- 17 minutes ago
Some killers don’t just commit murder — they revel in the attention. From chilling social media posts to shocking jailhouse boasts, these cases show what happens when criminals can’t resist taking credit for their crimes.
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we're looking at criminals who not only killed, but felt the need to boast about
00:07their murders.
00:07Every time I look at someone, in my mind, I see flashes of images of me killing them.
00:17The selfie killer, Amanda Taylor.
00:20I started stabbing him. I had a knife. This knife Sean got me for my birthdays.
00:27And so I just started stabbing him, and he stopped moving, and Sean hit him to make sure he was
00:35dead.
00:36In August 2014, Amanda Taylor's husband Rex took his own life.
00:41Believing Rex's father, Charles Taylor, had encouraged Rex's substance use disorder, Amanda blamed him for his death.
00:48Months later, she decided that revenge meant killing him.
00:51In the weeks before the murder, Amanda's mental health had deteriorated.
00:55She had really no emotion about it. She described it as if she was baking bread.
00:59After an attempt to take her own life, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, but was released on April
01:041st, 2015.
01:06Just three days later, Amanda and her friend Sean Ball traveled to Charles' Virginia home with a bayonet-style knife
01:13and other weapons, intending to kill him.
01:16On April 4th, they ended Charles' life in the most gruesome way possible.
01:20I just looked at him, and I started stabbing him.
01:23What happened next made the case infamous.
01:25At the crime scene, Amanda posed for a photograph beside Charles' body, smiling while holding the bloody knife.
01:32The image was later shared online, including with a friend who ran a serial killer website.
01:37After the murder, Taylor then posed for a picture in front of Charles' body, holding a bloody knife and smirking.
01:45She then sent that picture to a friend who posted it on what was described as a serial killer website.
01:52Amanda then posted about the murder on social media, openly declaring why she had killed her father-in-law,
01:58and warning that more people could die if anyone came after her.
02:01In the interrogation room, Amanda acts like she hasn't a cure in the world.
02:05They fled to Virginia with Charles' money and car, but their escape didn't last long.
02:18Amanda later turned on Ball after he refused to participate in the killing spree she wanted.
02:23He was hospitalized in North Carolina after she shot him.
02:27The incident helped authorities close in on the pair, and Amanda was eventually captured.
02:31Pleading guilty to first-degree murder, Amanda received life without parole,
02:35while Ball, who cooperated with investigators, received 41 years in prison.
02:41King Vaughn
02:42You know King Vaughn do his thing, I hopped out, no I don't play,
02:45now I'm a runner on my way, so I count the crowds and hesitate.
02:48Rapp's first serial killer.
02:49That's what some called King Vaughn, but much of the case against him was never proven in court.
02:54Born Davon Bennett in 1994, Vaughn grew up in Chicago's O'Block neighborhood,
03:00one of the city's most violent pockets, and the streets followed him into his music career.
03:04Long before he became famous, he was linked to killings.
03:08In 2014, Chicago police documents identified him as the offender in the shooting death of 17-year-old
03:15Kakira Barnes, and he was separately charged with the murder of Malcolm Stuckey.
03:19This was a shooting that occurred on May 29th in 2014.
03:24Then on July 24th, 2014, he got booked and charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
03:31He was never charged for the former, and was found not guilty in the case against the latter.
03:37Vaughn went on to become one of drill music's most prominent voices, and its most unsettling.
03:42Songs like Demon and Wait contained detailed first-person references to shootings and bodies
03:48that listeners and investigators found difficult to dismiss as fiction.
03:53In Wait, he was widely alleged to be referencing the Barnes killing directly.
03:57He seemed to rap not about street life in the abstract, but about specific acts he claimed as his own.
04:03In 2019, Vaughn and Lil Durk were charged over allegations they robbed and shot a man.
04:09Don't remember my first bitch, but I remember my first hit.
04:12Like the other killings associated with Vaughn, this case never resulted in a conviction.
04:17Atlanta police have charged the man who they believe shot and killed Chicago rapper King Vaughn.
04:21On November 6th, 2020, King Vaughn was killed after an argument outside an Atlanta lounge escalated into a shooting
04:29between his group and Quando Rondo's entourage.
04:32King Vaughn was killed during a shootout between two groups outside a kooka lounge in downtown Atlanta Friday morning.
04:38His death left the case against him unresolved, while Durk's case was eventually dropped in 2022.
04:44Ain't no rap beef, and it ain't no real beef unless somebody got shot or something up.
04:48For more breakdowns of compelling cases and true crime stories, scan the QR code on screen to join WatchMojo's 24
04:55-7 true crime live stream.
05:04Tyler Hadley
05:05Once described as a happy child, Tyler Hadley wasn't always violent.
05:10But somewhere in his teenage years, substance use and increasingly erratic behavior began changing him.
05:16His parents, Blake and Mary Jo, noticed the difference, but initially dismissed it as teenage rebellion.
05:22They were wrong.
05:24Hadley's substance use disorder escalated into run-ins with the law involving arson, vandalism, and battery.
05:30Hoping to intervene before he turned 18, his parents decided to enroll him in a substance use rehabilitation program.
05:37That decision sealed their fate.
05:39Weeks before the murders, Hadley told a friend what he was planning.
05:43In July 2011, he made good on that threat.
05:46While on ecstasy, Hadley beat Blake and Mary Jo to death with a claw hammer, dragged their bodies into a
05:53bedroom, and covered them with household items.
05:56He then cleaned himself up, changed clothes, and threw a party.
06:00Tyler Hadley and Michael Mandel took this picture Saturday night.
06:04It was the last picture Mandel thought he'd ever take with his best friend.
06:08Police visited during the evening over a noise complaint, but left as the party was winding down.
06:13Um, he said his parents went out of town, so he was throwing the party.
06:18And I'm at the party, and we're all hanging out, everything's cool, he's acting fine.
06:23During the party, Hadley allegedly confessed what he had done to a friend, and even showed him the bodies.
06:29After I found his parents, I knew it was going to be the last time I've seen them.
06:32This is that look on his face.
06:34You could see the horror.
06:35Hours after leaving the party, that friend eventually reported the crimes.
06:40And Hadley was arrested the following morning.
06:43Shockingly, his willingness to brag continued after his arrest.
06:46While awaiting sentencing, he reportedly signed fellow inmates' copies of news articles about the murders
06:53with Hammer Time and his self-proclaimed nickname, Hammer Boy.
06:57He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison.
07:00This morning, the judge ruled to uphold two life sentences for Tyler Hadley.
07:06Daniel Marsh.
07:07Daniel Marsh murdered Oliver Northrup and his wife, Claudia Maupin, in 2013 when he was 15 years old.
07:14Daniel Marsh was only 15 when he broke into the California home of Claudia Maupin and Oliver Northrup in April
07:202013.
07:21His fascination with murder had reportedly begun years earlier, when he was just 10.
07:27Around the same time, his parents went through a bitter divorce after his mother had an affair with Marsh's former
07:33kindergarten teacher.
07:35The turmoil left Marsh deeply angry, but his thoughts soon went far beyond resentment toward his family.
07:41He began talking about killing people, and eventually said he wanted to become a serial killer.
07:47I opened the door, and I just kind of stood over their bed watching them sleep for a few minutes.
07:53In the early hours of April 14th, his fantasies about killing became reality,
07:58when Marsh broke into Claudia and Oliver's home and murdered them.
08:02The elderly couple was asleep when Marsh stabbed Northrup 61 times.
08:08Maupin, 67.
08:09Because Marsh had carefully planned the crime, investigators initially found little physical evidence connecting him to the murders.
08:17Then Marsh did something remarkably reckless.
08:20He started talking.
08:21He told people close to him that he had committed the murders.
08:24Do you believe that Daniel Marsh was a serial killer in training?
08:31Absolutely. Without a doubt.
08:33According to testimony at his trial, he first bragged to his friend Alvaro Garibay, then told his girlfriend and others.
08:41Rather than sounding remorseful, Marsh reportedly described the killings with pride, and said that they had been the best feeling
08:48of his life.
08:49He then retrieved the knife, gloves, boots, ski cap, and jacket he had worn that night, and showed them to
08:56Garibay.
08:57Scared that Marsh would kill again, Garibay reported the crime.
09:01The case went unsolved for two months until police got a tip from a teenager who heard Marsh brag about
09:07the crime.
09:08What are you reporting?
09:10Double homicide.
09:11After he was questioned by the police, Marsh was arrested in June 2013.
09:15Marsh eventually confessed, and told investigators the killings gave him pure happiness.
09:21Daniel Marsh is in the top three of the people I'm most scared of.
09:28Want more true crime on WatchMojo?
09:30Check out our dedicated 24-hour livestream.
09:33True crime all the time.
09:35We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl.
09:38Henry Lee Lucas.
09:40This convicted murderer became notorious for claiming responsibility for hundreds of killings he almost certainly never committed.
09:48Tell her you're sorry.
09:49Okay, I'm sorry.
09:51But how many people did Henry Lee Lucas actually kill?
09:55A violent offender.
09:56Lucas was convicted of 11 murders.
09:58His known killings began in 1960 when he murdered his mother.
10:02He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but was released after serving just 10 years.
10:07After his release, he drifted across the country and committed two more murders in 1982.
10:13His crimes often involved sexual violence, strangulation, or stabbing.
10:18In June 1983, Lucas was finally arrested on a firearms charge.
10:23While in custody, he confessed to murdering his companion Becky Powell and an elderly woman named Kate Rich.
10:30It's just like going out and butchering a hog, really.
10:35There's no difference.
10:36Those confessions opened the door to something much bigger.
10:39Lucas soon began claiming that he had killed hundreds of people across the country, eventually putting the number at roughly
10:45600.
10:46That's me and you go for a ride, Otis.
10:48His confession spree began attracting investigators, who believed he possessed knowledge of unsolved crimes.
10:55But Lucas had discovered that confessing came with rewards, including better food, attention, and access to case files.
11:02With information from those files, he could construct convincing stories and keep the attention coming.
11:08And I got so that I thought I was the biggest movie star in this country.
11:13Eventually, investigators and journalists began checking his claims against prison, employment, and travel records.
11:19Some murders had occurred when Lucas was demonstrably somewhere else.
11:23By 1985 and 86, the deception was becoming impossible to ignore, and Texas Attorney General Jim Maddox concluded that Lucas
11:32had falsely confessed to most of the killings.
11:34Lucas later recanted many of his claims.
11:42Which killer's actions baffled you the most?
11:45Drop a line in the comments section.
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