Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered many young women between 1974 and 1978. After more than a decade of denials he confessed to 30 homicides shortly before his execution; the true total remains unknown, and could be much higher.
Charles Raymond Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959)[1] was an American teenaged spree killer[2] who murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming during a two-month road trip with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. The couple were captured on January 29, 1958. Starkweather was executed seventeen months later, while Fugate served 17 years in prison.[3]
Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was a United States serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed "The Vampire of Sacramento" because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains.
Albert Henry DeSalvo (September 3, 1931 – November 25, 1973) was a criminal in Boston, Massachusetts who confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", the murderer of 13 women in the Boston area. DeSalvo was not imprisoned for these murders, however, but for a series of rapes. His murder confession has been disputed, and debate continues regarding which crimes DeSalvo actually committed.
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer also known as the Killer Clown who raped and murdered 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home and three others elsewhere on his property, discarding the remaining four victims in a nearby river. Gacy became known as the "Killer Clown" due to his charitable services at fundraising events, parades and children's parties where he would dress as "Pogo the Clown," a character he devised himself.
Aileen Wuornos (29 February 1956 – 9 October 2002) was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, claiming they raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. On November 28, 1994, he was beaten to death by an inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution, where he had been incarcerated.
Belle Gunness (1896-1908) was responsible for killing 49 people on her small farm in La Porte, Indiana, just outside of Chicago. Her victims included ranch workers, vagrant females, adopted children and her many husbands.
