Throughout history, serial criminals, especially murderers, have committed some of the most horrifying illegal acts imaginable.
There is a lot of fear and mystery surrounding the murder that occurred. Years after their crimes and convictions, certain figures like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy have become common conversation among true crime believers and even featured on podcasts. Their lives have been the focus of documentaries, scripted films, books, television shows, and more.
These are some of the most notorious serial killers in history.
John Wayne Gacy is one of the most famous serial killers in history. (Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)
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- jack the ripper
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- Harold Shipman
- lord holmes
- Ted Bundy
- Richard Ramirez
- pedro alonso lopez
- albert fish
- john wayne gacy
1. Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper murdered at least five women between August and November 1888. On August 31, 1888, Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim, Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, 43 years old. She was last seen around 2:30 a.m., and her body was found on the street just an hour later by her delivery driver, who thought her body was a tarp.
The identity of the person who committed the murder remains unknown to this day, making the murder some of the most famous unsolved mysteries of all time.
The dismembered bodies of five “regular five” sex workers have been found near the Whitechapel area of London’s East End.
Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly were all murdered by the man now known by the pseudonym Jack the Ripper.
2. Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer was a convicted murderer who took the lives of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.
Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison while serving 15 consecutive life sentences. (Kurt Borgward/Sigma/Sigma via Getty Images)
According to the New York Times, Dahmer found most of his victims at bars or bus stops and lured them to his home with promises of booze, money or posing for nude photos.
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After lacing the victim’s drink with drugs, he strangled her to death and consumed and stored the body. Upon investigation, police discovered an apartment filled with preserved human heads, body parts, and photographs of severed men.
While serving 15 life sentences, he was murdered in 1994 by inmate Christopher Scarver.
Several television shows and movies have been made about Dahmer. In 2022, the Netflix television series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was released. Evan Peters plays the murderer on the show.
During Dahmer’s trial in 1992, Tracy Edwards told how she escaped Dahmer and how the killer was “listening to my heart” as he held knife to her. His story is told in the first episode of the series.
“At that point he said he was going to eat my heart,” Edwards told the court.
In 2023, Fox Nation will “My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes” A four-part documentary featuring a police officer and a serial killer’s high school friend.
3. Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman was a doctor who is believed to have killed at least 215 people by injecting their patients with lethal doses of painkillers, according to Biography.com.
Shipman was married and the father of four children. His murderous acts went unnoticed until the last victim’s daughter, Kathleen Grundy, submitted a suspicious will to the police.
Shipman forged a will, leaving Grundy’s property and property to him. When Grundy’s body was exhumed, heroin was found in her body, according to the New York Times.
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He was initially convicted of murdering 15 elderly patients. Further investigation revealed that the doctor was responsible for 250 deaths, according to the Associated Press. According to Biography.com, he remained in jail throughout the investigation, but he continued to maintain his innocence.
Shipman was found hanged in his cell in Wakefeld, England, on January 13, 2004.
4. His Highness Holmes
According to Smithsonian Magazine, Prince Holmes (real name Herman Webster Mudgett) has admitted to killing at least 27 people, but he is suspected of being responsible for more than 200 deaths.
Most of the murders took place at Murder Castle, a three-story hotel where Holmes lured his victims. This castle stood during the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, when millions of people came to Chicago.
Prince Holmes lured many victims to a place known as “Murder Castle.” (Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)
According to the crime museum, the castle was built with chutes, elevators, trapdoors, peepholes and stairs leading to nowhere.
The basement served as his laboratory, equipped with a dissection table, stretching rack, and crematorium.
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Holmes is widely considered to be America’s first serial killer. He was hanged for murder in May 1896.
5. Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was a convicted murderer who murdered at least 30 women, but the number may have been higher.
Bundy’s killing spree lasted from 1974 to 1978. Bundy’s targets were mostly female college students. He lured his victims by arousing sympathy. He often wore an arm sling or a leg cast, according to the crime museum. Impersonating authorities was also a common way for him to gain trust from his victims.
When Bundy arrived at the car, he beat the women with a crowbar and a pipe, handcuffed them and threw them into the passenger side of the car with the seat removed, officials said.
He raped many of his victims, beaten and strangled them, and mutilated their bodies, according to the Crime Museum.
Ted Bundy’s targets were mostly female college students. (Getty Images)
After first being arrested for attempting to flee from a police car in August 1975, he was released, but was remanded in custody on suspicion of kidnapping and assault.
According to Biography.com, Bundy escaped twice while in custody. After her second escape in Colorado, she headed to Florida, where she broke into the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University and assaulted four victims. Two women among them were killed.
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The perpetrator was sentenced to death and died in the electric chair on January 24, 1989.
Several movies have been made about Bundy, including “Extremely Evil, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” “No Man of God,” “The Deliberate Stranger,” and “The Stranger Beside Me.”
6. Richard Ramirez
Richard Ramirez, known as the “Night Stalker,” went on a murderous rampage through California in 1984 and 1985.
Ramirez, a Texas native, is believed to be involved in at least 13 deaths. His first victim was 9-year-old May Leung, but the case did not involve Ramirez until 2009, The Independent reported.
Ramirez often left demonic symbols at crime scenes. He was arrested mainly based on clues such as fingerprints and footprints.
Richard Ramirez was a serial killer known as the “Night Stalker.” (Getty Images)
The Night Stalker was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, 11 counts of sexual assault and 14 counts of robbery, according to The Independent. He was sentenced to death in the gas chamber, but died in 2013 before his execution.
7. Pedro Alonso Lopez
Pedro Alonso López, also known as the “Monster of the Andes,” was a Colombian serial killer who committed crimes in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
Lopez was first sent to prison after stealing a car. He was arrested again in 1980. He pleaded guilty to 57 murders in July 1981, but is believed to have killed more than 300 people, according to Biography.com.
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He was sentenced to 16 years in Ambato, Ecuador and was imprisoned for 14 years before being released for good behavior, according to Biography.com. He was deported to Colombia, where he was held in an institution but later released.
8. Albert Fish
Albert Fish, known as the “Brooklyn Vampire” for cannibalism and consuming human blood, was found guilty after a 10-day trial in which he laid out the nature of his crimes. Fish was executed in 1936.
Phish’s targets were usually young boys. According to History.com, he was tried and convicted for the murder of young Gracie Budd, who he had invited to accompany him to his birthday party, even though he was believed to have killed 10 people. It is said that After accepting her offer, she never returned.
Albert Fish was convicted of Gracie Budd’s murder and is believed to have killed 10 people in his lifetime. (New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Gracie’s family received a detailed handwritten note detailing the murder six years after her disappearance, but it matched a handwritten note they had previously received from Fish, who was using the pseudonym Frank Howard. was.
After much handwriting examination and detailed descriptions, detectives tracked down Fish and arrested him.
9. John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy, who often worked as “Pogo the Clown” at birthday parties, lured 33 young men and boys to his homes in the Chicago area in the 1970s and murdered them, according to the Associated Press.
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It was in December 1978 that police discovered the victim’s body in a cramped space at his Chicago home, according to the Associated Press. In March 1980, he was convicted of murdering 33 people and executed by lethal injection in 1994.
More victims have been identified in recent years since his execution, most recently in 2021. However, there are still five victims whose identities are unknown, according to the Associated Press.
In 2021, a Peacock miniseries about Gacy was aired called John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise. In February 2024, multiple news outlets reported that the streaming service had ordered a scripted series about a murderer.
In 2022, Netflix released a documentary about the killer called “Conversations with a Murderer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes.”
