Serial killers have always captured the attention of society.
However, curiosity is rising due to the almost continual publication of movies, television shows, documentaries, and podcasts exploring the most heinous crimes committed in our society over the previous 50 or so years.
Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, a Netflix series, has most recently had true crime fans enthralled, and they are curious to know more about serial killers and how they get along with their criminal minds and ways.
Here we have compiled the list of the most notorious serial killers in the USA.
Harold Shipman – Doctor Death
By the number of victims, Dr. Shipman (Harold Shipman), a British general practitioner from Nottingham, is regarded as one of the deadliest serial killers in contemporary history.Â
Police believe 250 people died while in his care between 1975 and 1998, notwithstanding his conviction for 15 murders. He committed suicide in the cell by hanging himself in 2004.
Richard Ramirez- The Night Stalker
Between 1984 and 1985, American serial killer, r*pist, and burglar Richard Ramirez terrorized residents of California, especially Los Angeles, before being eventually apprehended by the police authorities.
After being tried on 43 counts, including 13 murders, the vicious criminal, also known as Night Stalker, was ultimately found guilty and given the death penalty.
He passed away from cancer while being executed.
H.H. Holmes
Although H.H. Holmes, an American serial murderer, admitted to 27 killings and said that he may have killed almost 200 people, he was nonetheless given the death penalty for the murder of his partner Benjamin Pitezel.
In order to accomplish this, he built a hotel that would later become known as the Murder Castle. He influenced a bestseller book.
Edmund Kemper
At age 15, Edmund Kemper, who is 6 feet 9 inches tall and has an IQ of 145, murdered his grandparents.
He went on a murdering spree after spending several years in an institution with utmost security.
In the end, he murdered his mother, her best friend, and a number of college classmates, for which he asked the court for the death penalty. In contrast, he was given eight life sentences.
Fred West
Between 1967 and 1987, an English serial killer killed at least twelve people in Gloucestershire, most often alongside his second wife, Rose West.
All of the victims were teenagers.
At least eight of these killings comprised r*pe, bondage, torture, and mutilation; the dismembered bodies of the victims were frequently buried in the garden or cellar of the Gloucester home of the Wests, which came to be known as the House of Horrors.
His wife, Rose West, also killed her stepdaughter, Charmaine. In 1994, the couple was detained and charged.
Charles Cullen
American serial killer Charles Cullen admitted to killing up to 40 victims over the course of his 16-year nursing career in New Jersey.
However, it became clear that he had killed many more people during later interviews with police, psychiatrists, and media.
He did not recall them by name explicitly, but he frequently remembered the specifics of their killings.
According to experts ‘ estimates, Cullen may have killed 400 people in total, making him the most prolific serial killer in history.
The number of his victims is 29. Judge Armstrong in New Jersey sentenced Cullen to eleven consecutive life terms on March 2, 2006; he won’t be able to apply for parole until 2388.
Jack, The Ripper
He was an Unknown serial killer active in 1888 in the poor neighborhoods near Whitechapel in London’s East End.
Attacks attributed to Jack the Ripper frequently involved East End of London slum-dwelling female prostitutes.
Jack the Ripper‘s name, was first used in a letter published in the media and claimed to be authored by the murderer.
It is believed that the letter was created by the journalist, just a hoax, to attract public interest in the subject and boost the readership of their publications.
Half of a preserved human kidney, allegedly stolen from one of the victims, was enclosed in the From Hell letter that George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee received.
Due mainly to the unusually violent killings and extensive media coverage of crimes, the people began to believe more and more in a single serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
Ted Bundy
In the middle and late 1970s, an American serial murderer named Ted Bundy abducted, r*ped, and killed a number of women and girls.
He eventually admitted to his crimes and received an electric chair death sentence.
Later, a number of books and films were inspired by the life of one of the most renowned criminals of the late 20th century.
John Wayne Gacy- The Clown Killer
Between 1972 and 1978, John Wayne Gacy is known to have killed at least 33 adolescent boys and young men, 26 of whom he buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home.
Because he frequently amused children at social functions while dressed in a self-made clown costume, he was known as the “Killer Clown.” injected with a fatal dose in 1994.
Jeffrey Dahmer- The Milwaukee Cannibal
Jeffrey Dahmer, one of the most renowned serial killers ever found guilty in America, tormented the Milwaukee area in the 1980s.
He specifically targeted young men and boys, luring them to his home under false pretenses, then torturing and killing them.
He was finally detained in the early 1990s and murdered in 1994 by another prisoner.
Gary Ridgway- The Green River Killer
Gary Ridgway was found guilty of killing 49 women as part of a serial killing spree by transporting them to isolated locales, strangling them, and then dumping their corpses in the Green River.
The cops caught him with the use of DNA technology. He also served in the Vietnam War.
Samuel Little
One of the most active murders in American history was the serial killer Samuel Little.
Little admitted to killing 93 people in 19 states between 1970 and 2005 after going unnoticed for decades.
In 2019, the FBI said that 50 entries had been verified by law enforcement; the majority of his victims were young Black women who were marginalized.
When Little was apprehended in 2012 in a Louisville, Kentucky, homeless shelter on a drug charge and extradited to California, Los Angeles police were able to prosecute him for the murders of three women in the late 1980s after connecting him to DNA evidence discovered at the crime scenes.
Aileen Wuornos
The American serial killer Aileen Wuornos robbed seven of her male clients while indulging in street p*ostitution along Florida’s highways in 1989–1990.
Wuornos asserted that all of the homicides were done in self-defense because her clients had either r*ped her or tried to do so.
For six of the murders, Wuornos received a death sentence, and on October 9, 2002, after spending 12 years on Florida’s execution row, she was put to death.
Belle Gunness
As we go back in time, we encounter the so-called Lady Bluebeard.
Belle Gunness immigrated to the US from Norway in 1881 and settled in Chicago. She married a man there, but she later killed him.
She was given money from her insurance coverage in addition to walking free after no proof was discovered, allowing her to purchase a farm in Indiana.
She got remarried there but also killed her second husband.
Again, the police turned up no evidence. She then began running newspaper advertising in quest of a husband.
Several guys came to her farm, but she killed them all.
Only one made it out alive and lived to tell the tale. Despite the fact that her farm caught fire and she allegedly perished in it, she was never apprehended.
The remnants contained several of her victims’ bodies.
Nikko Jenkins
There are more than 3000 people on death row in America, along with serial killers. Nikko Jenkins is the one who went on a killing spree and killed four individuals among them.
Jenkins’ story is unusual in part due to how early he began his criminal career and the justification he gives for it.
The convicted killer asserts that he murdered four people—three men and a woman—as a sacrifice for the serpent god Apophis or Apep in ancient Egypt.
The most bizarre aspect of this tale is the assertion made by a woman by the name of Dawn Arguello that she and the murderer have fallen in genuine love.
Elizabeth Bathory
Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian countess, is suspected of murdering hundreds of young girls in the early 17th century.
She was imprisoned in her Castle mansion until her death in 1610 after being charged with horrifying serial killings.
Bathory reportedly murdered at least 600 people, setting a Guinness World Record for the most female murderers.
Her deeds earned her the moniker Blood Countess, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula might have drawn inspiration from her.
Bathory may not have committed all the crimes that have been attributed to her. Still, she was charged with a harrowing list of crimes committed against minor noblewomen who came to her for instruction and training and female servants.
Final Verdict
Mainly when numerous victims or murders are carried out in a gory manner, the media and the public consciousness frequently focus on the crimes of serial killers.
The number of victims, followed by potential victims, is listed for every known serial killer from the 20th century to the present.
The precise number of victims attributed to serial killers is frequently unknown, and even if they are found guilty of a small number of murders, it is still possible that they committed many more.