Notorious Murderers and Serial Killers

The differences and similarities are so vast you need to be specific in your question. There is far too much information to impart without knowing what you specifically are looking for in an answer. Do you want genetics, predisposition, behaviors??? Basically women are the nurturers, caregivers. Most serial killers are white, male, between the ages of 25-35, never married, served in the military, government workers. There are only a handful of women who qualify as "serials". Look up Wournos. She had reasons - valid in her own mind.u

Men and women are 'wired' differently, nobody can deny that. And I think that's the best way to describe the mind set of these killers of different sex. For men, almost without exception, sex is caught up in it somewhere. They somehow in their earlier, formative years started to associate pain and sex. But above all else, for men it's the power. They want to feel like God. And for a very brief time they do. Then reality sets in. History tells us that there have been male serial killers that do not rape their victims in the normal sense of the word. But their crimes are sexual in nature. The 'Son of Sam' killer that terriorized New York City in the 1970's never raped any of the victims, some of which were men. But David Berkowitz did get a sexual thrill from killing people at random.

Female serial kills are coming from a different place altogether. Their reasons for killing are almost never about sex. Money and financial gain are big motivators for women. And there are some that like the power. Females tend to be less violent and are more likely to be poisoners. And of course there are always exceptions. Aileen Carol Wuornos killed with a hand gun. But despite what has been said about her, her crimes where not sexually motivated, they were about robbery. They had what she wanted, so she took it. One of the biggest differences is men kill strangers and women usually kill people they know, Wuornos did not know her victims .

Contrary to what many people believe, most serial killers are not 'insane'. This of course does not mean they are normal, they aren't. Serial killers, with few exceptions, are not suffering from this kind of mental illness. They are usually clear headed and calculating. They try to keep mistakes to a minimum because if they don't they are bound to be caught.

Someone with a psychosis has enough to deal with just getting through the day. They seldom have the capacity to consistantly scheme and plot serial murder. There are always exceptions to every rule but the majority are calm and and paying strict attention to details.

last I had heard, he was still married to lioy

as of today 9-1-2011 NO

The first answer is correct--Richard and Doreen are still married.

The most recent that I could find would be Kristen Gilbert. Convicted of two first degree murder charges and three second degree murder charges. Gilbert, an RN, was injecting patients to cause heart failure. Finally arrested in 1996, she is now serving multilple life sentences in a federal prison in Texas.

*Point of interest:Gilbert was born in Fall River, MA, hometown of Lizzie Borden.

Here are two from 2014:

Angeline Mabhiza - Zimbabwe (4 own babies; cousin; suicide)

Erika Murray - USA (3 newborns)

(Source: "Female Serial Killers of the 21st Century: A Photo Gallery")

Defeo is up for parole in 07/2009, which means that yes, he can be released if the parole board agrees. All you have to do is look him up on the NY state website. It allows you to look every inmate in the state up and when they can be released.

Punishment depends on, first and foremost, the killer's capture. It is virtually impossible to punish someone until they are apprehended. There are cases where some killers do not automatically receive imprisonment after a conviction. An example of this would be Ed Gein of Plainsville, Wisconsin, in 1957. Gein was found incompetent to stand trial due to mental issues. He eventually was brought before the court but spent the remainder of his life in a mental hospital.

Ted Bundy actually in the us Charles cullin killed a confirmed 40 compared to 35 confirmed on ted bundy but if we go by numbers of victims Christman Gniperdoliga killed 964 men between the years 1568-1581 after robbing them in the Roman empire area

Probably not. Serial murder is about the killer and his needs, it's internal. While the individuals may have known of Gein's crimes, they were not responsible for creating other killers.

But Gein has been used as inspiration for movies including Silence of the Lambs and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Traits of Gein's went into the composite of these fictional killers.

Serial murder is among the hardest crimes to solve, so it's no surprise that many cases go cold and are almost forgotten except for the victim's loved ones. The most well-known serial killer of all time has evaded detection for over a century. London's Jack The Ripper is as well known to modern citizens as he was at the height of his crimes. Responsibe for six to fifteen murders of east end prostitutes, JTR has been the subject of hundreds of books, movies, and even plays on the stage. There are Ripper Walks, Ripper Weekends, Ripper websights, and has given birth to what is known as 'Ripperologists', people that study his crimes in an attempt to solve the mystery, of which I am one.

The original Zodiac*, who in the 1960's and 1970's, terrorized the state of California, killing at least seven people. Zodiac seemed to like couples parked in isolated locations. Associated mostly with murders in the San Francisco Bay area, he in fact killed several people in the Los Angeles area.

The Alphabet Murderer remains at large after killing three young girls in the New York area. Named for his choice of victims, Carmen Colon, found in Churchville, Wanda Walkowicz, her body found in Webster, next was Michelle Maenza, her body found in Macedon, near Rochester, NY. Then the killings stopped. It is very probable that he was either incarcerated for other crimes or he moved out of the New York area.

Bible John stalked the Glasgow area in Scotland from February 1968 to October 30, 1969. Killing at least three young women, Bible John impressed his victims with his encyclopedic knowledge of scripture. It was a very effective ruse. If you can't trust a Christian, who can you trust, or so the victims thought. Police had a likely suspect and his body was exhumed for DNA testing. The results were inconclusive, and the crimes remain unsolved.

Approximately %16 of serial killers in the United States are African-American. Wayne Williams, the Atlanta Child Murderer, was convicted of at least two, but suspected of dozens of deaths of children and young men in Atlanta, GA.

George Walterfield Russell, Jr., of Mercer Island, WA, killed at least three young women near Seattle dance clubs.

Thierry Paulin, France confessed to the murders of old women mostly in Paris. Paulin died of Aids while in prison in 1989.

The Washington Sniper (D.C.) was not one but two black men, John Allen Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, who terroized Washington D.C. with a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 calibre rifle during a three-week period in October 2002, killing 10 and wounding 3. Muhammad received death, Malvo life with no chance of parole.

These are just a few of the black serial killers to date. Although still mainly a crime of white males, all races are participants. It is also becoming more common that killers cross the racial bounderies in victim selection.

That would probably have to be the Zodiac, I guess. Hey, it's just an opinion.

Pedro Alonso Lopez - This by far is one of the most dangerous serial killers of all time with a victim count of over 300. Better known as the Monster of Andes, Lopez killed nearly 100 tribal women in Peru by 1978. Caught by tribal authorities who were ready to sentence him to death, an American missionary who was passing by convinced the tribe to let her take him to the police, the police - who let him go - were not convinced that the killings were of importance to them. Lopez than went to Ecuador where he would kill between three and four girls a week. Once caught in 1980, Lopez confessed to over 300 murders, police only believed him when an unexpected flash flood uncovered a mass grave with most of Lopez's victims. He then was released by the Ecaudor government and deported back to Colombia in 1998.

Henry Lee Lucas - Even though Lucas confessed at first to nearly 3,000 murders, eventually the total would be brought down to a little over 100 by the Henry Lee Lucas Task Force. The task force was created just to research the confessions that were given to numerous police officials. Police officials from around the country, seeking closure in many open cases, interviewed Lucas hoping to solve murders that had been unsolved for years. Although some officials closed many cases with Lucas's confession, later in the years, most of the cases were re-opened. Many people believe that Henry Lee Lucas had been toying with officials to see just how far he could go. Officials were finally convinced that Lucas participated in over 100 murders with his accomplice Ottis Toole. Lucas received the death penalty but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison in 1998. In 2001, Henry Lee Lucas died in prison of natural causes which means we will never know if he was confessing to crimes he did not commit, or making it look like he did not commit the crimes he so violently committed.

Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez - The Lonely Hearts Killers

The Bender Family - The Bloody Benders

David Berkowitz - Son of Sam, The 44 Caliber Killer!!!

Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono - The Hillside Stranglers

Andreas Bichel - The Bavarian Ripper

Richard Biegenwald - The Thrill Killer

Jake Bird - Tacoma Axe Killer

Arthur Bishop - Roger Downs

Wayne Boden - The Vampire Rapist

William Bonin - The Freeway Killer

Werner Boost - The Doubles Killer

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - The Moors Murderers

Jerry Brudos - The Shoe-Fetish Slayer

Ted Bundy - The Campus Killer

Vernon Butts - The Freeway Killer

Harvey Carnigan - The Want-Ad Killer

David Carpenter - The Trailside Killer

Richard Chase - The Vampire of Sacramento

Andrei Tjikatilov - The Rostov Ripper, Citizen X, The Mad Beast

John Reginald Christie - Monster of Rillington Place

Douglas Clark - The Sunset Strip Slayer

Nicolas Claux - The Vampire of Paris

Alfred Cline - The Buttermilk Bluebeard

John Collins - Coed Murderer

Rory Conde - The Tamiami Strangler

Adolfo De Jesus Constanzo - Godfather of Matamoros

Dean Corll - The Candy Man

Juan Corona - The Machete Murderer

Richard Cottingham - The Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde

Dr. Thomas Cream - The Lambeth Poisoner

Theresa Cross - Jimmie Knorr

Gordon Cummins - Wartime, Jack the Ripper, The Blackout Ripper

Jeffrey Dahmer - The Milwaukee Monster

Karl Denke - The Mass Murderer of Munstberg

Gilles de Rais - The Original Bluebeard, The Bestial Baron

Albert DeSalvo - The Boston Strangler, The Green Man, The Measuring Man

Nannie Doss - The Giggling Granny

Theodore Durrant - The Demon of the Belfry

Nikolai Dzumagalies - Metal Fang

Larry Eyler - The Interstate Killer

Albert Fish - The Cannibal, The Moon Maniac, Werewolf of Wisteria

John Wayne Gacy - Pogo the Clown, Killer Clown, The Fat Man

Carlton Gary - The Stocking Strangler

Ed Gein - The Plainfield Ghoul

John Wayne Glover - The Granny Killer

Cleo Green - The Red Demon

Vaughn Greenwood - The Skid Row Slasher

Georg Karl Grossman - The Berlin Butcher

Fritz Haarmann - Vampire of Hannover, Butcher of Hannover, Werewolf of Hannover

John Haigh - The Acid Bath Murderer, The Vampire Killer

Archibald Hall - The Monster Butler

Donald Harvey - Angel of Death

William Heirens - The Lipstick Murderer

Johann Hoch - The Stockyard Bluebeard

Colin Ireland - The Gay Slayer

Keith Hunter Jesperson - The Happy Face Killer

Ted Kaczynski - Unabomber

Patrick Kearney - The Trash Bag Murderer

Edmund Kemper III - The Co-Ed Killer

Bela Kiss - The Monster of Czinkota

Paul Knowles - The Casanova Killer

Vasili Komaroff - The Wolf of Moscow

Joachim Kroll - The Ruhr Hunter

Peter Kurten - The Vampire of Dusseldorf

Henri Landru - The French Bluebeard, Bluebeard of Paris

Posteal Laskey - Cincinnati Strangler

Edward Leonski - The Singing Strangler

Major Ray Lisemba - Rattlesnake Lissemba

BobbyJoe Long - The Classified Ad Rapist

Pedro Lopez - The Monster of the Andes

Richard Macek - The Mad Biter

Jean -Thierry Mathurian - The Old Ladies Killer

Archie McCafferty - The Mad Dog

William McDonald - The Sydney Mutilator

George Metesky - The Mad Bomber

James Miller - "Deacon" Jim

Charles Manson - Jesus, Charlie

Herman Mudgett - H.H. Holmes The Torture Doctor

Joseph Mumfre - New Orleans Axeman

Earle Nelson - The Gorilla Murderer, The Dark Strangler

Anatoly Onoprienko - The Terminator

Thierry Paulin - The Monster of Montmarte

Marcel Petiot - Henri Valery

Louise Pette - The Dutchess of Death

Thomas Piper - The Boston Belfry Murderer

Rudolf Pleil - The Death Maker

Heinrich Pommerencke - The Beast of the Black Forest

Harry Powers - Herman Drenth, American Bluebeard

Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker

Melvin David Rees - The Sex Beast

Stephen Richards - Nebraska Fiend

Edward Rulloff - The Educated Murderer

Gerald Schaefer - The Killer Cop, The Florida Sex Beast

Charles Schmid - The Pied Piper of Phoenix, The Pied Piper of Tucson

John Scripps - The Tourist from Hell

Joseph Smith - The Brides in the Bath Murderer

Timothy William Spencer - The Southside Slayer

Lucian Staniak - The Red Spider

Peter Sutcliffe - The Yorkshire Ripper

Vicytor Szczepinski - The Doorbell Killer

Joseph Vacher - The French Ripper

James Watson - Bluebeard

Carol Eugene Watts - The Sunday Morning Slasher

John Williams - The Ratcliffe Highway Murderer

Randall Woodfield - The I-5 Killer.

It does seem that the idea of serial murder is a somewhat new phenomenon but that is simply not so. It seems as long as man has walked the earth there has been not only murder, such as Cain and Able, but the motiveless killing of strangers. Many think of Jack The Ripper as the first serial killer. Although not the first of such killers, the Ripper murders may have been the first that were played out in the press.

In the year 700 A.D. a cult that murdered and sacraficed to the goddess Kali. Under the guise of this ancient cult Behram Jemadar systematically murder 931 people between 1790 and 1840.

Frenchman Gilles de Rais murdered hundreds of boys after raping and torturing them in his castle, beginning in the year 1432. Romanian Countess Erszebet Bathory murdered 600 young village girls and bathed in their blood.

In post-WWII America, with the shift of rural to urban living, serial murder became a more frequent problem. But not until Ted Bundy was the term serial killer made a household word.

There are several cases that brings up the 'nature or nurture' debate. Female serial killer Ailene Wunous, who was executed in Florida in 2002, had her natural father die in prison. Although he was not executed, he was a life-time criminal. At the time of his suicide (in his prison cell) he was serving several life terms for child molestation. Serial killer Gerald Gallego, who was executed in Nevada*, was a second generation death row inmate. Gallego's father Gerald Albert Gallego was sent to Mississippi's death row for the murder of two police officers. The elder Gallego had the privilege to be the first man executed in Mississippi's gas chamber after the state updated from the electric chair. Unfortunately the prison staff gave Gallego a less-than-lethal dose of cyanide. The prisoner coughed and weazed for an eternal 45 minutes before the correct dose was finally administered and Gallego died shortly after. *Gallego (the son) also had a death sentence in California.

Ed was a very disturbed person who didn't really caught right or wrong. After being questioned if he did eat the dead in his property he said:

" Eating the flesh and drinking the blood? ..... I never felt capable of doin' that. That's a catholic thing isn't it? I don't think my mother would have approved."

He never did any term in prison. He died in the Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wisconsin.

The killer(s) known as the Boston Strangler claimed two victims in Lawrence, MA. Both of these victims are in the 2nd stage killings, 1962-1964. Mary Brown, age 69, was found on March 9, 1963 and Joann Graff, age 23, found on November 23, 1964.

Albert Fish kill and ate Grace Budd. Several years later, he wrote a letter to Grace's parent to tell them how he kill Grace and how he cook the flesh of their little girl.

Most experts agree that at any given time, there could be as many as 200 serial killers active in the US alone. World Wide it would increase, of course. The average serial killer can be responsible for up to 20 murders if they are caught. Keep in mind that some of these killers may never be caught. That would put their body count even higher. The average time frame to catch a serial murderer is 18 months. This is much less time than it used to be. With modern forensics and criminal profiling it is taking less time to apprehend such criminals.

Difficult to define who is the "worst" per se... Are you looking for body count? Or, are you going for style points? Or, just overall shock value? Here's my shortlist of America's "top" ranked serial killers 1. Richard Speck 2. Ed Gein 3. John Wayne Gacey 4. Richard Ramirez (The Nightstalker) 5. Ted Bundy 6. Jeff Dahmer 7. David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) (Dangerous but the most dumb of all) 8. Gary Leon Ridgway (Green River Killer) 9. Henry Lee Lucas & Otis Toole (duo w/over 200 kills) 10. Pee Wee Gaskins Alternate pick - Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski Alternate #2 - H.H. Holmes (1895) his estimated tally ranges between 27 and 230

The area between Houston, Texas and Galveston, Texas. More specifically, any where near I-45. It's suspected that at least two serial killers could be operating along this area. To date, it's believed that at least 24 women have been killed.

It would depend on your criteria of 'worst'. If you judge by body count there are killers whoose victims number in the hundreds. There are very cruel an sadistic killers that enjoy the tortured screams of their victims. Or the most well-known and recognizable, of which there are many. Here's a list of killers that usually make the top of most people's lists of serial killers.

Countess Erszebet Bathory of Romania killed as many as 600 young girls in the early 1600's. Jeffrey Dahmer aka the Cannibal from Wisconsin preformed horrible and painful experiments on his victims before either killing them or they died on their own from these experiments. Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, although compared to other serial killers their victim lists were much shorter, were evil incarnate, with a benign exterior to mask it. London's Jack The Ripper brutalized his victims in such a way they were unrecognizable to even family members.

After serving her prison sentence for the murder of two children while a child herself, Bell changed her name and moved to an unknown destination. She has a daughter whom she has tried to protect from her sordid past and hopefully she has found peace with her family.

America pumps out more serial killers than anyone else in the world, but that isn't to say that there aren't any elsewhere.

America has the most known serial killers. There are still many places in the world where the authorities don't have the tools and experience to recognize or apprehend these criminals and some places in the world where the murder of individuals is not yet a priority. Because of such social conditions, those countries may have fewer serial killers, but it's possible that those they do have can kill at will with little fear of interference.

A good example of this phenomenon is, during the Soviet regime, one of the world's most prolific serial killers of our time, Andrei Chikatilo, was actively murdering from 1978-1990; authorities can attribute about 53 victims to him. Another serial killer who slipped through the cracks during the social upheaval of the dissolution of the Soviet Union was Alexander Pichushkin, known as the "Chess Board Killer", was finally apprehended and convicted of 48 murders but claims to have killed 63. One of his victims, a young woman, actually survived being disposed of down a sewer but when she went to authorities, there was only a cursory investigation. She worked with Pichushkin so she knew who had tried to kill her but Pichushkin easily convinced authorities that she was just a jilted lover.

In America and many other countries with modern knowledge and techniques, it is very difficult for a serial killer to accomplish that many victims without being tracked down. Countries that have made murder a priority, also share information, techniques, and tools. See the link below for an international list of serial killers.

Most of the murder victims of the Boston Strangler (Albert DeSalvo) were strangled with pieces of their own clothing, usually nylon stockings or the belt to their dressing gown. But what was to become his 'calling card' was the stockings or belts or whatever was used to strangle the victims, he tied them into neat bows. He also was what is called a 'poser'. Some criminals will pose the victims, usually in sexually suggestive poses, to shock whomever finds the bodies.