's pretty matter-of-fact. I always got the sense that he just was getting something off his chest because he was caught, and he was like, you know, why bother anymore?
16:36Why do so many serial killers focus their malevolent energies upon those working in a sex trade?
16:41Is the oldest profession a victim of demonization, or do serial killers such as Joel Rifkin escape the hands of justice due to his victim's relative anonymity?
16:50It's tough to say, but Rifkin intentionally targeted these individuals during his ruthless killing spree.
16:55Rifkin painstakingly covered up his crimes in threes. He researched past crimes for details.
17:02Water is harder to investigate than land because it washes everything.
17:06Interestingly, his final victim actually had ties to the punk rock scene, since Tiffany Breschiani's boyfriend, Dave Rubenstein, was the former singer of the influential group Reagan Youth.
17:16It was through Rubenstein's direct action and following up Breschiani's disappearance that allowed for Joel Rifkin to finally be captured.
17:23What I have done can never be forgiven, but I ask you to believe me when I tell you that I will never understand the part of me that caused me to do these terrible things to your children.
17:33Richard Chase.
17:34The story of Richard Chase sounds like something out of a horror movie.
17:47He was dubbed the Vampire of Sacramento due to Chase's propensity for consuming the blood of his victims.
17:52The cannibal killer was also a necrophile who continued to debase the remains of his victims after their demise.
17:58Chase's youth was marked by bouts of antisocial behavior and mental health emergencies to the point where he was institutionalized in 1973.
18:06Meanwhile, the aftermath of his actual murders were gory and beyond disturbing.
18:11And Chase's legacy became forever linked with this disgusting lack of empathy or respect for human life.
18:17No human being is immune to the genetic background that they bring and the environmental issues that work on them.
18:26Rodney Alcala.
18:27It isn't every day where pop culture adjacent footage becomes so infamously connected with a serial killer.
18:47Yet again, not every serial killer appears on The Dating Game.
18:51Yet this is how we seem to best remember Rodney Alcala, the killer with eight confirmed victims,
18:55and connection to around 130 other murders back in the late 60s and into the 70s.
19:02A bachelor number one.
19:04You're a dirty old man.
19:08Take it.
19:09Come on, over here.
19:13Alcala often used his experience as a photographer as a means of introducing himself to potential victims.
19:19And there remains a startling amount of visual evidence connected to young women that came into contact with Alcala.
19:25Haunting expressions of women who looked down the camera lens of Rodney Alcala remaining forever frozen and forever young.
19:33Rodney Alcala had been on death row for more than 30 years.
19:37Now convicted of five murders, it was unlikely he could win another appeal.
19:44Joachim Kroll.
19:45The story of Germany's Joachim Kroll is somewhat similar to that of Richard Chase,
19:49in that both displayed cannibalistic and necrophilic tendencies.
19:53Kroll's crimes venture beyond the pale, however, since the Duisburg Maneater also targeted children.
19:58More incredible still is how Joachim Kroll wasn't even the only serial murderer prowling the Ruhr metropolitan area during the time during which he was active.
20:08That being 1955 to 1976.
20:12In terms of what Kroll expressed about his punishment, it is quite childlike and quite immature in a way,
20:18because he thought that he would just go to hospital and his funny feelings would be cured and then he'd be able to go home.
20:24This crowded demographic, alongside police blunders such as accusing multiple innocent men for Kroll's crimes,
20:31allowed for these killings to continue unabated.
20:34Kroll was finally incarcerated for his bloody, disgusting crimes in 1982 and died in prison less than a decade later.
20:41I can't, I can, I can, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't.
20:50That can we! We all can't, we can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't.
20:56Gilles DeRay.
20:57Four weeks you've been asking for this.
21:00Well, now you have it.
21:03Here's one of the few historical serial killers who's also lauded as a war hero.
21:07Gilles Duray was a former knight, a comrade to Joan of Arc, that allegedly targeted young
21:12children.
21:13It's also been said that Duray indulged in necromancy in the occult, seeking out a life
21:18of luxury, while selling off land belonging to his family in order to finance an extravagant
21:23lifestyle.
21:24Still, the story of Gilles Duray is similar to that of Elizabeth Bathory, in that many
21:28historians today question how much local rumor had to do with his infamous reputation.
21:33Still, Duray did confess at his trial to killing over a hundred children, a crime for which
21:38Gilles Duray was hanged and burned.
21:41But why did one of France's richest men turn to murder, or was he just a fantasist, spinning
21:49a bloody yarn?
21:50Albert DeSalvo.
21:52Even though DeSalvo had confessed, police had no hard evidence tying him to the stranglings.
21:57These were the days before sophisticated fingerprint and DNA tests.
22:01The further we're removed from shocking and sensationalized crimes such as that of the
22:06Boston Strangler, the more faint and distant stories of the victims also become.
22:11It's perhaps unfair that we fetishize men like Albert DeSalvo, and others like his
22:15ilk, serial killers with grotesque calling cards, such as DeSalvo's discarded stockings
22:20or greeting cards left at the scene.
22:32Yet the story of the Boston Strangler isn't only that of Mary Sullivan, or Mary Mullen,
22:37or Mary Ann Brown.
22:38It's for everyone left behind after the Strangler's ruthless crimes, including alleged accomplices
22:44that some historians think aided DeSalvo during this era.
22:47It's of the utmost importance that we don't forget how the victims should be remembered,
22:52and these killers remained buried and forgotten.
23:03Carla Homolka and Paul Bernardo.
23:05It isn't often that the aftermath of a case becomes more infamous than the crimes themselves.
23:11In Canada in the early 1990s, couple Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka committed a series of sexual
23:17assaults and murders against young girls, including the latter's younger sister.
23:21There never was before, never was since, such a strain of attacks like that.
23:27People were scared stiff for a very long time.
23:31They recorded themselves committing lurid acts against their victims before killing them,
23:35evidence that was instrumental in their capture.
23:37The two had conflicting recollections of the misdeeds, with each partner attempting to
23:42downplay their own involvement.
23:44What was certain, however, was that together, Bernardo and Homolka were a deadly duo.
23:50Bernardo received a life sentence for the slaughters and his involvement in previous cases.
23:55Homolka managed to secure a plea bargain after claiming manipulation, and while it allowed
24:00her to be released in 2005, it also branded her as a permanent enemy of the public.
24:06Luis Gavarito Although he's one of the deadliest killers
24:09to come out of South America, he's still relatively unknown, committing his crimes in various regions
24:15of Colombia, South America in the 1990s.
24:18He eluded Colombia's authorities for nine long years.
24:22Often referred to as La Bestia, Colombian Luis Gavarito was found to have been guilty of
24:27the violent assault and murder of almost 200 children throughout the 1990s.
24:32These horrific crimes spanned across multiple countries and methods, with many being purely
24:37sexual in nature.
24:38The extent of his vile behavior, which often included mutilation and dismemberment, led
24:44to an initial sentence of more than 1,800 years, but it was eventually reduced to 22 years.
24:50Garavito defended himself by saying that in every instance, he had been possessed by a
24:55malignant spirit.
24:56His lenient punishment ultimately led to the maximum sentence being extended in Colombia,
25:02and although he could have been eligible for parole in 2023, he died before that happened.
25:07Ian Brady and Myra Hindley Although their butchery took place 60 years ago, they're still considered some
25:14of the worst people to come out of the United Kingdom.
25:23Working as a unit, they took the lives of several children, while attempting to commit what they
25:28referred to as the perfect murder.
25:30The attacks were sexual and violent in nature, with some victims being subjected to intense
25:35humiliation before their deaths.
25:37After they were captured in 1965, Hindley insisted upon her innocence for years, all while being
25:43branded as one of the most evil women in the country.
25:46She, in particular, ended up becoming a notorious figure, and even her own mother advocated that
25:52she stay in prison.
25:54He, in many ways, escaped some of the disgust that the public should feel for him, because he was
26:01accompanied by a woman.
26:02And I'm not sure that he got his full share, his fair share of public hatred.
26:08Lawrence Bideker and Roy Norris Though their crimes
26:11only span five months, the evidence they left behind will send chills down anyone's spine.
26:17Even including Charles Manson, I had never seen two people so depraved.
26:22Lawrence Bideker and Roy Norris, known as the Toolbox Killers, targeted several teenage girls in
26:28California during their short-lived spree in 1979. They were known for the array of devices they used,
26:34from ice picks to hammers, and for recording the torture they inflicted.
26:39They were meticulous in their plans, even innocently picking up hitchhikers for months beforehand
26:45to practice for the real thing. After their arrest, their recordings were played in court,
26:49causing several people to walk out in horror. Although Norris claimed that Bideker was the true
26:54mastermind, he still found enjoyment in their sexual torture, making his supposed remorse
27:00practically meaningless.
27:01They were evil. They were just pure evil.
27:05Peter Sutcliffe
27:06It should come as no surprise that someone compared to the likes of Jack the Ripper would make this list.
27:12The whole of Britain was terrified by the elusive murderer who seemed to kill for his own enjoyment.
27:18Yorkshire's Peter Sutcliffe attacked and murdered over a dozen women, often in extremely violent and
27:24degrading ways. He claimed to have been following the orders of a higher power during his spree,
27:29even referring to his victims as filth and implying that their fates were deserved.
27:34He took advantage of flaws within the police system, allowing him to evade capture despite
27:39having been questioned several times. This gave him the opportunity to take even more lives.
27:45After he was finally arrested and sentenced, he was assaulted multiple times,
27:50giving him a small taste of the violence he inflicted upon his victims.
27:54Sutcliffe's legacy casts a deathly shadow over the lives he took and the lives he left behind.
28:00David Berkowitz
28:01One man had the entirety of New York City looking over their shoulders.
28:05And it's something that we all have to worry about.
28:07What is your wife saying?
28:08She wouldn't even come out tonight.
28:10While his methods weren't as intricate as others, David Berkowitz was still able to take the
28:15lives of six people in the 1970s. He even mocked the police with letters as they struggled to
28:21identify him. This led to his nickname, The Son of Sam, being popularized in the media,
28:26adding to his notoriety. When he was finally apprehended in 1977, he showed no emotion,
28:32and in fact seemed annoyed that he'd been found out. In recent years, he has claims to be reformed.
28:37That was just a break from reality and thought I was doing something to appease the devil. I'm sorry for it.
28:46Despite that, many rightfully can't see anything other than the killer he once was.
28:51Eileen Wuernos
28:53In just one year, she killed seven people in Florida. Beginning in 1989, sex worker Eileen Wuernos
29:00used her profession as a way of meeting and choosing her victims.
29:04While she claimed that each man had attacked her first, her constantly shifting narratives
29:18and the sheer number of bullet wounds in each body suggested otherwise. Even after being sentenced
29:23to death row, she never showed any remorse for her crimes, and even doubled down on her own sanity
29:29being fully intact during the murders. Her anger lasted throughout her tenure in prison and up
29:35until her final moments, when she swore to return after her own demise.
29:39Lee, it sounds like you've been betrayed by everyone.
29:42That's right, I was. That's why I don't care if I'm executed and leave this planet.
29:48Her motives and acts still inspire debate today. Dennis Nilsen
29:53From the outside, his homes look unassuming, obscuring the unfathomable acts that took place within them.
29:59One of the biggest murder investigations ever is now underway in London after the discovery of the
30:05remains of three men's bodies. It was horrific. It made the hair in the back of my neck stand up.
30:11Dennis Nilsen would use his two London residences to lure his victims in before striking. He took the
30:17lives of at least 12 males via strangulation or drowning, but he didn't stop there. He kept the
30:23bodies in his homes for weeks, changing their outfits and living beside them. It wasn't until
30:28they decayed that he would dismember and dispose of them. He got away with it for years, until his
30:34plumbing became so clogged by remains that they were discovered. After hearing the evidence, it took the
30:40jury only a day to reach their verdict, leading to him spending his days behind bars until his death in
30:462018. He knew perfectly well he would be found guilty, and he knew he deserved it. He knew he
30:52should be. Richard Ramirez
30:54His violent acts would make even the bravest person feel sick. Beginning in 1984, the man known as the
31:00Night Stalker went on a reign of pure terror in California. The Night Stalker killed at least 13
31:06times 13 people who were awakened in the night to face death. At least 15 others survived his brutal
31:12attacks. Using a wide variety of methods, from live wires to guns, he would put his victims through
31:18intense pain before taking their lives. What made his crimes even more horrifying was the arbitrary
31:24aspect to them, as he would choose what houses to break into at random. He even forced multiple
31:30people to swear on Satan, adding another sickening layer to his abhorrent acts. After he was finally
31:36convicted on over 40 different charges in 1989, he was set to be executed, but ended up passing away
31:43before he could face the ultimate consequence. Ramirez became a celebrity in his own right,
31:47and he had groupies, he had marriage proposals, he had women that wanted to come and visit him at the
31:52prison. Gary Ridgeway, one of the most prolific killers in the country, is still alive to this day.
31:59Gary Ridgeway is probably the most prolific serial killer in America, if not the world.
32:05He was a killing machine, a man of extraordinary evil. Known simply as the Green River Killer,
32:13Gary Ridgeway took the lives of at least four dozen women throughout the 1980s and 90s. His violent streak
32:19began as a child and only continued to spiral well into adulthood. He strangled each victim, but the evil
32:25didn't stop there. He would even return to some of the corpses after the act and abuse them in death.
32:31It wasn't until 2001 that he was finally caught and sentenced, where a plea deal saved him from
32:37being executed. With his victims still being identified as recently as 2023, the full extent of
32:43his violence may never be fully revealed. We now know she was killed by Gary Ridgeway. I spoke with her
32:50family on the phone today. They say they appreciate that they now have closure, but they say it's
32:55heartbreaking knowing Ridgeway is still alive while their loved one is dead. Dennis Rader.
33:01Having named himself BTK after his modus operandi, for 20 years, Rader was a massive thorn in the
33:08side of the police in Kansas. When BTK came forward, everybody's life changed. He would see a woman walking
33:16and he would say, she's next. Like the infamous Jack the Ripper, he sent mocking letters to the cops and media.
33:24But in person, Rader seemed nice. He had a loving family and was the president of his local church
33:30congregation. His first victims were the Otero family in 1974, and his tenth and last victim was
33:37Dolores Davis in 1991. Then he dropped off the map, but in 2004 he began taunting them once again.
33:44However, he got sloppy with a floppy disk, and it was traced to his church. He asks the police in one
33:51of the communications, what if I were to give you a floppy disk with more details of the killing,
33:59Sam? Could you identify me? In 2005, Rader pleaded guilty and got 10 consecutive life sentences.
34:06Robert Hansen
34:08As a teenager, Robert Hansen would take part in hunting to escape his rough home life. But as he
34:14got older, his victims went from animals to human beings. He would abduct women, often sex workers,
34:20and assault them before driving or flying them out to the wilderness. Here was where he would hunt
34:25them down like prey, toying with their lives. Nicknamed the Butcher Baker by the media, Hansen was
34:32confirmed to have assaulted and killed at least 17 women. In his confession, Hansen described how
34:38he would take his victims into the woods and hunt them as prey. In 1983, a teenage sex worker named
34:44Cindy Paulson was set to be on that list. However, she managed to escape when he was stalking his plane,
34:50and alerted the authorities who would arrest him. He received a sentence of 461 years,
34:56and died in prison after serving 31 years. After his sentencing, Hansen accompanied troopers into
35:03the field to find more of his victims, represented by X's on his map. Israel Keyes
35:09What's most terrifying for the police and the public is a killer with no MO. But to make things worse,
35:15how about one who was also trained by the US Army? This was the case of Israel Keyes.
35:21I would let them come to me. Just a remote area.
35:31Kind of go to a remote area that's not anywhere near where you live, but that other people go to
35:38as well. Across the country, Keyes had set up kill kits, which gave him access to equipment wherever he
35:44decided to attack someone. After he killed 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, the FBI was able to track his
35:50bank account use and make an arrest following the demand for a ransom. Police arrested 34-year-old Israel
35:57Keyes, 4,000 miles away in Texas. Once he was in custody, however, it was discovered that Keyes
36:04was responsible for the murder of multiple victims. We did spend a fair amount of time talking about his
36:09crimes and his offenses as well, and those times were definitely very chilling to hear him talk about
36:16what he's done. Before he faced trial in 2012, Keyes took his own life and taking with him information
36:23that might have been used to solve other crimes. Marcel Petiot. With France under German occupation
36:30in the 1940s, Marcel Petiot, a doctor, preyed on those attempting to escape persecution. Later
36:36claiming he was working for the resistance even though there was no evidence, Petiot set up a fake
36:41escape route under the name Dr. Eugène. In the midst of the German occupation during World War II,
36:47Petiot is considered a hero for operating a secret escape route for Jewish people attempting to leave
36:52Paris. He gave those running a fake vaccine containing cyanide before stealing their valuables
36:58and disposing of their bodies. Twenty-three remains were discovered, but Petiot's lifetime victim count is
37:04suspected to be as high as sixty, if not higher. In 1946, Petiot was executed by guillotine, which was
37:12still the country's method of capital punishment at the time. His last words? Gentlemen, I ask you
37:18not to look. This will not be very pretty. Karl Denka. Born in modern-day Poland in 1860, Karl Denka
37:27appeared to be a beloved member of his community. After all, they nicknamed him Papa, as he let homeless
37:33people live in his house for free and volunteered at his local church for a time. But away from prying
37:38eyes, he held a very dark secret. In 1924, a badly injured Vincent Solivier alerted townsfolk that he
37:47was attacked by Denka. While the authorities didn't believe him, they later arrested their stand-up
37:52citizen as they investigated. Shortly after, Denka took his own life. The police then found human remains
37:59of at least thirty people in his house, some of which were made into items. There's also speculation
38:05Denka sold the remains to unsuspecting locals. Joseph James D'Angelo. Police officers are meant to be
38:13honorable and find justice for victims, not cause a wake of destruction like Joseph James D'Angelo.
38:20For decades, Joseph James D'Angelo was America's most wanted man, the Golden State Killer.
38:28In 1976, he began his spree of assaults and burglaries in Sacramento, California. In the space
38:34of three years, he had committed fifty attacks. By 1978, D'Angelo progressed by slaying Brian and Katie
38:42Maggiore. He morphed into the original Night Stalker and later the Golden State Killer before the crime
38:49stopped in 1986. Then, in 2018, the police used genetic genealogy from the DNA found at D'Angelo's
38:57crimes to trace it back to him. The search takes anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. Within a day,
39:03I had the list of potential relatives to the Golden State Killer. In 2020, amongst several charges,
39:11he pled guilty to thirteen murders as part of a deal to avoid capital punishment and got a life
39:18sentence. But tonight, the Golden State Killer muttering this apology to his victims.
39:23And I'm
39:26really sorry. Moments later, Joe D'Angelo was sentenced to life without parole.
39:32Dean Corll. After leaving the Army in 1965, Dean Corll returns to Houston, Texas to work in the
39:39family candy business. He was known to hand out free treats to children, earning him the nickname
39:44Candyman. Shortly after, he began a relationship with the underage David Owen Brooks. When Corll
39:58began his killing spree in 1970, Brooks helped him select victims. Corll then got Elmer Wayne Henley
40:05involved two. In 1973, after slaying 28 people, Corll decided to take out Henley along with two other
40:13victims. The teenager managed to convince Corll that he was on his side. But when the opportunity arose,
40:19Henley fatally shot his former mentor. Both Brooks and Henley received multiple life sentences.
40:27David Parker Ray. Sometimes killers go that extra terrifying mile with their modus operandi.
40:33David Parker Ray modified a trailer that would be labeled his Toy Box. The trailer was soundproofed
40:40and filled with instruments for his violence. He called it the Den of Satan. He would abduct women,
40:45abuse them for months in the trailer, and presumably eventually end their lives. Sometimes with
40:51accomplices. One of them being his girlfriend, Cynthia Hendy. In 1999, a woman managed to escape the
40:59toy box after three days and get help from a neighbor. The police immediately arrested Ray and
41:12Henley. On a plea deal, Ray was sentenced to 224 years in jail, while Henley, who testified against
41:20her former partner, got 36 years. It's unknown how many women Ray killed, but some estimates are upwards
41:26of 60. He claimed to have abducted 40 women from across the U.S. Since no bodies were ever found,
41:33he was never charged. And he never will be. Ray died in prison in 2002 by heart attack.
41:39Edmund Kemper. At 6'9", Edmund Kemper was an intimidating figure.
41:44I was dreaming, thinking, fantasizing murder all day long. I couldn't get it out of my head.
41:51But with his gentle demeanor, he seemed harmless. However, as a teenager in 1964,
41:57he fatally shot his grandparents. Five years later, he was released from a psychiatric hospital,
42:03and went to live with his abusive mother, Clarinelle Strandberg. By 1972, Kemper began
42:09driving around Santa Cruz, California, picking up young women who were hitchhiking. He would act
42:15impatiently, which enticed them inside the vehicle, since they believed he was too busy to be an attacker.
42:21In custody, Edmund Kemper would reveal to investigators the full horror of his extraordinary crimes,
42:28in minute and graphic detail. But he was. This M.O. earned him the nickname,
42:34the Co-Ed Killer. In 1973, he brutally killed his mother and her friend before handing himself to
42:40the police. With ten victims altogether, Kemper received a life sentence. Andre Chikatilo.
42:48Having grown up in difficult circumstances in rural Ukraine under USSR rule, something broke
42:54in Andre Chikatilo. But to the outside world, all seemed okay. He had a wife, two kids, and began
43:01working as a school teacher in 1971. As a teacher, the 34-year-old hoped to find acceptance and respect,
43:08and yet instead he found constant humiliation. His students didn't take him seriously. They refused
43:15to behave and smoked right in front of him in the classroom. But not long after getting the job,
43:20Chikatilo began assaulting pupils. By 1978, he moved on to killing, with his wife providing him an alibi.
43:28Using jobs that required traveling as a cover, by 1990, Chikatilo claimed to have slain 56 people,
43:35mostly in the Rostov Oblast, earning him the moniker, The Butcher of Rostov. After being
43:41arrested and later confessing to his tirade of crimes, Chikatilo was held in a cage in court.
43:46He probably, in some respects, wanted to be caught. I can't imagine somebody doing that for all those
43:53many years and not realizing that he was living in a hell of his own creation. He was found guilty
44:01and executed in 1994. Ted Bundy. In the 1970s, many women came to the aid of a man,
44:08often appearing injured, who needed help in one form or another. With his good looks and charisma,
44:13this mystery guy seemed genuine. Instead, he was one of the most infamous killers in history,
44:19as he forced his victims into his car. Ted Bundy escaped capture multiple times,
44:34continuing his grim spree as he did. But by 1980, he faced court for the final time.
44:40Bundy had confessed to slaying 30 women and teenagers across multiple states in the US.
44:46However, there's speculation that the true figure could be over 100. For the third and final time
44:51in his life, Bundy was sentenced to capital punishment, which took place in 1989.
44:56Ed Gein. Serving as inspiration for several horror movie villains, such as Buffalo Bill in The Silence
45:10of the Lambs and Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Ed Gein was a disturbing killer.
45:16Twisted killer was a quiet loner named Ed Gein. Hidden inside the 51-year-old's rural farmhouse
45:23was a ghoulish treasure trove. He was raised by an abusive mother that taught him that women were
45:28evil. In 1957, one Bernice Warden vanished in Wisconsin. Following a lead, the police arrived
45:35at Gein's isolated house and discovered a terrible scene. On top of Warden's body, they found a catalogue
45:42of items made from human remains. Altogether, there were pieces made from around 40 people.
45:48Gein claimed to have grave robbed most of the remains. In 1968, he was deemed fit to stand trial,
45:55and was found guilty of warden slaying. Gein spent his remaining years in psychiatric hospitals.
46:01He was such a little person that I found it hard to picture him as the person who'd committed all
46:10these homicides. He lived there very peacefully. He never caused any problems.
46:16John Wayne Gacy. One pretty common phobia is clowns, and the case of John Wayne Gacy certainly didn't
46:24help ease any of those fears. Gacy regularly performed in a clown persona at parties and events,
46:39but behind the scenes, he was a rampant killer of boys and men. In 1978, after suspecting the police
46:46were on to him, a paranoid Gacy would confess his crimes to his lawyers. The police had what they
46:51needed to search his house, where they would find several remains in his crawl space. 29 bodies
46:57buried in that house of his on Somerdale, a crime of horrendous proportions. In the crawl space
47:03underneath, bodies covered with lime and encased in plastic. He was charged with the assassination of
47:0833 young men, and would spend 14 years on death row before being executed by lethal injection.
47:15It was a circus. We were in a room at some point, and we saw a television screen,
47:20and we saw thousands of people lined up at least a mile down the street at the prison with signs,
47:27kill the clown, kill Gacy. Fred and Rosemary West. Occasionally, serial killers come in pairs.
47:34You're talking about two people who literally plumb the depths of human depravity. While Fred had
47:40murdered in the past before meeting Rosemary Letts, Rose's first victim was purportedly Fred's
47:45stepdaughter. The two then went on a rampage, assaulting and killing nine other people together,
47:51including West's first wife, Catherine Costello, and their daughter, Heather West. Many of the bodies
47:57were buried on their properties. Even though they were not alive, he wants access. He wants to feel
48:03that he can actually be part of this area, and they are part of this area. This is his private graveyard.
48:11After investigating assault charges against the couple, the police found evidence of the violence.
48:16Although officially charged with 12 killings altogether, that number is estimated to be higher.
48:21In 1995, before his trial, West took his own life, and Letts was sentenced to life in prison.
48:27And I was absolutely gutted. I wanted him to pay the proper price. And he just like took his own way
48:36out and had his own way about what happened to him. He was in control right to the end.
48:41Jeffrey Dahmer. From his late teens, Jeffrey Dahmer began a horrific killing spree.
48:47His victims were all men or boys, and many of his later crimes involved unspeakable acts to the bodies.
48:53Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for killing more than a dozen people. The majority of
48:58those murders happened in an apartment near the Marquette campus. In 1991, Dahmer enticed Tracy
49:05Edwards back to his apartment with the promise of beer and payment for photographs. However,
49:10Edwards realized something was wrong and managed to escape. After he flagged down police officers,
49:15Dahmer's apartment was investigated and grim evidence was found, leading to Dahmer's arrest.
49:20His macabre 13-year crime spree finally ended when this man, Tracy Edwards,
49:26brought the police to the infamous apartment. Like the others, he had gone there with the promise of
49:31money. He was listening to my heart because at a point he told me he was going to eat my heart at that
49:36point. He was convicted of 15 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, in 1994,
49:42he was fatally attacked by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. There were a number of people
49:47who felt that Jeffrey Dahmer got exactly what he deserved. And I called his mother. She said,
49:53well, now everybody got what they want. The monster is dead. And then she said, he was my son. He was my boy.
50:00Albert Fish. Nearly 100 years ago, New York had a killer on the loose nicknamed many things,
50:06including the gray man and even the boogeyman. Honestly, it's not too far off. Albert Fish was
50:13a disturbed individual who targeted children. While we can't exactly list off the crimes toward them,
50:19just know they're terrible. To make things even more disturbing, the unhinged Fish sent the mother of
50:25one of his victims a letter describing what he did. Ten years after Fish began his acts,
50:30he was captured in 1934, after witnesses claimed to have seen him with missing children. Fish would
50:36admit to the murders, but would also claim he had over 100 victims. At his trial the following year,
50:42he was sentenced to execution, which was carried out in 1936. H.H. Holmes
50:48Thought of as one of the US's first serial killers, Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H.
50:54Holmes dabbled in fraud in his early years to earn cash. Then, he constructed what would be
50:59nicknamed the Murder Castle in Chicago, Illinois. It contained secret passageways and trap doors
51:05that allowed Holmes to slay privately and dispose of the evidence in the basement's furnace.
51:10But what Holmes has done is to create, really, a killing machine, a factory. He would usually entice
51:16women into the building, and later opened it up like a hotel. In 1894, Holmes was arrested for a
51:22different crime before his killing was discovered. He confessed to 27 victims, but loftier speculations
51:29have the number over 200. In 1896, Holmes was executed for his grim crimes.
51:35You are cleansed and delivered. May God have mercy on your soul.
51:42As Holmes waits for his life to come to an end, he remains cool and composed.
51:47Samuel Little. In 2019, the FBI confirmed that they'd identified Samuel Little as the most prolific
51:54serial killer in US history. After being convicted for slaying three people in 2014,
51:59the unsettling extent of his crimes began to leak out over the next few years. By 2018,
52:05Little had confessed to killing 93 women across the country. It's disturbing to listen to, but
52:11investigators want to hear it all and more. 79-year-old Samuel Little has confessed to 93 murders.
52:18That's more than were committed by Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer combined.
52:23Little provided the FBI with details on many of the cases from 1970 to 2005, and even drew the victims
52:30from memory to prove he was telling the truth. These are the portraits drawn by Samuel Little himself,
52:35that there were women he claims to have killed. They're so accurate that family members have
52:40recognized lost loved ones from them. Before he passed away in 2020, more than 60 of Little's
52:45confessions across at least 14 states had been confirmed by the authorities. Harold Shipman.
52:52Doctors are meant to be people we all trust. This makes the case of Harold Shipman especially chilling.
52:58He was a general practitioner in England who took people under his care only to end their lives.
53:04Five of the 15 women he's been convicted of murdering died in his surgery. Normally doctors
53:09have no such death. He signed 70% of his death certificates. Normally it's no more than 30%.
53:15In 1998, one of his patients suddenly passed away. And a will, one that the family knew nothing about,
53:22gifted a lot of cash to Shipman. Police investigated the doctor and found evidence of forgery.
53:28He falsified computerized medical records. He entered false information on his victim's death
53:34certificates and lied to their families. Upon further examination, they found that many of his
53:40patients seemed to pass from overdoses of diamorphine. In 1999, Shipman was charged with the murder of 15
53:47patients, many of whom were older women. He was sentenced to life in prison, and in the aftermath,
53:53there were thought to be as many as 250 victims.
53:57Now he's taken his own life. He was found in his prison cell at 6.20 am.
54:01Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about
54:05our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
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54:17Pedro Lopez
54:19What's worse than a serial killer? Well, how about a known one authorities can't currently locate?
54:25Born in Colombia, Pedro Lopez was a serial murderer across South America and was nicknamed the Monster
54:31of the Andes. It seemed impossible that one man could have carried out so much violence.
54:37If Lopez was telling the truth, he'd rank among the most prolific serial killers in history.
54:43In 1980, after attempting to abduct someone, Lopez was arrested in Ecuador. He was soon charged with 110
54:50homicides. However, Lopez reportedly confessed that his victims could total more than 300.
54:56Lopez, it seemed, hoped to gain a twisted kind of immortality.
55:07In 2006, the Guinness World Records actually named him the most prolific serial killer,
55:12before it was taken down in bad taste. Unfortunately, Lopez was released for good behavior in 1998
55:19and was declared sane. But, as of 2002, after being linked to another murder, his whereabouts are unknown.
55:28He went back into the countryside he knew so well, to the killing ground where he had found so many
55:33victims. That was the last time anyone reported seeing Pedro Alonso Lopez.
55:43What do you think obsessed us with true crime? Are we bad people for harboring this fascination with the
55:48bleak and morbid? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
55:52While in prison, Lopez underwent a psychological evaluation. It was determined that he was a sociopath.
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