Notorious Murderers and Serial Killers

The Deliberate Stranger

Mark Harmon plays compulsive killer Ted Bundy, who was responsible for the deaths of at least 30 women from Washington state to Florida over a period of more than a decade.

To Catch a Killer

Brian Dennehy stars as John Wayne Gacy, a homicidal monster who tortured and murdered more than two dozen young victims and buried them in the crawlspace beneath his house.

Helter Skelter

Based on Vincent Buliosi's book, this movie examines the grisly Tate-La Bianca murders carried out by followers of Charles Manson. The movie focuses on the prespective of the investigation and courtroom prosecution of the Manson gang. Steve Railsback portrays Manson.

Dahmer

Writer/director David Jacobson's movie about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed 15 boys and cannibalized their remains, focuses on understanding the deranged mind of Dahmer, rather than his grisly crimes.

Ed Gein

Steve Railsback also plays Ed Gein in this movie about a 1950s Wisconsin farmer who was a deeply disturbed serial killer. The Gein case also inspired the movies, Psyco, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.

The Boston Strangler

Tony Curtis plays Albert DeSalvo who confessed to a rape and killing spree of 13 women in the early 1960s that terrorized the citizens of Boston. Also stars Henry Fonda.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Loosely based on the case of Henry Lee Lucas, a confessed serial killer, is has been described as "a terrifyingly intimate journey into the twisted life of a murderous psychotic."

Summer of Sam

Spike Lee's portrayal of the Bronx in the summer of 1977 when the Son of Sam (David Berkowitz) terrorized the city by stalking and killing lovers parked in vehicles on the dark streets with a .44 caliber handgun.

Robert Hanson. John Wayne Gacy, although not born in Iowa, lived there from the early 1960's. He was convicted of sodomy and was released from an Iowa prison in 1968. On his release Gacy moved back to Chicago.

The Autumn of Terror was the time period from August 1888 to November 1888 in Victorian London's east end or Whitechapel. The Ripper was on the loose and no woman felt safe, especially the prostitutes that lived and worked those streets for their livelyhood.

Andrew Borden's first wife Sarah (mother to Emma and Lizzie) died in 1863. Andrew remarried 2 years later in 1865.

Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family. She has been labeled the most prolific female serial killer in history. At age 51, Count Ferenc died in battle and thus began Elizabeth's period of atrocities. First, she sent her hated mother-in-law away from the Castle. By this time it is thought that she had dabbled into some forms of sorcery, attending rituals that included the sacrificing of horses and other animals. Elizabeth, now 40 years old, grew increasingly vain and she feared the thought of aging as she may lose her beauty. One day a servant girl accidentially pulled her hair while combing it. Elizabeth slapped the girl's hand so hard she drew blood. The girls blood fell into ELizabeth's hand and she immediately thought that her skin took on the freshness of her young maid. She believed that she had found the secret of eternal youth. Elizabeth had her major-domo and Thorko strip the maid and then cut her and drain her blood into a huge vat. Elizabeth bathed in it to beautify her entire body.

A trial was held at Bitcse. Elizabeth, who refused to plead either guilty or innocent, and never appeared in the trial.. At this trial Johannes Ujvary, major-domo, testified that about 37 unmarried girls has been killed, six of whom he had personally recruited to work at the castle. All records of Elizabeth were sealed for more than a century, and her name was forbidden to be spoken in Hungarian society.

Burke was born in the parish of Orrey, county Tyrone, Ireland. William was born in the Province of Ulster in Ireland. William Burke and William Hare developed a more direct method to provide fresh cadavers to Edinburgh anatomy schools because they weren't grave robbers, they were killers. The first corpse was a tenant staying Hares' lodging-house in the West Port. The rest ones they killed. The mode of death was designed to leave no marks called burking.

William Burke and his wife Helen journeyed to Peebles and Leith and then Edinburgh. William Hare had also journeyed from Ireland to Scotland to work on the Union Canal; although it is not believed he ever encountered Burke there. That's in on the record and the exact address was not mentioned. Hare never arrived to Peebles.

Since I'm not from Boston the North Shore area threw me off a little. I think you are talking about the cluster of smaller communities ouside of the city of Boston. According to the bestselling book by Sebastian Junger, formerly of Belmont, MA, the Boston Strangler murdered what must have been one of his first victims. Death In Belmont details the murder of Bessie Goldberg of Belmont MA, and a neighbor of Junger's boyhood home.

Hired as a carpenter's helper, Albert De Solvo, later to become the Boston Strangler, helped in the construction of an art studio for Junger's artist mother. This is fact as there was a photo of the Jungers, mother and son, with handyman De Solvo at the Junger residence, included in the book.

Goldberg was killed in true Strangler fashion but De Solvo was never suspected. Roy Smith was convicted of the murder and as far as I know spent the rest of his life in prison. On the day of the murder (March 11, 1963) Smith was seen at the Goldberg home shortly before her husband discovered Bessie dead in the home. The murder was investigated by former Boston cop Mike Giacoppo who within hours had tracked Smith down and arrested him.

There seems to be some discrepancy in the number of victims of the serial killer called the Grim Sleeper. Some say at least 10 while other sources say at least 60. For quite a while many of the deaths were just part of the grim statistics of life in south central Los Angeles, where crack cocaine and gang activity claim hundreds of lives every year. But when a serial killer runs unchecked for such a long time, the victim count is usually on the high side. So I would have to say that the truth is probably closer to the 60 than 10.

Born July 6, 1969 (age 40)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Conviction(s) Murder (3 counts)

Penalty Life imprisonment

Status Alive in prison custody.

It is hard to imagine a serial killer as common, but some of the most infamous would have to be Jack The Ripper (London, 1888), The Zodiac (California, 1960s -), John Wayne Gacy (Chicago 1980s), Ted Bundy (Wash. state, Utah, Colorado, Florida, Oregon), Gary Ridgeway The Green River Killer (Washington state 1980s), Charles Manson (California-? 1960s), The Hillside Stranglers Angelo Bono and Kenneth Bianci (California, Washington state 1970s), The Night Stalker Richard Ramerez (California 1970s), Aileen Wuornos (Florida 1980s).

Unfortunatly, this is just a short list. Although a serial killer can come from anywhere, be any race, be from any economic level, it seems that America makes more than her share of killers. The west coast sometimes seems to be a serial killer 'hot-bed'. Texas will not be outdone. They have more than enough to keep law enforcement busy for centuries. Texas state has one of the highest execution rates in the nation.

no

Edmund Kemper is 69 years old (birthdate: December 18, 1948).

new born babies

Yes she is Real

She was Known as the countess of Blood. Bathory of Hungary Born, August 7, 1560. Born in 1560 to George Bathory and Anna Bathory.

Raymond T. McNally, who has written four books on the figure of Dracula in history, literature, and vampirism, in his fifth book, "Dracula was a Woman," presents insights into the fact that Stoker's Count Dracula was also strongly influenced by the legends of Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary.

For example Vlad was Romanian and Dracula was Hungarian like Bathory. Vlad the impaler was never even rumored to have drunk human blood while Elizabeth not only drank blood but was also reported to have bathed in the Blood of virgins to keep her youth.

The Bathory family was "one of the richest and most powerful Protestant families in all Hungary. Her family was to provide two of the most important ruling princes of Transylvania, Stephan Bathory, prince of Transylvania and king of Poland. Elizabeth's other interesting relatives included: An uncle supposedly "addicted to rituals and worship in honor of Satan, her aunt Klara was a well-known bi-sexual and lesbian who enjoyed torturing servants, and Elizabeth's brother, Stephan, who was a drunkard and a lecher.

As a child Elizabeth had witnessed the torture and execution of a gypsy, who was sewn up inside a horse and left to die there.

at the age of sixteen, Ferenc Nadasdy was engaged to Elizabeth, then eleven, in 1571 thanks to the careful manipulations of his mother. Ferenc married Elizabeth on May 8, 1575.

Ferenc was a warrior and so was not often around, leaving Elizabeth at Castle Sarvar managing the family seat, "especially the task of disciplining the servants. The countess carried her 'disciplining' to a point that would be considered sadism today". Beating the girl servants with a heavy club was the least of her "punishments," according to accounts. Often she would stick "pins into the upper and lower lips of the girls...into the girls' flesh and... under their fingernails". One particularly harsh "punishment" would be to drag girls out into the snow where she or her women servants poured cold water on them until they froze to death.

Among the things Elizabeth did to amuse herself while Ferenc was away at war was to "visit her aunt Klara, an open bisexual. Wealthy and powerful, Klara always had plenty of available girls around. Elizabeth presumably enjoyed herself with her aunt Klara, since she visited her aunt's estate frequently".

In the Countess's service, as helpers in the macabre, was her manservant referred to only as Ficzko (which means "lad " in Hungarian), Helena Jo the wet nurse, Dorothea Szentes (also called "Dorka"), and Katarina Beneczky a washerwoman who came into the Countess's employ late in her bloody career. Also, between the years of 1604 and 1610 a mysterious woman named Anna Darvulia, who was probably a lover of Elizabeth's, who taught her many new torturing techniques and was "one of the most active sadists in Elizabeth's entourage". After a severe stroke that left her blind, Darvulia left her work to Elizabeth, Helena Jo, and Dorka, content that she had taught them well.

With the death of Elizabeth's dear Darvulia, when Elizabeth was in her forties, she became more reckless.

Elizabeth started picking girls from some of the surrounding lower nobility. Feeling lonely, the Countess turned to the widow of a tenant farmer from the nearby town of Miava. The woman's name was Erzsi Majorova. Apparently, it was Erszi Majorova who "encouraged Elizabeth to go after girls of noble birth as well as peasants".

One accomplice testified that on some days Elizabeth had stark- naked girls laid flat on the floor of her bedroom and tortured them so much that one could scoop up the blood by the pailfull afterwards, and so Elizabeth had her servants bring up cinders in order to cover the pools of blood. A young maid-servant who did not endure the tortures well and died very quickly was written out by the countess in her diary with the laconic comment "She was too small,"...

She demanded that one of her female servants be brought before her. Dorothea Szentes, a burly, strong peasant woman, dragged one of Elizabeth's girls to her bedside and held her there. Elizabeth rose up on her bed, and, like a bulldog, the Countess opened her mouth and bit the girl first on the cheek. Then she went for the girl's shoulders where she ripped out a piece of flesh with her teeth. After that, Elizabeth proceeded to bite the girl's breasts.

The trials on January 2 and 7 of 1611 were largely for show and to make the occasion "official." At the proceedings, the testimonies of her four accomplices, Ficzko, Dorka, Katarina Beneczky, and Helena Jo (Erzsi Majorova was tried much later because she could not be found) were taken and their sentences pronounced. It is somewhat important to mention here that the testimonies of the four placed the body count between thirty and sixty, but a fifth witness heard at the January 7th trial revealed the missing piece of the puzzle: testimony from a witness identified only as "the maiden Zusanna," no last name being mentioned. After describing the tortures by Helena Jo, Dorothea, and Ficzko...and after making a plea for mercy in the case of Katarina Beneczky, Zusanna then revealed the single most shocking piece of evidence in this trial... a list or register in the Countess's chest of drawers, which put the number of girls killed at 650 and that was in her Ladyship's own handwriting.

First of all, Helena Jo and secondly Dorothea Szentes, the so- called foremost perpetrators of such great crime, were sentenced to having all their fingers on their hands, which they had used as instruments in so much torture and butcherings and which they had dipped in the blood of Christians, torn out by the public executioner with a pair of red-hot pincers; and after that their bodies should be thrown alive on the fire. Because of his youthful age and complicity in fewer crimes, Ficzko was only to be decapitated. After that his body, drained of blood, was to be reunited with his two fellow accomplices and burned... Only Katarina Beneczky escaped the death sentence. Later on January 24, 1611... Erzsi Majorova... was also found guilty and executed.

Elizabeth was never convicted of anything, and remained for the rest of her life walled up inside of her room, under "Castle Arrest".

In August of the year 1614 one of the countess's jailers wanted to get a good look at her, since she was still reputedly one of the most beautiful women in Hungary. Peeking through the small hole in her walled-up cell, he saw her lying face down on the floor. Countess Elizabeth Bathory was dead at the age of fifty-four.

Is this a dream? If it is maybe your watching something scary. Stop doing that.

yeah, for a little bit

There is no real serial killer with that name. I believe it is a series so it is fictional.

no

There is a misconception about killers, especially serial killers, that they are insane. Very few are or they would be caught much sooner. APD (antisocial personality disorder) is much more common.

But there have been several cases where the killer has serious mental problems. Andrea Yates, the Texas housewife drowned all five of her children in the bathtub. Initially she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Later at a second trial she was found to be mentally ill, which she was, and is now being treated at a phyciatric hospital. Yates was saved by her very long history of mental illness that was well documented.

Another is Ed Gein of Plainsville, WI. Gein lived on a remote farm and after the death of his father, mother and brother he lived totally alone. The solitude was probably a detrimental factor, humans for the most part are meant to live with others for our own mental health.

And last but certainly not least is Charles Manson. Although most experts believe that Manson does have APD, he very plainly is not of right mind. But even in his muddled mind the true Manson is always lurking. When interviewing Manson it is perfectly clear that tries to control the whole scene and almost never fails to 'creep out' the person doing the interviewing.

thought process