List of Famous Serial Killers
Shawn Grate
Shawn Michael Grate is an American convicted serial killer who was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder on May 7, 2018, in Ashland County, Ohio, pleaded guilty to two additional murders on March 1, 2019 in Richland County, Ohio, and who pleaded guilty to an additional murder on September 11, 2019 in Marion County, Ohio.
Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Andrew Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London, England. Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder, Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 November 1983, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of twenty-five years. This recommendation was later changed to a whole life tariff. In his later years, Nilsen was imprisoned at Full Sutton maximum security prison.
Albert Fish
Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, child rapist, and cannibal. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man. Fish once boasted that he "had children in every state", and at one time stated his number of victims was about 100. However, it is not known whether he was referring to rapes or cannibalization, nor is it known if the statement was truthful.
Todd Christopher Kohlhepp
Todd Christopher Kohlhepp is an American serial killer convicted of murdering seven people in South Carolina between 2003 and 2016.
Colin Pitchfork
Colin Pitchfork is a British convicted murderer and rapist. He was the first person convicted of murder based on DNA fingerprinting evidence, and the first to be caught as a result of mass DNA screening. Pitchfork raped and murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages, the first in Narborough, in November 1983, and the second in Enderby, in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988, after admitting both murders.
David Berkowitz
David Richard Berkowitz, also self-proclaimed with the name Son of Sam and christened by the media as .44 Caliber Killer due to the weapon he used, is an American serial killer who pled guilty to eight separate shooting attacks that began in New York City during the summer of 1976.
H. H. Holmes
Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American serial killer. While he confessed to 27 murders, he was convicted and sentenced to death for only one murder, that of accomplice and business partner Benjamin Pitezel. Despite his confession of 27 murders after the Pitezel trial awaiting execution, it is speculated that Holmes may have killed as many as 200 people. Victims were killed in a mixed-use building which he owned in Chicago, located about 3 miles (5 km) west of the 1893 World's Fair: Columbian Exposition, supposedly called the World's Fair Hotel, though evidence suggests the hotel portion was never truly open for business.
Wayne Williams
Wayne Bertram Williams is an American serial killer serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killing of two men in Atlanta, Georgia, and the police believe that he is responsible for at least 23 of the 30 Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, also known as the Atlanta Child Murders. He was never tried for the other murders, although those cases have been closed.
Peter Sutcliffe
Peter William Sutcliffe, also known as Peter William Coonan, was an English serial killer who was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper by the press. On 22 May 1981, he was found guilty of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. He was sentenced to 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which were converted to a whole life order in 2010. All but two of Sutcliffe's murders took place in West Yorkshire, the others in Manchester.
Robert Hansen
Robert Christian Hansen, known in the media as the "Butcher Baker," was an American serial killer. Between 1971 and 1983, Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered at least 17 women in and around Anchorage, Alaska; he hunted many of them down in the wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a knife. He was arrested and convicted in 1983, and was sentenced to 461 years and a life sentence without the possibility of parole.