List of Famous Serial Killers

Marc Paul Alain Dutroux is a Belgian convicted serial killer, rapist, and child molester.

Michel Paul Fourniret, also known as the Ogre of the Ardennes, is a French serial killer who confessed to killing twelve people in France and Belgium between 1987 and 2003. After he was arrested in June 2003 for the attempted kidnapping of a girl in Ciney, Fourniret confessed to killing nine people—eight females and one male—in 2004, having been informed on by his then-wife, Monique Pierrette Olivier. Fourniret was convicted of seven of these murders on 28 May 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, while Olivier was given life with a minimum term of 28 years for complicity.

Gerald Arthur Sandusky is an American retired college football coach and convicted sex offender. Sandusky served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe Paterno, from 1969 to 1999. He received "Assistant Coach of the Year" awards in 1986 and 1999. Sandusky authored several books related to his football coaching experiences.

Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr. was an American serial killer, rapist, and cannibal from South Carolina. As a young man, Gaskins was repeatedly arrested for robbery and rape. In 1955, he escaped from prison and found work with a traveling carnival. Gaskins was charged in 1976 with eight charges of murder after an associate told police officers that he had confessed to multiple murders. Police found eight buried bodies on his property in Prospect, South Carolina. While awaiting the death sentence in prison, Gaskins killed a fellow inmate on death row with a small explosive. He was put to death on September 6, 1991.

Friedrich Paul ‘Fritz’ Honka was a German serial killer. Between 1970 and 1975 he killed at least four women from Hamburg’s red light district, keeping the bodies in his flat.

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, also known as La Bestia or Tribilín is a Colombian rapist and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to the rape, torture and murder of 138 boys and teenagers. His victims, based on the locations of skeletons listed on maps that Garavito drew in prison, could exceed 300; Garavito continues to confess to more murders. He has been described by local media as "the world's worst serial killer." The Guinness Book of World Records lists another Colombian, Pedro Alonso López, known in Colombia as ''the Monster of the Andes,'' as the largest-scale serial killer of modern times; however, in terms of the number of murder convictions, Harold Shipman tops the list followed by Garavito, with López third. The judicial body ruled that all Garavito's sentences total 1,853 years and nine days in jail.

Robert Joseph Long, also known as Bobby Joe Long, was an American serial killer and rapist who was executed for the murder of Michelle Denise Simms. Long abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at least 10 women in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida during an eight-month period in 1984. He released one of his last victims, 17-year-old Lisa McVey, after raping her over a period of 26 hours. McVey provided information to the police that enabled them to track him down.

Martin Ney is a German serial killer. He wore a mask while killing three and sexually assaulting at least 40 children in school camps. He also did some of his activities in camps, private homes and other places. Ney, who committed his first act in 1992, was also known as the "Masked Man" and the "Black Man". After his arrest on 15 April 2011, the 40-year-old educator confessed to three murders, but is suspected of two others. Ney was sentenced on 27 February 2012 by the Stade district court among other things, for three murders to life imprisonment. The court also noted the particular severity of the guilt.

David Parker Ray, also known as the Toy-Box Killer, was an American kidnapper, torturer, rapist and suspected serial killer. Though no bodies were found, he was accused by his accomplices of killing several women and suspected by the police to have murdered as many as 60 women from Arizona and New Mexico, while living in Elephant Butte, New Mexico, approximately seven miles north of Truth or Consequences.

Mary Ann Cotton was an English serial killer, convicted of, and hanged for, the murder by poisoning of her stepson Charles Edward Cotton. It is likely that she murdered three of her four husbands, apparently in order to collect on their insurance policies, and many others. She may have murdered as many as 21 people, including 11 of her 13 children. She chiefly used arsenic poisoning, causing gastric pain and rapid decline of health.