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ART DEPARTMENT

ADAM CLINE
ADAM GEYER
ADAM SUTTIE
ADAM WHITE
ADAM WILLIAMS
ALEJANDRA A. SANZ
ALEKSANDR POLTAVSKIY
ANDREW O'CONDELL
ANI ASLANIAN
BILLY CRANCE
BRYON BURDICK
CHAD OCONNELL
CHRIS CARPENTER
CHRIS SINK
CHRISTOPHER HUZIAK
CHRYSTAL THOMPSON
CHUCK HODI
CLAIRE AZZOPARDI
CLINT CARNEY
CODY WHITMAN
CRAIG HEWITT
DAN HARTMAN
DAN VERKYS
DARIO GARCIA
DARYL WALKER
DAVID CSICSELY
DAVID HARTMAN
DAVID WILLET
DR. PAYNE
EDDIE MULLINS
ERIC SWARTZ
ERIC WELLMAN
ERIN TINNEY
FABIEN FERNANDEZ
FRANKIE BABYLON
GERALD TORBITT
GREGORY COBURN
HAYLEY MUI
HERVÉ SCOTT FLAMENT
IAN WAGNER
JACK MALEBRANCH
JAMES RICHARDSON
JASON DAQUINO
JEREMY VANDERMARK
JESSICA FAIRFIELD
JESSICA JOHNSON
JO DUGGAN
JOAQUIN MONTALVAN
JOEL BAGLEY
JOHNNY MACHINE
JON FASSNACHT II
JONATHAN HAWK
JOSHUA MASON
JUSTIN MYERS
KAHLA WALKOSKI
KELLY HUTCHISON
KIMBERLY BAILEY
KUNSTATELIER T.GEBHARDT
KURT BELCHER
LEE BILLINGHAM
LEONARDO CASAS
LISA LACERRA
LORI HESTON
LOU RUSCONI
LYDA DAY
MARK STINSON
MARTHANA YUSA
MATT VERGES
MATTHEW AARON
MATTHEW JOEL CASSAR
MICHAEL MAJEWSKI
MICHAEL REYNOLDS
MICHI NEW FRANKENSTEIN
MICKMO
MIKE STOLTZ
NAOMI MCGRAW
NELLIE BROWN
NICHOLAS RAIMO
NICK DUNKELY
NICK LAZARISS
NICOLAS CASTELAUX
OPHELIE BERNAUD
PATRICK OLSEN
PAUL MELLINO
PETE BERG
PHILIP R. MERTZ
R.M. HANSON
RANDY WALL
ROBERTO ARANDA
ROWAN ANDREWS
RYAN SCHEMPP
SAMANTHA SHELDON
SARAH SMITH
SHANE SHEILS
SHANNON HILSON
SHANNON RIDDLE
SHAUN OLSEN
SIONA MORROW
TOM PALIWODA
URIEL A. DURAN
VICTORIA WENDT
VINCE PACKARD
VINCENT CASTIGLIA
WILLIAM JENNINGS

WRITING STAFF

AARON KIRKLAND
ALEXANDER DELIGHT
ANNA M. GRIFFY
ANNA ROCKET
BANDI BROCK
BILL DIXON
BOB GEORGE
BOB WARD
BRAD BARRETT
BRIAN RUSSELL
BRIDGET HEATH
BRIDGETTE ORMOND
BRUCE MOWDAY
CASEY JONES
CHARLOTTE GLEDSON
CHRIS BARTHOLOMEW
CHRIS CASINES
CRISTY MCGOFF
DAVID BOYLE
DAVID C. HAYES
DEANNA MULLINS
DENISE NOE
DION BRASS
DOUG WALLACE
DYLAN BONNAR
EVIL LUCY
EZRA RAINSTEIN
FAITH LEANNE
FREDERICK W. COOK
GARIN T. JONES
GENERAL AK47
HERLAKA ROSE
JASON WOLFE
JEFFREY HAYES
JESSICA FAIRFIELD
JESSICA ROBINSON
JOHN DAVID HERNANDEZ
JORDAN SEMICH
JULIE MCCORMICK
KAIT WELLMAN
KAMYELLE POWELL
KATHY PETERS AKA KATHRYN J
KEIMI YAMAGATA
KELLY HUTCHISON
KENNY HACKNEY
KEVIN SWEENEY
KILMER VARIENT
KIMBERLY BAILEY
LISA WILBERDING
LORENZO GARZA
LUIS CARBAJALES
LUKE DAVIES
MADGEPETTO
MADISON SHERMAN
MARTIN PROBEE
MAT CLOUSER
MATTHEW AARON
MELISSA HOGLE
MICHAEL ALOISI
MICHAEL BORELLA
NADIA FEZZANI
NICK STEVENS
NICOLAS CASTELAUX
REV WILLIAM SMYERS
RHIANNON EDWARDS
ROBERT HARNISH
SEAN DEMERS
SHAUN DUNNE
SHELLS WALTER
SHELLY RAAB
STEPH ARENA
STEPHANIE JOHNSON
STEPHEN W. ROBERTS
TARA RATH
TOD BOHANNON
VANESSA WEST
VICKY ZUBCIC
WILLIAM A. KINGMAN

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AILEEN WUORNOS
ALBERT DESALVO
ALBERT FISH
ALLAN LEGERE
ANDREI CHIKATILO
ÁNGEL RESÉNDIZ
ANGELO BUONO JR
ANNA MARIA ZWANZIGER
ANTHONY HARDY
ANTTI TASKINEN
ARTHUR GARY BISHOP
ARTHUR SHAWCROSS
AUSTIN AXE MURDERER
AXEMAN OF NEW ORLEANS
BASELINE KILLER
BÉLA KISS
BELLE GUNNESS
BEVERLY ALLITT
BIBLE JOHN
BLOODY BENDERS
BRUCE LEE
BRUNO LÜDKE
CARL PANZRAM
CARY STAYNER
CARLTON GARY
CAYETANO SANTOS GODINO
CAYETANO GODINO
CHARLES ALBRIGHT
CHARLES CULLEN
CHARLES MANSON
CHARLES QUANSAH
CHRISTOPHER WORRELL
CLAREMONT MURDERS
CLIFFORD OLSON
CHARLES NG
COLIN IRELAND
CORAL EUGENE WATTS
DAGMAR OVERBYE
DANIEL BARBOSA
DANIEL RUDA
DANNY ROLLING
DAVID BERKOWITZ
DAVID GORE
DAVID KORESH
DEAN CARTER
DEAN CORLL
DENNIS NILSEN
DERRICK TODD LEE
DONALD GASKINS
DONALD HARVEY
DOROTHEA PUENTE
EARLE NELSON
ED GEIN
EDDIE LEONSKI
EDMUND KEMPER
EFREN SALDIVAR
ELFRIEDE BLAUENSTEINER
ELIZABETH BATHORY
ERIC EDGAR COOKE
ÉMILE LOUIS
FRITZ HAARMANN
FRITZ HONKA
GARY M. HEIDNIK
GARY RIDGWAY
GENENE JONES
GEORGE CHAPMAN
GERALD SCHAEFER
GERALD STANO
GERTRUDE BANISZEWSKI
GILLES DE RAIS
HARVEY GLATMAN
HÉLÈNE JEGADO
HENRI DÉSIRÉ LANDRU
HENRY LEE LUCAS
HENRY LOUIS WALLACE
HERBERT MULLIN
H.H. HOLMES
HU WANLIN
IAN BRADY
IRENE LEIDOLF
IVAN MILAT
JACK THE RIPPER
JACK THE STRIPPER
JACK UNTERWEGER
JEFFREY DAHMER
JEFFREY GORTON
JERRY BRUDOS
JESSE POMEROY
JIM JONES
JOACHIM KROLL
JOE BALL
JOEL RIFKIN
JOHN ALLEN MUHAMMAD
JOHN CHRISTIE
JOHN CHILDS
JOHN GEORGE HAIGH
JOHN ROBINSON
JOHN WAYNE GACY
JOHN WAYNE GLOVER
JOSEPH DUNCAN III
JOSEPH PAUL FRANKLIN
JOSEPH VACHER
JUAN VALLEJO CORONA
JÜRGEN BARTSCH
KARL DENKE
KARL GROSSMAN
KARLA HOMOLKA
KEITH HUNTER JESPERSON
KENNETH BIANCHI
KENNETH ERSKINE
KITTY GENOVESE
KRISTEN GILBERT
LARRY EYLER
LEMUEL SMITH
LEONARD LAKE
LUIS GARAVITO
MACK RAY EDWARDS
MANUELA RUDA
MARC DUTROUX
MARCEL PETIOT
MARY ANN COTTON
MARY BELL
MARYBETH TINNING
MICHAEL ROSS
MICHAEL SWANGO
MICHAEL WAYNE MCGRAY
MICHEL FOURNIRET
MORRIS SOLOMON JR.
MYRA HINDLEY
NANNIE DOSS
OTTIS TOOLE
PATRICK KEARNEY
PAUL BERNARDO
PAUL DENYER
PEDRO LÓPEZ
PAUL JOHN KNOWLES
PETER DUPAS
PETER KURTEN
PETER STUMPP
PETER WOODCOCK
PHANTOM KILLER
PHILIP JABLONSKI
RAMAN RAGHAV
RANDALL WOODFIELD
RANDY STEVEN KRAFT
RICHARD ANGELO
RICHARD CHASE
RICHARD RAMIREZ
ROBERT BERDELLA
ROBERT BLACK
ROBERT CHARLES BROWNE
ROBERT HANSEN
ROBERT LEE YATES
ROBERT PICKTON
ROBLEDO PUCH
ROD FERRELL
RUSSELL JOHNSON
SANTE KIMES
SNOWTOWN MURDERS
STONEMAN
SYLVESTRE MATUSCHKA
TED BUNDY
TED BUNDY (DETAILED)
THOMAS GEORGE SVEKLA
THOMAS NEILL CREAM
THUG BEHRAM
TOMMY LYNN SELLS
TORSO MURDERER
TRURO MURDERS
VÁCLAV MRÁZEK
VINCENT JOHNSON
VLAD THE IMPALER
WAYNE ADAM FORD
WAYNE WILLIAMS
WESTLEY ALLAN DODD
"WILD BILL" HICKMAN
WILLIAM BONIN
WILLIAM MACDONALD
WILLIAM PATRICK FYFE
WILLIAM SUFF
YANG XINHAI
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ARTWORK AND PHOTOS OF THE WORLD'S WORST KILLERS

VIEW OUR ARTISTS WORK
ADAM CLINE IMAGES
AILEEN WUORNOS IMAGES
ALBERT DESALVO IMAGES
ALBERT FISH IMAGES
ANDREI CHIKATILO IMAGES
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 1
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 2
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 3
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 4
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 5
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 6
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 7
CHARLES MANSON IMAGES 8
CHRIS CARPENTER IMAGES
CHUCK HODI IMAGES
DANIEL RUDA IMAGES
DARYL WALKER IMAGES
DAVID BERKOWITZ IMAGES
DENNIS RADER IMAGES
ED GEIN IMAGES
EDMUND KEMPER IMAGES
GERARD TORBITT IMAGES
JACK MALEBRANCHE IMAGES
JEFFREY DAHMER IMAGES
JOHN WAYNE GACY IMAGES
JOHNNY MACHINE IMAGES
LOU RUSCONI IMAGES
MARK STINSON IMAGES
MATT VERGES IMAGES
MIKE HENDERSON IMAGES
NICO CLAUX IMAGES
PETE BERG IMAGES
RICHARD THE ICEMAN KUKLINSKI
RICHARD RAMIREZ IMAGES
RICHARD SPECK IMAGES
ROBERT PICKTON IMAGES
SERIAL KILLER TATTOOS
SHANNON HILSON IMAGES
TED BUNDY IMAGES
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WE ARE ATTEMPTING THE IMPOSSIBLE - COMPILING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF SERIAL KILLER EVENTS

KILLER HISTORY JANUARY
KILLER HISTORY FEBRUARY
SKILLER HISTORY MARCH
KILLER HISTORY APRIL
KILLER HISTORY MAY
KILLER HISTORY MAY
KILLER HISTORY JULY
KILLER HISTORY AUGUST
KILLER HISTORY SEPTEMBER
KILLER HISTORY OCTOBER
KILLER HISTORY NOVEMBER
KILLER HISTORY DECEMBER

KILLERS FROM MOVIES, BOOKS, GAMES, COMICS AND MORE

MOVIES AND MURDER
ANGELA
ANGELA BAKER
ALEX DELARGE
ANNIE WILKES
BABY "ANGEL" FIREFLY
BABY JANE HUDSON
BARABAS THE JEW
BEN WILLIS (THE FISHERMAN)
BILLY CHAPMAN
BROTHER PAPA
BUFFALO BILL
CAPTAIN SPAULDING
CANDYMAN
THE CENOBITES
CHOP TOP (ROBERT SAWYER)
CHUCKY (CHARLES LEE RAY)
CLETUS KASADY
CORINTHIAN
DEXTER MORGAN
DOCTOR EVAN RENDELL
DOCTOR MABUSE
DOCTOR SATAN
DR. ALAN FEINSTONE
DR. PHILIP CHANNARD
DRAYTON SAWYER
EDGLER VESS
EDWARD LIONHEART
EDWARD SAWYER
FARMER VINCENT SMITH
FRANCIS DOLARHYDE
FRANK BOOTH
FREDDY KRUEGER
GEORGE HARVEY
GEORGES QUERELLE
GRANDPA HUGO
DR HANNIBAL LECTER
GHOSTFACE KILLER
HERBERT WEST
HORACE PINKER
JASON VOORHEES
JIGSAW KILLER
JOHN DOE
JOHN RYDER
JUPITERS CLAN
LAWRENCE WARGRAVE
LEATHERFACE
LORD VOLDEMORT
LUDA MAY HEWITT
MAX CADY
MICHAEL MYERS
MICKEY & MALLORY KNOX
NORMAN BATES
OH DAE-SU
OLD MONTY
OTIS DRIFTWOOD
PATRICK BATEMAN
PINHEAD
RANDALL FLAGG
REVEREND HARRY POWELL
RHODA PENMARK
SERGE A. STORMS
SHERIFF HOYT
SWEENEY TODD
TED ALLISON
THE TALL MAN
TOM RIPLEY
WHITEFACE
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MOBSTERS, HITMEN AND MORE

ORGANIZED CRIME
ABE RELES
AL CAPONE
ALBERT TANNENBAUM
ALEXANDER SOLONIK
ANTHONY SENTER
ANTHONY SPILOTRO
ANGELO LA BARBERA
BERNARDO PROVENZANO
CALOGERO VIZZINI
CHARLES HARRELSON
CHARLES NICOLETTI
CHRIS ROSENBERG
CORNELIUS HUGHES
GAETANO BADALAMENTI
GIUSEPPE GENCO RUSSO
GLENNON ENGLEMAN
HARRY MAIONE
FRANK ABBANDANDO
FRANK ABBANDANDO JR
FRANK NITTI
FRANK SHEERAN
FELIX ALDERISIO
HARRY STRAUSS
JACK MCGURN
JAMES BURKE
JOHN GOTTI
JOSEPH TESTA
LEOLUCA BAGARELLA
LOUIS CAPONE
LUCKY LUCIANO
MATTEO MESSINA DENARO
MICHELE GRECO
MICHELE NAVARRA
RICHARD KUKLINSKI
ROY DEMEO
SALVATORE GRECO
SALVATORE LO PICCOLO
SALVATORE INZERILLO
SALVATORE RIINA
SAMMY GRAVANO
STEFANO BONTADE
STEFANO MAGADDINO
SEYMOUR MAGOON
THOMAS DESIMONE
TOMMASO BUSCETTA
VERNON C. MILLER
VITO CASCIO FERRO

THE MANY TYPES OF MURDER

ASSASSINATION
CHILD MURDER
CONSENSUAL HOMICIDE
CONTRACT KILLING
DEMOCIDE
FELONY MURDER
FETICIDE
FILICIDE
FRATRICIDE
GENDERCIDE
GENOCIDE
HOMICIDE
HONOR KILLING
HUMAN SACRIFICE
INFANTICIDE
JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE
LUST MURDER
LYNCHING
MANSLAUGHTER
MARITICIDE
MASS MURDER
MATRICIDE
MURDER-SUICIDE
NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE
PARRICIDE
PATRICIDE
PROLICIDE
PROXY MURDER
REGICIDE
RITUAL MURDER
SERIAL KILLER
SORORICIDE
SPREE KILLER
SUICIDE
TORTURE MURDER
TYRANNICIDE
UXORICIDE
VEHICULAR HOMICIDE

UNNATURAL LOVE AND IT'S CONNECTIONS TO SERIAL KILLING

OVERVIEW OF PARAPHILIA
OVERVIEW OF FETISHISM
ABASIOPHILIA
ACOUSTICOPHILIA
ACROTOMOPHILIA
ALGOLAGNIA
APOTEMNOPHILIA
AMAUROPHILIA
ANACLITISM
ANDROMIMETOPHILIA
AQUAPHILIA
ARETIFISM
ASPHYXIOPHILIA
AUTOGYNEPHILIA
BIASTOPHILIA
COPROPHILIA
CHRONOPHILIA
CRUSH FETISH
DACRYPHILIA
EMETOPHILIA
EPHEBOPHILIA
EXHIBITIONISM
FOOD PLAY
FORNIPHILIA
FROTTEURISM
GALACTOPHILIA
GYNOPHAGIA
HEMATOLAGNIA
HOMEOVESTISM
HYBRISTOPHILIA
INCEST
INFANTILISM
KATOPTRONOPHILIA
KLEPTOMANIA
KLISMAPHILIA
LUST MURDER
MACROPHILIA
MAIESIOPHILIA
PODOPHILIA
SADISM & MASOCHISM
MICROPHILIA
MYSOPHILIA
NARRATOPHILIA
NASOPHILIA
NECROPHILIA
NEPIOPHILIA
PYROPHILIA
RETIFISM
SALIROMANIA
SCHEDIAPHILIA
SITOPHILIA
SOMNOPHILIA
STATUEPHILIA
TERATOPHILIA
TRANSVESTISM
TROILISM
UROLAGNIA
VINCILAGNIA
VORAREPHILIA
VOYEURISM
ZOOPHILIA
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A GRAB BAG OF INTERESTING INFO ON SERIAL KILLERS

FROM THE MOUTH OF KILLERS

ARTHUR SHAWCROSS INTERVIEW
BTK KILLER INTERVIEW
CHARLES MANSON INTERVIEW
ELMER HENLEY INTERVIEW
JAMES MUNRO INTERVIEW
JEFFREY DAHMER INTERVIEW
JOHN ROBINSON INTERVIEW
KEITH JESPERSON INTERVIEW
RICHARD RAMIREZ INTERVIEW
TED BUNDY INTERVIEW
WAYNE LO INTERVIEW
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AN EVER GROWING COLLECTION OF HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS

ABANDONED, THE
AB-NORMAL BEAUTY
ABOMINABLE
ALBERT FISH
ALONE IN THE DARK
ALONE WITH HER
ALTERED
AMATEUR PORN STAR KILLER
AMAZON JAIL
AN AMERICAN HAUNTING
AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS
ANDRE THE BUTCHER
APRIL FOOL'S DAY
ARANG
ASYLUM
AUDREY ROSE
AUNT ROSE
AUTOMATONS
AUTOPSY
AWAKEN THE DEAD
BABY BLOOD
BAD REPUTATION
BAD TASTE
BAISE MOI
BANGKOK HAUNTED
BARE BEHIND BARS
BARRICADE
BASKET CASE
BATTLE IN HEAVEN
BENEATH STILL WATERS
BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP
BIG BAD WOLF
BLACK DAHLIA
BTK KILLER
BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD
CABIN FEVER
CACHE
CAMP BLOOD
CAMP BLOOD 2
CAMP SLAUGHTER
CANDY STRIPERS
CANNIBAL (2005)
CANNIBAL (2006)
CANNIBAL CAMPOUT
CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
CARD PLAYER, THE
CAVED IN
CAVE, THE
CAVERN, THE
CELLO
CEMETERY GATES
CEMETERY MAN
CENTIPEDE
CERBERUS
CHAINSAW SALLY
CHAOS
CHEERLEADER MASSACRE
CHICAGO MASSACRE
CHILDREN OF THE CORN
CHOKE, THE
CHURCH, THE
CINDERELLA
CITY OF ROTT
CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD
COME GET SOME
CONTAINMENT
CONTAMINATION
CONVENT, THE
COOKERS
CORPSES
COVENANT, THE
CREEP
CREEPSHOW
CREEPSHOW 2
CREEPSHOW 3
CULT
CUP OF MY BLOOD
CURIOUS DR. HUMP, THE
CURSE OF LIZZIE BORDEN
CURSE OF THE DEVIL
CUT
CUT AND RUN
DANIKA
DARK CORNERS
DARK FIELDS
DARK HOURS, THE
DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS
DAWN
DEAD & BREAKFAST
DEAD & DEADER
DEAD CALLING, A
DEAD LEAVES
DEAD LIFE
DEAD LINE
DEAD MARY
DEAD MEN WALKING
DEAD & ROTTING
DEAD SHIT
DEAD SILENCE
DEATH BED
DEATH BY ENGAGEMENT
DEATH CLIQUE
DEATH KNOWS YOUR NAME
DEATH TUNNEL
DEATH VALLEY
DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT
DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEALS
DECOYS: THE SECOND SEDUCTION
DEFENCELESS: A BLOOD SYMPHONY
THE DELIBERATE STRANGER
DEMON HUNTER
DEMONIC
DEMONS
DEMONS 2
DESCENT, THE
DESPERATE SOULS
DESPERATION, STEPHEN KING'S
DEVIL'S DEN
DEVIL'S RAIN, THE
DEVIL'S REJECTS, THE
DEVIL TIMES FIVE
DEXTER 6 "RETURN TO SENDER"
DEXTER 7 "CIRCLE OF FRIENDS"
DEXTER 8 "SHRINK WRAP"
DEXTER 9 "FATHER KNOWS BEST"
DEXTER 10 "SEEING RED"
DEXTER 11 "TRUTH BE TOLD"
DEXTER 12 "BORN FREE"
DIARY OF A CANNIBAL
DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS!
DISTURBANCE
DJANGO
DOG SOLDIERS
DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE
DON'T DELIVER US FROM EVIL
DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE
DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING
DOOM
DOOMED
DOPPELGANGER
DORM
DORM OF THE DEAD
DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK?
DRACULA
DRACULA, HOUSE OF
DRACULA, SPANISH
DRACULA'S CURSE
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER
DREAM REAPER
DROP, THE
DUMBLAND
DUST DEVIL
EATING RAZORS
EDMOND
EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD
EMANUELLE IN AMERICA
EMANUELLE IN BANGKOK
ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN
ENTRAILS OF A VIRGIN
EVIL (TO KAKO)
EVIL ALIENS
EVIL BEHIND YOU
EVIL BONG
EVIL BREED
EVIL DEAD TRAP 2
EVIL ED
EVILENKO
EVILSPEAK
EYE, THE
EYES OF CRYSTAL
FACES OF GORE
FAMILY PORTRAIT
FANTOM KILER
FAUSTO 5.0
FEAR OF CLOWNS
FEAST
FEED
FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION
FIFTH CORD, THE
FINAL DESTINATION 3
FIRST BORN
5 DEAD ON THE CRIMSON CANVAS
5IVE GIRLS
FLESH EATERS, THE
FLOWER AND SNAKE
FLOWER AND SNAKE 2
FOG, THE (1980)
FOG, THE (2005)
FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION
FORCED ENTRY
FOREST OF DEATH
FRAILTY
FRANKENHOOKER
FRANKENSTEIN
FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD
FREAKMAKER, THE
FREAK OUT
FREAKSHOW
FRENCH SEX MURDERS
FRIDAY THE 13TH
FRIDAY THE 13TH II
FRIDAY THE 13TH III
FRIDAY THE 13TH VI
FRIDAY THE 13TH VII
FRIDAY THE 13TH VIII
FRIGHTMARE
FRIGHT NIGHT
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3
FROSTBITE
FUNHOUSE, THE
FUNNY GAMES
FUTURE-KILL
GAME BOX 1.0
GANGS OF THE DEAD
GARDEN, THE
GATHERING, THE
GEMINI
GHOST GAME
GHOST LAKE
GHOST OF MAE NAK
GHOST, THE (RYEONG)
GHOUL SCHOOL
GINGER SNAPS
GIRL BOSS GUERILLA
GIRL SLAVES OF MORGANA LE FAY
GOING TO PIECES
GOLDEN AGE
GONE THE WAY OF FLESH
GORE GORE GIRLS, THE
GRAVEDANCERS, THE (2007)
GRAVEYARD ALIVE
GRAVEYARD, THE
GREEN RIVER KILLER
GRINDHOUSE - DEATH PROOF
GRINDHOUSE - PLANET TERROR
GRUB GIRL
GRUDGE, THE
GRUDGE 2, THE
H6: DIARY OF A SERIAL KILLER
HALFWAY HOUSE, THE
HALLOWED
HALLOWEEN NIGHT
HAMILTONS, THE
HANNIBAL RISING
HARD CANDY
HARSH TIMES
HAUNTED FOREST
HAUNTED HIGHWAY
HAUNTED PRISON
HAVOC
THE HAZING
HEADER
HEADHUNTER
HEAD OF THE FAMILY
HEADSPACE
HEAD TRAUMA
HEARTSTOPPER
HELLBENT
HELLFIRE CLUB
HELLRAISER
HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2
HELLRAISER 3: HELL ON EARTH
HELLRAISER - DEADER
HELTER SKELTER
HENRY
HIGH TENSION
HILLS HAVE EYES, THE (2006)
HILLS HAVE EYES 2, THE (1985)
HILLS HAVE EYES 2, THE (2007)
HILLSIDE CANNIBALS
HITCHER, THE (1986)
HITCHHIKER, THE
HORROR BUSINESS
HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN
HORRORS OF WAR
HOSTEL
HOSTEL 2
HOST, THE
HOT FUZZ
HOT WAX: ZOMBIES ON WHEELS
HOUSE OF 9
HOUSE OF BLOOD
HUMAN NO MORE
HUNDRA
HUNT, THE
IDLE HANDS
I DRINK YOUR BLOOD
I'LL BURY YOU TOMORROW
ILSA - SHE WOLF OF THE SS
ILSA - HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS
ILSA - THE WICKED WARDEN
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ANDREI CHIKATILO

Written by Katherine Ramsland : Originaly published at crimelibrary.com

First Hints

The first body found was mostly bones. A man looking for firewood in the lesopolosa, a rectangular "shelterbelt" or forested strip of land planted to prevent erosion, found the remains. While the area was only about 50 yards wide, with a path running through it, no one had seen this body until it was pretty well decomposed. There were small patches of leathered skin on some of the bones and some black hair hanging from the skull. The man who found the remains reported them to the militsia, the local authorities in this southern region of Russia

The body had no identifying clothing and had been left on its back, the head turned to one side. The ears were still sufficiently intact to see tiny holes for earrings, and those, along with the length of the hair, suggested that this victim had been female. It also appeared from her postmortem posture that she had tried to fight her attacker. It appeared that two ribs had been broken, perhaps by a knife, and closer inspection indicated numerous stab wounds into the bone. A knife had apparently cut into the eye sockets, too, as if to remove the eyes, and similar gouges were viewed in the pelvic region.

Whoever had done this, the police thought, had been a frenzied beast.

They did have a report on a missing 13-year-old girl, Lyubov Biryuk from Novocherkassk, a village not far away. Investigators called the uncle of the missing girl who had done an extensive search for her after she'd disappeared earlier in the month. He came to where the body lay to look at the remains.

Lyubov's uncle, perhaps clutching to some small glimpse of hope, said his niece's hair was not as dark and that the bones looked to him as if they had been there longer than she had been missing.

Major Mikhail Fetisov (police file photo)

The next day, the searchers found a white sandal and yellow bag containing the brand of cigarettes that the young girl had set out to purchase. Then fingerprints of the corpse and the schoolgirl's book covers confirmed that this body was Lyubov's. DNA analysis for body identification was several years away, but from what evidence they had, they could be sure it was the missing girl. The medical examiner hypothesized that warm temperatures and heavy rain had afforded the accelerated state of decomposition.

Despite a thorough search around the remains, no evidence was produced that could help to identify the person who had killed her, and the dress that Lyubov had worn was missing. That meant that no trace evidence could be collected from it. It was thought to be a random attack, nearly impossible to solve.

According to Robert Cullen, author of a well-known book on the case, most murders in that area of Russia fell into one of two categories: intimate killings, in which a person got into a rage or a drunken state and murdered someone he knew, usually a family member; and instrumental murders done to take something from the victim. But no one in the girl's family was a clear suspect and she'd had nothing of any value on her person.

There was a path near the body that people traveled often, and a road only 75 yards away. This had been a crime of some risk, with evidence of overkill. Although sexual crimes were considered manifestations of self-indulgent Western societies, there were plenty of signs that this incident had been just such a killing.

It became clear later from the autopsy report that she had been attacked from behind and hit hard in the head with both the handle and the blade of a knife. Perhaps she'd been knocked out right away. At any rate, she had been stabbed at least 22 separate times and mutilated in other ways. (In Hunting the Devil, told by Richard Lourie partly from the killer's perspective, the number of wounds was 41.)

The police came up with ideas and began looking for possible suspects: those who were mentally ill, juvenile delinquents, or someone with a history of sex crimes. They tried to find out whom Lyubov had known and how she might have encountered this killer.

One man, convicted in another rape, learned that he was a suspect and promptly hanged himself. That seemed to put an end to the investigation. There were no other viable suspects, and for all they knew, the killer had found his own form of redemption.

But then another victim was discovered.

The Division of Especially Serious Crimes

Less than two months after the discovery of Lyubov's remains, a railroad worker who was walking near the train station for Shakhty, a small industrial town 20 miles away, came across a set of skeletal remains. It appeared to have been there for approximately six weeks and was soon identified as an adult woman. The body had been stripped, left facedown, with the legs open. What made investigators take note was a key similarity with the murder of Lyubov: multiple stab wounds and lacerated eye sockets. That was a rare manifestation of murder.

Since no one of this approximate size and gender had been reported missing, no identification was made.

Only a month later, a soldier gathering wood about 10 miles south of that spot came across more remains, also of a woman lying face down. She had been covered with branches, but close inspection showed the pattern of knife wounds and damage to the eye sockets. She, too, remained unknown.

The linkage was obvious. A serial killer had claimed at least three victims. But no one was admitting that, especially not to the press. Officially what they had were three separate unsolved murders. (They actually had seven that year, Richard Lourie says, but they would not know that for some time to come.)

Major Fetisov organized a task force of 10 men to start an aggressive full-time investigation. He intended to get to the heart of this and stop this maniac from preying on any more female citizens. Among those he recruited was a second lieutenant from the criminology laboratory named Viktor Burakov, 37, and his perspective is presented in Cullen's book. He was the best man they had for the analysis of physical evidence like fingerprints, footprints, and other manifestations at a crime scene, and he was an expert in both police science and the martial arts. Known for his diligence, he was invited aboard the Division of Especially Serious crimes in January 1983. Little did anyone realize then just how diligent he would prove to be and would have to be.

Viktor Burakov (police file photo)

All they knew at this point was that the killer—whom they now called the Maniac—did not smoke (or he'd have taken the cigarettes found near Lyubov), and that he was a man. He had some issue with eyes, but whether it was based on superstition or a   fetish or some other consideration authorities had no idea. At any rate, as Cullen points out, gouging out the eyes indicated that the killer spent some time with the victims after they were dead.

With no definite leads, the unit decided to look back in time and see if there might be other victims. Burakov's first real task was to head an investigation in Novoshakhtinsk, a farming and mining town in the general area, where a 10-year-old girl had just been reported missing.

Confusion

Olga Stalmachenok had gone to a piano lesson on December 10, 1982. No one had seen her since. Burakov questioned her parents and learned that she got along with them and had no apparent cause to just run away. However, the parents had received a strange postcard from "Sadist-Black Cat" telling them their daughter was in the woods and warning that there would be 10 more victims that coming year. Burakov dismissed this as a sick prank, but still feared that the girl was dead.

Then on April 14, four months after her disappearance, Olga's body was found in a field about three miles from the music conservatory where she had gone for her lesson. Her nude body was lying in a frozen tractor rut on a collective farm. The police left her in place until Burakov could arrive to see the crime scene for himself. Because she had been killed during the winter, the snow had preserved the corpse, so the pattern of knife wounds was clearly visible on her bluish-white skin. The skull was punctured, as were the chest and stomach. The knife had been inserted dozens of times, as if in a frenzy, moving the organs around in the body cavity. The killer had especially targeted the heart, lungs, and sexual organs. And as with the others, this offender had attacked the eyes with his single-bladed knife.

Without a doubt, Burakov knew that he was looking for a vicious, sexually-motivated serial killer who was attacking victims at a quickening rate, drawing no attention to what he was doing, and leaving no evidence. There were no resources that Burakov was aware of to utilize. Men who killed in this manner were supposedly few and only top-ranking officials knew the details of those investigations.

Burakov, who followed the long route from the conservancy to the place where the body was left, believed the killer had a car. He also felt sure the man did not frighten people when he approached. There was nothing overt in his appearance that would alarm women or children. That would make him harder to find, though he surely had some sort of covert mental disorder that hopefully some people noticed.

They decided to focus fully on investigating known sex offenders in the area, specifically where they were on December 11. Then on released mental patients, and then men who lived or worked around the conservancy who owned or used a car. Also, handwriting experts came in to compare the Black Cat card against samples from the entire population of that town. It was tedious work, with no promise of yielding a single clue. Yet doing nothing was guaranteed to provide no clue, so at least they had a start.

What they did not know, according to Lourie, was that a 15-year-old boy had also been killed in a similar manner near Shakhty, then left to be covered by snow. He would not be found for some time.

For the next four months, nothing turned up of any value, although they realized that snow could easily cover what might have occurred, and then it was discovered that the killer had struck again. In another wooded lesopolosa near Rostov-on-Don, a group of boys found some bones in a gully. Again, they could find no missing-persons report, and an examination of the bones not only linked this crime with the others but revealed that the girl (it seemed) had had Down's syndrome. That made things a little easier, despite the horror of realizing the killer had lured a mentally retarded child with no possibility of defending herself. They could check the special schools in the area to make an identification.

A 45-year-old woman was also murdered in the woods over the winter, but no one linked her to the lesopolosa series. That would come later.

The girl turned out to have been 13, attending a school for children with her condition. No one had missed her, since she often left, so no one had reported her. But her case took a back seat to the next body, discovered in September in a wooded area near Rostov's airport, two miles from victim No. 6. However it was an 8-year-old boy. He had been stabbed, like the others, including his eyes, and it turned out that he had been missing since August 9. Like the little girl going to piano lessons, he had ridden on public transportation.

This new development puzzled everyone. With what little was known about killers, the basic analysis was that they always went after the same type of victim. This man had killed grown women and young children, girls and boys. The investigators wondered if they might have more than one killer doing the same kind of perverse ritual. It seemed impossible, but so did the idea that so many victim types could trigger the same type of sexual violence in one person.

Then Burakov learned that the killer had finally been apprehended. It was over. He went to the jail to learn what he could about this man.

Confession

The suspect was Yuri Kalenik, 19. He had lived for years in a home for retarded children and had then been trained to lay floors in construction. He remained friends with older boys in his former residence and one day when they were riding on a trolley, the conductor caught them. Grabbing one boy, she wanted to know what he knew about the recent murders and he told her that Yuri had done them. So based on the squirming accusation of a mentally slow boy who was trying to free himself from punishment, the officials believed they had broken the case.

Yuri was arrested and interrogated. He had no right to a lawyer or to remain silent. He barely knew what was happening to him. Nevertheless, he denied everything. He had not killed anyone. Yet the interrogators kept him there for several days, believing (according to Cullen) that a guilty man will inevitably confess. It soon became clear to Yuri that to stop being beaten he would have to tell them what they wanted to hear, so he did. And then some. He confessed to all seven murders, and added four unsolved murders in the area to his list. Now all the police needed was supporting evidence. This young man was quite a catch.

Viktor Burakov accepted the task of further investigation. Yuri seemed a viable suspect, because he had a mental disorder and he rode on public transportation. And why would he confess to such brutal crimes if he did not do them? At the time—and even today—there was little understanding of the psychology of false confessions. Less intelligent people tend to be more susceptible to suggestion, especially when fatigued, and they will tell interrogators whatever pleases them—usually supplying whatever clues they hear from the questions. Sociologist Richard Ofshe recounts case after case of suspects who admitted to things they did not do, despite the harsh consequences, and Wrightsman lists several studies of people exonerated by DNA evidence who had confessed to the crime for which they were imprisoned. Most juries do not believe people will confess falsely and they accept a confession as the best type of evidence against someone.

Even better, when a suspect can lead police to the site of where someone was murdered, that's considered good confirmation, and Kalenik did just that with several of the incidents. Nevertheless, Burakov was not convinced. He saw that Kalenik did not go straight to a site, even when he was close, but appeared to wander around until he picked up clues from the police about where they expected him to go. Burakov did not consider that to be a good test. Upon examining the written confession, he was even less convinced. It was clear to him that Kalenik had been given most of the information that he was expected to say, and had then felt intimidated.

It was difficult to know just how to proceed, but then another body was found.

Operation Lesopolosa

In another wooded area, the mutilated remains of a young woman were found. Her nipples had been removed—possibly with teeth, her abdomen was slashed open, and one eye socket was damaged. She had been there for several months and her clothing was missing. Kalenik could have been responsible for this one, whose identity remained unknown, since he was free at the time, but not the next one, found on October 20.

She had been murdered approximately three days earlier, while Kalenik was in custody. He definitely did not kill her, but her wounds were similar to those of the other victims. Whoever had killed her was growing bolder and more frenzied in his surgical removal of parts. This victim was entirely disemboweled, and the missing organs were nowhere to be found. However, her eyes remained intact. She might not be part of the series, although she did ride the trains. Perhaps the killer had changed his method or had been interrupted.

Four weeks later and not far away from that site, a set of skeletal remains was found in the woods. Her death was estimated to have occurred some time during the summer, and her eyes had been gouged out.

It wasn't long before the 10th unsolved murder turned up, just after the turn of the year into 1984. This one was a boy, found near the railroad tracks. He was identified as Sergei Markov, a 14-year-old boy missing since December 27. For the first time, thanks to winter's preservative effects, the detectives, led by Mikhail Fetisov, were able to see just what the killer did to these young people.

He had stabbed the boy in the neck dozens of times—the final count would be 70—and he had then cut into the boy's genitals and removed everything from the pubic area. In addition, he had violated his victim anally. Then it appeared that he had gone to a spot nearby to have a bowel movement.

Clearly the jailed Kalenik was not responsible and the maniac who was perpetrating these crimes was still very much at large. In their rush to close these cases, the police had made a mistake.

Fetisov decided to retrace the boy's steps on the day he had disappeared. Beginning in a town called Gukovo, where the boy had lived and from where he had gone that day, he boarded the elechtrichka, or local train. In the same town was a home for the mentally retarded and the teachers there reported that a former student, Mikhail Tyapin, 23, had left around the same time as the boy and had taken the train. He was a very large young man and barely knew how to talk. Once again, the police got a confession.

Tyapin and his friend, Aleksandr Ponomaryev, said they had met Markov, had lured him to the woods, and killed him. They had also left their excrement. Tyapin, in particular, had numerous violent fantasies, and he claimed credit for several other unsolved murders in the area. But he never mentioned the damage done to the eyes. And he and Ponomaryev confessed to two murders that were proven to have been done by someone else.

The police were now thoroughly confused, and Fetisov had some doubts, while Burakov felt certain they had not apprehended the killer they were after. All of the so-called confessions were flawed. He believed that only one person was involved, that this person was a loner and not part of a gang, and that he was clearly demented in some subtly perceivable way.

Then they had their first piece of good evidence. The medical examiner found semen in Markov's anus. He had been raped and the perpetrator had ejaculated. When they apprehended the killer, they could compare the blood antigens. This would not afford a precise match, but could at least eliminate suspects. In fact, it eliminated all of the young men who had confessed thus far. They all had the wrong type of blood.

But then the lab issued another report, claiming it had mixed up the sample. The type did indeed match that of Mikhail Tyapin. That meant that the odds were good that they had Markov's killer.

Yet bodies still turned up.

Some Possible Leads

In 1984, numerous victims were discovered in wooded areas, some of them quite close to where previous bodies had lain before being discovered and removed. The first one found after Typapin's arrest was a woman who had been slashed up in the same frenzy as previous victims. Yet her eyes were intact and one new item was added: a finger had been removed.

They also had one more piece of evidence: a shoeprint left in the mud, size 13. On the victim's clothing were traces of semen and blood.

She was soon identified as an 18-year-old girl who had been seen at the bus station with a boy who worked nearby. When questioned, he had an alibi.

The medical examiner's report returned three significant facts: she'd had pubic lice, her stomach contained undigested food, and there was no semen inside her. The killer apparently had masturbated over her. It was also possible that, given her state of poverty, she had been lured away with the promise of a meal.

The police checked pharmacies for anyone purchasing lice treatments, but they came up empty-handed.

One thing they did discover was that this woman had a friend who had been missing since 1982. Matching dental records to skulls from various remains, they managed to identify their second victim in the series. That linked two of the victims together, one of whom had her eye sockets slashed and the other who did not.

Another suspect was caught and he confessed, but Burakov was looking for a certain personality type, and no one thus far seemed to come close. He spoke out to officials and was rebuked. His opinion also divided the task force into factions, helped along by the fact that the crime lab could not give them a definitive answer as to whether semen samples found on two victims were from the same person. They brought in a forensic scientist from the Moscow lab, who did better. They were type AB, she said, and with that, she eliminated their entire list of suspects. None of the confessions gathered thus far were any good and the killer was still at large.

He struck that March in Novoshakhtinsk, grabbing 10-year-old Dmitri Ptashnikov, who was found three days later, mutilated and stabbed. The tip of his tongue and his penis were missing. The semen on his shirt linked him to the previous two crimes where semen was found. Near this body was a large footprint.

This time, however, there were witnesses. The boy was seen following a tall, hollow-cheeked man with stiff knees and large feet, wearing glasses. Yet no one had recognized him. Someone else had seen a white car.

Lyudmila Alekseyeva (Victim)

Lourie writes that the killer had shifted his pattern somewhat that year. He now removed the upper lip, and sometimes the nose, and left them in the victim's mouth or ripped-open stomach.

With no witnesses, little physical evidence, and no way to know how this man was leading his victims off alone, the police felt the investigation was out of control. This killer had stepped up his pace from five victims the first year (they believed) to something like one every two weeks. Surely he would eventually make a mistake. They had no way of knowing as yet that they had not found the earliest murders and it would be some time before the killing spree was stopped. This man did not make many mistakes.

Suspects

With all the surveillance, it was inevitable that certain suspicious men would be followed and detained, and this procedure produced two suspects, each of which was interesting for different reasons. One appeared to be the man they were after and the other became an informant.

The Minister of the Interior appointed a dozen new detectives to the case, and a task force of some 200 men and women became involved in the investigation. Burakov was appointed to head this team. That got him closer to leads as they came in. It also shouldered him with the heavy responsibility of forming a good plan to stop this killer. People were assigned to work undercover at bus and train stations, and to wander the parks.

According to Cullen, they decided that they were looking for a man between 25 and 30, tall, well built, with type AB blood. He was careful and had at least average intelligence, and was probably verbally persuasive. He traveled and lived with either his mother or a wife. He might be a former psychiatric patient, or a substance abuser, and he might have some knowledge of anatomy and skill with a knife. Anyone who generally matched these characteristics would have to submit to a blood test.

The press was not allowed to carry stories about the links among these crimes, only to ask for witnesses concerning one or another of the murders. No warnings were given to parents to protect their children or to young women out alone.

The Rostov bus station (police file photo)

However, he spotted Chikatilo again and followed him, boarding the same bus he got on in order to watch him. "He seemed very ill at ease," Zanasovsky's report states, "and was always twisting his head from one side to another."

He followed Chikatilo into another bus and saw him accost various women. When Chikatilo solicited a prostitute and received oral sex under his coat, they arrested him for indecent behavior in public and went through his briefcase. Inside were a jar of Vaseline, a long kitchen knife, a piece of rope and a dirty towel—nothing suggestive of business dealings.

Andrei Chikatilo, teacher (school photo)

He denied everything, although he admitted to "sexual weakness," and was finally released. He was later arrested again for petty thefts at work and he served three months in prison. Still, he did not have the right blood type, so he was not their killer.

Burakov decided to breach protocol and consult with psychiatric experts in Moscow. He wanted to know what they thought of the idea of a single person killing women and children of both genders. Most were either uninterested or refused to say much, due to insufficient detail. However, one psychiatrist, Alexandr Bukhanovsky, agreed to study the few known details, as well as the crime scene patterns, to come up with a profile. He read everything he could find, specialized in sexual pathologies and schizophrenia, and was willing to take risks. This case, unusual as it was, interested him. He came up with a seven-page report.

Alexandr Bukhanovsky, psychiatric expert (police file photo)

Burakov got two other opinions, one of which insisted there were two killers, and he felt that no one had given him anything that brought him closer to closing the case. He was still frustrated.

Working with the idea that the killer had a sexual dysfunction, the dogged investigator looked up records of men convicted of homosexual crimes and came across Valery Ivanenko, who had committed several acts of "perversion" and who had claimed he was psychotic. He also had a charismatic personality and once had been a teacher. At age 46, he was tall and wore glasses. He'd been brought to the psychiatric institute in Rostov but had escaped. In short, he sounded too good to be true. He was the perfect suspect.

Staking out the apartment of the man's invalid mother, Burakov caught and arrested him. But his blood was type A which eliminated him as the killer. In a deal, Burakov enlisted his assistance investigating the gay population in return for his release. Ivanenko proved to be quite good at getting secret information, which in turn led to others providing even more information under pressure. Burakov soon knew quite a bit about Rostov's underworld, from perversion to violence.

Yet Burakov still felt as if he was just going toward more dead ends. The gay men that he investigated just did not strike him as having the right personality disorder for these crimes. He began to come around to Bukhanovsky's view that this killer was heterosexual but probably impotent when it came to normal sexual relations. He needed more details.

Killer X

Pressure was on to solve the crimes that had happened already, but over the next 10 months only one more body turned up—a young woman—but she was killed near Moscow. The killer may have moved or traveled there, but they just couldn't tell. They wondered if the killer had left the area or been arrested. Perhaps he had died. Then a body was found in August of 1985. She bore similarities to the others and she lay near an airport.

Burakov went to Moscow to look at the photos of the dead girl. It was so similar to his recent victim in Rostov that he knew the killer had gone to Moscow for some reason. He checked the flight rosters between Moscow and the airport where their victim had been found, and had officers go painstakingly through all the handwritten tickets. But they failed to discover a significant clue right under their noses.

Then detectives in Moscow put together a series of murders of young boys that had begun when the Rostov killings had stopped. All three had been raped and one was decapitated.

But the Rostov crew was quickly drawn back to Shakhty. In a tree grove near the bus depot, a homeless, 18-year-old girl lay dead, her mouth stuffed with leaves. This was the same signature as the girl in Moscow earlier that month. She had a red and a blue thread under her fingernails, and sweat near her wounds that typed AB—different from her own type O blood. Between her fingers was a single strand of gray hair—similar to one of the earlier murders. This was the most evidence left at a crime scene thus far. The detectives believed they would break this case soon.

In fact they did find a good suspect who had also been implicated with a previous victim, and he did confess (after 10 days of intense interrogation), but to Burakov, it did not sound right. Nor could the suspect take them to the correct murder site. Once again, frustratingly so, he was not their man.

Chief Investigator Issa Kostoyev (police file photo)

To try to learn more about the type of killer who would be so raw and brutal, Kostoyev had the classic nineteenth-century work on sexual predators by Richard von Krafft-Ebing translated into Russian. He also discovered a rare edition of Crimes and Criminals in Western Culture, by B. Utevsky, which included a chapter detailing cases of dismemberment and disfiguring of victims. He saw that some killers were driven merely by arrogance and the idea that their victims were objects that belonged to them to do with as they pleased. Kostoyev stored this information away to use when they found more suspects.

In the meantime, Yuri Kalenik was still in prison awaiting the completion of the investigation on him, which was now delayed by investigators looking into other areas. One of these leads produced yet a fifth false confession. Something was clearly wrong with the process, and Kostoyev was furious. He did not believe that Yuri was guilty of anything.

Burakov turned again to Dr. Bukhanovsky, finally allowing him to see all of the crime scene reports so he could write a more detailed profile. This, he thought, might help them to narrow the leads. Bukhanovsky took all of the materials and spent months of his own time writing 65 pages devoted to what made sense to him from his work with gay men, sexual dysfunction, necrophiles and necrosadists. He labeled the unknown suspect "Killer X."

The details, in brief, were the following: X was not psychotic, because he was in control of what he did and he was clearly self-interested. He was narcissistic and arrogant, considering himself gifted, although he was not unduly intelligent. He had a plan but he was not creative. He was heterosexual, with boys being a "vicarious surrogate." He was a necrosadist, needing to watch people die in order to achieve sexual gratification.

To render them helpless, he would hit them in the head. Afterward, the multiple stabbing was a way to "enter" them sexually. He either sat astride them or squatted next to them, getting as close as possible. The deepest cuts represented the height of his pleasure, and he might masturbate, either spontaneously or with his hand.

There were many reasons why he might cut out the eyes, and nothing in the crime scenes suggested what actually motivated X. He might be excited by eyes or fear them. He might believe his image was left on them, a superstition held by some. Cutting into the sexual organs was a manifestation of power over women. He might keep the missing organs or he might eat them. Removing the sexual organs from the boys might be a way to neutralize them and make them appear more female.

An interesting twist was the hypothesis that X responded to changes in weather patterns. Before most of the murders, the barometer had dropped. That might be his trigger, especially if it coincided with other stressors at home or work. Most of the killings were also done mid-week, from Tuesday to Thursday.

While he was vague about height and occupation, he now thought X's age was between 45 and 50, the age at which sexual perversions often are most developed. It was likely that he'd had a difficult childhood. He was conflicted and probably kept to himself. He had a rich fantasy life, but an abnormal response to sexuality. Bukhanovsky could not say whether or not the man was married or had fathered children, but if he was married, his wife let him keep his own hours and did not ask much of him.

His killing was compulsive and might stop temporarily if he sensed he was in danger of discovery, but would not stop altogether until he died or was caught.

Despite the length and detail of this psychological report, Burakov found nothing practical in it to help him find the man.

Police sketch of suspected killer

The investigators believed that X was very much like Slivko, and that meant he would be next to impossible to catch.

But then, oddly, the killing seemed to stop.

Frustrations

Only one dead woman turned up in 1985 in Rostov, and nothing happened that winter or the next spring. Then on July 23, the body of a 33-year-old female turned up, but it bore none of the markings of the serial killer, except that she had been repeatedly stabbed. Burakov had doubts about her being in the series, but not so with the young woman found on August 18. All of the disturbing wounds were present, but she had been mostly buried, save for a hand sticking out of the dirt—a new twist. Now they had to wonder whether there were others not yet found who were also under the earth.

The handwriting experts finally gave up on the Black Cat postcard, and the police could go no farther with the 14 suspects on the list so far, all of whom Burakov believed could be eliminated. He created a comprehensive booklet to give out to other police departments, and a card file was created to keep track of new leads. He and his team were dogged by the fear that this case might never be solved.

At the end of 1986 Viktor Burakov finally had a nervous breakdown. He was weak and exhausted, and could not sleep, so he went to a hospital, where he remained for a month. Then he was sent to rest for another month. Four years of intense work had come to this. But he would not give up.

He had no idea then that he was only halfway there. This devil was not yet finished.

Burakov's period of rest, however, had given him some perspective. He'd been able to think over their strategies thus far and felt that none was taking them down the correct route. Not only that, all were time- and resource-consuming. He might only catch this killer if he surfaced again—in other words, murdered someone. It was a grim thought, but it could be their only hope

Yet nothing occurred for the rest of that year or throughout all of 1987.

The winter melted into spring before a railroad worker found a woman's nude body in a weedy area near the tracks on April 6, 1988. Her hands were bound behind her, she had been stabbed multiple times, the tip of her nose was gone, and her skull had been bashed in. Only a large footprint was found nearby. People recalled seeing her but she had been alone. There was no sign of sexual assault and her eyes had not been touched. Nor had she been killed in the woods.

The investigators pondered whether they should include this murder in the series. Perhaps the lesopolosa killer was no longer in business. Yet only a month later, on May 17, the body of a 9-year-old boy was discovered in the woods not far from a train station. He'd been sodomized and then his orifices were stuffed with dirt. He also bore numerous knife wounds and a blow to the skull, and his penis had been removed.

Unlike the murdered female, the boy was quickly identified as Aleksei Voronko, missing for two days. A classmate had seen him with a middle-aged man with gold teeth, a mustache and a sports bag. They had gone together to the woods and Aleksei had said he would soon return but did not.

This was a strong lead, one that could be followed up among area dentists. Few adults in the region could afford gold crowns for their teeth.

Yet by the end of that year, they had turned up nothing. Not only that, they learned from the Ministry of Health that it had been a mistake to assume that typing blood in secretions was an accurate match to blood types (or, alternatively, to assume that the labs were providing accurate results). There were rare "paradoxical" cases in which they did not match. In other words, any of the suspects eliminated based on blood type could have been their killer. While this was frustrating news and made the investigation more difficult in many ways, it also opened a few doors from the past. However, it meant taking semen samples (which had to be voluntary), not blood types, and it also meant redoing four years worth of work to that point. The idea was overwhelming.

The only method of investigation that seemed viable now was to post more men to watch the public transportation stations.

Still, the killer did not strike. It was April 1989 before they came across another victim who could be added to the lesopolosa series.

The Count Rises

This discovery, in the woods near a train station, was that of a 16-year-old boy reported missing since the summer before. His killer had stabbed him repeatedly and had removed his testicles and penis. He was badly decomposed and had lain under the snow for months. A watch, inscribed from his aunt and uncle, was missing. It would help immensely if it was found in someone's possession.

None of the investigators assigned to ride the trains and watch people in the stations in that area had reported anything suspicious. No older men with boys or women. However, a ticket clerk reported that she had seen a man that summer on the platform. He had tried to convince her son to go into the words with him. The police did locate him, but quickly eliminated him as the killer they were seeking.

However, Yuri Kalenik had been released from prison after serving five years and he now lived near the area where the body was found. Perhaps they had been hasty in releasing him. When questioned, he insisted he knew nothing, so they let him go.

Then on May 11, an 8-year-old boy disappeared. He was found two months later by the side of a road, stabbed and genitally mutilated. This change in the killer's habits, from the woods to out in the open, alerted the officials to the possibility that he might have noticed all the surveillance at the train stations and changed his manner of procuring victims.

Elena Varga, victim

Then he killed a   Hungarian student, Elena Varga, in August, in a wooded area that was far from any train or bus station. Her body had been violated like all the other female victims in the lesopolosa series.

Aleksei Khobotov, victim

Victor Petrov, victim

They now had what they believed were 32 victims over the past eight years and the newspapers, now free to report this news after the loosening of government control, were putting pressure on the investigators. Those in the top positions threatened those on lower rungs with being fired. This killer had to be stopped. People were getting desperate.

Then on August 17 Ivan Fomin, 11, went swimming not far from his grandmother's cottage. In the tall reeds not far from numerous potential witnesses who should have heard if not seen him, the serial killer had stabbed him 42 times and castrated him. This was outrageous and the public was getting angry.

Burakov decided on a new plan. He would select the most likely stations and then make surveillance obvious in the others, so that only those with plainclothes officers would seem safe to the killer. In other words, they would try to force him into action in a particular place, and in those places, they would record the names of every man who came and went. They would also place people in the forests nearby, dressed as farmers. It was a major task, with over 350 people who had to be in place and do their jobs for who-knows-how-long, but it seemed viable.

It seemed that the train station in Donleskhoz station might be a good place to set up a post, for example, since two of the victims had been found near there. Mushroom pickers generally used it during the summer, but not many other people. Two other stations were selected as well.

But even before the plan was enacted, the killer chose a victim from the Donleskhoz station. He killed a 16-year-old retarded boy, stabbing him 27 times and mutilating him before discarding his clothes. Part of his tongue was missing, as were his testicles, and one eye had been stabbed. When his identity was established, officers learned that he spent most of his time on the electrichka, the slow-moving train, but no one had seen him exit with anyone.

Burokov was in despair. They had a good plan and had it been in place, they might have caught the guy.

Victor Tishcenko, victim

Burakov got moving. The snare was set, with everyone in place, but the killer killed again, undetected. This time, his victim was a young woman. She was number 36, and she had been beaten and sliced open, and part of her tongue cut off. But no one had seen a thing.

Yet there were reports of men who had been at the train station nearby. One name stood out. In fact, they were chilled by it. They had seen this one before. To that point, according to Moira Martingale in Cannibal Killers, over half a million people had been investigated, but this one had been interrogated before and only released because his blood type had not matched the semen samples.

And they knew the lab work had been faulty. This was the killer. They were sure of it.

Endgame

Andrei Chikatilo mugshot

Burakov had the man placed under surveillance. They soon learned that he had resigned from his post as a teacher due to reports that he had molested students. He had then worked for another enterprise, but was fired when he failed to return from business trips with the supplies he was sent to get. So what had he been doing with his time? During the time he had spent in jail in 1984, there had been no murders, and his travel records coincided with other murders—including the one in Moscow. He once had been a member in good standing with the Communist Party, but had been expelled due to his incarceration.

But all the evidence was circumstantial. Investigators would need to catch him in the act or get him to confess. Keeping him under surveillance, they saw an ordinary man doing nothing unusual. It was frustrating. Kostoyev, who had finally read the earlier report on this man, ordered his arrest.

On November 20, 1990, three officers dressed in street clothes brought Chikatilo in for interrogation, and they noticed that he did not have a mouth full of gold teeth as one witness had indicated. They learned that he was married and had two children, and that he was something of an intellectual with a university degree. In his satchel they found a folding pocketknife.

Knives found in Chikatilo's possession, trial evidence

The next day, Kostoyev decided to handle the interrogation, and he did so in the presence of Chikatilo's court-appointed lawyer. Richard Lourie based much of his book, Hunting the Devil, on the time that Kostoyev spent with Chikatilo. Contrary to other versions of this narrative that show him to be an angry and impatient interrogator, Lourie says that Kostoyev had decided to use compassion to get the suspect to talk.

He wanted the room to be spare, with only a safe inside that would hint to the prisoner of evidence against him. There was also a desk, a table, and two chairs. When Chikatilo was brought in, Kostoyev could see that he was a tall, older man with a long neck, sloping shoulders, oversized glasses, and gray hair. He used a shuffling gait, like a weary elderly person, but Kostoyev was not fooled. He believed Chikatilo was a calculating killer with plenty of energy when he needed it. Chikatilo looked easy to break, and Kostoyev had only failed to obtain a confession in three out of hundreds of interrogations. He would get inside the suspect's head, figure out his logic, and get him to talk. All guilty men eventually confessed. They had to. Besides, he had 10 days in which to succeed, and he had bait.

Chikatilo began with a statement that the police had made a mistake, just as they had in 1984 when he'd first been investigated. He denied that he had been at a train station on November 6 and did not know why it had been reported. Kostoyev knew he was lying, and he let Chikatilo know that. The next day, Chikatilo waived his right to legal counsel.

Then Chikatilo wrote a three-page document to which he confessed to "sexual weakness"—the words he had used before—and to years of humiliation. He hinted at "perverse sexual activity" but did not name it, and said that he was out of control. He admitted to nothing specific. But he wrote another, longer essay in which he said that he did move around in the train stations and saw how young people there were the victims of homeless beggars. He also admitted that he was impotent. It appeared to be an indirect confession, feeling guilt but fending it off by fingering other suspects and also hinting at how it was best that some of these beggars had died rather than reproduce. Nevertheless, he mentioned that he had thought of suicide.

Andrei Chikatilo (police file photo)

Chikatilo asked for a few days to collect himself and said he would then submit to an interrogation. Everyone expected that he would confess, but when the day arrived, he insisted he was guilty of no crimes. For each crucial time period involving a murder, he claimed that he had been at home with his wife. Clearly he had used the extra two days alone in his cell to become more resolved.

The next day, he revised his statements somewhat. In fact, he had been involved in some criminal activity—but not the murders. In 1977, he had fondled some female students who had aroused him. He had difficulty controlling himself around children, but there were only two instances in which he had lost control.

He wrote again, but again revealed nothing, and nine days elapsed with Kostoyev getting no closer to his goal. He did not know what approach to take to pressure this man to finally open up.

A medical examination indicated that Chikatilo's blood type was A, but his semen supposedly had a weak B antibody, making it appear that his blood type was AB, though it wasn't. He was the "paradoxical" rare case—if such an analysis could be believed.

The informant in Chikatilo's cell, writes Cullen, eventually told Burakov that the interrogation techniques were not according to protocol and that they were rough and made Chikatilo defensive. It was unlikely they were going to work. Kostoyev brought in photographers to humiliate Chikatilo and pressure him to believe that they had witnesses to whom they were going to show these photographs. Still, he did not give any ground.

Nine days had elapsed. They were allowed only 10 before having to charge him with a specific crime, and thus far, they did not have enough proof of even one. It was looking very much like they might have to let him go. And that could be disastrous. Burakov, says Cullen, thought they should try another interrogator, and his candidate was Dr. Bukhanovsky. Cullen also says that Kostoyev initially resisted this idea, but finally had to admit he was getting nowhere. He agreed to let the psychiatrist see what he could do. Lourie, presenting things from Kostoyev's side, says that using the psychiatrist was one of Kostoyev's clever ploys. Lourie does not mention Burakov's role in the decision.

Whoever thought of it, this was clearly a wise move.

The Psychiatrist and the Murderer

Bukhanovsky agreed to question Chikatilo, but out of professional interest, not for the court. Burakov agreed to these conditions. Bukhanovsky was soon in a closed room alone with the best suspect in the lesopolosa murders.

Andrei Chikatilo mugshot

In the film, Citizen X, Bukhanovsky is shown asking Chikatilo to help him on some aspects of the profile that he was not quite certain about. He reads the relevant pages to him, and one sees Chikatilo listening intently, as if alert to the only person who seems ever to have understood him. Bukhanovsky's description goes into the nature of Chikatilo's mental illness and some reasons for it. As Chikatilo hears his secret life described so clearly, he begins to tremble. Finally he affirms what the psychiatrist is saying, breaks down and admits that it's all true. He has done those horrible things.

Bukhanovsky talked with him for hours and then went out and told police interrogators that the suspect was now ready to confess.

Kostoyev prepared a formal statement accusing Chikatilo of 36 murders. He was off by a long shot, but no one yet knew that.

Yelena Zakotnova, victim

The Secret House crime scene

When he could not achieve an erection, he had moved in imitation of the sexual act and used his knife as a substitute. During his frenzy of strangulation and stabbing, he blindfolded her. Once she was dead, he tossed her body into a nearby river. Lourie devotes a chapter to the fact that he was a suspect, seen by a witness, and that blood was found on his doorstep, but the other man had confessed under torture, so Chikatilo was free. Chikatilo was shocked to nearly have been caught.

Kostoyev asked him to explain the blindfold, and just as they had suspected, Chikatilo admitted that he had heard that the image of a killer remains in the eyes of a victim. It was a superstition, but he had believed it. That was why he had wounded so many others in the eyes. Then he had decided it was not true, so he stopped doing that (explaining the change in pattern).   Later he admitted that he just had not liked his victims looking at him as he attacked them.

Lourie describes how Chikatilo hated to see how vagrants at train stations went off into the woods for sexual encounters that he could never emulate. His fantasies became more violent. In 1981, he repeated his manner of attack on a vagrant girl looking for money, but he also used his teeth on her to bite off a nipple and swallow it. "At the moment of cutting her and seeing the body cut open," he said, "I involuntarily ejaculated." He covered her with newspaper and took her sexual organs away with him, only to cast them aside in the woods.

Chikatilo re-enacts crime, evidence

With the boys, it was different, although they bled just as easily as women and that's what he needed most. Chikatilo would fantasize that these boys were his captives and that he was a hero for torturing and doing them in. He could not give a reason for cutting off their tongues and penises, although at one point he said he was taking revenge against life on the genitals of his victims. Lourie says, based on the psychiatric reports, that Chikatilo would place his semen inside a uterus that he had just removed and as he walked along, he would chew on it—"the truffle of sexual murder." He never admitted to actually consuming these organs, but searches never turned up any discarded remains.

"But the whole thing," Chikatilo said, "—the cries, the blood, the agony—gave me relaxation and a certain pleasure." He liked the taste of their blood and would even tear at their mouths with his teeth. He said it gave him an "animal satisfaction" to chew or swallow nipples or testicles.

To corroborate what he was saying, he drew sketches of the crime scenes, and what he said fit the known facts. Then he confirmed what everyone had feared—he added more victims to the list. Many more.

One boy he had killed in a cemetery and placed in a shallow grave—a hole, he said, that he had dug for himself when he had contemplated suicide. He took the interrogators there and they recovered the body. Another was killed in a field, and she was located. On and on it went, murders here and there, and the bodies were always left right where they were killed, except for one. Chikatilo described a murder in an empty apartment and to get the body out, he had to dismember it and dump the parts down a sewer. The police had wondered whether this one was part of the series and had decided that there were too many dissimilarities to include it.

Andrei Chikatilo mugshot, profile

They now had sufficient evidence to take this man to court. In the meantime, they discovered more about him.

The Roots of Perversity

He was born in 1936 into a small Ukrainian village and his head was misshapen from water on the brain. He had a sister seven years younger. His father was a POW in WWII and then was sent to a prison camp in Russia, so his mother raised him mostly on her own.

In the HBO documentary, "Cannibal" and in Moira Martingale's book Cannibal Killers, some of Chikatilo's background is described in a chilling context as a way to try to understand what drove him into such a bestial frenzy. In fact, Martingale sees a direct connection between those times and Chikatilo's sexual fantasies. He was like a werewolf, changing into a ravaging animal when triggered in just the right way. Much of this information came from the confession, the assessments done later, and from investigative research.

During the early part of the twentieth century, the former Soviet Union was often subjected to famines, especially in the Ukraine after Stalin crushed out private agriculture and sent many citizens to the Siberian Gulag. Some six million people died of starvation, according to Cullen, and desperate people might remove meat from corpses to survive. Sometimes they went to a cemetery, where corpses were stacked, and sometimes (legend has it) they grabbed someone on the street. Human flesh was bought and sold, or just hoarded.

Children saw disfigured corpses and heard terrible tales of hardship. Chikatilo had grown up during several of these famines and one story that his mother told was how he once had had an older brother, Stepan, who had been killed. In a prison interview, he said, "Many people went crazy, attacked people, ate people. So they caught my brother, who was 10, and ate him." He might simply have died and been consumed, if he even existed (which could not be corroborated in any records), but Chikatilo's mother would warn him to stay in the yard or he might get eaten as well. It was a scary idea, but titillating.

He also saw the results of Nazi occupation and of German bombing, with bodies blown up in the streets. He said that they frightened and excited him.

Most of his childhood was spent alone, living in his fantasies. Other children mocked him for his awkwardness and sensitivity. He began to develop anger at this age, even rage. To entertain and empower himself, he devised images of torture, and these remained a fixed part of his killings later in life.

He had his first sexual experience as an adolescent when he struggled with a 10-year-old friend of his sister's and ejaculated. That impressed itself on him, especially as he went along in life unable to get an erection but able to ejaculate. The struggle became as fixed in his mind as the images of torture.

He went into the army but when he came home and tried to have a girlfriend, he found he was still unable to perform the sexual act. The girl spread this around, humiliating him, and he dreamed about catching her and tearing her to pieces. His life, as far as he could see, was now a disaster.

He became a schoolteacher and did get married (which was arranged by his sister), but could only conceive children, according to the HBO documentary, by ejaculating outside his wife and pushing his semen inside by hand. Much like his mother, his wife was critical, which only made Chikatilo withdraw even further into his fantasy world. His mother died in 1973 when he was 37, and it wasn't long before he found himself attracted to young girls and began to molest them. It made him feel powerful, and when incidents were reported, they were met with cover-up and denial instead of prosecution, allowing a pervert to become a killer.

For true satisfaction, he needed to get violent, and by 1978, he killed his first victim. Since he was on the road quite often as a parts supply liaison, it became easy to find vulnerable strangers, dominate them and murder them. He didn't have to go looking for them, he said. They were always right there and they were usually willing to follow him. He had read the newspaper reports about the murders when the press was allowed to print them and had known it was only a matter of time before it would all end. Being arrested, he admitted, was a relief.

Chikatilo believed he suffered from an illness that provoked his uncontrollable transgressions. He wanted to see some specialists in sexual deviance, and said that he would answer all questions. (Lourie says this was part of Kostoyev's plan.)

The Beast in the Cage

They brought him into the Rostov courtroom on April 14, 1992, and put him into a large iron cage painted off-white, where he could either stand or sit. The judge sat on a dais and two citizens on either side acted as jurors. There were 225 volumes of information collected about him and against him.

Chikatilo in court, caged, police file

Throughout, Chikatilo appeared to be bored, except when he'd show a flash of anger and yell back at the crowd. On two separate occasions, he opened his trousers and pulled them down to expose his penis, insisting he was not a homosexual. They removed him from the courtroom.

That he would be found guilty of murder was a foregone conclusion, but there was a chance that his psychological problems could save him from execution. However, his lawyer, Marat Khabibulin, did not have the right to call psychiatric experts, only to cross-examine those that the prosecution brought in, and since he had not been appointed until after Chikatilo had fully confessed, he was at a real disadvantage.

Although the prosecutors were Anatoly Zadorozhny and N. F. Gerasimenko, Judge Leonid Akubzhanov became Chikatilo's chief enemy, asking sharp questions of the witnesses and throwing demeaning comments at the prisoner, who often did not respond. After several months, however, Chikatilo challenged the judge, claiming that he was the one in charge. "This is my funeral," the defendant said.

At one time, he spontaneously denied doing six of the murders and at another, he added four new ones. He claimed to be a victim of the former Soviet system and called himself a "mad beast." According to Krivich and Ol'gin, he also claimed that there should be 70 "incidents" attributed to him, not 53. At one point, they write, when he was asked whether he had kept track as he killed his victims, Chikatilo said, "I considered them to be enemy aircraft I had shot down."

No one adequately addressed the fact that there was a discrepancy between the blood type in the semen samples and Chikatilo's blood type. The forensic analyst explained her discovery of the rare phenomenon of a man having one blood type but secreting another, but this hypothesis was later ridiculed around the world. Yet with no forensic experts hired for the defense, there was little the defense attorney could do. The judge, with his clear bias against the defendant, accepted the unusual analysis.

The court accepted the psychiatric diagnosis of sanity. One psychiatrist examined him yet again and said that he was still of the same opinion. It was Chikatilo's predatory behavior and ability to shift to safer locales that showed his degree of control, as well as the fact that he had stopped for over a year at one point (a year in which he said he had celebrated his 50th birthday and was in a good mood).

The trial went into August. The defense summed up its side by saying that the evidence and psychiatric analyses were flawed and the confessions had been coerced. He asked for a verdict of not guilty.

The next day, Chikatilo broke into song from his cage and then talked a string of nonsense, with accusations that he was being "radiated." He was taken out before the prosecutor began his final argument. He reiterated what sadism meant, repeated each of the crimes, and asked for the death penalty.

Chikatilo was brought in and given a final opportunity to speak for himself. He remained mute.

The judge took two months to reach a verdict, and on October 14, six months after the trial begun, he pronounced Andrei Chikatilo guilty of five counts of molestation and 52 counts of murder. Then Chikatilo cried out incoherently, shouting "Swindlers," spitting, throwing his bench, and demanding to see the corpses. The judge sentenced him to be executed. The people shouted for Chikatilo to be turned over to them to be torn to pieces as he had done to their loved ones. But instead he was taken back to his cell to await the results of an appeal. His lawyer claimed through official channels that the psychiatric assessment had not been objective and he wanted further analysis.

A rumor circulated that the Japanese wanted to pay $1 million for the Maniac's brain, Lourie writes, but there was no substance to it. Yet many professionals did believe that his behavior was so aberrant that he should be studied alive.

This man with a university degree in Russian literature, a wife and children, and no apparent background of child abuse, clearly had a savage heart. As he said of himself, he was apparently "a mistake of nature." It's unfortunate that a better biopsychological analysis was never performed.

On February 15, 1994, when his appeal was turned down, he was taken to a special soundproof room and shot behind the right ear, ending his life.

Legacies

Chikatilo has become one of the world's most renowned serial killers, cited in books and articles such as Dr. Louis Schlesinger's Serial Offenders, as a man with truly perverse tastes and killing habits. Thanks to him, Russian specialists can now engage in better study of serial killers and consult with professionals like the FBI in other countries. The same can be said for Bukhanovsky.

Newsweek published a story in 1999 about the area around Rostov-on-Don to the effect that it was now a hotbed of serial crimes. "Twenty-nine multiple murderers and rapists have been caught in the area over the past ten years," writes Owen Matthews. He claims that such a statistic makes Rostov the serial killer capital of the world. Not only that, but Dr. Bukhanovsky has become such an expert via his private clinic for sexual disorders that he claims he can now cure violent psychopaths. To prove it, he worked with an active killer still at large—a controversial decision. He feels that he cannot break a confidence and that his study will help science determine the roots of aggression. A child rapist who was caught said that Bukhanovsky had a way of getting people to tell him things they would ordinarily keep secret. That appears to have been his talent with Chikatilo.

Bibliography

Bivens, Dim. "Chikatilo Statue Causes Stir,". Retrieved 4/6/03

Cannibal: The Real Hannibal Lecters. HBO, February 2003.

Conti, Richard P. "The Psychology of False Confessions," The Journal of Credibility    Assessment and Witness Psychology. 1999, vol. 2, No. 1, 14-36.

Citizen X, HBO Home Video, 2000. (This movie contains many adjustments for plot, as well as factual errors, but has some good moments.)

Cullen, Robert. The Killer Department: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer in Russian History. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.

Krivich, Mikhail and Ol'gert Ol'gin. Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 1993.

Lourie, Richard. Hunting the Devil: The Pursuit, Capture and Confession of the Most Savage Serial Killer in History. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Martingale, Moira. Cannibal Killers: The History of Impossible Murders. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1993.

Matthews, Owen. "A Crime-fighting MD and the Twisted Citizens of the Capital of Serial Crime: City of the Dead," Newsweek. Jan. 25, 1999.

Ofshe, Richard. "The Consequences of False Confessions,"

Robinson, Bruce. "False Confessions by Adults," 3/26/02.

Schlesinger, Louis B. "Serial Homicide: Sadism, Fantasy, and a Compulsion to Kill," in Serial Offenders: Current Thought, Recent Findings. L. B. Schlesinger, editor. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2000.  

Wrightsman, Lawrence. "Police Interrogations and Confessions," Forensic Psychology.   Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001.

ANDREI CHIKATILO

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (October 16, 1936 - February 14, 1994) was a Russian serial killer, nicknamed the Rostov Ripper. He was convicted of the murder of 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990.

Early life of Andrei Chikatilo

Chikatilo was born in the village of Yablochnoye in 1936. His childhood was quite traumatic, particularly as the USSR was soon at war with Germany and Stalin's plans of agricultural collectivisation had recently caused a devastating famine. Chikatilo later heard rumours that he had an older brother who died in the famine and whose corpse had been cannibalised by starving neighbors. Although it is not known if this story was true, there certainly were some alleged instances of cannibalism during the famine. In World War II, Chikatilo witnessed some of the devastating and horrific effects of German bombing raids. Chikatilo had many fantasies of leading German captives into the woods and executing them, a fantasy that - although common of Soviet children at the time - had parallels with his murders.

With his father at war, the young Chikatilo had to share a bed with his mother. He frequently wet the bed, for which his mother brutally beat and humiliated him. He did well at school, but failed the entrance exam for Moscow State University. After finishing national service in 1960, he moved to Rodionovo-Nesvetayevsky and worked as a telephone engineer. Chikatilo's only sexual experience in adolescence was when, aged 15, he leapt on a young girl and wrestled her to the ground, ejaculating as the girl struggled in his grasp. This incident helped to foster in him a lifelong association between sex and violent aggression.

Chikatilo married in 1963, the marriage virtually arranged by his younger sister, who set him up with one of her friends when she took pity on her brother's inability to obtain a girlfriend. Although he suffered from impotence and had a barely existent sex life, Chikatilo did father a son and daughter. It is said that he fathered the children by ejaculating and inserting the semen into his wife's vagina manually. In 1971, he completed a degree in Russian literature by a correspondence course and tried a career as a teacher in Novoshakhtinsk. He was a poor teacher, unable to command any respect from his pupils, but he remained in that profession, moving from school to school as complaints of indecent assaults dogged him. He eventually took a job as a clerk for a factory, and he used the many business trips around the Soviet Union to carry out his crimes.

Murder Spree of Andrei Chikatilo

In 1978, Chikatilo moved to Shakhty and committed his first documented murder. On December 22, he lured a nine-year-old girl to an old shed and attempted to rape her. When the girl struggled, he stabbed her to death. He ejaculated in the process of knifing the child, and from then on he was only able to achieve sexual arousal and orgasm through stabbing and slashing women and children to death. Despite evidence linking Chikatilo to this first killing, a young man, Alexsandr Kravchenko, was arrested and later tried and executed for the crime. Chikatilo lost his teaching job in 1981 and became a clerk at a local firm.

He did not murder again until 1982, but in that year he killed seven times. He established a pattern of approaching runaways and young vagrants at bus or railway stations and enticing them to leave. A quick trip into a nearby forest was the scene for the victim's death. In 1983, he did not kill until June, but then he murdered four victims before September. The victims were all women and children. The adult females were often prostitutes or homeless tramps who could be lured with promises of alcohol or money. Chikatilo would usually attempt (consensual) intercourse with these victims, but would usually be unable to get an erection, which would send him into a murderous fury, especially if the woman mocked his inability to perform. He would achieve orgasm only when he stabbed the victim to death. The child victims were of both sexes, and Chikatilo would lure them away with his friendly, talkative manner by promising them toys or candy. In the USSR at the time, reports of crimes like child rape and serial murder were often suppressed by the state-controlled media, as such crimes were regarded as being common only in "hedonistic capitalist nations." Consequently, with little knowledge of the growing body count, parents did not know to warn their children to be wary of strangers. As news of the savage killings leaked out during the 1980s, albeit with little official information about the details, wild rumours spread through the communities in Ukraine, such as the idea that foreigners were killing Soviet boys in preparation for an invasion, and even talk of werewolves.

Six bodies (out of 14) had been uncovered. This brought a response from the Moscow police. A team headed by Major Mikhail Fetisov was sent to Rostov-on-Don to direct the investigation. Fetisov centred the investigations around Shakhty and assigned a specialist forensic analyst, Victor Burakov, to head the investigation in that area. The investigation concentrated on the mentally ill and known sex offenders, slowly working through all that were known and eliminating them from the inquiry. A number of young men confessed to the murders, although they were usually mentally handicapped youths who had admitted to the crimes only under prolonged and often brutal interrogation. At least one suspect hanged himself in his cell while under arrest.

When boys began to make up a majority of the later victims, a frequent (and ineffective) ploy was to round up and interrogate homosexuals, the gay community being particularly clandestine in the USSR, where sodomy was illegal at the time. The police spread their search wider and wider. Over 150,000 people were interviewed and filed before this approach was abandoned. In 1984, another 15 murders took place. The police took to additional patrols and posted plainclothesmen at many public transport stops.

First arrest of Andrei Chikatilo

Chikatilo was identified behaving suspiciously at a Rostov bus station. He was arrested and held. It was found he was under suspicion for other crimes, which gave the investigators the legal right to hold him indefinitely. Chikatilo's dubious background was uncovered but provided insufficient evidence to convict him of the murders. He was found guilty on other matters and sentenced to one year in prison. He was freed in December 1984 after serving three months.

It was later revealed that Chikatilo had been originally ruled out as a suspect in the murders because his blood type was tested as different from semen samples left by the killer. The forensic scientists later claimed that Chikatilo must be a unique individual whose blood type differed between a blood sample and a semen sample. No other scientists at that time took this theory seriously and it was generally regarded that the samples had been mixed up or the tests simply botched.

Unfortunately, this theory of non-secretors proved true some time later after his final arrest when it was found out that "a secretor status refers to blood protein antigen/antibody markers, which were used in the "classical" serological methods of blood identification in the days before the advent of DNA analysis. "Secretors" secrete these bloodmarkers into their other body fluids (saliva, tears, sweat, milk, etc.) while "non-secretors" do not. Therefore, the blood type of a "secretor" can be determined by testing body fluids other than blood, but would need actual blood to confirm the blood type of a non-secretor. About 80% of the population are secretors, and about 20% are non-secretors. Secretor status is of rapidly diminishing relevance today. Few labs (in the USA at least) do antigen/antibody analysis anymore, because DNA methods are so much more definitive. Secretor status is irrelevant in DNA analysis."

As reported contemporaneously, the Soviet authorities involved were ignored and dis-assessed as to the theory of differing blood versus seminal fluid typing; and when later caught, tried, and convicted, these tests were not in fact done, as sufficient alternative evidence was regarded as complete, testing being expensive for these or DNA sequencing as of that date. Sadly, no biological samples were taken or kept.

Chikatilo found new work in Novocherkassk and kept a low profile. He did not kill again until August 1985, when he murdered two women in separate incidents. He is not known to have killed again until May 1987 when, on a business trip to Revda in Ukraine, he killed a young boy. He killed again in Zaporozhye in July and in Leningrad in September.

The moribund police investigation was revived in mid-1985 when Issa Kostoyev was appointed to take over the case. The known murders around Rostov were carefully re-investigated and there was another round of questioning of known sex offenders. In December 1985, the police renewed the patrolling of railway stations around Rostov. Chikatilo followed the investigation carefully, and for over two years he kept his desires under control. The police also took the step of consulting a psychiatrist, the first such consultation in a serial killer investigation in that country.

In 1988 Chikatilo resumed killing, generally keeping his activities far from the Rostov area. He murdered a woman in Krasny-Sulin in April and went on to kill another eight people that year, including two victims in Shakhty. Again there was a long lapse before Chikatilo resumed killing, murdering seven boys and two women between January and November of 1990.

Capture and trial of Andrei Chikatilo

The discovery of one of the bodies near Leskhoz station led to increased police patrols. On November 6 Chikatilo killed and mutilated Sveta Korostik. He was stopped by police returning from the woodland scene of the crime but allowed to go. However, a report on this suspicious encounter returned Chikatilo's name to the investigation. On November 20, 1990, after police again observed his suspicious behaviour, he was arrested and interrogated. Between November 30 and December 5, Chikatilo confessed to and described 56 murders. Three of the victims had been buried and could not be found or identified, so Chikatilo was not charged with these crimes. The number of crimes Chikatilo confessed to shocked the police, who had listed only 36 killings in their investigation. A number of victims had not been linked to others because they were murdered far from Chikatilo's other hunting grounds, whilst others were not linked because they were buried and not found until Chikatilo led the police to their shallow graves.

He went to trial on April 14, 1992. Despite his odd and disruptive behaviour in court, where he was famously kept in a cage in the center of the courtroom, he was judged fit to stand trial. The trial ended in July and sentencing was postponed until October 15 when he was found guilty of 52 of the 53 murders and sentenced to death for each offence. Chikatilo defended himself by pointing to his childhood experiences in the notorious famine which took place in Ukraine in the 1930s. (However, it should be noted that Chikatilo's birth in 1936 occurred after the Ukrainian famine, which occurred in 1932-1933.)

He was executed by shooting to the back of the head on February 14, 1994.

Andrei Chikatilo in popular culture

* The childhood story of Andrei Chikatilo bears striking similarities with that of Hannibal Lecter from the Thomas Harris novels, in that both experience a sibling being cannibalised during a famine.

* The events served as a loose inspiration for an episode of CSI:Crime Scene Investigation, where a serial rapist/killer initially is set free because his blood didn't match his semen.

* A movie, Citizen X, was made in 1995 about the investigation of the "Rostov Ripper" (as Chikatilo was nicknamed in the press) murders. It starred Jeffrey DeMunn as Chikatilo, with Stephen Rea as Viktor Burakov and Donald Sutherland as Mikhail Fetisov. The film followed the true story very closely, but came under scrutiny in Russia, where the portrayal of the Russian police as arrogant and incompetent proved to be more than a little controversial.

* The 2004 film Evilenko (starring Malcolm McDowell and Marton Csokas) was loosely based on Chikatilo's murder spree.

* The 2004 song Ripper von Rostow by German Black Metal band Eisregen describes Chikatilo's murder of Sveta Korostik.

Andrei Chikatilo - The Rostov Ripper serial killer
By: Bandi Brock
Published In Serial Killer Magazine

Andrei grabbed the little girl by her hair and drug her further into the wooded area. No one would hear her cries for help or feel the pain that would soon be bestowed upon her. This was after all a little girl, 11 years old, she wasn’t meant for a sexual predator, she’ll never grow up and have her first real kiss, she’ll only get to experience love through the pain of this man’s sexual desires. Chikatilo ripped at her clothes and tore them all off and she lay nude before him. Warm soft tears burned her face as they rolled off her little round cheeks and she had only the comfort of the cold, hard ground beneath her. He reached for her, putting his large hands around her tiny throat, squeezing only a little as he took down his pants and exposed his self to her. The little girl’s chest rose in fear because she had never seen a nude man before and knew that what ever happened wasn’t going to be good. Still squeezing her throat Chikatilo pulled out a knife from under his jacket. First laying it on the ground beside him so that he could rub his penis on the girls' genitals. It felt so warm and intriguing, Andrei could feel the urge growing up inside of him and he wanted to let it out. The girl tried kicking and wiggling her body, but Chikatilo was much bigger than she and didn’t give her much of a chance. She gasped for air as his hands drew tighter around her. He slowly reached for the knife and put it to the girl’s undeveloped chest, running it across as if teasing her or him self somehow. He then took the knife and held it between his legs, posing it as his penis, as if it were a real part of him. The girl couldn’t scream, her cries were muffled as Chikatilo thrust his hips forward pushing the knife inside the girl. Her eyes flew wide open with pain, yet she had no way of letting anyone know. Chikatilo moved his hips backward, sliding the knife back out of her. He looked down and saw the blood that seeped out onto the ground. With his finger he touched the blood and brought it to his mouth for a taste. Delighted with a smile he began to thrust again and again. The girl had gone into shock a minute later and soon died of blood loss. But Chikatilo wasn’t done. He thrusted his knife back and forth until he felt the warm semen leave his penis and enjoyed the moment he shared with his self. Satisfied with his sex act he put his pants back on. The girl lay there motionless, just staring at him. Andrei took his knife and carved out her eyes one at a time. He then took his attention back to her demolished genitals and began to carve out a hole where they should be. Now, Chikatilo stood there holding the little girls’s vagina and uterus in his hands. Taking a moment he stuck out his tongue and began licking the severed parts. He could still feel his semen dripping down his leg. Kicking some dirt and leaves over the little girl’s body, Andrei began walking out of the woods, his job was done, satisfaction, complete. Still holding the genitals in his hands, he took a bite out of them and threw the rest onto the ground. He chewed on it like bubblegum, making sure never to swallow. He soon made his way back up to the train station with crowds of people all around, no one suspected anything, and Chikatilo didn’t give it a second thought. It was all routine to him, like taking a shit. Once you take a shit you don’t remember you did it 5 minutes later, you never think twice about it. That’s how Chikatilo was with his victim’s, never thought twice about what he’d done. Now standing in line for the train Andrei hears the cries of a mother franticly yelling for her daughter. The police had come to see what the commotion was and then they began looking around the station. Chikatilo stood there silent just watching as they searched the area. Soon his train came and it was time for him to leave but before he got on he took another look at the desperate mother calling for her daughter then turned his head and spit out the piece of meat he’d been chewing on. He then got on the train and thought about the long ride home.


Chikatilo was an odd kid.  When he was born in 1930 in Russia, he was diagnosed with water on the brain which made his head an odd shape and made his mind work a little differently. He also had a sort of disease that affected his bladder and genitals; this would carry with him his whole life. But he was pretty much as normal as you and I. His father was off fighting the war in 1942 when Andrei was only 7 years old and so it was just Andrei, his mother and sister at the home. They weren’t a wealthy family by far. They lived during the famine so food was hard to come by. His family would basically eat leaves and grass just to get by. Other people during this time actually ate people and so it was warned for little children to stay close with their parents. Andrei’s mother told him that he had an older brother but he strayed a little too far from home and was eaten by the cannibal’s running around. The story was never proven to be true though as there are no records of Andrei’s brother, Stephan ever found, but it still scared Andrei and so he stayed close. During his childhood Andrei’s mother would criticize him for wetting the bed and made fun of him, calling him names. This hurt Andrei’s feelings and he never forgot his mother’s words. His mother tried to find work for the family to put food on the table but work was just as scarce as food. A great dinner for the Chikatilo’s was bread but they hardly ever got that. In 1949 Andrei’s father had finally returned back home from the war and was very ill with tuberculosis. He would just lie on his bed, moaning and spit up blood all day and night. He died not long after. School was cruel for Andrei also. The other kids would call him names and make fun of him. He didn’t have a lot of friends. He tried to be better than his classmates so he participated in literary and musical events and even became editor of the school newspaper. Andrei completed the 7th grade in1951 at the age of 15. He encountered his first sexual experience also. He was wrestling with his sister's friend and as he wrestled around with her he ejaculated in his pants. It was embarrassing but he loved the feeling of being able to control her.  At the age of 16 he went to work at a brick factory in the summertime. He did well at this job but wasn’t particularly fond of it. Later that year in the fall while Andrei was working he had a wall fall on top of him, but he wasn’t badly injured.  The following year he wanted to go to go to Moscow because he believed that communism would soon conquer the world. That summer at the age of 17 he went to work at a nearby farm and was using a horse drawn rake for harvesting. One day while out in the field the rake had somehow toppled over and fell onto him. Again he wasn’t badly injured. By 1954 at the age of 18, Andrei finished the 10th grade. He then applied at the Moscow University to study law. Unfortunately, he failed his entry exam and wasn’t accepted into the University. He was convinced that he didn’t get in because of his father’s war record. Although very disappointed he decided to go back to work and save money. He figured he’d try the exam again later. By the age of 24 Andrei worked as a telephone engineer. He was very smart although he could have used his brains in different fields to better his career.  By the age of 27 Andrei was married. Her name was Fayina, she was 3 years younger than him. The marriage was actually arranged by his sister who felt sorry for her brother. He had had several girlfriends but it always ended the same. Andrei had an impotence problem and the girls would tease him about it. He never knew why the problem occurred but insisted he must be cursed. He went on to have 2 children, a boy and a girl. Some people wondered how he got his wife pregnant being impotent but Andrei said he would ejaculate in his hand and shove the semen up inside of her. This must be true because she did have his children. Years past and Andrei was ready for something different, a new job. In 1971 at 35, he enrolled in Rostov Liberal Arts University. He went on to get a degree in literature and philology. After he had graduated he decided to become a teacher. He liked teaching but always found his mind drifting off to other things. He would look at all the pretty girls and imagine fucking them and what that would be like. Forcing them to do whatever he wanted. His fantasies soon became reality in 1973 when he tried to rape one of his students. Although he didn’t get punished for it, Anna, one of his students said that Andrei had asked her to stay after school and then out of no where began beating her with a ruler. And all the while Andrei got so excited he again ejaculated in his pants. By 1978 Andrei’s love life wasn’t as good as it once was. He and his wife began spending more and more time away from each other and although Fayina tried, Andrei just wasn’t interested anymore. Andrei soon found a secret lover named Tanya Petrosyan. The relationship was only short lived though due to Andrei’s impotency. Neither of their spouses ever found out about this though. Later that year Chikatilo had gotten laid off from work and had found a new job as a warden at a school. By this time his wife began to suspect Andrei was cheating and so to keep tabs on him she too got a job at the same school as part of the staff. She never saw anything suspicious though and felt silly for thinking such thing. Andrei changed somehow though. He would watch the children at the school and imagine hurting them while fucking them. These children were all under the age of 13. He had never thought of his own children this way but something seemed so right about it. One day while he was walking home, which was actually a second house of his he had purchased for travel during business trips; he passed by a little girl he noticed from school. She was 9 year old Lena Zakotnova. His penis was suddenly tingling with feelings he obsessed about. He wanted to fuck this little girl and he had to gain her trust to get her to go into his house. They stood their and talked for awhile and Andrei had convinced the girl to go with him. He did the unthinkable. Now in Andrei’s house the girl was waiting for her promise of candy that she never received. Andrei told her to sit on the bed for a minute. He put his things away and walked over and sat next to the girl. He began talking with her about school and her family to keep suspicions low. While talking he place his hand upon her little leg, he was trembling. Then he moved it upwards under her skirt. The little girl tried to get up and run but Andrei grabbed her and threw her on the bed. He had to keep her quiet, then taking off his sock and shoving it hard into her mouth almost choking her. He then held her down with one hand and began up her skirt again. The girl kept struggling and almost escaping from his grasp several times. Andrei had never done this before and got nervous. If she escaped it would all be over for him, his family, his job, everything. He thought quick and grabbed the knife out of his bedside drawer. The little girl still on her stomach didn’t suspect it as the knife came down hard on her back and seeped through her skin. She wanted to scream, but couldn’t. Andrei saw the blood splatter and was almost amazed at the beauty of red. His penis was throbbing harder and harder. Again he brought the knife up and again down until he had stabbed her many times and ejaculated on him self. The girl didn’t move, she was noticeably dead at that point. Andrei now had to dispose of her and took her to a nearby frozen stream and threw her in. Later a man named Alexsandr Kravchenko would be arrested, tried and executed for the crime of the little girl. Andrei saw how easy it was to escape the hands of the law. No one suspected him.  Andrei would go on to molest 3 six year old girls in the same year. Andrei would not kill again for 3 years.
Towards the end of 1981, Chikatilo was now 45 and had found the urge to kill again. It was 17 year old, Larisa Tkachenko. He made this killing a little more brutal. He took her in the woods and tried to rape her. Her screams were loud so Andrei filled her mouth with dirt. He strangled her as he stabbed her to death and got so excited in the moment he actually bit off the girls nipple. He didn’t like the way the corpses would stare at him and so he began stabbing out their eyes. This was also a superstition that Andrei believed the victim's killer was burned in their eyes.

By the next year 1982 Andrei was more positive and confident of his killings and so he did 6 in that year. Lyuba Biryuk, 13 years old, He stabbed her repeatedly and then cut out her eyes. He then decided to have sex with her corpse.

Lyuba Volobuyeva, 14. She was savagely killed during one of Chikatilo’s business trips.

Oleg Pozhidayev, 9 years old. She was also brutally murdered on a business trip.

Olya Kuprina, 16, was brutally murdered back in Rostov.

Ira Karabelnikova and Sergei Kuzmin, both murdered within 9 days and 1 mile from each other. Their bodies were found stabbed to death also.

Olya Stalmachenok, 10. The body was brutally tortured and murdered.
In 1983 at the age of 47, Andrei would kill 7 people this year.

Laura Sarkisyan, 15. Murdered. The body was never found. It’s only known of through Andrei’s later confessions.

Ira Dunenkova, 13. Found stabbed to death in Aviator’s Park. This murder stands out because he actually knew her. He used to have sexual relations with her older sister and had even been in his house.

Lyuba Kutsyuba, 24. She was a tramp Andrei met at a train station. She was killed near a small railway stop just outside of Shakhti. She wasn’t found until 9 months later but due to the ice and snow her body was pretty well preserved.

Igor Gudkov, 7. Found slaughtered in Aviator’s Park.

Valya Chuchulina, 22. Brutally stabbed in late summer.

Vera Shevkun, 19. A prostitute killed at the edge of Shakhti.

Sergei Markov, 14. A school boy murdered on a piece of wasteland about a mile north of the nearby town of Novorherkassk.

Each year Andrei’s death count seemed to rise. He was getting good at what he was doing. It was now 1984 and Chikatilo was now 48.

His first victim this year was 17 year old Natalya Shalapinina. She was a tramp and an alcoholic. Her body was discovered in Aviator’s Park. It was in terrible condition. Her body was covered with stab wounds and her nose and upper lip had been cut off as well as one of her fingers on her left hand.

This year Chikatilo was charged with theft of state property and formal charges were made against him. He was told to go find another job.

The next victim was Marta Ryabyenko, 44. She was found brutally murdered. She was known as a tramp seeking oblivion in sex and alcohol.

Police had arrested a man not far from one of the crime scenes who was slightly mentally slow. He was charged with two killings and confessed, but later withdrew his claim stating that it was obtained under stress. But it was too late for him; he was already in jail and soon killed by a firing squad.

Ptashniko, 10 years old was found with over 54 stab wounds covering his whole body.
This day Tanya Petrosyan and Chikatilo went on a picnic together with Tanya’s daughter, Sveta. Tanya begins mocking Chikatilo when he cannot get an erection and stabbed Tanya hard in the side of the head and then began hitting her with a hammer. Chikatilo then runs after Tanya’s young daughter and stabs her in the head as well and then hammered her to death then severed her head.

Yelena Bakulina,22, Anna Lemesheva, 19, and Dima Illarionov were all found murdered that spring. With Anna’s body he had stabbed her numerous times, cut out her uterus and then threw it in the nearby bushes.

In May of 84’, Fayina, Chikatilo’s wife asked him to seek psychiatric help for what she believed was his lack of sexual drive. Little did she know that the drive was there, just not for her.

August-1984:

August 1- Chikatilo becomes head of a department at a plant making heavy industrial machinery.

August 2- Natasha Golosovskaya, 16. Chikatilo murdered her by throwing him self on her, ripping off her clothes and repeatedly cutting her with a knife.

August 5- Lyuda Alekseyeva, 17. Murdered in a particularly grisly way. Andrei planted the knife at points in her body where it would not kill her so he could see her suffer, but did eventually die. He covered her body with leaves and then left her.

August 8-15- Two women were murdered. The first was never identified and her head was never found. The second, Akmaral Seidalieva, 12, had runaway from home and then found stabbed to death.

August 18- Sasha Chapel, 11, was found so badly mutilated that his father passed out when he saw his son. Sasha’s eye’s had both been gauged out.

September 6- Irina Luchinskaya, 24. Chikatilo punched her hard and then drew his knife from his bag and began stabbing her to death.

September 8- Sveta Tsana, 22, was found brutally murdered in Aviator’s Park by being stabbed to death.

Yuri Velikanov, head of the criminal department of the Russian Public Prosecutor’s Office signed the necessary order to link all of the cases and dropped murder charges against the existing suspects as they were all jailed when murders continued to happen.

December 12- 1984, Chikatilo appeared in the people’s court of the Leninsk Region of the city of Shakhti charged with theft. He was found guilty and given a 1 year sentence of corrective labor. If only they knew that he had already killed 31 people. It could have spared many more.

Early 1985 Natalia Pokhlistova, 18, a mentally subnormal girl who was homeless, found her way to Chikatilo on the street. He had stabbed her 38 times before finally strangling her to death.

Irina Gulyayeva, 18 another mentally challenged girl who had no friends and no place to stay approached Chikatilo at a bus stop begging for help. Chikatilo offered a warm meal and place to stay. The girl followed Andrei into the woods where he killed her, leaving her naked body only 500 yards from the bus stop.

In 1987 Chikatilo approached a young 12 year old boy, Ivan Bilovetski, a smart outgoing little boy with a bright future. His body was later found mutilated and his stomach was ripped open. Mud was stuffed into his mouth to keep him from crying out.

In April of 1988, police discovered the body of an unknown woman who appeared to have been slaughtered 2-5 days earlier.

The next month the body of 9 year old Voronko was found cut up and stabbed to death.

Zhenya Muratov, 15 was found brutally stabbed and left under a pile of leaves.

In January of 1989, Chikatilo met Tatyana Ryzhova and had taken her to his daughter's house which she no longer lived in and pushed her to the floor in an attempt to have sex with her. When he couldn’t get an erection she began laughing and mocking him for it. Pissed off, Chikatilo pulled out his knife and stabbed her in the mouth. After she died Chikatilo cut off her head and legs and began cutting her into pieces. When he was finished he put the body parts on a sled and drug them to some nearby woods and left them.

Sasha Dyakonov was murdered the day after his 8th birthday. He was stabbed to death and was left in the bushes only 20 yards from the road.

Chikatilo would kill 4 more times that summer, 3 of which were all little boys.

Lyosha Moiseyev, 10, was murdered by Chikatilo but not found until 66 days later.

In August of 1989, Yelena Vargo, 19, was found murdered in some abandoned woods. That same month Alyosha Khobotov, 10, was found murdered. Chikatilo had hit him over the head, bit off his tongue and cut off his sexual organs. He then threw his body in a pit.

At the start of 1990, Kravcheno, 11, was found stabbed to death and his genitals were also removed.

Yaroslav Makarov, 10, was approached by Chikatilo and agreed to go with him.

Chikatilo then jumped on the boy by an attempt to have oral sex with him. It ended in an orgy of hacking and stabbing and Andrei had cut off the tip of the boys tongue and genitals. Both pieces were tossed into the bushes.

Lyubov Zuyeva was a mentally retarded woman whom Chikatilo had met on the train. He murdered her in the woods and she was not found until her body was almost completely decomposed.

Vitya Petrov, 13 was killed by Chikatilo whaen he took him to a deserted area.

Ivan Fomain, 11, was found slaughtered on a river beach, he had 45 different knife wounds to his body.

Vadim Gromov, 16, was mentally handicapped from birth. Chikatilo persuaded him to follow him into the woods where Chikatilo Pinned him to the ground and began to sexually molest him. He tied the boy's hands and bit off the tip of the boys tongue and began to strike him in the head and stomach with the knife. After he was dead Chikatilo cut off his genitals and again tossed them into the bushes.

Vitya Tishchenko, 16, was persuaded to leave the train station with Chikatilo. She was later found only a short distance from the station stabbed to death.

Svetlana Korostik, 22. Officers found the naked remains of a young blond woman half buried under a pile of leaves. She was horribly mutilated and had multiple knife wounds to the vital organs, including stabbing her stomach and the amputation of the genitals and tongue.

This would become the last victim for Chikatilo as soon after Svetlana’s body was found Chikatilo was brought in for questioning. Although at first he denied everything, but days later admitted to every crime and then some. His excuse was that he was impotent and blamed everyone else for his problems. He also told police that he was doing them a favor by killing the prostitutes, homeless and retarded. The world needed fewer of them.
In court, Chikatilo was brought up into a steel cage so that the victims' family could not get to him. Although they screamed and shouted for authorities to let him out. Some family members passed out with all the excitement and drama in the court room. As Chikatilo spoke and gave reasons for his killing’s he also dropped his pants and exposed his genitals for everyone to see and explained how he was cursed. On February 14- 1994 the jury found Chikatilo guilty and he was led down the stairs to a concrete room. The officer then drew his gun and put it behind Chikatilo’s left ear. Then he pulled the trigger, putting an end to Andrei’s complicated life. The families mourned for their loved ones but were satisfied enough that the killer himself would now burn in hell.

Pleading Insanity? – You Must be Crazy
By Brad Barrett
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, there's nothing better than taking some time for you. You might want to while away the hours cramming long needles in the space between your anus and scrotum. Or, if that doesn't tempt you, you might want a mouthful of your own crap, washed down with hot, salty urine. Still no takers? Anybody even hear voices? Anybody?

If there's one thing about Albert Fish that seems painfully obvious, it's this: He was nuttier than squirrel shit. What else can you say about a man who was a pedophile, a sadist, and a masochist? What other conclusion can you draw about a man whose obsessions included castration, cannibalism, coprophillia, urophillia and piquerism?

I'll save you the trouble of going to Wikipedia to find out what those last three mean. In short, Albert was obsessed with feces, urine, and stabbing (both himself and others). His favorite method of flagellating his own body involved a paddle filled with nails. He would often beat himself into a bloody mess.

He is well deserving of his nickname. He is the real, honest to goodness Boogeyman.

He first realized he was a few rounds short of a clip when he was still a child. After his father died, his mother put him in an orphanage where he was beaten unmercifully. So were all the other children. The difference was Albert liked the beatings. He enjoyed them so much they gave him erections. This gave the other children hours of entertainment at Albert's expense. It probably did wonders for his self esteem in the process.

It was much later, after his wife had left him, when Albert began to hear "angels" telling him to dash out the brains of children. That would have been cruel enough. Crueler still was what he actually did to them. He beat them for hours. He cut off ears. He extended smiles up the sides of faces. He removed noses, heads, limbs and anything else that would come off. He sucked the blood from their punctured stomachs. Then, he feasted on them for days, taking great pains to make the preparation process long and involved, lengthening the experience.

 Once, for good measure, he wrote a letter to the family of one of his victims.  Grace Budd's mother couldn't read, so her son had to read the letter detailing the awful things Albert had done. This ultimately proved to be his downfall.

 When Albert Fish had his day in court, Captain John Stein asked why he had written the letter. Albert didn't know. He supposed he "just had a mania for writing."

 When asked why he had done such a horrible thing to young Grace, Albert said, "You know, I never could account for it."

His legal defense entered an insanity plea. It seemed like a sure fire way to keep him from being executed. Most normal people wouldn't mind seeing Albert take a nice long dirt nap, but doctors and psychiatrists would likely have wanted the chance to examine him further. He was, after all, a perfect storm of mental illness. A run-of-the-mill psychopath is just plain boring in comparison.

 Quick show of hands, anybody think the Boogeyman isn't crazy?

If you raised your hand, you are of the same opinion as the United States government. That's right, folks. Legally, Albert Fish is perfectly sane and completely responsible for the atrocities he committed.

Confused?

You see, in order to be criminally insane in the U.S.A., you must be unable to distinguish between right and wrong. Note that it doesn't say you have to care. It doesn't say you have to feel guilty about it afterwards. To be sane, you merely need enough competence to know, deep down inside somewhere, that what you're doing will be frowned upon by others, if not yourself. It doesn't matter if your mother abandoned you. It doesn't matter if you were abused. It doesn't matter if the ghost of Adolf Hitler possessed you. It doesn't even matter if the fabric of time tore in half and you were kidnapped by ray gun-wielding slime creatures that hypnotized you and sent you back.  

By its very nature, the legal definition of insanity will exclude nearly every serial killer in history. If you have no idea what you're doing is wrong, you won't take steps to cover it up. Therefore, you won't ever get the chance to become a serial killer.

Allow me to make a few clarifications. Technically, a serial killer has killed more than one victim. Those killings must have occurred at more than one time. A spree killer might have a shot at the insanity plea because their crimes take place all at once. Any sort of premeditation, however, will likely prove their sanity. Their sanity, in turn, will prove their guilt in the eyes of the law.

Upon learning of his verdict and his sentence, a Daily News reporter wrote that Albert's "…watery eyes gleamed at the thought of being burned by a heat more intense than the flames with which he often seared his flesh to gratify his lust." He supposedly thanked the judge for that method of execution. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was executed. His final words were, "I don't even know why I'm here."

Crazy as he was, it took the jury less than an hour to determine Albert was sane and guilty. If this man was judged to be sane, there seems to be little hope for anyone relying on an insanity defense. To plead insanity… well, that's just plain crazy. 

The motives of a serial killer
By Rhiannon Edwards
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

What drives one to kill? It can seem like a simple idea to assess but you will find it goes beyond what the majority can possibly fathom.

There are two categories of ultimate motives which seem to direct further motives of serial killers. A distinction between the psychopathic and the insane, which fosters a common misconception to this day.

Insanity can be defined as an “unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding” leaving one not responsible for their behavior and almost completely helpless. Whereas psychopathic tendencies relate to antisocial personality disorder which is “often manifested in; aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse”. There are differences at hand which are significant and valuable as it is brought to our attention that Psychopathy is an easily attainable nature which often goes undetected or misjudged causing faulty treatment and hindered understanding of the psychopathic mind. Depending on if one is psychopathic or insane, there are significant differences in the further motives spawned from the foundations at hand.

     One who could be seen as insane may suffer delusions which trigger their acts; their motives may be clouded as they themselves don’t always understand what they are doing. If they are capable of realizing what they are doing, their motives may take on an unrealistic tone… rather than an urge to do something, a need to do it due to the fact there is a possible force behind it controlling them. Ed Gein who was considered schizophrenic at the time of his crimes was further motivated by an unhealthy relationship with his mother who brought him to feel conflicted about women and soon develop a particular psychosis leading him to commit the acts he did. Albert Fish being another example motivated initially by insanity, and then further by a religious psychosis enabling him to believe he was a Saint of sorts who had to do what he was doing, reasoning often that if his actions were wrong he would have been punished by an angel. Contrary to popular belief however, serial killers are very rarely insane or guided by these motives.

   Concerning the psychopathically motivated individuals, there are a number of further motives which have been recognized and repeated throughout the years which come into play such as Infamy and Revenge. Criminal psychologists Holmes and DeBurger note categories such as Missionary, Hedonistic, Gain-motivated, and Power/Control.
A simple example of one motivated in a missionary sense could be the mindset of particular infamous dictators like Adolf Hitler, who wanted those exterminated which did not meet the standards of his Aryan race ethic. Aileen Wuornos is considered a missionary killer due to her targetting patrons of prostitution.

Many serial killers are hedonistic, killing for sheer pleasure and often becoming addicted to this pleasure which fuels their continuation of murder, this includes killers such as Dennis Rader (the BTK strangler) who vastly enjoyed the hunt as well as the kill of his victims, and Jeffrey Dahmer who was satisfied with what he could do with the body after his victim was killed.

There are those who are influenced heavily by media depictions of serial killers and who grow to obtain a deep interest in them to an extreme point where they find they would like to achieve the success of a killer they have heard about. They often crave the fame or rather infamy which goes along with the act they commit, and they are motivated by this thoroughly as well as the power they seem to have during the process. Power and control, as mentioned, can take on a level of it’s own concerning types who seek to feel something they may have been restricted from at another time in their lives… or simply for those who dream of obtaining the kind of power others possess regularly in what seems to be an easier form. The power itself can prove an addicting motive and is often cited as one that a high number of killers possess during their “reign of terror”.
The motives of a serial killer vary, and to most they confuse, but it is significant to note that a lot of motivations present are an average phenomenon seen amongst society but often simply expressed in different, more accepted ways. These motives presented, aside from other factors contributing, tend to be the main trigger in what allows any human being to kill.

Necrophilia: Desiring the Dead
By Melissa Hogle
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Necrophilia, the cornerstone of every psycho it seems...and a damn creepy idea to the rest of us.  After all who in the world would want to have sex with a dead person?!  Well there are a number of different reasons, some more comprehendible and romanticized and others more ghoulish and, honestly, stomach-turning.  Whatever the reason though it's pretty safe to say that this love/sexual preference/fetish is not the norm and likely (if not certainly) indicates some serious mental, emotional, and social problems in those who have it.

Romancing the Remains

The first category of those with this philia don't so much love the dead as they loved the person so much when he or she was living that they sort of just take that last kiss goodbye too far.  Famed American author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, confessed in his journal to be being so distraught over his young wife, Ellen's, death that shortly after she was buried he dug her back up.  What he did after that is anyone's guess (he never said) but should he have done anything more than another farewell kiss he'd fall into this category.

On the far more grotesque end of love gone beyond the burial service is that of Carl Von Cosel in 1930's Key West, Florida.  The radiologist, who worked at a sanitarium, fell deeply in love with a 22-year-old tuberculosis patient of his, Maria Elena de Hoyos, and his love carried over into her death.  He snatched the young woman from her burial place and brought her back to his place to keep as his love, and lover, for the next seven years or so.  Even as the woman's body began to discompose.  Over the years Cosel was forced to use piano wire to hold her bones together, replace rotting skin with wax and silk, use glass eyes to replace real ones long gone, and even insert a tube between her legs to have a "vagina" to continue having sex with her.  When his activities were finally discovered and what was left of Maria Elena was returned to rest in peace Cosel continued to love, and lust after, her using a personalized sex doll in her place...when he died in 1952 he was found clutching said doll which had a death mask of his dearly departed on it.

Loser Lovin'

The next type of necrophile has a slightly more "open relationship" with the dead...still not violent, but certainly not one to settle down with just one corpse as it were.  It's with these folks that we tend to find those misbehaving morticians and gravediggers who get busy with those they're trusted to care for by loved ones.  These types do love the dead, not because they're dead per say but because they can't say no.  These men (there are some cases of female necrophiliacs, but the vast majority are men) don't do so well with the living ladies - too shy, too weird, etc - and so turn to those that they're certain won't (re. can't) reject them.

Viktor Ardisson was a mortician and gravedigger who supposedly had sex with over a hundred of the dead - or, in some cases, at least parts of them.  He was caught when the smell of a decomposing three-year-old girl, who'd he'd been performing oral sex on since digging her up, alerted neighbors enough to call the police.  Also found at his place of residence was his "bride"...the severed head of a thirteen-year-old girl that he kept on his beside table and was known to kiss from time to time.  (It's important to remember, despite the ages of the two defiled mentioned, Ardisson was not a pedophile - it was the fact they were dead, not their ages, that aroused the man.)

Another such corpse loving creep, Henri Blot, was caught fast asleep after having dug up and had sex with a recently deceased ballerina.  While on trial the judge commented that what he had done was depraved to which Blot was quoted as replying, "How would you have it?  Every man to his own tastes.  Mine is for corpses."

Deadly Desires

The final form of necrophile being covered is the dangerous, violent, killing kind.  At the core these types, necrophiliac killers, are the same in that they use sex with the dead as another form of power over their victims.  Once the victim is dead they want that one last form of "owning" their victim in performing some sort of sexual act upon them whether it be intercourse or giving or receiving sexual pleasure in some other manner.

Some big names in the serial killer world were involved in doing the dirty deed with the dead.  Ed Kemper not only would rape his dead victims but also was said to have done so after decapitating one of them.  The "Sunset Slayer" Douglas Clark (with the help of his girlfriend Carol Bundy) would pick up hookers for oral sex and then shoot them in the head during the act, climaxing with the now dead woman's mouth over his member - he kept one victim's head in the freezer as a morbid sex toy.  And, after strangling his victims (thus leaving them with the common "Angel Lust" erection seen in strangulation cases), Jeffery Dahmer would perform oral sex on his victims...he was also known to cut the bodies open to have sex with the victim's innards.

...While mentioned at the start of this section these killers are the same at the core, there are subtle differences that are to be made.  With those like Dennis Nilsen (who killed 15 men and boys in London) the murders seemed more just a means to an end; the end being a lover to have power over and that will never, ever, leave.  Others, like Ted Bundy and Andrei Chikatilo, the raping of corpses seem to just be an extension of sexual sadism, another way to completely dominate the victims.  It will hardly matter to the victims’ loved ones, of course, but for those in law enforcement these small differences may help in catching the killer and possibly getting them to confess and/or convicting them of their crimes.

In Search of America’s Most Evil Serial Killer
By Rhiannon Edwards
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Throughout history, millions have killed. From that we determine categories of killers, there are some who kill at war, and some who kill at random. It is true that killers take on all shapes and sizes, many different demeanors, and have an array of different methods. When you pinpoint serial killers, it’s simple to see all of them the same. We separate them according to their motives but often think that all were equally brutal in their crimes. However, this is not the case. It can be said that there are some killers, who take that extra step… committing acts that bring them from man, to monster. Some killers bring a style to the table that others can’t ignore, that leaves a mark and places them aside from the rest. Some killers are far from troubled or apathetic, looking at what they have managed to do we can say that they are evil incarnate. With that said, who then crosses this line into such depths the farthest? Who can we peg, as the most evil?

 There has been interest in the topic recently, of just how we can determine the most evil serial killer and why they earn their placement.

There are killers I have discovered throughout the world who deserve a placement on this list. However this in particular is a compilation of those few serial killers who; through specific acts of torture, unique hedonistic methods, and brutal reasoning, we can come to the conclusion might just be the most evil serial killers in American History thus far.

It's evil enough to kill another human being, But to kill your loved ones is an incomprehensible act that can't be ignored.

With this, Belle Sorenson Gunness is added to the list at number 5. Mother, lover, and serial killer.

Known as "one of America's most profligate known female serial killers,"
it is said that Belle is estimated to have killed both of her husbands and all of her children. She is known to have killed most of the men she has been involved with, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. Her apparent motives involved collecting life insurance benefits. This is one of the killers that hit close to home, for the fact that considering your family…it is difficult to think that you might sacrifice them for money in such a way. Belle cared very little for who she killed, regardless of their status in her life. To her, the children and the lovers were worthless unless they could bring her profit.

Reports estimate that she killed more than twenty people over several decades and got away with it, many people claim that her body count may have reached over one hundred. She makes this list for key reasons; One of those reasons being her targets – all supposed “loved ones” who she shamelessly slaughtered for some extra cash, another being the fact that like most serial killers she did not feel any remorse…this presents the fact that her killing was mainly for money and out of annoyance, she also grew to care nothing about what she had to do in order to keep herself content. This of course is only one example of cases where mothers have killed those closest to them, and fathers as well. It is a longstanding trend. What is unique about this case in comparison to the others is that Belle was not mentally unstable, just plain ruthless. In many situations where the mother has killed, it was out of instants of delusion and misguided thinking. Belle’s murders were a landmark concerning one who would be so bold as to willfully and proudly make family just for the chance to kill them off.

Topping the brutality of Belle, we come to our number 4 placement, filled by none other than the infamous Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK strangler.

Bind, torture, kill. With torture in his name you couldn’t have expected him not to be on this list. Dennis Rader is well known for his acts of torture on his victims, and one serial killer who enjoyed this method to an extreme, making it one of the pillars of what he stood for.  Rader bound, tortured, and killed his victims, making sure to cover all aspects of his art. He would strangle his victims until they lost consciousness, but it never ended there. Rader would then let them revive, and promptly strangle them again. He would repeat this pattern many times, forcing them into a near-death state all the while becoming sexually aroused at the visual created of their struggles. Often the final step of his killings would include Rader strangling them to death, which would be followed with masturbation where he would ejaculate into an article of their clothing to end things off, usually their underwear. BTK’s idea of a step by step process to putting his victims through hell before he finally ended their lives is something that was an influence to many killers later on, being something he prided himself on and something that set him apart from other murderers of the time. Aside from being influential, his methods were extremely sadistic and applied to a hedonistic mindset. All of this was very much a game, some work involved of course, but resulting ultimately in enjoyment and successful completion of his desires which he would blatantly throw in the faces of law enforcement. When you look at it that way, you can see that Rader went a step further in his indifference towards human beings and chose to deal with ending their lives in a lighthearted and so, grizzly fashion.

“[I c]ut one of my belts in half, slit these halves in six strips about 8 inches long. I whipped his bare behind till the blood ran from his legs. I cut off his ears, nose, slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes. He was dead then.” The words of number 3 on the list, Albert Fish. What else did he do to this victim? He engaged in continuing the knifing of this boy, and ultimately “made a stew out of his ears, nose, pieces of his face and belly.” Albert Fish is best known for the intricate and unbelievable murders of children. Just how many children he had killed, no one can know for sure. He was quite literally a stereotype of the “boogeyman”. For quite a long time he got away with it, due to his silent and gentle exterior to people around him. Who would ever think that this man was capable of so nonchalantly killing two birds with one stone, play time and dinner. His acts have been heavily publicized since the day he was found to have murdered, and for good reason. Fish, through his psychotic religious delusions, took hold of his human ability to kill and used it on one of the more innocent creatures on this earth, children. Unlike Belle Gunness who took the number 5 spot, these were not his own kin. That however, does not make the killings at hand any less gruesome. What stands out about his crimes is the way he killed, the disturbing reasons behind the killings, and also what he did with the bodies. The astonishing revelations we make about him can turn up from reading or hearing his descriptions of the murders and how he reacted towards them. He salivated with the thought of his actions, no true remorse found, and despite what he claimed to have forced him to commit these acts – the glory was often in what he was able to make of young bodies.

 “At frequent intervals I basted his behind with a wooden spoon. So the meat would be nice and juicy. In about 2 hours, it was nice and brown, cooked through. I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did.”

What do we make of this? When one not only enjoys the torture of fellow human beings, but the torture of children, and then not only that aspect, but the ability to physically consume those he has tortured – cooking them proudly as if he had discovered the most expensive of roasts on sale. To most cannibals, human meat makes an increasingly better meal than that of what you can purchase at the store.

 Albert Fish enjoyed his work, he would never regret one moment of it. Making a sadistic lifestyle look easy to incorporate into his daily schedule, he is by far one of the most evil serial killers in America for blatantly ruling out of his mind what makes his acts so cruel and unusual to us, allowing a mindset that sees the torture of an innocent as a necessity in order to satisfy his common needs.

As we reach the penultimate spot on the list, number 2, we must now really consider aspects of all prior killers mentioned on this list and somehow come up with who can possibly top all of them as well as accommodate all of their methods in one. Who could get away with killing more people than the others mentioned? Who could possess the ability to find even more unique ways of torture and murder…and therefore the charm to lure victims into such a trap?

The answer is in who is depicted to be the first true serial killer in American History, Herman Mudgett, better known under the alias of “Dr. Henry Howard Holmes”.

Very rarely would his lovers and hotel guests leave his presence alive, and if they ever had they would leave seriously and indefinitely scarred for life. Holmes would torture, and kill his victims. One way of doing this would be to lock them in soundproof bedrooms which were fitted with gas lines that allowed him the luxury of asphyxiating them at any given time. Others were locked in a huge bank vault which was near his office, where he could sit back comfortably and listen as they screamed, panicked, and then eventually suffocated from their struggles. His killing extended to “patients” who died as a result of his abortion procedures, no doubt intended to lead them to their demise. The whimsy of his obscure and indecent methods do not end there. With little respect for the lives of the humans he was able to take without much trouble, he used their dead bodies to strange extents not often dealt with by many other killers you will have heard of. These bodies went by a secret chute to the basement, and afterwards some were meticulously dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models, and then actually sold to medical schools – this includes the corpses of the women dying of their abortions, which were processed and also sold. There were some bodies cremated, and some placed in lime pits for destruction. Holmes also possessed two giant furnaces, as well as pits of acid, and various poisons to use at his leisure. One of the most alarming gadgets of torture and death which he owned was a stretching rack, allegedly in order to create a race of “giants” and other such experimentation. Medical school proved beneficial to him, allowing him to sell off his left over skeletons and the organs of victims with minimal difficulty. The existence of Holmes and his slayings is a mysterious one, we can estimate the number of his victims to be between 20 to 100, and some say even higher, which can only be based upon missing persons reports of the time and testimony of neighbors who reported seeing unusual events as well as young women accompanying Holmes into his hotel who never exited. The single verified number is 27, which is still an amazing amount to get away with – police however, had commented that “some of the bodies in the basement were so badly dismembered and decomposed, that it was difficult to tell how many bodies there actually were”. Again, counting the charm of this man, women were easiest to bring in, but this never stopped him from getting his hands on men and also children. What is so significant of these murders may not even be the ways in which they were tortured, or how their bodies were disposed of, but perhaps how dignified Holmes was able to act…and the composure kept during the entire process. This can signify that potentially, Holmes could have continued with his ways for years with ease. It is a disturbing thought that he had medical connections, and also that due to this it made killing and getting rid of bodies all the more simpler. These days although creative minds like that of his exist, they can never truly amount to the extent that brought all of this to be. It is obvious that, realizing what this man was capable of including the nature of his simply activity seeking induced crimes, he is a true candidate for one whom we may always see as one of the most evil human beings from the start that could be dealt with…

But not quite the most evil, not on this list anyway, because there is one more spot to be filled which is the number 1 placement.

The serial killer most intensely bonded with his torture seeking methods and body count, is none other than one that to this day surprisingly not a lot of people are familiar with. His crimes are questionable, and often debated over in terms of accuracy and capability. What this man is proven to have done reveals a depravity so potent that it would be difficult to keep him off of this list from any angle you approach. This man is Donald "Pee wee" Gaskins, said to be the most prolific serial killer in South Carolina history.

Donald’s victims were both male and female, child and adult. His acts included cannibalism, various acts of torture, and ultimately killing of these victims. Anyone could have been a potential target for his brutalities. Saying this seems a vague and average thing amongst the ranks of serial killers, unless you know the details.

As a child Gaskins was treated with disdain by his family, and not well liked by his peers as he grew older. Often teased and punished, he quickly developed an intense hatred towards those around him and battled this on a daily basis. As time passed and the hatred stayed with him, Gaskins took part in criminal activities and as a result was punished in many ways including jail time and reform school. However, punishment could not control what had been unleashed within Gaskins so long ago. Something had been deeply rooted within him and could easily be provoked at any given time, which became most apparent when he was confronted on an undesirable subject and acted out by taking a hammer to the head of a girl, which split her skull. For this he was charged for attempted murder. If he was capable of this, what else could he wind up involved in?

Donald Gaskins was just beginning his reign of terror. To build a persona that others would fear, he shed the face value of his small stature and learned to intimidate through his actions, which started violent and increased in violence as time went on. Although he had followed through with an array of disturbing acts, there were specific instances that pegged him as infamous for the monster he was.

His “vision” into “bothersome feelings” as he described it, led him to his most well known crimes. One instance of these inclusions can be noted as his tendency to keep his mutilated victims alive for days. Perfecting his torture methods, he would sometimes also cannibalize their severed parts as they watched, or were forced to participate in the consumption of their own flesh. This rarity and horrific experiment in torture was committed without a second thought on Gaskins’ part, as he allowed himself the luxury to do whatever was necessary in order to satisfy his visions of cruelty.

Continuing with his sadistic rampage, he identified his highway murders as recreational killings whereas his serious murders were reserved for those he knew personally. A chilling look into how he dissected his habit of homicide. Although his acquaintances often found him to be mentally disturbed and so distanced themselves from him, there were those who were friendlier to Gaskins – which sadly did not protect them from meeting the fate he had conducted. A prime example of this being that of Doreen Dempsey, who was pregnant at the time. Accepting a ride from Gaskins, he had taken her on an unexpected route to an isolated area of the woods in order to inflict his plans upon her. After raping and killing Dempsey, he also managed to sodomize her baby which Gaskins would later sickeningly describe as the best sex of his life.

His massacre truly did not stop at merely women and men, as he had not only violated and taken the life of this child, but many others; crushing their necks, cutting their throats, stabbing them, poisoning, drowning, beating them to death and even shooting them execution style. All of this a picture of how worthless and objectified he was able to render an innocent soul in his mind.

Gaskins had absolutely no regard and no consideration for any human life, other than his own, inflating his status in order to appreciate himself and committing acts which made him feel more powerful in his individual view. Having been possibly connected to over 100 murders, the few we have detailed stories on are enough to reveal this man’s nature and so enough to have him perceived as intensely evil in the eyes of those who see through his crimes. There’s a reason that Gaskins is sometimes referred to as the “Meanest Man in America”, from what I can see, he certainly fits the position. His unfathomable crimes stand notorious amongst serial killings due to their highly violent and unrelenting status, proving surreal and shocking to those who take the time to immerse themselves momentarily in his existence. Donald Gaskins is more than a maniac, and more than a sadist, he is America’s most evil serial killer.

Hiding Bodies
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

The FBI estimates that there are currently 500 serial killers at large. Other estimates are much lower, around 35 - 100 serial killers currently committing crimes. In 1983, they estimated that 5000 Americans or 15 people a day were killed by strangers. Every year, between 3500 - 5000 people in America are the victims of serial killers. In the past 20 years, 160 serial killers have been identified or captured, and 120 of them were in the United States.

Sometimes in the profile of a serial killer, authorities will use the dump sites as a guide in that profile, an example would be that if the body is dumped in a wooded area, the killer might be a hunter or fisherman who is comfortable in the woods. Studies have been done showing that in most cases where the serial killer wasn't traveling, such as a truck driver covering a lot of territory, serial killers go a certain distance within a triangle space when dumping the body.

Sometimes the serial killer will go back to the dumping grounds to spend more time with the victim, or to relive the experience. Sometimes they will go back to make sure they didn't leave any evidence behind, or in some cases, when they've integrated themselves to the local police, to help in the investigation, or to taunt the police and leave clues. Gary Ridgway didn't chew gum or smoke, but he did leave chewing gum and cigarette butts at dump sites. Once he even scattered airport motel pamphlets and car rental papers to imply that the killer was a traveling salesman. Sometimes (also Ridgway) they go back to the dump site to have sex with the remains.

There are studies which suggest that the average serial killer travels about a half an hour from home to dispose of a body. Unless work or some other activity puts them further away, they likely live more or less than thirty minutes from the site.

Maurice Godwin, a former police officer from North Carolina, conducted research into geographical profiling involving 54 American serial killers. An analysis of the crimes of the 54 killers, who had each murdered at least ten victims, disclosed that the average distance between the killers' home and his chosen dumping ground was 14.3 miles while the abduction area was only 1.4 miles away.

Here is what 150 Serial Killers did about the question of hiding bodies:

Put in Trash Bags (along highways):
Patrick Kearney and David Douglas Hill (The trash bag murders), Belgium's Butcher of Mons, Bob Berdella (Put remains in can for collection by trash collectors), Jeffery Dahmer, Richard W. Rogers, Grim Sleeper (victims covered by trash bags, found near dumpsters), Bruce Mendenhall, Larry Eyler (The Interstate Killer), Jefferson Davis Parish Louisiana serial killings (unsolved), Robert Pickton, Unknown serial killer in Seoul, The Family murders (Adelaide, Australia), Jeffrey S. Mailho, Vlado Tanevski, Jeffrey S. Mailhot,

Fed them to Animals
Joe Ball - The Alligator Man, Ottis Toole, Robert Pickton, Belle Gunness, Carl Panzram

Sold them as food
Fritz Haarmann, George Karl Grossman

Under houses, crawlspaces, basements
John Wayne Gacy, Kendall Francois, Jesse Harding Pomeroy, David Maust, Jeffery Dahmer

Rivers or other bodies of water
John Wayne Gacy, California Astrology Murderer, Gary Ridgeway, Sean Vincent Gillis, Lewiston Valley Killer, Amelia “The Baby Farmer” Dyer, Fritz Haarmann, The Atlanta Child Killer,

Shed
Dean Corll

In or around Dumpsters in Alleyways
Daytona Beach SK (unsolved), George Russell, Eight Street Killer (Miami unsolved, 31 victims),

In the woods or fields
Gary Ridgeway, Ted Bundy, The I-45 Killer or Killer(s),east Texas and Montrose Killer(s), "killing fields" murders, Fort Myers killer, Gary G. Grant, James Edward Ruzicka, Gary A. Shaw, The 1969 Parkway Murders (Both Gerald Eugene Stano and Ted Bundy claimed credit for the Parkway Murders but were cleared), Ted Bundy (ditches and parks)

Rural Locations
Robert Lee Yates, Edmonton Canada missing women (unsolved)

Didn't bother
Dennis Radar, Angel Maturino Reséndiz, Zodiac Killer, Richard Ramirez, Jack the Ripper, Jesse Harding Pomeroy, Herbert Mullin, Aileen Wuornos

Under the bed
Jeffery Dahmer, Earl Nelson

Left them 'posed'
Albert Desalvo, Danny Rolling, the Grim Sleeper, George Russell

Dismemberment, cannibalism, hid some remains
Albert Fish, Jeffery Dahmer, Joachim Kroll, Arthur Shawcross, Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole, Bob Berdella, Edmund Kemper III, Richard Trenton Chase, Douglas Clark & Carol Bundy, Andrei Chikatilo, Alfred Packer, Mark Sappington, Surender Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher

In house or apartment
Fritz Honka, Jose Luis Calva, John Christie, Charles Albright, Harrison Graham, Yang Xinhai, Moses Sithole, Tommy Lynn Sells, Dennis Radar, Richard Ramirez

Never found the Victims'
Gert van Rooyen and Joey Haarhof,

Burried them
Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo, Juan Corona, Gilles de Rais, The Bloody Benders, Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzales, Pedro Alonso Lopez, Dorothea Puente, Reginald Christie, Fred West and Rosemary West, Gordon Northcott

Just dumped the bodies
Kenneth Alessio Bianchi and Angelo Buono

Burned
Gilles de Rais, Steven Avery, Sudhakar Gajare, Uresh Warik, Ravi Poojary, Charles Sobhraj, Nicolae Bonner, Thomas Svekla, Jeremy Bryan Jones, John Childs, Ohio Cincinnati killer (unsolved), Dr. Marcel Petiot, Herman Webster Mudgett (H. H. Holms), Countess Erszebet Bathory, Gilles de Rais, The Alberta Serial Killer, Larry Bright

Dissolved in acid (or kept hidden in vats or drums)
John George Haigh, Javed Iqbal Mughal, Nuevo Laredo, Santiago Meza López, Jeffery Dahmer

Dumped near highways (and deserted roads – vacant lots)
Rory Conde, Last Call Killer, Robert Lee Yates, Jr., James Ruzicka, Randy Kraft, The I-5 Killer: Randy Woodfield, Dewayne Lee Harris, California Occult Murders (unsolved), Gary Michael Hilton, Donald E. Younge Jr, Edmund Kemper, Derrick Todd Lee, Highway of Tears Killer (unsolved), Ortega Highway, (The 44-mile stretch of highway, officially part of California Route 74, where many bodies have been found, William Bonin threw one here, so did Randy Kraft, Patrick Kearney did too), Mack Ray Edwards, Clifford Olson, Larry Eyler, New Bedford Highway killer (unsolved)

Flushed them
Dennis Nilsen, Surender Koli, Joachim Kroll,

SERIAL KILLERS AND INSANITY
By:  Jessica Robinson
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

In a perfect world, serial killers would be insane.  This would allow the public to understand why they did what they did, and it would give them the chance to be treated.  Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and most serial killers are not insane.  What does it mean to be insane?  Surely anyone who kills another, eats their body parts, or has sex with a headless corpse can’t be in their right mind.  Insanity, as defined by the Law Dictionary, reads as follows:  “mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.”  The definition continues for criminal insanity:
In criminal cases, a plea of ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ will require a trial on the issue of the defendant’s insanity (or sanity) at the time the crime was committed.  In these cases the defendant usually claims ‘temporary insanity’ (crazy then, but okay now).  The traditional test of insanity in criminal cases is whether the accused knew ‘the difference between right and wrong,’ following the ‘M’Naughten rule’ from 19th century England.  Most states require more sophisticated tests based on psychiatric and/or psychological testimony evaluated by a jury of laypersons or a judge without psychiatric training.  A claim by a criminal defendant of his/her insanity at the time of trial requires a separate hearing to determine if a defendant is sufficiently sane to understand the nature of a trial and participate in his/her own defense.  If found to be insane, the defendant will be ordered to a mental facility, and the trial will be held only if sanity returns.1

The M’Naghten Rule, which was the earliest and most common test for criminal insanity, was based on a man named Daniel M’Naghten.  He believed that he was personally being threatened by Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.  He went to defend himself, and accidentally shot and killed Peel’s private secretary.  He was acquitted on the grounds of insanity because he was not aware of his actions or the difference between right and wrong.
          

 The only serial killer who has used the insanity plea successfully was Ed Gein.  At the time of his arrest, he was found to be mentally incompetent, so he was considered unfit to stand trial.  Instead of prison, he was sent to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.  When this hospital was converted into a prison, Gein was sent to Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.  His doctors determined he was sane enough to stand trial in 1968.  He was found guilty of first-degree murder, but since he was already declared legally insane, he spent the remainder of his life in a mental institution.
           

Several other serial killers have attempted to convince the courts and the public that they are insane, but usually to no avail.  One of the most common ruses is to create an alter ego.  The hope here is that the killer will appear to have multiple personalities, making them less culpable for their actions.  Multiple personality disorder, now referred to as dissociative identity disorder (DID), is defined as:
a mental illness that involves the sufferer experiencing at least two clear identities or personality states, each of which has a fairly consistent way of viewing and relating to the world...This disorder was formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD) and is often referred to as split personality disorder.  Although statistics regarding this disorder indicate that the incidence of DID is about 3% of patients in psychiatric hospitals and is described as occurring in females nine times more often than in males, this may be due to difficulty identifying the disorder in males.  Also, disagreement among mental-health professionals about how this illness appears clinically, and if DID even exists, adds to the difficulty of estimating how often it occurs.

Some professionals continue to be of the opinion that DID does not exist...[A] concern about the diagnosis of DID involves having to rely on the traumatic memories of those who suffer from this disorder.  That DID is significantly more often assessed in individuals in North America compared to the rest of the world, for the most part, leads some practitioners to believe that DID is a culture-based myth rather than a true disorder...Research on individuals with DID that have little to no media exposure to information on the illness lends further credibility to the reliability of this diagnosis.

If professionals can’t agree on how to diagnose it or if it even exists, then it must be easy to fake.  H.H. Holmes created “Edward Hatch,” who he claimed was the evil mastermind behind the Pietzel children murder.  (It should be noted that this in itself is an interesting defense considering “H.H. Holmes” was an alias created by Herman Webster Mudgett.)  William Heirens created “George Murman,” John Gacy created “Jack Hanley,” and Kenneth Bianchi created “Steve Walker.”  These alter egos fall apart under scrutiny because actual cases of DID are extremely rare.  In the case of Kenneth Bianchi’s Steve, it was discovered that Bianchi had seen the movie “Sybil” days before his psychiatric evaluation.
           

These men tried to manipulate the system into thinking they were insane.  One of the reasons they might have done it was so they wouldn’t get the death penalty, but then again, they might have just done it because it is their nature (I will expand upon this idea later).  Serial killers aren’t stupid.  That is evident in the fact that they can get away with multiple murders before finally being caught.  Some of them are even able to hold together families.  They know how to appear “normal.”  So why would it be so hard to believe that they would want to appear insane?  One of the most famous cases of attempting to be insane is Edmund Kemper.
           

After Kemper murdered his grandparents, he was sent to the criminally insane unit at Atascadero State Hospital.  Kemper learned to manipulate the system.  He “was such an endearing model prisoner and so intelligent that the staff trained him to administer psychiatric tests to other prisoners.  Kemper later admitted that being able to understand how these test functioned allowed him to manipulate his psychiatrists.”  He stayed in the hospital for 5 years before he was declared cured; he was no longer a danger to the public.  He continued to see his probation psychiatrist, all the while fantasizing about murdering women.  On one occasion, he even went to his session with a victim’s head in the trunk of his car.  Because of his ability to appear “normal,” his psychiatrists believed that he was a well-adjusted individual.

But that is not to say that there are no instances of insanity among serial killers.  One of the most common diagnoses for serial killers is schizophrenia, which is defined as:
A psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality.  Distortions in perception affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction.  Onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with approximately 0.4-0.6% of the population affected…Studies suggest that genetics, early environment, neurobiology, psychological and social processes are important contributory factors; some recreational and prescription drugs appear to cause or worsen symptoms.

During Albert Fish’s trial, he claimed that he heard voices from God telling him to kill children.  His family had a history of mental illness, including a family member who suffered from religious mania.  Several experts took the stand, including several psychiatrists and his own 17-year old step-daughter.  Nevertheless, he was found sane, and sentenced to death.

Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper, pleaded not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility at his trail, but he was found sane and found guilty of murder on all counts.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment.  Later, he was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia.  In March 1984, he was sent to Broadmoor Hospital.

Herbert Mullin murdered thirteen people because voices in his head told him to do it to prevent an earthquake.  He confessed to his crimes, so his trial focused on whether or not he was culpable for his actions.  Despite the fact that he was in and out of mental institutions since the age of 21, he burned himself with cigarettes, and was evicted from an apartment because he repeatedly pounded on the floor and shouted at people who weren’t there, he was found guilty of first-degree murder for two of his victims and second-degree murder for eight.  It was FBI profiler Robert K. Ressler who asserted that Mullin was schizophrenic.  He claimed that it manifested as early as his senior year of high school and was accelerated by the use of marijuana, LSD, or amphetamines.

It is interesting to note that Mullin was claiming victims at the same time as Kemper, and they spent some time in the same prison.  According to Peter Vronsky:
Kemper and Mullin were incarcerated in the same prison block, and Kemper tormented Mullin by calling him ‘Herbie,’ a diminutive Mullin hated.  ‘He had a habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to watch TV.  So I threw water on him to shut him up.  Then, when he was a good boy, I’d give him peanuts.  Herbie liked peanuts.  That was effective, because pretty soon he asked permission to sing.  That’s called behavior modification treatment.’

Asked if Kemper thought Mullin was insane, he replied, ‘Yes, judging from my years in Atascadero, I would say he is mentally ill.’3

Just because a serial killer is diagnosed as schizophrenic, that does not mean the disease was the cause of their murders.  Whether or not violence is a symptom of schizophrenia is a very contentious issue.  “Studies have indicated that 5% to 10% of those charged with murder in Western countries have a schizophrenia spectrum disorder.”4  Yet, there are also statistics that claim “Individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia are often the victims of violent crime—at least 14 times more often than they are perpetrators.”4
Most individuals who are diagnosed with schizophrenia tend to shy away from social situations because of their hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized and unusual thinking and speech.  Since the disease usually manifests in late adolescence or early adulthood, the person’s social and vocational development can be severely disrupted.  According to Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, a well known researcher, psychiatrist, and author in the field of schizophrenia:

There appear to be three primary predictors of violence and three other less well-defined predictors.  The most important one is a history of past violence; this is the most significant predictor of violence no matter whether a person is mentally ill or not.  In trying to predict future violent behavior, the person’s history is the single most critical piece of information.

The second important predictor is drug and alcohol abuse, and this is also valid whether the person is mentally ill or not.  In 1994, Jeanette Smith and Stephen Hucker reviewed studies of substance abuse in persons with schizophrenia and noted ‘a growing body of research suggesting a significant link between schizophrenia, substance abuse, and violence.’

The third important predictor is the failure to take medication...Those who do not take prescribed medication appear to be much more likely to commit violent acts.

Albert Fish was born on May 19, 1870, in Washington D.C.  His father was 43 years older than his mother and worked as a river boat captain and a fertilizer manufacturer.  Fish’s father died of a heart attack, and his mother was forced to find work.  She was unable to care for her son, so she placed him in an orphanage where he was frequently whipped and beaten.  He discovered that he enjoyed the physical pain, and would get an erection from the abuse, which led the other kids to tease him.  His mother eventually got a job with the government and was able to take him back.  In 1882, Fish began a relationship with a telegraph boy who introduced him to drinking urine and coprophagia (which in itself might seem crazy, but the court did not find that his fetishes were caused by insanity).  Perhaps if Fish had not been subjected to this abuse, he wouldn’t have murdered kids.  Since violence was enacted on him, he felt he needed to enact it on others, which is very common in the cycle of abuse.
           

Herbert Mullin decided to stop taking drugs in January 1973, after he had murdered three people.  He blamed his friend Jim Gianera from high school, who had sold him marijuana.  But his spree did not end after he stopped taking drugs.  He went on to murder ten more people.
           

The only known treatment for schizophrenia is antipsychotic medication.  But, like all medications, they are only effective if taken regularly.  It is unknown if any serial killers were prescribed antipsychotics or if they took them on a regular basis.
           

Schizophrenia describes the actions of some serial killers.  Most experts (Peter Vronsky [an investigative journalist and author] and Dr. J. Reid Meloy [author of The Psychopathic Mind:  Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment]) agree that serial killers can be classified as psychopathic, which is commonly known as antisocial personality disorder.  As I mentioned earlier, serial killers may do what they do because it is in their nature.  Vronsky claims:

Psychologists theorize that psychopaths have a diminished capacity to experience fear and anxiety, which are the roots to the normal development of conscience.  Psychopaths are often very charismatic and very able at manipulating people.  They are highly talented in feigning emotions while inside feeling nothing.  They have no remorse for their victims and have highly developed psychological defense mechanisms such as rationalization (‘She should have known better than to hitchike’), projection (‘She was a heartless manipulating slut’), and disassociation (‘I don’t remember killing her’).  They have a very weak realization of self and compensate for that with grandiosity and an inflated notion of entitlement—meaning that they feel that they are special and ‘entitled’ to act above the law or morality.  Most notable, psychopaths lack any sense of empathy with the feeling of others.3

The list of serial killers who fit this profile seems endless.  Ted Bundy calls himself the “most cold-blooded sonofabitch you’ll every meet.  I just like to kill, I wanted to kill.”  John Gacy never showed remorse, and called his victims “worthless little queers and punks.”  Sutcliffe believed he was “cleaning up the streets.” 

Dr. Meloy asserts that the psychopath’s relationships are based on power, not attachment.  He believes that it starts in early childhood development.  There is a split between the “soft me,” which is the vulnerable inside, and the “hard not-me,” which is the punishing outside.  The child goes through neglectful or painful experiences, and expects that all outside experiences are going to be painful, so he turns inward.  He distrusts everything and everyone outside, and refuses to allow anyone in.  Because of this distrust, the child cannot identify with the parents, and soon, the child has no empathy for anyone.
The majority of serial killers came from rough childhoods.  Many of them grew up with abusive parents and suffered horrible forms of torture.  It’s possible that the reason Fish murdered children was because he held animosity toward those who made fun of him in the orphanage.  He could exert his power over those who were younger and weaker than he was.

Kemper murdered women he believed he could never possess.  His mother was overbearing and abusive.  She constantly blamed her troubles on her son.  She constantly belittled him and made him feel worthless.  Kemper mainly murdered coeds because they were easy prey.  Kemper’s mother worked at the University of California in Santa Cruz, so she gave him a parking sticker so he could pick her up from work.  Even though students were warned not to take rides from strangers, the sticker in the window made them feel more at ease.  He had power over the women, which was more than he could say with his mother.

The pattern continues with other serial killers.  Those who suffered abuse from the hands of their mothers generally wound up killing women.  Gacy, who suffered abuse from his father, wound up killing adolescent boys and men.  The killers feel a sense of helplessness, a sense of worthlessness, so they kill those who are weaker to provide themselves with power and meaning. 

Not every psychopath becomes a serial killer.  Vronsky explains:
While not all psychopaths are violent, they are prone to violence more than average.  It is estimated that 20 to 30 percent of prison populations consist of psychopaths.  But the same might be said for the populations of corporate CEOs, performing artists, and certainly for politicians.  Being a psychopath alone does not make one a serial killer.3

Kemper’s first profession of choice was to be a cop.  At 6 feet 9 inches and weighing 280 pounds, Kemper tried out for the California Highway Patrol, but he was rejected because of his size.  That did not stop him from hanging out with the police and becoming friends with them.  After he started killing, he received inside information on the course of the investigation.  He was so liked by the Santa Cruz police that when he called to confess to the murders of eight women, no one believed him. 

There is no indication why Kemper went from wanting to be a cop to killing women.  Perhaps it is because he wanted to be in a position where his lack of fear and anxiety would be put to good use, but since he couldn’t use that to help people, he used it to harm.  There is a clear distinction between cops and criminals, between good and bad, and since Kemper couldn’t be good, his only other option was to be bad. 

No one really knows why some psychopaths become violent and others don’t.  It is theorized that the violence emerges out of personal social conditions and biological and genetic factors.  There also seems to be an imbalance of chemicals that are linked to depression and compulsive behavior.  There are a myriad of theories out there.  But the truth is:  no one really knows why serial killers kill. 

The prevailing theory is that there is a delicate balance between a chaotic or abusive childhood and biochemical factors that can trigger murderous psychopathic behavior.  Healthy social factors can prevent a biochemically unstable individual from committing criminal acts; healthy biochemistry can protect a person with a turbulent childhood from growing up to be a killer.  Violent offenders emerge when both elements are out of balance.  This theory goes a long way to explain why some children with difficult childhoods do not become serial killers and not everyone with a head injury behave criminally.3 

Unfortunately, there is no treatment or cure for psychopaths.  It cannot be traced to a single chemical, viral, or organic agent.  Psychiatric facilities have no influence on a psychopath, with the exception of giving them more ways to manipulate the populace (see Edmund Kemper).  Fortunately, it seems that psychopaths cure themselves as they age.  For whatever reason, “Starting from age twenty-one, approximately 2 percent of all psychopaths go into remission every year.  The older the psychopath becomes, the more likely that he will become adjusted to society—especially in his midforties.”3  This may explain why most serial killers kill in their mid-20s, and perhaps why Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer disappeared without being apprehended.

While it is possible for a serial killer to have a serious mental illness, most of them are diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.  They are not legally insane because they know the difference between right and wrong; why else would they try to hide their actions from the public?  On the one hand, this can be comforting.  If serial killers are declared criminally insane, they cannot be given the death penalty.  On the other hand, it is very frightening.  If there is no treatment or cure, there is no way to stop it from occurring in future generations.

Making a Living
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Even serial killers have to eat, pay bills, and live somewhere.  Here is a list of some serial killers and what they did to support their 'habit'.

Herbert Richard "Herb" Baumeister

Herbert Richard "Herb" Baumeister (April 7, 1947 - July 3, 1996) was the founder of the thrift store chain Sav-a-Lot and an alleged serial killer from suburban Westfield, Indiana.

In 1988 Baumeister founded the Sav-a-lot chain. The chain was a success and Baumeister became very rich. He also began spending a lot of time in homosexual bars in Indianapolis. He would bring men he picked up back to his mansion where he would strangle them and dispose of their bones in the woods behind his home.
Baumeister fled to Toronto and killed himself.

A search of his property uncovered the bones of 11 men. Baumeister was also suspected of killing nine more men and disposing of the bodies in rural areas between Indianapolis and Columbus.

Dr Marcel Petiot - The Butcher of Paris; Dr Satan

Dr Petiot was a respected doctor in Paris during the Second World War.
He was charged with the murder of 27 people, including Joachim Guschinow, M. and Mme Kneller, their son Rene Kneller, and Paul Braunberger between 1941 and 1944. Other sources suggest he killed 63 people, or even 150, and that the 86 dissected bodies pulled out of the Seine between 1941 and 1943 were also his handiwork.

Lured to his premises under the promise of a route out of German occupied France, his mostly Jewish victims would then be given a lethal injection, which he told them was to ward off foreign diseases on their travels. They would then be put into a small triangular room with extra thick walls, where Dr Petiot would watch them die through a small hole in the wall. Their bodies were then stored in a quick lime pit and later burned in a furnace.

Petiot was guillotined on 26th may 1946 in the Paris Sante Prison.

John Reginald Halliday Christie

John Reginald Halliday Christie was a 54 year old serial murderer and sexual psychopath who murdered at least 6 women. He also gave evidence at the trial of Timothy Evans, who was executed (later posthumously pardoned), for crimes almost certainly committed by Christie (who had served in the Army during World War One and been a Special Police Constable during the Second World War).

On the outbreak of World War II, he applied to join the police force and was accepted despite previous convictions.

He was arrested, tried, and hanged for murder in 1953.

Denis Nilsen

A British serial killer who lived in London. He is known to have killed at least 15 men between 1978 and 1983, when he was eventually caught after his disposal of a body blocked his household drains and drew the attention of the police.

In 1961, Nilsen left school and enlisted in the British Army where he became a cook. He served in the army for 11 years before leaving in 1972 and served briefly as a police officer. From the mid 1970s, Nilsen worked as a civil servant. He was active in the trade union movement.

Paul Kenneth Bernardo

Bernardo committed multiple sexual assaults, escalating in viciousness, in and around Ontario. Most of the assaults were on young women whom he had stalked after they had exited buses late in the evening.

Bernardo worked for Amway, whose sales culture had a deep effect on him. He bought the books and tapes of famous motivational get-rich-and-famous experts. Bernardo and his friends practiced their techniques on young women they met in bars.

Karla Leanne Homolka

Homolka is a Canadian serial killer who was convicted of manslaughter in the rape-murders of two teenaged girls; her husband, Paul Bernardo, was convicted of their murders and admitted having raped numerous women. Homolka and Bernardo also were responsible for the rape and death of her sister Tammy.

She worked part-time in a pet shop at a nearby mall. After receiving her grade 12 diploma in 1989, she was hired as a veterinary assistant a Veterinary Clinic, which asked her to leave after she was suspected of stealing drugs. She then found a similar job at the Martindale Animal Clinic.

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream

He was a Scotish-born serial killer, who claimed his first proven victims in the US and the rest in England. Cream, who poisoned his victims, was executed after his attempts to frame others for his crimes brought him to the attention of London police.

Cream went to Chicago and set up a medical practice not far from the red-light district, offering illegal abortions to prostitutes.

Unsubstantiated rumors suggested his last words as he was being hanged were confession that he was Jack the Ripper, even though he was in jail at the time of the Ripper murders.

William Patrick Fyfe

A Canadian serial killer convicted of killing five women in the Montreal area of Quebec, although he claims to have killed four others. He allegedly killed his first victim in 1979 at age of 24. He was raised by an aunt and moved from Western Canada to Montreal in 1958. As an adult, he worked as a handyman.

Robert William "Willie" Pickton

Pickton is a Canadian pig farmer and serial killer convicted of the second-degree murders of six women. He is also charged in the deaths of an additional twenty women, many of them prostitutes and drug users from Vancouver's Downtown.

He confessed to forty-nine murders to an undercover police officer posing as a cell mate. The Crown reported that Pickton told the officer that he wanted to kill another woman to make it an even 50, and that he was caught because he was "sloppy.

Pickton and his brother, David Francis Pickton, ran a registered charity called the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, a non-profit society whose official mandate was to organize, co-ordinate, manage and operate special events, functions, dances, shows and exhibitions on behalf of service organizations, sports organizations and other worthy groups.

Karl Denke

Denke was born in German. As an adult, he was well liked in his community, and worked as an organ player at the local church.

Denke was arrested after attacking a man at his house with an axe. Police searched Denke's home and found human flesh in huge jars of curing salts. A ledger contained the details of 40 people Denke had murdered and cannibalized over the years. It is thought he even sold the flesh of his victims at the market.

He hung himself in his jail cell.

He owned a rooming house and played an organ at his church.

Gwendolyn Graham & Cathy Wood

Both Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood were Nurses aids at a retirement home. They are attributed five victims, and imprisoned for life.
John George Haigh

He Lived in Great Brittan. Haigh was an Accountant at an engineering firm, and hanged for his crimes, he is attributed six victims, but there were possibly nine.

Edmund Kemper

An American serial killer who lived in California, with 10 victims to his name.  He is serving a life sentence.  He was a Highway Department worker

Anna Maria Zwanziger

Zwangiger was a German serial killer with four victims.  She was a domestic servant.  She was beheaded for her crimes.

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo - Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper.

A notorious Russian serial killer, he was convicted of the murders of 52 women and children. He completed a degree in Russian literature by a correspondence course and tried a career as a teacher in. There were several complaints of him perpetrating child sexual abuse on his students that were usually handled quietly and without police involvement, thus he was able to move from school to school. He eventually took a job as a clerk for a factory, using his many business trips around the Soviet Union to carry out his killings.

John R. Gasser

Gasser was a student and state employee in Seattle.

Gasser raped and strangled a 22-year-old carhop and dumped her body near the Sand Point Naval Station. Years after his release from prison, he raped and strangled a 49-year-old woman and dumped her body in a ditch outside Olympia in 1982. He is in prison in Washington.

Harvy L. Carignan - The Want Ad Killer

He was a gas station manager is Seattle and Minneapolis.

Suspected in dozens of sex-slayings spanning four decades and several Western states and provinces, Carignan is thought to have killed at least two women in Washington. He was convicted of two murders in Minnesota. He met some victims by placing newspaper help wanted ads. A map found in his Minnesota home had at least 180 areas circled -- including 18 in Washington -- where some bodies have been found.

He is in prison in Minnesota.

James Dwight Canady

City water department employee, in Seattle

He abducted, raped and strangled two women, and then dumped their bodies near Stevens Pass. Canady later attacked two other women and was being held in King County Jail on rape, assault and kidnapping charges when he confessed to the murders, leading detectives to one body. He is in prison in Washington.

Warren Forrest

Clark County parks employee, in Vancouver.

Forrest is suspected of kidnapping, raping and strangling six women near Vancouver. He was convicted of killing one and abducting, raping and attempting to kill two others, after serving seven years in a state mental hospital. He is in prison in Washington.

Gary G. Grant

Navy enlistee, Renton

He confessed to four sex-slayings, including the murders of two 6-year-old boys and two teenage girls. All victims stabbed, strangled or both, then dumped in wooded areas near a Renton trailer park where he lived with his parents. He is in prison in Washington.

Ted Bundy

Law student, Tacoma

One of the most infamous serial killers of modern time, the former Tacoma man and University of Washington law student is thought to have killed at least 36 young women and girls in Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Colorado and Florida.

He was executed in Florida in 1989.

James Elledg

Part-time church janitor 

He attacked at least four women over 33-year span, killing two. Crimes include a 1966 robbery/kidnapping in Albuquerque, N.M.; a 1974 bludgeoning murder in Seattle; and the1998 fatal stabbing of one woman and sexual assault of another in a Lynnwood church.

He was executed in Washington in 2001.

James Edward Ruzicka

Stable cleaner, Redmond

Deemed a sexual psychopath after attacking two Seattle women, he escaped Western State Hospital, then raped and strangled two teenagers in West Seattle. He hung the body of one victim from a tree and hid the other in a field. He was arrested in Oregon after raping a 13-year-old girl. He is in prison in Washington.

William Batten

Car lot worker, Aberdeen

He was committed to state psychiatric hospital as a sexual psychopath following child molestations in 1967. He stabbed two teenage hitchhikers to death near Moclips in 1975. He remains a suspect in the 1969 disappearance of a woman he had dated.

He is in prison in Washington.

Robert Lee Yates Jr.

Aluminum plant worker and Army Reserve helicopter pilot, Spokane.

He killed a string of prostitutes in Spokane and Pierce County since 1996. Admitted to 16 murders, convicted of 15. He would pick up prostitutes, shoot them and engage in post-mortem sex. Grew up on Whidbey Island and lived in several Washington cities.
He is on death row in Washington.

Kenneth Bianchi - The Hillside Strangler:

Security-alarm installer, Bellingham

Strangled at least seven women and left their bodies on hillsides in Los Angeles. He killed two Western Washington University students in Bellingham in 1979. He worked with an adopted "cousin" convicted of nine similar murders in Los Angeles.

He is in prison in Washington.

Morris Frampton

Sprinkler system installer, Seattle

He beat to death a Seattle prostitute, and then dumped her body near the South Park marina. Also convicted of assaulting two other Seattle prostitutes and acquitted of killing another. 

He is in prison in Washington.

Stanley Bernson

Produce salesman, Spokane

Suspected of killing up to 30 Northwest women, Bernson stabbed a 15-year-old girl to death and buried her in a shallow grave in Richland. Authorities in Oregon also charged him for the 1978 murder of a Umatilla teenager, whose body was found in 1985.
He is In prison in Washington.

Randy Woodfield - The I-5 Killer:

Bartender, Eugene/Portland, Ore.

Suspect in at least 13 homicides, including three in Washington. Best known for robbing, raping and killing women in communities along Interstate 5 from Bellevue to Redding, Calif. he often wore a false beard and hooded sweat shirt during his attacks.
He is in prison in Oregon.

Martin Lee Sanders

Long-haul trucker, Spokane

He was convicted of raping and killing two teenagers in Spokane in 1983. He also killed two teenage female hitchhikers in Grant County in 1980. He avoided prosecution in those murders by later pleading guilty to the Spokane homicides. He is in prison in Washington.

Dwayne Elton

Army sergeant, Fort Lewis.

Shot and killed one prostitute, strangled and sliced the throat of another. Elton dumped his victims near Madigan Army Hospital in 1984. The Seattle native later pleaded guilty to the killings in military court to avoid a death sentence.
He is in a military prison in Kansas.

William Scott Smith

Cook, Salem, Ore.

He was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder for the sex slayings of two young Salem women in separate attacks in the spring of 1984. Smith was also questioned in the 1983 unsolved murder of a 14-year-old girl in Idaho. Although not officially a suspect in any Washington murders, Green River investigators at one time looked at him in relation to serial killings in this state. Smith also has family ties to Pierce County. He is in prison in Oregon.

Billy Ray Ballard Jr.

Truck driver, Plains, Mont.

He confessed to killing a Seattle couple who disappeared while sightseeing in the Columbia River Gorge. Their bodies were recovered at different times, dumped 30 miles apart, in rural Grant County. Ballard's arrest for the abduction, rape and torture of two women in Wyoming months later helped investigators match his fingerprint to one left on the Washington couple's abandoned car.
Status: In prison in Wyoming.

Joe Kondro

Laborer, mill worker, Longview

He admits to raping and strangling two young girls in Southwest Washington -- killings more than 11 years apart. Convicted of two other rapes, he also admits to abducting a teenage store clerk at knifepoint. Suspect in dozens of disappearances, rapes and murders since 1982.  He is in prison in Washington.

Westley Allan Dodd

Shipping clerk

Raped, tortured and killed three boys in Vancouver-Portland area. Caught after he tried to abduct a boy from a Camas movie theater. Admitted to molesting about 30 children.
He was executed in Washington in 1993.

Scott William Cox

Long-haul trucker, Newberg, Ore.  

He stabbed one prostitute and strangled another in Portland. Suspected in more than 20 other murders, including the 1988 homicide of Snohomish County transient Hazel Gelnett and the 1990 murder of Tia Hicks, a Seattle woman whose body was found in Montlake Terrace. Also suspected of raping and trying to kill a Seattle prostitute in May 1991. He is in prison in Oregon.

Keith Jesperson - Happy Face Killer

Long-haul trucker, Yakima Valley/Portland

He confessed to eight murders in five states. Jesperson typically raped, beat and strangled truck-stop prostitutes and transients, then dumped bodies along wooded roadsides. Sent taunting letters to media and authorities, signed with a "happy face." Caught after killing his girlfriend near Camas. He is in prison in Oregon.

John Eric Armstrong

U.S. Navy, Bremerton/Detroit, Mich.

Armstrong claims to have killed two women and a transsexual man in Seattle while stationed on the Bremerton-based USS Nimitz from 1993 to 1999, plus eight others worldwide. He was convicted of five Detroit-area prostitute murders. Police discount many of his claims. In prison in Michigan.

Psychological Phases
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

There are seven psychological phases a serial killer goes through in his mind. They were identified and described by psychologist Joel Norris in 1988. Norris worked on the defense teams of several convicted killers from Georgia and completed 500 interviews with such individuals, during which he identified the following phases.

1. Aura Phase

He hasn't killed yet, but he starts to withdraw from family and friends, isolating himself more and more.  He is like a person addicted to television, all he wants to do is to continue watching it, but the 'television' that he is watching is a fantasy in his head.  People he comes in contact with might not even notice that there is a difference, but at this aura phase, he won't be trying to make any contact with other people that he isn't already obligated to talk to and interact with.  It is here that he might start abusing alcohol or drugs, which usually leads to the fantasies intensification and after awhile these fantasies have to be acted upon.  This phase can last from a few minutes to a few months.  This is the time when he is getting up his nerve to put action to his fantasies, he's building himself up.

2. Trolling Phase

The killer has decided that he is ready, and he is looking for a victim. He's usually going to be looking in a place where he's been before, so that being familiar with the surroundings, he knows where he will most likely succeed in finding someone he won't be caught with. He has to find a good place to kill the victim.  He also has to take into consideration where he will leave or dump the body.  This phase takes as long as it takes, sometimes a day, sometimes months.  He is looking for the perfect victim to act out those fantasies that have grown in his mind.  By this phase, he has an idea of how he will approach the victim.

3. Wooing Phase

Note that the disorganized killer wouldn't be here at this phase, as the organized killer is more confident and has better social skills.  He will try to socialize with the victim and gain their trust.  Once he has their trust, he will get them to a secluded area that he picked out during the Trolling phase and move on to the next phase. 

4. Capture Phase

This is where he betrays the trust he has gained.  The capture.  He somehow got the victim into the car (or knocks them out and puts them there) and he goes to the secluded area that he already picked out.  He might pretend to need help with something to get them to the car.  He gets pleasure out of the capture phase; he is in complete control and loves this. Once he's sure his victim cannot get away, he goes to the next phase. Note that some people have actually escaped or talked the killer into letting them go during this phase.  It seems as though there is a way to interrupt the fantasy here, maybe mentioning children, somehow in begging for their life, some victims have been let go, sometimes the killer just walks away or drops them off on the side of the road or at a hospital.

5.  Murder Phase

A disorganized killer is likely to kill the victim quickly, raping and mutilating after death.  With the organized killer, time will be taken to act out his fantasy, usually raping and mutilating while the victim is still alive.  The most organized serial killer will keep the person alive as long as possible to get the most enjoyment out of the act and make it last, because he is not really there for the kill, he is there to live out the fantasy.

6.  Totem Phase

The fantasy is over, and the excitement is gone. He gets depressed because it's over and it didn't last.  This is why some serial killers will take what we call 'trophies' away with them, so that they have something that will help them reenact the kill over and over in his mind.  This helps him remember the power he had over the victim, it reminds him that he actually did it.

7.  Depression Phase

This is the last phase before he starts again.  He's emotionally let down.  This can last for days or weeks, sometimes even months.  This is the time that they might try to commit suicide, or even confess to the police before he kills again.  Now that the victim is dead, they don't represent what the thought they did and the fantasy is still there.  It never gets finished with a satisfactory ending.  It's like an incomplete story. In every subsequent murder, he tries to make the scene of the crime the same as the fantasy, which is why there are almost always patterns to a serial killers kills. Serial killing is an addiction, and the killing patterns will be continued.

To date, there is not a way to stop a serial killer from killing but the catch them and put them in prison.  The above phases help to explain this, as they did it, got away with it, still need to satisfy that fantasy, and will continue becuase there is no satisfactory end.

Serial Killers and the Media
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

You pick up the paper and read the headlines: Killer Strikes Again.  You are going to read the article, and every other article, and you'll keep reading until you know all about it because you live there and you want to know who he's killing, where he's killing, when he's killing, so that you can prepare to stay away from the places at that time of day or night, and you try to think of ways that you are different from his victims.  The media has given you a chance to protect yourself by giving you information.

Human nature.

It's also human nature to be enamored by all of our feelings, especially fear.  Most of us have had nightmares, and we will admit that while we don't like the images, we do like the feeling of being afraid.  It makes us feel alive. It's why we read mysteries, and horror stories.  It's why Steven King is such a hit.  The love of the feeling is also why rollercoaster's always have the longest lines.  We like to be afraid.

We also want to be known, we want people to know that we do our jobs well, that we treat our families well, that we are who we are.  Worlds within worlds, we all have our places where we are known and appreciated.  Some people want to be famous – actors, writers, singers, dancers... and serial killers. 

Now that our nature is out of the way we can examine how media coverage might influence the serial killer, beginning with nicknames.  As writers, we have to come up with super titles, a great lead-in to a story – and that's whether we are writing a book, story, or an article, a good lead-in is a must.  Media gives nicknames to a serial killer because they don't know who he or she is.  Plain and simple, it's easier for us to write, 'The Pink Panther Killer' than it is to keep saying, 'whoever killed the Keller woman has done it again', 'whoever the killer is', etc. 

We can't say that all serial killer nicknames are sensational, or super-hero like, but some of them are.  Some of them are named after the area, as in 'Highway Killer', or for how they might have killed as in 'The Cleveland Axe Murderer.' 

The Zodiac Killer named himself, and so did Dennis Radar of the BTK (bind, torture, kill) murders in Kansas.  Fearing the paper wouldn't publish his letter, the Zodiac Killer threatened to kill a school bus full of children.  He was certainly after publicity. After years of keeping quiet, Dennis Radar sent the police a computer disk with a message that they were able to trace to the church where he did work.  His want for attention got him caught.

"The Lipstick Killer" of Chicago; "Zodiac Killer" of San Francisco; "BTK" of Wichita; "Weepy-Voice Killer" of Minnesota; "Happy Face Killer" of Oregon; and "Zodiac Killer" of New York, are just a few of the serial killers who communicated with the media while they killed.  They obviously wanted to be known for what they were doing.

There are always similarities in serial killings, but another bid for fame and the attention that it brings the killer are signatures.  A signature killer has something that he does every time he kills, letting the authorities know that it's him.  When you read an article where the killer left the bodies in a certain position, this is a signature, if he takes away with him a body part, it's a signature. Something that ties all of the victims together can also be called a 'signature' and this is communication with the media.  While all serial killers may leave signs, not all of them leave signatures.  Signatures are proof that one person did the deed.  Who do they want to know that it's 'their signature'? The media so they will let the rest of the world know.

Does media coverage make a serial killer kill more people?  Certainly it can be suggested that it does create copycat murders.  If it weren't for media coverage, it's not likely that the average citizen could put the numbers and likelihood (similarities) together to figure out a serial activity.  Only the media puts it all out there for everyone to read. No one can be a copycat without all of the information. 

Not all serial killers set out to be famous.  Some of them don't even know that they like notoriety until they experience it when they read a story about themselves in the paper. Once they read the story though, it has to have an effect.  We don't know but that some serial killers might actually stop killing for fear of being caught after media coverage. 

Bud Richards hated his nickname given by the media.  "Nicknames are everything in the States," complained Richards. "If you haven't got a cool handle, you're like, nobody. I was hoping to be named something clever like 'The LA Clipper'or perhaps even 'The Nail Ripper', but instead I’ll go down in the annals of American criminology as ‘TheManicure Murderer’How gay is that?”

Why is the above quote included in this article?  Because everyone knows that Americans have a fascination with serial killers, even serial killers know that.  We read them like entertainment, and they are happy to keep us so entertained.  Yes, they do get greedy for publicity, for the writer to get it right, for their name to keep coming out in the articles, in the movies, in the books.  They want to be known. 

But we are back to the question - does media coverage make the serial killer kill more people, or accelerate their work?  You would have to agree that it does.
Serial killers have been featured in novels, movies, songs, comic books, true crime, video games and other media  Films such as The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, Scream, and the Halloween series, have featured serial killers as villains, antiheros, and even protagonists. Serial killers such as Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, Carnage, Michael Meyers, Patrick Bateman, and Dexter Morgan have become some of the most famous; popular characters in modern culture.
America has proven that stardom can be obtained by a serial killer. 
Before a killer is named a serial killer, he/she has to kill at least three people.  Media doesn't 'make' a serial killer, they find them.  Police are not willing to release information that there is a possible serial killer on the loose until the media makes it almost impossible to ignore in most cases.  

Media is a necessary evil.  On the one hand the writer wants to be known for their investigative work, the public wants to know what this 'mysterious' person is up to, and the serial killer wants their name in lights.  They want fame.  Media coverage is continued inspiration for them to live up to what's being written about them.  They feel like they are super human, able to kill without being caught, sometimes for years.

The organized killer is considered to be socially competent, intelligent, a planner, generally targets strangers, someone who uses restraints, has sex with their victims and uses a vehicle. Typical characteristics would include living with a partner, follows the crime in the media, plans the killing, the victim’s body is hidden; evidence is often absent, may return to the crime scene and anticipates police.

In every serial killing, there are three participants: the killer, the victim(s), and the audience: the police, the media, or the public. The killer actively seeks recognition and acknowledgement of his killings, proof by acclaim and mention of his deeds. He preserves mementos, records his actions in detail, and preserves and revisits the crime scene. His feelings of influence and invulnerability to the consequences of his actions increase the more victims he rapes, mutilates, and murders.

Many killers enjoy media and law-enforcement attention, and when apprehended, not only confess to their crimes but sometimes even exaggerate how many murders they have committed.

Thinking logically, knowing that a serial killer is in your area, walking at night feels creepier.  When people know that there is a serial killer in certain areas tourism is down.  The media has an effect on everyone.  It's just not logical to believe that a serial killer wouldn't be affected by the media.

Serial killers and Astrology
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

I'm a Virgo, what sign are you?  Chances are that you know your birth sign.  The Zodiac Signs are all part of astrology, which is the study of the different astral bodies and how they influence human life on earth, or rather, how the position of these planets influence us.

Some people believe in astrology so far as reading their own horoscope to see what kind of day they will have.  Some people don't believe in it at all, and some think it's a tool of the devil. 

The horoscope is a map that appears as a two dimensional chart. It shows the position of the Sun, the Moon, and planets at the precise moment of your birth. The planets are frozen in their position at the initial moment of birth. That is why this type of horoscope is known as the birth chart or the natal chart.

In the 1980's several different people did studies, not scientific, but studies nonetheless, where they'd give an astrologer names, birth dates, and times of birth of serial killers, with their own name instead of the killers name to see if the results would show that serial killer's traits or life.  It didn't work out; in fact, one teacher did this same thing, using the student's names and serial killer's information, handing out the findings to the students asking them to rate the reading. Most of the students rated this experiment high in the 'right' list, thinking the astrologer hit the nail on the head as far as their own lives were concerned.

A skeptic in Kansas City went to five professional astrologers giving as his own the birth data and computer-calculated birth chart of John Gacy. They described him as having a "well rounded personality", that he could "offer a good role model" and that he would "be excellent for working around young people" (which is the group that Gacy specialized in murdering).

On the other hand, astrologers have done studies on serial killers, using their name, date and time of birth, to see if their charts will tell anything that Serial Killers have in common, as in the position of certain planets, and to see if a reading of their lives would be correct using astrology.

Studies and readings have been done on many Serial Killers, among them:

Edmund Kemper (Sagittarius), Jeffrey Dahmer (Gemini), David Berkowitz (Gemini), Richard Ramirez, (Pisces) Dennis Radar (Pisces), Ed Gein (Leo), Marcel Petiot (Capricorn), Ian Brady (Capricorn), Myra Hindley (Cancer), Charles Manson, (Scorpio), John Wayne Gacy, (Pisces) Ted Bundy (Sagittarius),  Bob Berdella (Aquarius), Dean Corll (Capricorn), Dennis Nilsen (Sagittarius), Arthur Shawcross (Gemini), Randall Woodfield (Capricorn).

An astrologer sent the FBI an astrological profile of the killer in the Atlanta Child Murders (which turns out was way off), and some police in different places have called on an astrologer to try to find a suspected serial killer, or to see if the chart would show something of significance between the suspected killer and the killings.

An episode of the television program, Unsolved Mysteries, profiled a segment concerning an experiment in astrology. The producers of the show had twenty astrological birth charts from people at random. Included with the twenty astrological charts, the producers put the charts of four serial killers: Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz, Richard Ramirez, and Ed Kemper. These astrological charts were given to Carolyn Reynolds, a well-known astrologer, to see if she could glean any information from them. Without knowing the identity of the people whose charts she was analyzing, she successfully identified the four people as possible serial killers. She was also able to give other specific information about these serial killers that proved correct. She was able to do all this just by analyzing their astrological birth chart.

There is a lot of talk about what sign most of the serial killers were born under, but in my searching, I got different results, but it doesn't really matter what the sign is, whether they have that in common or not, the key is what date, time, and place they were born –whether certain planets were in the same places of most of the killers or not, and it turns out that they were.

In understanding charts, I thought it would be interesting to see what my own would look like.  You can do this free online, and there are places where you can go to find the meaning - the chart is a circle with the 12 zodiac signs, divided into 12 houses which are 30° each.  The sun, moon and planets are then put into the places where they were at a birth time and place.  Then there are lines going here and there. While it is interesting to look at, it means nothing unless you can figure it out.  I did one of my own so that I could understand those of others. 

After doing my own chart, which turned out pretty much right, I decided to pick a killer, get the chart and figure out what it would read.  I decided to do someone everyone is not only interested in, but knows a lot about, Charles Manson. Here are some of the results:

Very intense and non-committal, primary motivation is unlikely to be prestige, or even authority, its real power. His power can absolutely be of the "behind the scenes" variety, just as long as he has it. He isn't afraid of getting his hands (or body or mind) dirty. He likes the darker side of life. It intrigues him, and he's always ready to investigate.

He never gives up. He has tremendous staying power. He's not in the slightest intimidated by anybody or anything. Confrontations are not a problem. Everyone would probably be in awe at all he's gone through. Trauma seems to follow him wherever he goes. When he learns optimism, instead of expecting the worst, he'll find that he possess amazing regenerative powers -- the power to heal, create, and transform.

Weaknesses: He is suspicious, defiant, and extremist: he is sometimes vindictive.

Social relationships are extremely important. He is generally charming with an easy-going manner. It is generally quite important that he is personally popular, and to be liked and appreciated. Sometimes, vanity is part of the package. He is diplomatic and a veritable expert at smoothing over (and sometimes glossing over) problems. He is openhanded with others, tolerant and accepting. When expressed negatively, he can be superficial and two-faced, and be very much tied up with appearances – his own, and sometimes others'.  He is most attracted to people who express interest in him, or who respond well to his charms. He works his charms and draws people to him. His ability to attract others is very much tied up with ego.
 
He has faced a fair number of challenges in his life, especially in the first half, in which his attempts to express his will were often thwarted. There can be a persistent feeling that he doesn't get what he wants in comparison to others. He can feel unlucky at times. Attempts to control the environment, and sometimes others, may be frequent.

He wants to be considered an accomplished and important person, and when he faces obstacles, he doesn't always see that he is his own worst enemy. He may long to be considered important in the eyes of the world, yet he harbors fear of success at the same time. He takes failures and minor setbacks to heart, and may even practically beat himself up over them. Self-awareness to the point of real self-consciousness is a possibility.  

He is not much scared of anything. He enjoys and embraces growth, especially of the psychological kind. He loves a good mystery, and is adept at solving it. He readily assigns meaning to what others might consider "ordinary" events. He looks for symbols, and reads between the lines in most any situation. The physical vitality is generally strong, and the body is usually able to heal quickly. He is not afraid of the "dark side" of human nature, and he will bend the rules from time to time if he feels the need to do so.

He is sociable, intelligent and lucid. Thanks to great sociability, he has many friends. He is modern, original, inventive, and non-conformist and brings new life to everything he does.

Weaknesses: he is eccentric, with sharp mood swings. Complex love life.

There is a conflict here between the head and the heart. His emotions tell him one thing and the mind tells him something else. The result is a see-saw effect: he can be emotional to the point of irrationality at one moment and logical the next. He has a tendency to misrepresent himself with what he says from time to time, but he is a charming, if a little kooky, friend.

He is sometimes indifferent to others, to those who surround him: he is, without thinking, negligent and indecisive. He may "feed" inner restlessness with excesses in gambling, shopping, or other comforts, and his honesty is sometimes a bit elastic. This aspect does not help professional success, especially as he tends to spend more than he earns. Sometimes enthusiastic and gung-ho, and other times indifferent, it can be challenging for others to understand him. He needs to find constructive avenues for his inner restlessness.

He has a feverish, non-constructive restlessness. He is too susceptible. His life is full of change. He is irritable and stubborn at times due to an inner restlessness that is hard to satisfy. He has difficulty concentrating on a job. His friendships are like his professional and love life - sometimes unstable. There is a strong need for closeness, but when people get too close, he gets cagey, as he values personal freedom just as much.

He has intense emotions and passionate feelings. He fears the loss of control of emotional and domestic matters, and fears change. At the same time, he attracts change and disruptions. The love life or marital life may be riddled with emotional scenes, jealousy, and possessiveness because he attracts intense partners.

He is extremely observant and astute, always reading between the lines and looking for the real meaning behind things. He is passionate in speech, and excellent at strategy. Natural psychologist.

He likes polemic, to criticize and, above all, to contradict. He lacks diplomacy and tends to dissipate his energy. He cannot stay in the same place, likes change even if it means a backward step.

He possesses people, and somehow makes it seem attractive to be possessed. He has a strong need to control his partner, although this won't be immediately apparent, and he may not ever admit to this.

He attracts the best fortune when he puts his "all" into a project or undertaking, and uses his magnetic powers to heal others.

He is too independent and his liberty is all-important. He lacks diplomacy, and his extravagance is shocking. He likes verbal battles and espouses extremist ideas in order to shock his companions. He has a number of internal tensions.

Weaknesses: bad luck, adversity, problems and disappointed hopes. Narrow-minded, violent, sectarian, and probably has psychosomatic illnesses. He pollutes the family atmosphere, and is destructive.

I thought that was a pretty interestingly correct view of the man's life, though of course some if it isn't true to how things worked out for him.  Because society is so interested in serial killers, their lives are pretty well mapped out so astrologers can look at their chart and compare it with real life. 

Profiling – A Closer Look
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Profiling a serial killer is a fascinating thing. It takes more than just hearing about a murder.  It actually takes more than one murder, because you have to have something to compare.  A profile is an investigative tool.  It is not exact science.  A criminal profiler takes all of the information the police have about a particular case, they talk to all of the officers and investigators that work on the case, and look at similar cases that have been solved; all of this together makes a profile.  The profiler's education and experience with these types of crimes also are a very significant part of the profile.

I've chosen the unsolved case from California to compare the actual case with a profile done by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Miami Regional Operations Center.  Keep in mind that the profile made that I have included at the end of the article was made when there were only five victims at three different places.  In this article, there are two different cases (Original Night Stalker, and the East Area Rapist) that were found linked to one person through DNA evidence, at the time of the profile, this was not the case, they were only looking at the first murders that they knew about at the time.  If you look at the names below, within the article, you can see where it was merged.
 
1) Lyman Smith, W/M 43 March 13, 1980
Charlene Smith, W/F 33 March 13, 1980
2) Keith Harrington, W/M 24 August 19, 1980
Patrice Harrington, W/F 28 August 19, 1980
3) Manuela Witthuhn, W/F 28 February 6, 1981

It is helpful to look at the profile with this newer information to see, when this case developed into the unsolved case that it is today, whether or not the profile could still possibly be right. It's also useful to note that the profiler had some information that the public was/is not necessarily privy to with this case (blades of grass in bed, etc.).

The first thing you have to know is the case:

Original Night Stalker/East Area Rapist = the Diamond Knot Killer

In 2001 criminologists matched the DNA of a suspect in 10 Southern California murders committed between 1980 and 1986 with 50 rapes committed in Northern California from 1976 to 1979.  Combining the Original Night Stalker, and the East Area Rapist, we now call the suspect the Diamond Knot Killer.  The identity of this rapist/killer remains unknown.  This suspect showed proficiency in tying ornate knots including the 'diamond knot', or 'Chinese knot'. (This evidence was shown only in the first two killings, not every one.)

The serial killer is thought to have begun his criminal career as a rapist in Sacramento in 1976, earning himself the name East Area Rapist because many of his attacks occurred in the Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Orangevale areas east of Sacramento.
The man would later become known as the Original Night Stalker, because his crimes started before those of convicted serial murderer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker.

He stalked his victims. Sometimes there would be reports of prowlers for days before he attacked.   Originally, he attacked single women, often after prying open sliding glass doors or windows of their homes with a screwdriver. He haunted upper-middle-class neighborhoods, prowling at night looking for unlocked doors.  There were reports of screens missing from windows of houses other than where he struck - evidence that someone was sneaking around at night, looking for ways into houses.

His victims weren't just women.  He started targeting couples in Southern California coastal communities in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties in 1977. He wasn't picky about his weapons and would shoot, stab or bludgeon his victims -- both men and women. The rapist frequently held a knife to his victims' throats.

The rapist would break in, often waking the victims by shining a flashlight on them or speaking. He usually cut the telephone cord and covered a lamp with something to dim the lighting. He would separate the woman from the man, often having the woman tie up her companion with bindings he brought to the house with him.

Speaking through clenched teeth in a whispering falsetto voice, he would tell the bound man he was going to kill him and the woman if he heard a sound. His warning came after he'd place perfume bottles or dishes on the man's back. He'd then leave to rape the woman in another room.

He left DNA evidence behind.

He ate from the victims' refrigerators and would tell his victims all he wanted was food and money, probably giving them a false sense of security that he would leave after he robbed them, making them feel safe enough not to try anything rash. He would rarely take anything of value, but occasionally would grab jewelry as a memento.

On April 14, 1978, the East Area Rapist struck again in the South Area of Sacramento County, attacking a 15 year old babysitter.  The East Area Rapist was very methodical and calculating. He always wore a mask, so none of his victims had ever seen his face. He always wore gloves so he never left fingerprints behind. His vehicle was never parked near the crime scenes, so his license plate was never knowingly written down.

The East Area Rapist attacks came to an abrupt end with the last reported attack occurring on June 26, 1979. However, there are at least six East Area Rapist attacks that have been unaccounted for. The last reported East Area Rapist attack was listed in the media as his 44th attack. However, some law enforcement officials have referred to 50 attacks.

In 1979, the rapist turned more violent.
Detectives hosted town hall meetings after the Sacramento rapes to address residents' concerns. At one meeting, a man stood up and boldly proclaimed that he could protect his wife from the rapist. This couple was the rapist's next victims. He raped the wife and attacked the man. How must the people of the time felt when they realized that the killer must, no HAD to have been at the meeting.  He also must have fit in with the other people there, in all over 300 attended and no one could think of one single person who stood out.

On Oct. 1, 1979, a man in a ski mask entered the home of Mary Brown and John Davis. The couple was awakened, a flashlight shining in their eyes, and Brown was ordered to tie up Davis with pre-cut lengths of cord that were brought to the house. While the masked intruder ransacked the house supposedly looking for money, Brown managed to hop outside to the front of her home and scream for help. The intruder pulled her back into the house. During this time, Davis made his escape into the backyard. While the intruder pursued Davis, Brown escaped again, this time running into the arms of a neighbor who had been alerted by her screams. Having lost control of the situation, the intruder was spotted escaping on a bicycle and he disappeared down a creek bed.

The man known as the East Area Rapist, would simply disappear and then re-emerge approximately three months later in Southern California and transform himself from a serial rapist into a serial killer.

Robert Offerman, 44, an orthopedic surgeon and Alexandria Manning, 35, a clinical psychologist, were both murdered in December of 1979. Both victims were restrained with braided twine, but they were shot, not bludgeoned. The killer brought a big dog to the scene, and ate from the refrigerator.

In 1981, 35-year-old Cheri Domingo, an office manager, and 27-year-old Gregory Sanchez, who worked at the Burroughs Office Machine Company, were murdered. There was no sexual assault this time, but the victims were both shot, beaten to death, and bound with twine.

When he murdered, Ventura, California attorney Lyman Smith and Smith’s wife Charlene, he left pre-cut lengths of drapery cord he’d used to bind them on the bodies and the fireplace log he used to kill them on the bed.

In August of 1980, the same year he killed the Smiths, he struck in Niguel Shores, CA - the victims were the Harringtons - Keith, a medical student, and his wife Patrice, a nurse. This time he took his bludgeoning instrument with him, but left some cord behind.

His next victim, in February of 1981, Manuela Witthuhn, was a loan officer. Her husband David was not home. He was in the hospital with a viral infection. The killer took the Witthuhn’s answering machine along with some other items this time, leaving the possibility that his voice was on the machine. The ligatures were not left behind at this scene.
In 1986 he killed his last known victim, 18-year-old Janelle Cruz. A friend had stayed with her until late in the night, reading poetry, and they’d heard strange noises outside several times. Janelle was raped and murdered, and the weapon and bindings weren’t left behind.

In 1990 or 1991 the rapist called one of his victims.  Imagine answering the phone that night.  He said over and over again that he could kill her, the victim heard children in the background and a woman speaking, possibly indicating the rapist had a family. His voice is higher-pitched than average male. When disguising his voice the suspect will attempt to make his voice sound husky or gruff.

The FBI describes the man as most likely being white with fair to light olive complexion and dark hair. He stood between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 11 inches tall. He would now be in his late 40s or early 50s. He wore a size 9 shoe. He would often carry pre-cut lengths of shoelaces or twine. He would tie his victims up with an intricate sailor's knot, called a diamond knot, which is incredibly difficult to tie and points to a possible naval background. He has Type "A" Blood. The suspect additionally is a non-secretor.
The suspect primarily targeted middle-class to upper-middle class neighborhoods with homes on or near cul de sacs or homes adjacent to vacant fields, schools, parks, creeks or homes under construction. Several of the neighborhoods targeted by the suspect had "homes for sale" or homes recently sold. Suspect is known to have posed as a realtor, building inspector or prospective home-buyer.

The suspect always wore a ski mask, usually the commercially available knitted ski mask. He apparently did not wear the same mask twice. On occasion the suspect wore a mask that appeared to be homemade. One time he had on a leather hood, another time he wore a hood with his eyes, nose and mouth exposed. This hood was Army green and made out of canvas or heavy denim material.

The suspect spent from one to three hours in the residence. During this time he would sexually assault the victim several times. In between sexual assaults the suspect wandered about the house eating and drinking. He wandered in and out of the house. Beverage containers have been found outside where he apparently stood, possibly watching for anyone approaching the house.

Because of his wanderings, the victim rarely knew when the suspect actually left the premises. It was usually thirty minutes to an hour before the victim was able to free herself and sometimes needed the assistance of a neighbor to get loose from her bonds.

Considerable research has been conducted in an attempt to find some common factor between all of the victims, without success.

Failing this it is believed that the suspect identifies his next victim by prowling and burglarizing. Burglaries of particular interest are those in which no loss or minimal loss occurs.
During the rape the suspect would frequently take small items of costume jewelry: class rings, an earring, etc. He looked through photograph albums and lingerie drawers.
Also of interest are prowler reports, particularly those where herringbone footprints are found.

The Profile:

The final analysis is based on probabilities. It should be noted that no two criminal acts or criminal personalities are alike. The offender may not fit the analysis in every category.  (Every profile is prefaced with a note that tells the reader that it's not concrete.  It is based on all of the things at the beginning of this article. The analysis is not a substitute for a thorough and well-planned investigation and should not be considered all-inclusive.)

All the victims resided in upper-middle to upper class single-story residences.

The victims were low-risk for becoming victims of violent crime.

All victims died as a result of excessive beatings to the head with a
blunt force instrument.

The first two victims, the SMITHS, had ligatures tied around their wrists and ankles.
The HARRINGTONS and MANUELA WITTHUHN had ligature marks on their wrists and ankles. JANELLE CRUZ had a bruise abrasion on her right wrist and evidence of a soft ligature used on her wrists.

All four female victims were sexually assaulted. Analysis of the semen revealed that unknown DNA profiles in all four cases were from one donor, and therefore one individual was responsible for these attacks.

Two of the female victims had circular contusions. One was located on the shoulder of PATRICE HARRINGTON and the other was located on the buttocks of MANUELA WITTHUHN. The shoulder injury was described as a possible bite mark, the other as being consistent with a punch.

The offender chose single-family residences in affluent areas with ready access to the freeway system. The first crime scene was located in close proximity to a naval facility. The last three crime scenes were located in close proximity to a marine air wing facility.
There was a distance of approximately 120 miles between the first crime scene and the other crime scenes. Although there was more than a five-year time span between the third and fourth homicides, the offender returned to the same area to commit his crimes. The distance between the third and fourth homicides was approximately 1.7 miles.

The first crime scene was located in Ventura County, California. The remaining crime scenes were located in Orange County, California. No similar crimes were reported in Los Angeles County, which is located between Ventura and Orange Counties.

There were approximately 5 months between the first and second homicides, approximately 5 ½ months between the second and third homicides and 5 ½ years between the third and fourth homicides.

The offender observed his victims from the exterior of the residences prior to making entry. There were prowler reports by neighbors and witnesses. There were unidentified shoe prints on some of the crime scenes. JANELLE CRUZ’ visitor reported that on the night of her death they had heard noises outside her bedroom window. Blades of grass in JANELLE CRUZ’ bed would support the theory that someone was standing outside the residence prior to entering.

With the exception of MANUELA WITTHUHN, there were no signs of forced entry to the residences. It is possible that the offender waited until the victims were asleep in some of the cases, because he was able to gain entry without alerting the victims. All the victims were attacked in their bedrooms while in bed.

The offender controlled his victims several ways, but primarily with items brought with him to each crime scene. The victims were initially controlled with weapons and then were bound with ligatures. This is evident because there were no signs of struggle or defense wounds on any of the victims. They did not resist being bound. There were bruises and scratches noted on some of the victims in the area of their mouths, buttocks and/or legs. Based on this the offender probably struck his victims as he gained their compliance. The ligatures that were left behind on the first crime scene were tied with
decorative diamond knots around the wrists of LYMAN and CHARLENE SMITH.
The ankle ligatures were tied with square knots, which were different from the wrist ligatures.

It is also evident that the offender used blunt force instruments found at the exterior of the crime scenes. In the first crime scene, a fire log previously located on the side of the house was used. Metal fragments were found in the injury to PATRICE HARRINGTON’S head, indicating a metal object was used as a blunt force instrument. KEITH HARRINGTON’S father had been installing a sprinkler system at the victims’ residence the day of the homicides. The sprinkler heads were readily accessible from the exterior of the residence. It was reported that a pipe wrench was missing from the exterior of the house by JANELLE CRUZ’ stepfather.

Evidence reveals that the male victims were likely eliminated prior to the sexual assault and murder of the female victims. KEITH HARRINGTON was struck in the head with a blunt instrument. A crime scene assessment indicated that scratches and chipped wood on the headboard were likely made when KEITH HARRINGTON was struck in the head. A wood chip was discovered in the bed sheets between PATRICE HARRINGTON’S legs. The location of the wood chip would support the theory that KEITH HARRINGTON was struck first. Because this happened in the HARRINGTON case, it is likely that the offender struck and killed the male victims first in all the cases. The offender used a great deal of physical force when he bludgeoned the female victims. The women suffered crushing blows to their heads resulting from beatings with blunt force instruments. The amount of force used by the offender was extreme especially considering that they were bound and compliant and, therefore, unable to resist their attacker. The behavior of the victims during the assaults did not cause the offender to increase the amount of force used because they were not resistant. More force was used than was necessary to kill the victims.

The female victims were all sexually assaulted and were assaulted in the same manner. They were all assaulted vaginally and there was no evidence of oral or anal assault on the victims. The DNA analysis on semen from each crime scene revealed that the same offender was responsible for all four assaults. This would indicate that the offender was capable of ejaculation and, therefore, was not sexually dysfunctional.

The victims were covered with bedclothes so that the offender would not get blood on himself. This is evidenced in the progression and adaptation of the offender’s methods in committing the crimes. In the first crime scene, it is likely that the offender did get blood on himself. The fire log was covered in blood and there was blood spatter on the scene. This would indicate a direct contact between the victims and the fire log. The blanket was not pulled over their heads when they were struck. In the subsequent crime scenes, the offender covered the victims before striking them in the head. Because he later uncovered them to remove ligatures, we believe the act of covering was for "function” as opposed to “fantasy”.

An adaptation of the method of operation was seen in the offender's actions between the first crime scene and the remaining crime scenes. The offender adapted his methods when he covered his victims in the last three crime scenes. The offender also changed his methods when he took the ligatures and the blunt force instruments away from those same crime scenes. Valuable jewelry sold as one of a victims business ventures was in plain view and left behind. Jewelry was also removed from the third crime scene while other items of value were left undisturbed.

The offender took the time to alter the crime scenes. He altered the crime scenes by removing weapons and ligatures. In doing so, he made them appear as though burglaries had occurred. Items taken were of no real value while other items of value were left behind. The offender took the time to disturb items within the residences that would appear to be consistent with a burglary having taken place. In the first case, several large cushions from the furniture in the living room were removed as to indicate the offender had searched for valuables under the seat cushions. In this scene, several items of value were easily accessible and were not taken. In the case of MANUELA WITTHUHN, the
offender removed a large television set and left it on the patio. It is unlikely that
the offender intended to carry the television set over the high fence used as a point of exit at the rear of the residence. This behavior would be consistent with someone altering the scenes to make it look as though burglaries had occurred

Based on analysis of similar cases indicating that crimes of this nature are generally interracial, and the demographics of the areas of the crime scenes, it is believed that the offender is a white male.

Age is difficult to predict because this analysis is a measure of an offender's emotional age as opposed to his chronological age. Factors such as incarceration or institutionalization can delay the emotional growth of an individual. We believe that the emotional age of your offender would have ranged from approximately 26 to 30 years of age at the time of the crimes. This is based on review of similar cases revealing that this type of offender is the most mature.

The offender would be described as intelligent. This was evident in his ability to plan and carry out the crimes in advance. He was prepared for his crimes when he arrived at the victims’ residences. He brought a weapon for control purposes as well as bindings, a cutting instrument, and in one instance a screwdriver. He had the ability to plan and organize his thoughts in advance. He also had the intelligence and ability to adapt his method of operation.

The offender likely was in good physical condition. This is based on the physical strength necessary to cause the serious injuries resulting from the beating of the victims with blunt force instruments.

Since the offender blended into these communities, it is likely that he dressed well and did not call attention to himself when in these areas.

The offender was probably using a vehicle that was in good condition. He traveled great distances between crime scenes and would need to have a reliable, well-running vehicle for his endeavors. This type of offender would spend a great deal of time searching for his victims and would need a reliable mode of transportation. He would have parked near the areas of the crime scenes for a long period of time while he assaulted and killed his victims. Since the areas were described as affluent, the offender likely owned a vehicle
that would not “stand out” when parked near these areas for a period of time. Because the offender needed a vehicle in good condition that would fit into the area, it is likely that he had some means of income to afford the travel and a reliable car. He also failed to take cash and some valuable items at the crime scenes indicating he likely already had some means of income. This offender spent a great deal of time searching for and conducting surveillances on his victims at night and therefore was not employed during the early morning hours.

Typically, the first crime scene in a series of homicides will be the closest to the comfort zone of your offender. In this series, the first homicides occurred in Ventura, California, more than 120 miles from the remaining crime scenes. The offender’s comfort zone would have been in this area, meaning that the offender either initially resided or worked nearest to this area at the time of the offense.

It is significant that there was more than a five-year time span between the third and last homicides that were located only a little over a mile apart in Irvine, California. We have discussed the offender’s comfort zone being nearest to the first crime scene in Ventura, California. The killer returned to the same area in Irvine to kill again more than five years later indicating that he was also comfortable with this area.

This offender would have a criminal record. As stated, he has likely committed burglary. Since it is believed that he “peeped” on his victims, it is possible that he had been arrested for loitering and prowling or had been identified through uniform patrol’s field interviews as a result of suspicious activity. He would likely also have a criminal history for assaultive behavior from his deep-seeded anger towards women. This could include arrests for altercations or disturbances with both men and women. The main issue would have been that the offender was angered by the woman and this would have triggered the assaultive behavior.

The fact that the killer attacked his victims inside their homes is significant. The few serial killers that have been known to attack inside the victims’ residences proved to have histories of committing burglaries. In these four cases, the offender also was able to enter in a stealth manner without alerting his victims. Based on these facts this offender would likely be an accomplished cat burglar.

Research has provided information on the likely characteristics and traits of this type of offender. He would likely have been described by those who knew him as being neat, articulate, intelligent and organized. He also would likely have been described as rigid, arrogant, domineering and possessing an attitude of superiority. He would be further described as manipulative, a chronic liar, and unremorseful. He may have an interest in survivalist groups or racial prejudicial groups. This type of offender does not suffer from delusions where there is no sense of reality. He would know the difference between right and wrong.

The offender was very methodical. After the first crime, he took care not to get blood spatter on himself when striking his victims by covering the bodies. His behavior was repetitive with respect to his performing the same acts during each crime. He arrived at the crime scenes prepared with a “kit”. He selected his victims through peeping. He approached the victims in the same manner. He bludgeoned all the victims to death and sexually assaulted all the women in the same manner.

He planned his attacks very carefully, with great attention to detail, and likely would have rehearsed his attacks, either literally or in his fantasy many times. Virtually every phase-weapon, transportation, travel routes, instruments of torture, and bindings-would have been pre-planned, with the exception of the victim.

It is likely that this offender selected these affluent areas to offend for two reasons. First, these areas provided a degree of seclusion for him. All the residences were single-family homes with access to main highways. The properties were corner lots, had fenced yards or were located on cul-de-sacs, providing a degree of privacy. Peeping in the windows of these residences would be a lower risk than peeping in more populated areas such as apartment complexes or military housing. Secondly, this type of offender typically has a
grandiose sense of self-importance and believes that he is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or higher status people. Because of this arrogant attitude, the offender probably selected these affluent areas because he felt his victims were “worthy” of him.

This offender searched for his victims, spending a great deal of time and covering numerous miles. This type of offender most often attacks strangers because he does not want any ties between the victim and himself. The offender selected these communities to find a victim and then through peeping would select a specific victim. In the case of the HARRINGTONS, DNA analysis revealed that the victims had engaged in sexual intercourse prior to their death. JANELLE CRUZ was entertaining a male friend in her bedroom when they heard noises outside her bedroom window. We conclude that he observed the victims by peeping and reaffirmed his belief that the women were “whores” based on the behavior he observed.

This type of offender will formulate a plan to gain access to his victim. In this series, the offender selected his victims, observed them and then gained entry. Offenders with this sexual proclivity have been known to overpower a victim with a weapon and immediately instill fear. In all but one case, the offender likely gained entry via an unlocked door. He did, however, have the tools to force entry if needed. In the third case in this series the offender used a screwdriver to pry open a sliding glass door.

He likely prepared his equipment, or a “kit”, including whatever is needed to gain access to his victim. In these cases, the offender brought ligatures, a cutting instrument, a control weapon and a burglary tool to the crime scenes.

This type of offender used a method of killing that reflected his desire for complete mastery and control over his victims. In those scenes where two victims were killed, the offender was not discouraged by the fact that two people were present. In fact, it is more likely that the offender was gratified with his ability to have complete mastery over two people. Since this offender enjoyed the infliction of pain, whether physical or psychological, the elimination of the targeted victims’ spouses served two purposes: one, the increased pleasure of controlling more than one person; and two, to have complete mastery over the targeted victims through the fear and pain inflicted by the killing of their spouses. This would cause the female victims to suffer enormously while being restrained
and unable to defend themselves. All this was at the core of the offender’s desires and was reflected in his methods of killing.

The offender made the conscious decision to bludgeon his victims to death rather than to use some other simpler form of murder. This is apparent because he brought blunt force instruments into the victims’ homes. It is likely that he chose this violent form of death due to his enormous hate for the female victims. In doing so, they would suffer greatly. To kill them easily or quickly would not have been satisfying for him.

This offender was angry with women and used sex and physical force as weapons to punish and degrade them. He exhibited extreme anger and rage toward his female victims when he bludgeoned them to death. This behavior revealed his intense rage for the female victims and what they represented. He used excessive levels of force as the result of his rage, which was exhibited in the form of frenzied attacks on his victims. It is possible that in the mind of the killer these victims were a symbolic representation of a conflict involving a female. He blamed these women for his problems and believed he was superior to all women. He was getting even with women for their real or imagined wrongs. The victims were bound when they were killed and, therefore, were not able to resist their attacker. The amount of force used by the offender was extreme especially considering that they were bound and compliant.

Although the two male victims were also struck in the head with blunt force instruments, it is not believed that the offender was exhibiting his rage towards them as he did the female victims. He eliminated the men to concentrate on the intended female victims. The offender intellectualized the killings of the male victims. He logistically removed them as potential threats. He also likely intellectualized that the male victims got what they deserved because of their association with these women that he viewed as being low class and promiscuous.

Because the offender did prepare for his crimes in advance by bringing items with him, it is extremely significant that the blunt force instruments came from the exterior of the victims’ residences. It is assumed he had a weapon when he arrived on the crime scenes because he was able to control two people alone while inside the residences. The offender didn't use the weapon he brought with him because the weapon, likely a firearm, could be linked to him. He then likely planned to utilize a weapon from the crime scene. In using a log, pipe and possible a sprinkler head, he would not be connected to the murder weapon. This reveals that the subject was very evidence conscious. He further revealed his sophistication by removing the weapons from the crime scenes. Because the subject is so evidence conscious, it is believed that the offender disposed of the weapons soon after the crime and was not saving the items as trophies.

The offender might have studied methods of killing without leaving evidence. His planning murders and planning not to use a weapon connected to him, as well as removing evidence from the scenes, indicates he was knowledgeable and very sophisticated in this area. His knowledge could have been gained through experience or perhaps even military training.

It cannot be ruled out that the offender was employed by the military at the time of the crimes. It was reported that a naval station and a marine base were in close proximity to the crime scenes. In addition, the decorative knot tied on the ligatures of the first two victims was described as having a nautical or sailing application that can be used in the military service.

In order to justify the killing of these women, the offender needed to convince himself that these women were “whores”. First, the behavior he witnessed while prowling and peeping convinced him that the women were promiscuous. Secondly, when the subject engaged in sexual intercourse with the women this reaffirmed his belief that the women were promiscuous. The offender was enraged by his perception of the women’s behavior and his anger was the direct motivation for killing these women. The sexual assaults were not the primary motivation for the attacks. The sex occurred as a method of the offender justifying in his mind that the women were “whores”. Because of this rage, he made a conscious decision that they should die.

Fantasy is a component of this offender’s methodology. This offender has mentally rehearsed what he would like to do. There typically are masturbation fantasies in which he thinks about what he would like to do if he had the opportunity. He then actually made the choice to move from fantasy to action and made a plan to do it. When the offender committed his crime, he enacted his sexual fantasy. He was carrying out an action that had been previously imagined.

Items belonging to the victims are taken to provide a means for the offender to relive his crimes. In the first homicide, the victim’s personal jewelry was taken; however, the valuable jewelry she sold as one of her business ventures was in plain view and left behind. Jewelry was also removed from the third crime scene while other items of value were left undisturbed. The offender typically fantasizes about the crimes he has committed and receives gratification from these fantasies.

It is believed that the knots tied on the ligatures had significance to the offender. In the first case, the two victims’ ligatures were tied with decorative diamond knots around the wrists; however, the ankle ligatures were tied with a square knot. We believe the diamond knot was significant to your offender. He likely had fantasized about his crimes prior to committing them and had imagined the use of bondage and the tying of ligatures with this decorative knot.

The offender likely engaged in a number of sexually deviant behaviors. Research on sexual behavior has shown that when an individual engages in one sexually deviant behavior, it is likely that they will engage in a number of other sexually deviant behaviors. In these cases, the offender engaged in voyeurism when he peeped into the windows of the victims, he engaged in sexual bondage by use of ligatures and he received sexual gratification from the infliction of pain on his victims. These behaviors involved an intense sexual desire to perform a certain act, which provided sexual gratification. Sexually deviant behaviors involve human or non-human objects and do include child sexual abuse.

Because this offender needs domination, control and manipulation for sexual arousal, we would expect to see a history of assaultive or abusive behavior towards partners. This would result from the offender’s aggression toward his partner because this type of person will often use brutal force. If he was not arrested for incidents related to this behavior, an investigation into his relationships would likely indicate this type of abuse. The offender when in a relationship, would be able to come and go as he pleased, being the dominant and aggressive member of the relationship. The offender, however, would not have likely maintained lengthy relationships with women. Based on his deep rooted
hostility towards women, this offender was, in all probability, not married at the time of the crimes.

His sexual history would have included binding his partner during sexual intercourse. The binding of his sexual partner is a method of domination and control. This type of offender is sexually aroused when he is able to completely dominate and control. His sexual relationships will reflect this desire. Physical evidence revealed that the offender was sexually functional.

The offender was able to ejaculate during the commission of each sexual assault and therefore was not sexually dysfunctional. As is the case with offenders who are dysfunctional, he was not likely burdened by anxiety and was not unsure of himself. On the contrary, this offender was likely arrogant and confident in his abilities. The sexual assault occurred to demonstrate that the women were “whores”. The sexual interaction was about how the offender viewed the women. Having intercourse with them reaffirmed his belief that they were promiscuous. Since the sexual activity was not about how the offender viewed himself, his performance or masculinity, he would then not have a problem with sexual function.

It is significant that the offender was sexually functional. Research and comparison of similar cases reveal that most offenders exhibit some form of sexual dysfunction. This offender is among a small group of offenders that are sexually functional. This is significant because, in attempting to link similar cases, it would be unlikely that this offender would have committed crimes in which the offender was sexually dysfunctional and did not ejaculate.

There is documentation through the assessment of similar cases and research that this type of offender will attack strangers while having a compliant victim at home. Their appetite for sadistic sex would be described as insatiable. Women who have had sexual relationships with this type of offender reported that anal intercourse eventually became the regular routine and vaginal intercourse ceased. In addition, women involved with these offenders have reported being strangled to the point of unconsciousness during sexual acts.

This type of offender seeks sex with compliant victims to include prostitutes. We believe it was likely that this offender likely engaged in sex with prostitutes. He would have engaged in the same type of sexual acts with the prostitutes as he did with his victims. The insatiable appetite for sexual bondage, mastery and control would all be central themes to the sex acts performed. The analysis of behavior of similar offenders indicates that these types of offenders have reportedly engaged in sex with prostitutes but have not killed them because they differed in status from the type of women they victimized. It is likely that they are not harmed because of their different status and also because the offender does not have a need to punish them since they did not represent their victims.

It is believed that the offender followed media accounts of the crimes he committed. Because the first victims were prominent in the community, there was a vast amount of media attention. It is likely that the offender followed the media accounts of the murders and adapted his methods according to what was disclosed to the public. It was disclosed that the victims had been bound and struck with a log. Subsequent to this, the offender removed the ligatures and blunt force instruments from the scenes.

We believe this offender altered the crime scenes in attempt to disguise his motivation for these crimes and, in doing so, attempted to manipulate law enforcement so as not to link the crimes together. The offender was motivated by extreme anger, but altered the crime scenes to appear as though burglaries had occurred. As stated previously, items were moved and/or taken to give the appearance that burglaries had occurred. We believe the offender attempted to mislead authorities into investigating “just another burglary” that ended with the death of the victims. In the first case in which LYMAN and CHARLENE SMITH were killed, the crime was relayed in detail to the public through the media who had access to a large amount of evidentiary information. If subsequent murders revealed the same circumstances, the possibility existed that because of the enormous amount of media on the SMITH case, an investigator on a subsequent crime scene in another area might remember the SMITH case and associate the crimes together. We believe the offender disguised his motivation for the crimes because he did not want the murders linked together. Manipulating law enforcement into investigating the crimes separately would decrease the total information collected and therefore would decrease the likelihood of the cases being solved.

This is the most likely of all offenders to record his crimes. This can be done in many forms such as photographs, audio recordings, sketches, writings or newspaper clippings. In the first homicide of LYMAN and CHARLENE SMITH, newspaper accounts listed many details of the crime and the investigation. We believe the offender read the newspaper articles because he altered his behavior following their publication. We believe therefore the offender likely saved the newspaper articles concerning the homicides. The recording of these events is so that the offender, again, can fantasize and relive his crimes. Such fantasy provides sexual gratification for the offender.

Investigative Suggestions:

It is suggested that additional investigation might be made into the decorative knot tied by the offender on the wrists of the first victims, LYMAN and CHARLENE SMITH. The knot was described by an expert as a decorative diamond knot with sailing applications or interior design applications. Further information may be obtained by consulting with Navy personnel. Specific knots have specific nautical uses. It may be possible to identify the type of use this knot would have in the Navy and therefore identify the occupation or type of individual who would have a practical use for this knot in his profession.

It is significant that five years and three months passed between the third and fourth homicides which occurred approximately 1.7 miles apart. The offender ceased committing these crimes but returned many years later to the same area. If the offender was incarcerated, institutionalized or moved from the area for a period of time, he later returned to the same city and community where he last killed. This would be a significant area for him and may be considered a comfort zone. This offender likely had ties to this area either through employment or residence. If not already done, investigation may uncover individuals who were transferred and returned to this area during this time frame
as well as individuals released from incarceration during the same time parameters.

These crime scenes present a significant set of facts concerning the type of area, location of the scenes and the extensive travel accomplished by the offender. The offender killed in a distance that spanned more than 120 miles across the West Coast of California. The crime scenes were all in close proximity to the freeway system and were all in affluent communities. The offender killed in two different counties in California and traveled a great distance between the two counties omitting the county between the scenes. In doing so, the offender chose not to kill in Los Angeles County, which offered numerous potential victims residing in affluent communities. Also, it is noted that the offender appeared to potentially have two different comfort zones. Because of this set of facts, it is believed that it would be beneficial to retain the services of Kim Rossmo, Vancouver Police Department, British Colombia, Canada, an expert in Geographic Profiling. Geographic Profiling could provide investigators with more specific information concerning the locations that the offender frequented, resided and worked.

The offender spent a great deal of time preparing and searching for a victim. The investigation reveals that the offender likely watched his victims through their windows prior to gaining entry. We would expect that the offender did spend a lot of time peeping in windows of others who did not become victims of homicide. The offender used a diamond knot on the wrists of his victims. Sexual bondage was very significant and important to the offender’s sexual arousal. The use of bondage and voyeurism are considered paraphilic behaviors. Such behaviors are intense sexual deviant behaviors that offer the individual sexual gratification. These behaviors are often “clustered”, meaning that an offender will often engage in a number of sexual deviant behaviors, or
paraphilias. In addition, the behaviors do not subside just because the offender
may have escalated to homicide. Because they are “intense” sexual desires, the offender will continue to engage in such activity for sexual gratification. These behaviors will remain constant. Records may be reviewed pertaining to reports of peeping in these areas and similar communities. Reports of domestic complaints involving sexual bondage and aggression can be reviewed for suspect development.

Individual queries of separate state and federal DNA databases may be considered. It is unlikely that the offender ceased this type of behavior. If he is still living, we would expect him to commit similar crimes. The likelihood does exist that he has moved from the area and therefore it would be important to inquire on a broad spectrum. Inquiring separately with each system that exists would ensure the thoroughness and quality of the comparison. Since a possibility does exist that this offender was employed by the military service, it may be fruitful to search incident reports, domestic complaints with bondage and the DNA databases available through the military.

At the time of occurrence for each homicide, teletypes were issued by the law enforcement agencies requesting information on these crimes or similar crimes in other jurisdictions. Since that time, teletypes have been reissued, searches of the California databases have been conducted and continuous searches of the offender’s DNA against new entries into the California DNA database system are ongoing. In addition, information concerning all four cases was submitted to the FBI’s VICAP system in an effort to link them to any homicide with similar characteristics nationwide. To date there are no known repetitions of these crimes.

In assessing this information the possibility exists that the offender either is in jail or has been institutionalized for a long period of time. The latter is not very likely since this offender was intelligent, methodical and would not suffer from a delusional type of disorder if he suffered from mental illness. There is also the possibility that the offender moved out of the country and resides in an area where the crimes would not be documented for linkage purposes. And finally, in attempting to assess where the offender may currently be located, the offender could possibly have died by either suicide or homicide. It is not uncommon for some individuals with the offender’s characteristics to take their own lives. More important, however, were the behavioral characteristics indicating his rage for the female victims. We have discussed his anger for real or perceived wrongs committed by a female or females and his need to inflict severe emotional and physical pain on women. His rage was so intense that he could justify why the men in two cases “deserved” to be killed by associating with these women.

The rage and anger would be more significant factors in determining this offender's demise as opposed to some of the other personality characteristics. Because of his deep-seeded hate towards women, the possibility exists that the offender could have been involved in a violent confrontation with a woman, or because of a woman, resulting in his death. It is also possible if the offender were deceased that he could have been killed in an attempt to commit a similar crime. If he were killed as a result of his entering a residence at night, the behavior seen in the four crimes assessed would not be present and, therefore the crimes would not have been linked through conventional means. We would suggest a search of investigations involving violent disturbances or burglaries resulting in the death of a male offender.

Interview Strategies:

Should a viable suspect be developed in this investigation it is our recommendation that a consultation be scheduled with a Criminal Investigative Analyst (Profiler) regarding specific strategies for a specific individual. Assistance can be provided with an Indirect Personality Assessment of the suspect.

The most important aspect of the interview would be the preparation.

These types of offenders are aware of who they are and what they are, and because they are “police buffs” they are very much aware of law enforcement and investigative techniques. It would be important then for the law enforcement officers to understand the personality of this type of offender, the cases, the individual suspect and the paraphilias, or sexual deviant behaviors that he engages.

It is important to understand that these types of offenders are masters of manipulation, are intelligent, articulate, will consent to an interview, and likely will decline access to a lawyer. They are experts on themselves and their crimes.

The interviewer should know everything possible about the investigations.

The interviewer should have a rank of detective or higher, dress professionally in a dark suit, white shirt and conservative tie. The interviewer should be of equal or superior stature, build or condition in order to dominate and control the interview. The interviewer should be of equal or superior intelligence, be articulate, formal and professional at all times during the interview. The interviewer should be confident, calm and relaxed and at no time show personal feelings or emotion during the interview. The offender would likely view such feelings as weakness.

Should other cases committed by this offender become known following
the completion of this analysis, we reserve the right to amend our assessment.

Serial Killer Weapons of Choice
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

In the united states, guns are used in murder more than any other weapon, cutting or stabbing is next and a tiny percentage are murders involving blunt objects, personal weapons, strangulation, asphyxiations and fire... serial killings do not stay inside the national average by weapons. The 140 serial killers below seem to bear this out.  Twenty eight used guns, Twenty seven used a knife, fourteen used blunt objects, twenty used personal weapons, and Thirty one used strangulation, six by asphyxiation, and two by fire, Thirty nine are in the 'all other' category.

Aileen Wournos – gun
Albert Desalvo (Hillside Strangler) strangled with articles of clothing.
Altemio Sanchez - strangulation
Alton Coleman with Deborah Denise Brown - ligature strangulation
Andrei Chikatilo – knife
Andrew Cunanan - gun
Angel Maturino Resendiz – rocks, sledgehammer, a pointed garden tool, a tire iron, an air hose coupling (to bludgeon them with). Also used a gun.
Anna Maria Zwanziger – Poison
Arthur Shawcross - strangulation and battered women to death
Belle Gunness – poison
Beverly Allitt - drugs
The Bloody Benders- hammer and a knife
Bruce George Peter Lee – arson
Carl Panzram – gun
Carlton Gary – strangulation with stockings
Cayetano Santos Godino – a hammer and a nail.
Charles Cullen - overdoses of insulin, and the heart medication digoxin
Charles Quansah – strangulation
Chester Dewayne Turner - strangulation
Clifford Olson – strangulation, hammer, knife
Christopher Peterson - gun
Colon Ireland – suffocation with a plastic bag, strangled with a noose
Coral Eugene Watts - stabbing, slashing, strangulation and bludgeoning.
Dagmar Overbye - strangled them, drowned them or burned them to death in her masonry heater.
Dana Sue Gray – utility knife, fillet knife, phone cord,
Daniel Ruda and wife Manuela – stabbing
David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) – gun
David Gore - alligators, gun
David Parker Ray - whips, chains, pulleys, straps, clamps, leg spreader bars, and surgical blades and saws
Dennis Nilsen - strangulation and drowning
Dennis Radar - strangulation
Derrick Todd Lee - knife
Donald Harvey – smothering, disconnected an oxygen tank, smothered with plastic bags, also killed with morphine and a variety of drugs.
Donald Henry Gaskins – hatchet, knife, poison, drowning, fists
Earle Nelson – strangulation
Ed Gein - .22-caliber rifle
Eddie Leonski – strangulation
Edmund Emil Kemper III – gun, smothering
Efren Saldivar - injecting a paralytic drug which led to respiratory and/or cardiac arrest.
Elfriede Blauensteiner – poison
Elizabeth Bathory – torture
Edric Edgar Cooke – vehicle, gun
Fritz Haarmann - killed them by biting through their throats
Gary M. Heidnik – gun
Gary Ridgeway – strangulation
Genene Jones - injections of heparin and later of succinylcholine (killed babies)
George Chapman – poison
Gertrude Baniszewski – torture
Gerald Gallego Jr. and Charlene Williams - tire iron, gun, and shovel
Gerard John Schaefer - torture
Gilles De Rais – torture
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood - smothering
Harvey Murray Glatman - strangulation
Helene Jegado - arsenic
Henri Desire Landru – strangulation
Henry Louis Wallace – strangulation, gun
Herbert Mullin - baseball bat, knife, gun
Heriberto "Eddie" Seda - gun
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - shovel, knife, strangulation, axe
Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Meyer, and Waltraud Wagner - overdose of morphine, while one held the victim's head and pinched their nose, another would pour water into the victim's mouth until they drowned in their bed.
Ivan Milat – knife, gun
Janie Lou Gibbs - poison
Jerry Brudos - bludgeoning and strangulation
Jeffery Dahmer – barbell, torture
Jim Jones - poison
Joachim Kroll – strangulation
Joe Ball – Alligator
John Allen Muhammad – gun
John Regiunald Halliday Christie – choked
John Childs – knife, sword, axe, lead pipe, strangulation.
John Wayne Gacy – Underwear, socks, ropes, handcuffs
John Wayne Glover – hammer, strangulation
Joseph Paul Franklin - gun
Joseph Vacher – knife
Juan Vallejo Corona - machete-like weapon.
Karl Denke – axe
Kendall Francois - strangulaion
Kenneth Erskine – strangulation
Kristen Gilbert - injected patients them with epinephrine, causing them to have heart attacks.
Lemuel Smith – smothering
Leonard Christopher – knife
Lorenzo Gilyard - ligature
Luis Garavito – knife
Mack Ray Edwards – gun
Manuela Ruda – knife
Marc Dutroux – torture
Marie Noe - suffocation
Mark Goudeau - guns
Mary Ann Cotton – poison
Mary Bell – strangulation
Michael Hughes - strangulation
Michael Swango – poison
Michael Wayne McGray – knife
Nannie Doss - rat poison
Nathaniel White - knife
Patrick Kearney – gun
Paul Dennis Reid, Jr. - gun
Paul John Knowles – choked, strangulation, gun
Peter Kudzinowski - knife
Peter Kurten – strangulation, knife
Philip Carl Jablonski – gun, suffocation, knife.
Ray Copeland and Faye - gun
Raman Raghav - a hard and blunt object
Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck - hammer, strangulation, drowning
Randall "Randy" Woodfield - knife
Randy Steven Kraft – strangulation, gun, and a combination of torture and drugs.
Ravindra Kantrolle – knife, strangulation
Rhonda Bell Martin - poison
Richard Angelo – drugs
Richard Trenton Chase – gun
Richard Ramirez – gun, knife
Richard Fran Biegenwald - gun
Robert Berdella – torture
Robert Black – strangulation
Robert Hansen – knife
Robert Lee Yates – gun
Sante Kimes – drowning
Sylvestre Matuschka – train derailment
Ted Bundy - bludgeoning and strangulation.
Terry Blair – gun, strangulation
Dr Thomas Neill Cream – poison
Thug Behram – strangulation
Tillie Klimek – poison
Timothy Wayne Krajcir - gun
Tommy Lynn Sells – knife
Vincent Johnson – strangulation
Westley Allan Dodd – knife
William Bonin – strangulation
William George Heirens – knife,
William MacDonald – knife
William Patrick Fyfe – knife
William Suff – strangulation, knife
Yaang Xinhai - axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels.

Unsolved Serial Killer weapons:

Serial Shooter - shotgun
Zodiac Killer – gun, knife
The Grim Sleeper, California (unsolved) - gun or strangulation.
Servant Girl Annihilator - Several victims were stabbed by some sort of spike in the ears or the face, he raped them before slashing or axing them to death.
Axeman of New Orleans – need I say it, an axe.
Bible John (unsolved) – strangulation
Jack the Ripper – knife

Serial Killer Who Wore Disguises
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Serial killers become whatever they need to be in order to get close to their victims. We can agree with that, but in the long run, not many of them used disguises that we know of, although we can also agree that because of the fact that they blend in so will with society, the so called 'mask of sanity' is always there.  Most of them look and act like regular members of the community.

Serial killers who used disguises:

Mark Goudeau - wore a wig of dreadlocks and a floppy fisherman’s hat as well as wearing disguises.

Andrew Phillip Cunanan – the FBI warned while looking for him that he may be dressed as a woman. Chameleonesque Andy, he was known for adroitly using disguises and makeup to change his appearance.

Ted Bundy – disguised as a person in need.

Dennis Radar - dressed as a Southwestern Bell employee, wearing a yellow hard hat and carrying a company manual and fake identification. His disguise was used to gain entry to the Wegerle home. Radar also wore a mask that he had put on his last victim. Rader had drawn in eyebrows, eyelashes, red lips and nostrils to a mask to make it look more life-like. "I pose myself in bondage pictures with my mask," Rader told authorities. Authorities found masks, some with red cheeks and long, dark eyelashes, at Rader's home. They also found photos of Rader tied in bondage while dressed as a woman in a wig and wearing a mask.

The Zodiac Killer - used a black mask with his symbol on it.

Louis Alfredo Garavito - often used a number of disguises to attract and lure his victims. He posed as a monk, street vendor, disabled person and even as a charity representative for a pretend children's organization.

Charles Sobhraj - A master of disguise, 'The Serpent' used stolen passports for different identities.

Angel Maturino Resendiz -used false identity papers to slip in and out of the country.

The Axeman – Rumors had it that he dressed up as a woman.

John Horace Oughton – The paper bag rapist, wore a paper bag over his head.

John Charles Eichinger - wore a "Scream" mask he stored in a cooler.

Ed Gein – wore the facial skin of women.

Andre DiMera – The Salem slasher – Wore a mask of Roman whenever he killed. Roman was the investigator and protector of a women target of The Salem Strangler.
East Area Rapist – EAR, He wore a ski mask, gloves, dark clothing with long sleeves, and tennis shoes or military-style boots.
Danny Rolling - wore black clothes, a ski mask and glove, and camped out in the woods during his Gainesville crime spree.

Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Hillside Stranglers – pretended to be policemen making an arrest.

Sipho Dube – pretended to need directions or pretended to be a person of authority.

John Robinson – Internet Slavemaster – made people think he was a social service provider using the internet.

YOO Yeong-chul - He pretended to be a policeman, showing a forged identification card which he had made himself.

The Harps, Big and Little – They pretended to be the posse out after themselves.

George Russell - Eastside Serial Killer - pretended to be a cop.

Randy Woodfield - Often wore a false beard and hooded sweat shirt during his attacks.

Bill Bradford – pretended to be a photographer looking for models.

Unidentified possible serial killer in London - posed as a television researcher to trick his way into the woman's home and try to strangle her. He also pretended to be looking for a room to rent for his daughter.

Juana Barraza - ruled the Mexican women’s wrestling circuit as “The Silent Lady,” but she became infamous for another moniker, “La Mataviejitas”—the old-lady killer. Starting in the 1990s, Barraza knocked on the doors of Mexico City’s elderly women, pretending to be a social worker. Once inside, she grabbed a sock, piece of string or phone cord—whatever was handy—and strangled her victims to death (until blood oozed from their ears).

Rafael Resendez- Ramirez - changing names and Social Security numbers and using glasses and facial hair to hide his identity

Good Deeds
By Jessica Fairfield 
Published in Serial Killer Magazine

Anyone who's studied serial killers even remotely can tell you many of them wear masks in public and remove it when they kill. The masks they wear are so well made that sometimes even when all the evidence points to one individual, the authorities do not make an arrest because they don’t believe such a friendly person could be a cold-blooded killer. This was the case with Ted Bundy. After a description and composite drawing were released, four different calls came in (one from Ted’s own wife) claiming that a Mr. Theodore Bundy fit the suspect's description perfectly. He was questioned briefly and detectives made judgments and decided to remove him from the suspect list. They felt such a gentleman couldn’t possibly be the serial killer on the loose. Bundy’s genius and ingenuity are the cause behind many unnecessary deaths. His public persona was such a good disguise that he had had everyone who knew him (or thought they did) fooled completely. When Bundy was proven to be the killer these same people were absolutely stunned.

In many cases above and beyond Ted’s the personality killers present to the public represent upstanding, friendly, and well-to -do citizens, leading nothing but an ordinary life. In fact nothing could be farther from the truth. As a result of their alter egos some well-known serial killers have actually portrayed themselves as heroes or good Samaritans when presented with such opportunity.

Before his arrest Ted volunteered for a suicide hotline. While there he worked alongside author Ann Rule who claims Ted saved more lives then he took. During another occasion Ted was witness to a purse snatching and took it upon himself to chase down the thief and retrieve the purse. And there is still another time Ted was able to help out. He pulled a drowning toddler from the water. I’m sure regardless of anything else Ted ever did the parents of the toddler he saved appreciated his help.

John Wayne Gacy, one of the most despicable killers ever, loved to dress as a clown, a well known fact, but what is not so commonly known is the fact that he would perform as Pogo the clown, for free, for children’s hospitals. He’d also host a BBQ in his town every year. He did all the cooking himself on a grill that stood mere feet away from his collection of dead bodies.

Arthur Shawcross, infamous for his string of murders near Genesee River in New York, was also the savior of at least one life. Before he’d ever killed anyone that authorities knew about, he was in jail for setting fire to an old workplace. While there a riot broke out and several prisoners had a guard cornered and would have undoubtedly killed him had it not been for Arthur stepping in and helping the cop out of the situation. It earned him an early release. However it was during another incident when someone needed Shawcross’ help that his switch went and he made his first kill.(according to authorities, but according to Arthur’s records he’d killed several times before while in the army) While wandering the woods one day he came across a young boy stuck in a mud hole. He pulled the boy to safety and then instructed him to go home and clean up. Instead he followed behind Shawcross through a creek and deeper into the wood. Somewhere along the line the boys company became a bitter annoyance for Arthur and he lashed out, leaving a slaughtered little boy in the repulsive aftermath. However he did not stop there. He proceeded to cannibalize the boys heart and genitals as well as raping his corpse. Afterwards the boy was burried in a shallow grave, but this was not the end of his degradation. Arthur later returned and dug up the body for more necrophilia. After this kill he killed a little girl but then changed his victims of choice over to hookers and took up the method of disposing of the bodies in the Genesee River, thus earning him his nickname, the Genesee River Killer.
Robert Berdella was a member of the crime watch in his community in Kansas City, Missouri. He also turned half of his own home into a halfway house for troubled youths. Yet, another room in the same house was reserved especially for the torture and death of seven young men. One man made it out alive by pure luck. His ranges of torture endured had been particularly disturbing; one of Berdella’s cruel methods was to inject his victims with animal tranquilizer to turn them into what he called “playtoys”. All were kept alive for torture until they died from lack of food and water. After death the bodies were dismembered in his tub and thrown out in trash bags. Had it not been for the one victim who did escape, its hard to say how long this hellhole would have been able to carry on. After his arrest Robert claimed he was a decent human being and to back this up he set up trust funds for the families of his victims.

To each and every person are good and bad qualities. The dark side of serial killers is very demented. The fact that they can limbo in and out of personalities however should come as no surprise. We all wear our own masks in public and take them off when we're home. In the world of norms the mask although not shielding murder can be hiding something just as despicable. In any case should a good deed not be a good deed just because of the other actions a person has committed? How would the near-drowned toddler feel had Ted not been there? Would the prison guard have found his own means out of his sticky situation had Shawcross not been there? After Arthur had been convicted of murder, did it change the guard's opinion of him? And, while were at it, I wonder if the victims families ever used the money flowing in from the trust fund arranged by their dead relative's murderer.

Ted Bundy
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989

Macabre - The Ted Bundy Song Lyrics

Here's a story of Ted Bundy, murdered young girls Monday through =
Sunday.
Lure them into his car, then they wouldn't see tomorrow.
He killed Monday through Sunday, his name was Ted Bundy.
He murdered young girls and left them in the woods.
He would get them in his car, they wouldn't go far.
He would hit them on the head, with an object until they were dead.
Murdered young girls in several states, from jail two times he =
escaped.
Until the end he denied his crimes, he was convicted, then he fried.
He killed Monday through Sunday, his name was Ted Bundy.
He murdered young girls and left them in the woods.
He would get them in his car, they wouldn't go far.
He would hit them on the head, with an object until they were dead.

Born: 24 November 1946
Birthplace: Burlington, Vermont
Died: 24 January 1989 (execution)
Best Known As: The smooth-talking serial killer who blamed porn

Name at birth: Theodore Robert Cowell

Ted Bundy was a clean-cut, smooth-talking serial killer who confessed to raping and killing more than 20 young women between 1974 and 1978. Executed in Florida in 1989 for three murders, his crimes began in Washington State in 1974. Bundy committed his attacks on women while leading a seemingly normal life, first in the Seattle area as a local Republican Party campaigner, then in Salt Lake City as a law student at the University of Utah. He was arrested during a traffic stop in 1975, after police found evidence linking him to a kidnapping in Utah and a murder in Colorado. While in jail in Utah, investigators in Washington and Colorado pegged Bundy as a suspect in the disappearances and murders of several others. He was convicted of kidnapping in Utah in 1976 and sentenced to 15 years in jail, but he escaped in late 1977 and made his way to Florida, using the name Chris Hagen. Shortly after arriving in Tallahassee, Bundy attacked four women in a sorority house at Florida State University, killing two. A few weeks later he raped and killed a 12 year-old girl in Lake City, Florida. Bundy was finally apprehended when a Pensacola police officer arrested him for driving a stolen car.

Items found in the car:

Large, clear plastic drinking cup
Meadow Gold milk carton
Fig cookie wrapper
Two Camel cigarette wrappers
Two Marlborough cigarette wrappers
Paper stickers from Christian Book Store
Torn Check
Grocery store receipt
Polaroid negative
Kentucky fried chicken box
Brown paper grocery bag
Carefree gum wrapper
Plastic window scraper
Two Colorado license plates
Latent fingerprint taken from driver's side window

The car contents were, as he was thought to be... normal.

He was born Theodore Robert Cowell and remained so for a few years.  After he moved to Tacoma with his mother, she changed his last name to Nelson.  Within a year after that, his mother Louise Cowell met Johnnie Culpepper Bundy.  They later married and Johnnie Bundy legally adopted Theodore and changed his last name to Bundy.

No one is really sure who his biological father was. His mother gives two different stories for this.  The name on his birth certificate was Lloyd Marshall.  However, she later spoke of being seduced by a war veteran named Jack Worthington.  There is one other option, however.  Some members of Bundy's family think that his grandfather may also be his biological father.  He was mentally unstable, violent and abusive.  He would also fly into a rage if anyone spoke of Ted's biological father.

Bundy describes incidents of his grandfather Samuel abusing the family dog.  He also claimed that Samuel would swing neighborhood cats around by their tails.  Ted himself has been said to torment animals with knives.  He would mutilate animals with the knives which seemed to fascinate him.

Young Ted was active in the Methodist Church and even served as Vice President of the Methodist Youth Fellowship. He was also involved in the Boy Scouts of America club.  Although later he stated:  "I didn't know what made people want to be friends.  I didn't know what made people attractive to one another. I didn't know what underlay social interactions."  He was often described as shy and introverted at this age.

His criminal activities began before he finished high school. He was a habitual liar.  He compulsively stole and shoplifted.  He later claimed that he was also involved in voyeurism at a young age specifically by peeping into windows.  He was arrested twice as a juvenile but the records were later expunged.

He started taking classes upon his graduation from high school in 1965 in Psychology and Oriental Studies.  After a serious girlfriend broke up with him for his lack of ambition, he rededicated himself to Psychology and earned his degree in 1972.  He was well liked by his professors and graduated with honors. 

He started dating a woman with a child (relationship lasted six years) while concurrently and covertly re-establishing his relationship with his girlfriend who dumped him.  After a year of their born again relationship, he proposed and she accepted.  Two weeks later, he dumped her and began his killing spree.  He would not break up his six year relationship to another woman until he was arrested for kidnapping in 1976.  There are many who say that most of his victims looked like the girlfriend who originally dumped him (long dark hair parted in the middle).

He volunteered at a suicide crisis center alongside a now famous crime author, Ann Rule
as a part of his psychology classes.  A serial killer trained in talking people out of killing themselves.  Ann Rule was researching the crimes Ted committed all the while not knowing it was her friend who committed them.  She later published a book called: "The Stranger Beside Me" detailing her relationship with Ted and the numerous crimes he was convicted of.

Ted was heavily involved with the Republican Party.  In 1968, Ted managed the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign and attended the Republican Convention in Miami.  After his graduation in 1972, he went to work for the state Republican Party.  He was later involved in a minor scandal when the democrats found out that Ted had been following one of them around posing as a college student and taping their speeches and reporting the information back to his Republican office.

He caught a purse snatcher and was given a commendation from the police department. He also saved a drowning toddler once by diving into a lake after him. He wrote rape-prevention books and became active in politics gaining the attention of very important, highly known people. Ted worked many low paying jobs to pay for college. He was a busboy at a hotel, a messenger, and clerks at various stores. He left most jobs after only a few months. Some employers said he was a good worker while others gave him less than favorable comments.

Bundy used stolen credit cards to purchase more than 30 pairs of socks while on the run in Florida; he was a self-described foot fetishist.

Bundy went on trial for murder, proclaiming his innocence and defending himself in court. The televised trial showed that Bundy could look and talk like a lawyer; many viewers couldn't believe a poised, normal-looking guy could be guilty of such brutal crimes. After Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death, he reluctantly began to confess to previous unsolved murders, saying an "entity" inside him drove him to rape and kill. In a failed effort to delay his execution he offered to provide more details and confessions, but the state of Florida electrocuted him on 24 January 1989. On the eve of his execution, Bundy was interviewed by Christian media personality James Dobson. Under Dobson's questioning, Bundy claimed an addiction to pornography and alcohol led him to commit violent crimes.

Louise Bundy's younger sister Julia recalled a disturbing incident with her young nephew. After lying down in the Cowells' home for a nap, Julia woke to find herself surrounded by knives from the Cowell kitchen. Three-year-old Ted was standing by the bed, smiling at her.

In a letter written shortly before his escape from the Glenwood Springs jail, Bundy said "I have known people who...radiate vulnerability. Their facial expressions say 'I am afraid of you.' These people invite abuse... By expecting to be hurt, do they subtly encourage it?"

In a 1980 interview, speaking of a serial killer's justification of his actions, Bundy said "So what's one less? What's one less person on the face of the planet?"

When Florida detectives asked Bundy to tell them where he had left Kimberly Leach's body for her family's solace, Bundy allegedly said, "But I'm the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet."

There was a rumor of Ted Bundy's ghost terrorizing prison guards and inmates at the prison. A guard who asked not to be identified says that Bundy's Ghost appears in the area where he was executed and in his former cell where he spent his last hours before being put into Florida's Electric Chair. Up until the end Bundy tried to save his life by offering to tell where more bodies were buried but in the end they refused to give him any more time and he was executed. It is been reported that the Wardens staff have even threatened to fire guards if they spread the story of Ted's Ghost being at the prison.

Bundy modus operandi - He would approach a potential victim in a public place, even in daylight or in a crowd, as when he abducted Ott and Naslund at Lake Sammamish or when he kidnapped Leach from her school. Bundy had various ways of gaining a victim's trust. Sometimes, he would feign injury, wearing his arm in a sling or wearing a fake cast, as in the murders of Hawkins, Rancourt, Ott, Naslund, and Cunningham. At other times Bundy would impersonate an authority figure; he pretended to be a policeman when approaching Carol DaRonch. The day before he killed Kimberly Leach, Bundy approached another young Florida girl pretending to be "Richard Burton, Fire Department", but left hurriedly after her older brother arrived.

Bundy had a remarkable advantage in that his facial features were attractive, yet not especially memorable. In later years, he would often be described as chameleon-like, able to look totally different by making only minor adjustments to his appearance, e.g., growing a beard or changing his hairstyle.

All of Bundy's victims were white females and most were of middle class background. Almost all were between the ages of 15 and 25. Many were college students. In her book, Rule notes that most of Bundy's victims had long straight hair parted in the middle—just like Stephanie Brooks, the woman to whom Bundy was engaged in 1973. Rule speculates that Bundy's resentment towards his first girlfriend was a motivating factor in his string of murders. However, in a 1980 interview, Bundy dismissed this hypothesis: "[t]hey...just fit the general criteria of being young and attractive...Too many people have bought this crap that all the girls were similar — hair about the same color, parted in the middle...but if you look at it, almost everything was dissimilar...physically, they were almost all different."

After luring a victim to his car, Bundy would hit her in the head with a crowbar he had placed underneath his Volkswagen or hidden inside it. Every recovered skull, except for that of Kimberly Leach, showed signs of blunt force trauma. Every recovered body, except for that of Leach, showed signs of strangulation. Many of Bundy's victims were transported a considerable distance from where they disappeared, as in the case of Kathy Parks, whom he drove more than 260 miles from Oregon to Washington. Bundy often would drink alcohol prior to finding a victim; Carol DaRonch testified to smelling alcohol on his breath.
 
Hagmaier stated that Bundy considered himself to be an amateur and impulsive killer in his early years, and then moved into what he considered to be his "prime" or "predator" phase. Bundy stated that this phase began around the time of the Lynda Healy murder, when he began seeking victims he considered to be equal to his skill as a murderer.

On death row, Bundy admitted to decapitating at least a dozen of his victims with a hacksaw. He kept the severed heads later found on Taylor Mountain (Rancourt, Parks, Ball, Healy) in his room or apartment for some time before finally disposing of them. He confessed to cremating Donna Manson's head in his girlfriend's fireplace. Some of the skulls of Bundy's victims were found with the front teeth broken out. Bundy also confessed to visiting his victims' bodies over and over again at the Taylor Mountain body dump site. He stated that he would lie with them for hours, applying makeup to their corpses and having sex with their decomposing bodies until putrefaction forced him to abandon the remains. Not long before his death, Bundy admitted to returning to the corpse of Georgeann Hawkins for purposes of necrophilia.
 
Bundy confessed to keeping other souvenirs of his crimes. The Utah police who searched Bundy's apartment in 1975 missed a collection of photographs that Bundy had hidden in the utility room, photos that Bundy destroyed when he returned home after being released on bail. His girlfriend Elizabeth once found a bag in his room filled with women's clothing.

When Bundy was confronted by law enforcement officers who stated that they believed the number of individuals he had murdered was 36, Bundy told them that they should "add one digit to that, and you'll have it." Rule speculated that this meant Bundy might have killed over 100 women. Speaking to his lawyer Polly Nelson in 1988, however, Bundy dismissed the 100+ victims' speculation and said that the more common estimate of approximately 35 victims was accurate.
 
In December 1987, Bundy was examined for seven hours by Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a professor from New York University Medical Center. Lewis diagnosed Bundy as a manic depressive whose crimes usually occurred during his depressive episodes. To Lewis, Bundy described his childhood, especially his relationship with his maternal grandparents, Samuel and Eleanor Cowell. According to Bundy, grandfather Samuel Cowell was a deacon in his church. Along with the already established description of his grandfather as a tyrannical bully, Bundy described him as a bigot who hated blacks, Italians, Catholics, and Jews. He further stated that his grandfather tortured animals, beating the family dog and swinging neighborhood cats by their tails. He also told Lewis how his grandfather kept a large collection of pornography in his greenhouse where, according to relatives, Bundy and a cousin would sneak to look at it for hours. Family members expressed skepticism over Louise's "Jack Worthington" story of Bundy's parentage and noted that Samuel Cowell once flew into a violent rage when the subject of the boy's father came up. Bundy described his grandmother as a timid and obedient wife, who was sporadically taken to hospitals to undergo shock treatment for depression. Toward the end of her life, Bundy said, she became agoraphobic.

A Timeline:

11/24/46-Is born as Theodore Robert Cowell in a home for unwed mothers in Burlington, Vermont.
5/19/51-Bundy's mother, Louise, marries Johnnie Bundy and her son takes his step-father's last name.
Spring, 1965-Graduates from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington.
Fall, 1965-Enrolls at the University of Puget Sound and attends the school until the spring of 1966.
Fall, 1966-Enrolls at the University of Washington where he courts Stephanie Brooks, who closely resembles his future victims. Attends University of Washington until spring of 1969.
Fall, 1968-Brooks breaks off relationship with Bundy.
Early 1969-Visits his birth town of Burlington, Vermont, and learns for certain that his mother is Louise and that he is illegitimate.
Fall, 1969-Re-enters University of Washington and meets Liz Kendall, who would be his girlfriend throughout the span of most of the murders.
Spring, 1973-Graduates form the University of Washington.
1/5/74-Attacks Joni Lenz in her Seattle apartment. Lenz survives.
2/1/74-Abducts Lynda Ann Healy from her basement bedroom in Seattle.
3/12/74-Abducts Donna Manson from the campus of Evergreen College.
4/17/74-Abducts Susan Rancourt from the Central Washington St. campus.
5/6/74-Abducts Kathy Parks from the campus at Oregon St.
6/1/74-Abducts Brenda Ball from Burien, Washington.
6/11/74-Abducts Georgeann Hawkins from an alley near her University of Washington fraternity house.
6/17/74-Brenda Baker's body is found in Millersylvania St. Park. It is unknown when she was abducted.
7/14/74-In separate incidents, Janice Ott and Denise Naslund are abducted from Lake Sammammish St. Park.
9/2/74-A Jane Doe is abducted from Boise, Idaho.
Fall, 1974-Enters the University of Utah Law School.
9/7/74-Portions of the bodies of Ott, Naslund, and Hawkins are recovered two miles from lake Sammammish St. Park.
10/2/74-Abducts Nancy Wilcox.
10/18/74-Abducts Melissa Smith from Midvale, Utah.
10/27/74-Smith's body is found in Summitt Park near Salt Lake City, Utah.
10/31/74-Abducts Laura Aimee from Lehi, Utah.
11/8/74-Botches the abduction attempt of Carol DeRonch but abducts Debby Kent later that day from her school parking lot in Bountiful, Utah.
Thanksgiving, 1974-Aimee's body is found.
1/12/75-Abducts Caryn Campbell from a hotel in Aspen, Colorado.
2/18/75-Campbell's body is found near the motel she disappeared from.
3/3/75-The skulls of Healy, Ball, Parks, and Rancourt are found near Taylor Mountain in Washington.
3/15/75-Abducts Julie Cunningham from Vail, Colorado.
4/6/75-Abducts Melanie Cooley from her school in Nederland, Colorado.
4/23/75-Cooley is found dead twenty miles from Nederland.
5/6/75-Abducts Lynette Culver from her school playground in Pocatello, Idaho.
6/28/75-Abducts Susan Curtis from the campus of BYU while attending a youth conference.
7/1/75-Abducts Shelley Robertson from Golden, Colorado.
7/4/75-Abducts Nancy Baird from Layton, Utah.
8/16/75-Is arrested for possession of burglary tools during a traffic stop in Salt Lake City. The incident eventually results in an arrest in the DeRonch attack.
2/76-Abducts Debbie Smith in Utah.
3/1/76-Is found guilty of aggravated kidnapping in the DeRonch attack.
4/1/76-Smith's body is found at Salt Lake International Airport.
6/30/76-Is sentenced to one-to-fifteen years in prison.
6/7/77-Escapes from the Pitkin County Law Library in Colorado while preparing for his upcoming trial in the Campbell murder.
6/13/77-Is apprehended in Aspen, Colorado.
12/30/77-Escapes from Garfield County Jail in Colorado and flees to Tallahassee, Florida.
1/14/78-Attacks several women at the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee, killing Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. Also attacks Cheryl Thomas in her house nearby, seriously injuring her.
2/9/78-Abducts Kimberly Ann Leach from her school in Lake City, Florida.
2/15/78-Arrested while driving a stolen VW in Pensacola, Florida.
4/12/79-Leach's body is found in Suwanee St. Park in Florida.
7/27/78-Indicted for the murders of Levy and Bowman.
7/31/78-Indicted for the Leach murder.
7/7/79-Leach and Bowman murder trial begins.
7/23/79-Found guilty of the murders of Levy and Bowman.
7/31/79-Sentenced to death for the murders of Levy and Bowman.
1/7/80-Trial begins for the Leach murder.
2/6/80-Found guilty of Leach murder.
2/9/80-Sentenced to death for Leach murder.
7/2/86-Obtains a stay of execution only fifteen minutes before he is scheduled to die.
11/18/86-Obtains a stay of execution only seven hours before he is scheduled to die.
11/17/89-Final death warrant is issued.
1/24/89-Executed in the electric chair at 7:16 AM. Several hundred people were gathered outside the prison and cheered when they saw the signal that Bundy had been declared dead.

Serial Killer Afficionados- And the fear of being chastized
by Evil Lucy
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Serial Killers and True Crine are of interest to many people. Some people are very open about their interest, and spend their time reading books on the above mentioned subjects, buy murderbilia *Memorabilia from Serial Killers, Mass Murderers...etc*. Some people are creative when it comes to these monsters launching websites, artwork, poems and other forms of literature. The psychological interest in the Macabre is not new, it has been around for ages, but we live in a society that is free (sometimes). People who used to own Nazi books immeadiately after 1945 were chastized and called Nazi Sympathizers, while some people who do to this day are merely just interested in the subject.

The interest of Serial Killers and Mass Murder varies from person to person. Writing from a personal standpoint, I became fascinated with Serial Killers after my Mother told me the horrible story of Pedro Alonzo Lopez (The Monster of the Andes), I was born in Santa Fe De Bogota, Colombia in 1982, Lopez's slaying were in 1980. Lopez was charged with the mass slaughter of over 300 children in surrounding Ecuador and Peru. My Father was a Military Police Officer who was involved in the case since the begining abductions in Santa Fe De Bogota.

Years later, My Mother left Colombia and took me with her to the United States. When I asked her why, she told me that the crime and murder were just too much. Which always made me think: Crime does affect life, not just the sanctitty and mortality of life, but the destiny, interest and passions of people.

Since I was young, and heard the stories of Lopez, I became fascinated with Serial Killers, and started reading about them from age 12. I would be fascinated with stories of Jack The Ripper. And as time grew, I realized that I had quite the niche when it came to writing, thus combining my passion of the written word, with my fascination with these Monsters. I write as a wya of justifying and exploring the senseless and brutal crimes of these Men and Women. I admit, I like to read about Serial Killers, I like to read about their crimes, I don't in any way condon what they have done to innocent people, quite frankly I think the majoirty would think like I do.

I make no qualms of my interest in this rather gruesome subject at all. Others that I know personally who are also interested in True Crime and Serial Killers feel that they must conceal their interest. They fear reprecussions from people who: "won't understand or think I'm crazy and psycho". They fear being chastized, and that's understandable. Half of my living is based on Serial Killers, and the Macabre. I make no secrets about it, I don't care what people think. But on the flip side, I am a married woman, I have a family, I have a career, and only a handful of people know about that "other side", the side that wears a suit, the side that pays their bills and picks up china patterns. There are serialphiles out there who remain in the proverbial closet, and they have graced me with interviews, their side, their fears, and their interests.

Michael (not his real name) works at the same company that I work at (which shall remain anonymous), he is in a very high position of authority. He is handsome, well dressed and spoken. The all American guy who loves beer and football, but also has an interest in Serial Killers.

Evil Lucy: Michael, tell me about how you got into True Crime?

Michael: It started when I was a little kid, and I saw the Friday the 13th movies. And although my parents told me that it was all made up I knew that there had to be truth to the story (not that Freddy is real), but there were people out there who killed children in astounding quantities.

Evil Lucy: And how did all of that make you feel, and how old were you?

Michael: I was about 10 years old when all that Friday the 13th stuff came out. I remember hearing the word: "Serial Killer" and having no idea what that meant. So I asked an older friend to take me to the library and look up what a Serial Killer was. I found a book on the subject, I can't remember the name, but it talked about Jack The Ripper, and other Serial Killers. The Jack The Ripper story stuck with me the most because he was never caught, and how there could be a possibility that he was English Royalty also intrigued me. Like he killed in the dark, and marked whores for death. I think that was nuts. And after that I got into more Horror Movie books and Magazines like Fangoria, and some movies were based on Real Crimes, and little by little.

Evil Lucy: Do many people or do any people at all know about your interests?

Michael: Only a few people, I have to keep quiet about it because of my job, and my Family is very Catholic and think my interests are disgusting. My parents said that it was just a phase when I was a kid, and in some respect maybe it was. But if I see a good book on True Crime at Barnes and Noble I'll buy it. But I am also guilty of picking up other books on different subjects just not to get noticed.

Evil Lucy: Why?

Michael: Though I don't care what some clerk thinks about me, I guess my Catholic guilt still makes me scared about picking up something that could be considered blasphemous.

Burrito (apparently not a real name) is a young woman who works with Animals every day. She is very quiet and speaks almost in monotone.

Evil Lucy: So how did you get into Serial Killers?

Burrito: I always had an interest in World War 2 and the Nazis, Dr. Mengele and all his horrible acts against the Jews. One day I was watching The History Channel, and saw a show about Jeffrey Dahmer and the things that he did. I was disgusted, but I put the History Channel as a favourite channel and would watch things on the Nazi's downfall and then another Serial Killer documentary.

Evil Lucy: And aside watching these documentaries, have you read any books on Serial Killers.

Burrito: I have but they have been library books that I keep at School. My Mom is very snooping and goes through my things. She thinks that my books on Nazi stuff is just a School project, and that I am just interested in History. Which is true, I don't think Hitler was great or anything like that. I've read a couple of books on Ted Bundy, and saw "American Psycho" which was a really good movie. I also heard about "The Black Dahlia" and that's the one case I'm into.

Evil Lucy: And do people know about your interests?

Burrito: The whole war crimes thing, yes my friends do know about that, they do know about how I like the Black Dahlia case, sometimes I have to tell people who she was. But I feel that this is my personal business. I like what I like, I don't feel a need to be up in people's faces about it, I have my interests and they are just that MY INTERESTS!!!!

Evil Lucy: Do you think that what I am doing are just "pushing in people's faces?"

Burrito: No, because you write and compose your art for people to see, you're not being disrespectful, you're just providing art for people of similiar interests.

As you can see the subject of Serial Killer interest varies from person to person. Some people are: "in your face" about it, some are quiet, some are plagued with guilt for liking the gore and blood and drama of it all. As the saying goes: "Sex sells" but Violence is definitely catching up.

Methods of Disposal
By Jessica Fairfield
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

Usually when you think of a serial killing you think about the fact that they killed. That is the main factor in serial killers, but once the killing part is out of the way the killer is faced with a decision. Should they eat the body, burn the body, bury the body, or just leave it where it dropped. For some serial killers, such as Ed Gein or Dennis Nilsen the corpse in front of them is their whole motivation. They will proceed to commit necrophilia or cannibalism at this point. The bodies will remain with them until they’ve completed what they started. After that they will be faced with disposal of what remains. For these types of killers the act of murder may or may not be enjoyable, but it is what necessary to get what they want. For other killers it is a completely different story. The corpse that stares back at them mockingly must be destroyed or hidden. Depending on how pre-meditated the murder was the killer may already have a selected location for the disposal. Other will make a hasty and shallow attempt at hiding or destroying the body. These types of killers have usually acted on impulse and once they murdered the individual they were in a hurry to resume their normal life. Still others such as John Wayne Gacy would keep their victims close by. It may be that they are lazy, stupid, or crazy or maybe it's because they want the bodies close by. Some killers actually prepare a location just for the disposal of their victims. H H Holmes kept his home/death factory in working order. One level of hell was for torture and death and another level was for dismemberment, burning or dissolving of the bodies. The Zodiac and Jack the Ripper, two unsolved murder mysteries left the bodies of their victim's right out in public because they wanted the bodies found. They would call in to police to be sure that the victim's mangled remains were discovered. Both killers probably felt as untouchable and lucky as they were.

Each and every case of murder is unique. Even in the case of a black widow who chooses the same types of victims and poison in each case you can find the inside story by studying the cases closely. For example, maybe in the first killing as an inexperienced killer she gives a fatal dose of the poison to a man she had intended on killing slowly. By her next killing she’s learned to lessen the dosage, but maybe this time it takes longer then she had expected. So on and so forth until she gets it perfect. You can see the way a killer perfects their methods of obtaining victims, killing them, and disposing of them. In some cases killers have out-smarted us so thoroughly that we have no idea how the victim was caught, killed or where the body is at.

Methods of disposal can be so important that some serial killers are known more for their chosen method of disposal than they are for the murders themselves. John George Haigh (The Acid Bath murderer) would dissolve the bodies of his victims in 40 gallon drums of sulfuric acid. Afterwards he’d dump the sludgy remains down a sewer drain. He was under the misconception that if no body could be found no conviction could be made. He was dead wrong. Besides, the police were able to retrieve 28 pounds of human fat, three gallstones, a piece of a foot, 18 bone fragments, and a pair of dentures. John George Haigh was hanged for his crimes.

John Reginald Christie kept one victim in his garden, two in a shed, his own wife under some floorboards, and three more female victims in a kitchen cupboard. Before he moved out he covered the cupboard with some wallpaper. The bodies were soon discovered when the new family started making renovations. Dean Corll rented out a boat house for his victims. Belle Gunness kept the dismembered remains of 12 victims on her farm. Fritz Harmann and Hans Grans sold bodies to the black market as meat during the depression. H H Holmes would occasionally sell his victims to medical schools.

Joe Ball, another killer famous for his chosen method of disposal ran a Bar/Restaurant with a rather unusual attraction out back. He had a manmade pond with five alligators. The regulars around town would get drunk and watch as Joe threw stray animals to his gators. The town's members could appreciate a good kill when it came to cats and dogs but after six waitresses and two ex wives went missing people began to wonder what he was really feeding his pets. When the detectives approached him in his Bar/Restaurant he blew his own brains out. His alligators were sent to the San Antonio Zoo. Hard as it may be to swallow, many killers have used animals to help them cover up their crimes. Many cannibals would throw the scraps they weren’t eating to the strays. In Canada in 2002, it was discovered that Robert Pickton had disposed of 18 prostitutes by feeding them to his pigs on his pig farm. He’d run their bodies through a wood chipper beforehand.
So obviously a killer's chosen method of disposal is very important when trying to learn about them. It can explain how resourceful, cunning and smart they are or it can tell how sick, twisted, and evil they are. In some cases it is hard to say which is the lesser of two evils, the murder or the means in which the body was handled afterwards. There really isn’t any proper way to dispose of a body after you’ve killed though. Ted Bundy left six of his victims lying in bed with their covers pulled up. They appeared to be fine until further inspection. However, the fact that their daughter was in bed looking cozy or peaceful was likely not much consolation to the fact that she was brutally murdered. The bottom line is that serial killers are deranged and everything they do will be just as deranged as they are themselves.

Serial Killer: The Human Being
By Kait Wellman
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

For centuries, maniacal and clinically disturbed people have been committing murders. Finding peace and solace in drowning a young child, enjoying dining on the tender meat of a human thigh, or simply falling asleep next to a rotting corpse; these are all things that satisfy and complete a murderer, if only for several moments. These delightful feelings produced through the death of another human being calm and deeply enrich a killer’s psychosis. A killer will go to great lengths to find this cherished sensation, travelling great distances, stalking a victim for weeks, or indulging in sadomasochistic pleasures. Murdering becomes a romanticized thought, arousing the killer’s insatiable appetite as he or she imagines their fantasies coming to reality. The longer the wait for the next victim, the greater the appeal for killing slowly rises.  The killer reaches his or her fanatical climax much like an orgasm when finally they end the life of their selected prey.

                What the killer feels next is not ecstasy, but rather immediate disappointment. The killing could have been executed better, could have lasted longer, and could have solved the loneliness the killer might be suffering from. Trivial and small insignificant details rack the brain of the killer, leaving them with the belief that the next killing might be perfect. With each murder, the intricate standards are set higher and higher, the killer becoming madly obsessed by obtaining that indescribable ideal emotion of agile strength, fantastic glory, and terrific splendor attained from the very first murder they committed. People who must kill in multitudes are called serial killers. They often kill more than three people in a short span of time, have what is called a “cooling off” period, and then continue their search for more victims. A sexual element, though not always the case, is usually included in the killings.

                America has had a remarkable number of serial killers, eighty-five percent of them currently dominating the nation according to the FBI. What seems to interest the innocent public is primarily why these killers do what they do. This is not an easy question to tackle, by far. Early childhood abuse usually plays a large part in the killer’s actions and deeds. Edmund Kemper was locked in a basement by his mother when he reached puberty, while Charles Manson was sent to school in girl’s clothing courtesy of his mother’s constant belittling. John Wayne Gacy was violently attacked regularly by his father, attempting to show his young son what a real man should be.

When a serial killer emerges from his shell, it is sometimes seen as a rebellion against what they have lived through. Not only are they scarred and badly traumatized by the events of their childhood, but they have the need to inflict the same or more pain that they once endured. This is where the argument begins: does childhood abuse always turn a person into a serial killer? No, for we see victims of this kind of cruelty every day, leading “normal” and civilized lives. A product of environment does not always affect a serial killer. What distinguishes a serial killer from the average person is simply the compulsion to murder. But the whys of this are infinitely impossible to pin down depending on each killer.

                Serial killers begin their killings at a very young age, their victim’s notoriously small animals such as domestic cats, dogs, or birds. Reasons vary from killer to killer, but some want to torture these defenseless creatures as an act of dominance. After a brutal beating from a parent or relative, the killer might want to inflict the pain they feel on another living thing. Some killers dissect the animals because they are simply curious of what the vital organs and intestines look like. Finding a rat or a squirrel, other killers merely take pleasure in suffering and death, finding that blood on their hands interests them more than any childhood game on the playgrounds. Cannibals, in their early years might find satisfaction in eating the raw flesh of a mouse or cat. Furthermore, fledgling child serial killers often keep souvenirs of the animals, keeping parts of the carcasses in shallow graves they might later dig up later to relive their crimes. Skeletons of these animals are sometimes hidden in backyards or private sheds. Although hard to attain, some killers are even able to keep their animals in jars filled with formaldehyde. 

                The next stage for an adolescent serial killer is sometimes petty crime, including theft, arson, and rape. Before they are able to ultimately commit murder, they must test the waters, so to speak, to see what they can get away with. Many of these killers are not able to conceal their crimes as easily as they had hoped, and end up in juvenile detention centers or reform schools. Edmund Kemper, an exception in the “law” of serial killing, murdered his grandparents at age 15, earning him five years in a state hospital. Albert DeSalvo was taught by his own father at an early age how to burglarize homes and shops, which came in handy when he finally did begin his full crime spree at age 31. For teenage future serial killers, this is a time for them to learn skills for social manipulation and to successfully gain the trust of people they might later take advantage of.

                By the time the killer reaches college age, he is beginning to understand that his fantasies of murder can become a reality if given the proper opportunity. The organized killer begins to plan elaborate schemes, dreaming in precise detail what he will do to his victim. The killer will attain all of his implements in advance; guns, knives, rope, or poison. He treasures his weapons lovingly, delighted that these will be his trophies once he is able to search out the perfect victim.

The “perfect victim” is sought by the killer in an exact manner, for the victim must fit the superlative image of whomever the killer has desired since first deciding to kill. Once the victim has been chosen, the killer usually stalks the home looking for dates and times that the victim will be alone for long spans of time. Dennis Rader was an avid stalker and spent weeks surveying the homes of young single women he would eventually “bind, torture, and kill.”The longer the killer stalks, the more ravenous he becomes for blood, suffering, and agony. Much like a rollercoaster, the killer slowly and gradually climbs to the top, believing the excitement he will feel as he descends will be the thrill of his life.

                The unorganized killer, sometimes known as a mentally insane person, does not search out a “perfect victim,” nor does the killer plan out exactly how he will devise the murder. An example might be that of Jack the Ripper, who found prostitutes on the streets of London and tore them to shreds in plain sight. At the same time, though, Jack was reportedly incredibly accurate when slitting open his victim’s chest cavities. Another spontaneous serial killer was Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian citizen with a keen interest in young children. After meeting them at a train station, he lured them to a secluded area in the woods where he tortured, killed, and ate them. David Berkowitz, suffering from severe schizophrenia, mercilessly murdered six young people in the mid 1970’s simply by walking by their parked cars in Brooklyn, NY.

                The sexual deviant is well known among America’s roster of serial killers. Many killers demand sex to prove their dominance, raping and sodomizing the victim in a tremendously violent fashion. Some killers who are normally impotent in their marriages find that they can maintain an erection when they are face to face with their chosen victim. The forbidden act of raping someone gives the killer enormous gratification, fulfilling their sexual urgency in colossal measures.

Ed Gein, reportedly impotent, realized that he could have sex with corpses without a laughable comment from his dead lovers. Other killers are over-enthusiastic about sex, commanding their spouse to perform intercourse six or seven times a day. When their spouses refuse, the killers simply turn to their victims, who are unable to reject the killers while bound and gagged. Albert DeSalvo, so tortured by his sex addiction, sought out the elderly, the least likely to fight back. Raping and then strangling them with their own stockings, he left the police to find a cheerfully loopy bow around the necks of his thirteen victims.

                Simple violence without sex is another form of serial killing. Bashing in the heads of their victims, beating them to death, and torturing them to the point of unrecognizable human features, serial killers are enamored with certain sadism and bloodshed. At first, this general operation is a vision of beauty to the common serial killer, but some later find it revolting, becoming sick and terrified of what they have done. This is the remorseful serial killer; one who can distinguish right from wrong and understands what he has done is not normal and absolutely horrendous. However, once the serial killers have begun killing, the addiction of slaying innocent people devours their conscious and they are unable and unwilling to end their vicious cycle. Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to his family and the court how enthusiastically sorry he was about the deaths of 17 young boys. Dahmer was genuinely sickened and vociferously disgusted about his crimes, volunteering for the death penalty. He sincerely believed that he should die for what he had done to so many innocent adolescent boys. 

                The remorseless serial killer does not see his crimes as erroneous, somehow believing that taking lives is his calling in life. Often, the remorseless killer has some kind of mental defect, perhaps brought on by a severe head trauma or hereditary traits that warrant him able to commit violence without guilt. Henry Lee Lucas, among many others, was brilliantly pleased with his murders, boasting nearly five hundred victims had died at his hands. Nannie Doss immediately admitted every detail of her murders, claiming she had killed simply because she was bored with her many husbands. Another female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, originally maintained that she was assaulted by her victims and had no choice but to kill them. She later confessed that in cold blood, she had murdered willfully and happily seven innocent men. America’s Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez reportedly had his skull crushed as a child by a dresser and later had a history of brain damage. His methods of killing varied, but were all impossibly and indisputably atrocious. By slitting their throats, beating them to death with a hammer, or shooting them in the face, all can be seen as the work of an extremely mentally ill person. 

                Some serial killers find that they possess enough charm and appeal to lure anyone they chose to their victim’s ultimate demise. Theodore Bundy was a perfect example of this kind of trickery, using only one line to attract his victims, “Hi. I’m Ted.” The monstrosities he committed are almost nauseating, but spoke volumes about the way he was able to operate so easily with women. Bundy had never been a victim of childhood abuse, nor had he been molested as a youngster, but he had a sexual addiction that was unprecedented.

A sex addict feels the same way as someone who finds that food tastes good. Once the euphoria of sex is discovered, the addict cannot stop. Although Bundy suffered from a severe case of sex addiction, he was indelibly violent about it. Perhaps the most astonishing case was that of the Chi Omega murders. In one night, Bundy broke into the sorority house of several co-eds, raped and beat two young women and bludgeoned three others to death. Bundy has been famously known as a psychopath, portraying himself as a well-meaning and charismatic man, while still holding the opinion that women were merely people to be raped and murdered.

                A wolf in sheep’s clothing was the name given to the practically ancient man named Albert Fish. Seen as a kind and grandfatherly type, nobody could guess that Fish was actually a child molester and cannibal. Bringing ten-year-old Grace Budd to an abandoned house, Fish stripped the young girl nude and strangled her. He dined on her body for the next several days until she began to decompose. Fish sent a letter to the Budd home shortly thereafter explaining in great detail what he had done to Grace. The one assurance he gave the appalled Budd family was that Grace had died a virgin. When Fish was apprehended, it was found that he was afflicted with an acute addiction to sadism. Whether beating himself with a nail-embedded paddle or exacting “punishment” on another, Fish could not control his overwhelming desire for pain. It is said that he even looked forward to his own execution, believing it to be the definitive aching pain he had been longing for his entire life.

                Without sophistication and wit, other killers spend their time in the shadows, realizing that they are not part of normal society. By creeping shyly through the streets, they are all virtually unknown killers, keeping their lives private and waiting for the correct victim to find them. After all, some killers are just indiscriminate about who to abduct, torture, and murder. Cousins Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi victimized prostitutes in the late 1970’s, leaving dead bodies in open areas, earning them the title of The Hillside Stranglers. Not only did they strangle their victims, but they bizarrely found pleasure in injecting the women with various window cleaners, and even used electric shock as a torture method.

Other socially awkward serial killers haunt the streets. Jeffrey Dahmer was one of those killers, a lonely and disillusioned young man with a mean penchant for hard alcohol. Dahmer had a decent upbringing, never abused and never molested. He had also never had any history of early head trauma, suggesting he was a sane person who was aware of right and wrong. Alcohol seemed to have not only dominated his life, but had an unusual effect on him when it came to committing crimes. Frequenting local gay bars, Dahmer understood that the only way to get someone to come home with him was to drug their drinks. In the privacy of his home, he mercifully drugged them to the point of passing out. He then strangled them while they slept, finding his ultimate fulfillment at his disposal.

Believing that he was repulsive to any living person, Dahmer strangely attached himself to his corpses, sleeping next to them and lovingly stroking their cold bodies. When the stench of death permeated his home, he decided to keep some of his corpses with him forever- by eating them. Though Dahmer is one of America’s top known cannibals, it is a little known fact that Dahmer did not only and primarily eat every one of his victims. Eating some of them served two functions; one, he could dispose of them by eating them, and two, Dahmer wanted to keep his visitors with him as long as possible, in his own stomach.

The truth about Jeffrey Dahmer is not that he murdered innocent victims without a thought in his mind. Dahmer was truly repentant about his crimes, and admitted that he knew what he had done was wrong. His belief, during his trial, was that he should die for his crimes, for there was no use for his damnable actions in life. His wish came true, in the form of a mop handle and a jealous fist in prison. Dahmer was beaten to death by another inmate after serving two years in prison.

It is indeed repulsive what these serial killers have done. By raping, strangling, bludgeoning to death, or eating the contents of one’s vital organs, we see the distinction between each killer. We find that they are sinful and wicked killers devoid of “normal” emotions or thought processes. It is not fair what they have done, the pain they have inflicted on others, the undeserved violence imposed on innocent citizens. By showing us the awful nature and rule of true evil, we learn that everyone can be a victim if not guarded by reason and a degree of caution. This is not to say that any person is at fault for their own peril. Serial killers are discrete and usually trustful individuals, and that is why they are so often able to capture people quite literally.

Serial killers are startlingly frightening in any capacity, leaving society haunted by the killer’s absolute lack of concern and accountability. But the fact that killers lack this kind of sincere apologetic responsibility has to show America- the entire world- that something is deeply wrong with these killers. A sick person is sent to a doctor, not an executioner. To stop these terrible things from happening, we have to realize that these killers are not another species. They are human beings with damaged mental disorders.

Humanizing a serial killer is difficult, but it must be done to prevent another future Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, or Jeffrey Dahmer. With profound and relentless psychological testing, a myriad of reasoning and understanding can come from these human beings we tend to call “monsters.” If every man in America is to be judged fairly, then the same should be done for serial killers. If compassion and truth must be shown to every man in court, the same respect should be shown to serial killers. Instead of the typical response to serial killing being that of great horror and repulsion, a shred of general empathy could be regarded, for isn’t a serial killer also a victim of their own tragically diseased mind?

Male Vs. Female Serial Killers
By Melissa Hogle
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

When people think of serial killers they generally think of men and that's hardly a surprise since a vast majority of serial killers are, in fact, male.  But it would be a mistake to think that women, "the fairer sex" as the old saying goes, aren't every bit as capable of multiple murders as their male counterparts.  They tend to go about their murders a little differently, and select different kinds of victims to prey upon, but they are no less guilty of their crimes and get no less of a thrill in causing the deaths of others.  And, of those chosen to be their victims, they are no less terrifyingly dangerous.

Cuddly Killers

Male serial killers are well known for being abhorrently violent towards their victims.  They stab, shoot, and bludgeon.  Their kills are unmistakably aggressive, there's no hiding a serial murder done by a man should the body be found.  This isn't the case with women serial killers.  They kill in much more quiet, far less detectable, methods but whether they are "gentler" methods is really a moot point:  Would you rather be shot in the head or smothered by a pillow?

Likely, more than even smothering, female serial killers are known for poisoning their victims.  It's hardly a surprise...poisons are easily accessible, difficult to detect (compared to a knife wound), and incredibly effective.  Nannie Doss, a.k.a. the "Giggling Granny", killed four husbands, two children, a grandchild, two sisters, and her mother between the years of 1929-1953 by slipping rat poison in their whiskey, coffee, or stewed prunes.  Rat poison, by the way, tends to include the rather infamous poison of arsenic as an ingredient; this deadly poison is also found in wallpaper, paint, weed killer, pesticides, and tanning products.  So it's almost natural that women aiming to kill should end up using arsenic, it's likely already in their home or part of an easily excusable purchase ("Well of course I bought a large supply bug spray, I have a garden and whole backyard to tend to!").

I Love You To Death

Another major, and somewhat frightening, difference between male and female serial killers is their victim choice.  Male serial killers select victims they don't know and a great deal of their efforts goes into trolling for victims that suit their needs (this is outside, of course, the few that sometimes start or end their killings with a relation such as Ed Kemper with his grandparents and mother).  For the most part, if able, they gear their victimology towards their sexual preference; straight male killers go for women, gay male killers go for men, bisexual killers will attack either, and pedophile killers target children.  But, no matter what, they tend towards targeting strangers; whether it’s those they come across the day of the kill or those they follow for awhile to get to learn the routine of, the victims themselves are not those the killer has known for years and have an already established relationship with.  This is not true with female serial killers.

Victims of women serial killers are close to them, victim and killer know each other and have a relationship of some kind; the victims are dating, related to, or otherwise under the care of the killer.  Due to the victims they select these killers have earned themselves rather catchy monikers such as Blackwidows for those women who marry, then kill, men over and over (frequently having the secondary motive of gaining life insurance money from them as with Mary Ann Cotton who killed 20-21 people, including 4 husbands) and Angels of Death for those nurses choosing to prey upon their helpless patients.  One more recent Angel of Death was Genene Jones of Texas who killed as many as 46 infants and toddlers from 1971-1984. Using injections of the blood-thinner heparin and the muscle-relaxant succinylcholine to induce medical crises in her patients she would then try to revive them in order to receive praise and attention...sadly most the little ones in her care never survived that first injection.

Same Difference

So, with these keys differences in male and female serial killers it's only natural to wonder if there are any similarities.  Yes, there's one core similarity...They both get a sick, sadistic, sexual thrill out of their kills.  Jane Toppan played nurse as she killed 31 people via poison from 1885-1901 and, once caught, confessed that killing gave her a "voluptuous delight".  She went on to admit that her murders were motivated by "an irresistible sexual impulse" and that she would climb into the beds of her victims as they were in their death throes in order to achieve orgasm.  ...Man or woman it's clear that a serial killer will have that same underlying motive of achieving a twisted pleasure from their victims’ pain and death.  So why the differences in methodology and victimology?

It's somewhat related to the cliché of men having to "stick it wherever they can" and women needing to "settle down and nest".  Male sexuality is penetration-based, it's promiscuous, and it’s rather undiscriminating.  In the male serial killer, that relates to weapons that enter or batter the body, killing an individual of their preference (male/female/child) and quickly moving on to the next and then the next, and making whatever strangers they can their prey.  Women serial killers, on the other hand, need to have a relationship with the victim before they kill the person.  Their pleasure comes not from violating some stranger's body with a penile substitute (such a knife or bullet) but from perverting the very concept of love into a gruesome show of tenderness and intimacy and, from there, the differences in the rest arise.

(End Note: There is one exception to the rules above: Aileen Wuornos.  But, since she's the exception and not the rule in female serial killers she'll be covered separately at another point in time.)

How Serial Killers are Caught
by Chris Bartholomew
Published in The Serial Killer Magazine

It is said that most Serial Killers are caught while being arrested for other things, traffic stops, speeding, stealing, etc.  Here is a list of how some were caught. 

Albert Desalvo - In 1960 De Salvo was arrested by police responding to a breaking and entering call.  He was arrested him after a short foot pursuit in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Albert Fish – He wrote a letter about a murder to the victim's parents in which the paper was able to be traced back to him.

Andrei Chikatilo - The Butcher of Rostov - caught when trying to approach young children while under police surveillance.

Angel Resendiz - The Railroad Killer – turned himself in after relatives, who had knowledge of his whereabouts, contacted authorities who then began secret negotiations to win the suspect's surrender.

Angelo Buono Jr. Kenneth Bianchi  - the Hillside Stranglers - an eyewitness caught sight of two men forcing a young woman into their car. 

Anna Maria Zwanziger - At the urging of his servants (who had survived poisoning) Judge Gebhard (her former employer) had their food analyzed. Traces of arsenic were found after Anna had already escaped. Before her getaway she filled every salt shaker and sugar container in the household with generous doses of arsenic. On October 18, 1809 Anna was arrested after she had sent several letters to the Gebhard household extolling her love for the dead baby and saying the she was willing to forget the wrongs she had suffered and was ready to resume her duties. After six months of questioning, Anna finally broke down confessed.

Anthony Hardy - "trail of blood" led the police to Hardy's flat located a short distance from where the bodies were discovered. They promptly obtained a warrant and searched his ground floor apartment, where they found a great deal of incriminating evidence. At the time of the search Hardy was nowhere to be found. CCTV video surveillance camera caught him on tape on January 1 trying to fill a prescription for his diabetic medication at a London hospital.

Arthur Gary Bishop - He was caught in July of 1983 after killing a 13 year old who he was scheduled to chaperone on a camping trip.

Author Shawcross - caught in 1990 when police intentionally left the body of this final victim where they found it with the idea that a criminal will always return the scene of the crime. The police were right and serial killer Arthur Shawcross was caught

Beverly Allitt - When deaths were so common police saw the pattern, she was the nurse in every death.

Bruce Lee – (Peter Dinsdale) –arrested for arson, he confessed to other fatal fires.

Bruce Mendenhall – Police found his truck, followed it to where the last woman Nicole Hulbert was killed (his truck description being given as being seen around the victim), when police opened his door, they saw blood stains and at that point police said they apprehended Mendenhall and transported him to police headquarters, where he admitted to being responsible for Hulbert’s death, police said.

Bruno Ludke - on January 29, 1943, the cops, while doing routine investigating stumbled upon Bruno, who went crazy on them, assaulting them, before being arrested.

Carl Panzram - In 1928, Panzram was arrested for burglary and held in Washington, D.C.. During his interrogation and jail time he voluntarily confessed to killing two boys.

Carl Stayner - When a fourth body was found in the park (Yosemite National Park) in July, he was questioned and arrested by the FBI. His truck yielded evidence linking him to the victim. He eventually confessed to all four murders.

Carlton Gary - His fingerprints were found at four of the crime scenes.

Charles Cullen - Somerset Medical Center fired Cullen on October 31, 2003, for lying on his job application. Police kept him under surveillance for several weeks until they had finished their investigation.

Clifford Olson- arrested on suspicion to abduct 2 girls.

Coral Eugene Watts – The Sunday Morning Slasher - Watts was picked out in a line-up and arrested on assault and battery charges. He admitted to attacking 15 females.

Danny Rolling - was arrested for an armed robbery

David Berkowitz - eventually caught after receiving a parking ticket at the time and near the place of the Moskowitz murder.

David Gore - On July 26, 1983, Vero Beach authorities received an emergency report of a nude man firing shots at a naked girl on a residential street. Surrounding the suspect house, owned by relatives of Gore, officers found a car in the driveway with fresh blood dripping from its trunk. Inside, the body of 17-year-old Lynn Elliott lay dead with a bullet in her skull. Outnumbered by the police, Gore surrendered, directing officers to the attic where a naked 14-year-old girl was tied to the rafters.

Dennis Nilsen - a neighbor arranged to have the drains unblocked -and the remains of the victims were discovered.

Derrick Todd Lee - linked by DNA

Dorothea Puente - On November 11, 1988, police found a body buried in the lawn at 1426 F Street. Seven bodies were eventually found, and Puente was charged with a total of nine murders, convicted of three, and is now serving two life sentences. She came under suspicion when neighbors noticed people went missing.

Earle Nelson - When Nelson stopped in a general store to buy food, he was recognized by the storeowner and a patron who knew of the $1,500 reward and notified the law.

Ed Gein – arrested when there were so many clues to who killed his last victim.

Eddie Leonski - Confessed to three murders after being picked out of a line of American servicemen by witnesses.

Efren Saldivar - In March 1997, about a year before Michael Swango was arrested on federal charges pertaining to his forged medical credentials, a hospital worker at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale, California, told a supervisor that a respiratory therapist named Efren Saldivar had killed an elderly patient by injecting a muscle relaxing drug called Pavulon into the patient’s I.V.  This one was ignored, but evidentially, others reported leading authorities to arrest.

Elizabeth Bathory -  The King of Hungary ordered her arrest when she began murdering nobels instead of peasant girls.

Eric Edgar Cooke - He was caught when the gun used to murder one of his victims, Shirley McLeod, was found, and police waited for Cooke to collect it.

Emile Louis -  caught almost two decades later when his daughter found items in his house belonging to several of the victims.

Fritz Haarmann - A woman who had purchased one of his black-market "steaks" became convinced it was human flesh and turned it over to the police. In the summer of 1924, several skulls and a sackful of bones were found on the banks of the canal. Searching Haarmann's rooms, detectives found bundles of boys' clothing. The landlady's son was wearing a coat--given to him by Haarmann--that belonged to one of the missing boys.

Fritz Honka - In January 1975, he torched his flat, but firemen noticed mummified remains among the ashes and police were called.

Gary M. Heidnik - On March 24 Heidnik loosened the reins on Rivera (he kept his victims in the basement) a bit too much and the woman fled while on an unsupervised trip outside of the house. She notified police who apprehended Heidnik and searched the house, discovering the remaining women huddled in the dank basement.

Gary Ridgeway - On September 10, 2001, almost twenty years after the first known Green River murder, there was a match found between semen samples taken from the victims and Ridgway.
Gerald Schaefer – On July 21, 1972, Schaefer, while on patrol, picked up two teenage girls who were hitchhiking. He abducted them, took them to some remote woods and tied them to trees where he threatened to kill them or sell them into prostitution.  However, when he got a call on his police radio, Schaefer had to go, leaving the girls tied up. He vowed that he would return. The two girls, who were aged 18 and 17, escaped their bonds and went to the nearest police station, which was actually their kidnapper's own station.
Harvey Glatman - Lorraine Vigil, a first time model, agreed to pose for him at a studio. He claimed that Lorraine was getting on his nerves, so he tried to tie her up, but she fought. She finally kicked the door of his car open. She ran to the light and much to her
relief, two police officers were found. They began questioning him about the other victims. They insisted that he was the one who killed the other girls. Harvey finally confessed that he had indeed killed them.

Henri Desire Landru - In 1919, the sister of one of Landru's victims, Madame Buisson, attempted to track down her missing sibling. She did not know Landru's real name but she knew his appearance and where he lived, and she eventually persuaded the police to arrest him.

Henry Lee Lucas - Lucas was desperate for money and called an ex-employer named Ruben Moore who lured Lucas with $100.00 to work on the Moore Ranch. The police arrived the next morning. They could only hold him for left of a vehicle in Maryland. He was released again but later came back into the authorities hands to be captured for the final time.
H. H. Holmes - there are three different versions as to how the police caught up with Holmes. The first is that detectives traced Mudgett through his mother who told them the whereabouts of her son, the second is that while Jailed in Missouri, Holmes shared a cell with the infamous train robber Marion C. Hedgepeth, "The Handsome Bandit", perhaps wanting to brag about his own criminal prowess, Dr. Holmes told Mr. Hedgepeth about the Pitezel scam,and Hedgepeth squealed. And the third is that, aided by Mrs. Pitezel, the police captured Holmes.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - Myra's brother-in-law phoned police, directing them to Brady's address. The raiders caught Ian and Myra at home, retrieving a fresh corpse from the bedroom, along with the bloody hatchet and Brady's library of volumes on perversion and sadism.
Irene Leidolf (with Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Meyer, and Waltraud Wagner) They were caught after they were overheard bragging about their latest murder at a local tavern. They confessed to 49 murders, but may have been responsible for as many as 200.

Jeffery Dahmer - caught on 22nd July 1991, when 31 year old Tracy Edwards managed to escape from him. He found two policemen sitting in a police car and explained how he had been assaulted by Dahmer.

Jeffery Gorton - DNA evidence from a slaying matched his.

Jesse Pomeroy - When Pomeroy's mother moved out of her house , laborers working on the flooring found the decomposing remains of Katie Curran buried in the basement's floor.

Joe Ball - A joke circulated around that Joe Ball must have fed a missing waitresses to his pet alligators. The police took this joke seriously enough to investigate, especially when a neighbor of Ball's complained about a foul-smelling barrel that he had dumped nearby. On September 24, 1938, the deputies came to arrest Joe Ball, who took a swig of beer, hit the NO SALE button on his cash register, grabbed a .45 from the drawer, and shot himself through the heart.

Joel Rifkin - caught after a high-speed police chase, police inspected Rifkin's truck and discovered the corpse of his seventeenth and last victim.
John George Haigh - a jeweler from nearby Horsham called to say that a man had pawned a victim's jewelry the day after she went missing. He identified Haigh and that was enough for police to arrest him.
John Wayne Gacy - Robert Piest was the last boy to be killed by Gacy. Piest had been at work at the local pharmacy and Gacy had offered him a construction job, as he ran his own construction business. At the end of his shift, Piest was picked up by his mother, and told her he was just popping back inside to speak to a man about a job. He never returned and she left to go home. When he didn't return home at all that night the family contacted the police and started to search for him. They discovered that the construction man was John Wayne Gacy.

Joseph Duncan II – caught when he walked with victim Shasta Groene into a Denny's.

Joseph Paul Franklin - a nurse in Florida taking the blood he was selling recognized a bald eagle tattoo on his arm.

Juan Corona – A neighboring farmer noticed a fresh grave and called the police.

Jurgen Bartsch - was arrested after an unsuccessful attempt to torture, kill and dismember a young boy.

Kenneth Erskine - police found a handprint at the scene of one of the crimes, and it matched one on their files.

Larry Eyler - On September 30, 1983, an Indiana highway patrolman spotted a pickup truck parked along Interstate 65, with two men moving toward a nearby stand of trees. One appeared to be bound, and the officer went to investigate, identifying Larry Eyler as the owner of the truck.

Leonard Lake - When the vise Leonard Lake and Charles Ng  had been using in their victims' torture broke, they needed a new one. A clerk spotted Ng hiding the vise under his coat and called the police. Ng fled the scene, but Lake was arrested when police saw that he had a gun in his car, was using false license plates and had identification that seemed to belong to someone else. Lake gave up his partner's name and his own, announced that he was running from the FBI—then swallowed two cyanide capsules and passed out, dying a short time later.

Mack Ray Edwards - walked into the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill station on March 6, 1970, and said he wanted to clear his conscience.

Manuela Ruda (with husband Daniel) - arrested at a gas station.

Marc Dutroux - an eyewitness remembered part of a license plate which matched Dutroux's.

Marcel Petiot - He was recognized and arrested at a Paris metro station. He carried a pistol, F31,700 in cash, and 50 documents in six different names.

Mary Ann Cotton – caught when a post mortem examination on one of her children revealed arsenic poisoning as the cause of death.

Marywbeth Tinning - Tami Lynne was Marybeth's ninth and last child. She was born in August 1985 but lived only four months. She was found dead in her cot and blood was spotted on her pillow. This aroused suspicion and an investigation was carried out. An autopsy revealed that Tami Lynne had died from suffocation.

Michael Ross - witnesses recalled seeing a blue sub-compact car near a murder scene.
Police began working their way through a computer listing of 2,000 sub-compact drivers, and they caught up with Ross.

Michael Swango - rrested and convicted of falsifying statements and documents related to a previous application for a position at a Veterans Administration hospital in New York.

Michel Fourniret - caught in 2003, when a Belgian would-be victim, 13, broke free after being kidnapped.

Patrick Kearney – (and David Hill) - July 5, 1977 the couple walked into the Sheriff's In formation Center in Riverside, saw a wanted poster of themselves and surrendered.

Paul Denyer - A piece of skin, possibly from a finger, was found on the neck of a dead girl. And the sighting of a yellow Toyota Corona on a road near the bike track at 3 p.m., the time the coroner estimated that the vicitm had been murdered. The observant police officer had written down its number from its registration label because the car had no plates.

Randall Woodfield - In March 1981, police investigating a shooting death in Beaverton, Oregon encountered Woodfield, who was a casual acquaintance of the victim. Citing his history of sexual assault, police searched his home and found evidence linking him to the murder, as well as the attempted murders of two young women.

Randy Steven Kraft - Arrested by Sterling for driving while intoxicated, the patrolman found the strangled body of a boy in the car.

Richard Angelo - One patient, Gerolamo Kucich, caught him.   Kucich saw a bearded man put something into his IV, and he managed to reach for his call button before he succumbed. 

Richard Chase – After his final kill, he left perfect hand prints and foot prints in blood and was apprehended.

Richard Ramirez – After a his mug shots were broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California he was caught by angry residents and the police were called.

Robert Berdella - April 2, 1988, a man jumped from the second floor window of Berdella's house wearing nothing but a dog collar. Police were called, the house searched, he was arrested.

Robert Black - caught July 1990, after he abducted a six-year-old girl. A man recognized the van and called police. The girl was found bound and gagged in the back of the van.

Robert Hansen – was caught when a woman he was trying to capture ran right into the police.

Robert Lee Yates - Caught after he tried to abduct a boy from a Camas movie theater.
 
Robert Picton - On February 5, 2002, the police executed a search warrant for illegal firearms at the property owned by Robert Pickton and his two siblings. He was taken into custody, and the police then obtained a second court order to search the farm once they discovered personal items belonging to one of the missing women.

Sante Kimes – (and her son Kenney) Kimes and her son, Kenneth, were arrested on a warrant for using a bad check to buy a car.

Ted Bundy - Bundy's Volkswagen car aroused suspicion in Salt Lake City and on August 16, 1976 a police stop found a number of suspect items in the vehicle's trunk. Among the things found were an ice-pick, ski mask, crowbar and a large number of tools. At first, investigators believed they had captured a burglar, but a subsequent search of Bundy's apartment found brochures and maps for places in Colorado where victims had been murdered. A test revealed a match between hairs in Bundy's apartment and hairs found at the murder scene of Melissa Smith. A witness who saw Bundy's photograph then came forward to put him near the scene of a crime in Snowmass, Colorado the previous year.

Thomas Neill Cream – A doctor, he was caught when he tried to frame innocent doctors for his crimes.

Vaclav  Mrazek – Caught in March 1957 during a house inspection following a theft in the Libusin mine, where he was working as a spa staff attendant.

Vincent Johnson - fingered by another homeless man who was suspected of being the killer. The man was cleared because his DNA did not match, but he identified Johnson as a possible suspect and called officers when he saw him crossing the Williamsburg bridge.

Wayne Adam Ford – turned himself in.

Westley Allan Dodd - the law finally caught up with him after he botched an attempt to abduct another unnamed boy.

William Bonin - a young man in custody for car theft told the police he would give them the Freeway Killer if they would give him a break on the car theft.

William Suff – arrested after a routine traffic stop.

	ARTISTS AND WRITERS NEEDED : We are now looking for artists and writers to take part in our new Serial Killer Magazine. If you are interested in joining our team, contact us at MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM. WRITERS NEEDED FOR VHS WASTELAND MAGAZINE :  Hello ghouls, we are planning to launch a magazine devoted to the strange world of VHS. We are looking for talented writers to join our team and contribute to our new website VHS WASTELAND! If anyone is interested in being part of this new venture in to the world of fictional horror, please contact James Gilks at MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM. Hope to have you on the team! ATTENTION ALL MURDERABELLIA COLLECTORS! : We are now looking for high resolution scans of Serial Killer letters, death certificates, birth certificates and other interesting serial killer Murderabellia to be printed in future issues of Serial Killer Magazine. Anyone who submits high res scans of such items, will get full credit for their contribution. If you are interested, contact us at MADHATTERDESIGN@GMAIL.COM.

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	SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE is an official release of the talented artists and writers at SerialKillerCalendar.com. It is chock full of artwork, rare documents, FBI files and in depth articles regarding serial murder. It is also packed with unusual trivia, exclusive interviews with the both killers and experts in the field and more information that any other resource available to date. Although the magazine takes this subject very seriously and in no way attempts to glorify the crimes describe in it, it also provides a unique collection of rare treats (including mini biographical comics, crossword puzzles and trivia quizzes). This is truly a one of a kind collectors item for anyone interested in the macabre world of true crime, prison art or the strange world of murderabelia.

{ THE NEW 2010 SERIAL KILLER CALENDAR } A quick note to our fans.... Its Back!!!! The 2010 follow up to the "One and Only Serial Killer Calendar" is now ready for preorder. This is a limited edition and will likely sell out by Christmas..   And remember that Serial Killer Magazine will hit Barnes and Noble and Borders on October 13th....and to get em while they last. { BACK ISSUES OF SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE } SERIAL KILLER MAGAZINE is an official release of the talented artists and writers at SerialKillerCalendar.com. It is chock full of artwork, rare documents, FBI files and in depth articles regarding serial murder. It is also packed with unusual trivia, exclusive interviews with the both killers and experts in the field and more information that any other resource available to date. Although the magazine takes this subject very seriously and in no way attempts to glorify the crimes describe in it, it also provides a unique collection of rare treats (including mini biographical comics, crossword puzzles and trivia quizzes). This is truly a one of a kind collectors item for anyone interested in the macabre world of true crime, prison art or the strange world of murderabelia. { ULTRA RARE SERIAL KILLER DVDS } SERIAL KILLER DVDS: We are proud to offer the largest selection of Serial Killer DVDs on the planet. These DVDs contain a wide variety of hard to find footage (such as unaired news footage of trials, interviews and parole hearings and the uncut footage taken by Chicago police as they dig bodies from John Wayne Gacys crawl space). It has taken years to find these videos and rather then charge an outrageous price, we are offering these DVDs to our loyal customers for only $10 each. { RARE DVD FOOTAGE OF SERIAL KILLERS AND MASS MURDERERS } THE VERY RARE LAST INTERVIEW OF TED BUNDY BEFORE HIS EXECUTION (PLUS OTHER RARE FOOTAGE) The all American boy next next door, Ted Bundy, was one of the world's most vile and sadistic killers. He claimed never to commit these crimes however until weeks before he was executed. This DVD includes the two very rare last interviews where Bundy spills the beans and tells all. This is a must have for any serious collector and comes with amazing cover art by Johnny machine! PRICE : $10 THE SON OF SAM - RARE FOOTAGE OF DAVID BERKOWITZ This DVD includes hours of rare and lost footage of the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz (including the rare interview where David Berkowitz admits that he was not alone in the killings and his connection to a satanic cult)! PRICE : $10 VERY RARE UNEDITED POLICE FOOTAGE OF JOHN WAYNE GACY (AT GACY’S HOUSE IN 1978) ON DVD This is an ultra rare DVD containing footage of serial killer John Wayne Gacy (AKA Pogo The Killer Clown). Contained on this amazing DVD is over an hour of unedited, uncut raw video taken by the Chicago Police in 1978 while they dug for bodies in Gacy’s house. Also on this DVD is rare interviews and footage of Gacy before and after his arrest! This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10   THE CAPTURE OF RICHARD RAMIREZ - THE NIGHTSTALKER This is a rare collection of local news report when Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez was captured by an angry mob wanting justice, Richard was one of the most violent serial killers that ever lived and left many people dead or severely impared from his violent killing spree. PRICE : $10   RARE FOOTAGE OF RICHARD RAMIREZ (NIGHTSTALKER) ON DVD This is a rare collection of local news footage and interviews with Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez. PRICE : $10 JEFFREY DAHMER : CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL KILLER This is the full 90 minute interview between Stone Philips and Jeffery Dahmer. Pretty wild stuff. PRICE : $10 RARE JEFFREY DAHMER TELEVISION APPEARANCES This is a rare collection of local news reports and interviews of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer during the 1990s. PRICE : $10   HORROR IN MILWAUKEE - HOURS OF RARE JEFFREY DAHMER FOOTAGE AND ORIGINAL NEWS CLIPS THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE OF JEFFREY DAHMER. PRICE : $10   RARE FOOTAGE OF THE JEFFREY DAHMER TRIAL ON DVD This DVD includes over an hour of hard to find footage taken during the Jeffrey Dahmer trial. You will see evidence, witnesses, angry family members and Jeffrey Dahmer himself take the stand. This is a must have for any true collector of the strange and macabre. PRICE : $10 BIZARRE RARE HOME MADE INTERVIEW WITH OJ SIMPSON Produced in 1996, this rare home video marks one of the most bizarre points of athlete, actor and suspected murderer OJ Simpson’s life. Apparently OJ was frustrated that everybody thought he was guilty, so he produced this video in order to clear his name, reputation…and to find the real killer of Ron and Nicole. That being said, here’s the setup--the majority of the video consists of a one-on-one, no holds barred interview between OJ Simpson and a journalist named Ross Becker. He was allowed to ask any question he wanted (excluding questions about his kids, personal finances, or post trial legal matters) directly to OJ and demand a full response. This interview was billed was “the questions and answers you would have heard if OJ had taken the stand”…After that grilling, OJ personally takes you on the tour of his estate…the scene of the murders…inside his home, and around his yard. He tries to work through bits of incriminating evidence during this tour, hoping that he can be vindicated in the public arena….but he only seems to dig himself deeper. Watch in amazement as this weird spectacle unfolds before your eyes….He definitely should not have made this video. PRICE : $10 RARE CONFESSION FOOTAGE OF GERALD PARKER PART 1 Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County. PRICE : $10 RARE CONFESSION FOOTAGE OF GERALD PARKER PART 2 Known as the "Bedroom Basher," serial rapist Gerald Parker thought he had gotten away with murder until DNA testing linked him to the murder of five women and an unborn child in Orange County, California. Police and Navy officials believe Gerald might be responsible for even more killings, specifically three other dead women in Orange County. PRICE : $10 ARMAGEDON IN WACO : RARE DAVID KORESH FOOTAGE ON DVD This is an ultra rare DVD containing footage of the standoff at Waco Texas. The Branch Davidians are a sect that originated from a schism in 1955 from the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, themselves former members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who were disfellowshipped during the 1930s. They are best known for the 1993 siege of their Center near Waco, Texas, by the ATF and the FBI, which resulted in the deaths of 76 of the church's members, including head figure David Koresh. PRICE : $10   ULTRA RARE HEAVEN'S GATE CULT INITIATION TAPE ON DVD In 1997 Marshall Applewhite convinced thirty-eight followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet carrying Jesus. Ummm... yeah... I guess that kind of makes sen... WHAT?! This DVD is the very rare Heavens Gate initiation tape that Marshall Applewhite used to collect new members to the UFO cult and convince them to ultimately castrate themselves and drink a Jim Jones cocktail. This DVD is hours of creepy cult craziness and believe me, you will see Applewhites strange stare long after the TV is turned off. You wont find this DVD anywhere else on the planet! Trust me folks. You have no idea how hard it was to find this thing. PRICE : $10 OVER 100 RARE AND COMPLETE FBI FILES ON ONE DVD This is the very rare FBI Files DVD. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we are proud to present you with this amazing Data DVD which includes over 100 rare and newly declassified FBI Files on some of the most interesting people, groups and events in world history. The files on this DVD are in PDF format and can be viewed on any computer.For your convience, this DVD is seperated in to folders (based on theme and person). Each of these folders contains the complete FBI file for that individual (most of which are well over 200 pages long)! These files can be viewed on any computer and are perfect for printing. PRICE : $10 { RARE DVD FOOTAGE OF MANSON AND THE MANSON FAMILY } CHARLES MANSON VS BILL STOUT : RARE INTERVIEW Rare Charles Manson Interview PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS ED SANDERS: RARE INTERVIEW Rare Charles Manson Interview PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS BILL MURPHY: RARE PRISON INTERVIEW This is the very in depth BBC interview with Charles Manson. PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS PENNY DANIELS : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW Female Tabloid reporter Penny Daniels interviews Manson. PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS RON REAGAN JR : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW Ron Reagan interviews Charles Manson PRICE : $10 RARE LESLIE VAN HOUTEN 1977 INTERVIEW Unedited footage of the entire interview Leslie Van Houten gave in 1977 after she was granted a re-trial (she eventually was convicted after a third trial in 1978: 7 years to life.) conducted inside the prison. Unique material. PRICE : $10 RARE 1993 INTERVIEW WITH MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL PRICE : $10 RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME ONE This DVD contains the first 2 hours of 4 hours of raw footage of KTLA from the UCLA archives. Contents (both discs): News footage shot during the Tate-Labianca trial. News footage shot during the Hinman & Shea trials News footage shot during the trial following the Hawthorne gun store robbery. News footage shot during the Leslie Van Houten re-trials in 1977 & 1978. Footage of an interview with Bernard Crow (a.k.a. Lotsapoppa). Footage of interviews with prosecutors Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay. Footage of interviews with Manson Family members Bruce Davis, Sandra Good. Nancy Pitman, and Leslie Van Houten. Footage of the arraignment of Kenneth Como, Catherine Share, Mary Brunner. Footage of Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan and others. PRICE : $10 RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME TWO This DVD contains the second 2 hours of 4 hours of raw footage of KTLA from the UCLA archives. Contents (both discs): News footage shot during the Tate-Labianca trial. News footage shot during the Hinman & Shea trials News footage shot during the trial following the Hawthorne gun store robbery. News footage shot during the Leslie Van Houten re-trials in 1977 & 1978. Footage of an interview with Bernard Crow (a.k.a. Lotsapoppa). Footage of interviews with prosecutors Vincent Bugliosi and Stephen Kay. Footage of interviews with Manson Family members Bruce Davis, Sandra Good. Nancy Pitman, and Leslie Van Houten. Footage of the arraignment of Kenneth Como, Catherine Share, Mary Brunner. Footage of Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan and others. PRICE : $10 RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME THREE This DVD contains the first 2 hours of 4 hours of footage from the NBC 2 archives. This volume contains raw footage of newscasts throughout the 1970s up to 1994. PRICE : $10 RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME FOUR This DVD contains the second 2 hours of 4 hours of footage from the NBC 2 archives. This volume contains raw footage of newscasts throughout the 1970s up to 1994. PRICE : $10 RARE MANSON FAMILY NEWS FOOTAGE VOLUME FIVE This DVD contains raw footage from the CNN archives. Contents: Coverage of the press conference at the California Institution for Women following the parole hearing of Leslie Van Houten in 2002. Raw footage shot outside of the San Bernardino County courthouse of Van Houten's appearance before Judge Bob Krug with reactions of two lawyers for the Board of Parole Hearings, Van Houten's father Paul and Van Houten's attorney Christie Webb. Segments of several parole hearings over the years, among others Krenwinkel's 1985 hearing, Van Houten's 1987 hearing, Manson's 1989 hearing, Bruce Davis' 2000 hearing. PRICE : $10 THE BEST OF CHARLES MANSONS 1980 INTERVIEWS ON DVD Charles Manson 1980's Interviews With Tom Snyder, Penny Daniels, Charlie Rose, Nuel Emmons, Geraldo Rivera. This DVD is approx. 4 hr 20 mins Interesting, Great Research Material. PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS CHARLIE ROSE : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW ON DVD This is the full interview between Charlie Manson and Charlie Rose. PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS GERALDO RIVERA (RARE UNCUT PRISON INTERVIEW TAKEN BY GUARDS) Anyone who has seen the episode of Geraldo with Charles Manson knows that something didn't seem right. Well what Geraldo didn't count on is the fact that the prison staff had their own camera filming the entire interview! This is the uncut tape from the prison camera, see what really happened! PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON VS TOM SNYDER : RARE PRISON INTERVIEW This is the full interview between Charlie Manson and Tom Snyder. It has been said that this interview was the inspiration for much of the prison interview at the end of Natural Born Killers. This is trulyu one of Manson's best interviews and a must have for any crime history collector. PRICE : $10 UNCUT CHARLES MANSON SUPERSTAR INTERVIEW This is the complete uncut interview shown in Charles Manson Superstar. PRICE : $10 RARE CHARLES MANSON PAROLE HEARING FOOTAGE FROM 1992-1997 This DVD includes very rare parole hearing footage from almost a decade of Charles Mansons Parole Hearings. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 NO SENSE MAKES SENSE : CHARLES MANSON This DVD is a crazy cut up film put together in the 80s featuring a bunch of Charles Manson's rants. Also features rare Manson TV footage of the 70s trail. PRICE : $10 CHARLIE'S ANGELS - RARE FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY WOMEN ON DVD THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY WOMEN. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF PAROLE HEARINGS, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, NEWS CLIPS AND HARD TO FIND RAW FOOTAGE NOT FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE! PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON 1992 PAROLE HEARING This is the 1992 Parole Hearing of Charles Manson. PRICE : $10 CHARLES MANSON 1997 PAROLE HEARING This is the 1997 Parole Hearing of Charles Manson. PRICE : $10 2007 PAROLE HEARING OF CHARLES MANSON SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California denied parole on Wednesday to Charles Manson, one of America's most notorious mass murderers, in his 11th bid for release. California's Board of Parole Hearings said in a statement that Manson, 72, "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with." PRICE : $10   ALL IN THE (MANSON) FAMILY - RARE FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY ON DVD THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE OF THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF PAROLE HEARINGS, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, NEWS CLIPS AND HARD TO FIND RAW FOOTAGE NOT FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE! PRICE : $10 1990 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL This DVD includes the very rare 1990 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, PATRICIA KRENWINKEL. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true PRICE : $10 1997 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER PATRICIA KRENWINKEL This DVD includes the very rare 1997 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, PATRICIA KRENWINKEL. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 RARE 1991 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN You are bidding on the very rare 1991 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, Leslie Van Houten. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. . PRICE : $10 1999 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON KILLER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN You are bidding on the very rare 1999 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, Leslie Van Houten. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 2000 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER LESLIE VAN HOUTEN This DVD includes the very rare 2000 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, LESLIE VAN HOUTEN. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 1990 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER CHARLES "TEX" WATSON This DVD includes the very rare 1990 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, CHARLES TEX WATSON. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 1993 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER SUSAN ATKINS This DVD includes the very rare 1993 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, SUSAN ATKINS. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 2000 PAROLE HEARING OF MANSON FAMILY MEMBER SUSAN ATKINS This DVD includes the very rare year 2000 parole hearing of Manson Family killer, SUSAN ATKINS. This is truly a collectors item for any one interested in true crime. PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME ONE THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING MIX OF RAW FOOTAGE, HOME VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS, PAROLE HEARINGS AND MUCH MUCH MORE! PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME TWO THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE BIG BAD WOLF OF AMERICAN CRIME, CHARLES MANSON. PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME THREE THIS DVD INCLUDES HOURS OF RARE AND LOST FOOTAGE FROM THE MANSON FAMILY. ON THIS DVD YOU WILL FIND AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE BIG BAD WOLF OF AMERICAN CRIME, CHARLES MANSON. PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME FOUR Starts off with a Hardcore copy exclusive with a pirated video from his jail cell and a segment on women who write him love letters, Some Christian Show with Tex Waston's born again wife and a long discussion about their marriage in prison, Another Christian show called "Pardoned From Above" also about Tex Watson's marriage and possible parole, Another Hardcopy Clip. Runs about 2 hours PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME FIVE The first hour is Manson on Geraldo (The broadcast version, not the uncut version sold on this site),  Then it has Maury Povich on a current affair talking about Manson, A clip of one of the Manson family talking collage classes in jail, Squeaky escaping prison, then a bunch of misc clips, runs about 2 hours PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME SIX More random Charles Manson clips mostly from 1992. Runs about 2 hours PRICE : $10 CHARLES (MANSON) IN CHARGE DVD VOLUME SEVEN More Charles Manson clips from our massive collection. PRICE : $10 WHITE RABBIT (RARE INTERROGATION OF MANSON FAMILY CONFIDANT) ON DVD PRICE : $10 =========== PUT OUR KILLER WEB BANNERS ON YOUR SITE =========== Feel free to use any banner you like. Simply copy and paste the code below on to your website or myspace page. On the left hand side of this page you will find links to the many sections of our highly viewed links page. 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