List of Famous Serial Killers

Thomas Edward Silverstein was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned for armed robbery, one of which was overturned. Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing Corrections Officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was held "in a specially designed cell" in what is called "Range 13" at ADX Florence federal penitentiary in Colorado. He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death.

Kermit Barron Gosnell is an American former physician abortionist convicted of murdering three infants who were born alive during attempted abortion procedures; he was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter of one woman during an abortion procedure.

Jane Toppan, born Honora Kelley, was an American serial killer, nicknamed "Jolly Jane". After her arrest in 1901, she confessed to 31 murders, but only 12 were confirmed. Toppan is quoted as saying that her ambition was "to have killed more people—helpless people—than any other man or woman who ever lived".

Bernard Pesquet, known as The Landru of Val-d'Oise, was a French serial killer who killed at least six people between 1941 and 1976. Spending a total of 53 years behind bars, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the latter murders, dying in prison in 2009.

Roch Thériault was a Canadian cult leader who led the small religious group the Ant Hill Kids in Burnt River, Ontario, between 1977 and 1989. Thériault, a self-proclaimed prophet under the name Moïse, founded the doomsday cult in Quebec based on Seventh-day Adventist Church beliefs. Thériault maintained multiple wives and concubines, impregnating all female members as a religious requirement, and fathering 26 children. Thériault's followers, including 12 adults and 22 children, lived under his totalitarian rule at the commune and were subject to severe physical and sexual abuse.

Futoshi Matsunaga was a Japanese serial killer who both defrauded and tortured his victims in what is collectively known as the Kitakyūshū Serial Murder Incident (北九州連続殺人事件). Matsunaga was convicted of six counts of murder and one count of manslaughter between 1996 and 1998 and sentenced to death by hanging. He murdered his victims with an accomplice, Junko Ogata, who received a life sentence.

Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov is a Russian serial killer and rapist who sexually assaulted and murdered 78 women between 1992 and 2010 in Angarsk, Irkutsk, and Vladivostok in Siberia. He is known as "The Werewolf" and the "Angarsk maniac" for the brutal nature of his crimes.

Robert William "Willy" Pickton is a Canadian serial killer who was convicted in 2007 of the second-degree murders of six women. Arrested in 2002, he was the subject of a lengthy investigation that yielded evidence of numerous other murders. Pickton was charged with the deaths of an additional twenty women, many of them from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, but these charges were stayed by the Crown in 2010. Pickton was sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole for 25 years – the longest sentence for murder under Canadian law at the time he was sentenced.

Salvatore Riina, called Totò 'u Curtu, was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva and il capo dei capi.

Patrice Alègre (born 20 June 1968) is a French serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 with a minimum term of 22 years for five murders, an attempted murder, and six rapes. He, subsequently, was acquitted of four additional murder charges on July 3, 2008.