List of serial killers by number of victims
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.[1][2] There are gaps of time between the killings, which may range from a few days to months, or many years.[2]
This list shows all known serial killers from the 20th century to present day by number of victims, then possible victims, then date. For those from previous centuries, see List of serial killers before 1900. In many cases, the exact number of victims assigned to a serial killer is not known, and even if that person is convicted of a few, there can be the possibility that they killed many more.
Organization and ranking of serial killings is made difficult by the complex nature of serial killers and incomplete knowledge of the full extent of many killers' crimes. To address this, multiple categories have been provided in order to more accurately describe the nature of certain serial murders. This is not a reflection of an individual's overall rank, which may or may not vary depending on personal opinion concerning the nature and circumstances of their crimes. The fourth column in the table states the number of victims definitely assigned to that particular serial killer, and thus the table is in order of that figure. The fifth column states the number of possible victims the killer could have murdered. Some of these crimes are unsolved, but are included because they are the work of a serial killer, despite nobody being caught.
This list does not include mass murderers, spree killers, war criminals, members of democidal governments, or major political figures, such as Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Hideki Tojo, Suharto, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, or Pol Pot.
Serial killers with the highest known victim count
Excluding these "Medical professionals and pseudo-medical professionals", with their ability to kill simply and in plain sight, and Serial killer groups and couples (below), this list is a compilation of modern serial killers currently with the highest verifiable murder count.
Name | Country | Years active | Proven victims | Possible victims | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Luis Garavito | Colombia Ecuador[3] Venezuela[3] | 1992–1999[3] | 193 | 194–300+ | Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as "La Bestia" ("The Beast"). Garavito confessed to killing 140 boys between six and sixteen years old, from October 1992 to April 1999 in Colombia and neighboring countries.[3] He is suspected of murdering over 300 victims, mostly street children. Garavito was originally sentenced to 1,853 years in prison, but this was later reduced to 22 years, after he led police to many of the bodies of his victims.[4][5] He was scheduled to become eligible for parole in 2023.[6] He died on October 12, 2023.[7] |
Pedro López | Colombia Peru Ecuador | 1969–1980 | 110 | 300+ | Child-murderer and rapist, known as "The Monster of the Andes". López targeted young girls, between the ages of eight and twelve. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing three young girls, but claimed to have killed hundreds. Despite being believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers of the twentieth century, he was released in the late 1990s.[8] |
Javed Iqbal | Pakistan | 1998–1999 | 100 | 100 | Child-murderer and rapist, known as "Kukri", Iqbal murdered 100 street children by strangling them and covering up his crimes by dissolving the bodies with acid. He was arrested in December 1999 after sending a letter to a newspaper, and was set to be executed in the manner described by the judge, who stated, "You will be strangled to death in front of the parents whose children you killed" and, "Your body will then be cut into 100 pieces and put in acid, the same way you killed the children."[9] However, he died in custody before he could be executed.[10] |
Mikhail Popkov | Russia | 1992–2010 | 78 | 83+ | Serial rapist-killer nicknamed "The Werewolf", who was active for two decades in Angarsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. After being convicted of 22 murders in 2015, he confessed to an additional 59 murders, of which he was convicted of 56 in 2018.[11][12] In July 2020, Popkov confessed to more killings, bringing the total number of admitted victims to 83.[13] He was sentenced to life. |
Daniel Camargo Barbosa | Colombia Ecuador Brazil (alleged)[14] | 1974–1986 | 72 | 180[14] | Child and woman murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily targeting female children, as they were more likely to be virgins. Confessed to killing 72 victims. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison, and started killing in Ecuador. He was rearrested in 1986, and was allegedly incarcerated in the same Ecuadorian prison as 300+ serial killer Pedro López.[citation needed] Camargo was killed in jail by the nephew of one of his victims.[14][15] |
Pedro Rodrigues Filho | Brazil | 1967–2003 | 71 | 100+ | Rodrigues Filho claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He also killed his father (who had killed his mother) and ate a piece of his heart. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14. He was first arrested in 1973; he was convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years.[16] He was released in 2018. He was murdered by two men in 2023. |
Kampatimar Shankariya | India | 1977–1978 | 70 | 70+ | Shankariya was an Indian serial killer who used a hammer to kill over 70 men and women between 1978 and 1979. He was hanged in 1979; his last words were, "I have murdered in vain", he declared. "Nobody should become like me."[17][18][19][20] |
Hoshang Amini | Iran | 1954–1962 | 67 | 67 | Known as the "Ghost of the Qanat Wells". Murdered 67 people in the city of Varamin from 1954 to 1962, sometimes aided by accomplices. He earned his nickname by decapitating his victims post-mortem and then dumping their bodies into wells.[21] |
Yang Xinhai | China | 1999–2003 | 67 | 67 | Known as the "Monster Killer". Yang would enter victims' homes at night and kill using axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. He was executed by gunshot in 2004.[22] |
Abul Djabar | Afghanistan | 1970 and earlier | 65 | 300+ | Killed 65 men and boys by strangling them with turbans while raping them. Suspected of over 300 murders. Sentenced to death and hanged on October 21, 1970.[23] |
Samuel Little | United States | 1970–2005 | 60 | 93 | Little was convicted of killing three women, but later investigations linked 31 other murders to him. He is now thought to be America's most prolific serial killer. He claimed he killed as many as 93 victims total, three above his initial confession of 90; the FBI later confirmed a total of 60 murders linked to Little. The investigations into his crimes are ongoing.[24][25] |
William Unek | Belgian Congo Tanganyika | 1954–1957 | 57 | 57 | Unek was a police constable who murdered 21 people with an axe in less than two hours before fleeing. Three years later, Unek, armed with rifle and axe, murdered 36 more people in the village of Malampaka before being mortally wounded by police with a smoke bomb that caught fire.[26] |
Mohammed Bijeh | Iran | 2002–2004 | 54 | 54 | Bijeh raped and killed at least 54 male children and teenagers. On November 27, 2004, he was sentenced to be executed. Bijeh said that if he was not arrested, he would kill 100 children. He was executed after being lashed in front of a crowd in 2005.[27] |
Andrei Chikatilo | Soviet Union | 1978–1990 | 53 | 56 | Known as "The Butcher of Rostov", "The Red Ripper" or "The Rostov Ripper". Chikatilo was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. One man was previously convicted and executed for his first murder. Chikatilo was executed by gunshot in 1994.[28] |
Anatoly Onoprienko | Soviet Union Ukraine | 1989–1996 | 52 | 52+ | Known as "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator", and "Citizen O". Onoprienko was convicted of the murders of nine people in 1989, and 43 people in 1995–1996. He travelled throughout Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown. He was sentenced to death, and was later commuted to imprisonment for life. He died from heart failure in 2013.[28] |
Florisvaldo de Oliveira | Brazil | 1982–1983 | 50 | 50+ | Known as "Cabo Bruno"; de Oliveira was a former police officer and vigilante who murdered criminals in the outskirts of São Paulo. He was murdered by unknown assailants in 2012.[29] |
Gary Ridgway | United States | 1982–2000 | 49 | 71–90+ | Ridgway was a truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. He was also known as The "Green River Killer". He almost exclusively targeted sex workers from Seattle. Ridgway was suspected of killing over 90 victims; he confessed to 71, and was convicted of 49.[30] He was sentenced to life without parole.[31] |
Alexander Pichushkin | Russia | 1992–2006 | 49 | 60 | Pichushkin was also known as the "Chessboard Killer". He was convicted of murdering 49 victims, and suspected of killing 60. He claimed to have murdered 62 people, because he did not know that two of his victims had survived; he stated that his goal was becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer.[32] He was sentenced to life imprisonment. |
Wang Qiang | China | 1995–2003 | 45 | 60+ | Wang killed 45 and raped 10 from 1995 to 2003.[33] He was executed by firing squad in 2005. |
Ahmad Suradji | Indonesia | 1986–1997 | 42 | 42 | Suradji was convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. He was executed by firing squad in 2008.[34] |
Raman Raghav | India | 1965–1968 | 41 | 41 | In the late 1960s, Raghav went on a violent rampage in Mumbai, India. He bludgeoned 41 people to death inside their huts while they slept. He died of kidney failure in 1995. |
Moses Sithole | South Africa | 1994–1995 | 38 | 76 | Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy. Sithole preyed on unemployed women, posing as a businessman and luring his victims with the prospects of a job, before leading them to an isolated place, where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. He was sentenced to 2,410 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 930 years.[35] |
Omar Abdul Razeq Abdullah Rifai | Egypt | 2008–2013 | 38 | 38 | After being released from prison in 2013 for his involvement in the deaths of 23 people during a domestic dispute, he opened fire in his village with a rifle, killing 15 people before being shot dead by other villagers.[36] |
Serhiy Tkach | Soviet Union Ukraine | 1984–2005 | 37 | 100+ | A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, Tkach suffocated girls aged between eight and eighteen, and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. He claimed to have killed 100. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and died from heart failure in 2018.[37] |
Gennady Mikhasevich | Soviet Union | 1971–1985 | 36 | 43–55+ | Mikhasevich killed women by strangling them. Besides killing, he also robbed his victims of money and valuable items (that he would sometimes give to his wife as a gift). He was executed by firing squad in 1987.[38] |
Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi | Morocco | 1906 and earlier | 36 | 36+ | Known as "Marrakesh Arch-Killer"; Mesfewi drugged, mutilated and murdered women; he was executed by immurement (walling) in 1906. |
Vera Renczi | Kingdom of Romania Yugoslavia Hungary (alleged) | 1920–1930 | 35 | ~35 | Romanian serial killer nicknamed, "The Black Widow". Renczi was convicted of killing 35 men through arsenic poisoning, but confessed to only killing 32 victims. Renczi is one of the world's most prolific female serial killers. However, there is very little information about Renczi and her crimes, because personal information (criminal history, academic records, etc.) were not cataloged as well as they are today, making some criminologists believe she was a figure of Romanian folklore, rather than an actual person.[39] |
Fernando Hernández Leyva | Mexico | 1982–1999 | 33 | 137 | Hernández Leyva confessed to 100 murders and six kidnappings at the time of his arrest in 1999 (he had been arrested previously in 1982 and 1986, the second time for murder, but escaped from prison), but later retracted, and claimed that he had been beaten by the police and his family threatened in order to force him to confess. He was accused of as many as 137 murders in five southern Mexican states, was convicted of 33 murders, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide in prison. If his claim of 100+ victims were true, then Leyva would be Mexico's most prolific documented serial killer.[40] |
John Wayne Gacy | United States | 1972–1978 | 33 | 34–45+ | Gacy is known to have murdered a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, 26 of whom he buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home. He was known as the "Killer Clown", due to the fact he often entertained children at social events dressed in a self devised clown costume. Executed by lethal injection in 1994.[41] |
Ali Asghar Borujerdi | Ottoman Empire Iraq Iran | 1907–1934 | 33 | 33 | Known as "Asghar the Murderer". Borujerdi killed 33 young adults in Iraq and Iran. He was executed by hanging in 1934.[42] |
Vasili Komaroff | Soviet Union | 1921–1923 | 33 | 33 | Known as "The Wolf of Moscow"; Komaroff was a horse trader who killed 33 men. He was executed by firing squad in 1923. |
Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour | Egypt | 1999–2006 | 32 | 32+ | Mansour was a gang leader known as "al-Tourbini" ("The Express Train"). He had raped and tortured homeless children, mostly boys aged 10 to 14 years old, aboard the trains between Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubia, and Beni Sueif. The victims were usually thrown off the moving train when they were dead or in agony; other times, they were thrown into the Nile or buried alive. Mansour was executed in 2010.[43] |
Radik Tagirov | Russia | 2011–2012 | 31 | 31 | Known as the "Volga Maniac". He murdered elderly women in several Russian regions.[44] |
Serial killers with 15 to 30 proven victims
This part of the list contains all serial killers with 15 to 30 proven victims who acted alone and were neither medical professionals nor contract killers.
Name | Country | Years active | Proven victims | Possible victims | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karl Denke | Germany | 1900–1924 | 30 | 42+ | Killed and cannibalized poor travelers and homeless vagrants. Kept a ledger recording his murders with at least 31 names in it (including Vincenz Olivier, his only surviving victim), thus confirming at least 30 victims. But due to the massive amount of human remains found in his apartment, his kill count is suspected by many to exceed 42 victims. Killed himself by hanging in his holding cell before he could be tried.[45] |
Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito | Brazil | 1989–2003 | 30 | 42 | Serial killer of children, who also sexually abused and mutilated children in Maranhão and Pará; sentenced to 217 years imprisonment.[46] |
Monster of the Mangones | Colombia | 1963–1970s | 30 | 38 | Unidentified serial killer(s) who kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered at least 30 boys in Cali, Colombia. |
Milton Sipalo | Zambia | 1980 | 30 | 31 | Known as "The Lusaka Strangler"; A soldier who raped and murdered women and girls in Lusaka. While awaiting trial, he jumped off of the roof of the police station where he was being interrogated, killing himself.[47] |
Luis Gregorio Ramírez Maestre | Colombia | 2010–2012 | 30 | 30 | Killed motorists in various municipalities before his 2012 capture.[48] Was sentenced to 34 years in prison. |
David Thabo Simelane | Swaziland | 2000–2001 | 28 | 45 | Sexually assaulted women he befriended in forests, stabbing or strangling them afterward; sentenced to death.[49] |
Zhang Jun | China | 1993–2000 | 28 | 28 | Robbed 22 stores in several Chinese provinces, killing 28 people in the process. Executed in 2001.[50] |
Mariam Soulakiotis | Greece | 1939–1951 | 27 | 177+ | Known as "Mother Rasputin"; abbess believed to have murdered wealthy women and children who came into her abbey. The true number of her victims is a matter of debate, but she was found guilty of 177 murders—150 through negligence (fraudulently claiming to offer free tuberculosis treatment when the 'treatment' only consisted of abiding in her high altitude convent) and 27 through starvation. Died in prison in 1954.[51][52] |
Cedric Maake | South Africa | 1996–1997 | 27 | 35+ | Known as the "Wemmer Pan Killer" and "Hammer Killer". He killed his victims with different instruments such as guns, rocks, a knife, and a hammer. Authorities attributed the murders to two serial killers because of the inconsistent modus operandi. In some cases he killed his victims with a rock, in others he shot them, and in others he murdered tailors with a hammer. Maake was arrested after Moses Sithole was found guilty of 38 killings and sentenced to 1,340 years in prison.[53] |
Robert Pickton | Canada | 1983–2002 | 26 | 49 | Known as the "Pig Farmer Killer" or the "Butcher", he killed woman from mostly the Vancouver Downtown Eastside and would feed the remains to the pigs on his farm. In 2007, he was initially convicted for the deaths of 6 woman, but was later found guilty of the deaths of 20 other woman in 2010; however he confessed to 49 killings to an undercover police officer. |
Bruce George Peter Lee | United Kingdom | 1973–1979 | 26 | 26 | Epileptic arsonist who killed people in the city of Hull; sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later institutionalized.[54] |
The Stoneman | India | 1985–1989 | 25 | 25+ | 12 homeless people were murdered in their sleep in Bombay between 1985 and 1987, and 13 in Calcutta in 1989—in all cases, by dropping a large rock over their head (an additional victim escaped, but could not identify the attacker). No one was ever charged with any of the murders.[55] |
Juan Corona | United States | 1971 | 25 | 25+ | Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms life imprisonment.[56] Died from natural causes in 2019. |
Fritz Haarmann | Germany | 1918–1924 | 24 | 27+ | Also known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, because of his preferred method of killing by biting through his victim's throat, sometimes while sodomizing them. He would then dump the bodies in the nearby river Leine. Believed to have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men, he was convicted, found guilty of 24 murders and executed by guillotine in 1925.[57] |
Béla Kiss | Austria-Hungary | 1912–1916 | 24 | 24+ | Evaded arrest and conviction after the discovery of 24 bodies hidden in large metal drums on his property in 1916. At that time he was serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and deserted when the military was notified of the murders by civilian authorities. His final whereabouts and fate are unknown, as is his final victim count.[58] |
Majid Salek Mohammadi | Iran | 1981–1985 | 24 | 24 | Killed mainly women he considered unfaithful to their husbands, sometimes the children accompanying them too; killed himself before he could be sentenced.[59] |
Yvan Keller | France Germany (suspected) Switzerland (suspected) | 1989–2006 | 23 | 150 | Known as the "Pillow Killer"; killed and robbed old women in France's Alsace region, but also confessed to up to 150 murders, including in Germany and Switzerland; killed himself before trial.[60] |
Ronald Dominique | United States | 1997–2006 | 23 | 23+ | Louisianian serial killer, known locally as the Bayou Strangler and murdered victims in the Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Iberville Parish and Jefferson Parish. Sentenced to eight life terms.[61] |
Juan Fernando Hermosa | Ecuador | 1991–1992 | 23 | 23 | Known as "Niño del Terror"; youth gang leader who murdered mostly taxi drivers and homosexuals in Quito; murdered on his 20th birthday by unknown assailants.[62] |
Gerald Stano | United States | 1969–1980 | 22 | 88 | Confessed to killing 41 women, mostly in Florida and New Jersey. He was only convicted in 22 cases, and is suspected in the deaths of up to 88 victims.[63] Some people have suggested that Stano was a serial confessor.[64] |
Earle Nelson | United States Canada | 1926–1927 | 22 | 25 | Necrophiliac who primarily targeted boarding house landladies on the US West Coast during 1926; he was also known as "Gorilla Killer" or "the Dark Strangler". Captured after two murders in a small (now ghost) town in southern Manitoba. Found guilty, hanged by Canadian authorities in January 1928.[65] |
Mikhail Novosyolov | Soviet Union Russia Tajikistan | 1977–1995 | 22 | 22 | Known as the "Necrophile Rebel"; killed his victims with blows from heavy objects, then had sexual intercourse with their corpses; sentenced to civil commitment.[66] |
Manuel Octavio Bermúdez | Colombia | 1999–2003 | 21 | 50+ | Colombian child rapist and serial killer. Known as "El Monstruo de los Cañaduzales" (The Monster of the Cane Fields). He confessed to killing 21 children in remote areas of Colombia.[67] Sentenced to 40 years in prison. |
Patrick Kearney | United States | 1965–1977 | 21 | 43+ | Would pick up young male hitch-hikers or young men from gay bars near Redondo Beach, California, and kill them.[68] Sentenced to imprisonment for life. |
William Bonin | United States | 1979–1980 | 21 | 36+ | Bonin and three accomplices are known to have murdered a minimum of 21 youths aged between 12 and 19 in and around Los Angeles. As the majority of his victims were discarded alongside various southern California freeways, Bonin became known as the Freeway Killer. Convicted of 14 of the freeway murders, he was executed by lethal injection in 1996.[69] |
Vasile Tcaciuc | Romania | 1917–1935 | 21 | 26+ | Romanian man who lured victims and then murdered them with an axe. He was arrested in 1935 after a dog found a dead body in his house. He confessed to having committed at least 26 murders. He was shot dead by a policeman while trying to escape from prison.[70] |
Yoo Young-chul | South Korea | 2003–2004 | 21 | 26 | Used a hammer to murder mostly older victims, until his focus shifted to the decapitation and mutilation of escorts after being dumped by a girlfriend who worked in that profession.[71] Was sentenced to death and currently incarcerated.[72][73] |
Francisco Guerrero Pérez | Mexico | 1880–1908 | 21 | 21 | Known as "El Chaquero"; the first captured serial killer in Mexico, who killed prostitutes in Mexico City; died in 1910 from cerebral thromboembolism and another, unspecified cause.[74] |
Ted Bundy | United States | 1974–1978 | 20 | 35–100+ | Bundy was an American serial killer known for his charisma and good looks. He officially confessed to 30 homicides, but had confessed to killing 35–36 women in the past, and some estimates run upwards of 100 or more. He was infamous for escaping from prison twice and murdering multiple victims in one day; sometimes abducting women from the same location within hours of one another.[75] He was executed by electric chair in 1989.[76][77] |
Surinder Koli | India | 2005–2006 | 19 | 30+ | Between 2005 and 2006, a domestic servant of Indian businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, Surinder Koli, kidnapped, raped, murdered, and dismembered 19 people, mostly children. Convicted and sentenced to life.[78] |
Abdullah Shah | Afghanistan | 1990s | 20 | 20+ | Killed travelers on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad serving under Zardad Khan. Also killed his wife. Executed on April 20, 2004.[79] |
Mohan Kumar | India | 2005–2009 | 20 | 20 | Lured female victims with promises of marriage and gave them cyanide, claiming they were contraceptive pills, Sentenced to death in 2013. |
Bulelani Mabhayi | South Africa | 2007–2012 | 20 | 20 | Known as the "Monster of Thuleni"; killed 20 women and children from 2007 to 2012. Sentenced to 25 life sentences on September 3, 2013. |
Larry Eyler | United States | 1982–1984 | 19 | 23+ | Known as "The Interstate Killer"; sentenced to death for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of 15-year-old Daniel Bridges. He confessed to other homicides of young men and boys in five separate states. Died of AIDS complications in 1994.[80] |
Cape Town Prostitute Killer | South Africa | 1992–1996 | 19 | 20 | Unidentified serial killer who, on rainy nights, picked up prostitutes and domestic workers in his vehicle, strangled them in parking lots, and dumped their bodies in rural, preselected spots.[81] |
"El Psicópata" | Costa Rica | 1986–1996 | 19 | 19+ | ("The Psychopath") Unidentified serial killer who killed 19 people with an M3 submachine gun in three Costa Rican towns, always south of the Florencio del Castillo Highway.[82] |
Sergei Ryakhovsky | Soviet Union Russia | 1988–1993 | 19 | 19+ | Known as the Balashikha Ripper, he was convicted for the murders of at least 19 victims. Died from tuberculosis in 2005.[83] |
Yevgeny Chuplinsky | Russia | 1998–2006 | 19 | 19+ | Known as the "Novosibirsk Maniac"; killed prostitutes in Novosibirsk; despite extensive police search and the capture of another serial killer, he was only arrested in 2016; sentenced to life imprisonment.[84] |
M. Jaishankar | India | 2008–2011 | 19 | 19+ | Accused of killing at least 19 women. Charged with 13 murders, he escaped during a trial transport. Killed eight more people in two months before he was recaptured. Sentenced to 27 years. Killed himself by slashing his wrists with a shaving blade in prison on 27 February 2018.[85] |
Ansis Kaupēns | Latvia | 1920–1926 | 19 | 19 | Army deserter who committed 30 robberies and killed 19 people; one of the most infamous Latvian criminals; executed by hanging in 1927.[86] |
Vadim Ershov | Russia | 1992–1995 | 19 | 19 | Known as the "Krasnoyarsk Beast"; committed 70 crimes around the Krasnoyarsk area, including 19 murders and eight attempted murders; sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment.[87] |
Velaphi Ndlangamandla | South Africa | 1998 | 19 | 19 | Known as "The Saloon Killer"; robber who murdered people around Mpumalanga in his crime spree; sentenced to 137 years imprisonment.[88] |
Valery Kopytov | Russia | 2000–2004 | 19 | 19 | Known as "The Barnaul Chikatilo"; homeless man who killed other homeless people in Altai Krai.[89] |
Randall Woodfield | United States | 1979–1981 | 18 | 44 | Known as "The I-5 Killer" and "The I-5 Bandit." Suspected of as many as 44 murders.[90] Sentenced to imprisonment for life. |
Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu | Turkey | 1994–2002 | 18 | 40 | Killed in various cities of Turkey. 18 murders proven and accused of more than 40 by eyewitnesses and relatives.[91] Was sentenced to 74 years in prison. |
Paul John Knowles | United States | 1974 | 18 | 35+ | Killed 18 people in various states in 1974. Claimed 35 murders. Known as the "Casanova Killer"; shot dead by FBI agents.[92] |
Thierry Paulin | France | 1984–1987 | 18 | 21 | Known as "The monster of Montmartre". Killed and robbed elderly women. Died of AIDS in 1989 in prison before trial.[93] |
Richard Nyauza | South Africa | 2002–2006 | 18 | 19 | Known as "The Quarry Murderer"; bludgeoned, beat, strangled, and stabbed 16 women and two unborn children to death and left their bodies in or around a quarry. Given 16 life sentences.[94] |
Umesh Reddy | India | 1996–2002 | 18 | 18+ | Confessed to 18 rapes and murders. Sentenced to death.[95] |
Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode | South Africa | 1994–1995 | 18 | 18+ | Known as "Donnybrook Serial Killer" murdered 18 people in Donnybrook, KwaZulu Natal from 1994 to 1995.[96] Was given 140 years (5 life sentences). |
Asande Baninzi | South Africa | 2001 | 18 | 18 | Killed 18 people in three months, including a family of four; given 19 life sentences and 189 years of imprisonment.[97] |
Kotakethana murders | Sri Lanka | 2008–2015 | 18 | 18+ | 17 mysterious murders of women nearby area in the Rathnapura district of Sri Lanka. (2007 to 2015) One middle age man suspect was arrested in 2015 and his DNA matched with six murders. Nine other cases remain unsolved.[98][99] |
Richard Cottingham | United States | 1967–1980 | 17 | 85–100 | Killer operating in New York and New Jersey who often targeted prostitutes and utilized mutilation as well as dismemberment in his killings. Known as the "Torso Killer", with 17 confirmed homicide victims[100] including nine convictions and a further eight official confessions. He has made unsubstantiated claims of up to a hundred victims.[101] |
Huang Yong | China | 2001–2003 | 17 | 25 | Lured and murdered 17 teenage boys, although he is suspected of 25 murders between September 2001 and 2003.[102] Executed by firing squad in 2003. |
Pedro Pablo Nakada Ludeña | Peru | 2005–2006 | 17 | 25 | Known as "El Apóstol de la Muerte" ("The Apostle of Death"). Convicted of 17 murders and claimed 25. Sentenced to 35 years in prison.[103] |
Darbara Singh | India | 2004 | 17 | 23 | Sexually assaulted and then murdered children of non-Punjabi immigrants; died in 2018 from an illness while serving a life sentence.[104] |
Robert Hansen | United States | 1971–1983 | 17 | 21 | Prostitutes he kidnapped were released into the Alaskan wilderness for him to hunt down like animals. Based on discovered remains, police suspect him of six murders in addition to the 17 for which he was convicted. Sentenced to 461 years plus life. Died from unspecified health problems in 2014.[105] |
Sergei Dovzhenko | Ukraine | 1992–2002 | 17 | 19 | Killed people because they were "mocking" him; sentenced to life imprisonment.[106] |
Donato Bilancia | Italy | 1997–1998 | 17 | 17 | Burglar who murdered 17 people, mainly prostitutes, between 1997 and 1998, during a six-month period. Known as the "Prostitutes Killer" and the "Liguria Monster". Sentenced to imprisonment for life,[107] he died due to COVID-19 in 2020.[108] |
Irina Gaidamachuk | Russia | 2002–2010 | 17 | 17 | Known as "Satan in a skirt". Killed 17 elderly women between 2002 and 2010. Sentenced to 20 years in prison. |
Randy Steven Kraft | United States | 1971–1983 | 16 | 67 | Convicted of 16 counts of murder but left a cryptic "score card" referring to at least 65 victims. May have had an accomplice.[109] Sentenced to death. |
Juana Barraza | Mexico | Late 1990s–2006 | 16 | 49 | Mexican female wrestler who bludgeoned or strangled elderly women to rob them. Sentenced to 759 years. |
Michel Fourniret | France Belgium | 1987–2001 | 16 | 19 | Known as the Ogre or Beast of Ardennes. He was caught after a failed kidnapping in 2003.[110] Sentenced to life and died of respiratory problems while in prison in 2021. |
Sipho Agmatir Thwala | South Africa | 1996–1997 | 16 | 19 | Nicknamed the Phoenix Strangler after the area in which he committed his crimes; he raped and strangled 19 women; arrested, he was found guilty of 16 murders and sentenced to life.[111] |
Saeed Hanaei | Iran | 2000–2001 | 16 | 19 | Confessed to luring 16 prostitutes to his home and killing them in an attempt to "cleanse" the city of Mashhad. His actions were dubbed "The Spider Murders". Executed by hanging in 2002.[112] |
Maina Ramulu | India | 2003–2020 | 16 | 18 | Convicted of murdering 16 women between 2003 and 2013 during three separate murder sprees. He was released from prison in 2020, and allegedly murdered two more women.[113] |
Jeffrey Dahmer | United States | 1978–1991 | 16 | 17 | Dahmer ate some of his victims and kept their body parts in his freezer. Was sentenced to life imprisonment; murdered in prison in 1994. |
José Antonio Rodríguez Vega | Spain | 1987–1988 | 16 | 16+ | Nicknamed El Mataviejas (The Old Lady Killer), he raped and killed at least 16 elderly women, aged from 61 to 93 years old, in and around Santander, Cantabria. He went unrecognized for over a year because he moved his victims into their beds after they were killed; no autopsies were made and the deaths were attributed to natural causes. He also took trophies from his victims that he held in a particular room of his home; about 10 percent of these trophies remained unclaimed, implying the existence of other victims.[114] He was stabbed to death by two inmates while incarcerated in 2002. |
Carroll Cole | United States | 1948–1980 | 16 | 16 | Killed 16 people in California, Nevada, and Texas.[115] Executed by lethal injection in 1985. |
Elias Xitavhudzi | South Africa | 1950s | 16 | 16 | Nicknamed Panga man for his use of a machete (locally known as a "panga"). He stabbed and robbed his victims between 1953 and 1959; arrested, he was executed by hanging in 1960.[116] |
Charles Ray Hatcher | United States | 1969–1982 | 16 | 16 | A habitual criminal, confessed to the rape and murder of over 20 young and adolescent males. Escaped from prison several times and was declared a "manipulative institutionalized sociopath".[117] Sentenced to life; killed himself by hanging himself in prison in 1984. |
Yuri Ivanov | Soviet Union | 1974–1987 | 16 | 16 | Known as the "Ust-Kamenogorsk Maniac"; Kazakhstani rapist who killed girls and women who spoke negatively of men; executed 1987.[118] |
Robert Lee Yates | United States | 1975–1998 | 16 | 16 | Killed prostitutes in the "Skid Row" area of E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane, Washington. Sentenced to 408 years in prison and two death sentences.[119] |
Vladimir Mirgorod | Russia | 2003–2004 | 16 | 16 | Known as "The Strangler"; raped and strangle women in Moscow, also killing one of the victims' son; sentenced to life imprisonment.[120] |
Farid Baghlani | Iran | 2004–2008 | 16 | 16 | Known as the "Cyclist killer"; murdered 15 women and 1 boy. Executed by hanging on November 13, 2010.[121] |
Jimmy Maketta | South Africa | 2005 | 16 | 16 | Pleaded guilty to and convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes committed over the nine-month period of April to December 2005.[122] |
Jack Mogale | South Africa | 2008–2009 | 16 | 16 | Raped and strangled women in the Donnybrook area. Convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes, nine kidnappings, robbery and assault.[123] |
Donald Henry Gaskins | United States | 1953–1982 | 15 | 100+ | Known as "The Meanest Man in America", Gaskins was convicted of nine murders committed in South Carolina between 1973 and 1975. He was suspected of 31 murders. Two victims had been murdered while Gaskins had been incarcerated—one while Gaskins had been on death row. Later claimed on death row that he had murdered between 100 and 110 victims. Executed by electric chair in 1991. |
Ravinder Kumar | India | 2008–2015 | 15 | 30+ | Serial rapist who killed children of poor families.[124] |
Atlanta Ripper | United States | 1911 | 15 | 21 | Unidentified serial killer(s) who killed at least 15 Atlanta women in 1911, possibly as many as 21 in total.[125] |
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz | United States Mexico | 1986–1999 | 15 | 18 | Known as the "Railroad Killer" because his killings were committed near the railroad tracks he used to traverse the country. He was charged with and/or confessed to 15 murders occurring from 1986 to 1999 in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, and Kentucky. He was also suspected in a 1997 California murder case and claimed two additional killings he refused to elaborate on. Executed by lethal injection in 2006.[126] |
Chester Turner | United States | 1987–1998 | 15 | 15+ | Convicted of killing 15 people in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. Sentenced to death.[127] |
Alexander Labutkin | Soviet Union | 1933–1935 | 15 | 15 | Known as the "One-Armed Bandit"; killed people in the forest near the Prigorodny settlement using a revolver; executed 1935.[128] |
Florencio Fernández | Argentina | 1950s | 15 | 15 | Stalked his victims, then would beat and bite them while they were asleep. Died from natural causes a few years after his 1960 arrest. |
Elifasi Msomi | South Africa | 1953–1956 | 15 | 15 | Killed his victims with an axe or a knife in the 1950s; executed by hanging in 1956.[129] |
Maurizio Minghella | Italy | 1978–2001 | 15 | 15 | Killed five prostitutes; imprisoned and released, after which he killed 10 more; sentenced to life imprisonment.[130] |
Bai Baoshan | China | 1983–1997 | 15 | 15 | Robber who killed 15 people while robbing several police stations; executed by gunshot in 1998. |
Lee Choon-jae | South Korea | 1986–1994 | 15 | 15 | Also known as the Hwaseong serial murders. Most of the victims were bound, gagged, and strangled to death with their own clothes. It sparked the largest criminal case in South Korea with two million officers mobilized and over 21,000 suspects investigated.[131] A suspect was identified in 2019, but he could not be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. He later confessed to killing 15 people, in addition to the murder of his sister-in-law. |
Serial killers with 5 to 14 proven victims
This part of the list contains all serial killers with five to fourteen proven victims who acted alone and were neither medical professionals nor contract killers.
Name | Country | Years active | Proven victims | Possible victims | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carl Eugene Watts | United States | 1974–1982 | 14 | 100+ | Believed to have killed over 80 women in multiple states, in 1982 Watts accepted a plea bargain in Texas in which he would plead guilty to a lesser charge and be granted immunity from murder charges in exchange for providing information on his victims; as a result he confessed to 12 murders and was sentenced to 60 years in prison on the lesser charge. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in separate trials in Michigan in 2004 and 2007, and died of cancer a week after the 2007 sentence was handed down.[132] Watts is now suspected to have killed more than 100 women, which would make him the most prolific serial killer in American history.[133] |
Belle Gunness | United States | 1884–1908 | 14 | 40 | Norwegian-born murder-for-profit killer who murdered her suitors and relatives in Indiana. High possibility of committing over 40 murders. May have faked her own death in the fire that destroyed her home in 1908; her children had died of strychnine poisoning before the fire, and the woman's body found next to them was decapitated and, reportedly, smaller than Gunness' own.[134] Ultimate fate unknown. |
Philipp Tyurin | Soviet Union | 1945–1946 | 14 | 29 | Known as the "Leningrad Maniac" and the "Hellraiser"; murdered people for monetary reasons at his hut in Leningrad; executed 1947.[135] |
Zdzisław Marchwicki | Poland | 1964–1970 | 14 | 21+ | Also known as Vampire of Zagłębie. Killed 14 women in 1964–1970 in Poland's region of Dąbrowa Basin. Zdzisław Marchwicki was most likely the man responsible for the killings; however, his guilt remains in dispute. Executed in 1977.[136] |
Julio Pérez Silva | Chile | 1998–2001 | 14 | 19 | Known as The Psychopath from Alto Hospicio; killed 14 women. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004.[137] |
Monster of Florence | Italy | 1968–1985 | 14 | 16 | Unidentified killer who shot couples in lovers lanes and mutilated the women, taking their sexual organs and in the last two cases, also their left breast. 69-year-old farmer Pietro Pacciani was controversially convicted of 14 crimes in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison, but he was released following allegations that the scant evidence had been planted in an attempt to close the case, which was by then the largest and most mediatic in Italy's criminal history. Pacciani was scheduled for retrial in 1998 when he died after taking medication contraindicated to his heart problems. Pacciani's two alleged accomplices, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, were sentenced to life and 30 years in prison, respectively. Some believe that none of the accused were guilty, and that Lotti incriminated himself and the other two because he was homeless and wanted to live in prison.[138][139] |
Joachim Kroll | West Germany | 1955–1976 | 14 | 14 | Known as the "Ruhr Cannibal" and "The Duisburg Man-Eater"; died from a heart attack in prison in 1991.[140] |
Arthur Shawcross | United States | 1972–1989 | 14 | 14 | Committed arson and burglary, served two years of a five-year sentence. Within a year of his release, he raped and murdered two children in 1972. Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 25 years. Released after serving 141/2 years, he began killing again a year later, targeting prostitutes. Known as the "Genesee River Killer", "Genesee River Strangler", "Rochester Strangler", and "Monster of the Rivers", he strangled and battered his victims. Sentenced to life without parole. Died of cardiac arrest in 2008.[141] |
Naceur Damergi | Tunisia | 1980–1988 | 14 | 14 | Raped and killed minors in the Nabeul region; executed by hanging in 1990.[142] |
Muthukutty Chandran | India | 1985–1986 | 14 | 14 | Committed 14 robbery-murders between 1985 and 1986 in Kerala, executed by hanging on 6 July 1991.[143] |
Marcelo Costa de Andrade | Brazil | 1991 | 14 | 14 | Known as The Vampire of Niterói. Raped and killed 14 children in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. Drank the blood of his victims. Found not guilty by reason of insanity. |
Sergey Shipilov | Russia | 1995–1999 | 14 | 14 | Known as the "Velsk Chikatilo"; killed female hitchhikers in the town of Velsk, most of them while out on prison leave; sentenced to life imprisonment.[144] |
Dorángel Vargas | Venezuela | 1997–1999 | 14 | 14 | Homeless cannibal known as "The People Eater" (El Comegente) and "The Hannibal Lecter of the Andes". Murdered a homeless man and was institutionalized. After escaping the institution, he went on to kill ten other men and was arrested. In 2016, he and several other inmates killed three others and Vargas fed their remains to them.[145][146] |
Hua Ruizhuo | China | 1998–2001 | 14 | 14 | Was responsible for the murders of 14 prostitutes in Beijing's Chaoyang District.[147] |
Denis Pischikov | Russia | 2002–2003 | 14 | 14 | Known at the "Shivering Creature"; robbed and killed elderly people around the Moscow Oblast and Vladimir Oblast; sentenced to life imprisonment.[148] |
Abdufatto Zamanov | Russia | 2002–2004 | 14 | 14 | Killed people out of personal hostility; also raped two young girls; sentenced to life imprisonment.[149] |
Jeong Nam-gyu | South Korea | 2004–2006 | 14 | 14 | Kidnapped, raped and murdered people; killed himself.[150] |
Amir Qayyum | Pakistan | 2005 | 14 | 14 | Known as "The brick killer". Killed 14 homeless men with rocks or bricks when they were asleep. Sentenced to death in May 2006.[151] |
Denis Kazungu | Rwanda | 2023 | 14 | 14 | Murdered 14 people at his home in Kigali, arrested and pleaded guilty in September 2023.[152] |
Jake Bird | United States | 1930–1947 | 13 | 46 | Sentenced to death for the murders of two people; confessed to 44 other murders; 11 were substantiated and he was suspected in the others.[153] Executed by hanging in 1949. |
Cleveland Torso Murderer | United States | 1934–1938 | 13 | 40+ | Unidentified serial killer, also known as "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run", who targeted drifters and derelicts, of whom only two were identified, between 1934 and 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio.[154] |
Kaspars Petrovs | Latvia | 2003 | 13 | 38+ | Confessed to strangling 38 elderly residents of Riga, Latvia, in 2003. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the robbery and murder of 13.[155] |
Peter Sutcliffe | United Kingdom | 1975–1980 | 13 | 33 | Killed at least 13 women between 30 October 1975 and 17 November 1980. Most victims were killed by a combination of bludgeoning and stabbing, and all but two were killed in the county of Yorkshire. Owing to the modus operandi and location of the murders, Sutcliffe became known as the "Yorkshire Ripper."[156] Sentenced to 20 concurrent life sentences. After three years he was sent to a secure psychiatric facility, where he served 25 years before being found "fit to leave" in 2009. Government officials and courts ruled in 2010 that he would never be released. In 2015, he was declared "no longer mentally ill", and transferred to a maximum security prison. After his 1981 conviction police investigated 60 unsolved murders and attempted murders across Britain they thought Sutcliffe could be responsible for, but were able to eliminate him from 40.[157] He has since also been linked by several investigators to the murder of Carol Wilkinson, for which an innocent man spent many years in prison.[158][159] Sutcliffe died in hospital on 13 November 2020 at age 74, after being diagnosed with COVID-19.[160] |
Fosaville Serial Killer | South Africa | 1999–2003 | 13 | 26 | Kidnapped, bound, and strangled at least 13 women in Fosaville, South Africa. He may also be responsible for the "Riverman" murders.[161] |
William Suff | United States | 1986–1992 | 13 | 23 | Previously served 10 years of a 70-year sentence for beating his baby daughter to death. Beginning two years after his release, this county store clerk raped, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more prostitutes in Riverside County, California. Known as the "Riverside Prostitute Killer" and the "Lake Elsinore Killer." Sentenced to death.[162] |
Richard Ramirez | United States | 1984–1985 | 13[163] | 20 | Killed 13 people between 28 June 1984, and 24 August 1985, in Los Angeles. Known as the "Night Stalker".[163][164] Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989, and died of B-cell lymphoma in 2013 while still on death row. |
Sleepy Hollow Killer | South Africa | 1990s–2007 | 13 | 16+ | Raped and murdered women, mostly sex workers, around Pietermaritzburg and the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal.[165] |
Francisco Antonio Laureana | Argentina | 1974–1975 | 13 | 13+ | Raped 15 women in San Isidro, killing 13 of them. Shot and killed during a firefight with police.[166] |
Joseph James DeAngelo | United States | 1979–1986 | 13 | 13+ | Known as the "Golden State Killer", "Original Night Stalker", and "East Area Rapist". A police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s. He was identified and arrested in 2018 after DNA evidence confirmed it was him.[167][168] In 2020, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[169] |
Tamara Samsonova | Russia | 1995–2015 | 13 | 13+ | Known as the "Granny Ripper"; killed and allegedly cannibalized people in her apartment; committed to a psychiatric clinic.[170][171] |
Boston Strangler | United States | 1962–1964 | 13 | 13 | Although Albert DeSalvo was widely thought to be the Boston Strangler, police and others analysing the case have long doubted the truth of his confession.[172] Sentenced to life for a series of rapes, he was murdered in prison. DeSalvo's body was exhumed for DNA testing, and compared to a substance found on the exhumed body of the Boston Strangler's last victim. In 2001, it was declared not to match, but in 2013 officials announced that improvements in DNA extraction technology produced viable samples from the degraded evidence. DeSalvo's body was reexhumed and found to match. |
Herbert Mullin | United States | 1972–1973 | 13 | 13 | Despite detailed confessions, prosecutors decided not to try him for the first three crimes, instead focusing on crimes that conflicted with his insanity plea. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.[173] |
Vladimir Storozhenko | Soviet Union | 1978–1981 | 13 | 13 | Known as the "Smolensky Strangler"; tortured and murdered women for sexual pleasure; four other innocent men were initially convicted for his crimes; executed 1982.[174] |
Johannes Mashiane | South Africa | 1982–1989 | 13 | 13 | Known as "The Beast of Atteridgeville", he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder and 12 counts of sodomy from 1982 to 1989. Killed himself by throwing himself under a bus while being pursued by police in 1989.[175] |
Vasiliy Kulik | Soviet Union | 1984–1986 | 13 | 13 | Known as the Irkutsk Monster;[176] killed at least 13 victims from 1984 to 1986. Executed by firing squad in 1989. |
Nikolai Dudin | Soviet Union Russia | 1987–2002 | 13 | 13 | Known as the "Grim Maniac"; killed his father in 1987, and after release, killed 12 more people while intoxicated; sentenced to life imprisonment.[177] |
Mukosi Freddy Mulaudzi | South Africa | 1990–2006 | 13 | 13 | Known as "The Limpopo Serial Killer"; escaped convict, originally responsible for two murders, who murdered 11 more after his prison escape; given 11 life sentences.[178] |
Duan Guocheng | China | 1999–2001 | 13 | 13 | Nicknamed "The Red-dress killer" or "The Red-dress slasher" because his victims were lone women walking alone either wearing red-dresses or another type of red. He sparked panic among women in Central China, with public officials warning them to stop wearing red during the years which he was at large.[179] |
Nikolay Shubin | Russia | 2004–2006 | 13 | 13 | Paranoid schizophrenic who killed people who beat him in chess games; sentenced to compulsory treatment.[180] |
Thozamile Taki | South Africa | 2007 | 13 | 13 | Known as the "Sugar cane serial killer",[181] he murdered 13 women. Convicted in 2010. |
"Rainbow Maniac" | Brazil | 2007–2008 | 13 | 13 | Unidentified serial killer who shot gay men in the head (except one, who was bludgeoned) in the Paturis Park of Carapicuiba.[182] |
Li Wenxian | China | 1991–1996 | 13 | Known as "The Guangzhou Ripper". Killed 13 female prostitutes in Guangzhou. Executed. | |
Adolf Seefeldt | Germany | 1908–1935 | 12 | 100 | Known as the "Sandman"; sexually abused young boys in their sleep, then poisoned them; suspected of 100 murders in total.[183] Executed by guillotine in 1936. |
Charles Sobhraj | Thailand Nepal India Malaysia | 1975–1976 | 12 | 30 | French con man known as "The Bikini Killer" or "The Serpent" that targeted Western tourists in vacation spots of South-east Asia, often with the help of female accomplices. Imprisoned in India from 1976 to 1997, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Nepal in 2004.[184] He was released from prison in Nepal in 2022.[185] |
Slamet Tohari | Indonesia | 2020–2023 | 12 | 24+ | Swindler who was convicted of 12 murders by cyanide poisoning committed in Central Java between 2020 and 2023. He confessed to "dozens" of murders. Sentenced to death in 2024.[186][187] |
Vladimir Romanov | Soviet Union Russia | 1991–2005 | 12 | 20 | Known as the "Kaliningrad Maniac"; a child rapist who murdered girls and young women in the Kaliningrad Oblast; killed himself while imprisoned.[188] |
Maury Travis | United States | 2000–2002 | 12 | 17 | Killed prostitutes in the St. Louis area from 2000 to 2002. Caught when he mailed an Expedia.com map showing where to find a body to a St. Louis newspaper. Killed himself by hanging in prison.[189] |
Dennis Nilsen | United Kingdom | 1978–1983 | 12 | 15–16[190] | Picked up young men in London between 1978 and 1983 and dismembered them, keeping various body parts around his home.[191] Died from surgical complications in 2018. |
Kenneth Bianchi | United States | 1977–1978 | 12 | 15 | Convicted of strangling 12 female victims aged 12 to 28 and suspected in another three cases. One of the "Hillside Stranglers".[192] Sentenced to imprisonment for life. |
Enriqueta Martí | Spain | c. 1900–1912 | 12 | 12+ | Self-proclaimed witch that abducted, prostituted, murdered and made potions with the bodies of small children that she sold in Barcelona. Remains of 12 different children were identified in her home, but she is believed to have murdered more. Murdered in prison by fellow inmates while awaiting trial in 1913.[193] Recent investigations by writer Jordi Corominas and historian Elsa Plaza question the popular version of the black legend of Enriqueta Martí and warned about multiples misinformation, because Enriqueta "was never formally charged with murder nor was any corpse of a child found in her home."[194][195] |
Abdallah al-Hubal | Yemen | 1990–1998 | 12 | 12 | Killed seven people after Yemeni unification; fled prison, then proceeded to kill a young couple and three more people; killed during a shootout with police.[196] |
Nikolai Shestakov | Soviet Union | 1975 | 12 | 12 | Known as the "Luberetsky Maniac"; truck driver who raped and killed girls and young women; supposedly executed in 1977.[197] |
Joseph Christopher | United States | 1980–1981 | 12 | 12 | Known as "The Midtown Slasher"; racist who killed 12 people, all but one of them African Americans, in 1980 and 1981, between upstate New York and Georgia, mutilating two of them. Sentenced to life imprisonment, died in prison age 33 of breast cancer.[198] |
"Paraquat murders" killer | Japan | 1985 | 12 | 12 | Unidentified serial killer who carried out a series of indiscriminate poisonings in Japan in 1985 that killed 12. |
Siswanto | Indonesia | 1994–1996 | 12 | Alias Robot Gedek. Homeless man that killed 12 boys. Sentenced to death on May 21, 1997. Died in prison on March 26, 2007. | |
Sergey Golovkin | Soviet Union Russia | 1986–1992 | 11 | 40+ | Killed at least 11 boys in the Moscow area between 1986 and 1992.[199] Executed by gunshot in 1996; last person executed in Russia before the death penalty was abolished. |
Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha | Brazil | 2011–2014 | 11 | 39 | Gomes da Rocha was a Brazilian security guard who confessed to the murders of 39 people. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for 11 murders, and attempted suicide while incarcerated.[200] |
Herb Baumeister | United States | 1990–1996 | 11 | 23 | Strangled gay men and buried their bodies in his backyard in Indiana and Ohio; 11 men were found in the yard but only five were identified. Died after shooting himself when faced with arrest.[201] |
Zhang Yongming | China | 2008–2012 | 11 | 17–20 | Sold flesh of his victims as 'ostrich meat' and kept eyeballs in wine. Executed.[202] |
Jack Unterweger | Austria United States Czechoslovakia | 1974–1992 | 11 | 15 | Served 14 years in Austrian prison because of a murder in 1974; killed at least nine prostitutes after his release. Was a small media star in Austrian media in the early 1990s and, on behalf of Austrian police, was arrested in the US, where he may have killed another three prostitutes. Hanged himself in 1994 after being sentenced to life in prison.[203] |
Vaughn Greenwood | United States | 1964–1975 | 11 | 13 | Known as the "Skid Row Slasher". Killed 11 people, suspected of two more. Cut victims' throats from ear to ear and may have drunk their blood. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.[204] |
Anthony Sowell | United States | 2007–2009 | 11 | 11+ | Known as The Cleveland Strangler, he was convicted of killing 11 women between 2007 and 2009, and is suspected in another series of murders in the 1980s, with the two sets of killings separated by a 15-year stint in prison. Sentenced to death.[205] |
Henri Désiré Landru | France | 1915–1919 | 11 | 11 | Nicknamed "Bluebeard", he put notes in the lonely hearts section of newspapers under different aliases, presenting himself as a widower that wanted to marry a war widow. He killed at least 10 women and the teenage son of one of them, and burned their bodies after he had gained access to their assets. Executed by guillotine in 1922.[206] |
Nannie Doss | United States | 1927–1954 | 11 | 11 | Responsible for 11 deaths between 1927 and 1954. Known as the "Giggling Nanny", the "Giggling Granny", and the "Jolly Black Widow". Sentenced to imprisonment for life. Died of leukemia in 1965, age 59.[207] |
Marie Alexandrine Becker | Belgium | 1933–1936 | 11 | 11 | Poisoned wealthy clients while working as a seamstress. Died in prison in 1942. |
Seisaku Nakamura | Japan | 1938–1942 | 11 | 11 | Teenage serial killer known as the "Hamamatsu Deaf Killer" for having been born deaf. Murdered 11 people (including his brother) and attacked many others, among them his father, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Tried as an adult and executed by hanging.[208] |
Robledo Puch | Argentina | 1971 | 11 | 11 | Convicted of 11 murders and multiple other crimes including attempted murder and sexual assault. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1980.[209] |
Clifford Olson | Canada | 1980–1981 | 11 | 11 | Considered a dangerous offender, meaning that Olson could never have been released from prison. He had three parole applications rejected.[210] Died from cancer in 2011. |
Francisco García Escalero | Spain | 1987–1994 | 11 | 11 | Known as "The Killer Beggar". A necrophilic, schizophrenic homeless man found insane and confined to a psychiatric hospital after killing 11 prostitutes and other homeless people between 1987 and 1994.[211] Died in 2014. |
Henry Louis Wallace | United States | 1990–1994 | 11 | 11 | Murdered 11 black women in Charlotte, North Carolina. The victims were all women that he knew. |
Benjamin Atkins | United States | 1991–1992 | 11 | 11 | Known as "The Woodward Corridor Killer". Raped and strangled his victims before abandoning their bodies in vacant buildings. Died in prison in 1997, age 29, from AIDS.[212] |
Adnan Çolak | Turkey | 1992–1995 | 11 | 11 | Killed 11 elderly women aged 68 to 95 and raped six others. Sentenced to death but commuted to life in prison after Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004. |
Andre Crawford | United States | 1993–1999 | 11 | 11 | Murdered 11 women between 1993 and 1999. Sentenced to life in prison.[213] |
Francisco de Assis Pereira | Brazil | 1997–1998 | 11 | 11 | Rapist and serial killer, known as "O Maníaco do Parque" (The Park Maniac). He was arrested for the torture, rape and death of 11 women and for assaulting nine in a park in São Paulo, Brazil during the 1990s. Pereira found his victims by posing as a talent scout for a modeling agency. Sentenced to 268 years.[214] |
Barnaul Maniac | Russia | 1997–2000 | 11 | 11 | The Barnaul Maniac was an unidentified Russian serial killer who murdered nine women and two girls in the city of Barnaul and the village of Buranovo. The main suspect was arrested in October 2000 but killed himself in jail in November that year. |
Gao Chengyong | China | 1998–2002 | 11 | 11 | Known as "Chinese Jack the Ripper"; killed women and then mutilated their corpses.[215] Executed in 2019. |
Yevgeny Petrov | Russia | 1998–2003 | 11 | 11 | Known as the "Novouralsk Ripper"; a child rapist who kidnapped and killed young girls around Novouralsk, mutilating and burning their corpses afterwards; sentenced to life imprisonment.[216] |
Ruslan Khamarov | Ukraine | 2000–2003 | 11 | 11 | Seduced, raped and then killed women in his home; sentenced to life imprisonment.[217] |
West Mesa Killer | United States | 2003–2005 | 11 | 11 | Remains of 11 women, who disappeared between 2003 and 2005, were found buried in the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2009 and attributed to a bone collector.[218] |
Very Idham Henyansyah | Indonesia | 2006–2008 | 11 | 11 | Known as the "singing serial killer" and "Ryan", the artistic name he adopted while awaiting his execution in prison, where he recorded an album and wrote his autobiography. "Ryan" confessed to murdering 11 people including a toddler; 10 of his victims were buried in his parents' home backyard while the last one was butchered and hidden in a suitcase. Sentenced to death.[219] |
Roshu Kha | Bangladesh | 2008 | 11 | 11 | Raped and murdered garment workers after being rejected by his lover. Sentenced to death.[220] |
Martin Lecián | Czechoslovakia | 1927 | 11 | Responsible for killing 10 policemen and 1 prison officer. Executed in 1927. | |
Lonnie David Franklin Jr. | United States | 1985–2007 | 10 | 25+ | Known as the "Grim Sleeper" for the alleged 14-year hiatus he took from murdering between 1988 and 2002. Shot and strangled his victims, mostly women, around South Los Angeles. Sentenced to death.[221][222] On March 28, 2020, Franklin was found dead in his cell.[223] |
Rudolf Pleil | West Germany | 1946–1947 | 10 | 25 | Known as Der Totmacher ("The Deadmaker"). Convicted of killing a salesman and nine women. Claimed to have killed 25.[224] Killed himself by hanging in 1958. |
Milton Johnson | United States | 1983 | 10 | 17 | Known as "The Weekend Murderer" killed up to 17 people.[225] Sentenced to life without parole. |
Long Island serial killer | United States | 1996–2010 | 10 | 16 | Unidentified serial killer also known as "The Gilgo Beach Killer". Believed to have murdered 10 to 14 people associated with the sex trade over a period of 15 years.[226] |
Daniel Lee Siebert | United States | 1979–1986 | 10 | 13 | Convicted of a 1979 manslaughter; killed 10 people across America in three months in mid-1980s including two children and a Southside Slayer victim.[227] Sentenced to death; died from cancer in prison in 2008. |
Sergey Cherny | Russia | 1999 | 10 | 11 | Strangled women around Smolensk; suspected of the drowning death of another woman; died in 2001 from pneumonia while in a special psychiatric hospital.[228] |
Jeanne Weber | France | 1905–1908 | 10 | 10+ | Transient baby-sitter who strangled children in her care. Declared insane. Hanged herself in prison in 1918.[229] |
Nikolai Dzhumagaliev | Soviet Union | 1979–1991 | 10 | 10+ | Lured women in a park at night and hacked them with an axe as part of a plan to rid the world of prostitution. Also cooked parts of his victims and ate them himself or served them to other people as part of ethnic dishes. Found innocent by reason of insanity and interned in a mental institution. |
Bobby Joe Long | United States | 1984 | 10 | 10+ | Known as "The Classified Ad Rapist"; killed 10 women in Tampa Bay, Florida in 1984. Sentenced to death. Executed by lethal injection on 23 May 2019.[230] |
Stewart Wilken | South Africa | 1990–1997 | 10 | 10+ | Known as "Boetie Boer"; raped, sodomised and murdered 10 victims from 1990 to 1997. Sentenced to seven life terms.[231] |
Viktor Fokin | Russia | 1996–2000 | 10 | 10+ | Known as the "Grandfather Ripper"; pensioner who lured, killed and then dismembered prostitutes and alcohol abusers in his home, disposing of the remains in garbage containers after; died while imprisoned at a corrective labor colony. |
David Randitsheni | South Africa | 2004–2008 | 10 | 10+ | Kidnapped 19 people, raped 17, and murdered 10. Sentenced to 16 consecutive life sentences plus 220 years in prison; hanged himself three weeks after conviction.[232] |
Edmund Kemper | United States | 1964–1973 | 10 | 10 | Known as "The Co-ed Butcher." At age 15, he confessed to murdering his grandparents and served six years as a criminally insane juvenile. He was released in 1969. In 1972 and 1973, he murdered and dismembered six young women, then killed his mother and her friend. He was sentenced to eight counts of seven years to life.[233] |
Dennis Rader | United States | 1974–2004 | 10 | 10 | Known as the BTK Killer. Murdered 10 people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for 175 years.[234] |
Stanislav Rogolev | Soviet Union | 1980–1982 | 10 | 10 | Known as "Agent 000"; killed and raped women, managing to avoid capture through suspected knowledge of the investigation against him; executed by firing squad in 1984.[235] |
Oleg Kuznetsov | Soviet Union Russia Ukraine | 1991–1992 | 10 | 10 | Robbed, raped and killed people around Russia and Ukraine; sentenced to death but commuted to life imprisonment.[236] |
Robert Wagner | Australia | 1992–1999 | 10 | 10 | Secondary ringleader in the Snowtown murders and best friend of John Justin Bunting; sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.[237] |
Satish | India | 1995–1998 | 10 | 10 | Killed 10 girls who were between the ages of five and nine. He was arrested from Bahadurgargh, Haryana after a long chase by Haryana police.[238] |
Eduard Shemyakov | Russia | 1996–1998 | 10 | 10 | Known as the "Resort Maniac"; Ukrainian who raped, killed and dismembered women in St. Petersburg, supposedly cannibalizing one of the victims; sentenced to compulsory treatment.[239] |
Ali Kaya | Turkey | 1997–2014? | 10 | 10 | Known as "The Baby Faced Killer"; responsible for 10 murders. Escaped from prison and later recaptured.[240] |
Chen Yongfeng | China | 2003 | 10 | 10 | Known as "The Butcher"; killed and dismembered 10 people at his house in the city of Wenzhou in the Zhejiang province within the span of a few months.[241] |
Zhou Kehua | China | 2004–2012 | 10 | 10 | A former soldier who targeted ATM users. He killed 10 people and evaded the law for eight years, before being shot in a shootout with police after a year-long manhunt.[242] |
Kang Ho-sun | South Korea | 2006–2008 | 10 | 10 | Sentenced to death in 2010 for killing 10 women, including his wife and mother-in-law.[243] |
Masten Wanjala | Kenya | 2015–2021 | 10 | 10 | Described as a "bloodthirsty vampire"; confessed to killing and drinking the blood of multiple children in Nairobi and led police to the bodies of some of the victims.[244] Wanjala escaped from police custody while awaiting trial, but was later found in Bungoma County and murdered by angry locals.[245] |
Louis van Schoor | South Africa | 1986–1989 | 9 | 100 | Former security guard who was convicted of seven murders and two assassinations, but confessed to a reporter that he murdered 100 people; sentenced to 20 years in prison and released on parole in 2004.[246] |
Peter Kürten | German Empire Germany | 1913–1930 | 9 | 79 | Charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders. Dubbed "The Vampire of Düsseldorf" by the contemporary media. Executed by guillotine in 1931.[247] |
Roger Dale Stafford | United States | 1974–1978 | 9 | 34 | Killed nine people in two states, including a family of three; his wife implicated him in 34 total murders in different states; executed by lethal injection in 1995.[248] |
Norman Afzal Simons | South Africa | 1986–1994 | 9 | 22 | Known as the "Station Strangler", convicted of only one of 22 cases of murder and sodomy of young children near Cape Town.[249] Sentenced to imprisonment for life. |
Francis Heaulme | France | 1984–1992 | 9 | 20 | Convicted of killing nine people, but suspected in the murder of dozens. He is known as the "Criminal Backpacker" due to his travels throughout France. He left a trail of bodies wherever he went.[250] |
Joel Rifkin | United States | 1989–1993 | 9 | 17 | Known as "The Drifter",[251] killed prostitutes in New York City, most of them drug addicts. Convicted of nine murders but believed to have committed 17; also suspected of being the unidentified Long Island serial killer. Sentenced to 203 years to imprisonment for life. |
Dagmar Overbye | Denmark | 1913–1920 | 9 | 15 | Murdered between nine and 25 children—of which one was her own—during a seven-year period. In 1921, she was sentenced to death in one of the most talked about trials in Danish history, that changed legislation on childcare. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Overbye was working as a professional child minder, caring for babies born outside of marriage, murdering her charges. She strangled them, drowned them or burned them to death in her masonry heater. The corpses were either cremated, buried or hidden in the loft.[252] Died in prison in 1929. |
Kenneth McDuff | United States | 1966–1992 | 9 | 14+ | Known as "The Broomstick Killer"; death sentence for 1966 triple-murder was commuted. Killed again three days after 1989 parole and 10 further times in Waco, Texas until 1992. Executed by lethal injection in 1998.[253] |
Robert Joseph Silveria Jr. | United States | 1981–1996 | 9 | 14+ | Known as "The Boxcar Killer"; freight train rider convicted of beating to death fellow transients and confessed to dozens more.[254] |
Dr. No | United States | 1981–1990 | 9 | 12 | Supposedly murdered prostitutes and exotic dancers; his first victim was Marcia King, who was identified in 2018.[255][256] |
Richard Biegenwald | United States | 1958–1983 | 9 | 11+ | Known as "The Thrill Killer". Killed at least nine people in Monmouth County, New Jersey and is suspected in at least two other murders.[257] Died of respiratory and kidney failure in 2008. |
New Bedford Highway Killer | United States | 1988–1989 | 9 | 11 | Unidentified serial killer who killed nine women and disappearance of two others between 1988 and 1989.[258] |
Alexander Bychkov | Russia | 2009–2012 | 9 | 11 | Described in his personal diary how he killed 11 men who were alcoholics and tramps. Confessed to eating body parts of his victims. Found guilty of nine murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.[259] |
Maryvale serial shooter | United States | 2015–2016 | 9 | 11 | Motorist who shot 12 people in separate events in Phoenix, Arizona, killing nine. Aaron Saucedo was charged with the shootings and two additional murders in 2017.[260] |
Edgecombe County Serial Killer | United States | 2000s | 9 | 10 | Unidentified serial killer who killed nine women and possibly another who disappeared since 2005 around Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Antwan Pittman was convicted in one case.[261] |
Sergei Martynov | Russia | 1992–2010 | 9 | 9+ | Convicted of raping and murdering a woman in 1992. Sentenced to life imprisonment for killing eight more women during a violent crime spree between 2005 and 2010. |
Lloyd Gomez | United States | 1950–1951 | 9 | 9 | Known as "The Phantom Hobo Killer"; homeless man who killed other homeless men across California in the early 1950s.[262] |
Timothy Krajcir | United States | 2000s | 9 | 9 | Killed nine women across Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri (five in Cape Girardeau) in the 1970s and 1980s.[263] |
Anatoly Utkin | Soviet Union | 1968–1973 | 9 | Known as "Ulyanovsky maniac"; killed 8 girls and 1 man from 1968 to 1973; executed 1975. | |
Gilberto Chamba | Ecuador Spain | 1988–2004 | 9 | Taxi driver known as "The Monster of Machala", between 1988 and 1993 abducted 10 of his passengers (all lone female students) in this Ecuadorian city and killed 8, often raping them after with a stick. Though sentenced to 16 years in prison, he benefitted from an amnesty campaign in 2000 that also cleared his criminal record and moved to Spain, where he was arrested for the rape and murder of another student and the attempted rape and murder of a prostitute in 2004. Sentenced in 2005 to 45 years in prison. | |
Ondrej Rigo | Czechoslovakia Germany Netherlands | 1990–1992 | 9 | Slovak serial killer and necrophile who committed his murders during the early 1990s in Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands. He was arrested in 1992 and received a life sentence in 1994. He remains the murderer with the biggest number of victims in the modern history of Slovakia. | |
Alfred Gaynor | United States | 1995–1998 | 9 | Crack cocaine addict. Killed nine women in Massachusetts. Sentenced to life in prison on May 19, 2000. | |
Mark Goudeau | United States | 2005–2006 | 9 | Known as "The Baseline Killer"; convicted of nine murders in Phoenix, Arizona. | |
Keith Hunter Jesperson | United States | 1990–1995 | 8 | 160 | Dubbed the "Happy Face Killer", Jesperson was convicted of killing eight women by strangulation.[264] |
Rodney Alcala | United States | 1971–1979 | 8 | 130+ | Known as the "Dating Game Killer" for appearing on the game show The Dating Game in the middle of his killing years. Was convicted of at least five murders, though his actual total is estimated to be much higher. |
Ottis Toole | United States | 1980–1983 | 8 | 100–125 | Initially convicted of three counts of murder, later pleaded guilty to four more murders before dying in prison. A sometime accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, Toole admitted to—and retracted multiple times—over 100 counts of murder, rape, arson and cannibalism, and was suspected in several other unsolved murders. In 2008, police announced that they had identified Toole as the likely murderer of Adam Walsh, and would be closing the case as a result.[265] |
Diego Alexánder Ruiz Restrepo | Chile | 2018–2020 | 8 | 28 | Known as the "Psycopath of Meiggs". Illegal Colombian immigrant who has been living in Chile since 2013, often resorting to robbing and killing homeless people. Although he has had only 8 confirmed victims, he is currently being investigated for 20 more, which, if confirmed, would turn him into the most murderous serial killer in Chilean history.[266] |
Kiyotaka Katsuta | Japan | 1982–1983 | 8 | 22 | Strangled or shot people to rob them, using a gun he had stolen from a policeman after running him over with his car. Hanged in 2000.[267] |
Joseph Paul Franklin | United States | 1977–1980 | 8 | 20+ | White supremacist shooter who confessed to 20 murders and several attempted murders. Executed by lethal injection in 2013.[268] |
Pierre Chanal | France | 1980–1988 | 8 | 17 | Military instructor suspected of killing boys and men in Marne; killed himself before trial.[269] |
Christopher Wilder | United States | 1984 | 8 | 13+ | Killed eight women during a spree before accidentally shooting himself; suspected in the disappearance and murder of more than five more.[270] |
Axeman of New Orleans | United States | 1918–1919 | 8 | 12+ | Unidentified serial killer of at least eight people in the New Orleans area from May 1918 to October 1919.[271] |
Vladimir Retunsky | Russia | 1990–1996 | 8 | 12 | Known as the "Povorinsky Maniac"; kidnapped, raped and killed hitchhikers in his hometown of Povorino, possibly abusing their corpses; initially sentenced to death, but later reduced to 15 years imprisonment and released in 2015.[272] |
Gilbert Paul Jordan | Canada | 1965–1987 | 8 | 10 | Known as the "Boozing Barber", he would typically find alcoholic women in bars in Vancouver's destitute Downtown Eastside, buy them drinks or pay them for sex and encourage them to drink with him. When they passed out, he would pour more liquor down their throats. The resulting deaths were reported as alcohol poisoning and generally ignored by police as the intentional murders blended in with the common occurrence in that neighbourhood. Died in 2006.[273] |
Frankford Slasher | United States | 1985–1990 | 8 | 9 | Allegedly responsible for nine murders in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Leonard Christopher was convicted of one murder; another murder was committed in same style while he was incarcerated; believed to still be at large. |
Kendall Francois | United States | 1996–1998 | 8 | 9 | Admitted to killing eight prostitutes in Poughkeepsie, New York, but denied involvement with the disappearance of a ninth prostitute. |
Yoshio Kodaira | China Japan | 1932–1946 | 8 | 8+ | A serial rapist, Kodaira killed his father-in-law in 1932 and seven to 10 women in Japan between 1945 and 1946, engaging in necrophilia after the fifth murder. Previously (1920s) he had been deployed to Northern China as a sailor in the Imperial Japanese Navy, where he was free to target the locals. Hanged in 1949. |
John Christie | United Kingdom | 1943–1953 | 8 | 8+ | Serial killer and alleged necrophile active during the 1940s and early 1950s. He murdered at least eight people—including his wife, Ethel—by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. The bodies of three of Christie's victims were found in a wallpaper-covered kitchen alcove soon after Christie moved out of Rillington Place during March 1953. The remains of two more victims were discovered in the garden, and his wife's body was found beneath the floorboards of the front room. Christie was arrested and convicted of his wife's murder, for which he was hanged. |
Eric Edgar Cooke | Australia | 1958–1963 | 8 | 8+ | Known as the "Night Caller" and later the "Nedlands Monster"; killed at least eight people and attempted to kill at least fourteen in and around Perth between 1959 and 1963; he was the last person to be hanged in Western Australia.[274] |
Forest City Killer | Canada | 1969–1970 | 8 | 8+ | Unidentified serial killer from the late 1960s to early 1970s. Based on the number of unsolved murders of women in the era, there is probably at least one other victim.[275] |
John Edward Robinson | United States | 1984–2000 | 8 | 8+ | Known as "The Slavemaster"; lured victims through the internet. |
Bruce McArthur | Canada | 2010–2017 | 8 | 8 | One of the oldest known serial killers, active at 65, he lured men to secret sexual encounters involving drugs and bondage, killed them and dismembered their bodies which he hid in garden planters.[276] |
Paul Ogorzow | Germany | 1940–1941 | 8 | Known as the "S-Bahn murderer"; SA sergeant convicted of raping and murdering eight women by throwing them off trains in Berlin during blackouts in 1941 and 1942. Executed by guillotine at the Plötzensee Prison on July 26, 1941. | |
Genzo Kurita | Japan | 1948–1952 | 8 | Serial rapist and murderer, engaging in necrophilia in two of his murders. Two other victims were the children of the woman he targeted, who Kurita threw off a cliff (a third child survived). Hanged in 1959. | |
Marie Noe | United States | 1949–1968 | 8 | Murdered eight of her children between 1949 and 1968. | |
Kiyoshi Okubo | Japan | 1971 | 8 | Raped and murdered eight women aged 17 to 21 upon his release from prison, where he had been for previous rapes. Hanged in 1976. | |
Marybeth Tinning | United States | 1972–1983 | 8 | Suffocated eight of her nine children during the 1970s. One daughter died of natural causes shortly after birth, the first of the Tinning children to die. | |
Michael Bruce Ross | United States | 1981–1984 | 8 | Ross confessed to all of the murders, and was convicted of four of them. He was executed by the state of Connecticut on May 13, 2005 by lethal injection, making it the first execution in Connecticut and the whole of New England since 1960. | |
Gary C. Evans | United States | 1985–1998 | 8 | Befriended the Son of Sam killer while incarcerated. Released in 1984, he proceeded to burglarize and kill while in and out of jails for over 13 years. Aided investigators in a high profile murder case before dodging parole and being chased. The manhunt finally ended when he jumped to his death off a bridge. | |
Colonial Parkway Killer | United States | 1986–1989 | 8 | Believed to have murdered at least eight people in Virginia between 1986 and 1989; left three couples dead and one couple missing and presumed dead. | |
Sean Vincent Gillis | United States | 1994–2003 | 8 | Kidnapped, raped, and mutilated the corpses of Louisiana women.[277][278][279] | |
Vladimir Mukhankin | Russia | 1995–1996 | 8 | Known as "The pupil of Chikatilo"; he killed 8 women. | |
Manuel Delgado Villegas | Spain France (claimed) Italy (claimed) | 1964–1971 | 7 | 48 | Wandering criminal known as El Arropiero ("The Arrope Trader") and El Estrangulador del Puerto ("The Strangler of Puerto"). Confessed to the impulsive murders of 48 people of different sex, age, wealth and sexual orientation in three countries (including his girlfriend, whom he strangled during sex), but police only investigated him for 22 murders in Spain and was considered proven author of seven. Some of his victims were killed with hand to hand combat techniques that he had learned in the Spanish Foreign Legion. Diagnosed with XYY syndrome and interned in a mental institution until his death in 1998.[280] |
Ershad Sikder | Bangladesh | 1991–1999 | 7 | 43+ | Career criminal and corrupt politician responsible for numerous torture murders in the 1990s; convincted on seven counts and executed 2004.[281] |
Ivan Milat | Australia | 1990s | 7 | 23–37 | Convicted of the Backpacker murders; sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years without the possibility of parole. May have had accomplices.[282] |
Reta Mays | United States | 2017–2018 | 7 | 20 | Nursing assistant who killed elderly military veterans at a VA hospital in Clarksburg, West Virginia by injecting them with lethal doses of insulin.[283] |
Stockton serial shootings | United States | 2021–2022 | 7 | 8 | On October 15, 2022, a Stockton man, Wesley Brownlee, was arrested in connection to the shootings.[284] |
Michael Wayne McGray | Canada United States | 1985–1988 | 7 | 18+ | Convicted of the murder of six people in the late 1990s, including a woman and her 11-year-old daughter. Claims to have killed 11 others, including murders committed while on parole and while on a three-day pass from prison. Finally imprisoned for life, killed a cellmate in 2010.[285] |
Łódź Gay Murderer | Poland | 1988–1993 | 7 | 7 | Unidentified serial killer who killed gay men in Łódź, estimated to have killed 7 people.[286] |
John Floyd Thomas Jr. | United States | 1957–2009 | 7 | 15+ | Serial murderer and rapist with one of the longest criminal careers in the US. |
Kenneth Erskine | United Kingdom | 1986 | 7 | 11 | Known as "The Stockwell Strangler", he was a burglar who raped and strangled at least seven elderly women after breaking into their homes.[287] |
David Carpenter | United States | 1979–1981 | 7 | 11 | Known as "The Trailside Killer"; murdered women on San Francisco-area hiking trails between 1979 and 1981. Sentenced to death.[288] |
Vladimir Kuzmin | Russia | 1997 | 7 | 11 | Raped, murdered and robbed mostly young boys and men in Moscow; assisted in his first two murders by Denis Kalistratov; sentenced to life imprisonment.[289] |
Tommy Recco | France | 1960–1980 | 7 | 10 | Murdered his godfather in 1960; after release, killed six cashiers in two separate store raids; also suspected of murdering a trio of German tourists.[290] |
Derrick Todd Lee | United States | 2002 | 7 | 10 | Known as the "Baton Rouge or South Louisiana Serial Killer" convicted of three murders. Believed to have murdered several other women in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Sentenced to death, died in 2016.[291] |
Tomás Maldonado Cera | Colombia | 2002–2018 | 7 | 10 | Known as "The Satanist"; killed people in Barranquila for the purpose of satanic rituals.[292] |
Peter Manuel | United Kingdom | 1956–1958 | 7 | 9 | Hanged in 1958 after being convicted of seven murders at a sensational trial in Glasgow, may have committed two more. |
Terry Blair | United States | 1982–2004 | 7 | 9 | Kansas City serial killer and rapist; active 1982–2004. Sentenced to life. |
Doug Clark | United States | 1980 | 7 | 8+ | Boiler operator who killed prostitutes in Los Angeles. One of the "Sunset Strip Killers". |
Stanisław Modzelewski | Poland | 1952–1967 | 7 | 8 | Known as "The Vampire of Gałkówek". Confessed to strangling eight women, but convicted of seven because one of the bodies was never found. |
Michael Hughes | United States | 1986–1993 | 7 | 8 | Killed six women and a schoolgirl in the South Los Angeles area between 1986 and 1993. |
Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer | United States | 1972–1973 | 7 | 7+ | "Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders": Series of at least seven unsolved homicides involving female hitchhikers that took place in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa of the North Bay area of California in 1972 and 1973. |
Roger Kibbe | United States | 1977–1987 | 7 | 7+ | Known as "The I-5 Strangler", killed 7 women between 1977 and 1987. 6 along I-5 near Sacramento, and one in Walnut Creek, California. He was tried for the Walnut Creek murder by the Grand Jury before the body was found but in exchange for helping to find the body Kibbe was spared the death penalty and received life in prison. It took detectives 34 years to find the body. |
Connecticut River Valley Killer | United States | 1978–1987 | 7 | 7+ | Believed responsible for a series of similar knife murders mostly in and around Claremont, New Hampshire, and the Connecticut River Valley, primarily in the 1980s. |
Paul Durousseau | United States | 1997–2003 | 7 | 7+ | A former soldier who strangled several women between the ages of 17 and 26 in the southeastern United States. He had the moniker of the Jacksonville Ripper and had the reputation of being a lewd womanizer. |
Todd Kohlhepp | United States | 2003–2016 | 7 | 7+ | A registered sex offender; Shot up a motorcycle shop in 2003, killing 4; killed 3 more victims in 2015 and 2016; is currently serving 7 life sentences for the crimes.[293] |
Darren Deon Vann | United States | 2014 and earlier | 7 | 7+ | Confessed to the murders of at least seven women. |
Aileen Wuornos | United States | 1989–1990 | 7 | 7 | Sex worker that shot her victims at point blank range.[294] Executed in 2002. |
Hu Daoping | China | 2003–2005 | 7 | 7 | Career criminal who, following a jail escape in 1998, killed seven people during robberies.[295] |
Nikos Metaxas | Cyprus | 2016–2018 | 7 | 7 | A 35-year-old Cypriot Army officer who killed five women and two children between September 2016 and August 2018. These became known as the "Mitsero murders." Sentenced to 7 life sentences.[296][297] |
José Misael Roldán Concha | Chile | 1954–1957 | 7 | 7 | Killed an iron mine worker in 1954. After being free on parole, he killed a woman and five of her seven children. Originally sentenced to death, but was later imprisoned for life after a presidential pardon. |
Sataro Fukiage | Japan | 1906–1924 | 7 | Killed seven girls aged 11 to 16 and raped between 93 and 100. Hanged in 1926. | |
Joseph Taborsky | United States | 1950–1957 | 7 | Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky was sentenced to death after brutal robberies and murders in Connecticut during the 1950s. | |
Václav Mrázek | Czechoslovakia | 1951–1956 | 7 | Killed 7 women in Chomutov. Executed in 1957. | |
Anatoly Slivko | Soviet Union | 1961–1985 | 7 | As a member of the Young Pioneers (Soviet Boy Scouts), Slivko gained the trust of 43 young boys over almost three decades, asphyxiated them until they fell unconscious, and then ritually molested, filmed, photographed and resuscitated them. The seven boys that didn't wake up were dismembered and burned. Minutes before his execution in 1989, police asked Slivko for advice in the investigation of Andrei Chikatilo's crimes. | |
Cincinnati Strangler | United States | 1965–1966 | 7 | Raped and strangled seven mostly elderly women in Cincinnati, Ohio between 1965 and 1966. Believed to be Posteal Laskey, who was convicted of one murder and died in prison on May 29, 2007. | |
Émile Louis | France | 1975–1978 | 7 | Bus driver that preyed on young handicapped women (seven murders) in the 1970s. Sentenced to life in prison on November 25, 2004. | |
Paul Steven Haigh | Australia | 1978–1991 | 7 | Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murders of seven people in Victoria. | |
Aleksey Sukletin | Soviet Union | 1979–1985 | 7 | Known as "The Alligator"; killed and cannibalized at least 7 girl and women from 1979 to 1985; executed 1987. | |
Roberto Succo | Italy France | 1981–1988 | 7 | In 1986 he escaped the mental hospital where he was recluded in for murdering his parents five years earlier and began a crime spree in Europe that included burglary, hijacking, kidnapping, rape and murder and earned him the Public Enemy Number One spot in Italy, France and Switzerland. Committed suicide in prison after failing to escape a second time. | |
Walter E. Ellis | United States | 1986–2007 | 7 | Known as "The Milwaukee North Side Strangler"; convicted of killing 7 prostitutes in Wisconsin between 1986 and 2007. Died in prison on December 1, 2013. | |
Harrison Graham | United States | 1987 | 7 | Convicted of killing seven women in Philadelphia and keeping their bodies in his apartment.[298] | |
Guy Georges | France | 1991–1997 | 7 | Known as the "Beast of the Bastille"; serving a life sentence for seven murders between 1991 and 1997. | |
Motta Navas | India | 1996–2012 | 7 | Active in Kollam, Kerala, Navas was arrested and imprisoned for his first two murders in 1996 and 2007. During his final crime spree in 2012, he bludgeoned to death five elderly pavement dwellers in their sleep, always after midnight. He feigned a mental illness to avoid suspicion by the police in at least two occasions. | |
Paul Dennis Reid | United States | 1997 | 7 | Reid killed the employees of restaurants he targeted for a series of robberies. | |
Samuel Sidyno | South Africa | 1998–1999 | 7 | Known as the "Capital Hill Serial Killer" murdered 7 people in Pretoria from 1998–1999. | |
Ripper Jayanandan | India | 2003–2006 | 7 | Killed seven people during robberies. Sentenced to death. | |
Sibusiso Duma | South Africa | 2007 | 7 | Murdered 7 people in the Pietermaritzburg area of KwaZulu Natal in 2007. | |
Tommy Lynn Sells | United States | 1980–1999 | 6 | 22–70 | Drifter active throughout the United States who specialized in killing children and multiple victims after breaking into their homes. Caught when a 10-year-old girl survived his attack and provided a description of him. Executed in 2014.[299] |
Volker Eckert | East Germany Germany France Spain Czech Republic (suspected) Italy (suspected) | 1974–2006 | 6 | 19+ | German trucker who confessed to having abducted, tortured and killed five prostitutes through his route in Western Europe, plus strangling a 14-year-old girl in his native West Germany in 1974, when he was 15. Police considered him perpetrator of nine murders (with four more being possible); he hanged himself in prison before being convicted. |
Lorenzo Gilyard | United States | 1977–1993 | 6 | 13+ | Known as "The Kansas City Strangler". Killed up to 13 prostitutes in the Kansas City area from 1977 to 1993. Sentenced to life in 2007.[300] |
Władysław Mazurkiewicz | Poland | 1950s | 6 | 30 | Known as "The Gentleman Killer". Indicted of, and confessed to having committed 30 murders; convicted of six and hanged in 1957.[301] |
Gong Runbo | China | 2005–2006 | 6 | 20+ | Found guilty of the murders of six children and teenagers aged between nine and 16 from 2005 to 2006; executed in 2007.[302] |
The Doodler | United States | 1974–1975 | 6 | 16 | Unidentified serial killer who sketched then stabbed to death 14 gay men in San Francisco. Surviving victims did not wish to testify, so the killer was not identified.[303] |
Cristopher Chávez Cuellar | Colombia | 1990s–2015 | 6 | 15+ | Known as "The Soulless"; killed between 6 and at least 15 people starting from the 1990s, including 4 underage brothers; sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.[304] |
András Pándy | Belgium | 1986–1990 | 6 | 14+ | Former clergyman nicknamed "Father Bluebeard", killed his two wives and four of his children with the help of a fifth he was having an incestuous affair with, and whom denounced him to the authorities seven years later. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002.[305] |
John Wayne Glover | Australia | 1989–1990 | 6 | 13 | British ex-pat living in Australia. Known by the media as "The Granny Killer" as he targeted elderly women; killed himself while in prison in 2005.[306] |
Alexander Sergeychik | Belarus | 2000–2006 | 6 | 12 | Killed between six and 12 people under the influence of alcohol. Executed in 2007.[307] |
Adrián Arroyo Gutiérrez | Costa Rica | 2014–2015 | 6 | 11 | Known as "The Southern Psychopath"; raped and strangled drug-addicted prostitutes in San José; sentenced to 110 years imprisonment.[308] |
Joseph Naso | United States | 1977–1994 | 6 | 10 | A freelance photographers who raped and strangled to death women in California. Arrested in 2011 and sentenced to death two years later. Known as "The Double Initial Killer" since first four victims to be identified bore double initials.[309] |
John George Haigh | United Kingdom | 1944–1949 | 6 | 9 | Called the "Acid Bath Murderer" for dissolving his victims in sulphuric acid under the belief that he could not be prosecuted for murder if no body was found. He would then forge papers to sell the victims possessions. Confessed nine murders, convicted of six and hanged. |
Jack the Stripper | United Kingdom | 1964–1965 | 6 | 8 | Murdered at least six prostitutes in London and may have been responsible for the deaths of two others before that. Remains unidentified. |
Morris Solomon Jr. | United States | 1986–1987 | 6 | 7 | Handyman who killed six young women between 1986 and 1987 in Sacramento, California. Sentenced to death on September 16, 1992. |
Mack Ray Edwards | United States | 1953–1970 | 6 | 6+ | Molester. Murdered 2 young girls and 4 young boys. Claimed at one point to have killed as many as 18. |
Terry Peder Rasmussen | United States | 1978–2002 | 6 | 6+ | Known as the "Chameleon Killer"; main suspect in the Bear Brook murders, as well as other murders.[310] |
Robert Berdella | United States | 1984–1987 | 6 | 6+ | Berdella abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least six men. |
Juan Chavez | United States | 1986–1990 | 6 | 6+ | Murdered six men in Los Angeles County in what he claimed was a retaliation against the AIDS epidemic.[311] |
David Berkowitz | United States | 1976–1977 | 6 | 6 | Known as "Son of Sam", he went after young women and couples killing 6 people and wounding 7 others with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. He was caught when an eyewitness to his last murder saw he had a parking ticket on his car. He was sentenced to life in prison with parole in 1978.[312] |
Richard Chase | United States | 1977–1978 | 6 | 6 | Known as "The Vampire of Sacramento" because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains. He killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California.[313] The 1987 film Rampage was loosely based on based on Chase's crimes.[314] |
Michael Terry | United States | 1985–1986 | 6 | 6 | Murdered six men in Atlanta, Georgia in a 10-month period, via stabbing or shooting. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988.[315] |
Lázaro Barbosa de Sousa | Brazil | 2006–2021 | 6 | 6 | Convicted of a double murder in 2007; later escaped from prison and murdered a family of 4 before dying in a shootout with the police.[316] |
Alfredo Galán | Spain | 2003 | 6 | 6 | Shot random people over the course of three months, killing six and wounding three. He would sometimes leave a Spanish playing card at the scene of the crime as a signature.[317] |
Friedrich Schumann | Germany | 1918–1920 | 6 | Killed six people and executed in 1921. | |
Eugen Weidmann | France | 1937 | 6 | German who strangled and robbed American dancer Jean de Koven, shot a former accomplice, and shot dead and robbed four other people around Paris in 1937. | |
Rhonda Belle Martin | United States | 1937–1951 | 6 | Alabama poisoner who murdered six family members; executed in 1957. | |
Leslie Irvin | United States | 1954–1955 | 6 | Known as "The Mad Dog Killer"; Killed six people in robberies in the mid-1950s; his Supreme Court case set a precedent for fair trials of highly publicized defendants. | |
Lemuel Smith | United States | 1958–1981 | 6 | Confessed to the murders of five people, including an on-duty female prison guard. Sentenced to death on June 10, 1983. Commuted to life in 1984. | |
Freeway Phantom | United States | 1971–1972 | 6 | Raped and strangled six young women and girls in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s, dumping their bodies by freeways. | |
David Mason | United States | 1980–1982 | 6 | Strangled four elderly neighbors, his cellmate when imprisoned on lesser charges; shot his boyfriend. | |
Dayton Leroy Rogers | United States | 1983–1987 | 6 | Killed street women, usually addicts, prostitutes and runaways. He would tie, rape, and kill them in a forest. | |
Norbert Poehlke | West Germany | 1984–1985 | 6 | Known as "The Hammer-Killer", German police officer who was found, after his suicide in 1985, to have committed several bank robberies and murders. | |
Wolfgang Schmidt | East Germany Germany | 1989–1991 | 6 | Known as the "Beast of Beelitz". Killed five women and a 3 month old baby from 1989 to 1991. Currently in a psychiatric hospital. | |
Cleophus Prince Jr. | United States | 1990 | 6 | Known as "The Clairemont Killer"; raped and killed six women in San Diego in 1990. | |
Nathaniel White | United States | 1991–1992 | 6 | Convicted of stabbing to death six women in the Hudson Valley, New York area from 1991 to 1992. | |
Samuel Bongani Mfeka | South Africa | 1993–1996 | 6 | Killed 6 women from 1993 to 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment. | |
Gary Ray Bowles | United States | 1994 | 6 | Beat and strangled six men to death to steal their credit cards in 1994. | |
Rory Enrique Conde | United States | 1994–1995 | 6 | Known as "The Tamiami Trail Strangler". Killed 6 prostitutes in Florida. Sentenced to death on March 7, 2000. | |
Nicholas Lungisa Ncama | South Africa | 1997 | 6 | Murdered 6 people in the Eastern Cape, 1997. | |
Aleksandr Rubel | Estonia | 1997–1998 | 6 | He was intoxicated on gasoline vapour during his murders. Sentenced as a minor to the maximum punishment allowed by law — eight years imprisonment — he was released in 2006. | |
Celine Lesage | France | 2000–2007 | 6 | Killed seven of her newborn babies and sentenced to 15 years in prison. | |
Filiberto Hernández Martínez | Mexico | 2010–2013 | 6 | Killed six people from 2010 to 2013 in Tamuín. | |
Zodiac Killer | United States | 1968–1969 | 5 | 37 | Targeted young couples. Remains unsolved but open in the California jurisdictions where the five certain Zodiac murders occurred. Potentially 37 total victims claimed but unverified.[318] |
Carl Panzram | United States Portuguese Angola | 1915–1929 | 5 | 22 | From 1920 to 1928, he claimed in a posthumous autobiography to have committed over 22 killings, and sodomy of more than 1000 young men. Executed in 1930 by hanging.[319] |
Steve Wright | United Kingdom | 2006 | 5 | 22 | Referred to as "Suffolk murders", "Ipswich murders", "Ipswich Ripper", "Suffolk Ripper", "Suffolk Strangler", "East Anglia Ripper", "Red Light Ripper" and "the Suffolkator". Murdered five prostitutes, all of whom worked in Ipswich in 2006. There are possible links to previous East Anglia prostitute killings.[320][321] |
Stephen Akinmurele | United Kingdom | 1995–1998 | 5 | 15 | Nigerian man who killed himself after being charged for the murders of 5 elderly people in Blackpool and Isle of Man. He confessed to the murders. Links to 10 other unsolved murders in the areas were investigated by police.[322] |
Joe Metheny | United States | 1976–1996 | 5 | 13 | Butchered his victims, then served them at BBQs at his roadside stand; died in prison.[323] |
Michel Peiry | Switzerland France United States Yugoslavia (suspected) Italy (suspected) | 1981–1987 | 5 | 11 | Known as the "Sadist of Romont"; Swiss serial killer who sexually abused and murdered at least 5 hitchhikers in several countries; sentenced to life imprisonment.[324] |
Hubert Pilčík | Czechoslovakia | 1948–1951 | 5 | 10+ | Made money smuggling people across the Czechoslovakia-Germany border, but killed most of his customers. Total number of his victims is unknown. |
Melvin Rees | United States | 1957–1959 | 5 | 9 | Known as "The Sex Beast"; shot and defiled a woman in 1957, torture-murdered a family of four in 1959 and suspected in four other killings. |
David Maust | West Germany United States | 1974–2003 | 5 | 9 | Killed teenage boys; caught when bodies of three boys were found in the concrete floor of his basement in Hammond, Indiana. Committed suicide in prison in 2006. |
William Patrick Fyfe | Canada | 1979–1999 | 5 | 9 | Convicted of killing five women in the Montreal area of Quebec, although he claims to have killed four others. Serving a life sentence in West Canada. |
Willem van Eijk | Netherlands | 1971–2001 | 5 | 8 | Dutch serial killer known as "Het Beest van Harkstede" (The Beast of Harkstede). All proven victims he killed were all prostitutes. Sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for his first two murders and killed 3 more after his release. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 and died in 2019 in prison. Suspected of having killed 3 more prostitutes. |
Danny Rolling | United States | 1989–1990 | 5 | 8 | Known as the "Gainesville Ripper"; murdered five students in August 1990. Executed on October 6, 2006. Shortly before his execution, he gave a handwritten confession to authorities for a triple homicide of an elderly man, his adult daughter, and young grandson that occurred years earlier in Rolling's hometown of Shreveport, LA. Although Rolling was never officially charged or extradicted to LA to stand trial for the "Grissom Murders", Shreveport Police had confirmed even before the confession that Rolling had long been considered the lone suspect and the case was closed. |
Allan Joseph Legere | Canada | 1989 | 5 | 7+ | Convicted of killing five people in the Miramichi area, New Brunswick. Legere is now serving a life sentence Canada's only super maximum prison (Special Handling Unit). |
Joseph E. Duncan III | United States | 1996–2005 | 5 | 7 | Convicted of killing a California boy in 1997 and 4 members of an Idaho family in 2005. Confessed to two 1996 murders in Washington state, but has not been formally charged. Currently on U.S. federal death row. |
Vincent Johnson | United States | 1999–2000 | 5 | 6 | "The Brooklyn Strangler". |
Vinko Pintarić | SR Croatia | 1973–1990 | 5 | 5+ | Murdered five people, including his wife, between 1973 and 1990. Escaped from custody three times, killed in a 1991 shootout with the police. |
Edward Edwards | United States | 1977–1996 | 5 | 5+ | Shot a young couple in 1977 and stabbed and strangled another in 1980; died months prior to execution on April 7, 2011 for shooting his foster son in 1996 insurance murder. |
Thomas Dillon | United States | 1989–1992 | 5 | 5+ | Killed outdoorsmen in rural Ohio by sniping them from afar with a hunting rifle. |
Marc Dutroux | Belgium | 1995–1996 | 5 | 5+ | Child molester who killed 4 of possibly 11 victims. He was also convicted for murdering one of his partners in crime. |
William Dathan Holbert | Panama | 2010 and earlier | 5 | 5+ | Known as "Wild Bill"; American expatriate who had the bodies of five other Americans buried on his property. He would kill people to get their money and properties. His wife, Laura Michelle Reese, was also arrested.[325] |
Sek Kim Wah | Singapore | 1983 | 5 | 5 | Sek Kim Wah, who was of Chinese Singaporean descent, was 19 years old when he killed five victims in two separate robbery cases, using raffia string to strangle them. Other methods employed were hitting their heads with a heavy object (like a wooden stool) and electrocution (which was unsuccessful). He robbed and killed a couple before abandoning their corpses at Seletar Reservoir on 30 June 1983 and then, on 23 July 1983, killed three more people at Andrew Road with an accomplice who did not take part in the killings. He was arrested and indicted for murder six days later and was sentenced to death on 14 August 1985; he lost an appeal and he was hanged on 9 December 1988.[326] |
Jerome Dennis | United States | 1991–1992 | 5 | 5 | Killed Newark women while on parole.[327] |
Belize Ripper | Belize | 1998–2000 | 5 | 5 | The Belize Ripper was an unidentified Belizean serial killer who abducted and murdered five young girls in Belize City between 1998 and 2000. |
Elroy Chester | United States | 1997–1998 | 5 | 5 | Murdered four white people in racially-motivated attacks, and also admitted to the murder of his brother-in-law. In addition, he was linked to four non-fatal shootings and three rapes. |
Elisabeth Wiese | Germany | 1902–1903 | 5 | Known as the "Angel Maker of St. Pauli"; baby farmer who poisoned her grandchild and four others with morphine and burned their bodies in a stove in 1902 and 1903. | |
Phantom Killer | United States | 1946 | 5 | Believed to have committed the Texarkana Moonlight Murders in Texas between February 23 and May 4, 1946. | |
San Mateo slasher | United States | 1976 | 5 | Known as the "Gypsy Hill killings"; five unsolved killings, of young women in San Mateo County, California during early 1976. | |
Honolulu Strangler | United States | 1985–1986 | 5 | Raped and strangled five young women in Hawaii in 1985 and 1986. | |
Anthony Kirkland | United States | 1987–2009 | 5 | Kirkland murdered four females between 2006 and 2009, three of them children, following a 16-year prison term for the murder of another woman. | |
William MacDonald | Australia | 1961–1962 | 5 | Murdered derelicts in Sydney and Brisbane between 1960 and 1962; sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. | |
Harry Powers | United States | 1931 | 5 | "Lonely Hearts" swindler and conman. Killed two women and three children in Quiet Dell, West Virginia. Arrested after the bodies were found buried near his garage in 1931 and hanged in 1932. | |
Anna Marie Hahn | United States | 1933–1937 | 5 | German-born murder-for-profit killer who poisoned five elderly men; executed in 1938. | |
Robert Nixon | United States | 1936–1938 | 5 | Killed 5 women in the 1930s with bricks. Executed by electrocution in Illinois on June 15, 1939. | |
Waneta Hoyt | United States | 1965–1971 | 5 | New York woman who murdered her five children. | |
Janie Lou Gibbs | United States | 1966–1967 | 5 | Georgia poisoner who killed five family members. Sentenced to life. Died in prison on February 7, 2010. | |
South Dade Killer | United States | 1975 | 5 | Known as the "Flat-Tire murders". Killed 5 women in 1975. | |
Gerald Parker | United States | 1978–1979 | 5 | Known as "The Bedroom Basher" raped and murdered five women and killed the unborn baby of a sixth woman in Orange County, California. | |
Phillip Carl Jablonski | United States | 1978–1991 | 5 | convicted of killing five women in California and Utah between 1978 and 1991. Sentenced to death in 1994. | |
Arthur Gary Bishop | United States | 1979–1983 | 5 | Utah man who murdered five young boys; executed in 1988. | |
Faryion Wardrip | United States | 1984–1986 | 5 | Killed five young women around Wichita Falls, Texas between 1984 and 1986. | |
Timothy Wilson Spencer | United States | 1984–1987 | 5 | Known as "The Southside Strangler"; raped and killed five women in Virginia. Executed in the electric chair on April 27, 1994. | |
Robert Shulman | United States | 1991–1996 | 5 | Convicted of murdering five prostitutes between 1991 and 1996. | |
Elias Abuelazam | United States | 2009–2010 | 5 | Known as "The Serial Slasher". Israeli-Arab immigrant that stabbed victims to death. Sentenced to life on June 25, 2012. | |
Joachim Knychała | Poland | 1975–1982 | 5 | Known as "The Vampire of Bytom" or "Frankenstein", who murdered five women between 1975 and 1982.[328] | |
Archibald Hall | United Kingdom | 1977 | 5 | Called "The Monster Butler". Died in prison in 2002. | |
Colin Ireland | United Kingdom | 1993 | 5 | Called "The Gay Slayer". A highly organized serial killer, Ireland picked passive masochist gay men in the Coleherne public house, accompanied them home, and murdered them after they were voluntarily restrained. He then cleaned the house of forensic evidence and left when he was sure of not appearing suspicious. | |
Claude Lastennet | France | 1993–1994 | 5 | Convicted of murdering 5 old women between August 1993 and January 1994.[329] | |
Metod Trobec | SR Slovenia | 1976–1978 | 5 | Raped, killed and cremated five women in his home. Also tried to murder two other immates while in prison before committing suicide in his cell in 2006. | |
Romulus Vereş | Romania | 1970s | 5 | Known as "The Hammer Man". Institutionalized. | |
Akira Nishiguchi | Japan | 1963 | 5 | Fraudster, murdered two people while engaging in confidence scams and killed three others while on the run from justice. Hanged in 1970. | |
Boris Gusakov | Soviet Union | 1964–1968 | 5 | Known as "Student Hunter"; committed 15 sexual assaults, including 5 murders, on girls and young women from 1964 to 1968. | |
Anatoly Biryukov | Soviet Union | 1977 | 5 | Known as "The Hunter of Babies": responsible for the kidnappings and subsequent murders of five infants from Moscow in the fall of 1977. | |
Süleyman Aktaş | Turkey | 1986–1994 | 5 | Known as "The Nailing Killer": responsible for the murders of five people in 1986 and 1994. | |
B1 Butcher | Namibia | 2005–2007 | 5 | Murdered at least five women between 2005 and 2007, with all murders related to the National Road B1. |
Serial killers with fewer than five proven victims
This part of the list contains all serial killers with fewer than five proven victims who acted alone and were neither medical professionals nor contract killers.
Name | Country | Years active | Proven victims | Possible victims | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alexander Spesivtsev | Russia | 1991–1996 | 4 | 82+ | Cannibal known as "The Novokuznetsk Monster"; admitted to 19 murders, but 82 bloody sets of clothes were found in his home, along with jewels and photographs of possibly unidentified victims. Found insane and interned in a mental hospital. His mother was sentenced to 16 years in prison for luring Spesivtsev's victims to their home.[330] |
Charlie Brandt | United States | 1971–2004 | 4 | 29 | Killed himself by hanging after murdering his wife and niece. The latter was also decapitated and eviscerated in a manner strongly similar to 26 unsolved murders of women in Florida, starting in 1973, the year Brandt moved to the state. Brandt was later considered the culprit in one of these murders, due to his strong resemblance to a suspect who was filmed by a traffic camera near the place where one body was found. He could not be officially tied to the other crimes due to lack of evidence. Previously, when he was 13 years old in 1971, he attempted to murder his whole family with a gun, for no apparent reason. His mother (who was pregnant) died in this attack, but his father survived, and his sister escaped.[331] |
Scott Lee Kimball | United States | 2003–2004 | 4 | 21 | A skilled forger who, while he ran a legitimate business buying and selling organic beef, primarily enriched himself by passing bad checks on the accounts of others and using forged documents; by 2003 he had faced criminal charges in four Western states. These white-collar crimes also enabled his murders, by allowing him to create evidence that his victims were still alive after he had killed them; he also used their checking accounts and credit cards to further his schemes once they were dead. For the first year of his murder activity, he worked as an informant for the FBI, which both paid him and protected him from facing justice over some of his fraud schemes. |
Robert Black | United Kingdom Ireland (suspected) West Germany (suspected) Netherlands (suspected) France (suspected) | 1981–1986 | 4 | 18+ | Convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering four girls aged between five and 11. Suspect in other earlier child murders in the UK and other European countries. Died weeks before he was to be charged with a fifth child murder.[332] |
Max Gufler | Austria | 1946–1958 | 4 | 18 | Poisoned and drowned four women, but suspected of killing 18 in total. |
Ernesto Picchioni | Italy | 1949 and earlier | 4 | 16 | Murdered people who approached his home; died of cardiac arrest in 1967. |
Baekuni | Indonesia | 1993–2010 | 4 | 14 | Child rapist who killed young boys; initially sentenced to life imprisonment, but changed to the death sentence.[333] |
Igor Chernat | Soviet Union | 1985–1986 | 4 | 13 | Known as the "Evil Spirit of Kaukjarvi"; Ukrainian soldier who raped and killed women in Kamenka, selling their stolen items afterwards; executed 1987.[334] |
Ricky Lee Green | United States | 1985–1986 | 4 | 12 | Bisexual drifter who killed people he met in bars; his wife assisted in two of the murders; executed in 1997.[335] |
Robert Hicks Murray | United Kingdom | 1912 and earlier | 4 | 11+ | Bigamist who murdered his wife and three children in a murder-suicide; posthumously revealed to have killed previous wives as well.[336] |
William Dean Christensen | United States Canada | 1982–1983 | 4 | 10+ | Known as "The American Jack the Ripper"; murdered and mutilated three women and one man; Canadian and US authorities also investigated him as a suspect in a total of ten murders, but he died before any of these claims could be confirmed.[337] |
Angus Sinclair | United Kingdom | 1961, 1967–1982 | 4 | 10 | Scottish man who was originally convicted of murdering a 7-year-old girl when he was 16. As well as being convicted of the murders of three women in 1977 and 1978, police suspect he was responsible for four other murders of women in Glasgow in these years.[338] Also a suspect in two other murders in 1970 and 1979 respectively.[339][340] |
John Cooper | United Kingdom | 1985–1998 | 4 | 9 | Psychopathic Welsh burglar who was convicted in 2011 of the double shotgun murders of a couple on the Pembrokeshire coast in 1989 and another during a botched burglary nearby in 1985. Police believed he killed at least one other woman in 1989, and investigated the possibility he could also have been responsible for another double shotgun murder in Bridgend in 1993. A forensic pathologist also claimed to police that he could have been responsible for two murders of elderly siblings in Pembrokeshire in 1976.[341][342][343] |
Tony Costa | United States | 1968–1969 | 4 | 8 | Dismembered and mutilated 4 women in Cape Cod in the late 1960s; linked to at least 4 other deaths and disappearances. |
Carlton Gary | United States | 1975–1978 | 4 | 8 | Gary was convicted of raping and strangling three elderly women in Columbus, Georgia between 1977 and 1978, although police and prosecutors believe him to be responsible for up to seven rape-murders in Columbus. DNA also linked him to an additional murder in Syracuse, New York, but prosecutors did not charge him because he was already on death row. |
Oakland County Child Killer | United States | 1976–1977 | 4 | 7–11 | Unidentified person or persons who abducted and murdered at least four children in Oakland County, Michigan, between 1976 and 1977. |
Robert Rozier | United States | 1981–1986 | 4 | 7 | Former NFL player that was convicted of four murders but confessed to seven as a member of the Nation of Yahweh. |
Leonard Fraser | Australia | 1998–1999 | 4 | 7 | Serial rapist and pedophile who murdered four women in Rockhampton. Sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 25 years without the possibility of parole; died in prison of a heart attack in 2007. |
Ricardo Caputo | United States Mexico | 1971–1983 | 4 | 6 | Was #1 of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives during his time as a fugitive in the 1980s. Surrendered himself to justice in 1994 and died of cardiac arrest in prison three years later. |
Christopher Peterson | United States | 1990 | 4 | 7 | Peterson was convicted of four fatal shootings by the so-called "Shotgun Killer" that occurred between October and December 1990. He was charged in three other murders related to the killing spree but was acquitted. |
Anthony Allen Shore | United States | 1986–1995 | 4 | 5 | Known as "The Tourniquet Killer"; convicted of strangling a woman with an unusual ligature in 1992 and confessed to killing three girls including two with same MO. |
Daytona Beach killer | United States | 2005–2007 | 4 | 5 | Murdered four, possibly five, women in Daytona Beach, Florid
|