List of serial killers by number of victims

This list does not include serial killers before the year 1900.

A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.[1] There are gaps of time between the killings, which may range from a few hours to many years. This list shows serial killers from the 20th century to present day by number of victims. 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 he/she killed many more.

The complex nature of serial killers, their crimes, discrepancies caused by geographic location and/or time, and the investigations related to these persons results in difficulties in organization and ranking. 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 were included because they are the work of a serial killer, despite nobody being caught.

This list does not necessarily include war criminals or members of democidal governments, such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, or Pol Pot.

See also

Serial killers with the highest known victim count

This list is a compilation of modern serial killers currently with the highest verifiable murder count, who are non-medical and working alone.

NameCountryYears active Proven victims Possible victims Notes
Luis Garavito  Colombia 1990s 138 172300+ Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as ”La Bestia” (“The Beast"). Confessed to killing 140 children over a 5-year period in Colombia. He is suspected of murdering over 300 victims, mostly street children.[2][3]
Pedro López  Colombia
 Ecuador
 Peru
1969 to 1980 110 300350+ Child-murderer and rapist, known as "The Monster of the Andes". Targeted young girls, between the ages of 8 and 12. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing 110 young girls but confessed to killing 300, exact total unknown. Despite being one of the most prolific serial killers of the 20th century, he was released in 1998. Current whereabouts unknown.[4]
Daniel Camargo  Colombia
 Ecuador
1974 to 1986 72 150 Child-murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily young virgin girls. Confessed to killing 72 victims, and incarcerated with Pedro Alonso Lopez. Considered to be intelligent, and believed to have been motivated to kill from his stepmother abusing him as a child. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison and he started killing in Ecuador; rearrested in 1989, he was killed in jail.[5]
Pedro Rodrigues Filho  Brazil 1967 to 2003 71 100+ Convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He has claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He also killed his father and ate a piece of his heart. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14; he was first arrested in 1973.
Kampatimar Shankariya  India 1977 to 1978 70 70+ Sentenced to death for the hammer murders of at least 70 people. Hanged on May 16, 1979.[6]
Yang Xinhai  China 2000 to 2003 67 Would enter victims' homes at night and kill everyone with axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. Executed in February 2004. Known as the "Monster Killer".[7]
Abul Djabar Afghanistan 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.[8]
Andrei Chikatilo  USSR 1978 to 1990 53 56 Known as The Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper. Convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. Executed in 1994. One man was previously convicted and executed for his first murder.[9]
Anatoly Onoprienko  USSR
 Ukraine
1989 to 1996 52 52+ Known as "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator" and "Citizen O". Convicted of the murders of 9 people in 1989 and 43 people in 1995–1996. Sentenced to death, later commuted to life. Traveled through Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown.[9]
Gary Ridgway  United States 1982 to 2000 49 71–90+ Truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. The United States' most prolific serial killer; also known as The Green River Killer. He almost exclusively targeted sex workers from Seattle. Suspected of killing over 90 victims, confessed to 71, convicted of 49.[10]
Alexander Pichushkin  Russia 1992 to 2006 48 60 Known as the Chessboard Killer. Convicted of murdering 48 victims and suspected of killing 60. Claimed to have murdered 62 people, because he didn't know that two of his victims had survived; stated goal of becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer.[11]
Wang Qiang  China 1995 to 2003 45 45+ Killed 45 and raped ten from 1995 to 2003.[12]
Ahmad Suradji  Indonesia 1986 to 1997 42 70–80+ Convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. Executed by firing squad on 11 July 2008.
Thiago Gomes da Rocha  Brazil 2011 to 2014 39 Brazilian security guard who confessed to the murders of 39 people.
Moses Sithole  South Africa 1994 to 1995 38 38+ 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. Sentenced to 2410 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 930 years. Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy.[13]
Serhiy Tkach  USSR
 Ukraine
1984 to 2005 36 80–100 A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, suffocated girls aged between 8 and 18 and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. Claims to have killed 100.
Gennady Mikhasevich  USSR 1971 to 1985 36 43–55 Strangled females. Besides killing, he robbed his victims of money and valuable items (that he would sometimes give to his wife as a gift).[14]
Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi  Morocco 1906 and earlier 36 36+ Responsible for the murders of at least 36 women; executed by immurement in 1906.
Ted Bundy  United States 1974 to 1978 35 36+ American serial killer known for his charisma and good looks. Bundy officially confessed to 30 homicides, but has confessed to killing 3536 women in the past, and some estimates run upwards of 100 or more. 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.[15] He was executed in the electric chair in 1989.[16][17]
John Wayne Gacy  United States 1972 to 1978 33 34+ 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. Gacy was known as the "Killer Clown" due to the fact he often entertained children at social events dressed in a self devised clown costume. Gacy was executed in 1994.[18]
Ali Asghar Borujerdi Ottoman Empire Ottoman Iraq
Iraq
Persia
1907 to 1934 33 Known as "Asghar the Murderer". Killed 33 young adults in Iraq and Iran. Executed on June 26, 1934.[19]
Vasili Komaroff  Russian SFSR
 Soviet Union
1921 to 1923 33 Known as "The Wolf of Moscow"; horse trader who killed 33 men. Executed on June 18, 1923.[20]
Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour  Egypt 1999 to 2006 32 32+ Gang leader known as al-Tourbini ("The Express Train"). Raped and tortured homeless children, mostly boys aged 10 to 14 years old, aboard the trains between Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyoubeya 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.

Serial killers with 30 victims or fewer

This part of the list contains all serial killers with 15 to 30 proven victims that acted alone and were neither medical professionals nor contract killers.

NameCountryYears activeProven victimsPossible victimsNotes
Karl Denke  German Empire
Germany Weimar Germany
1900 to 1924 30 40+ Cannibal mainly targeting travelers, probably striking them with an axe.
David Thabo Simelane  Swaziland 1999 to 2001 28 45+ Convicted of 28 murders; 45 bodies were found in shallow graves in the woods outside of Manzini. Sentenced to hang on April 1, 2011.[21]
Dean Corll  United States 1970 to 1973 28 29+ Corll was responsible for the Houston Mass Murders and was murdered by accomplice Elmer Wayne Henley when Corll turned on him. Corll is responsible for the torture and murder of young boys in Pasadena, Tx and elsewhere in southeast Texas.[22][23]
Maoupa Cedric Maake  South Africa 1996 to 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.[24]
Juan Vallejo Corona  United States 1971 25 25+ Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms of life imprisonment.
Wayne Williams  United States 1979 to 1981 24 31 Believed to have perpetrated the Atlanta murders of 1979–1981. After being convicted of two murders and sentenced to life imprisonment, authorities closed 22 other unsolved murders, declaring Williams to have been the perpetrator. Williams has maintained his innocence and the case was reopened as recently as 2005.[25]
Fritz Haarmann Germany Germany 1918 to 1924 24 27+ Also known as the Butcher of Hannover and the Vampire of Hannover, 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. Is believed to have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men. He was convicted, found guilty of 24 murders and executed.[26]
Béla Kiss Hungary 1912 to 1916 24 24+ Evaded arrest and conviction after the discovery of 24 bodies hidden in large metal drums in 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.[27]
Ronald Dominique  United States 1997 to 2006 23 23+ Louisianan serial killer, known locally as the Bayou Strangler and murdered victims in the Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Iberville Parish and Jefferson Parish.[28]
Mikhail Popkov  Russia 1992 to 2000 22 29+ Former policeman who was convicted of murdering at least 22 women and sentenced to life in prison in January 2015.
Earle Nelson  United States 1926 to 1927 22 25 Necrophiliac who targeted and strangled landladies throughout the West Coast during 1926; he was hanged in January 1928; also known as "Gorilla Killer" or "the Dark Strangler".
Manuel Octavio Bermúdez  Colombia 1999 to 2003 21 50+ Colombian pedophile 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.[29]
Patrick Kearney  United States 1965 to 1977 21 43+ Would pick up young male hitch-hikers or young men from gay bars near Redondo Beach, California, and kill them.[30]
William Bonin  United States 1979 to 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. Bonin was convicted of 14 of the freeway murders and was executed in 1996.[31]
Vasile Tcaciuc Romania Romania 1917 to 1935 21 26+ Romanian man who lured victims and then murdered them with an axe; he was arrested after a dog found a dead body in his house on 7 September 1935. He confessed to have committed at least 26 murders. He was shot dead by a policeman while trying to escape from prison.[32]
Yoo Young-chul  Republic of Korea 2003 to 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.[33]
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.[34]
Mohan Kumar  India 2005 to 2009 20 Lured female victims with promises of marriage and gave them cyanide, claiming they were contraceptive pills, Sentenced to death in 2013.[35]
Bulelani Mabhayi  South Africa 2007 to 2012 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.
Alexander Spesivtsev  Russia 1991 to 1996 19 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.[36]
Larry Eyler  United States 1982 to 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.
Sergei Ryakhovsky  Soviet Union
 Russia
1988 to 1993 19 19+ Known as the Balashikha Ripper.[37]
M. Jaishankar  India 2008 to 2011 19 19+ Accused of killing at least 19 women. Escaped from jail twice.
Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu  Turkey 1994 to 2002 18+ 40+ Killed in various cities of Turkey. 18 murders proven and accused of more than 40 by eyewitnesses and relatives.
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.
Thierry Paulin  France 1984 to 1987 18 21 Known as "The monster of Montmartre". Killed and robbed old women. Died of AIDS before trial in prison on April 16, 1989.[38]
Randall Woodfield  United States 1979 to 1981 18 18+ Known as "The I-5 Killer" and "The I-5 Bandit"; Sentenced to life. Drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 1974 NFL Draft as a wide receiver but did not make the final roster. Suspected of as many as 44 murders.[39]
Umesh Reddy  India 1996 to 2002 18 18+ Confessed to 18 rapes and murders. Sentenced to death.
Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode  South Africa 1994 to 1995 18 Known as "Donnybrook Serial Killer" murdered 18 people in Donnybrook KwaZulu Natal from 1994–1995.
Huang Yong  China 2001 to 2003 17 25 Lured and murdered 17 teenage boys, although he is suspected of 25 murders between September 2001 and 2003.
Pedro Pablo Nakada Ludeña  Peru 2005 to 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.[40]
Donato Bilancia  Italy 1997 to 1998 17 Burglar who murdered 17 people, mainly prostitutes, between 1997 and 1998, during six months. Known as the "Prostitutes Killer" and the "Liguria Monster". Sentenced to life.
Irina Gaidamachuk  Russia 2002 to 2010 17 Known as "Satan in a skirt". Killed 17 elderly women between 2002 and 2010. Sentenced to 20 years in prison.[41]
Randy Steven Kraft  United States 1971 to 1983 16 65–67 Convicted on 16 counts of murder but left a cryptic list of 65 murders. May have had an accomplice.[42]
Mohammed Bijeh  Iran 2004 16 20 Raped and killed at least 16 boys and teenagers. Nicknamed the "Tehran Desert Vampire". Was convicted and executed after being lashed in front of a crowd in 2005.[43]
Michel Fourniret  France 1987 to 2001 16 19 Known as the Ogre or Beast of Ardennes. He was caught after a failed kidnapping in 2003.
Sipho Agmatir Thwala  South Africa 1996 to 1997 16 19 Nicknamed the Phoenix Strangler after the area in which he committed his crimes; he raped and strangled 19 females; arrested, he was found guilty of 16 murders.[44]
Jeffrey Dahmer  United States 1978 to 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.
Elias Xitavhudzi  South Africa 1950s 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 hanged on 14 November 1960.
Jimmy Maketta  South Africa April–December 2005 16 Pleaded guilty to and convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes committed over a nine-month period in 2005.
Jack Mogale  South Africa 2008 to 2009 16 Raped and strangled females in the Donnybrook area. Convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes, nine kidnappings, robbery and assault.
Robert Lee Yates  United States 1975 to 1998 16 Killed prostitutes in the "Skid Row" area of E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane, Washington.
Pietro Pacciani  Italy 1968 to 1985 16 Known as The Monster of Florence. Was convicted of the murders in 1994, but the decision was controversially overturned in appeal. However this last decision was overturned by the Supreme Court which ordered a re-trial. This couldn't be held as Pacciani died in 1998. Two of his alleged accomplices were also convicted.[45]
Carroll Cole  United States 1948 to 1980 16 Killed 16 people in California, Nevada, Texas.[46]
Charles Ray Hatcher  United States 1969 to 1982 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" [47]
Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega  Spain 1987 to 1988 16 Nicknamed El Mataviejas (The Old Lady Killer), he raped and killed at least 16 elderly women, ranging in age from 61 to 93 years old, in and around Santander, Cantabria.
Saeed Hanaei  Iran 2000 to 2001 16 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". Hanged in 2002.
Vladimir Mirgorod  Russia 2002 to 2004 16 Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 for strangling 15 women and one teenage boy to death.
Atlanta Ripper  United States 1911 15 21 Mystery murderer(s) of fifteen Atlanta women in 1911. May have had as many 21 victims.
Robert Hansen  United States 1980 to 1983 15 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 15 for which he was convicted.
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz  United States
 Mexico
1986 to 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.[48]
Dennis Nilsen  United Kingdom 1978 to 1983 12 15–16[49] Picked up young men in London between 1978 and 1982 and dismembered them, keeping various body parts around his home.[50]
Elifasi Msomi  South Africa 1950s to 1956 15 Killed his victims with an axe or a knife in the 1950s; hanged in 1956.
Chester Turner  United States 1987 to 1998 15 Convicted of killing 15 people in Los Angeles, California in the 1980s and 1990s. Sentenced to death.
Bai Baoshan  China 1996 to 1997 15 Sentenced to 13 years in prison in 1983 for a murder he committed during a failed robbery. Later killed 14 people from 1996 to 1997. Executed on May 6, 1998.

Serial killers with fewer than 15 proven victims

This part of the list contains all serial killers with less than 15 proven victims that acted alone and were neither medical professionals nor contract killers.

Name Country Years active Proven victims* Possible victims Miscellaneous information
Carl "Coral" Watts  United States 1974 to 1982 14 80+ 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.[51]
Zdzisław Marchwicki  Poland 1964 to 1970 14 21+ Killed 14 women in 1964–1970 in Poland's region of Upper Silesia. Zdzisław Marchwicki (executed in 1977) was most likely the man responsible for the killings; however, his guilt remains in dispute. Also known as Vampire of Silesia.
Joachim Kroll  West Germany 1955 to 1976 14 Known as the "Ruhr Cannibal" and "The Duisburg Man-Eater"; died in prison in 1991.
Arthur Shawcross  United States 1972 to 1989 14 After being arrested in 1972 for the rape and murder of two children, he was able to plead down to a sentence for manslaughter. After 14½ years of incarceration, he began targeting prostitutes. Strangled and battered his victims. Known as the "Genesee River Killer", "Genesee River Strangler", "Rochester Strangler", and "Monster of the Rivers".
The Doodler  United States 1974 to 1975 14 Sketched then stabbed to death 14 gay men in San Francisco.
Marcelo Costa de Andrade  Brazil 1991 14 Known as The Vampire of Niterói. Raped and killed 14 children in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. Drank the blood of his victims.[52]
Julio Pérez Silva  Chile 1998 to 2001 14 Known as The Psychopath from Alto Hospicio; killed 14 women. Sentenced to life imprisonment on February 26, 2004.
Hua Ruizhou  China 1998 to 2001 14 Killed 14 female prostitutes. Executed by a single gunshot to the head on January 31, 2002.
Amir Qayyum  Pakistan 2005 14 Known as "The brick killer". Killed 14 homeless men with rocks or bricks when they were asleep. Sentenced to death in May 2006.[53]
Jake Bird  United States 1930s to 1947 13 44 Sentenced to death for the murders of two people; confessed to 44 other murders; eleven were substantiated and he suspected in the rest.[54]
Belle Gunness  United States 1900? to 1908? 13 40+ Norwegian-born murder-for-profit killer who murdered her suitors and relatives in Indiana. High possibility of over 40 murders.[55] Could have faked her own death on 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.
Cleveland Torso Murderer  United States 1934 to 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.
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.
Richard Ramirez  United States 1984 to 1985 13 [56] 20 Killed 13 people between June 28, 1984, and August 24, 1985, in Los Angeles. Known as the "Night Stalker".[56][57] Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989, and died of natural causes in 2013 while still on death row.
Peter Sutcliffe  United Kingdom 1975 to 1980 13 15 Sutcliffe killed 13 women between October 30, 1975, and November 17, 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".[58]
Francisco Antonio Laureana  Argentina 1974 to 1975 13 13+ Raped and murdered at least 13 women. Was killed in a shootout with police.
Herbert Mullin  United States 1972 to 1973 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.
Boston Strangler  United States 1962 to 1964 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.[59]
Lorenzo Gilyard  United States 1977 to 1993 13 Known as "The Kansas City Strangler". Killed up to 13 prostitutes in the Kansas City area from 1977 to 1993. Sentenced to life on April 14, 2007.
Vasiliy Kulik  Soviet Union 1984 to 1986 13 Known as the Irkutsk Monster.[60]
Johannes Mashiane  South Africa 1982 to 1989 13 Known as "The Beast of Atteridgeville" 13 counts of murder, 12 counts of sodomy from 1982–1989.
Li Wenxian  China 1991 to 1996 13 Known as "The Guangzhou Ripper". Killed 13 female prostitutes in Guangzhou. Executed.
Thozamile Taki  South Africa 2007 13 Known as the "Sugar cane serial killer".
Rainbow Maniac  Brazil 2007 to 2008 13 Shot gay men in the head (except one, who was bludgeoned) in the Paturis Park of Carapicuiba.
Donald Henry Gaskins  United States 1953 to 1982 12 31–80+ 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 80 and 110 victims. Executed in September, 1991.
William Suff  United States 1986 to 1992 12 22 County store clerk who raped, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more prostitutes in Riverside County. Known as the "Riverside Prostitute Killer" and the "Lake Elsinore Killer".
Maury Travis  United States 2000 to 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. Committed suicide in prison.
Kenneth Alessio Bianchi  United States 1977 to 1978 12 15 Convicted of strangling twelve females between ages 12 and 28 and suspected in another three cases. One of the "Hillside Stranglers".[61]
Charles Sobhraj  Thailand
   Nepal
 India
 Malaysia
1975 to 1976 12 13 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 from 2004 serving a life sentence in Nepal.
Joseph Christopher  United States 1980 to 1981 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 2 of them.
"Paraquat murders" killer  Japan 1985 12 Series of indiscriminate poisonings carried out in Japan in 1985 where twelve people were killed.
John Justin Bunting  Australia 1992 to 1999 12 Ringleader in the Snowtown murders (aka Bodies in the Barrels Murders); sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Siswanto  Indonesia 1994 to 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.[62]
Enriqueta Martí  Spain c.1900 to 1912 12 Unknown 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 immates while awaiting trial in 1913.
Herb Baumeister  United States 1990 to 1996 11–16 25+ Strangled gay men and buried their bodies in his backyard in Indiana and Ohio; 11 men were found in the yard but only 5 were identified. Committed suicide when faced with arrest.
Sergey Golovkin  Soviet Union
 Russia
1986 to 1992 11 40+ Killed at least 11 boys in the Moscow area between 1986 and 1992.[63] Last person executed in Russia before the death penalty was abolished.
Juana Barraza  Mexico late 1990s to 2006 11 29–49 Female wrestler who bludgeoned or strangled elderly women to rob them.
Jack Unterweger  Austria
 United States
 Czechoslovakia
1974 to 1992 11 15 Served 14 years in Austrian prison because of a murder in 1974; killed at least 9 prostitutes after his release. Was a small media star in Austrian media in the early 1990s and was arrested in the United States, where he may have killed another 3 prostitutes, on behalf of Austrian police. Hanged himself in 1994 after being sentenced to life in prison.
Vaughn Greenwood  United States 1964 to 1975 11 13 Known as the "Skid Row Slasher". Killed 11 people, suspected of 2 more. Cut victims'throats from ear to ear and may have drank their blood.[64]
Benjamin Atkins  United States 1991 to 1992 11 Known as "The Woodward Corridor Killer". Raped and strangled his victims before abandoning their bodies in vacant buildings.
Nannie Doss  United States 1927 to 1954 11 Responsible for 11 deaths between 1927 and 1954. Known as the "Giggling Nanny", the "Giggling Granny", and the "Jolly Black Widow".
Clifford Olson  Canada 1980 to 1981 11 Considered a dangerous offender, meaning that Olson could never have been released from prison. He had three parole applications rejected.[65] Died September 30, 2011
Martin Lecián  Czechoslovakia 1927 11 Responsible for killing 10 policemen and 1 prison officer. Executed in 1927.
Henri Désiré Landru  France 1915 to 1919 11 Unknown 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 ten women and the teenaged son of one of them, and burned their bodies after he had gained access to their assets. Guillotined.[66]
West Mesa Killer  United States 2003 to 2005 11 Remains of 11 women, who disappeared between 2003 and 2005, found buried in desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2009 and attributed to a bone collector.
Anthony Sowell  United States 2007 to 2009 11 Unknown 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.
Andre Crawford  United States 1993 to 1999 11 Murdered 11 women between 1993 and 1999. Sentenced to life in prison.
Francisco Garcia Escalero  Spain 1987 to 1994 11 Known as "The Killer Beggar", schizophrenic homeless man confined to a psychiatric hospital after killing 11 prostitutes and other homeless people between 1987 and 1994.
Zhang Yongming  China 2008 to 2012 11 Sold flesh of the victims as ‘ostrich meat’ and kept eyeballs in wine. Executed.
Carlos Eduardo Robledo Puch  Argentina 1971 11 Convicted of 11 murders and multiple other crimes including attempted murder and sexual assault. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1980.
Adnan Çolak  Turkey 1992 to 1995 11 Killed eleven elderly women aged 68 to 95 and raped six others. Sentenced to death but changed to life in prison after Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004.
Seisaku Nakamura  Japan 1938 to 1942 11 Teenager serial killer known as the "Hamamatsu Deaf Killer" for being 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.
Very Idham Henyansyah  Indonesia 2008 and earlier 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.
Francisco de Assis Pereira  Brazil 1997 to 1998 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.
Rudolf Pleil  West Germany 1946 to 1947 10 25 Known as "The Deathmaker". Convicted of killing salesman and nine women. Claimed to have killed 25.
Milton Johnson  United States 1983 10 17 Known as "The Weekend Murderer" killed up to 17 people.[67]
Long Island serial killer  United States 1996 to 2011 10 14 Also known as "The Gilgo Killer". Believed to have murdered 10 to 14 people associated with the sex trade over a period of 15 years.
Daniel Lee Siebert  United States 1979 to 1986 10 13 Convicted of 1979 manslaughter; killed ten people across America in three months in mid-1980s including two children and a Southside Slayer victim.[68]
Original Night Stalker  United States 1979 to 1986 10 13 Also known as "The East Area Rapist". Killer and rapist who murdered ten people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986.
Lonnie David Franklin, Jr.  United States 1985 to 2007 10 11 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.
Bobbie Joe Long  United States 1984 10 10+ Known as "The Classified Ad Rapist"; killed 10 women in Tampa Bay, Florida in 1984.
Stewart Wilken  South Africa 1990 to 1997 10 10+ Known as "Boetie Boer"; raped, sodomised and murdered 10 victims from 1990–1997.
David Randitsheni  South Africa 2004 to 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.
Edmund Kemper  United States 1964 to 1973 10 A victim of Herbert Mullin was attributed to him originally.[69]
Dennis Rader  United States 1974 to 2004 10 Known as the BTK Killer. Murdered ten people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, between 1974 and 1991.
Dorangel Vargas  Venezuela 1997 to 1999 10 Homeless cannibal known as "The People Eater" and "The Hannibal Lecter of the Andes".
Ali Kaya  Turkey 1997 to present 10 Known as "the baby faced killer"; responsible for 10 murders. Escaped from prison and later recaptured.[70]
Robert Joe Wagner  Australia 1992 to 1999 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.
Jeanne Weber  France 1905 to 1908 10 Transient baby-sitter who strangled children in her care. Declared insane. Hanged herself in prison on July 5, 1918.
Henry Louis Wallace  United States 1990 to 1994 10 Confessed to 10 murders in Charlotte, North Carolina.[71]
Angelo Buono  United States 1977 to 1979 10 Convicted of strangling ten females. One of the "Hillside Stranglers". Died in prison in 2002.
Oleg Kuznetsov  Soviet Union
 Russia
 Ukraine
1991 to 1992 10 Killed 10 women and girls from 1991 to 1992; sentenced to death but later commuted to life imprisonment.
Hwaseong killer  South Korea 1986 to 1991 10 The victims, women aged 14 to 71, were bound, gagged and strangled to death with their own clothes in most cases. The largest criminal case in South Korea with two million officers mobilized and over 21,000 suspects investigated, but went ultimately unsolved.
Satish  India 1995 to 1998 10 Killed ten girls who were between the ages of 5 to 9 years old.
Zhou Kehua  China 2004 to 2012 10 A former soldier who targeted ATM users. He killed 10 people and evaded the law for 8 years, before being shot in a shootout with police after a year-long manhunt.
Kang Ho Sun  South Korea 2006 to 2008 10 Sentenced to death in 2010 for killing 10 women, including his wife and mother-in-law.[72]
Volker Eckert  West Germany
 Germany
 France
 Spain
1974 to 2006 9-13 19 German trucker that confessed to have abducted, tortured and killed 5 prostitutes through his route in Western Europe, plus strangling a 14-years old girl in his native West Germany in 1974, when he was 15. Police considered him perpetrator of 9 murders (with 4 more being possible), but he hanged himself in prison before being convicted.
Peter Kürten  German Empire
Germany German republic
1913 to 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.
Norman Afzal Simons  South Africa 1986 to 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.[73]
Francis Heaulme  France 1984 to 1992 9 20 Convicted of killing 9 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.[74]
Joel Rifkin  United States 1989 to 1993 9 17 Known as "The Drifter",[75] 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.
Dagmar Overbye  Denmark 1913 to 1920 9 15 Murdered between 9 and 25 children – of which one was her own – during a seven-year period. On March 3, 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 caretaker, caring for babies born outside of marriage, murdering her own 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.
Kenneth McDuff  United States 1966 to 1992 9 14+ Known as "The Broomstick Killer"; death sentence for 1966 triple-murder commuted; killed three days after 1989 parole and ten further times in Waco, Texas until 1992. Executed by lethal injection by the state of Texas on November 17, 1998.
Robert Joseph Silveria, Jr.  United States 1981 to 1996 9 14+ Known as "The Boxcar Killer"; freight train rider convicted of beating to death fellow transients and confessed to dozens more.
Richard Biegenwald  United States 1958 to 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.[76]
Alexander Bychkov  Russia 2009 to 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.
New Bedford Highway Killer  United States 1988 to 1989 9 11 Murders of nine women and disappearance of two others between 1988 and 1989.
Edgecombe County Serial Killer  United States 2000s 9 10 Murders of nine women and disappearance of another since 2005 around Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Antwan Pittman has been convicted in one case.
Sergei Martynov  Russia 1992 to 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.
Anatoly Utkin  Soviet Union 1968 to 1973 9 Known as "Ulyanovsky maniac"; killed 8 girls and 1 man from 1968 to 1973; executed 1975.
Ondrej Rigo  Czechoslovakia
 Germany
 Netherlands
1990 to 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.
Timothy Krajcir  United States 1977 to 1982 9 Confessed to killing nine women, five in Missouri and four others in Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Gilberto Chamba  Ecuador
 Spain
1988 to 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.
Alfred Gaynor  United States 1995 to 1998 9 Crack cocaine addict. Killed nine women in Massachusetts. Sentenced to life in prison on May 19, 2000.[77]
Mark Goudeau  United States 2005 to 2006 9 Known as "The Baseline Killer"; convicted of nine murders in Phoenix, Arizona.
Joseph Paul Franklin  United States 1977 to 1980 8–15 20 Confessed to 20 murders and several attempted murders. Executed November 2013.
Yoshio Kodaira  China
 Japan
1928? to 1946 8-11+ Unknown A serial rapist, Kodaira killed his father-in-law in 1932 and 8 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.
Keith Hunter Jesperson  United States 1990 to 1995 8 160 Dubbed the "Happy Face Killer", Jesperson was convicted of killing 8 women by strangulation.
Rodney Alcala  United States 1977 to 1979 8 8100+ 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. Had a locker filled with thousands of photographs of women and children, most in sexually explicit poses, and it is suspected that some of the women photographed may be among Alcala's additional victims.
Kiyotaka Katsuta  Japan 1982 to 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.
Christopher Wilder  United States 1984 8 13+ Killed eight women during a spree before accidentally killing himself; suspected in the disappearance and murder of more than 5 more.[78]
Axeman of New Orleans  United States 1918 to 1919 8 12+ Killer of at least eight people in the New Orleans area from May 1918 to October 1919.
Gilbert Paul Jordan  Canada 1965 to 1987 8 10 Known as the "Boozing Barber", believed to have committed the "Alcohol murders" killed women by alcohol poisoning; deceased (2006).
Frankford Slasher  United States 1985 to 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 to 1998 8 9 Admitted to killing eight prostitutes in Poughkeepsie, New York, but denied involvement with the disappearance of a ninth prostitute.
John Edward Robinson  United States 1984 to 2000 8 8+ Known as "The Slavemaster"; lured victims through the internet.
Eric Edgar Cooke  Australia 1959 to 1963 8 Nicknamed "The Night Caller", he terrorized the city of Perth assaulting 22 people at random with various means, killing eight of them. Hanged in 1964.
Marie Noe  United States 1949 to 1968 8 Murdered eight of her children between 1949 and 1968.
Gary C. Evans  United States 1985 to 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 to 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.
Michael Bruce Ross  United States 1981 to 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.
Marybeth Tinning  United States 1972 to 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.
Sean Vincent Gillis  United States 1994 to 2003 8 Kidnapped, raped, and mutilated the corpses of Louisiana women.[79][80][81]
John Christie  United Kingdom 1943 to 1953 8 Gassed, strangled and in some cases raped eight women (one of them his wife) in his flat of Notting Hill, London. Prior to Christie's arrest, one of his victims was attributed to the victim's father, who was hanged after a trial where Christie declared as a witness. The controversy generated led to the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
Genzo Kurita  Japan 1948 to 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.
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.
Paul Ogorzow Nazi Germany Germany 1940 to 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.
Vladimir Mukhankin  Russia 1995 to 1996 8 Known as "The pupil of Chikatilo"; he killed 8 women.[82]
Nikolai Dzhumagaliev  USSR 1980 and earlier 7 50–100 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 for reason of insanity and interned in a mental institution.
Manuel Delgado Villegas  Spain
 France (claimed)
 Italy (claimed)
1964 to 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 gender, age, and sexual orientation in three countries (including his girlfriend, which he strangled during sex), though police only investigated him for 22 murders in Spain and was considered proven author of 7. 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.
Harrison Graham  United States 1987 7 Convicted of killing seven women in Philadelphia and keeping their bodies in his apartment.[83]
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.
Michael Wayne McGray  Canada 1980s to 2010s 7 18 Convicted of the murder of 6 people in the late 1990s, including a woman and her 11-year-old daughter. Claims to have killed 11 others. In 2010, killed a cellmate.
Kenneth Erskine  United Kingdom 1986 7 11 Known as "The Stockwell Stranger", he was a burglar who raped and strangled at least 7 elderly women after breaking into their home.
David Carpenter  United States 1979 to 1981 7 11 Known as "The Trailside Killer"; murdered women on San Francisco-area hiking trails between 1979 and 1981. Sentenced to death.
Derrick Todd Lee  United States 2002 7 10 Known as the "Baton Rouge or South Louisiana Serial Killer" convicted of three murders, sentenced to death by lethal injection. Believed to have murdered several other women in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Peter Manuel  United Kingdom 1956 to 1958 7 9 A US-born Scottish burglar and serial killer who was convicted of murdering seven people across Lanarkshire between 1956 and 1958, believed to have killed a further two. Manuel was the third-last prisoner to be hanged in Scotland, after a sensational trial in which he conducted his own defence.
Terry Blair  United States 1982 to 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 to 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. Hanged.
Michael Hughes  United States 1986 to 1993 7 8 Killed six women and a schoolgirl in the South Los Angeles area between 1986 and 1993.
Daniel Audiel López Martínez  Mexico 1998 to 2008 7 8 Killed five women and two men in Ciudad Juarez between 1998 and 2008. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer  United States 1972 to 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.
Carlton Gary  United States 1975 to 1978 7 7+ Known as "The Stocking Strangler". Convicted of the murders of seven elderly women in Georgia. Sentenced to death.
Roger Kibbe  United States 1977 to 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 to 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.
Darren Deon Vann  United States 2014 and earlier 7 7+ Confessed to the murders of at least seven women.
Motta Navas  India 1996 to 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.
Ripper Jayanandan  India 2003 to 2006 7 Killed seven people during robberies. Sentenced to death.
Sataro Fukiage  Japan 1906 to 1924 7 Killed seven girls aged 11 to 16 and raped between 93 and 100. Hanged in 1926.
Václav Mrázek  Czechoslovakia 1951 to 1956 7 Killed 7 women in Chomutov. Executed in 1957.
Paul Dennis Reid  United States 1997 7 Reid killed the employees of restaurants he targeted for a series of robberies.
Joseph Taborsky  United States 1950 to 1957 7 Joseph "Mad Dog" Taborsky was sentenced to death after brutal robberies and murders in Connecticut during the 1950s.
Roberto Succo  Italy
 France
1981 to 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.
Émile Louis  France 1975 to 1978 7 Bus driver that preyed on young handicapped women (seven murders) in the 1970s. Sentenced to life in prison on November 25, 2004.
Guy Georges  France 1991 to 1997 7 Known as the "Beast of the Bastille"; serving a life sentence for seven murders between 1991 and 1997.
Paul Steven Haigh  Australia 1978 to 1991 7 Sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murders of seven people in Victoria.
Anatoly Slivko  Soviet Union 1961 to 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.
Aleksey Sukletin  Soviet Union 1979 to 1985 7 Known as "The Alligator"; killed and cannibalized at least 7 girl and women from 1979 to 1985; executed 1987.
Christopher Peterson  United States 1990 7 Known as "The Shotgun Killer", later changed name Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl, confessed to shooting seven people with a shotgun in a killing spree spanning from October 30, 1990 to December 18, 1990 in Indiana. Sentenced to death, commuted to life.
Cincinnati Strangler  United States 1965 to 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.
Paul Durousseau  United States 1997 to 2003 7 Murdered seven young women (including two who were pregnant) in the southeast United States. Sentenced to death on December 13, 2007.
Samuel Sidyno  South Africa 1998 to 1999 7 Known as the "Capital Hill Serial Killer" murdered 7 people in Pretoria from 1998–1999.
Sibusiso Duma  South Africa 2007 7 Murdered 7 people in the Pietermaritzburg area of KwaZulu Natal in 2007.
Walter E. Ellis  United States 1986 to 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.
Tommy Lynn Sells  United States 1980 to 1999 6 70? Drifter active throughout the U.S. 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 Texas on April 3, 2014.
Władysław Mazurkiewicz  Poland 1950s 6 30 Known as "The Gentleman Killer". Indicted of, and confessed to having committed 30 murders; convicted of 6 and hanged in 1957.
Robert Pickton  Canada 1995 to 2001 6 26–49 Found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder. Accused of murdering 20 other women, most of them prostitutes and drug dealers. Comments by Pickton suggest that the total may be 49.
Gong Runbo  China 2005 to 2006 6 20+ Found guilty of the murders of six children and teenagers aged between nine and 16 from 2005 to 2006; executed 2007.
John Wayne Glover  Australia 1989 to 1990 6 13 British ex-pat living in Australia. Known by the media as "The Granny Killer" as he targeted elderly women; committed suicide while in prison in 2005.
Joseph Naso  United States 1977 to 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.
John George Haigh  United Kingdom 1944 to 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.
Aileen Carol Wuornos  United States 1989 to 1990 6 8+ Killed strangers, all men, along Florida highways over 13 months while working as a prostitute.
Jack the Stripper  United Kingdom 1964 to 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.
James Miller  Australia 1976 to 1977 6 7 Sentenced to six consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years. Died of cancer in 2008.
Morris Solomon Jr.  United States 1986 to 1987 6 7 Handyman who killed six young women between 1986 and 1987 in Sacramento, California. Sentenced to death on September 16, 1992.
Robert Berdella  United States 1984 to 1987 6 6+ Berdella abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least six men.
Mack Ray Edwards  United States 1953 to 1970 6 6+ Molester. Murdered 2 young girls and 4 young boys. Claimed at one point to have killed as many as 18.
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.
Celine Lesage  France 2000 to 2007 6 Killed seven of her newborn babies and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Filiberto Hernández Martínez  Mexico 2010 to 2013 6 Killed six people from 2010 to 2013 in Tamuín.
Richard Trenton Chase  United States 1977 6 Schizophrenic known as "The "Vampire of Sacramento", he was convicted of six murders performed in the span of a month after being released of a psychiatric hospital where he had been committed for killing and eating the raw meat of several animals. In addition to killing his victims, he often raped the women's bodies and drank their blood, or took their organs home and ate them.
David Berkowitz  United States 1976 to 1977 6 The "Son of Sam", he would shoot couples in their cars, killing six and wounding seven.
Samuel Bongani Mfeka  South Africa 1993 to 1996 6 Killed 6 women from 1993 to 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Nicholas Lungisa Ncama  South Africa 1997 6 Murdered 6 people in the Eastern Cape, 1997.
Leslie Irvin  United States 1954 to 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.
Aleksandr Rubel  Estonia 1997 to 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.
András Pándy  Belgium 1986 to 1990 6 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.
Dayton Leroy Rogers  United States 1983 to 1987 6 Killed street women, usually addicts, prostitutes and runaways. He would tie, rape, and kill them in a forest.
Alfredo Galán  Spain 2003 6 Called "The Deck of Cards Killer". A former corporal in the Spanish Army, he ambushed random people and shot them in the head or back at very close range, using always a Tokarev TT-33 handgun that he had acquired while stationed in Bosnia. Three other victims survived. After each attack he would leave a marked playing card as his signature. Sentenced to 142 years in prison after surrendering himself voluntarily to justice.
Rory Enrique Conde  United States 1994 to 1995 6 Known as "The Tamiami Trail Strangler". Killed 6 prostitutes in Florida. Sentenced to death on March 7, 2000.
Rhonda Belle Martin  United States 1937 to 1951 6 Alabama poisoner who murdered six family members; executed in 1957.
Nathaniel White  United States 1991 to 1992 6 Convicted of stabbing to death six women in the Hudson Valley, New York area from 1991 to 1992.
Lemuel Smith  United States 1958 to 1981 6 Confessed to the murders of five people, including an on-duty female prison guard. Sentenced to death on June 10, 1983. Conmmuted to life in 1984.
Freeway Phantom  United States 1971 to 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 to 1982 6 Strangled four elderly neighbors, his cellmate when imprisoned on lesser charges; shot his boyfriend.
Cleophus Prince Jr.  United States 1990 6 Known as "The Clairemont Killer"; raped and killed six women in San Diego in 1990.
Gary Ray Bowles  United States 1994 6 Beat and strangled six men to death to steal their credit cards in 1994.
Friedrich Schumann Germany Germany 1918 to 1920 6 Killed six people and executed in 1921.
Norbert Poehlke  West Germany 1984 to 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 to 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.[84]
Richard Cottingham  United States 1977 to 1980 5 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", convicted of five murders. He made claims of victim count as up to a hundred, however, there was no evidence to support this and is considered unsubstantiated.
Zodiac Killer  United States 1962 to 1977 5 37 Targeted young couples. Remains unsolved but open in the California jurisdictions the 5 certain Zodiac murders occurred. Potentially 37 total victims claimed but unverified.[85]
John Floyd Thomas  United States 1957 to 2009 5 17–25 Serial murderer and rapist with one of the longest criminal careers in the US.
Carl Panzram  United States 1915 to 1929 5 22 From 1920 to 1928, he claimed in a posthumous autobiography to have committed over 22 killings, and sodomy of more than 1,000 young men. Hanged on September 5, 1930.
Steve Wright  United Kingdom 2006 5 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 Suffolk prostitute killings.
Hubert Pilčík  Czechoslovakia 1948 to 1951 5 10+[86] Made money smuggling people across the Czechoslovakia-Germany border, but killed most of his customers.
William Patrick Fyfe  Canada 1979 to 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.
Melvin Rees  United States 1957 to 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 to 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.
Danny Rolling  United States 1989 to 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 to 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.
Stephen Akinmurele  United Kingdom 1995 to 1998 5 7 Known as "The Cul-de-sac Killer". Considered mentally ill, Akinmurele had a "pathological hatred" of old people and had committed crimes against them since he was 11. Killed himself in prison.
Vincent Johnson  United States 1999 to 2000 5 6 "The Brooklyn Strangler".
Harvey Carignan  United States 1949 to 1973 5 5+ Known as "The Want-Ad Killer"; raped and beat 4 young women to death in 1972 and 1973; escaped hanging for a 1949 killing on a technicality.
Edward Edwards  United States 1977 to 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.
Vinko Pintarić  SR Croatia 1973 to 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.
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.[87]
Elisabeth Wiese German Empire Germany 1902 to 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.
Thomas Dillon  United States 1973 to 1990 5 Shot five men in southeastern Ohio: one while jogging, two deer hunting and two fishing.
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 to 1986 5 Raped and strangled five young women in Hawaii in 1985 and 1986.
Anthony Kirkland  United States 1987 to 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 to 1962 5 Murdered derelicts in Sydney and Brisbane between 1960 and 1962; sentenced to five consecutive life sentences.
Marc Dutroux  Belgium 1995 to 1996 5 Serial killer convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered; also tortured and murdered his accomplice, Bernard Weinstein.
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 to 1937 5 German-born murder-for-profit killer who poisoned five elderly men; executed in 1938.
Robert Nixon  United States 1936 to 1938 5 Killed 5 women in the 1930s with bricks. Executed by electrocution in Illinois on June 15, 1939.
Waneta Hoyt  United States 1965 to 1971 5 New York woman who murdered her five children.
Janie Lou Gibbs  United States 1966 to 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 to 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 to 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 to 1983 5 Utah man who murdered five young boys; executed in 1988.
Faryion Wardrip  United States 1984 to 1986 5 Killed five young women around Wichita Falls, Texas between 1984 and 1986.
Timothy Wilson Spencer  United States 1984 to 1987 5 Known as "The Southside Strangler"; raped and killed five women in Virginia. Executed in the electric chair on April 27, 1994.
Gary Evans  United States 1985 to 1997 5 Antique thief who shot to death two shop owners and three accomplices who he suspected of stealing from him between 1985 and 1997.
Robert Shulman  United States 1991 to 1996 5 Convicted of murdering five prostitutes between 1991 and 1996.
Elias Abuelazam  United States 2009 to 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 to 1982 5 Known as "The Vampire of Bytom" or "Frankenstein", who murdered five women between 1975 and 1982.[88]
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 to 1994 5 Convicted of murdering 5 old women between August 1993 and January 1994.[89]
Metod Trobec  SR Slovenia 1976 to 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.
Willem van Eijk  Netherlands 1971 to 2001 5 Known as "The Beast of Harkstede".
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 to 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 to 1994 5 Known as "The Nailing Killer": responsible for the murders of five people in 1986 and 1994.
B1 Butcher  Namibia 2005 to 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 5 proven victims

This part of the list contains all serial killers with fewer than 5 proven victims that acted alone and were neither medical professionals nor contract killers.

Name Country Years active Proven victims* Possible victims Miscellaneous information
Max Gufler  Austria 1946 to 1958 4 18+ Convicted of killing four women and suspected of at least 18 murders.
Baekuni  Indonesia 1993 to 2010 4 14 Killed street children. Sentenced to life in prison on October 5, 2010.[90]
Angus Sinclair  United Kingdom 1961 to 1978 4 8 Convicted of the murders of four females; believed to have murdered eight.
Tony Costa  United States 1968 to 1969 4 8 Dismembered and mutilated 4 women in Cape Cod in the late 1960s; linked to at least 4 other deaths and disappearances.[91]
Robert Rozier  United States 1981 to 1986 4 7 Former NFL player that was convicted of four murders but confessed to seven as a member of the Nation of Yahweh.[92]
Leonard Fraser  Australia 1998 to 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 to 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.
Robert Black  United Kingdom 1981 to 1986 4 5+ Convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering four girls aged between 5 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.[93]
Anthony Allen Shore  United States 1986 to 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 to 2007 4 5 Murdered four, possibly five, women in Daytona Beach, Florida between 2005 and 2007.
Jozef Slovák  Czechoslovakia 1978 to 1991 4 4+ Suspected by investigators of more murders, but only four could be proven.
Monster of Udine  Italy 1980 to 1989 4 4+ Killed at least 4 victims in the Province of Udine, Italy.[94]
John Martin Crawford  Canada 1981 to 1992 4 4+ Convicted in 1996 for the murders of three native women.
Oakland County Child Killer  United States 1976 to 1977 4 4+ Also known as "The Babysitter". Responsible for the murders of four or more children in Oakland County, Michigan in 1976 and 1977.
Dallen Bounds  United States 1999 4 4+ Killed 4 people in South Carolina. After killing two acquaintances, he barricaded himself with two women and committed suicide on December 23, 1999.
Wayne Adam Ford  United States 1997-1998 4 4+ Confessed to murdering four women; believed to have killed others.
Heinrich Pommerenke  Germany 1959 4 4+ Killed four women.
Caroline Grills  Australia 1947 to 1953 4 Poisoned four people (most of them relatives) with thallium hidden in tea and scones she had given them in Sydney. Sentenced to five consecutive life sentences (including one for attempting to poison another family member); died from peritonitis in 1960.
Arnold Sodeman  Australia 1930 to 1935 4 Also called the "Schoolgirl Strangler", because he preyed on girls between the ages of 8-12. He lured at least two of his victims by offering to buy them ice cream and offered another victim a ride on his bicycle. Convicted and hanged in 1936.
Gordon Cummins  United Kingdom 1942 4 Raped three of his victims and robbed the remaining one. Also attacked two other women. Sentenced to death by hanging.
Marc Sappington  United States 2001 4 Schizophrenic serial killer who heard voices telling him to kill after extended daily PCP use. He cannibalized part of his last victim.
James Vlassakis  Australia 1997 to 1999[95] 4 Snowtown murderer and stepson of John Justin Bunting; sentenced to four consecutive life sentences with a non-parole period of 26 years.
Peter Woodcock  Canada 1956 to 1991 4 Sexual sadist and child rapist. Killed three young children in Toronto in the 1950s. Sentenced to a psychiatric facility, where he murdered a fellow inmate in 1991.
Léopold Dion  Canada 1963 4 Known as the "Monster of Port-Rouge". Canadian sex offender and serial killer who was active in Quebec. Sentenced to hang but stabbed to death on November 17, 1972 by fellow inmate named Normand “Lawrence d'Arabie” Champagne, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Lam Kor-wan  Hong Kong 1980s 4 Taxi driver and one of Hong Kong's only two known serial killers. Famous for keeping body parts in his parents' home.
Kathleen Folbigg  Australia 1991 to 1999 4 Mother convicted of murdering her three infant children and the manslaughter of a fourth child. Sentenced to 30 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 25 years.
David Meirhofer  United States 1967 to 1974 4 Killed three children and an ex-girlfriend between 1967 and 1974; first serial killer apprehended by offender profiling.
Jerry Brudos  United States 1968 to 1969 4 Electronics technician who bludgeoned and strangled four young women while dressed up in women's clothing. Known as the "Lust Killer" and "Shoe Fetish Slayer".
Erno Soto  United States 1972 to 1973 4 Stabbed young boys and cut off their genitals in attempt to transform them into girls in East Harlem and on the Upper West Side of New York. Known as "Charlie Chop-Off".
William Henry Hance  United States 1977 to 1978 4 Known as "The Forces Of Evil"; soldier who killed four women around military bases in 1977 and 1978.
Thor Nis Christiansen  United States 1977 to 1979 4 Shot dead and committed necrophilia on 4 young women in Isla Vista, California in the late 1970s. Stabbed to death in prison on March 30, 1981; killer unknown.
Craig Price  United States 1987 to 1989 4 Known as "The Warwick Slasher"; teenager who stabbed two women and two children in Rhode Island in the late 1980s.
James Swann  United States 1993 4 Known as The Shotgun Stalker; killed 4 and injured 5 in Washington D.C. in 1993.
Cary Stayner  United States 1999 4 Known as "The Yosemite Killer". Killed four women in Yosemite, California. Sentenced to death. Brother of kidnapping victim Steven Stayner.
Scott Lee Kimball  United States 2003 to 2004 4 Known as "Joe Snitch"; FBI informant who pleaded guilty to two of at least four murders in Colorado including those of his uncle and three female acquaintances.
Eastbound Strangler  United States 2006 4 Killed four women in October and November 2006 in Atlantic City, NJ. Each was placed about sixty feet apart in a drainage ditch filled with shallow water. They were facing east and missing their socks.
Tsutomu Miyazaki  Japan 1988 to 1989 4 Mutilated and killed four girls, aged between four and seven, and sexually molested their corpses. He drank the blood of one victim and ate her hands.
Raúl Osiel Marroquín  Mexico 2005 4 Called "The Sadist". Lured men in gay bars and strangled them, abandoning their bodies inside suitcases all over Mexico City. Two other victims were released after demanding a ransom from their families.
Frank Gust  Germany 1994 to 1998 4 Kill four women form 1994 to 1998. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Fritz Honka  West Germany 1971 to 1974 4 Murdered four women in Hamburg and kept the bodies in his apartment. Sentenced to life in prison in 1975, released in 1993, and died on October 19, 1998.
Jürgen Bartsch  West Germany 1962 to 1966 4 Killed four, one escaped; died by wrongful overdose during castration surgery.
Cayetano Santos Godino  Argentina 1912 4 Known as Petiso Orejudo ("the Big-eared Midget"). Teenage arsonist, animal killer and child murderer with congenital syphilis. Arrested at age 16 in 1912 for killing 4 children, although he tried to kill seven more, the first one when he was seven himself. Interned in 1913 in a reformatory, where he tried to kill other immates, and from 1915 in prison. Died in jail in 1948.
Peter Moore  United Kingdom 1995 4 Stabbed and mutilated four men. Imprisoned for life since 1996.
John Cooper  United Kingdom 1985 to 1989 4 Armed robber and rapist. Murdered two couples.
Steven Grieveson  United Kingdom 1993 to 1994 4 Murdered four boys in an attempt to conceal his homosexuality.
Michael Lupo  United Kingdom 1986 4 Called himself "The Wolf Man". Murdered four men after being diagnosed with HIV, died in prison in 1995.
Robert Maudsley  United Kingdom 1973 to 1978 4 Killed three fellow inmates while being held in a mental institution for his first murder. In solitary confinement since 1983.
Donald Neilson  United Kingdom 1971 to 1975 4 Armed robber and murderer known as the "Black Panther". Died in prison in 2011.
Colin Norris  United Kingdom 2001 to 2002 4 Nurse convicted of killing four patients in Leeds hospitals.
Dale Cregan  United Kingdom 2012 4 Sentenced to a whole life order in prison for four counts of homicide involving the use of firearms—including killing two police officers—and three separate counts of attempted murder.[96]
Alexander Tchayka  Russia 1994 4 All the victims were women wearing fur coats and were stabbed multiple times (21 in one case).
Wayne Boden  Canada 1968 to 1971 4 Known as "the Vampire Rapist" killed 4 women between 1968–1971; died in prison 2006
Cody Legebokoff  Canada 2009 to 2010 4 Committed four murders from 2009 to 2010.
Ion Rîmaru  Romania 1970 to 1971 4 Known as "The Vampire of Bucharest". Attacked 15 lone waitresses as they returned from work with a hammer, hatchet, knife or iron bar, always after midnight and under unusual weather (snowstorms, fog, hard rain, etc.). Four were killed.
Peter Lundin  Denmark 1991 to 2000 4 Killed his mother in 1991, then killed his mistress and her two children 9 years later; Sentenced to prison.
Hiroaki Hidaka  Japan 1996 4 Killed and robbed four women. Hanged in 2006.
Nicolai Bonner  Israel 2005 4 Born in Moldova, Bonner beat to death four fellow immigrants from the former Soviet Union, three of whom were homeless, and then tried to set them on fire. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007.
John Ingvar Lövgren  Sweden 1958 to 1963 4 Confessed to four murders committed between 1958 and 1963 in the Stockholm region.
Richard Kuklinski  United States 1948 to 1986 3 100–250
Robert Ben Rhoades  United States 1989 to 1990 3 50+ Convicted of murdering 3 women in Texas and Illinois between 1989 and 1990. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Billy Glaze  United States 1986 to 1987 3 20+ Known as "Butcher Knife Billy". Killer convicted of raping and murdering three Native American prostitutes in Minneapolis in 1986 and 1987.
Bertha Gifford  United States 1909 to 1928 3 17 Found not guilty by reason on insanity of three arsenic poisonings by insanity and suspected of 14 other killings, mostly children, in Missouri.
Ronald Janssen  Belgium 1990s to 2010 3 15+ Teacher who killed 3. Linked to 15 other killings, usually the rape and murder of young women. Sentenced to life in 2011.[97]
Stephen Griffiths  United Kingdom 2009 to 2010 3 14 Known to have killed 3 prostitutes, but claims to have killed 14 to beat "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe. Dubbed himself the "Crossbow Cannibal" as he killed his victims with a hammer and crossbow and then later ate parts of them.
Peter Tobin  United Kingdom 1991 to 2006 3 13+ Scottish rapist and serial killer known to have killed at least three young women. Also a suspect in the Bible John murders, committed in Glasgow during the late 1960s.
Koos Hertogs  Netherlands 1979 to 1980 3 12 Dutch serial killer convicted of abducting, torturing, raping and killing three girls. Suspected of killing a further 3 to 9 girls and young women in the 1970s.
Dorothea Montalvo Puente  United States 1982 to 1988 3 9–25 Ran a boarding house in Sacramento where she poisoned tenants and buried them in the yard in order to steal their social security checks.
Albert Fish  United States 1924 to 1928 3 9 Convicted and executed for the kidnapping, rape, murder and cannibalization of three children in New York, suspected of the deaths of six more children and teenagers. Likely insane (though his insanity plea was denied to make possible his execution), Fish boasted that he "had children in every state" and at one point claimed 100 victims.
Theodore Kaczynski  United States 1978 to 1995 3 8 Also known as the Unabomber, Kaczynski lived isolated in Montana before his arrest in 1998, sending mail bombs and reactive bombs all over the country to anyone who had a pro-technological stance. Federal authorities were informed of Kaczynski's possible involvement by his brother when he recognized the writing of the Unabomber Manifesto in the New York Times.
Pierre Chanal  France 1980 to 1987 3 8 Convicted of killing 3 young men between 1980 and 1987. Committed suicide in 2003.
Michael Lee Lockhart  United States 1987 to 1988 3 6+ Multi-state serial killer who received death sentences in three states (Florida, Indiana, and Texas). He was executed in 1997 in Texas.
Michael Gargiulo  United States 1993 to 2008 3 6 Dubbed the "Chiller Killer" and AKA the "Hollywood Ripper" whose killing sprees spanned from 1993–2000 in Chicago and 2001–2008 in Santa Monica, CA and Los Angeles, CA area. Notable for killing Ashton Kutcher's former girlfriend Ashley Ellerin
Peter Dupas  Australia 1997 to 1999 3 6 Sexual sadist from Melbourne, who murdered three women and is suspected of at least three further killings. Was convicted of 16 separate acts of sexual violence before his first murder charge. Serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Patrick Mackay  United Kingdom 1973 to 1975 3 5–13 Burglar suspect of 12 violent murders during robberies, charged with five and convicted of three. Bragged that he had killed 11 people. In prison for life.
Judy Buenoano  United States 1971 to 1980 3 5 Poisoned her husband, boyfriend and son with arsenic; drowned the son in 1980 but caught in 1983 after poisoning and car bombing a fiancee.
Paul Kenneth Bernardo  Canada 1990 to 1992 3 5 The "Scarborough Rapist", later gained national infamy when he moved into torturing and killing teenage girls, assisted by his wife, Karla Homolka.
Paul Denyer  Australia 1993 3 5 The "Frankston Killer", sentenced to three consecutive life sentences with a non-parole period of 30 years.
Bandali Debs  Australia 1997 to 1998 3 5 Convicted of the murder of Kirsty Harty at Upper Beaconsfield in 1997, and of the Moorabbin Police murders 14 months later to avoid arrest for a string of armed robberies; sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 27 years without the possibility of parole.
Martin Ney  Germany 1992 to 2004 3 5 Wore a mask while killing 3 and sexually assaulting at least 40 children.
Elfriede Blauensteiner  Austria 1981 to 1995 3 5 Known as "The Black Widow". Poisoned victims and inherited possessions. Died from a brain tumor on 18 November 2003 in a Vienna Hospital.
Gordon Northcott  United States 1928 3 4–20 Pedophile who abducted and murdered boys aged between 10 and 12 in Los Angeles and then disposed of the bodies with the help of his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, and his underage nephew Sanford Clark, whom Northcott had repeatedly threatened and sexually abused. Police considered Northcott a suspect in the disappearance of as many as 20 missing boys in the area that Northcott admitted to have molested, but not murdered; one of these boys surfaced years later alive and confirmed Northcott's version. According to Clark, only four boys were held and murdered in Northcott's property; the three LA children whose remains were found and for whom Northcott was hanged, and an unidentified Mexican boy that Northcott beheaded and disposed of the body near La Puente, California.
Vlado Taneski  Macedonia 2005 to 2008 3 4 A crime journalist, Taneski came under suspicion when his articles on the rape and murder of three elderly women included information that had not been disclosed by the police. All the victims were poor, uneducated cleaners and knew Taneski's mother. Taneski killed himself in prison before he could be interrogated for the murder of a fourth woman.
Peter Kudzinowski  United States 1924 to 1928 3 4 Convicted and executed for the murder of an adult in Scranton, Pennsylvania and two children in New Jersey. Also suspect in the death of two other children in New York City, although Albert Fish later confessed to have murdered one of them himself.
Harvey Glatman  United States 1957 to 1958 3 4 Known as "The Lonely Hearts Killer"; Californian rapist and killer; lured women to pose for "bondage photographs"; executed in the gas chamber on September 18, 1959.
Martha Ann Johnson  United States 1977 to 1982 3 4 Convicted of smothering three of her children in Atlanta between 1977 and 1982. Sentenced to life in prison on May 5, 1990.
Louise Peete  United States 1912 to 1942 3 3+ Convicted of murdering a man and woman decades apart, four other acquaintances died suspiciously and four husbands committed suicide.
Stephen Morin  United States 1981 3 3+ Killed three women and executed by Texas on March 13, 1985. Was also suspected in over 30 unsolved crimes.
Westley Allan Dodd  United States 1989 3 3+ Dodd had an extensive arrest record for molesting children by the time his behavior escalated to include murder. Refusing to appeal his death sentence, he stated that he "should be punished to the full extent of the law, as should all sex offenders and murderers", and that if he ever escaped, he would immediately return to "killing and raping kids". Executed in 1993; his hanging was the first in the United States in 28 years.
Scott Erskine  United States 1989 to 1993 3 3+ Convicted of raping and murdering a woman in 1989 and the torture-murders of 2 boys in 1993. May be linked to other murders.
Donald Leroy Evans  United States 1985 to 1991 3 3+ Murdered a young girl and two women. Suspected of another dozen murders but recanted confessions to over 70 more. Stabbed to death by another death row inmate on January 5, 1999.
Richard Evonitz  United States 1996 to 1997 3 3+ Abducted and killed 3 girls in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1996 and 1997
Akku Yadav  India 2004 and earlier 3 3+ Murdered at least three people and dumped their bodies on the railroad tracks; lynched by a mob of around 200 women.[98]
Levi Bellfield  United Kingdom 2002 to 2004 3 3+ Known as the "Bus Stop Stalker"; convicted of the 2002 Murder of Amanda Dowler and two fatal hammer attacks on young women in South West London in 2003 and 2004. Sentenced to life
Daisy de Melker  South Africa 1923 to 1932 3 Poisoner; killed two husbands and one son from 1923–1932.
Robert Napper  United Kingdom 1992 to 1993 3 Rapist and murderer who mutilated one of his victims so badly that the policeman who found her was put into therapy for two years. Suspected of up to 70 violent sexual attacks in South East London attributed to the unidentified "Green Chain Rapist".
Charles Albright  United States 1991 3 The trophies this seemingly well-adjusted former teacher took from his victims led the press to dub him the "Texas Eyeball Killer".
Bible John  United Kingdom 1968 to 1969 3 Unidentified strangler and rapist of young women active in Glasgow.
Leonarda Cianciulli  Italy 1940 3 Killed three women and turned them into soap and biscuits; known as "The Soapymaker of Correggio".
William Heirens  United States 1945 to 1946 3 Burglar who stabbed three females between. Known as "The Lipstick Killer".
Richard Laurence Marquette  United States 1961 to 1975 3 First 11th name on FBI 10 Most Wanted for killing, mutilating and dismembering a woman in 1961; killed two more with same MO upon 1973 release.
Lee Roy Martin  United States 1967 to 1968 3 Known as "The Gaffney Strangler"; killed two women and two girls in South Carolina in 1967 and 1968.
John Joubert  United States 1982 to 1983 3 "The Nebraska Boy Snatcher", Joubert was enlisted in US Air Force when he was arrested for the murders of two children. Later linked to another killing previous to his military service, of an 11-year-old boy in Maine. Joubert's criminal behavior began at the age of 13, with a series of random attacks on strangers that went unsolved until his arrest in Nebraska.
Altemio Sanchez  United States 1981 to 2006 3 Known as "The Bike Path Rapist" for murdering three women and raping at least 14 others in and around the Buffalo, New York area. Sentenced to 75 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Charles Schmid  United States 1964 to 1965 3 Known as "The Pied Piper of Tucson"; murdered three teenage girls in 1964 and 1965 and buried them in the desert.
Karl F. Warner  United States 1969 to 1971 3 Convicted of murdering three teenage girls, in two separate incidents, in the San Francisco Bay Area communities of San Jose and Saratoga, he was briefly suspected of being the notorious Zodiac Killer, but was soon ruled out as a suspect in that case.
Howard Arthur Allen  United States 1974 to 1987 3 Killed three elderly people, as well as assault, burglary, and arson. Sentenced to death June 11, 1988.
Steven David Catlin  United States 1976 to 1984 3 Poisoned three people from 1976 to 1984. Sentenced to death in 1990.
Paul Michael Stephani  United States 1980 to 1982 3 Known as "The Weepy-Voiced Killer"; would call police and ask for help after murders. Killed 3 women in the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Brian Dugan  United States 1983 to 1985 3 Convicted of murdering 2 girls and a woman between 1983 and 1985.[99]
Heriberto Seda  United States 1990 to 1993 3 New York City copycat killer of the Zodiac Killer active from 1990 to 1993; convicted of shooting eight individuals, killing three; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998.
Harvey Miguel Robinson  United States 1992 to 1993 3 Teenager who stalked, raped and killed three women in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1992 and 1993.
Dana Sue Gray  United States 1994 3 Convicted of murder of three elderly women and attempted murder of a fourth in California.[100]
Jack Owen Spillman  United States 1994 to 1995 3 Known as "The Werewolf Butcher"; killed two girls and the mother of one of them in Washington State in 1994 and 1995.
Scott Williams  United States 1997 to 2006 3 Killed and mutilated three women between 1997 and 2006. Sentenced to life.
Juan Covington  United States 1998 to 2005 3 Shot and killed 3 people.[101]
Michael Madison  United States 2012 to 2013 3 Suspected American serial killer from East Cleveland, Ohio who is currently being held in custody as a suspect in at least three murders.
Gabriel Garza Hoth  Mexico 1991 to 1998 3 Known as "The Black Widower", killed 3 women between 1991 and 1998, his victims were wives and lovers.
Mario Alberto Sulú Canché  Mexico 2007 to 2008 3 Killed 3 women from 2007 to 2008; later committing suicide by hanging in prison.
Martha Rendell  Australia 1907 to 1908 3 Killed three stepchildren with hydrochloric acid in the 20th century; last woman to be hanged in Western Australia.
Eddie Leonski  Australia 1942 3 Confessed to three murders after being picked out of a line of American servicemen by witnesses. Sentenced to death and hanged.
Gregory Brazel  Australia 1982 to 1990 3 Shot dead a woman in 1982 armed robbery and murdered two prostitutes in 1990.
Claremont killer  Australia 1996 to 1997 3 Murders of two young women and the disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997.
Matthew James Harris  Australia 1998 3 Strangled a friend's brother, a female friend and a male neighbour to death over five weeks in 1998 in Wagga Wagga.
Francisca Ballesteros  Spain 1990 to 2004 3 "The Black Widow of Valencia". Poisoned her husband and three children, one of whom survived. Sentenced to 85 years in prison in 2005.
Dámaso Rodríguez Martín  Spain 1981 to 1991 3 Serial rapist and voyeur known as "The Warlock". After being sentenced to 55 years for murdering a man and raping his girlfriend in 1981, he escaped from prison in 1991 and fled to the Anaga mountains in Tenerife, where he killed a couple of German hikers (the woman was also raped). Cornered in an abandoned house, Martín shot himself unsuccessfully and was then shot dead by law enforcement.
Gustavo Romero Tercero  Spain 1993 to 1998 3 "The Valdepeñas Killer". Armed robber and rapist, he killed a couple after the woman recognized him in 1993, and another woman in 1998 after accidentally hitting her with his car, fearing that a possible investigation would link him to the other crimes. Confessed and was sentenced to 83 years in prison for all crimes in 2003, after his ex-wife denounced him.
Lam Kwok-wai  Hong Kong 1993 3 Convicted of 10 rapes and 3 murders that he committed with his bare hands. One of two only known serial killers in Hong Kong.
George Chapman  United Kingdom 1897 to 1902 3 Poisoned three consecutive mistresses with tartar emetic. Considered the possible identity of Jack the Ripper at the time of his execution (1903).
George Joseph Smith  United Kingdom 1912 to 1914 3 Known as "The Brides in the Bath Murders"; killer of three women. Executed by hanging on August 13, 1915.
Peter Bryan  United Kingdom 1993 to 2004 3 A paranoid schizophrenic, Bryan was recluded in a mental institution after killing a shop assistant with a hammer in 1993. Released 11 years later after psychiatrists noted his "continued improvement", Bryan immediately killed a friend and was apprehended when he was frying his brains on a pan. Months later, Bryan killed a fellow mental patient, declaring that he didn't eat him solely because he was caught first. Currently imprisoned for life.
Anthony Hardy  United Kingdom 2002 3 Killed and dismembered three prostitutes. Diagnosed with personality disorder and recluded in a mental institution for life.
Trevor Hardy  United Kingdom 1974 to 1976 3 Called "The Monster of Manchester". Died in prison in 2012.
Robin Ligus  United Kingdom 1994 3 Died in a mental institution in 2012.
John Straffen  United Kingdom 1951 to 1952 3 Killed his third victim after escaping from the mental hospital where he was recluded for the first two murders. Longest-held prisoner in modern British history at the time of his death in 2007.
Graham Young  United Kingdom 1962 to 1971 3 Called the "Teacup Poisoner". Poisoned over 70 people, 3 of whom died.
Valery Asratyan  Soviet Union 1988 to 1990 3 Raped dozens of women in Moscow, murdering three. Executed.
Silvo Plut  SR Slovenia
 Serbia and Montenegro
 Slovenia
1990 to 2006 3 After serving 13 years in prison in Slovenia for a rape and murder, Plut murdered a second woman in Serbia in 2004 and fled back to Slovenia, where a Serbian petition of extradition was turned down by the government. Plut was then arrested for attacking a couple (wife died, husband survived) and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Committed suicide in 2007.
António Luís Costa  Portugal 2005 to 2006 3 Ex-soldier, suffocated three women (and mutilated the first one) in Santa Comba Dao.
Yukio Yamaji  Japan 2000 to 2005 3 Murdered his own mother in 2000, and then murdered a 27-year-old woman and her 19-year-old sister in 2005.[102]
Hiroshi Maeue  Japan 2005 3 Called the "Suicide Website Murderer" for finding his victims in an online suicide community. Maeue offered to painlessly kill themselves together by charcoal burning in a car, but once together he strangled them with his bare hands instead, as this excited him sexually. Hanged in 2009.
Antonis Daglis  Greece 1992 to 1995 3 "The Athens Ripper". A serial rapist with antecedents for violence, Daglis upgraded to raping, strangling and dismembering three prostitutes with a hacksaw in 1992, and tried to kill six more women. In his trial he claimed to hate all prostitutes. Killed himself in prison in 1997.
Joanna Dennehy  United Kingdom 2013 3 Carried out the Peterborough ditch murders. Over a period of two weeks, murdered her landlord and two of her house mates by stabbing them. With the help of accomplices she dumped the bodies in ditches, then attempted to kill two strangers in broad daylight by stabbing them. Given whole life tariff on 28 February 2014.
Özgür Dengiz  Turkey 2007 3 Known as "The Cannibal of Ankara" for eating one of his victims; a third victim survived. Interned in a mental institution after his conviction to two life sentences was overturned.
Erwin Hagedorn  East Germany 1969 to 1971 3 Killed three boys ages 9 to 12. Was convicted and executed in 1972.
Alejandro Máynez  Mexico 1980s to 1990s 2 50+ Killed at least two women in Ciudad Juárez, but believed to be 50. Supposedly, along with Ana Benavides and Melchor Máynez.
Billy Gohl  United States 1901 to 1913 2 40–140+ Alleged to have killed from 40 to 140 seamen in Aberdeen, Washington
Gerard John Schaefer  United States 1969 to 1973 2 30+ Florida police officer who killed up to 34 women and girls. Stabbed to death by fellow inmate Vincent Faustino Rivera on December 3, 1995.
Raman Raghav  India 1966 to 1968 2 23+ Psychopathic serial killer who killed slum dwellers by bludgeoning them when they were asleep. Was charged with 2 murders and sentenced to death, which was later reduced to life in prison.
Francisco Guerrero  Mexico 1880 to 1908 2 21 Called El Chalequero ("The Vests Man"). Believed to have raped and murdered 20 women between 1880 and 1888 that were found in the Consulado River after having been beaten, strangled, gutted or decapitated, but convicted of only one and another attempt to 20 years in prison in 1888. Indulted in 1904, he was arrested for raping and killing another woman in 1908 and sentenced to death, but died of natural causes in prison before he could be executed, in 1910.
Darbara Singh  India 2004 2 17+ Convicted for two murders. Suspected of killing 15 girls and two boys from April to October 2004.
Macario Alcala Canchola  Mexico 1960 to 1962 2 12+ Known as "Mexican Jack"; convicted of the murders of two prostitutes but suspected of at least twelve more murders.
Ed Gein  United States [103] 1954 to 1957 2 8 Famous for his necrophiliac behaviours, as well as using/storing body parts of his victims to make household furniture, clothing and other miscellaneous household items.
José Luis Calva  Mexico 2007 2 8 Killed and cannibalized women. Hanged himself in prison after being convicted to 84 years for two murders.
Robert Zarinsky  United States 1958 to 1974 2 10 Killed people between 1958 and 1974.
Shirley Winters  United States 1979 to 2007 2 7 Confessed in 2008 to killing 2 children (including her 5-month old son), 27 years apart. Plea agreement for those murders included clause stopping investigation of her role in a fire that killed 2 previous children in 1979. Is also a suspect in a separate fire that killed 3 children of a friend in 1979.
Glen Rogers  United States 1995 to 1999 2 5 His capture in Kentucky ended a nationwide manhunt that began with the "Cross-Country Killer's" crime spree that stretched from coast to coast and left four women and one man from five different states dead. Rogers was convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair in Florida in 1997 for the stabbing death of Tina Marie Cribbs. He was later convicted and given a second death penalty in California for the September 1995 murder of Sandra Gallagher. Also known as the "Casanova Killer", Rogers is the lone suspect in the stabbing deaths of two other women (Linda Price in Jackson, Mississippi and Andy Jiles Sutton in Bossier City, Louisiana), both of whom—like Cribbs and Gallagher—he'd met and befriended in bars. The earliest homicide Rogers is suspected of is that of an elderly Ohio man, Mark Peters, with whom Rogers had lived for a short time. In 1994, Peters' remains were discovered in a Rogers "family cabin" in Kentucky.[104]
Steven Brian Pennell  United States 1987 to 1988 2 5 Known as "The Corridor Killer" and "The Route 40 Killer"; convicted of torture-murdering two women, pleaded no contest to two more and suspected of a fifth in Delaware in 1987 and 1988. Executed by lethal injection March 14, 1992.
Mary Elizabeth Wilson  United Kingdom 1955 to 1957 2 4 "The Merry Widow of Windy Nook". Believed to have poisoned her four husbands in a period of only two years. Sentenced to death for two murders but changed to life in prison, where she died in 1963.
Hadden Clark  United States 1986 to 1992 2 2+ Killed and cannibalized a 6-year-old victim and a 23-year-old victim, and confessed to the murder of an unidentified woman nicknamed Lady of the Dunes.
Gary M. Heidnik  United States 1986 to 1987 2 Kidnapped, tortured, raped and imprisoned six women in his Philadelphia, Pennsylvania basement, killing two.
Ronny Rieken  Germany 1996 to 1998 2 Raped and killed two girls ages 11 and 13. He was caught as a result of mass DNA screening and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Johann Otto Hoch  United States
Austria (alleged)
 France (alleged)
 United Kingdom (alleged)
1888 to 1905 1 50+ Swindler who married several women under different aliases, most of whom died after a few months; others disappeared without a trace. Convicted of one murder by poisoning and hanged.
Carl Großmann Germany Germany 1918 to 1921 1 50+ Known as "The Berlin Butcher". Killed women and sold their flesh on the black market. Only one body found. Hanged himself in his cell after being sentenced to death.[105]
Sailson Jose das Gracas  Brazil 2005 to 2014 1 41 Claims to have murdered 41 people in a nine-year killing spree that started at the age of 17.[106]
Bobby Jack Fowler  United States
 Canada
1969 to 1996 1 20 One murder proven, suspected of up to 20 more. Suspect in the Highway of Tears murders.[107]
Leszek Pękalski  Poland 1984 to 1992 1 17 Called "The Vampire of Bytów". Charged with 17 murders but convicted of only one (to 25 years in prison) for faulty collection of evidence. During the investigation he admitted to killing 80 people but later retracted his confession.
Daniel Conahan  United States 1994 to 1996 1 12+ Convicted of one murder and has been linked to over a dozen murders.
Tillie Klimek  United States 1914 to 1921 1 6+ Chicago woman who poisoned her husbands; only convicted of the murder of her third husband. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
Lyda Southard  United States 1915 to 1920 1 6 Suspected of killing her brother-in-law, four husbands and a daughter, but was only convicted of killing her fourth husband, Edward Meyer.
John Norman Collins  United States 1969 1 6 Convicted of the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, suspected in the murder of at least five other young women in the vicinity of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Velma Barfield  United States 1971 to 1978 1 5-6 Confessed to five poisonings with arsenic but was only tried and convicted for one. First woman to be executed in the United States after the 1976 resumption of capital punishment, receiving lethal injection in 1984.
Raymond Morris  United Kingdom 1962 to 1971 1 3 Known as the "A34 Killer"; convicted of one murder, considered to have committed at least two more.
Robert Anthony Buell  United States 1981 to 1983 1 3 Sentenced to death for the murder of a young girl and chief suspect in the murders of two others. Executed by lethal injection in 2002.

Medical professionals and pseudo-medical professionals

Name Country Years active Proven victims* Possible victims Miscellaneous information
Harold Shipman  United Kingdom 1975 to 1998 218 250[108] Convicted of 15 murders and responsible for the deaths of 218 patients identified by inquiry but is believed to have killed up to 250 people.[109] He injected diamorphine into his patients and then falsified the medical records, reporting that his patient had been in poor health. Known (after his arrest only) as Doctor Death.[110] Hanged himself in prison.
Hu Wanlin  China 1997 to 1999 146 150+ Ran hospitals in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan despite lacking a license or any kind of medical formation, where he administered poisonous "miracle cures" that contained high amounts of sodium sulphate.
Miyuki Ishikawa  Japan 1940s 103+ 169 Killed more than 103 newborn children. As a maternity nurse she killed infants born to parents unwilling to care for them during the prohibition of abortion in Japan. Arrested in 1948 and sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Steven Massof  United States 2003 to 2008 100+
Massof, who worked at Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic, testified that he snipped the spines of more than 100 babies after seeing them show signs of life.[111][112]
Louay Omar Mohammed al-Taei  Iraq 2005 to 2006 43 Medical doctor found to have killed 43 wounded policemen, soldiers and officials in Kirkuk; was a member of an insurgent cell.
Daniela Poggiali  Italy 2014 38 Nurse who killed 38 of her patients.
Donald Harvey  United States 1970 to 1987 37 57–87 Self-professed Angel of Death. Worked as an orderly in Cincinnati-area hospitals and preyed on his patients. Claims to have killed 87 patients starting at age 18. Active 1970–1987. Serving 28 life sentences in Ohio.[113]
Jane Toppan  United States 1885 to 1901 31 Nurse that confessed to poisoning 31 patients for her own sexual gratification. After overdosing them she would get in bed and lie with them as they died. Found not guilty by reason of insanity and interned in a mental institution until her death in 1938.
Stephan Letter  Germany 2003 to 2004 29 29+ Nurse who killed 29 patients; Sentenced to life on November 20, 2006.
Anders Hansson  Sweden 1978 to 1979 27 A Nurse Aide who poisoned victims with gevisol and ivisol. His actions were called "The Hospital Murders" (Swedish: Sjukhusmorden).[114]
Marcel Petiot  France 1926 to 1944 26 63 Active 1926 and from 1942 to 1944. Petiot is suspected of having killed up to 63 in total. Executed in 1946.[115]
Arnfinn Nesset  Norway 1983 and earlier 22 27–138+ Norwegian nurse and most prolific known serial killer in Scandinavian history, convicted on 18 March 1983 of poisoning at least 22 patients with Curacit; however he initially confessed to 27 murders; after he retracted his confessions and he told he had killed 138 patients. Was released from prison in 2004 after serving 21 years, the maximum punishment possible by Norwegian law.[116]
Charles Cullen  United States 1988 to 2003 18–29 35–400+ Nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who murdered at least 29 patients between 1988 and 2003, but experts believe the number could be as high as 400. Cullen has admitted to more murders, which authorities believe are likely, but the murders cannot be verified due to lack of records.[117]
Maxim Petrov  Russia 2000 to 2002 12 19 Doctor who killed his patients in St. Petersburg. Suspected of 19 murders.[118]
Joan Vila  Spain 2009 to 2010 11 15[119] Nursing home worker who fatally poisoned 11 elderly residents or more in Olot. In the trial he claimed they were mercy kills intended to spare the victims of further suffering, although three of them were administered caustic cleaning materials that caused severe burns and a long agony.[120]
Ann Arbor Hospital Killer  United States 1975 10 Poisonings of ten patients at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in 1975. Filipino nurses Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez were tried for the crimes.
Frederick Mors  United States 1914 to 1915 8 8+ Born Carl Menarik, Austrian who killed 8 elderly patients by poisoning in New York. Sent to an asylum and escaped. Never caught.
Marianne Nölle  Germany 1984 to 1992 7 17 Nurse who was convicted of killing seven patients between 1984 and 1992; suspected of killing 17; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993.[121]
Petr Zelenka  Czech Republic 2006 7 21[122] Killed his victims with a lethal injection of heparin from May to September 2006. Ten people survived his murder attempt. Suspected of up to 14 additional murders.
Orville Lynn Majors  United States 1993 to 1995 6 130 LPN in Vermillion County Ind., Preyed on elderly patients—thought to have killed many of them with injections of potassium chloride. Serving 360 years in Indiana.
Efren Saldivar  United States 1989 to 1997 6 50+ Respiratory therapist who killed six patients, possibly as many as 120.[123]
Christine Malèvre  France 1998 and earlier 6 30 Nurse who killed terminally ill patients claiming that they had asked her to help them die, something denied by their families. Sentenced to 12 years in prison for 6 murders and suspect of 30.
Kristen Gilbert  United States 1990 to 1996 5 70+ Nurse at a Massachusetts Veterans Medical Center who injected male patients with epinephrine, causing heart attacks. Sentenced to life without parole.
Amy Archer-Gilligan  United States 1910 to 1917 5 48+ A nursing home proprietor believed to have poisoned as many as 60 patients from her homes and her second husband. Charged with 5 murders originally, this was lowered to just one following her admission of guilt, and was found guilty of second degree murder. Died in a mental hospital in 1962.
Aino Nykopp-Koski  Finland 2004 to 2009 5 Nurse who killed five elderly patients using sedatives and opiates in Finland.
Kimberly Clark Saenz  United States 2008 5 Killed five patients by using syringes to inject bleach into their dialysis lines.
Michael Swango  United States 1981 to 1997 4 35–60+ Murderer and serial killer suspect.
Kermit Gosnell  United States 1989? to 2011 4 100+ Gosnell, who ran an abortion clinic, was charged with 8 and convicted of 4 murders. Three babies were born alive, then killed by cutting the infant's spine with scissors. One mother died due to complications. Testimony indicated hundreds of similar procedures carried out by Gosnell and his staff.
Edson Izidoro Guimaraes  Brazil 1999 and earlier 4 5-131 Nurse who injected patients with potassium chloride or took their oxygen masks off. Confessed to 5 murders which he claimed to be mercy kills and was convicted of 4 in 2000, sentenced to 76 years in prison. Some believe that he might have killed as many as 131 patients for money, as he was paid $60 for informing local funeral homes of a patient's death so that they could contact the deceased's relatives first.
Richard Angelo  United States 1987 4 25 Known as "The Angel of Death". New York nurse convicted of four murders, linked to 6 other deaths. Suspected of killing up to 25 people.
Beverley Allitt  United Kingdom 1991 4 A nurse, Allitt attacked 11 children in her care during a period of 59 days, killing four of them. Some of the victims were overdosed with insulin, others were injected with air bubbles. Imprisoned for life since 1993.
Abraao Jose Bueno  Brazil 2005 4 Nurse who injected young children with sedatives until they stopped breathing. He would then alert doctors in an attempt to earn the respect of his colleagues for being the first one to notice that something was wrong. Convicted of 4 deaths and 4 more murder attempts to 110 years in prison.
Marie Fikáčková  Czechoslovakia 1957 to 1960 2 10+ Nurse who was executed by hanging in 1961 for murdering babies.
Felícitas Sánchez Aguillón  Mexico 1930 to 1941 1 50+ Known as "The Ogress of Roma neighborhood"; Nurse, midwife and baby farmer responsible for an unknown number of murders number during the 1930s, maybe 50 victims, in Mexico City.
Genene Jones  United States 1971 to 1984 1 50+ Pediatric nurse who poisoned infants in her care; convicted of only one murder but suspected many more.[124]
Linda Hazzard  United States 1908 to 1911? 1 13–40+ Self-declared doctor and fasting specialist, which she advertised as a panacea for every medical ailment. Up to 40 patients could have died of starvation in her "sanitarium" of Olalla, Washington. Imprisoned for one death in 1912, was paroled in 1915 and continued to practice medicine without a license in New Zealand (1915–1920) and Washington (1920–1935). Died in 1938 while attempting a fasting to cure herself.
Robert George Clements  United Kingdom 1920 to 1947 1 4 Believed to have murdered his four wives, all of whom died young and had their death certificates signed by Clements himself. Clements committed suicide with a morphine overdose when police came to arrest him for the murder of his fourth wife, who had died of the same cause.

Serial killer groups and couples

Name Country Years active Proven victims* Possible victims Miscellaneous information
Philadelphia poison ring  United States 1938 and earlier 114 Gang of 16 that poisoned Italian immigrants with arsenic in order to collect their life insurance. The leaders, cousins Herman and Paul Petrillo, were executed on the electric chair in 1941 while the rest were given life sentences.
Delfina and María de Jesús González  Mexico 1955 to 1964 91+ Two sisters who ran a brothel in Mexico, hired numerous prostitutes and murdered at least 80 of them after they were deemed useless during the span of ten years. They also killed 11 men. Probably the work of four of the sisters, sentenced to 40 years in prison. Body count varies due to the combined work of the sisters being impossible to assign to them individually.[9]
Angel Makers of Nagyrév Hungary 1911 to 1929 50 300+ 26 women who poisoned their husbands (sometimes also their parents, lovers and children) with arsenic under the guidance of midwife Júlia Fazekas and her accomplice, Susi Oláh.
Dean Corll, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley  United States 1970 to 1973 28 29+ Corll, known as "The Candy Man", killed at least 28 teenage boys and young men in Houston between 1970 and 1973. Corll was then shot and killed by one of the two teenage accomplices he recruited to assist him in the abductions of the victims on August 8, 1973. This accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, informed the police of the trio's murders the same day Corll was murdered.[22]
Adolfo Constanzo and Sara Aldrete  Mexico 1987? to 1989 25+ "The Godparents of Matamoros". Leader and second in command of a cult that abducted men to perform human sacrifices.
Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko  Ukraine 2007 21 Also known as "The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs". Killed random people over a two-month period and tortured dogs and cats, received lifetime imprisonment.
Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher  India 2005 to 2006 19 30+ Between 2005 and 2006, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic servant, Surender Koli, kidnapped, raped, murdered, and dismembered 19 people (mostly children). Convicted.
Anísio Ferreira de Sousa and followers  Brazil 1989 to 1992 19 Satanic ring that abducted, mutilated and sacrificed children in Altamira, Brazil. The leader, Ferreira de Sousa, was convicted for four murders and two more attempts to 77 years in prison.
Ripper Crew  United States 1981 to 1982 18 Abducted women, mostly prostitutes, then raped, tortured and killed them in Chicago, Illinois.
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo  United States 2002 17 Killed seven people from February to September 2002 and ten in the Beltway sniper attacks of October 2002.
Vladyslav Volkovich and Volodymyr Kondratenko  Ukraine 1991 to 1997 16 20+ "The Nighttime Killers". Murdered homeless men and lone drivers with a variety of weapons.
Death Angels  United States 1973 to 1974 16 Four black supremacists that killed 16 white people and injured between 8 and 10 in San Francisco (Zebra murders).
Lainz Angels of Death  Austria 1983 to 1989 15 49–200+ Known as the "Lainz Angels of Death"; Waltraud Wagner, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Mayer, and Maria Gruber were nurses at the Lainz General Hospital in Vienna who admitted to murdering 49 patients.[125]
José Miculax Bux and Mariano Macú Miculax  Guatemala 1946 15 Cousins who killed 15 boys in 1946.
Fred West and Rosemary West  United Kingdom 1967 to 1987 12 20 Mainly targeted young females but were also found guilty of the murder of their own daughter. Also found guilty of raping another daughter. Buried the victims around their house and local area. Shortly before he committed suicide on New Year's Day, 1995, Fred West said there were more victims.[126]
Briley Brothers  United States 1971 to 1979 12 Three brothers and an accomplice responsible for 12 murders in the 1970s in Richmond, Virginia.[127]
Mailoni Brothers  Zambia 2007 to 2013 12 Three brothers who killed at least 12 people from 2007 to 2013. Killed by Zambia Army Commandos in 2013.
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng  United States 1982 to 1985 11 25 Abducted women, used them as sex slaves, and then murdered them, together with any men, women, and children who got in their way. Lake committed suicide upon arrest, but Ng was later convicted of killing 11 people. Between 1982 and 1985, Lake and Ng were believed to have abducted and killed as many as 25 victims, as evidenced by human remains found on Lake's California ranch.[128]
Shen Changyin and Shen Changping  China 1999 to 2004 11 Found guilty of the murders of 11 prostitutes.
Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan  Italy 1977 to 1984 10 27 The victims, seemingly chosen at random and killed by different methods, were found next to letters written in Italian, signed "Ludwig" and containing Nazi imagery, that gave a reason for why the murder had been committed. Abel and Furlan were arrested in Castiglione delle Stiviere while dousing a crowded discothèque with gasoline and sentenced in 1987 to 30 years in prison for all crimes (later reduced to 27).
Joshi-Abhyankar serial murderers  India 1976 to 1977 10 Four Pune commercial art students (Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Sutar, Shantaram Kanhoji Jagtap and Munawar Harun Shah) that broke into random people's homes and businesses and strangled them with a nylon rope. Hanged in 1983.
Gerald and Charlene Gallego  United States 1978 to 1980 10 Killed ten victims in Sacramento, California. Gerald Gallego died of cancer before his death sentence could be carried out. Charlene Gallego was released July 1997.[129]
Viña del Mar psychopaths  Chile 1980 to 1981 10 Jorge Sagredo and Carlos Topp committed ten murders and four rapes from 5 August 1980 to November 1, 1981 in the city of Viña del Mar. Executed by firing squad on January 29, 1985, they became the last people executed in Chile.
National Socialist Underground  Germany 2000 to 2007 10 Neo-Nazi group who killed ten ethnic Turks in the Bosphorus serial murders from 2000 to 2007. Most victims were small business owners killed in broad daylight with a gunshot to the face. Two of the suspects committed suicide and a third, Beate Zschäpe, was apprehended in November 2011.
The Hernández Brothers Sect  Mexico 1963 8 Originally a scam intended to extort money and sexual favors from the poor, illiterate inhabitants of the small village of Yerba Buena, who were promised favors from "Inca gods" in the mountains, the cult came to include Aztec-inspired human sacrifices after prostitute Magdalena Solís took over as high priestess. 15 people were sentenced to 30 years in prison for their participation in the ritual murders of seven villagers and one police officer.
Rudolfo Infante and Anna Villeda  Mexico 1991 8 Responsible for 8 murders.[130]
Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman  United States 2006 8 Known as the "Serial Shooter". Responsible for 8 murders in random drive-by shootings in 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko Ogata  Japan 1993 to 2002 7 9 Under Matsunaga's leadership, who had a long history of conning (and possibly murdering) women, the couple abducted, tortured and disposed of the bodies of six relatives of Ogata and one neighbor in their condominium of Kitakyushu. Matsunaga was sentenced to death and Ogata to life in prison in 2007.
Christopher Worrell and James Miller  Australia 1976 to 1977 7 Known as the "Truro Murderers"; convicted of killing seven victims in South Australia.
Auto Shankar's Gang  India 1988 to 1989 6 9 Nine men who collaborated to abduct and murder at least 6 teenage girls in Chennai; their bodies were cremated and thrown into the sea or buried under residential homes. Leader Auto Shankar and two accomplices were sentenced to death by hanging in 1991, his brother Auto Mohan to three consecutive life sentences in prison and five other collaborators to six months in prison.
Gert van Rooyen and Joey Haarhof South Africa South Africa 1988 to 1989 6 8 Their victims were never found; the pair shot dead a police officer and then committed suicide when faced with arrest after the escape of their last kidnap victim.
Hermann Duft and Hans Wilhelm Bassenauer  Greece 1969 6 German serial killers who murdered six persons in Greece, within a short period in 1969, were captured, tried, sentenced to death and executed.
David Alan Gore and Fred Waterfield  United States 1981 to 1983 6 Cousins connected to the murders of six females. Gore was executed in 2012 and Waterfield was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Artyom Alexandrovich Anoufriev and Nikita Vakhtangovich Lytkin  Russia 2010 to 2011 6 Teenaged thrill-killers of random people.
Ray and Faye Copeland  United States 1986 to 1989 5 12 Oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States at the ages of 75 and 69; convicted of killing 5 men; modus operandi was to hire unskilled drifters as farm hands and later kill them.[131]
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley  United Kingdom 1963 to 1965 5 5+ The "Moors Murderers". Abducted children in northern England. They were found guilty of two and three murders respectively.
The Skin Hunters  Poland 2002 and earlier 5 Unknown Hospital crew that killed patients in order to get bribes from nearby funeral homes. Two doctors and two paramedics were convicted for the murder of five patients, but the investigation is still going on with over 40 remaining suspects.
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood  United States 1987 5 Nurses who killed five elderly women in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris  United States 1979 5 Known as "The Tool Box Killers". Kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered five girls in 1979.
James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Coffman  United States 1986 5 Killed four women and one man in 1986.[132]
Chijon family  South Korea 1993 5 South Korean gang of cannibals that was sentenced to death for killing five people.
Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine  United States 1984 to 1999 4 19+ Known as the "Speed Freak Killers"; California duo initially convicted of 4 murders from 1984 to 1999.
David and Catherine Birnie  Australia 1986 4 4–8 Australian couple who raped and murdered four women in their home and attempted to murder a fifth in Perth in 1986. Both were sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; David Birnie hanged himself in prison on October 7, 2005.
Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck  United States 1947 to 1949 3 20 Known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers", Fernandez and Beck extorted women Fernandez met through lonely hearts advertisements. Both were arrested in Michigan in 1949 for the murders of a woman and her 2-year-old daughter, but Michigan authorities waived prosecution and extradited the pair to New York to face trial for a murder that occurred there because New York had the death penalty while Michigan did not. They were convicted of that murder and executed on March 8, 1951.
Michael Bear Carson and Suzan Carson  United States 1981 to 1983 3 3+ Nomadic hippie killers involved in the counter-culture movement; sentenced to life imprisonment for three San Francisco Bay Area murders in 1983.
Joseph and Michael Kallinger  United States 1974 to 1975 3 Joseph Kallinger murdered three people and tortured four families with his 13-year-old son Michael in New Jersey.
John Duffy and David Mulcahy  United Kingdom 1985 to 1986 3 Raped dozens of women in train stations (beginning in 1982) before switching to murder.
Beasts of Satan  Italy 1998 to 2004 3 The members of this group committed three notorious ritual murders over six years.
Silvia Merez Cult  Mexico 2009 to 2012 3 Ritually murdered three people in sacrifices to Santa Muerte.
Raya and Sakina and their husbands Egypt Egypt 1919[133]-1920 2 Unknown Gang of four that rented a house for women and killed them to rob their money and jewellery. Raya and Sakina were the first women executed in the modern state of Egypt, in 1921.

Disputed cases

Name Country Years active Proven victims* Possible victims Miscellaneous information
Javed Iqbal  Pakistan 1996 to 1999 74+ 100+ He raped, strangled and put acid in several children. Arrested, he claimed 100 victims. He was found guilty of 100 killings but 26 children were found alive after he hanged himself in prison.[134]
Bruno Lüdke  German Reich
 Nazi Germany
1928 to 1943 51 86 Mentally disabled, Lüdke was arrested after being discovered with a corpse. Police declared him insane and imprisoned him in a psychiatric hospital, where he was experimented on before being executed in 1944. The case remains controversial, as the only evidence tying him to the crimes was a confession that may have been physically coerced.
Fernando Hernández Leyva  Mexico 1982? to 1999 33 100–137 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. Accused of as many as 137 murders in five southern Mexican states, convicted of 33 to 50 years in prison. Tried to kill himself in prison unsuccessfully.[135]
Vera Renczi Romania Romania 1920 to 1930 32 35 Convicted of killing 35 men through arsenic poisoning but confessed to only killing 32 victims.[136]
Gerald Stano  United States 1969 to 1980 22+ 41 Confessed to killing 41 women in mostly Florida and New Jersey areas. Some controversy surrounds the case as he is believed by some to have been a serial confessor.
"Highway of Tears" Killer  Canada 1969 to 2011 18 43 All the victims were young women and were last seen on Highway 16 in British Columbia between Prince George and Prince Rupert. If they were all victims of the same person, it would be one of the most proficient serial killers in Canada and one with the longest careers in the world. Some of the murders have been linked to American criminal Bobby Jack Fowler, although he was in prison at the time others were committed.
The Stoneman  India 1985 to 1989 12–25 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). It is ignored if all were committed by the same person(s) or some were copycat crimes, and no one was ever charged with any of the murders.
David Parker Ray  United States 1950 to 1999 14 60 Torture-murderer possibly aided by numerous accomplices, including his girlfriend. Targeted victims in the Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, area, convicted of killing 14 victims and suspected of 60 murders, even though no body was ever found. Known as the "Toybox Killer" for the self-built mobile home he used as a house to rape, torture, and kill women.
Henry Lee Lucas  United States 1960 to 1983 11 11–600+ Confessed to killing at least 600 people but later recanted and is suspected of lying about a majority of his murders. He originally offered a list of 77 women from 19 different states, as he confessed to more and more murders, the details became increasingly more bizarre. Some included dismemberment, necrophilia, even cannibalism. Lawmen linked the Lucas and Otis Toole to 81 murders alone. Convicted of 11 murders.[137] Detectives from 40 states came to visit Lucas, and an estimated 3,000 homicides were discussed in what is considered to be one of the greatest mockeries of the U.S. legal system when police officers cleared their books of unsolved murders.[138] The true number of murders committed by Lucas is unknown, but it is likely Lucas was not nearly as prolific a serial killer as he initially claimed to be, as most of his murder confessions were thoroughly discredited, and he himself claimed only one murder—that of his mother.[138][139][140] Probably responsible for the deaths of 40 people.[141]
Charles Quansah  Ghana 1993 to 2001 8 34 Quansah, who had been in prison for rape twice, was held as a suspect in the deaths of 34 women across the country, including his girlfriend who was strangled in 2000, and eventually confessed to eight murders. He later denied the killings, claiming that the confessions had been extracted under torture, and that the police had also tried unsuccessfully to force him to implicate a number of politicians including former president Jerry Rawlings, his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman and an unidentified member of president John Kufuor's administration.[142][143]
Redhead murders  United States 1978 to 1992 8+ Series of unsolved homicides believed to have been committed by an unidentified serial killer in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
Jeff Davis 8  United States 2005 to 2009 8 The bodies of eight women, all of whom had an involvement with drugs or prostitution, were found in swamps and canals surrounding Jennings, Louisiana. Originally thought to be a serial killer, but multiple suspects may be involved.
Ottis Toole  United States 1980 to 1983 7 8–125 Initially convicted of three counts of murder, later pleading 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 a hundred counts of murder, rape, arson and cannibalism, and was the suspect in several other unsolved murders. On December 16, 2008, police announced that they had identified Toole as the likely murderer of Adam Walsh, and would be closing the case as a result.
The Beer Man  India 2006 to 2007 7 Purported unidentified serial killer that operated in Mumbai and left a beer bottle next to each body as his signature, hence the nickname. A suspect was charged with three of the murders and convicted of one in 2008, but the sentence was overturned by the High Court in 2009 because the evidence presented was deemed inadmissible.
José Pedro Guedes  Portugal 1992 to 1993 3 3–21+ Confessed and was arrested for the "Lisbon Ripper" murders in 2011, but could not be prosecuted because the Portuguese statute of limitations had already run out. Also suspected of similar murders in Lisbon and Aveiro, Portugal, as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Czech Republic and the 1988 New Bedford Highway Killings in Massachusetts, USA.
"Bowraville Murders" Killer  Australia 1990 to 1991 3 Proposed serial killer responsible of the murders of three Aboriginal children in the same area, all bludgeoned to death. Thomas Jay Hart was tried for one of the murders and acquitted, and held as a suspect in another for which he did not face prosecution.
Joe Ball  United States 1937 to 1938 2 20 Bootlegger and barman known as the "Butcher of Elmendorf", the "Bluebeard of South Texas", and "the Alligator Man" because of the alligator pit he had in the back of his bar and where he entertained clients by throwing live animals to the reptiles. Ball killed for sure two barmaids whose bodies were dug and later discovered at the beach, but he shot himself fatally in the chest when police came to question him and was never arrested or interrogated. Yellow press and pulp magazines later exaggerated his exploits, claiming that he had killed up to 20 women and fed them to the alligators, but this was never proven and caused some of Ball's relatives to sue such publications. Police investigated about a dozen women that had worked at Ball's place and were missing at the time of his suicide; some were found alive in San Antonio, but others couldn't be accounted for.[144]
"Texas Killing Fields" Killers  United States 1970s to 2000s 1 30+ Since the early 1970s roughly 30 bodies have been extracted from the fields, mainly consisting of young girls. May have been the work of multiple killers. Convicted murderer Edward Harold Bell, 72 years old in November 2011, claimed in a letter to police in 1998 to have murdered 11 girls in Galveston County. Kevin Edison Smith was sentenced to life imprisonment for one of the murders in 2012.
Abdul Latif Sharif  Mexico 1995 1 18–20 Egyptian chemist known as "The Jackal of Ciudad Juárez". After migrating to the United States in the 1970s, Sharif served 14 years in prison for several rapes but fled to Mexico when he was about to be deported to his home country. There, he was accused of up to 20 of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez but was convicted of only one, to 30 years in prison, where he died of natural causes in 2006. As the high rate of female murders has continued to this day in Ciudad Juárez, it has been claimed that Sharif was used as a scapegoat by the Mexican police.
Daisuke Mori  Japan 2000 and earlier 1 11+ Nurse that was sentenced to life imprisonment for one murder but suspected of killing at least ten others. He might have confessed to some of the murders in order to protect others.
Lowell Amos  United States 1979? to 1994 1 4 Detroit businessman sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for the murder of his third wife. Suspected of, but never charged with the deaths of two previous wives and his mother, all of whom died under suspicious circumstances and left life insurance policies to Amos that, at least in one case, Amos himself had bought against the will of the insured.
Bevan Spencer von Einem  Australia 1979? to 1983 1 3–10 Arrested for three and convicted of one of "The Family Murders", where four teenagers and one young adult, all male, were drugged, kidnapped, raped and mutilated for weeks before their bodies were abandoned in the country near Adelaide. Police believed that von Einem had several accomplices, none of whom were publicly identified or detained, and at the time of his trial it was widely reported that the murders had been committed by a group of 4 to 12 high-profile Australian men; von Einem himself claimed to be the victim of a conspiracy. He has also been considered a suspect in the disappearance of two girls near the Adelaide Oval in 1973 and the high-profile Beaumont children disappearance in 1966.
John Bodkin Adams  United Kingdom 1946 to 1956 0 163 Acquitted in a highly unusual trial in 1957 of murder but later found guilty of fraud. Archive evidence shows that he was almost certainly a killer but that his prosecution was botched for political reasons.
Smiley Face Killer  United States 1990s to 2000s 0 40+ Theoretical serial killer(s) thought by some sources to have drowned college-aged young men across the northern part of the country since 1997; most experts suggest that the deaths were accidental.
Marie Besnard  France 1927 to 1949 0 13 Charged with the murders of 13 relatives with arsenic, all of whom had Besnard as their sole designated heir, but acquitted of all charges after three high profile trials that lasted a decade.
Dr. X killings  United States 1966 0 9+ Suspicious deaths of nine people at Riverdell Hospital in Oradell, New Jersey. Mario Enrique Jascalevich was acquitted in 1978.

* Proven victims being victims the serial killer was tried for, explained by the killer in a detailed confession, or victims most scholars of the subject agree upon.

References

  1. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying entry on "Serial Killers" (2003) by Sandra Burkhalte Chmelir
  2. Benecke, Mark (2005). Murderous Methods: Using Forensic Science to Solve Lethal Crimes. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13118-6.
  3. Peter Vronsky (2004). Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. Berkley Books. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-425-19640-3.
  4. All About Pedro Lopez, David Lohr
  5. "La Infancia y La Virginidad: Dos Vertientes Del Crimen" [Children and Virginity: Twofold Crime]. Hoy (in Spanish) (Equador). November 15, 1994. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
  6. Newton, Michael (2006). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Facts on File, Inc. p. 239.
  7. Cui, Vivian (2003-11-22). "Using hammer, shovel or axe, serial killer of 65 struck victims as they slept. Yang Xinhai's motives were rape and robbery, police say of four-province rampage.". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2008-09-21. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
  8. "Abul Djabar". crime-serienmorde.de. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 "World's Worst Killers", BBC News, October 30, 1999
  10. Sullivan, Jennifer (February 7, 2011). "Attorney: Ridgway will likely plead guilty to new murder charge". Seattle Times. Retrieved 7 February 2011.
  11. "Russia 'chessboard killer' guilty". BBC News. 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  12. 残杀45人,嗜血魔头没有父母没有家 (in Chinese). 家庭期刊集团 原载《家庭》2005年6期 文/肖 宁. 2005. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  13. A Time to Kill, Philip von Nekerk, Maxim, October 2000 Archived December 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  14. "Михасевич Геннадий – полная биография". Crynews.ru. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  15. Polly Nelson, Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer. William Morrow, 1994, 329 pages. ISBN 978-0-688-10823-6
  16. "Bundy Finally Draws Cheers: Hundreds Celebrate Execution". Orlando Sentinel. 1989-01-25. Retrieved 2011-07-19.
  17. "Death Of An Evil Man Is No Cause For Mirth". Sun-Sentinel. 1989-01-25. Retrieved 2011-07-19.
  18. John Wayne Gacy Jr.: Biography, Jonathan Dunder, The Free Information Society
  19. Schayegh, C. "Serial Murder in Tehran: Crime, Science, and the Formation of Modern State and Society in Interwar Iran". History Comparative Studies in Society and History, 47(4) October 2005, pp 836-862. Abstract
  20. "Vasili KOMAROFF". Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  21. Jele, Linda (April 2, 2011). "David SIMELANE gets death penalty, to be hanged". swazilive.com. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  22. 1 2 Bardsley, Marilyn (1973-08-08). "Dean Corll- The Sex, Sadism and Slaughter of Houston's Candy Man, from — The Party — Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  23. Harvest of Horror, 1975 p.27-31
  24. "Serial killer jailed for 1,340 years", BBC News, March 16, 2000 . Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  25. "Cold-case squad to probe decades-old Atlanta murders". CNN Justice. 7 May 2005.
  26. Fritz Haarmann: The Butcher of Hannover, Alexander Gilbert
  27. All About Bela Kiss, Marilyn Bardsley and Denise Noe Archived April 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  28. "US Serial Killer Ronald Dominique Sentenced To Eight Life Terms For Raping And Killing Young Men". News.sky.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  29. "Manuel Octavio BERMUDEZ ESTRADA".
  30. Patrick Kearney killed and mutilated gay men, Elizabeth Engstrom, The Crime Library
  31. William Bonin: The Freeway Killer Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  32. Girl is held as lure in the murders of 21, The New York Times (September 27, 1935)
  33. Woyke, Elizabeth (December 18, 2004). "Milestones". Time. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  34. "Former Afghan commander executed". BBC News. 2004-04-27. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  35. "Mohan KUMAR". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  36. Juan Ignacio Blanco. "Alexander Spesivtsev - Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers". murderpedia.org.
  37. Morbid Fact Du Jour Archive Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  38. "Death sentence", The Independent, March 23, 1989
  39. "Randall Woodfield". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  40. "Pedro Nakada – El Apóstol de la Muerte".
  41. "Russia's worst woman serial killer dubbed 'Satan in a Skirt' after murdering 17 pensioners in eight year reign of terror". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  42. All about Randy Kraft, Michael Newton
  43. "Iran's 'desert vampire' executed". BBC. 16 March 2005. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  44. "Crimes and Forensics. ''Crimes That Shook The World.''". Discovery Channel. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  45. All about the Monster of Florence, David Lohr
  46. "Carroll Edward Cole". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  47. "Charles Ray Hatcher", Amber Keen, George Lewis, Kara Stone, Andrew Lucas
  48. David Carson. "Texas Execution Information – Report: Angel Maturino Resendiz". Txexecutions.org. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  49. "Dennis Nilsen Famous Criminal".
  50. "No prosecution for serial killer", BBC News, December 6, 2006 Archived 16 July 2007 at WebCite
  51. "Coral E. Watts, Imprisoned Serial Killer, Dies at 53". New York Times. September 22, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  52. "arcelo COSTA DE ANDRADE".
  53. "Amir QAYYUM".
  54. Hickey, Eric W. (2009). Serial Murderers and their Victims, 5th Edition. Wadsworth. p. 191. Unknown ID B0046H9FGS.
  55. "Belle Sorenson GUNNESS". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  56. 1 2 Murders Database: Richard Ramírez' List of Victims Archived August 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  57. "Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker", The History Channel. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  58. "On this day, May 24, 1989: Yorkshire Ripper's wife wins damages". BBC News. 1989-05-24. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  59. "The Boston Strangler", CBS News, February 15, 2001
  60. Заголовок:. "Peopoles.ru". Peoples.ru. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  61. "Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, the Hillside Stranglers", Marilyn Bardsley
  62. "SISWANTO".
  63. Заголовок:. "Сергей Головкин (Sergey Golovkin)". Peoples.ru. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  64. "Vaughn Orrin GREENWOOD". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  65. Clifford Olson: The Case of the Missing Lower Mainland Children, Jan Bouchard-Kerr
  66. French Bluebeard Guillotined (February 25 1922), News of the Odd Archived December 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  67. "serial killer true crime library * serial killer news * list of serial killers * serial murder * female serial killers * crime scene investigation * tueur en serie * omicidi seriali *". crimezzz.net.
  68. Malnic, Eric; Jones, Jack (28 March 1987). "Murderer in Alabama Confesses 2 L.A. Killings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  69. "‘Murder Capital of the World’: Three grisly mass-murder sprees plunged the county into terror", Santa Cruz Sentinel Archived April 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  70. "Serial killer recaptured". hurriyet.com.tr. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  71. "Man Charged With Slayings In N.C. Sought In Kitsap Case -- Investigators Blame Him For 10 Murders Over 20 Months". The Seattle Times. 14 March 1994. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  72. "Death sentence for South Korean serial killer". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  73. "iafrica.com | news | features | Worst criminals of SA". News.iafrica.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  74. "Former drag queen is held over murder of 18 people". The Independent. November 29, 2007. Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  75. "The Drifter, Joel Rifkin". Archived from the original on December 16, 2005. Retrieved March 8, 2007.
  76. "Richard Biegenwald- mass murderer". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  77. "Alfred J. GAYNOR".
  78. Johns, Loujane (6 May 2009). "'Nothing Ever Happens Here'". The Chronicle-Express.com. Penn Yan Chronicle-Express. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  79. "Gillis Confession Solves Two More Murders - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports". wafb.com.
  80. "Gillis' Girlfriend Speaks Out", WAFB,
  81. "Gillis gets life sentence", The Advocate,
  82. "Vladimir MUKHANKIN". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  83. Walsh, Anthony (2005). African Americans and Serial Killing in the Media: The Myth and the Reality. Homicide Studies Vol. 9 No. 4, November 2005 271-291 DOI: 10.1177/1088767905280080
  84. "Wolfgang SCHMIDT". murderpedia.org. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  85. "Zodiackiller.com". Zodiackiller.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  86. "czech". Pohranicnik.bloguje.cz. 2012-06-30. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  87. Sabloff, Nicholas (August 5, 2010). "William Holbert Panama Murders: More Bodies Found At Hostel Of U.S. Man Accused Of Serial Killings". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  88. "Zabijał uderzeniem siekiery.". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  89. "Il a fait ce qu'Il avait à faire, sans sentiment». Claude Lastenet a étranglé cinq femmes âgées. Aujourd'hui l'accusé voudrait que ce procès l'aide à comprendre pourquoi cet autre lui-même qu'il appelle "Il" l'a poussé à tuer.". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  90. "BAEKUNI".
  91. "Antone Charles COSTA". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  92. "Robert Earnest ROZIER". murderpedia.org. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  93. ITV.com 13 January, 2016
  94. "Il Mostro di Udine". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  95. Juan Ignacio Blanco. "James Vlassakis | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers". Murderpedia.org. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  96. "Serial killer Dale Cregan 'went on the run in Spain and paid Russian mobsters to protect him before coming home because he ran out of cash'". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  97. "'Quiet' teacher who confessed to three murders 'could be Belgium's latest serial killer'". Daily Mail (London).
  98. "'Arrest us all'". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  99. "Inside the FBI files of Brian Dugan". Archived from the original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  100. "Addicted to Luxury: The Pampered Killer". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  101. Lin, Jennifer (4 March 2006). "Murderer of three given triple life terms Juan Covington, his lawyer said, was driven to shoot his five victims by a conviction that 'he had a mission to exterminate the devil.'". philly.com. The Inquirer. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  102. "Man to hang for sisters' murders". The Japan Times Online. 14 December 2006. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  103. Ramsland, Katherine. "All about Necrophiles, by Katherine Ramsland — The Ultimate Ghoul — Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  104. Ramsland, Katherine. "The Cross-Country Killer". truTV. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
  105. Blazek, Matthias, Carl Großmann und Friedrich Schumann Zwei Serienmörder in den zwanziger Jahren, Stuttgart 2009, p. 61.
  106. "Brazilian admits killing 41 people 'for fun'". news.yahoo.com. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  107. "Suspect named in 1995 double homicide, linked to 20 others | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon". KATU.com. 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  108. "The Shipman Report". Archived from the original on April 13, 2010.
  109. The-shipman-inquiry.org.uk Archived January 23, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  110. "Shipman 'killed early in career'". BBC News. 2005-01-27. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  111. Maryclaire Dale (2011-11-03). "Unlicensed doctor pleads in Philly abortion case | 6abc.com". Abclocal.go.com. Association Press. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  112. "KermitGosnellCrimes - Steve Massof". Kermitgosnellcrimes.wikispaces.com. 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  113. The Crime Library - Donald Harvey, David Lohr
  114. "Sjukhusmorden 15 november 2009 kl 20:00 - P3 Dokumentär | Sveriges Radio". Sverigesradio.se. 2009-11-15. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  115. All About Dr. Marcel Petiot, Michael Newton
  116. Herbert G Kinnell (2000-12-23). "Serial homicide by doctors: Shipman in perspective" (PDF). British Medical Journal 321 (7276): 1594–1597. doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7276.1594. PMC 1119267. PMID 11124192.
  117. "A Killer's Final Insult", The Star Ledger, March 3, 2006
  118. Russian Dr Death 'killed 17'
  119. "El País". Ccaa.elpais.com. 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  120. "El País". Ccaa.elpais.com. 2013-06-21. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  121. Stephan Harbort. "Stephan Harbort - Kriminalist & Autor". der-serienmoerder.de.
  122. Čeněk Třeček. "czech". Zpravy.idnes.cz. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  123. "EFREN SALDIVAR". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  124. ""She'll Do This Again": Victim's Mom Fights Serial Killer's Early Prison Release". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  125. "A Sisterhood". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  126. "Fred and Rose West – Endgame", Marilyn Bardsley. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  127. http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b1/briley-linwood.htm. Retrieved 24 February 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  128. Newton, Michael (1999). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. New York, New York: Checkmark Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-8160-3978-4.
  129. "Gerald Armond GALLEGO". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  130. Newton, Michael (1993). Bad Girls Do It!: An Encyclopedia of Female Murderers. USA: Loompanics Unlimited. ISBN 978-1-55950-104-0. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  131. "Faye and Ray Copeland – Serial killers". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  132. "James Gregory MARLOW". Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  133. Al-Ahram Weekly Retrieved August 11, 2014
  134. "Crime Library information on Iqbal". Crimelibrary.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  135. "serial killer true crime library * serial killer news * list of serial killers * serial murder * female serial killers * crime scene investigation * tueur en serie * omicidi seriali *". Crimezzz.net. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  136. Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. page 198. Checkmark Book. 2000. ISBN 978-0-8160-3979-1
  137. "Hellhorror.com". Hellhorror.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  138. 1 2 "Mayhem.net". Mayhem.net. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  139. "NNDB.com". NNDB.com. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  140. Crimemagazine.com Archived July 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  141. Hickey, Eric W., Serial Murderers And Their Victims, Wadsworth Pub Co. 2005; ISBN 978-0-495-05887-8
  142. "Serial Killer Arrested". Modern Ghana.
  143. "Serial Killer Speaks Out". Modern Ghana.
  144. Hall, Michael (1938-09-23). "Two Barmaids, Five Alligators and the Butcher of Elmendorf". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2013-11-23.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.