20th | Top battles and other violent events by death toll |
This is a list of murderers by number of victims. Both serial killers and spree killers are included, but acts of terrorism (such as the September 11th Attacks) and murder-for-hire (contract killings) are excluded. The murders must be reliably referenced to have been committed "with [the murderer's] own hands." Murderers are listed here by the most common consensus figures, where possible. In cases of murder-suicide, the perpetrator is not included in the victim count.
Contents |
Victims | Type | Name(s) | Location | Time active | Additional information |
138-300+ | serial | Luis Garavito | ![]() |
1992 to 1998[1] | Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as "La Bestia" aka "The Beast." Convicted of killing 138 victims but suspected of murdering over 300 victims, mostly street children. Sentenced to 1,853 years but could only be imprisoned for 30 which was reduced to 22 after aiding investigators. |
110-300+ | serial | Pedro López | ![]() |
1969 to 1980[2] | Child-murderer and rapist, convicted of killing 110 young girls but confessed to killing 300, exact total unknown. Known as "The Monster of the Andes" and sentenced in 1983 but released in 1998, believed to still be killing. |
218–250 | serial | Dr Harold Shipman | ![]() |
1975 to 1998[3] | Estimated; only 218 positively identified by subsequent inquiry.[4] Known as Doctor Death. |
80–612 | serial | Countess Elizabeth Báthory | ![]() |
1585 to 1610[5] | Hungarian noblewoman, countess, allegedly the most prolific female murderer in history. Total killings unknown, accusations pointed to between 100 and 700 victims but she is believed to have actually killed 100 to 200 people.[6]Possibly the victim of conspiracy and may have been innocent.[7] |
38–138 | serial | Darya Saltykova | ![]() |
? to 1762 | Russian noblewoman. Accused of up to 138 murders; found guilty of 38 murders. |
125-931 | serial | Thug Behram | ![]() |
1790 to 1830[8] | Thugee cult leader. Confessed to have personally murdered more than 125 victims and present at 931 murders perpetrated by his cult.[9] |
103+ | serial | Miyuki Ishikawa | ![]() |
1944 to 1948[10] | Murdered or neglected infants born to parents unwilling to care for them during the prohibition of abortion in Japan. Sentenced to 4 years in prison. |
100 | serial | Javed Iqbal | ![]() |
1996 to 1999[11] | Child-murderer. Pakistan's most profuse killer, confessed to killing 100 children and convicted of the same number. Found dead in his prison cell possibly tortured and murdered, ruled a suicide. |
91+ | serial | Gary Ridgway | ![]() |
1982 to 2000[12] | Known as The Green River Killer. United States of America's most prolific serial killer, targeted prostitutes. Suspected of killing over 90 victims, confessed to 71, convicted of 48. |
91 | serial | Delfina and María de Jesús González | ![]() |
1955–1964 | Hired prostitutes and murdered them after they were determined as useless. Possibly the work of four of the sisters, sentenced to 40 years in prison.[13] |
80–200+ | serial | Gilles de Rais | ![]() |
1435 to 1440[14] | Child-murderer and companion-of-arms to Joan of Arc. Convicted of 80 murders and suspected of 200, estimated total ranges substantially. |
80-110 | serial | Donald Henry Gaskins | ![]() |
1953 to 1982 | Child-murderer, known as the "Meanest Man In America" and "Pee-Wee", convicted of killing 9 people but suspected of 80 murders. Killed three victims while incarcerated, one of which by using C-4. Later confessed on death row that he had murdered 110 victims. |
72-150 | serial | Daniel Barbosa | ![]() |
1986 to 1988[15] | Child-murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims primarily young virgin girls. Confessed to killing 72 victims and incarcerated with Pedro Alonso Lopez. Considered to be intelligent and believed to have been motivated to kill from his step-mother abusing him as a child. |
70–100 | serial | Pedro Rodrigues Filho | ![]() |
1967 to 2003 | Convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He has claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 40 of them inmates. |
67 | serial | Yang Xinhai | ![]() |
2000 to 2003[16] | Killed 65 victims in four provinces of China, known as the "Monster Killer." |
61 | serial | Alexander Pichushkin | ![]() |
1992 to 2006[17] | Known as the Chessboard Killer. Killed at least 49 victims and suspected of 61, claimed 63. Russian Federation's most prolific serial killer. |
14-60 | serial | David Parker Ray | ![]() |
1950 to 1999 | Torture-murderer, targeted women, convicted of killing 14 victims and suspected of 60 murders. Constructed a $100,000 torture chamber which he called his toy-box to murder victims in. |
58+ | hitman | Giuseppe Greco | ![]() |
1977 to 1985[18] | Underboss of the Sicilian Mafia during the Second Mafia War convicted of 58 murders; exact total unknown. Murdered and placed on trial after his death, sentenced to life. |
57 | spree | Woo Bum-kon | ![]() |
April 26 to April 27, 1982[19] | Largest spree killing in modern history, killing 57 and injuring 35. |
53 | serial | Andrei Chikatilo | ![]() |
1978 to 1990[13] | Known as Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper. Convicted of the highest number of serial killings in modern Russia's history, 52. |
52 | serial | Anatoly Onopriyenko | ![]() |
1989 to 1996[13] | Ukrainian serial killer, convicted of killing 52 victims during six years known as the "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator" and "Citizen O." Sentenced to death commuted to life. |
45 | spree | Andrew Kehoe | ![]() |
May 18, 1927[20] | Killed 45 mostly children, injured 58; Known as the Bath School Massacre. |
42 | serial | Ahmad Suradji | ![]() |
1986 to 1997 | Convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. Executed by firing squad on 11 July 2008. |
40 | serial | Belle Gunness | ![]() |
1900 to 1908 | May have killed up to 60. |
40-189+ | serial | Henry Lee Lucas | ![]() |
1960–1983[21] [22] | Confessed to killing 600 people but later recanted and is suspected of lying about a majority of his murders.[23] Probably responsible for the deaths of 40 people.[24] He originally offered a list of 77 women from 19 different states, as he confessed to more and more murders, the details became increasingly more bizarre. Some included dismemberment, necrophilia, even cannibalism. Lawmen linked the Lucas and Otis Toole to 81 murders alone. |
38 | serial | Moses Sithole | ![]() |
1994 to 1995[25] | |
5-37 | serial | The Zodiac Killer | ![]() |
1962(?) to 1977(?),[26] | Remains unsolved but open in the California jurisdictions the 5 certain Zodiac murders occurred. Potentially 37 total victims claimed but unverified. |
36 | serial | Donald Harvey | ![]() |
1970 to 1987[27] | Claims responsibility for another 51 murders. |
36–100 | serial | Serhiy Tkach | ![]() |
1984 to 2005 | A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, suffocated girls aged between 8 and 18 and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. |
35 | spree | Martin Bryant | ![]() |
April 28, 1996[28] | Known as the Port Arthur Massacre. |
35+ | serial | Ted Bundy | ![]() |
1974 to 1978[29] | Infamous for escaping from prison twice. |
33 | serial | John Wayne Gacy | ![]() |
1972 to 1978[30] | Killer Clown, primarily preyed on young men and frequently raped his victims. |
32 | spree | Seung-Hui Cho | ![]() |
April 16, 2007[31] | Responsible for the Virginia Tech Massacre. |
32+ | serial | Jane Toppan | ![]() |
1885 to 1901 | Nurse who killed using morphine in the late 1800's to 1900's. Confessed that she had killed more than 31 people and convicted of killing 11. |
32 | serial | Vera Renczi | ![]() |
1920s to 1930s[32] | Convicted of killing 35 men through arsenic poisoning but confessed to only killing 32 victims. |
31 | serial | Karl Denke | ![]() |
1903 to 1924 | |
30 | spree | Mutsuo Toi | ![]() |
May 21, 1938[33] | Known as the Tsuyama massacre. |
30 | spree | Campo Elías Delgado | ![]() |
December 4, 1986 | |
29+ | serial | Charles Cullen | ![]() |
1988 to 2003[34] | Cullen has admitted to more murders, which authorities believe are likely, but the murders cannot be verified. |
27 | serial | Dean Corll | ![]() |
1970 to 1973[35] | |
27 | serial | Fritz Haarmann | ![]() |
1919 to 1924[36] | |
27 | serial | H. H. Holmes | ![]() |
1893 to 1895[37] | Total disputed.[38] |
27 | serial | Cedric Maake | ![]() |
1996 to 1997[39] | |
27 | serial | Maria Swanenburg | ![]() |
1880 to 1883[40] | |
26+ | serial | Robert William Pickton | ![]() |
1995 to 2001 | Currently on trial. Comments by Pickton suggest that the total may be 49. |
26 | serial | Marcel Petiot | ![]() |
1926 to 1944[41] | Petiot is suspected of having killed up to 63 in total. |
25 | serial | Juan Corona | ![]() |
1971 | Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms of life imprisonment. |
25 | serial | Leonard Lake and Charles Ng | ![]() |
~1982 to 1985[42] | |
24 | serial | Béla Kiss | ![]() |
1912 to 1916[43] | |
23+ | serial | Ronald Dominique | ![]() |
1997 to 2006 [44] | Known locally as the Bayou Strangler and murdered victims in the Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Iberville Parish and Jefferson Parish. |
23 | spree | George Jo Hennard | ![]() |
October 16, 1991[45] | Luby's massacre |
22 | serial | Arnfinn Nesset | ![]() |
? to 1983[46] | |
22-25 | serial | Matti Haapoja | ![]() |
1870 to 1894[47] | Worst Finnish murderer ever. Hanged himself in his cell in Kakola prison, Turku |
21+ | serial | Vasile Tcaciuc | ![]() |
? to 1935[48] | |
21 | serial | Igor Suprunyuck | ![]() |
2007 | Three 19-year-olds from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, brutally murdered 21 people in one month in 2007. Most of the murders were video-recorded with cell-phone cameras. Igor Suprunyuck, the ring-leader, was charged with all 21 murders, while Viktor Sayenko was charged with 18, and Alexander Hanzha with one. |
21 | serial | William Bonin | ![]() |
1979 to 1980[49] | |
21 | spree | James Oliver Huberty | ![]() |
July 18, 1984[50] | Known as the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre |
21 | serial | Patrick Kearney | ![]() |
1965 to 1977[51] | |
20 | serial | Francis Heaulme | ![]() |
1984 to 1992[52] | |
20 | serial | Yoo Young-Chul | ![]() |
2003 to 2004[53] | |
16–18 | serial | Mohammed Bijeh | ![]() |
2004[54] | |
19 | serial | Sergei Ryakhovsky | ![]() |
1988 to 1993[55] | Known as the Balakshikha Ripper |
17 | serial | Joel Rifkin | ![]() |
1989 to 1993[56] | |
17 | serial | William Burke and William Hare | ![]() |
1827 to 1828[57] | Known as the West Port murders |
17 | serial | Jeffrey Dahmer | ![]() |
1978 to 1991[58] | Targeted young men and boys, convinced that he could create sex "zombies" of his victims by drilling holes into their skulls and injecting hydrochloric acid into their brains. |
17 | spree | Thomas Hamilton | ![]() |
March 13, 1996[59] | Known as the Dunblane massacre. |
16 | spree | Charles Whitman | ![]() |
July 31 to August 1, 1966[60] | 14 victims at the University, plus his wife and mother make 16. |
16 | spree | Robert Steinhäuser | ![]() |
April 26, 2002[61][62] | Known as Erfurt massacre. |
16 | serial | Charles Ray Hatcher | ![]() |
1969 to 1982[63] | |
16 | spree | Michael Robert Ryan | ![]() |
August 19, 1987[64] | Known as the Hungerford Massacre. |
16 | serial | Randy Steven Kraft | ![]() |
1969 to 1983[65] | Confessed to 51 further murders. |
16 | serial | The Monster of Florence | ![]() |
1968 to 1985[66] | Pietro Pacciani was convicted of the murders in 1994, but the decision was controversially overturned. Pacciani died 1998 and of three alleged accomplices—two convicted and one acquitted |
16 | spree | Ronald Gene Simmons | ![]() |
December 22 to December 26, 1987[67] | |
16 | serial | Sipho Thwala | ![]() |
1996 to 1997[68] | |
16 | serial | Jimmy Maketta | ![]() |
April to December 2005 | Plead guilty and convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes committed over a nine month period. |
16 | serial | Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega | ![]() |
August 1987 to April 1988 | |
15 | spree | Tim Kretschmer | ![]() |
March 11, 2009,[69] | Known as Winnenden school massacre. |
15 | serial | Dennis Nilsen | ![]() |
1978 to 1983[70] | |
15 | serial | Jack Unterweger | ![]() |
1974 to 1992 | |
17–21 | serial | Robert Hansen | ![]() |
1980 to 1983 | |
15 | spree | Eric Borel | ![]() |
September 23/24, 1995 | |
14 | spree | Ernst August Wagner | ![]() |
September 4, 1913 | |
14 | spree | Patrick Sherrill | ![]() |
August 20, 1986[71] | Postal shooting. |
14 | spree | Christian Dornier | ![]() |
July 12, 1989 | |
14 | spree | Marc Lépine | ![]() |
December 6, 1989[72] | Known as the École Polytechnique massacre. |
14 | spree | Friedrich Leibacher | ![]() |
September 27, 2001 | |
13 | spree | Howard Unruh | ![]() |
September 6, 1949[73] | |
13 | serial | Boston Strangler | ![]() |
1962 to 1964[74] | Although Albert DeSalvo was widely thought to be the Boston Strangler, police and others analysing the case have long doubted the truth of his confession.[74] |
13 | serial | Vasiliy Kulik | ![]() |
1984 to 1986[75] | Known as the Irkutsk Monster. |
13 | serial | Peter Sutcliffe | ![]() |
1975 to 1980[76] | Known as the Yorkshire Ripper. |
16 | serial | Robert Lee Yates | ![]() |
1975 to 1998 | |
13[77] | serial | Richard Ramirez | ![]() |
1984 to 1985[78] | Known as the "Night Stalker". |
13 | spree | George Banks | ![]() |
1982 | |
13 | spree | Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold | ![]() |
April 20, 1999[79] | Known as the Columbine High School massacre. Harris and Klebold committed suicide, bringing total dead to 15. |
13 | spree | David Gray | ![]() |
November 13, 1990 [80] | Known as the Aramoana Massacre. |
13 | serial | Thozamile Taki | ![]() |
2007 | Known as the "sugar cane serial killer" |
13 | spree | Jiverly Wong | ![]() |
April 3, 2009 | Known as the Binghamton shootings |
12 | Sadamichi Hirasawa | ![]() |
January 26, 1948[81] | It is suspected that he was falsely charged[82] | |
12 | serial | Maxim Petrov | ![]() |
2000 to 2002[83] | Doctor who killed patients. |
12 | serial | Fred West | ![]() |
1967 to 1987[84] | |
12 | serial | Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono | ![]() |
1977 to 1978[85] | Known as the Hillside Stranglers. The victim count is 12 for Bianchi, and 10 for Buono. |
11 | serial | Henri Désiré Landru | ![]() |
1914 to 1918[86] | |
11 | serial | Clifford Olson | ![]() |
1980 to 1981[87] | |
11 | serial | Sergey Golovkin | ![]() |
1986 to 1992[88] | |
11 | serial | Charles Starkweather | ![]() |
1957 to 1958[89] | |
11 | serial | John Justin Bunting | ![]() |
August 1992 to 20 May 1999 | Ringleader in the Snowtown murders, AKA the Bodies in Barrels murders |
11 | serial | Francisco Garcia Escalero | ![]() |
1987 to 1994 | |
10 | serial | Tore Hedin | ![]() |
1951 to 1952[90] | |
10 | spree | Matti Saari | ![]() |
September 23, 2008 | Known as the Kauhajoki school shooting. Saari committed suicide making him 11th victim. |
10 | spree | Walter Seifert | ![]() |
June 11, 1964[91] | Cologne school massacre |
10 | serial | Edmund Kemper | ![]() |
1964 to 1973[92] | |
10 | spree | Kumatarō Kido and Yagorō Tani | ![]() |
1893[93][94] | |
10 | serial | Robert Joe Wagner | ![]() |
August 1992 to 20 May 1999 | Ringleader in the Snowtown murders, AKA the Bodies in Barrels murders |
10 | serial | David Randitsheni | ![]() |
2004 to 2008 | Kidnapped 19 people, raped 17 and murdered 10 (all children). |
10 | serial | Dennis Lynn Rader | ![]() |
1974 to 2004 | AKA The BTK killer (Bind, Tourture, Kill) |
8 | spree | Pekka-Eric Auvinen | ![]() |
November 7, 2007 | Known as the Jokela school shooting. Auvinen committed suicide making him his own ninth victim. |
Note: this list is incomplete.
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, in three or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.[95] There are gaps of time in between the killings, which may comprise anywhere from a few hours to many years. This list shows serial killers in order of how many victims they had. In many cases, the exact number of victims assigned to a serial killer is not known, and even if that person is convicted of a few, there can be the possibility that he/she killed many more.
The third column in the table states the number of victims that were definitely assigned to that particular serial killer, and thus the table is in order of that figure. The fourth column states the number of other possible victims that the killer could also have murdered. Some of these crimes are yet to be solved, but have been included because they are notorious or clearly the work of a serial killer, despite nobody being caught.
Name | Country | Proven victims* | Possible victims | Miscellaneous information |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dr. Harold Shipman | United Kingdom | 218 | 250+[96] | Targeted his patients, the majority of whom were elderly women. Killed his patients with lethal injections of diamorphine. |
Luis Garavito | Colombia | 138 | 300 | Targeted young boys. Arrested in 1999. |
Thug Behram | India | 125 | 931 | Born 1765, died 1840. Leader of the Thuggee cult. |
Javed Iqbal | Pakistan | 100 | 100+ | Killed young and poor children from all across Pakistan along with three teenage accomplices. Surrendered himself to the police after his 100th kill, but committed suicide before being executed. |
Erzsébet Báthory | Hungary | 80[6] | 650 | Born 1560, died 1614. Accused of murdering 600 or so people, however no public trial was held. Was imprisoned in a room of her own castle until her death. |
Gilles de Rais | France | 80 | 600 | His confession was gained under torture and threat of torture, as was customary. |
Pedro Rodrigues Filho | Brazil | 70 | 100+ | Convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He has claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 40 of them inmates. |
Yang Xinhai | China | 67 | 67 | Would enter victim's homes at night and kill everyone with axes, meat cleavers, hammers and shovels. |
Pedro Lopez | Colombia | 57 | 300 | Targeted young girls. Arrested in 1980. |
Andrei Chikatilo | USSR/Russia | 53 | 56 | Convicted of the murder of 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990. 3 people were previously convicted and executed for his crimes. |
Anatoly Onoprienko | Ukraine | 52 | 52+ | Convicted of the murders of 9 people in 1989, and 43 people in 1995–1996. Traveled through Europe illegally from 1990–1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown. |
Alexander Pichushkin | Russia | 49 | 61+ | Convicted of murdering 49 victims, suspected of killing 61, and claimed to have murdered 63 people out of his goal of 64 to fill a chessboard. Stated goal of becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer. |
Gary Leon Ridgway | United States | 48 | 90 | Truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women and dumping their bodies along the Green River, near Seattle, Washington. Pleaded guilty to 48 murders, and sentenced to 48 consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. |
Ahmad Suradji | Indonesia | 42 | 42 | Convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. Executed by firing squad on 11 July 2008. |
Gerald Stano | United States | 41 | 41 | Confessed to killing 41 women in mostly Florida and New Jersey areas. Some controversy surrounds the case as he by some is believed to have been a serial confessor. |
Belle Gunness | United States | 40? | 60? | Active 1900 to 1908. |
Moses Sithole | South Africa | 38 | 38 | Preyed on unemployed women, posing as a businessman and luring his victims with the prospects of a job, before leading them to an isolated place, where he raped, tortured and murdered them. Sentenced to 2410 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 930 years. Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy. |
Donald Harvey | United States | 36 | 87 | Self-professed Angel of Death. Worked as an orderly in Cincinnati area hospitals and preyed on his patients. Claims to have killed 87 patients starting at age 18. Active 1970–1987. Serving 28 life sentences in Ohio. |
Serhiy Tkach | Ukraine | 36 | 100 | Claims to have killed 100. |
Ted Bundy | United States | 35 | 100+ | Claimed that he may have killed more than 100. |
John Wayne Gacy | United States | 33 | 33 | The "Killer Clown" who kept bodies of young men and boys buried under his Chicago home. |
Jane Toppan | United States | 31 | 31 | Cambridge lust murderer who poisoned 31 victims between 1895 and 1901. |
Dean Corll | United States | 27 | 30 | The "Candyman" of the Houston Mass Murders in the early 1970s. |
Elmer Wayne Henley | United States | 27 | 27 | One of Dean Corll's accomplices in the Houston Mass Murders. |
David Brooks | United States | 27 | 27 | One of Dean Corll's accomplices in the Houston Mass Murders. |
Cedric Maake | South Africa | 27 | 27 | Known as the "Wemmer Pan Killer". |
Dr. Marcel Petiot | France | 26 | 63 | Active 1926 and from 1942 to 1944. Executed in 1946. |
Juan Corona | United States | 25 | ? | Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms of life imprisonment. |
Béla Kiss | Hungary | 24 | ? | Convicted after the bodies of 24 women were found in his home, and escaped from prison in 1916. Fate unknown. |
Matti Haapoja | Finland | 22 | 25 | Worst Finnish murderer ever. His last victim was prison warden while he was serving life sentence. Hanged himself in his cell in Kakola prison, Turku. |
Igor Suprunyuck | Ukraine | 21 | 31 | Three 19-year-olds from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, brutally murdered 21 people in one month in 2007. Most of the murders were videotaped with cell-phone cameras. Igor Suprunyuck, the ring-leader, was charged with all 21 murders, while Viktor Sayenko was charged with 18, and Alexander Hanzha with 1. |
Vampire of Silesia | Poland | 21 | ? | Killed 21 women in 1964–1970 in Poland's region of Upper Silesia. Zdzisław Marchwicki was most likely the man responsible for the killings (executed in 1977), however his guilt still remains disputable today. |
Earle Nelson | United States | 20 | 20+ | Necrophiliac who targeted landladies throughout the West Coast during 1926. |
Mary Ann Cotton | United Kingdom | 20 | 20 | Killed up to 20 of her husbands and offspring in County Durham in the 1800s. |
Surender Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher | India | 19 | 30+ | Between 2005 and 2006, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic servant, Surender Koli, kidnapped, raped, murdered and dismembered 19 people (mostly children). Convicted. |
Charles Cullen | United States | 18 | 40 | Nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who murdered 40 patients between 1988 and 2003. |
Paul John Knowles | United States | 18 | 35 | Killed 18 people in various states in 1974. Selfmade claims of 35 murders. Known as the "Casanova Killer". |
Huang Yong | China | 17 | 25 | Lured and murdered 17 teenage boys, although he is suspected of 25 murders between September 2001 and 2003. |
Jeffrey Dahmer | United States | 17 | 17 | Dahmer ate some of his victims, and kept their body parts in his freezer. Was sentenced to life imprisonment, and was murdered in prison in 1994. |
Donato Bilancia | Italy | 17 | 17 | Burglar who murdered 17 people between 1997 and 1998. Known as the "Prostitutes Killer" and the "Liguria Monster". |
Vladimir Kondratenko | Ukraine | 16 | 20+ | Kondratenko and his friend Vladislav Volkovich, dubbed the Nighttime Killers, shot, stabbed and bludgeoned 35–40-year-old male victims. |
Randy Steven Kraft | United States | 16 | 65–100 | Convicted on 16 counts of murder, but left a cryptic list of 65 murders. May have had an accomplice. |
Mahanand Naik | India | 16 | ? | Sources said that the most of the victims were aged between 19 and 30 and strangled them through their dupattas. It also revealed that it was the lure of gold that led Naik for brutal killings. |
Mohammed Bijeh | Iran | 16 | 16 | Raped and killed at least 16 boys and teens. Nicknamed the "Tehran Desert Vampire"; was convicted and executed after being lashed in front of a crowd in 2005. |
Sipho Thwala | South Africa | 16 | 16 | Nicknamed The Phoenix Strangler after the area in which his committed his crimes. |
Elias Xitavhudzi | South Africa | 16 | ? | Nickname Panga man for his use of a machete (locally known as a "panga"). |
Jimmy Maketta | South Africa | 16 | 16 | Pleaded guilty and convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes committed over a nine month period in 2005. |
John Allen Muhammad | United States | 16 | 16 | Carried out the Beltway sniper attacks together with Lee Boyd Malvo. |
Lee Boyd Malvo | United States | 16 | 16 | Carried out the Beltway sniper attacks together with John Allen Muhammad. |
Robert Lee Yates | United States | 16 | 16 | Killed prostitutes in the "Skid-Row" area of E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane, Washington. |
Waltraud Wagner | Austria | 15 | 49-200 | Nurse who killed elderly at Lainz General Hospital in Vienna in 1983. Together with her accomplices she confessed to 49 murders but may have been responsible to up to 200. One of the "Lainz Angels of Death". |
Robert Hansen | United States | 15 | 21 | He would kidnap prostitutes, take them to his remote cabin in Alaska and then release them before hunting them down like animals. Though only convicted of 15 murders, the police suspect the number of his victims to actually be 21, based on the remains they discovered. |
Angel Maturino Resendiz | United States | 15 | 18 | Known as the "Railroad Killer" because his killings were committed near the railroad tracks he used to traverse the country. He was charged with and/or confessed to 15 murders occurring from 1986 to 1999 in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, and Kentucky. He was also suspected in a 1997 California murder case and claimed two additional killings he refused to elaborate on.[97] |
Dennis Nilsen | United Kingdom | 15 | 15[98][99] | Picked up young men in London between 1978 and 1982 and dismembered them, keeping various body parts around his home. |
Coral Eugene Watts | United States | 14 | 80–100 | Was granted immunity for a dozen murders as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors in 1982, and was given 60 years in prison. In 2007 he was found guilty of the murders of Helen Dutcher (which brought a life sentence), and later that year found guilty of the murder of Gloria Steele. Died of prostate cancer on September 21, 2007. |
Arthur Shawcross | United States | 14 | 14 | Killer operating near the Genesee River. Strangled and battered his victims. Known as the "Genesee River Killer", the "Genesee River Strangler", the "Rochester Strangler" and the "Monster of the Rivers." |
Richard Ramirez | United States | 13[77] | 20+ | Killed 13 people between June 28, 1984, and August 24, 1985, in Los Angeles. |
Peter Sutcliffe | United Kingdom | 13 | 17 | Killed 13 women between October 30, 1975 and November 17, 1980 mainly in Yorkshire. Was known as the "Yorkshire Ripper". |
Cleveland Torso Murderer | USA | 13 | 40+ | Unidentified serial killer, also known as The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, who targeted drifters and derelicts, of whom only two were identified, between 1934 and 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio. |
Kaspars Petrovs | Latvia | 13 | 38+ | Confessed to strangling 38 elderly residents of Riga, Latvia in 2003. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the robbery and murder of 13. |
Herbert Mullin | United States | 13 | 13 | Despite detailed confessions, prosecutors decided not to try him for the first three crimes, instead focusing on crimes that conflicted with his insanity plea. |
David Parker Ray | United States | 12 | 60 | Torture-murderer, possibly aided by numerous accomplices including his girlfriend and targeted victims in the Truth or Consequences, New Mexico area. Known as the "Toybox Killer" for the mobile home he used as a house to rape, torture, and kill women. |
Dr. Maxim Petrov | Russia | 12 | 19 | Doctor who killed his patients in St. Petersburg. Suspected of 19 murders. |
William Suff | United States | 12 | 12-22 | County store clerk who raped, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more prostitutes in Riverside County. Known as the "Riverside Prostitute Killer" and the "Lake Elsinore Killer". |
Maury Travis | United States | 12 | 17 | Killed prostitutes in the St. Louis area from 2000-2002. Caught when he mailed an Expedia.com map showing where to find a body to a St. Louis newspaper. Committed suicide in prison. |
Kenneth Bianchi | United States | 12 | 15 | Convicted of strangling twelve females between age 12 and 28 and suspected in another three cases. One of the "Hillside Stranglers". |
Fred West and Rosemary West | United Kingdom | 12 | 12+ | Mainly targeted young females but was also found guilty of the murder of their own daughter. Also found guilty of raping another daughter. Buried the victims around their house and local area. Fred West said there were more victims, shortly before he committed suicide on New Year's Day, 1995.[100] |
Henry Lee Lucas | United States | 11 | 600 | Convicted of 11 murders, however [101] detectives from 40 states came to visit Lucas, where an estimated 3,000 homicides were discussed in what is considered to be one of the greatest mockeries of the U.S. legal system, in which police officers cleared their books of unsolved murders.[22] The true number of murders committed by Lucas is unknown, but it is likely Lucas was not nearly as prolific a serial killer as he initially claimed to be, as most of his murder confessions were thoroughly discredited, and he himself claimed only one murder, that of his mother. |
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng | United States | 11 | 25 | Abducted women, used them as sex slaves and then murdered them, together with any men, women, and children who got in their way. Lake committed suicide upon arrest, but Ng was later convicted of killing 11 people. Between 1982 and 1985, Lake and Ng were believed to have abducted and killed as many as 25 victims, as evidenced by human remains found on Lake's California ranch. |
Bloody Benders | United States | 11 | Unknown | Active 1872 and 1873. Fate unknown. |
Clifford Olson | Canada | 11 | 11 | Considered a dangerous offender, meaning that Olsen may never be released from prison. Has had three parole applications rejected. |
John Justin Bunting | Australia | 11 | 11 | Ringleader in the Snowtown murders; sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. |
Nannie Doss | United States | 11 | 11 | Responsible for 11 deaths between 1927 and 1954. Known as the "Giggling Nanny", the "Giggling Granny" and the "Jolly Black Widow". |
Anthony Sowell | United States | 11 | Unknown | see Wikipedia article |
Jack Unterweger | Austria/United States | 10 | 15 | Served 14 years in Austrian prison because of a murder in 1974; killed at least 9 prostitutes after his release. Was a small media star in Austrian media in the early 1990s and arrested in the United States, where he may have killed another 3 prostitutes, on behalf of Austrian police. Hanged himself in 1994 after being sentenced to life in prison. |
David Randitsheni | South Africa | 10 | ? | Kidnapped 19 people, raped 17 and murdered 10 from 2004 to 2008. Sentenced to 16 consecutive life sentences plus 220 years in prison; hanged himself three weeks after conviction. |
Edmund Kemper | United States | 10 | 10 | A victim of Herbert Mullin was attributed to him originally. |
Dennis Rader | United States | 10 | 10 | Known as the BTK Killer, murdered at least ten people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. |
Robert Joe Wagner | Australia | 10 | 10 | Secondary ringleader in the Snowtown murders and best friend of John Justin Bunting; sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. |
Henry Louis Wallace | United States | 10 | 10 | Confessed to 10 murders in Charlotte, North Carolina between 1990 and 1994. |
Angelo Buono | United States | 10 | 10 | Convicted of strangling ten females. One of the "Hillside Stranglers". |
Charlene Gallego | United States | 10 | 10 | Killed ten victims in Sacramento, California between 1978 and 1980 together with her husband Gerald Gallego. |
Gerald Gallego | United States | 10 | 10 | Killed ten victims in Sacramento, California between 1978 and 1980 together with his wife Charlene Gallego. |
Donald Henry Gaskins (a.k.a. "Pee Wee" Gaskins) |
United States | 9 | 181 | Known as "The Meanest Man in America", he was convicted of nine murders in South Carolina taking place between 1969–1975. He was suspected in over 80 murders of mainly young boys and girls. He admitted to 181 killings in his final memoirs. |
Herman Mudgett (a.k.a. H.H. Holmes) | United States | 9 | 27–350+[102] | Active 1888–1894. Targeted mostly younger women during the Chicago World's Fair in the 1890s, and killed them by enticing them to his custom built "murder-castle" which was tailor-made to kill large numbers of people using a wide variety of premeditated methods. To keep this secret, he fired all his builders and hired new ones before any one set of builders could ever finish one part of the "house". He sometimes murdered his victims on a day-to-day basis, but usually slept with the victim first, and devised a method in the morning. Actual body count is unknown, but it is possible that there could have been as many as 230 victims or more, as the majority of the victims were completely dissolved into acid housed in a gigantic pit built into his basement. |
John Lynch | Australia | 9 | 10 | Irish convict transported to Australia who killed nine people in the town of Berrima over a three day period in February 1841, but denied involvement in a tenth murder in 1835 when he was a bushranger. Dubbed "The Berrima Axe Murderer"; hanged on April 22, 1842. |
Peter Kürten | Germany | 9 | 9 | Charged with nine murders and seven attempted murders. Dubbed "The Vampire of Düsseldorf" by the contemporary media. Executed by guillotine in 1931 (age 48). |
Thomas Quick | Sweden | 8 | 30 | Raped and murdered up to 30 men. Several scholars, however, have questioned if he killed anyone. As of 2008 he has withdrawn the confessions and intends to appeal. |
Joseph Paul Franklin | United States | 8 | 20 | Confessed to 20 murders and several attempted murders. Still awaiting trial for most of these crimes. |
Peter Manuel | Scotland | 8 | 18 | A USA-born Scottish burglar and serial killer who is known to have killed eight people across Lanarkshire between 1956 and 1958 but was believed to have killed up to eighteen. Manuel was the third-last prisoner to be hung in Scotland. |
Christopher Wilder | United States | 8 | 13+ | Killed eight women during a spree in April 1984 before accidentally killing himself; suspected in the disappearance and murder of more than 5 more. |
Kendall Francois | United States | 8 | 9 | From 1996 to 1998, he admitted to killing eight prostitutes in Poughkeepsie, New York, but denies involvement with the disappearance of a ninth prostitute. |
Eric Edgar Cooke | Australia | 8 | 8 | Nicknamed "The Night Caller", he terrorized the city of Perth from 1959 to 1963 by assaulting 22 people at random with various means, killing eight of them. Hanged on October 26, 1964. |
Michael Bruce Ross | United States | 8 | 8 | Ross confessed to all of the murders, and was convicted of four of them. He was executed by the state of Connecticut on May 13, 2005 by lethal injection, making it the first execution in Connecticut and the whole of New England since 1960. |
Alexander Pearce | Australia | 8 | 8 | Irish convict transported to Australia who killed and cannibalized his fellow escapees in two separate escapes in four months in 1822. Hanged on July 9, 1824. |
Jean-Baptiste Troppmann | France | 8 | 8 | Born October 5, 1849 in Brunstatt (Haut-Rhin), he murdered 8 members of the unrelated Kinck family over a period of several months in 1869. His execution on January 19, 1870, in Paris, became the subject of an essay by Ivan Turgenev. |
Ivan Milat | Australia | 7 | 23–37 | Convicted of the Backpacker murders; sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years without the possibility of parole. May have had accomplices. |
Derrick Todd Lee | United States | 7 | 7+ | Known as the "Baton Rouge or South Louisiana Serial Killer" convicted of three murders, sentenced to death by lethal injection. Believed to have murdered several other women in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. |
Doug Clark | United States | 7 | 7+ | Boiler operator who killed prostitutes in Los Angeles during 1980. One of the "Sunset Strip Killers". |
Christopher Worrell | Australia | 7 | 7 | Died in car accident before capture. |
Orville Lynn Majors | United States | 6 | 130 | LPN in Vermillion County Ind., Preyed on elderly patients—thought to have killed many of them with injections of potassium chloride. Serving 360 years in Indiana. |
Albert Fish | United States | 6 | 100(?) | Pedophile and cannibal. Connected to three murders; claimed to be responsible for many others. Electrocuted on Jan. 16, 1936. |
Tommy Lynn Sells | United States | 6 | 70? | A drifter active 1980–1999 throughout the U.S. who specialized in killing children and multiple victims after breaking into their homes. Caught when a 10-year-old girl survived his attack and provided a description of him. On death row in Texas. |
Robert Pickton | Canada | 6 | 20–49(?) | Found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder. Accused of murdering 20 other women, most of them prostitutes and drug dealers. |
John Wayne Glover | Australia | 6 | 13 | British ex-pat living in Australia. Known by the media as "The Granny Killer" as he targeted elderly women. |
Aileen Wuornos | United States | 6 | 8+ | Killed strangers, all men, along Florida highways over 13 months in 1989 and 1990 while working as a prostitute. |
Jack the Stripper | United Kingdom | 6 | 8 | Murdered at least six prostitutes in London between 1964 and 1965, and may have been responsible for the deaths of two others before that. Remains unidentified. |
Gert van Rooyen and Joey Haarhof | South Africa | 6 | 8 | Their victims were never found; the pair shot dead a police officer and then committed suicide when faced with arrest after the escape of their last kidnap victim. |
James Miller | Australia | 6 | 7 | Sentenced to six consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years. Died of cancer in 2008. |
Richard Chase | United States | 6 | 6 | The "Vampire of Sacramento", he was convicted of six murders. In addition to killing his victims, he often raped the women's bodies and drank their blood, or took their organs home and ate them. |
David Berkowitz | United States | 6 | 6 | The "Son of Sam", he would shoot couples in their cars, killing six and wounding seven. |
Aleksandr Rubel | Estonia | 6 | 6 | He was intoxicated with gasoline vapours during all his murders. Sentenced as a minor to the maximum punishment allowed by law — eight years of imprisonment — he was released on 8 June 2006. |
Allen Thompson | Australia | 6 | 6 | Convicted of the murders of a family of four in Richardson in March 1984, and of two of the family's aunts who had died in a car accident in Canberra in December 1981; sentenced to six consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. |
András Pándy | Belgium | 6 | 6 | Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002. |
Billy Cook | United States | 6 | 6 | Executed December 12, 1952. |
Richard Cottingham | United States | 5 | 85-100 | Killer operating in New York between 1977 and 1980. Convicted of five murders but selfmade claims of victim count as up to a hundred. Known as the "Torso Killer". |
Irene Leidolf | Austria | 5 | 49-200 | Nurse who killed elderly at Lainz General Hospital in Vienna in 1983. Together with her accomplices she confessed to 49 murders but may have been responsible to up to 200. One of the "Lainz Angels of Death". |
Amy Archer-Gilligan | United States | 5 | 48? | Active 1910 to 1917; died in mental hospital in 1928. |
Zodiac Killer | United States | 5 | 37 | Targeted young couples. Was never apprehended. |
Joe Ball | United States | 5 | 5-20 | Bootlegger who is said to have been responsible for up to 20 deaths in South Texas between 1936 and 1938. Known as the "Alligator Man", the "Butcher of Elmendorf" and the "Bluebeard of South Texas". |
John Floyd Thomas | United States | 5 | 17–25 | Murderer and serial killer suspect. |
Jack The Ripper | United Kingdom | 5 | 4–16 | Nobody was ever caught for the murders, and the identity of the killer has never been discovered. Preyed on prostitutes in Whitechapel, London in 1888. Arguably the most infamous serial killer in history. |
Steve Wright | United Kingdom | 5 | 5–22 | Referred to as "Suffolk murders", "Ipswich murders", "Ipswich Ripper", "Suffolk Ripper", "Suffolk Strangler", "East Anglia Ripper", "Red Light Ripper" and "the Suffolkator". Murdered five prostitutes, all of whom worked in Ipswich in 2006. There are possible links to previous Suffolk prostitute killings. |
Kristen Gilbert | United States | 5 | 70? | Targeted patients. Sentenced to life without parole. |
Carl Panzram | United States | 5 | 22 | From 1920 to 1928, he claimed in a posthumous autobiography to have committed over 22 killings. Hanged on September 5, 1930. |
Carl Williams | Australia | 5 | 14 | Gangland hitman; sentenced to four consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years. |
Lindsay Robert Rose | Australia | 5 | 10 | Contract killer who operated between 1984 and 1994; sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. |
David Maust | United States | 5 | 9 | Killed teenage boys; caught when bodies of three boys were found in the concrete floor of his basement in Hammond, Indiana. Committed suicide in prison in 2006. |
Danny Rolling | United States | 5 | 8 | Known as the "Gainesville Ripper"; murdered five students in August 1990. Executed on October 6, 2006. |
Vincent Johnson | United States | 5 | 6 | The Brooklyn Strangler. |
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley | United Kingdom | 5 | 5 | The "Moors Murderers". Abducted children in northern England. They were found guilty of two and three murders respectively. |
Caroline Grills | Australia | 5 | 5 | Poisoned five family members with thallium hidden in tea and scones she had given them in Sydney between 1947 and 1953. Sentenced to five consecutive life sentences; died from peritonitis on October 6, 1960. |
Thomas Dillon | United States | 5 | 5 | Ohio Sniper. |
William MacDonald | Australia | 5 | 5 | Murdered derelicts in Sydney and Brisbane between 1960 and 1962; sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. |
Queho | United States | 5 | 1? | Active 1910/1911 and 1919. Found dead in a cave in 1940. |
Alfred Packer | United States | 5 | 5 | Murderer and cannibal. |
Marc Dutroux | Belgium | 5 | 5 | Serial killer convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls during 1995 and 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered; also tortured and murdered his neighbour, Bernard Weinstein. |
Andrew Cunanan | United States | 5 | 5 | Murdered five people including Gianni Versace between April 1997 and July 1997 ending with his suicide. |
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood | United States | 5 | 5 | Nurses who killed five elderly women in Grand Rapids, Michigan. |
Harry Powers | United States | 5 | 2 | Lonely hearts swindler and conman. Killed two women and three children in Quiet Dell, West Virginia. Arrested 1931 after bodies of victims found buried near his garage. Hanged March 28, 1932. |
Ottis Toole | United States | 4 | 125 | Convicted of three counts of murder, and confessed to four more murders before dying in prison. A sometime accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, Toole admitted to multiple counts of murder, rape, and cannibalism, and was the suspect in several unsolved murders. On December 16, 2008, police announced that they had identified Toole as the likely murderer of Adam Walsh, and would be closing the case as a result. |
Leonard Fraser | Australia | 4 | 7 | Serial rapist and pedophile who murdered four women in Rockhampton between 1998–1999. Sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 25 years without the possibility of parole; died in prison of a heart attack on January 1, 2007. |
Arnold Sodeman | Australia | 4 | 4 | The schoolgirl strangler, hanged in 1936 |
David and Catherine Birnie | Australia | 4 | 4–8 | Australian couple who raped and murdered four women in their home and attempted to murder a fifth in Perth in 1986. Both were sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; David Birnie hanged himself in prison on October 7, 2005. |
Gordon Cummins | United Kingdom | 4 | 4 | Active 1942. Raped three of his victims and robbed the remaining one. Also attacked two other women. Sentenced to death by hanging. |
Marc Sappington | United States | 4 | 4 | Schizophrenic serial killer who heard voices telling him to kill after extended daily PCP use. He cannibalized part of his last victim. |
James Vlassakis | Australia | 4 | 4 | Snowtown murderer and stepson of John Justin Bunting; sentenced to four consecutive life sentences with a non-parole period of 26 years. |
Mark Jeffries | Australia | 4 | 4 | Convict transported from Ireland who cannibalized his fellow escapees in 1824; hanged in 1826. |
Peter Woodcock | Canada | 4 | 4 | Sexual sadist and child rapist. Killed three young children in Toronto in the 1950s. Sentenced to a psychiatric facility, where he murdered a fellow inmate in 1991. |
Lam Kor-wan | Hong Kong | 4 | 4 | Taxi driver and one of Hong Kong's only serial killers. Famous for keeping body parts in his parents' home. |
Kathleen Folbigg | Australia | 4 | 4 | Mother convicted of murdering her three infant children and the manslaughter of a fourth child between 1991 and 1999. Sentenced to 30 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 25 years. |
Karla Homolka | Canada | 4 | 4 | Known for the murders she committed with her husband Paul Bernardo. |
Jerry Brudos | United States | 4 | 4 | Electronics technician who bludgeoned and strangled four young women between 1968 and 1969 dressed up in women's clothing. Known as the "Lust Killer" and "Shoe Fetish Slayer". |
Miguel Rivera | Puerto Rico | 4 | 4 | Stabbed young boys and cut off their genitals in attempt to transform them into girls in East Harlem and on the Upper West Side of New York between March 1972 and August 1973. Known as "Charlie Chop-Off". |
Tsutomu Miyazaki | Japan | 4 | 4 | Mutilated and killed four girls, aged between four and seven, and sexually molested their corpses. He drank the blood of one victim and ate her hands. |
Dr. Michael Swango | United States | 3 | 30+ | Murderer and serial killer suspect. |
Gordon Northcott | United States | 3 | 17 | 1928 murderer with his mother in the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. |
Peter Dupas | Australia | 3 | 6 | Sexual sadist from Melbourne, who murdered three women and is suspected of at least three further killings. Serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Was convicted of 16 separate acts of sexual violence before his first murder charge. |
Paul Kenneth Bernardo | Canada | 3 | 5 | Serial killer and "Scarborough Rapist", known for the murders he committed with his wife Karla Homolka. |
Paul Denyer | Australia | 3 | 5 | Serial killer known as the "Frankston Killer" who murdered three women in 1993; sentenced to three consecutive life sentences with a non-parole period of 30 years. |
Bendali Debs | Australia | 3 | 3–5 | Convicted of the murder of Kirsty Harty at Upper Beaconsfield in 1997 and of the Moorabbin Police murders 14 months later; sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 27 years without the possibility of parole. |
William Heirens | United States | 3 | 3 | Burglar who stabbed three females between 1945 and 1946. Known as the "Lipstick Killer". |
Bible John | Scotland | 3 | 3 | Unidentified strangler and rapist of young women active in Glasgow between 1968 and 1969. |
Eddie Leonski | Australia | 3 | 3 | Confessed to three murders after being picked out of a line of American servicemen by witnesses. Was sentenced to death, and hanged in 1942. |
Altemio Sanchez | United States | 3 | 3 | Known as the Bike Path Rapist for murdering three women and raping at least 14 others in and around the Buffalo, New York area over a span of 25 years (1981–2006). Sentenced to 75 years in prison with no chance of parole. |
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