Celebrity

John Wayne Gacy was a friendly man who loved to entertain young children. He frequently dressed up as his alter ego, Pogo the Clown, at parties that he hosted for his entire neighborhood. By 1978, public perception of Gacy would change forever, and he would earn the ominous nickname of “the Killer Clown”. The first warning sign about Gacy appeared in 1964, when he was found guilty of sodomizing two young boys. Gacy was arrested and spent 18 months in prison. By the time he was released, Gacy was

Known as El Mataviejas" (The Old Lady Killer), Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega is Spain's most prolific killer. As the name suggests, this heartless brute preyed on elderly women, raping and strangling 16 victims over a period of just nine months. Vega’s usual M.O. was to befriend his victims by offering to help carry groceries or do work at their homes. Once inside, he’d turn on the helpless woman, fondle and rape her and then strangle her to death. Sometimes he’d commit postmortem rape with a broo

Joseph G. Christopher was an American serial killer, active from September 22, 1980 until his arrest on May 10, 1981. He was known as the "Midtown Slasher". It is believed that he killed at least twelve individuals and wounded numerous others, almost all African Americans, with one Hispanic male. His homicidal rampage began on September 22, 1980, when he was 25 years old. He started his crimes by shooting African American men with a sawn-off .22 rifle while they went about their daily duties, st

Juan Corona murdered at least twenty-five migrant workers during a bloodstained six week period in 1971. He had arrived in Yuba City, California in the 1950s as a Mexican migrant worker. By the early 1970s, he'd moved up the pecking order and was a labour contractor; he hired itinerants to pick fruit on behalf of local farmers (for minimal pay) around the Yuba area. Long before Corona’s series of homicides, as far back as 1956, he’d been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. However, no-one

Juana Barraza is a Mexican professional wrestler and serial killer dubbed La Mataviejitas (The Old Lady Killer) was sentenced to 759 years in jail for killing eleven elderly women.The first murder attributed to Mataviejitas has been dated variously to the late 1990s and to a specific killing on 17 November 2003. The authorities and the press have given various estimates as to the total number of the killer's victims, with totals ranging from 24 to 49 deaths.

Kampatimar Shankariya was one of the most infamous serial killers of India, he was convicted and sentenced to death in early 1979, with 70 proven victims between 1977 and 1978. Shankariya killed people by striking at the area around their Eustachian tube where it leaves the cheek, and was hence named “kanpatimar”. He is known to have used a hammer as his weapon of assualt. Being one of the least researched serial killers of his time, Shankariya said that he derived pleasure by killing people. He

Not much of Karl Denke’s early life has been recorded aside from the fact that he was a terrible student and ran away from home at age 12. 25 years old when his father died, Karl used the inheritance to buy property in the small town of Münsterberg - today known as Ziębice - about 60km south of Wrocław. In Münsterberg, Karl was known as a generous, caring and devout local citizen, even referred to by some as ‘Vater Denke’ or Father Denke. He carried the cross at Evangelist funerals and played th

Karla Homolka, a Canadian serial killer, was born May 4th, 1970 in Ontario. Homolka seemed like a normal child: pretty, popular, and loved by everyone around her. She loved animals, and worked at a vet’s office. This passion for animals led her to a pet convention. She was 17. Paul Bernardo, 23, was there as well. The two met and had sex almost immediately, discovering their shared passion for sadomasochistic sexual acts, with Homolka willingly acting submissive to Bernardo. Bernardo, whose sexu

Kaspars Petrovs (born 1978) is a Latvian serial killer. He was convicted of the murder of thirteen elderly women by the Riga Regional Court on May 12, 2005 and sentenced to life in prison. He was also convicted of robbery and inflicting serious bodily injury. He had been charged with robbing and strangling 38 women between 2000 and 2003, but the Riga Regional Court said murder could only be proved in 13 of the cases. Many of the other women were initially thought to have died of natural cause

Kenneth Alessio Bianchi is an American serial killer,kidnapper and rapist. Known as the Hillside Strangler, worked with his cousin Angelo Buono to commit 15 rapes and murders. They went on a killing spree between October 1977 and January 1978, raping and murdering 15 victims in Los Angeles. The men posed as policemen and targeted prostitutes to begin with, moving on to middle-class women and girls. They usually left the bodies on the hillsides of the Glendale Highland Park area, earning the moni

Kenneth McDuff was an American serial killer suspected of at least 14 murders, and served time on death row from 1968 to 1972 and again in the 1990’s. Born on March 21, 1946, he was from central Texas and had three siblings. McDuff’s mother, Addie McDuff, was well known around her town as “the pistol packin’ momma” because of her habit of carrying a firearm and her violent tendencies. McDuff was known to shoot his .22 rifle at living creatures and was often getting into fights with boys older th

In death, the despicable acts of Larry Eyler were countered by one redeeming gesture-the confession through his court-appointed attorney that he had killed 21 boys and young men in the two states in the early 1980s, picking them up at random in gay bars or while they were hitchhiking and luring them to their deaths in a spree of rage. It is important to note that Eyler's saying he was the murderer does not necessarily make it so. Nevertheless, the revelations were not a surprise to authorities i

Li Wenxian was a Chinese serial killer who killed 13 female prostitutes inGuangzhou from 1991 to 1996. He was sentenced to death on December 18, 1996 and executed thereafter. Li's first victim was reportedly found on February 22, 1991 and was described as a woman in her early twenties. The genitals were carved out with a knife and the body showed signs of sexual intercourse. Five more murders occurred in the next six months. The victims were either stabbed or strangled, then dismembered, put in

Prosecutors say that while Lorenzo Gilyard was escaping detection as a serial killer for two decades, advances in DNA testing were being made that would eventually link him to seven women who were killed in Kansas City in 1986 and 1987. "The defendant wasn’t counting on the fact that science would catch up with him, but it did," said Ted Hunt, chief trial assistant, during closing arguments in the murder trial. "Twenty years later, a part of his own body is pointing a finger back at him." Six ot

Luis Alfredo Garavito was born on 25 January 1957 in Génova, Quindío, Colombia. He is the oldest of seven brothers, and apparently suffered physical and emotional abuse by his father. In his testimony, he described being a victim of sexual abuse when young. He is a Colombian rapist and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to the rape and murder of 140 young boys. The number of his victims, based on the locations of skeletons listed on maps that Garavito drew in prison, could eventually exceed 300

Manuel Octavio Bermúdez was born in Trujillo, Valle del Cauca, Colombia in 1961 and was orphaned after birth. He was adopted by an abusive mother who threw him off a balcony, breaking his hand and foot. This gave him a permanent limp. He was given to another family in the city of Palmira. His new parents were alcoholics and his father was described as abusive. Bermudez later had several kids of his own. Bermúdez raped and killed at least 21 children in several towns of Valle del Cauca from 1999

Marcelo Costa de Andrade, "The Vampire of Niterói", is a Brazilian serial killer convicted of raping and killing 14 boys. This mama’s boy and religious psychopath of inoffensive appearance is Brazil’s most notorious serial killer. The son of poor migrants from the Northeast, Marcelo grew up in the Rocinha slum in Rio de Janeiro. He lived without running water and was beaten with regularity by his grandfather, his stepfather and his stepmother. When he was 10 he was sexually abused. At 14 he bega

Marie Noe of Philadelphia married Arthur Noe, and the two seemed very happy together. The couple even decided to have children, starting in 1949. However, they seemed to be unlucky – ten children, all just over a year old, or younger, died. Of those ten, eight survived the birthing process, and every last one of those was said to have died of sudden infant death syndrome. The world began to wonder – what was happening to Marie Noe‘s children? However, in 1998, Marie Noe confessed something shock

Maury Troy Travis was an American serial killer who committed suicide in a St. Louis county jail, after being arrested for murder. Travis was named in a Federal criminal complaint for the murders of two women. At the time of the murders, Travis was a waiter and on parole for a robbery in 1989. While in his letter Travis claimed to have murdered 17 women, some authorities were doubtful, others thought he may have murdered up to 20 women. He sent a letter and a map to the press and has the dubious

Mohammed Bijeh was an Iranian serial killer. He confessed in court to raping and killing 16 young boys between March and September 2004, and was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8 and 15 years old. In addition, he killed two adults. On March 16, 2005, in Pakdasht, Iran, the town near the desert area where the killings occurred, in front of a crowd of about 5,000, Bijeh's shirt was removed and he was handcuffed to an iron post, where he received his lashing

Mohan Kumar, also known as Cyanide Mohan, is a serial killerwho preyed on women looking for marriage. A Mangalore fast track court tried and convicted him for the murder of 20 women. He was accused of luring women who were unable to pay dowry or were unable to find suitable husbands. He would kill them by giving them cyanide pills, claiming they were contraceptives, and rob them of their jewelry. He was charged with 20 murders and defended himself in court. He was sentenced to death in December

Moses Sithole was found guilty of 38 murders and 40 rapes in 1997. Born in South Africa on November 17, 1964, Moses Sithole is considered one of South Africa's worst serial killers. In 1997, Sithole was found guilty of 38 murders and 40 rapes. A significant number of Sithole's victims were never identified. Moses Sithole, one of five children, was born in Vosloorus, near Boksburg in the Transvaal Province of apartheid (now Gauteng), South Africa, on November 17, 1964, to Simon and Sophie Sith

Myra Hindley, born July 23rd, 1942, in England, was an English serial killer. When she was 15, one of her friends died; this led to her quitting school. In 1961, she met Ian Brady. Brady, recently released from prison, worked as a stock clerk when the two met. Brady had far too much influence over Hindley, who was madly in love with him. At first, Hindley wrote, “I hope he loves me, and will marry me some day.” Hindley later noticed that he was “cruel and selfish,” but added that she still “love

Patrick Wayne Kearney told investigators that he committed his first murder while living in Culver City in 1962. The Redondo Beach man ultimately would be convicted of 21 killings, all males, all between the ages of 5 and 28, but he may have killed dozens more. He claimed to have killed one victim a month starting in 1974. Kearney was born in East Los Angeles on Sept. 24, 1939. The bespectacled serial killer stood 5 foot 5 inches, and reportedly had an IQ of 180. He worked at Hughes Aircraft and

The Paturis Park murders are a series of 13 murders of gay men between February 2007 and August 2008. The murders took place in Paturis Park in Carapicuíba, Brazil and perpetrated by an unknown killer dubbed the Rainbow Maniac. São Paulo is the annual stage for the largest gay pride march on Earth and home to one of South America's most vibrant gay communities. But a wave of homophobic murders cast a shadow over one of the most tolerant cities in Latin America. The killer labelled the Rainbow Ma

Paul John Knowles, a.k.a. "Lester Daryl Gates" aka "Daryl Golden" was an American spree killer, also known as The Casanova Killer, tied to the deaths of 18 people in 1974, though he claimed to have taken 35 lives. Born in Orlando, Florida, his father gave him up to live in foster homes and reformatories after he was convicted of a petty crime. Knowles himself was first incarcerated at the age of 19, and in the years following he spent more time in prison. In 1974, he was granted parole and sough

Pedro Alonso López, accused of raping and killing more than 300 girls across his native country, then Peru and Ecuador, and possibly other countries. Aside from uncited local accounts, López’s crimes first received international attention from an interview conducted by Ron Laytner, a long time freelance photojournalist who reported interviewing López in his Ambato prison cell in 1980. By his mid-teens, Lopez had left school and returned to Colombia where he took to stealing cars. He ended up in