IF YOU BELIEVE
IN GOD
YOU MUST BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL
"The serial killer is your neighbor, he kills one by one while living a seemingly normal life in between murders"
Who are these creatures and what makes them kill? To be classified as a serial killer, the killer has to kill at least three people in separate murders with a cooling off period between each murder. Most serial killers tend to be straight white males in their twenties or thirties (80%). They have low self-esteem and failed relationships. They can look like the guy next door and live a perfectly normal life, that is with the exception of killing a dozen people or so . Their killings are usually part of an elaborate fantasy that builds to a climatic moment of murdering outburst. In general serial killers murder strangers with quiet periods between each crime. Their killings occur with less or greater frequency over time. Usually greater frequency. Many experiment with cannibalism, and necrophilia. Yuck! Some keep trophy-like body parts as mementos of their work. Serial killers are sadistic in nature. Some return to the crime scene or the grave site of their victims to fantasize about their deeds. Many like to participate in the investigation of their crimes and some enjoy taunting authorities with letters or carefully placed pieces of evidence. Although there may be a pattern or victim trait, the killings lack a clear motive making their crimes hard to solve.
Serial killers tend to prey on women and children of their same race. Prostitutes, drifters and hitchhikers
make for easy prey. Some gay killers enjoy hunting young boys and gay men. Female serial killers tend to be "black widows" who kill a succession of husbands, lovers, or other family members.
There have been several cases of women drifters who prayed upon the men who had
picked them up hitch hiking. Some women serial killers are nurses or other medical professionals who become
self appointed "angels of death" murdering babies, elderly, or the desperately ill in a misguided effort to relieve their suffering. Most serial killers grew up in violent households. As youngsters they enjoyed torturing animals, setting fires and were chronic
bed wetters. But some people are just born evil. As adults, many serial have some type of brain damage and are addicted
to alcohol and/or drugs.
To date, the FBI has studied more than one hundred serial killers.
Click on an image below to view a brief history of each killer
From 1976 to 1977 David Berkowitz stalked the streets of New York. The first killings occured on the night of July 29, 1976. Two women were shot in their parked car in the Bronx section of New York city. Through the year a total of thirteen people were attacked. Six dead, seven wounded, all gunshots. He used a .44-Caliber revolver, ironically (sarcasm) he was dubbed by the newspapers "The .44-Caliber Killer".
On the scene of one of the murders a note was found. The first lines read "I am the Son of Sam..."
A witness of one of the murders saw someone drive off in a car that had just been ticketed. By tracing the ticket the police were lead to Berkowitz. When picked up, the police found many guns and assorted explosive devices in the trunk of his car. Berkowitz had planned to go out in a blaze of glory, so to speak, he planned on destroying a Long Island disco by shooting everyone in the place, and eventually himself as well.
Berkowitz explained his nickname while in custody. The name Sam was the name of his neighbor who owned a black labrador. Berkowitz further explained that his neighbor was a demon and he gave the dog orders, the dog would then give Berkowitz his orders to kill.
The Picasso of the serial killing community. Ted was handsome, charming, intelligent, self-assured, with a brilliant future, and deadlier than a rattlesnake. Using his good looks, he was able to invisibly abduct and kill his victims and continue with his seemingly charmed life. From early 1974 to early 1978, the stranger called "Ted" stalked young women on college campuses, at shopping malls, in apartment buildings and grade schools in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.
This law student and Young Republican liked to wear an arm sling to appear vulnerable and get women to help him with his groceries. Once he lured his victims to the door of his car he would bludgeon them and take them away to privately enjoy their death. He favored killing pretty, dark-haired cheerleader types. He would attack his prey with blunt objects and was fond of raping and biting them. The bite marks on one of his victims were used as evidence against him at his trial in Florida.
As a teen, Bundy was shy and sensitive. At a Seattle crisis center, he counseled the depressed, the alcoholic, the suicidal. He graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Washington in 1972, designed a program for dealing with habitual criminals and wrote a pamphlet on rape for the King County crime commission.
Although no one knows for sure how many women Bundy killed, his first victim is believed to be Mary Adams, 18, whose battered body was found in her Seattle bedroom on January 4, 1974. In the next year and a half, police investigated several disappearances and killings of women in the West, some of them since linked to Bundy.
He was arrested in August 1975 and convicted in March 1976 of kidnapping Carol DaRonch in Utah. That fall, he was charged with killing a Michigan nurse in Aspen, Colorado. On December 30, 1977, after a previous failed attempt, Ted escaped from the Denver court house through a window while awaiting trial. He relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, near Florida State University where he perpetrated his blood-soaked "Guernica" of crime. In January 15, 1978, he set forth on a night of butchery and killed two girls, Margaret Bowmanand Lisa Levy, and wounded two others, Karen Chandler and Kathy Kleiner, in and around the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee.
Two weeks later, on February 9, he stole a van and killed 12-year-old Kimberly Leach who she abducted outside her school in Lake City, Florida, for which, eventually, he was fried. Poor Kimberly's body was found in a pig trough next to a plaid jacket that was not Ted's. She was buried in a cemetery near a Purina plant under a heart-shaped tombstone with her picture on it. Two weeks later, on February 15, Ted was arrested after he was spotted by David Lee, a Pensacola policeman, in the stolen VW van.
Ted defended himself in trials in Utah, Colorado and Florida as the police tried to put together a trail of dead girls leading to him. During his various trials, a very self-possessed Ted Bundy defended himself garnishing praise and a legion of female admirers. After 11 years of trials and appeals, then-Florida Gov. Bob Martinez signed the final death warrant against Bundy on Jan. 17, 1989. Ted Bundy was electrocuted on January 24, 1989 at Florida State Prison.
On the night before his execution, Bundy talked of suicide, recalled Bill Hagmaier, chief of the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes. "We had some discussions about morality and the taking of another life and his concerns about trying to explain to God about his actions," Hagmaier added. For his last meal he had steak, eggs, hash browns and coffee.
On September 20. 1999, Ted Bundy's mom held a news conference to say her son didn't commit his first murder at age 14; but the mother 8-year-old Ann Marie Burr of Tacoma believes he did. "I resent the fact that everybody in Tacoma thinks just because he lived in Tacoma he did that one too, way back when he was 14," said his mother Louise Bundy. However, Burrs and several investigators believe young Bundy stole Ann Burr from her bed on Aug. 31, 1961, and killed her.
Bundy denied involvement in Ann's death up until his
execution in Florida in 1989. In 1986, he wrote to the Burrs, saying, "I do
not know what happened to your daughter Ann Marie. I had nothing to do with her
disappearance. "You said she disappeared Aug. 31, 1961. At the time I was a
normal 14-year-old boy. I did not wander the streets late at night. I did not
steal cars. I had absolutely no desire to harm anyone. I was just an average
kid."
Milwaukee born in 1960, Jeffrey Dahmer moved to Ohio with his family at age six. In 1968, he was sexually molested by a neighbor boy in rural Bath Township. Unreported at the time, the childhood incident may play a pivitol role in understanding Dahmer's subsequent crimes.
At 10, Dahmer was "experimenting" with dead animals, decapitating rodents, bleaching chicken bones with acid, nailing a dog's carcass to a tree and mounting its severed head on a stake. In June 1978, Jeffrey crossed the line from morbid "experimentation" to murder. His victim was hitchhiker Steven Hicks, whom Jeffrey took home for a drink and some laughs. When Hicks tried to leave, Dahmer crushed his skull with a barbell, strangled him to death, then dismembered and buried his corpse. In 1982, he was moved into his grandmother's house in West Allis, Wisconsin. That August, he logged an arrest for indecent exposure at the state fair. Identical charges were filed in September 1986, when two boys accused Dahmer of masturbating in public. Convicted of disorderly conduct, he received a one-year suspended sentence with orders for counseling.
On September 15, 1987, Steven Tuomi vanished in Milwaukee, the mystery unsolved until Dahmer confessed his murder in 1991. James Doxator was the next to die, in January 1988, followed by Richard Guerrero on March 24. By September 1988, Jeffrey's odd hours and the stench of his "experiments" had become too much for his grandmother, and Dahmer was asked to move out. On September 25, he found an apartment on Milwaukee's North 25th Street.
The next day, Dahmer lured a Laotion boy to his flat, fondled him, and offered cash for a nude modeling session. Police were called, and Dahmer was charged with sexual assault. Convicted in January 1989, he remained free pending a formal sentencing scheduled for May. Meanwhile, on March 25, Dahmer slaughtered victim Anthony Sears. Sentenced to one year in jail, Dahmer was released after 10 months. The death parade resumed with Edward Smith, in June 1990.July's victim was Raymond Smith. Ernest Miller and David Thomas were butchered in September. Dahmer bagged Curtis Straughter in February. Errol Lindsey joined the list in April, followed by Anthony Hughes in May. Konerak Sinthasomphone was the brother of the youth Dahmer molested in 1988. Missing on May 26, 1991, he was next seen the following day, naked, dazed and bleeding, when neighbors reported his plight to the police. Officers questioned Dahmer, who described the boy as his adult homosexual lover, and since Konerak spoke no English, they returned the youth to Dahmer's custody.... and to his death.
The juggernaut rolled on: Matt Turner killed on June 30; Jeremiah Weinberger on July 7; eight days later, Oliver Lacy; Joseph Brandehoft on July 19. Tracy Edwards was lucky, escaping on July 22, with handcuffs still dangling from one wrist. He flagged a squad car down and led the officers to Dahmer's home, where the dissected remains of 11 victims were found in acid vats and the refrigerator. By August 22, Dahmer was charged with a total of 15 murders. Dahmer filed a plea of not guilty by reasons of insanity, but was judged legally sane and convicted of multiple charges of homicide in 1991. On November 28, 1994 he died after an attack in prison by another inmate, Christopher Scarver, who claimed he did so on orders from God.
Straight out of the he's-such-a-nice-guy file, Johnny was the type of man who liked to dress in a homemade Pogo the Clown outfit to entertain kids. A lonely and sadistic contractor, Johnny also liked to entertain young boys privately in a very different fashion. The prototypical organized killer, he had all aspects of the murder worked out before each kill. Once he entered his murderous fantasy, there was no turning back.
He enjoyed handcuffing his victims, anally raping them, beating them to a pulp, offering to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, reciting verses from the Bible and strangling them to death. In 1978 he was tracked down by the police in Chicago. Thirty bodies were found buried in the crawl space underneath his house, explaining his wife's complaints about the constant stench. As a prisoner, Johnny Boy started a new career as an artist, painting mostly colorful clown pictures, which have been shown in galleries nationwide. He was executed by lethal injection in 1994.
On November 11, 1998, the Chicago Tribune reported that police, acting on a tip from a former detective, were searching for human remains in a parking lot behind Gacy's mother's house. Authorities believe there could be as many as four bodies buried 3 1/2 feet deep. Former Detective Bill Dorsch, now a private investigator, told prosecutors of a night in 1975 when he found Gacy holding a dirty shovel next to the alley where the new search is proposed. "I stopped and said, 'John, what are you doing out here at this time of night with a shovel?"' Dorsch said. Gacy replied: "Well, with all the kind of work I do, there just isn't enough time in the day. So here I am."
Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole
(6-200+) The Tag Team from Hell: the Sadist King and the Generalissimo of Pain. The numbers speak for themselves. As a kid, Henry was the poster child of the "Future Serial Killer Club." His alcoholic father, called "No Legs" because of a chance encounter with a freight train, killed himself after repeatedly being humiliated by his abusive wife. When little Henry sliced an eye while playing with a knife with his brother, his bootlegging, prostitute mother -- Viola Lucas -- left his gashed orb unattended for days until it eventually withered and had to be removed by a doctor. Once mom beat him so severely with a piece of wood that he lay in a semi-conscious state for three days before Viola's boyfriend decide to take him to a local hospital. Another time, she cruelly decided to send Hank to school in a dress and with his hair curled.
Years later, in a drunken binge, Henry stuck a knife in his mother's back and proceeded to rape her dead corpse. Later, like on many other occasions, he recanted his act of inscestuous necrophilia. He got 40 years for matricide, but was out after 10. Free again, Henry launched his stellar career as the nation's most notorious random killer.
In 1976, after a chance meeting in a Jacksonville soup kitchen, he joined up with a part-time transvestite and deeply psychotic retard, Ottis Toole, to carry out numerous homicidal escapades. Ottis had a taste for human flesh and had many of his victims for dinner. Henry, however, was not a cannibal because, he said, he disliked the taste of Ottis' barbecue sauce. He was more of a sadist and a necrophile, preferring sex with mutilated bodies and live or dead animals.
The consummate killer couple, they enjoyed picking up hitchhikers to satisfy their lust for blood. Sometimes, when they didn't want to go through the hassle of killing and disposing of their prey, they would just run over the occasional hitchhiker and continue on their merry way. These lethal lovebirds parted ways after Ottis' niece, Becky Powell, shacked up with Henry at the age of seven. The unfortunate lassie was found at the age of fifteen dismembered, stuffed in pillowcases and strewn over a field.
After his arrest, Lucas toured the country as a star killer uncovering evidence of his handiwork for local police departments. In 1985, Dallas Times-Herald journalist, Hugh Aynesworth, claimed their reign of terror was a hoax and that overzealous detectives fed the would-be killers many details of their crimes. Henry and Ottis confessed to more than 600 killings in 26 states. Henry even claimed to have carried the poison to Guyana as a favor to his good friend Jim Jones.
Many investigators still believe that Lucas -- a fifth-grade dropout -- was responsible for just a couple of murders and the real criminals were the officers who fed him information on unresolved cases and coerced confessions. Serial killer expert Robert Ressler believes Henry might be responsible for as little as five killings. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
To many investigators' surprise one of Henry's earliest alleged victims, a Virginia schoolteacher, was found alive and kicking as he was charged with her murder. Not one to hold back his most outrageous boasts, he claimed to have committed murders in Spain and Japan eventhough there's no evidence suggesting he ever left the United States.
Some of the crimes, he said, were committed under orders from the Satanic cult, the "Hand of Death." After confessing to over 300 hits, Hank recanted it all only to confess again when he became born-agai. As he awaits execution on Death Row in Texas, Hank still mentions bits and pieces of evidence linking him to numerous killings in 18 states.
Meanwhile back in Florida, Ottis was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and his death sentence was commuted to six consecutive life termss. In prison Ottis confessed and later recanted killing 6-year-old Adam Walsh, whose 1981 disappearance outside a Hollywood, Florida, mall set off a nationwide manhunt and launched the TV career of his father, John Walsh, as the creator and host of the Fox television series "America's Most Wanted."
On September 15, 1996, Ottis died in a prison hospital of liver failure. Walsh, who repeatedly criticized the police handling of his son's case, questioned why investigators did not try to interview Toole on his deathbed or try for another confession. Speaking from prison after Ottis' death, Lucas said Toole killed Adam and later showed him the remains of the boy in a shallow grave. "I got sick about it. I said let's get the hell out of here."
On March 31, 1998, Texas State District Judge John Carter set June 30 as the execution date for Henry Lee. Although his many confessions, he was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a female hitchhiker known as "Orange Socks" for the only item of clothing left on her body. During many of his detractions Lucas claimed that he was working as a roofer in Florida when the hitchhiker was killed. No execution date had been set for Lucas until now. He was granted a stay in September 1995 so his claims of false confessions could be investigated. The stay was lifted a year later.
On June 27, 1998 Governor George W. Bush spared Henry's life because of overwhelming evidence proving that Henry was not in Texas when "Orange Socks" was murdered. Although Lucas confessed to killing her, work records and a cashed paycheck indicated he was in Florida at the time of the murder. Bush issued the reprieve on the recommendation of the state parole board. "I can only thank them for believing the truth and having guts enough for standing up for what's right," Lucas said from death row.
"Henry Lee Lucas is unquestionably guilty of other despicable crimes which he has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison," said Bush, in Brownsville for a conference of U.S.-Mexico border state governors. "However, I believe there is enough doubt about this particular crime that the state of Texas should not impose its ultimate penalty by executing him."
Born "no name Maddox" in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 12, 1934, Manson was the illegitimate son of Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old prostitute. His surname was derived from one of Kathleen's many lovers, whom she briefly married, but it signified no blood connection. During 1936, Kathleen filed a paternity suit against one "Colonel Scott," of Ashland, Kentucky, winning the grand monthly sum of five dollars for the support of "Charles Milles Manson." Scott instantly defaulted on the judgment, and he died in 1954, without acknowledging his son. In 1939, Kathleen and her brother were sentenced to five years in prison for robbing a West Virginia gas station. Charles was packed off to live with a strictly religious aunt and her sadistic husband, who constantly berated the boy as a "sissy," dressing him in girl's clothing for his first day of school in an effort to help Manson "act like a man." Paroled in 1942, Maddox reclaimed her son, but she was clearly unsuited to motherhood. An alcoholic tramp who brought home lovers of both sexes, Kathleen frequently left Charles with neighbors "for an hour," then disappeared for days or weeks on end, leaving relatives to track the boy down. On one occasion, she reportedly gave Charles to a barmaid, in payment for a pitcher of beer.
By 1947, Kathleen was seeking a foster home for her son, but none was available. Charles wound up in the Gibault School for Boys, in Terre Haute, Indiana, but fled after ten months, rejoining his mother. She still didn't want him, and so Manson took to living on the streets, making his way by theft. Arrested in Indiana, he escaped from the local juvenile center after one day's confinement. Recaptured and sent to Father Flanagan's Boy's Town, he lasted four days before his next escape, fleeing in a stolen car to visit relatives in Illinois. He pulled more robberies en route and on arrival, leading to another bust at age 13. Confined for three years in a reform school at Plainfield, Indiana, Manson recalls sadistic abuse by older boys and guards alike. If we may trust his memory, at least one guard incited other boys to rape and torture Manson, while the officer stood by and masturbated on the sidelines.
In February 1951, Manson and two other inmates escaped from the Plainfield "school," fleeing westward in a series of stolen cars. Arrested in Beaver, Utah, Manson was sentenced to federal time for driving hot cars across state lines. Starting off in a minimum-security establishment, Manson assaulted another inmate in January 1952, holding a razor blade to the boy's throat and sodomizing him. Reclassified as "dangerous," Manson was transferred to a tougher lockup, logging eight major disciplinary infractions including three homosexual assaults - by August 1952. He was moved to the Chilicothe, Ohio, reformatory a month later, and suddenly turned over a new leaf, becoming a "model" prisoner almost overnight. The cunning act was rewarded by parole in May 1954.
Arrested a second time for driving hot cars interstate, in September 1955, Manson got off easy with five years probation. He celebrated by skipping a court date in Florida, on pending charges of auto theft, and his probation was promptly revoked. Picked up in Indianapolis on March 14, 1956, he was sent to the federal prison at Terminal Island, California, winning parole on September 30, 1958. Seven months later, on May 1, 1959, he was jailed in Los Angeles, on charges of forging and cashing stolen U.S. Treasury checks. Once more, he escaped with probation, swiftly revoked with his April 1960 arrest for pimping and transporting whores interstate. Entering the lock-up at McNeil Island, Manson listed his religion as "Scientologist"; his IQ was tested at 121. Paroled on March 21, 1967, over his own objections, Manson was drawn to San Francisco and the teeming Haight-Ashbury district. It was the "Summer of Love," when thousands of young people flocked to the banner of drugs and "flower power," heeding Timothy Leary's advice to "tune in, turn on, drop out." The streets and crashpads overflowed with teenage runaways and drifters, seeking insight on the world and on themselves. Behind the scenes, a minor army of manipulators - gurus, outlaw bikers, pushers, pimps and Satanists -- stood ready to squeeze a grim profit from the Age of Aquarius.
In San Francisco, Manson displayed a surprising charisma, attracting young drop-outs of both sexes, drawn from all strata of white society. Some, like Mary Brunner, were college graduates. Others, like Susan Atkins and Robert Beausoleil, were involved with Satanic cults. Most were hopelessly confused about their lives, adopting Manson as a combination mentor, father-figure, lover, Christ incarnate, and the self-styled "God of Fuck." They drifted up and down the state in fluctuating numbers, with the "family" topping fifty members at its peak. From Mendocino and the Haight to Hollywood, Los Angeles, Death Valley, Manson's nomads followed their leader as the Summer of Love became a nightmare. Along the way, they rubbed shoulders with the Church of Satan, the Process Church of Final Judgment (worshipping Satan, Lucifer and Jehovah simultaneously), the Circe Order of Dog Blood, and -- some say -- the homicidal "Four Pi Movement." Manson grew obsessed with death and "Helter Skelter," his interpretation of a Beatles song predicting race war in America. In Manson's view, once "blackie" had been driven to the point of violence, helpless whites would be annihilated, leaving Manson and his family to rule the roost. On October 13, 1968, two women were found beaten and strangled to death near Ukiah, California. One, Nancy Warren, was the pregnant wife of a highway patrol officer. The other victim, Clida Delaney, was Warren's 64-year-old grandmother. The murders were ritualistic in nature, with 36 leather thongs wrapped around each victim's throat, and several members of the Manson "family" -- including two later convicted of unrelated murders - were visiting Ukiah at the time.
Two months later, on December 30, 17-year-old Marina Habe was abducted outside her West Hollywood home, her body recovered on New Year's Day, with multiple stab wounds in the neck and chest. Investigators learned that Habe was friendly with various "family" members, and police believe her ties with the Manson group led directly to her death. On May 27, 1969, 64-year-old Darwin Scott - the brother of Manson's alleged father - was hacked to death in his Ashland, Kentucky, apartment, pinned to the floor by a long butcher knife. Manson was out of touch with his California parole officer between May 22 and June 18, 1969, and an unidentified "LSD preacher from California" set up shop with several young women, in nearby Huntington, around the same time.
On July 17, 1969, 16-year-old Mark Walts disappeared while hitchhiking from Chatsworth, California, to the pier at Santa Monica, to do some fishing. His battered body, shot three times and possibly run over by a car, was found next morning in Topanga Canyon. Walts was a frequent visitor to Manson's commune at the Spahn movie ranch, and the dead boy's brother publicly accused Manson of the murder, though no charges were filed. Around the time of Walts' death, a "Jane Doe" corpse was discovered near Castaic, northeast of the Spahn ranch, tentatively identified from articles of clothing as Susan Scott, a "family" member once arrested with a group of Manson girls in Mendocino. Scott was living at the ranch when she dropped out of sight, and while the Castaic corpse remains technically unidentified, Susan has not been seen again. In the month between July 27 and August 26, 1969, Manson's tribe slaughtered at least nine persons in Southern California. Musician Gary Hinman was the first to die, hacked to death in retaliation for a drug deal gone sour, "political" graffiti scrawled at the scene in his blood, as Manson tried to blame the crime on "blackie." On August 9, a Manson hit team raided the home of movie director Roman Polanski, slaughtering Polanski's wife - pregnant actress Sharon Tate - and four of her guests: Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, and Steven Parent. The following night, Manson's "creepy crawlers" killed and mutilated another couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, in their Los Angeles home.
An atmosphere of general panic gripped affluent L.A., the grisly crimes demonstrating that no one was safe. On August 16, sheriff's deputies raided the Spahn ranch, arresting Manson and company on various drug related charges, but Charles was back on the street by August 26. That night, he directed the murder and dismemberment of movie stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea, a hanger-on who "knew too much" and was suspected of discussing family business with police.
Ironically, Manson's downfall came about through a relatively petty crime. On the night of September 18-19, 1969, members of the family burned a piece of road grading equipment that was "obstructing" one of their desert dune buggy routes. Arson investigators traced the evidence to Manson, and he was arrested again on October 12. A day later, Susan Atkins was picked up in Ontario, California, and she soon confided details of the Tate-LaBianca murders to cellmates in Los Angeles. Sweeping indictments followed, but even Manson's; removal from circulation could not halt the violence.
On November 5, 1969, family member John Haught - alias "Zero" -was shot and killed while "playing Russian roulette" in Venice, California. Eleven days later, another "Jane Doe" - tentatively identified as family associate Sherry Cooper - was found near the site where Marina Habe's body had been discovered in 1968. On November 21, Scientologists James Sharp, 15, and Doreen Gaul, 19, were found dead in a Los Angeles alley, stabbed more than 50 times each with al long-bladed knife. Investigators learned that Gaul had been a girlfriend of Bruce Davis, a family member subsequently convicted of first-degree murder in L.A. And Manson's arm was long. Joel Pugh, husband of Mansonite Sandra Good, flew to London in late 1968, accompanied by Bruce Davis. Their mission included the sale of some rare coins and the establishment off connections with Satanic orders in Britain. Davis returned to the United States in April 1969, but Pugh lingered on, and his body was found in a London hotel room on December 1, his throat slit with razor blades, his blood used to inscribe "backwards writing" and "comic book drawings" on a nearby mirror. Charged with the seven Tate-LaBianca murders, Manson and three of his female disciples - Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten went to trial in June 1970. The defense rested its case on November 19, and attorney Ronald Hughes disappeared eight days later, after he was driven to Sespe Hot Springs by two family associates called "James" and "Lauren." The lawyer's decomposing corpse was found in Sespe Creek five months later, around the time Manson's death sentence was announced, and positive identification was confirmed through dental X-rays.
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi believes that he has traced the fate of "James" and "Lauren," suspected of guilty knowledge in Hughes's death. On November 8, 1972, hikers found the body of 26-year-old James Willett, shotgunned and decapitated, in a shallow grave near Guerneville, California. Three days later, Willett's station wagon was spotted outside a house in Stockton, and police arrested two members of the Aryan Brotherhood inside, along with three Manson women. Lauren Willett, wife of James, was buried in the basement, and an initial tale of "Russian roulette" was dropped in April 1973, when four of the suspects pled guilty to murder charges.
Meanwhile, the Manson trials continued in Los Angeles. Trigger man Charles "Tex" Watson was convicted and sentenced to die for the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1971. During August of that year, six family members - including original disciple Mary Brunner - tried to steal 140 weapons from a Hawthorne gunshop, planning to break Manson out of jail, but they were captured in a shootout with police. All were subsequently convicted, and Brunner was also sentenced for participation in the Hinman murder. Robert Beausoleil and Susan Atkins picked up additional death sentences for that slaying, while Manson, Bruce Davis, and Steve Grogan were convicted in both the Hinman and Shea murders. Various death sentences were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, and all of the family hackers are now technically eligible for parole. In Manson's absence, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme held the family reins, corresponding with Charlie in prison and spreading his gospel on the streets, forging new alliances with sundry cults and racist groups. In September 1975, she tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford, but her pistol misfired, and Squeaky was sentenced to life imprisonment. Family remnants survive to the present day, and members have been linked with groups promoting child pornography and sexual abuse, as well as rumored human sacrifice.
Richard Leyva Ramirez, was born in 1960 in El Paso, Texas. He had a mother and father who lived with him as well as six siblings. Like so many other serial killers, his crimes started early in life and they ranged from drug abuse to robbery. He was clearly a troubled teen, but it is not obvious as to what troubled him so. Richard was brought up strictly in the Catholic faith, but by the age of nine he was already a loner, a haunter of video game arcades, and a glue sniffer.
From glue he soon graduated to marijuana, hanging out with a few kids who regularly stole to pay for their dope, breaking into houses in the richer parts of El Paso. He was a truant for most of his time at Jefferson High School, finally dropping out at the age of 17. As one of his teachers said: "He didn't give a damn about anything. He hit the dope pretty hard and was heavily into rock 'n' roll."
During his rampage 1984-1985, Ramirez broke into homes indiscriminately. Men were shot or stabbed to death as they slept. The women were beaten, raped and sexually abused, regardless of age: most were then murdered by strangulation, stabbing or shooting. Their children were either sexually assaulted in their homes or abducted, to be raped or sodomised before being turned loose on the streets. By the time he'd been captured, he'd killed at least fourteen and raped dozens more.
Ramirez was unlike any of the serial killers which had previously been studied. He was hard to categorize because many of his crimes were so different in nature; he varied his methods vastly many times. His victim selection was not specific. Because of these consistent variations, it took law enforcement quite a bit of time to realise they had a serial killer at large. From a "profiling" point of view, especially at the time, he was hard to figure. He killed many, many victims in a short period of time, which makes him stand out in itself. People tend to look at the number of victims killed, and not at the time frame that it took for the murderes to happen. Ramirez killed victims at an alarming rate, even in serial killer standards.
The date was 17 March 1985. Just before midnight, Maria Hernandez drove her car into the garage of the apartment in the suburb of Rosemead, Los Angeles, she shared with Dayle Okazaki. As she left the garage she heard a sound behind her and, turning saw a man dressed in black pointing a gun at her. "Don't shoot," she begged him, raising her hand; he fired, but the bullet was deflected by the car keys she was holding. As she was thrown backwards to the ground by the impact, her attacker kicked savagely and stepped over her body into the apartment's rear entrance. Still in shock, Maria dragged herself to her feet and staggered towards the front of the building. There was a sound of a second shot, and she found herself confronted again by the gunman as he ran from the apartment, Dayle Okazaki lay dead, a bullet through the head. Maria was able to give the police a description of the killer: he was thin, with dark curley hair, staring eyes and a mouth full of rotting teeth. Police also found a baseball cap with the logo of a well-known heavy metal band at the scene of the crime. At the time it was thought to have been a burglary which had gone wrong, but as similar attacks began to occur with greater frequency, police realised that there was a serial killer on the loose.
In the summer of 1985 the LA police believed that they were close to identifying a person thought to be responsible for 14 deaths as well as rape, child abuse, brutal assault and robbery. They had evidence to link many of these previous crimes, and hoped to keep their investigation under wraps; but when the prowler struck twice within three days, they were forced to make a public announcment. The newspapers were quick to dub the killer the "Night Stalker" and, as terrified citizens locked their doors and dozed uneasily in their beds, the hunt was on.
Recognised in a liquor store, he was chased and captured by an angry mob of LA citizens on 31 August, 1985. When Ramirez was arrested, the police feared that the Hispanic community of LA would lynch him. While he was held in a cell at Hollenbeck police station, a crowd of more than 600 gathered outside, shouting "Hang him!", and the streets were packed as they took him to the county jail. There he boasted "I love to kill people. I love watching them die. I would shoot them in the head and they would wriggle and squirm all over the place, and then stop. Or I would cut them with a bread knife and watch their faces turn real white. I love all that blood. I told one lady one time to give me all her money. She said no. So I cut her, and pulled her eyes out."
It is not clear wether Ramirez was genuinely a satanist, even though he left black magic symbols at a number of his killings.
On 20 September 1989, Ramirez was found guilty of 13 murders and 30 other felonies. Led from the court in chains, he made the sign of the devil's horns with his hand, and told reporters: "Big deal. Death comes with the territory. I'll see you in Disneyland". Sentenced to die in the gas chamber, he is currently on Death Row in San Quentin.
On October 3, 1996, Richard Ramirez got married to Doreen Lioy, in a simple and tasteful ceremony in San Quentin's waiting room. Lioy, a free-lance editor who works part-time for teen magazines, lives in a houseboat, has bachelor's degree in English literature, and is said to have an IQ of 152. She doesn't smoke or curse and claims to still be a virgin.
"There is no known perversion that Albert Fish did not practice," wrote the prison psychiatrist who interviewed 66-year-old Albert Fish in 1934. A housepainter and father of six children, Fish also happened to be a multiple killer, child molester, and cannibal. Claiming to have attacked over 100 children. This he revealed in a confession so shocking that even the prosecuting attorneys were loath to read it aloud in court.
Albert fish had been born in Washington, DC, his father, a riverboat captain, was seventy-five at the time. Various members of the family had mental problems and one suffered from religious mania. One brother was fibble-minded and another an alcoholic. His father died when Fish was five years old, and he was placed in an orphanage, from which he regulary ran away.
When he was 49 years old, his wife left him for another man. After that, Fish's personality steadily deteriorated while his behavior became increasingly bizarre, and finally murderous. His victims were children who were deceived into his clutches by his friendly manner and grandfatherly appearance. A vicious sadist who performed unspeakable tortures on young victims. Fish also a masochist who forced his own children to beat him. He also liked to collect news clippings on latter-day cannibals like Fritz Haarmann, otherwise known as "The Hanover Vampire."
In 1928, Fish indulged his taste for human flesh on a 12-year-old girl named Grace Budd. She was the daughter of parents who knew and trusted Fish. When fish offered to take her to a party for children, they let him do so without any misgivings. Instead of a party, Fish took Grace to his cottage in Westchester county, New York. Stripping himself naked, Fish strangled the child, and then beheaded and dismembered her with a meat cleaver. He then cooked her body parts into a stew seasoned with onions and carrots. Albert Fish then consumed this grisly repast down to the last awful morsel, then he vanished.
Several years later, Grace's parents recieved a letter from fish, telling them exactly what he had done to their little girl. The letter he had sent to the girl's parents was traced back to a rented room in Manhattan. Fish was apprehended and brought to trial soon after. The jury discounted his insanity plea and sentenced him to death by electric chair.
A routine X-ray revealed 29 seperate needles inserted around his groin, several were large sailmaker's needles, which were endangering his bladder and vital organs. Fish confessed that he had been inserting and removing needles for years. He also liked sticking needles into his child victims. He always seemed to enjoy inflicting pain, even soaking bits of cotton wool, saturating them with alcohol, inserting them in his rectum and setting fire to them.
He was executed on January 16, 1936. In New York's Sing Sing. While waiting to be executed, in his final minutes, he remarked that this was "the supreme thrill, the only one I haven't tried." He even help the executioner to attach the electrodes to his leg.
In his own words "I learned to like the taste of human flesh many years ago during a famine in China. It is something like veal. Little girls have more flavour than little boys."
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