- 7 weeks ago
The decade that gave us neon fashion and synth pop also birthed some of history's most chilling predators. Join us as we count down the most terrifying serial killers of the 1980s! From Jeffrey Dahmer's disturbing preservation rituals to Richard Ramirez's random reign of terror, these monsters defined an era of fear. Which killer's story sends the most shivers down your spine?
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NewsTranscript
00:00I mean, that really is terribly psychotic, I think.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:06And today, we're looking at 10 ruthless killers
00:08who helped define the 80s as a decade of terror.
00:12What was remarkable was that he was so normal.
00:18Alan Legere.
00:19He was almost like the boogeyman.
00:22It was like we were chasing a ghost.
00:24It was like he could see us somehow and we couldn't see him.
00:27The title, Monster of Miramichi, sounds like a legend, right?
00:32But this monster was very real.
00:34Back in 1986, Alan Legere and his accomplices
00:38brutally beat and murdered a shopkeeper during a robbery,
00:41earning him a life sentence.
00:43But even prison couldn't keep this monster at bay.
00:46The assumption was, what do small town hoods do
00:48when they escape from prison?
00:50They disappear.
00:53Little did we know that wasn't what was going to happen.
00:56Two years into his sentence,
00:59he escaped custody during a hospital visit
01:01and vanished into the woods of New Brunswick.
01:04What followed was seven months of pure terror,
01:07four murders, indecent assaults, arson,
01:10all while evading capture and spreading fear
01:13across an entire region.
01:15By the time he was finally recaptured in 1989,
01:18Legere had become one of Canada's most dreaded fugitives.
01:21He may have been locked away once more,
01:24but the effects of his actions still linger.
01:28As life finally returned to normal
01:29for the residents of the Miramichi,
01:32many were left wondering why one of their own
01:35had waged such a brutal war on their community.
01:38Lonnie David Franklin Jr.
01:40And I was completely shocked when I heard this
01:45because I had never heard anything before
01:48about any serial killer in South Central.
01:52A dreaded killer disappears for 14 years.
01:55Nobody knows if he's dead or just waiting.
01:59That was Lonnie David Franklin Jr.,
02:01the man the city would come to know as the Grim Sleeper.
02:04His spree began in the mid-80s,
02:07preying on women in South Los Angeles,
02:09leaving bodies and terror in his wake.
02:12And I'm lucky that he didn't shoot me
02:13because I didn't do nothing he wanted me to do.
02:16Damn, I made it out to Rapture.
02:20He didn't get me.
02:21Then suddenly, he vanished from 1988 to 2002,
02:27leaving the city wondering if the nightmare was over.
02:30When Franklin resurfaced,
02:31DNA tied him to at least 10 murders,
02:34plus assaults spanning decades.
02:36Arrested in 2010,
02:38he was finally sentenced to death in 2016.
02:42The Grim Sleeper may have stopped,
02:44but his shadow still haunts the city.
02:47The so-called Grim Sleeper trial
02:49is attracting attention from across the country,
02:51not only for the nature of the crimes,
02:53but also the way this infamous cold case
02:56was finally cracked.
02:57Doug Clark and Carol Bundy.
02:59Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy
03:01would act out their darkest desires
03:03and leave a trail of bloodshed in their wake.
03:07They were absolutely the couple from hell.
03:10Everybody's worst nightmare.
03:12There is a darkness,
03:14which can be found in fantasy
03:15for Doug Clark and Carol Bundy.
03:18The Sunset Strip killers,
03:19that darkness bled into reality
03:21and became deadly.
03:23In 1980, Los Angeles turned
03:25into their playground of terror,
03:27luring mostly young women
03:28into a series of unspeakable events.
03:30Bundy joined Clark in acts that defy imagination,
03:34and she even shot a man,
03:36John Murray,
03:37who she feared would reveal their crimes.
03:39Jeanette Murray would receive the news
03:41she'd been dreading.
03:43They said they found the man,
03:45and I said, he's dead, isn't he?
03:46And he said, yeah.
03:47Their apartment became a chilling theater
03:49of obsession and cruelty,
03:51where the duo killed around seven victims.
03:54By the time the police finally caught them,
03:56the Sunset Strip killers
03:57had shown just how far untamed intimacy
04:00can escalate into unthinkable violence.
04:03Doug never stopped bragging
04:05about his sexual exploits,
04:07and one always has to wonder, I think,
04:10when somebody brags too much
04:11about their sexual exploits,
04:13what they're really trying to hide.
04:15Dennis Nilsen.
04:16And they found what looked like bits of flesh.
04:20Nilsen suggested that
04:22it could be somebody had flushed
04:25their Kentucky fried chicken out
04:27or something like that,
04:28and that would be the explanation
04:30for little bones and flesh.
04:32He looked ordinary, lonely, calm,
04:35the kind you'd never link to danger.
04:38But behind that polite exterior,
04:40Dennis Nilsen was a horror show
04:42waiting to unfold.
04:43Between 1978 and 1983,
04:46he lured men to his North London flat
04:48with offers of shelter,
04:50food, or companionship.
04:52Once they let their guard down,
04:54that seeming kindness turned fatal.
04:56One he described as a skinhead
04:58that he met in the West End.
05:01Another was a young man
05:02from Northern Ireland.
05:03The omelette boy.
05:05This is the man who he cooked
05:06an omelette for before he killed him.
05:08Nilsen would strangle or drown them,
05:10then wash and dress their corpses,
05:13talking to them as if they were still alive.
05:15In just five years,
05:17at least 12 young men fell victim
05:19to his twisted rituals.
05:21When the clogged drains,
05:22stuffed with human flesh and bone,
05:24led the police to his door,
05:26the hidden nightmare
05:27finally came to light.
05:29I said to him,
05:30look, your drains were blocked
05:31with human remains.
05:33And he looked at me and he said,
05:34oh my God, how awful.
05:36And I just pushed my face
05:38a little bit nearer to his
05:40and said, don't mess about.
05:42Where's the rest of the body?
05:44Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole.
05:47Families were pleased.
05:51You know, you have a member
05:53of your family killed.
05:54You want to find out the perpetrator.
05:57Some nightmares are born from misery
05:59and Henry Lucas and Otis Toole
06:00were living proof.
06:02Both men came from chaos.
06:05Lucas endured an abusive mother
06:06and forced humiliation.
06:08And Toole faced similar horrors.
06:11Safe to say,
06:11they were both scarred for life.
06:14Lucas even stabbed his own mother
06:15to death.
06:16When the duo crossed paths
06:18at a soup kitchen in 1976,
06:20it was like evil found its reflection,
06:22sparking something monstrous.
06:25Did you really kill your mama?
06:27What?
06:29Did you really kill your mama?
06:33I guess I did.
06:34Together, as lovers,
06:36they drifted across America,
06:38leaving behind a trail of abduction,
06:40murder, and even cannibalism.
06:42When they were eventually arrested,
06:44they confessed to hundreds of killings,
06:46including Adam Walsh's death.
06:48Though only a handful were proven,
06:50their story began in pain.
06:52And through the 80s,
06:54their darkness consumed everything
06:55in its path.
06:57I'd like to kill somebody.
06:59Say that again.
07:02I'd like to kill somebody.
07:04Must mean you go for a ride, Otis.
07:06Eileen Wuornos
07:08Ever wonder where the darkness
07:21in people comes from?
07:23For Eileen Wuornos,
07:24the answer isn't clear.
07:27Was it her distorted upbringing
07:28or something else?
07:30Whatever it was,
07:31she remains one of the most terrifying
07:32female serial killers in history.
07:35Between 1989 and 1990,
07:38she prowled Florida's highways,
07:39murdering seven men.
07:41But you've been convicted
07:42of killing seven men.
07:44Everybody's looking at the number.
07:46Does that not,
07:47you killed seven men,
07:49seven strangers,
07:50does that not make you
07:51a serial killer?
07:52So I didn't kill them every day,
07:53did I?
07:54Did I go out there every day
07:55and say,
07:55hmm, I'm gonna kill them?
07:56If I did,
07:56there would be hundreds.
07:57Well, no,
07:57it took you 12 months.
07:58Yeah.
07:59She claimed each man
08:00had tried to indecently assault her
08:02while she worked
08:03as a sex worker.
08:04But something about the coldness
08:06and the chilling precision
08:07of her actions
08:08suggested far more sinister motives.
08:11Arrested in 1991,
08:13her usual calm in court
08:14and ultimate execution in 2002
08:16only deepened the mystery.
08:19Trauma or something else
08:20far more sinister?
08:22Wuornos left a trail of questions.
08:24But one thing's certain,
08:25she carried evil within.
08:28We can be as different
08:29as we want to be,
08:30but you can't kill people.
08:31Says who?
08:32I'm good with the Lord.
08:44Andre Chikatilo
08:45Citizen Chikatilo,
08:48you're under arrest.
08:51I was on my way home.
08:54You don't just
08:55earn the name
08:55Butcher of Rostov
08:57without leaving
08:57a shadowy trail of terror
08:59behind you.
09:00Between 1978 and 1990,
09:03Andre Chikatilo
09:04murdered at least
09:0552 women and minors
09:06across the Soviet Union.
09:08In a regime
09:08unprepared for such horror,
09:10authorities struggled
09:11to grasp
09:12the unfolding nightmare.
09:13He kidnapped victims
09:14at train stations,
09:16bus depots,
09:17and lonely forests,
09:19unleashing mutilation,
09:20sexual violence,
09:21and even cannibalism.
09:23Strange,
09:23it's worse
09:24not finding bodies
09:25than finding them.
09:28At least each time
09:29we found another body,
09:30we had another chance
09:31to find a fingerprint
09:31or witness.
09:34This way,
09:35I'd rather find
09:36three at a time
09:37than none in a year.
09:38Most of his killings
09:39happened in the frightening
09:41decade of the 80s.
09:42When he was
09:43finally arrested in 1990,
09:45and later executed
09:46in 1994,
09:48his monstrous spree
09:49was brought to an end.
09:51But eerie tales
09:52of his brutality
09:53linger,
09:54from his first victim
09:55to the last.
09:56Chikatilo's darkness
09:57wasn't just a phase,
09:59it was a shadow
10:00that still haunts Russia.
10:02You are aware,
10:03I am sure,
10:04that never in the history
10:06of the Soviet Union
10:07has a psychiatrist
10:08been brought into
10:09a murder case.
10:10I know.
10:12You will be the first.
10:14Gary Ridgway
10:15They looked at a victim
10:18as an abject
10:18for their excitement.
10:19Basically,
10:20you're talking
10:21about a sexual psychopath.
10:22Pure evil
10:23doesn't always
10:24make a scene.
10:25Sometimes,
10:26it just blends
10:27into the crowd.
10:28Gary Ridgway
10:29was that kind of evil.
10:30To his neighbors,
10:31he was merely
10:32a truck painter
10:33and an overly
10:34religious man.
10:35For years,
10:36no one guessed
10:37he was the
10:37Green River Killer.
10:39During the 80s
10:40and 90s,
10:41he hunted along
10:41the highways
10:42of Washington State.
10:44Ridgway strangled
10:45dozens of
10:46vulnerable women,
10:47then dumped
10:47their bodies
10:48near the river
10:49that gave him his name.
10:50Winter
10:51and spring 1984,
10:53four more girls
10:54gone.
10:57It would be
10:57three or four
10:58or maybe even
11:00five in one spot.
11:02Unbelievable.
11:03Sometimes,
11:04he'd return to those sites
11:05to commit
11:06unspeakable acts.
11:08For decades,
11:09he slipped
11:09through the police's fingers,
11:11hiding behind normalcy,
11:12until DNA testing
11:14finally caught up
11:14with him
11:15with him
11:15in 2001
11:16with 49
11:17confirmed victims.
11:19It turns out
11:19evil
11:20doesn't always
11:21look like
11:21a monster.
11:22Sometimes,
11:23evil,
11:24it's just
11:25your neighbor.
11:25A DNA match
11:27had connected
11:2752-year-old
11:28truck painter
11:29Gary Ridgway
11:30with the first
11:31few victims.
11:32He'd been identified
11:33as the most
11:34prolific serial killer
11:35in the history
11:35of the United States.
11:36Richard Ramirez
11:39Most serial killers
11:49follow a pattern,
11:50a type of victim,
11:51a preferred weapon,
11:52a distinctive signature,
11:54not Richard Ramirez.
11:55The Night Stalker,
11:56as he was called,
11:57had no rules,
11:59no code.
11:59He struck anyone,
12:01anywhere,
12:01with whatever weapon
12:02he could grab.
12:03Between 1984
12:04and 1985,
12:06he terrorized
12:07Los Angeles
12:08in the Bay Area,
12:09murdering at least
12:1014 people.
12:11Nobody knows
12:12where this individual
12:13may strike next.
12:16The same man
12:17is suspected
12:18in 6 to 8 murders
12:19and 25 to 30 attacks.
12:21No one
12:22was off limits,
12:23young or old,
12:24man or woman.
12:26He shot,
12:26stabbed,
12:27and strangled his victims.
12:29Homes became traps,
12:30neighborhoods trembled,
12:32and the city
12:32was paralyzed
12:33with fear.
12:34When the law
12:35finally caught him,
12:36his terrifying calm
12:37at trial revealed
12:38a man who viewed
12:39murder as ordinary.
12:41Ramirez's reign
12:42may have been short,
12:44but his unpredictable,
12:45vicious spree
12:46will always be remembered.
12:48Why on earth
12:50would you have hurt
12:51those people?
12:52Why did you kill
12:53those people?
12:56I know
12:56comments.
12:57Before we continue,
12:59be sure to subscribe
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13:13Jeffrey Dahmer
13:14It's clear
13:23the 1980s spawned
13:25some of the deadliest
13:26killers,
13:27but Jeffrey Dahmer?
13:28He was
13:29as ruthless
13:30as they come.
13:31Known as
13:31the Milwaukee Cannibal,
13:33Dahmer preyed on young men
13:34between 1978
13:35and 1991,
13:37luring them
13:38from bars
13:38into his apartments.
13:40Most of the 17 murders
13:41attributed to him
13:42happened in the 80s,
13:44and his methods
13:45were disturbingly meticulous.
13:47We saw a large
13:48blue barrel
13:48in which we know
13:49that Jeffrey Dahmer
13:50was trying to
13:51dissolve body parts.
13:53It had a refrigerator
13:54that was holding
13:55skulls
13:57and also
13:58was holding
13:58body parts.
14:00He strangled,
14:01dismembered,
14:01and preserved
14:02body parts,
14:03sometimes
14:04even consuming them.
14:06Skulls,
14:06genitals,
14:07and a heart
14:08were kept as trophies,
14:09a morbid record
14:10of his obsession.
14:12When police
14:13finally caught him
14:13in 1991,
14:15the world was forced
14:15to confront
14:16the sheer scale
14:17of his depravity.
14:18The details
14:19were grotesque,
14:21and even now,
14:22decades later,
14:23Dahmer's confessions
14:24still puzzle us.
14:26The 80s
14:27were no joke.
14:29What I did,
14:30I should be dead.
14:32Which of these
14:3280s killers
14:33is the most dreaded?
14:35Let us know
14:36in the comments section.
14:37The 80s
14:38are no joke.
14:40It's a very weird
14:41problem.
14:42The 80s
14:42are no joke.
14:42It is true.
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