Serial killer
Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of individuals usually unknown to them beforehand. A phenomenon which seemed to gain some prominence in the second half of the twentieth century, record of the practice can be found at least as far back as London's Jack the Ripper (1888) or Hanover's Fritz Haarmann (1924).
Although the terms "serial killer" and "mass murderer" are often used synonymously, criminologists distinguish the two. The following distinctions are commonly made:
- A serial killer is one who commits a number of murders over a long period of time, with the killings separated by often long periods of apparent normalcy.
- A mass murderer, on the other hand, is an individual who kills several people in a single event.
- A spree killer kills in a series of closely connected events.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a serial killing as: "[involving] the killing of several victims in three or more separate events." This definition is especially close to that of a spree killer, and perhaps the primary difference between the two is that a serial killer tends to "lure" victims to their death; whereas, a spree killer tends to go "hunting".
Serial killers are often acting on extreme sadistic urges and are often classified as sociopathic, lacking any ability to empathize with the suffering of others. In many cases, a serial killer will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. This defense is almost universally unsuccessful.
The public's fascination with serial killers led to some successful crime novels and films about fictional serial killers, including Helen Zahavi's novel Dirty Weekend, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, and the Academy Award-winning movie Silence of the Lambs.
List of Serial Killers
- Erzsébet Báthory - (d. 1614) with 600 victims, the recognized female record holder.
- David Berkowitz, known as the "Son of Sam"
- Paul Bernardo, Canada's most famous serial killer, who killed two teenage school girls, with his wife Karla Homolka, and was also known as the Scarborough Rapist
- The Boston Strangler (allegedly Albert DeSalvo)
- Ian Brady, one of the Moors Murderers, with Myra Hindley.
- Ted Bundy
- Andrei Chikatilo
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- Gilles de Rais - (d. 1440), French demonolator and child-killer.
- Albert Fish
- John Wayne Gacy
- Ed Gein, inspired the killers in The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Fritz Haarmann
- John George Haigh, the Acid Bath Murderer, a.k.a. the Vampire of London
- Hillside Strangler - actually two men, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Jr.
- Myra Hindley one of the Moors Murderers, with Ian Brady.
- Javed Iqbal, killed 100 boys in Pakistan
- Bela Kiss
- Peter Kürten
- Henri Désiré Landru
- Derrick Todd Lee, aka the Baton Rouge Serial Killer
- Eddie Leonski, the Brownout Strangler
- Pedro Lopez - Colombia, with 300 victims
- Henry Lee Lucas
- Herman Webster Mudgett, aka Dr. H. H. Holmes, "the serial killer of Murder Castle", active 1890-1894, during Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Exposition.
- Earle Leonard Nelson
- Earle Nelson- Necrophiliac serial killer dubbed "Gorilla Man"
- Jesse Pomeroy
- Dorothea Puente
- Richard Ramirez
- Vera Renczi - The 35 bodies in her cellar may have influenced the writing of Joseph Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace
- Angel Maturino Resendiz - Killed 9 people in Texas, Kentucky, and Illinois
- Anatoly Onoprienko - Ukrainian serial killer known as "the Terminator." Murdered 52 people from 1989 until his capture in 1996.
- Gary Ridgway - arrested in November, 2001 for The Green River Killer murders
- John Edward Robinson -United States
- Danny Rolling
- Abdul Latif Sharif - Egyptian alleged to be responsible for dozens of murders in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
- Harold Frederick Shipman - British doctor convicted of 15 murders. A later inquiry stated he had killed at least 215 and possibly upto 457 people over a 25 year period.
- Charles Starkweather
- Peter Sutcliffe, aka the "Yorkshire Ripper"
- Sweeney Todd
- Otis Toole
- Jane Toppan
- Fred and Rose West
- Wayne Williams - convicted of the Atlanta Child Murders
- Aileen Carol Wuornos - Florida
- Graham Young (1947-1990) - British killer of 3, The Teacup Poisoner
Currently On Trial
Unidentified serial killers
For the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, see List of terrorist incidents.
See also
Bibliography
Referenced By
16 November | 16th November | 17 March | 17th March | 1957 | 1957 incumbents | 1985 | 1992 | Evil clown | March 17 | March 17th | November 16 | November 16th | Ritual murder
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