America is famous for the stars and stripes, apple pie, baseball, cowboys, blue jeans, hot dogs, McDonald's, Hollywood, the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Mickey Mouse, and serial killers. For hundreds of years, the public has had a morbid fascination with psychopathic murderers, but in 1966, Truman Capote basically invented the true crime genre by documenting Kansas' Clutter Family murders in his book, In Cold Blood.
Yes, all the usual suspects, like Bundy, Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, The Hillside Stranglers, The Night Stalker, and The Zodiac Killer all appear, but you may not know the murderers who take our top three spots.
So, from The Alphabet Killer to The Zodiac Killer, welcome to the A to Z of America's worst serial killers, or should that be best serial killers? That one has always confused me. Surely the worst serial killers are people who’ve killed no one. And why do all these killers like breakfast cereal so much?
40. THE PHANTOM KILLER
The unidentified Phantom Killer terrorized Texarkana – the area that straddles the border between Texas and Arkansas – in the spring of 1946. He targeted couples in parked cars along lovers lanes, shooting and killing five people, and sparking widespread fear and massive manhunts involving local police, state rangers, and the FBI. The prime suspect was career criminal Youell Swinney, but his wife refused to testify against him.
The Texarkana Moonlight Murders inspired the wonderfully named 1976 film The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The murders stopped as suddenly as they began, leaving the case unsolved for 80 years. Unless he lived to over 100, The Phantom Killer is long dead! Listen to the podcast here.
39. JOHN NORMAN COLLINS, THE CO-ED KILLER
John Norman Collins, aka The Co-Ed Killer, terrorized the college towns of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan, between 1967 and 1969, killing seven young women and girls aged 13 to 21. He abducted, raped, and bludgeoned them before dumping their bodies in Washtenaw County. The killing spree became known as The Michigan Murders.
The former Eastern Michigan University psychology student’s methodical approach and ability to blend into campus life made it near-impossible for the authorities to catch him. However, he was arrested in July 1969, just one week after he murdered his final victim, Karen Sue Beineman.
Collins was caught after his uncle, State Police Sergeant David Leik, scraped away fresh paint to discover human blood in his home where his nephew had been feeding his dog. He was convicted in 1970 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, where he remains to this day.
38. WILLIAM BONIN, THE FREEWAY KILLER
Known as The Freeway Killer, William George Bonin began attacking men and boys while serving in Vietnam. Upon his return in 1968, he told his mother he had raped a 14-year-old boy in Arcadia, California. She reported her son to the police, who could have stopped him from becoming a killer.
Bonin murdered 21 young men and boys in Southern California between 1979 and 1980. He and four known accomplices picked up hitchhikers and runaways along busy freeways. Bonin forced himself on his victims before strangling them and dumping their bodies alongside highways. The police finally caught him after witnesses reported his van's license plate.
The prosecutor described Bonin as "The most arch-evil person who ever existed." He was executed on February 23, 1996, at San Quentin State Prison, becoming one of California's few executed serial killers.
37. HERBERT MULLIN
Herbert Mullin killed 13 people in Santa Cruz, California, between 1972 and 1973. The paranoid schizophrenic believed voices commanded him to kill to appease nature and stop catastrophic earthquakes. His victims included strangers, family friends, and a priest during confession. His murder spree overlapped with Edmund Kemper's, creating much police confusion. Police eventually apprehended them within weeks of each other.
On February 13, 1973, Mullin fatally shot his final victim, Fred Perez, in broad daylight on the west side of Santa Cruz. A car chase ensued, and the cops finally captured him. After a trial to determine if he was legally insane, he was convicted and sentenced to life. He died of natural causes on August 18, 2022. Learn more about this deranged psycho here.
36. JOSEPH PAUL FRANKLIN
Joseph Paul Franklin was a white supremacist who killed at least 20 people, mostly African Americans, Jewish people, and interracial couples, between 1977 and 1980. His racist motivations drove his cross-country killing spree, shooting his victims using sniper tactics and firebombing homes. Franklin also attempted to assassinate civil rights leader Vernon Jordan and Larry Flynt, paralyzing the adult magazine publisher.
Detectives caught him via ballistics evidence after a 1987 St. Louis shooting. Franklin was executed by lethal injection in 2013, and always remained unrepentant about his hate-fueled, racially motivated crimes.
35. THE CLEVELAND TORSO MURDERER
The Cleveland Torso Murderer, or Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, murdered at least 12 people between 1934 and 1938. The killer left decapitated and dismembered torsos dotted around Cleveland, Ohio. Despite an extensive investigation by Detective Eliot Ness, the killer was never identified because most victims were homeless, making identification impossible.
Suspects included WW1 army doctor, Dr. Francis Sweeney. When the murders stopped in 1938, similar killings started up in other cities. The case inspired parts of Alan Parker's brilliant 1987 movie Angel Heart.
34. RANDY STEVEN KRAFT, THE SCORECARD KILLER
The Scorecard Killer, Randy Steven Kraft, murdered 16 young men between 1971 and 1983, though investigators suspect he killed many more victims because he kept a coded list of 61 victims. Kraft targeted hitchhikers, Marines, and men leaving gay bars, forcing himself, torturing, strangling, and leaving them along California, Oregon, and Michigan highways.
Methodical and intelligent, he evaded capture for over a decade, but police finally arrested him in 1983 after finding a body in his car. Kraft was sentenced to capital punishment but remains on California's death row.
33. DANNY ROLLING, THE GAINESVILLE KILLER
Over four terrifying days in August 1990, Danny Rolling terrorized the University of Florida. He broke into off-campus apartments, killing five students and raping several more, earning the nickname The Gainesville Ripper. The murders caused widespread panic, with students fleeing the campus. Rolling, who recorded a demo album of 11 songs just before carrying out the killing spree, said his alter ego, "Gemini," carried out the crimes. His heinous crimes inspired the Scream horror movie franchise.
Rolling was arrested in September 1990 for an unrelated burglary and linked to the University of Florida murders through DNA evidence. He confessed to being The Gainesville Ripper in order to avoid the death penalty but was executed by lethal injection in Florida in 2006.
32. REX HEUERMANN, THE LONG ISLAND SERIAL KILLER
The Long Island Serial Killer, or Gilgo Beach Serial Killer, murdered at least ten escorts between 1996 and 2011, leaving a trail of bodies along Gilgo Beach, Long Island, New York. The subject of Netflix's Gone Girls evaded police for decades, but in July 2023, cops arrested married father-of-two, Manhattan architect, and Long Island resident Rex Heuermann.
Police finally caught him via burner phones, cell site data, his internet search history, and DNA from a hair found on one victim, taken from a discarded pizza crust. On June 17, 2026, at the Riverhead, Long Island courtroom, Judge Timothy Mazzei sentenced Heuermann, who admitted to brutally murdering eight women, to three life sentences for first-degree murder, plus 25 years to life on four second-degree murder charges.
The judge told Heuermann, "You are a disgusting and despicable, small man, if you're a man at all. And you're a coward," as he handed down the sentence, before adding: "Get him out of here."
31. LONNIE FRANKLIN JR., THE GRIM SLEEPER
Lonnie Franklin Jr. is one of the USA's few African American serial killers. He strangled, raped, and shot at least ten African American working girls in South LA between 1985 and 2007, disposing of their bodies in alleyways or dumpsters. He earned the nickname The Grim Sleeper because he took a 14-year break from killing.
He was finally caught in 2010 via his son's DNA for an unrelated arrest. However, the 14-year hiatus may be an urban myth, and LAPD detectives believe he may have killed 25 women. Franklin was sentenced to death in 2016, but was found dead in his cell on March 28, 2020.
30. JOEL RIFKIN
Joel Rifkin murdered 17 women, mostly working girls, in New York City during the 1990s. He picked up victims on Manhattan and Long Island, strangled them at his home, dismembered them, and left their remains in rivers and dumps. Rifkin was caught in 1993 when state troopers stopped him for a missing license plate. The cops noticed a foul smell coming from the back of his pickup truck and discovered a decomposing body.
He is currently serving a 203-year sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, NY. He will be eligible for parole in 2197, shortly after celebrating his 238th birthday!
29. DONALD HENRY GASKINS
Known as The Meanest Man in America, Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins killed at least 15 people in South Carolina between 1953 and 1982. He claimed to have murdered over 100 men, women, hitchhikers, acquaintances, and contract hits and divided his victims into "coastal kills" (personal enemies) and random "weekend kills". Gaskins was caught when his accomplices turned against him and snitched to the authorities.
He was sentenced to death, then commuted to life, but went to the electric chair in 1991 for killing a fellow inmate.
28. ROBERT LEE YATES, THE SPOKANE SERIAL KILLER
Robert Lee Yates, aka The Spokane Serial Killer and The Grocery Bag Killer, murdered at least 18 people, primarily escorts, in Washington State between 1975 and 1998, but mostly in the ‘90s. He was a decorated Army National Guard helicopter pilot who maintained a respectable family life while committing murders. He typically shot victims and dumped bodies in rural areas around Spokane. Police caught Yates in 2000 after DNA and ballistics evidence linked him to multiple crime scenes.
He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to 408 to 447 years in prison. Today, he remains incarcerated in Washington State.
27. HENRY LEE LUCAS
Henry Lee Lucas murdered his mother in 1960 and 11 more people between 1970 and 1983. In jail, he confessed to 600 murders, earning the moniker The Confession Killer. In return for steak dinners and milkshakes, he led cops on wild goose chases to find non-existent bodies. Soon, the cops started pinning all their unsolved murders on him. But who was taking advantage of whom? Was he playing the cops to get milkshakes or were the boys in blue taking advantage of a vulnerable person?
Henry had an IQ of 70, and his case exposed problems with interrogation techniques and confession reliability. Lucas died in prison in 2001.
26. CARL PANZRAM
As we said at the top, the public has a morbid fascination with serial killers, but this sicko's story is bizarre, gripping, and unconscionable. Misanthrope Carl Panzram was a notoriously violent criminal who claimed to have slain between 21 and 100 men and boys, while raping 1,000 more.
In 1920, he went on an eight-year killing spree across the USA, Panama, and Portuguese Angola, from his yacht, Akista, which he bought with money he stole from President William Taft's Connecticut mansion.
Imprisoned for burglary, Panzram was hanged in Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1930, telling his executioner, "Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard. I could hang a dozen men while you're fooling around." Learn more about this misanthrope on Apple TV.
25. KEITH HUNTER JESPERSON, THE HAPPY FACE KILLER
Canadian-American truck driver Keith Hunter Jesperson strangled at least eight escorts and transients in California, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming between 1990 and 1995. He earned the nickname The Happy Face Killer by drawing smiley faces on letters he sent to the media and police, confessing to murders.
Jesperson was apprehended when he confessed to prevent his girlfriend from being wrongfully convicted of one of his murders. He says he killed 160 times, and is currently serving a life sentence in Oregon State Penitentiary. In August 2026, detectives identified Jesperson’s eighth victim as Lydia Jane Wade McWhorter.
24. DEAN CORLL, THE CANDY MAN
Dean Corll earned the nickname The Candy Man as his family owned the Corll Candy Company and factory, and he would lure kids to their deaths by handing out toffees. Our parents were right: don’t accept candy from strangers. Between 1970 and 1973, he carried out The Houston Mass Murders, abducting, raping, torturing, and murdering at least 29 teenage boys in Houston and Pasadena. Two teenage accomplices – David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley – lured the victims to Corll's home, where Corll tortured and killed them before burying the bodies around Houston.
The crime spree ended when Elmer Wayne Henley - one of his teenage accomplices - fatally shot Corll in 1973. The case shocked the nation due to the young age of the victims and accomplices.
23. THE ALPHABET KILLER
In the early 1970s, The Alphabet Killer sexually assaulted and murdered at least three young girls, all aged 10 or 11, in Rochester, New York. He acquired his nickname because his victims all had matching first and last name initials and were found in towns beginning with the same letter: Carmen Colon in Churchville, Wanda Walkowicz in Webster, and Michelle Maenza in Macedon. Despite extensive investigations, The Alphabet Killer was never identified.
His sick crimes have inspired books, documentaries, and the 2008 film, The Alphabet Killer, starring Eliza Dushku. Several suspects have been proposed over the decades, including Kenneth Bianchi (who became one of Los Angeles’ Hillside Stranglers) who was a prime suspect as he lived and worked near the abduction sites, though he denied involvement. The case remains officially unsolved.
22. JOSEPH NASO, THE DOUBLE INITIAL KILLER
Throughout the 1970s and into the 1990s, Joseph Naso, aka The Double Initial Killer, murdered at least six women across New York and California — and left behind a chilling signature. He also earned his nickname because victims' names often began with the same letters as the city where they were found… so could Joseph Naso be The Alphabet Killer?
By day, Naso worked as a commercial airline pilot. In private, he staged and photographed his victims posed beside mannequins, archiving his crimes. That archive became his undoing: in 2010, his parole officer searched his home and found photos and journals cataloging decades of murder. Naso was convicted and sentenced to death in California in 2016. At the time of writing, 91-year-old Crazy Joe is still alive.
21. DAVID RAY PARKER
For over four decades, from 1957 to 1999, David Parker Ray, aka The Toy-Box Killer, ran a torture operation out of a custom-built, soundproofed trailer in Elephant Butte, New Mexico — a chamber he called his Toy Box. At its center sat a gynecological chair, where he strapped down victim after victim. With the help of accomplices, including his girlfriend and his own daughter, Ray held women captive as slaves, then tortured and dismembered them using whips, chains, saws, and surgical instruments, recording their suffering on film and video.
He confessed to killing as many as 60 women, but not a single body was ever recovered, and the true number has never been confirmed. His downfall came only when one victim managed to escape the trailer and flag down help, giving police their first real break in the case. In 2000, Ray was sentenced to 224 years in prison. He died of a heart attack just two years later before he could reveal the full extent of his crimes.
20. LEONARD LAKE & CHARLES NG
Two serial killers for the price of one. Between 1983 and 1985, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng turned an isolated cabin in Calaveras County, Northern California, into a torture chamber. The two survivalists built a bunker beneath the property where they held captive at least 25 men, women, and children, filming their abuse on videotape before killing them.
As a child, Lake photographed his sisters naked and dissolved mice in chemicals, a method he later used to destroy his victims' remains. He served in Vietnam but received a military discharge following a schizoid personality disorder diagnosis. In 1985, His reign of terror ended when he was caught shoplifting a vise from a San Francisco hardware store. Rather than face arrest, he swallowed a cyanide pill, and died four days later.
Charles Ng's path to the cabin was stranger still. Born Ng Chi-tat in British Hong Kong, he was the youngest of three children and the only son of a wealthy businessman — and grew up under his father's harsh, abusive discipline. He was educated in England and at Notre Dame, but after a hit-and-run he faked his papers and talked his way into the Marine Corps. However, military police caught him stealing automatic weapons from the armory at Kaneohe Bay. Facing court-martial, Charles Ng vanished into civilian life... whereupon he ran into Leonard Lake.
When Lake died, Charles Ng fled to Canada, where he was eventually captured and extradited back to the United States. He was convicted in 1999. More than two decades later, he remains on death row.
19. ALBERT FISH
Born in 1870, Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester, and cannibal who killed at least three children between 1924 and 1928. He was also known as The Gray Man, The Werewolf of Wysteria, The Brooklyn Vampire, The Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man. He sent disturbing letters to victims' families, describing his horrifying crimes involving torture and cannibalism and boasting 100 victims, and saying he "had children in every state."
Fish was finally caught when some good, old-fashioned detective work traced the hexagonal emblem on the envelopes from his boastful letters to the families. He was also a suspect in at least ten murders, and confessed to two more stabbings. Fish was executed by electric chair on January 16, 1936, while his last words were: "I don't even know why I'm here!"
18. RICHARD TRENTON CHASE
Known as The Vampire of Sacramento, Richard Trenton Chase killed six people in Sacramento in December 1977 and January 1978. The paranoid schizophrenic believed he needed to drink blood to prevent his own blood from turning to powder. Chase did unspeakable things to his victims' bodies, including cannibalism, earning his diabolical nickname.
He was caught after a woman knocked on the door, interrupting his final kill, and he fled the scene in a stolen car. Chase was sentenced to death but died by suicide in prison in 1980.
17. AILEEN WUORNOS
America's most notorious female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, murdered seven men in Florida in 1989 and 1990. Working as a streetwalker, she claimed her victims attacked her, but evidence proved she robbed and killed her punters. The police found her after arresting her girlfriend, Tyria Moore, and tracing her phone call to Aileen. Wuornos was executed by lethal injection in 2002, maintaining her victims deserved to die.
The following year, an unrecognizable Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in 2003's Monster.
16. RODNEY ALCALA
Rodney Alcala is known as The Dating Game Killer for appearing on the popular TV show in 1978. He almost killed an eight-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1968 and murdered a flight attendant in 1971, but thankfully, they got away. Between 1977 and 1979, Alcala killed seven more women and girls in NYC and California. At one point, the Los Angeles police even interviewed him, believing he may be The Hillside Strangler.
In 1979, Alcala murdered a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach. LAPD captured him via her friend's police sketch. He died on death row in 2021. Anna Kendrick’s 2023 directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, tells the story of the actress who won a date with Rodney Alcala.
15. ALBERT DESALVO
The Boston Strangler attacked and killed 13 women in Boston in the early 1960s. He targeted women between the ages of 19 and 85 in their apartments. Albert DeSalvo confessed to the crimes, but was never tried for the murders; he was imprisoned for other crimes. Some investigators doubted his guilt, with some believing his cellmate, George Nassar, was the Boston Strangler. Reporter Loretta McLaughlin was the first to connect a series of murders and break the story. Check out the 2022 movie, Boston Strangler, told from Loretta’s point of view.
DeSalvo was killed in prison in 1973. Forty years later, in 2013, DNA evidence definitively linked DeSalvo to the final victim.
14. KENNETH BIANCHI & ANGELO BUONO JR.
Cousins Kenneth Bianchi (pictured, right) and Angelo Buono Jr. (left), aka The Hillside Stranglers, terrorized Los Angeles from 1977 to 1978, murdering at least 12 women. They posed as police officers to gain victims' trust before killing them at Buono's Glendale upholstery shop and dumping the bodies on LA hillsides. The murders caused such a widespread moral panic that women wouldn't go outside after dark.
Bianchi moved to Washington and committed more murders, leading to both men's capture in 1979. Buono died in prison in 2002, while Bianchi remains on a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Be sure to check out the Peacock Original, The Hillside Strangler: Devil in Disguise.
13. JOSEPH JAMES DeANGELO, THE GOLDEN STATE KILLER
Joseph James DeAngelo, aka The Original Night Stalker or Golden State Killer, terrorized California for over a decade, committing at least 13 murders, 50 attacks on women, and 120 burglaries between 1973 and 1986. As a former police officer, he used his law enforcement knowledge to evade capture for decades. He was finally identified in 2018 when a cold case matched his genes to the crimes.
Now in his eighties, the killer pleaded guilty in 2020 to avoid the death penalty and is serving life in North Kern State Prison, California. The late Michelle McNamara’s HBO documentary I'll Be Gone In the Dark is great.
12. ED GEIN, THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD
Ed Gein killed an unknown number of women in Wisconsin in the 1950s, though he's just as famous for exhuming bodies from graveyards. He made furniture and clothing from corpses, including a "woman suit" which he wore. His crimes inspired Psycho's Norman Bates, Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface, and Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill.
Police caught The Butcher of Plainfield when they found a missing woman's body in his home along with numerous human artifacts. He was found mentally incompetent and died in a mental institution in 1984. Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam plays the killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
11. DENNIS RADER
By day, Dennis Rader maintained a normal family life as a church and Cub Scout leader. But by night, BTK or The BTK Killer – which stands for Bind, Torture, Kill – murdered ten people in Wichita, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Rader was known for his taunting letters to the police and press, often including details only the killer would know. The case went cold until Rader began taunting the media again in 2004.
Police matched DNA through his daughter, and the octogenarian is now in jail in Kansas. BTK: Chasing a Serial Killer is available on Amazon Prime.
10. DAVID BERKOWITZ, THE SON OF SAM
In 1976-77, New York City was in a panic because former US Army soldier David Berkowitz stabbed or shot six people in parked cars and wounded 11 more. The Son of Sam sent taunting letters to police claiming a demon in the form of his neighbor's black dog, "Sam," ordered him to kill. NYC's biggest manhunt caught him by tracing parking tickets issued near a shooting to his car, leading police to his Yonkers apartment.
Berkowitz recanted his demonic possession claims and is serving life in Upstate New York. In the Netflix documentary, The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness, author Maury Terry argues that he was not working alone.
9. RICHARD RAMIREZ, THE NIGHT STALKER
Richard Ramirez, aka The Night Stalker, terrorized Los Angeles and San Francisco in the mid-1980s, killing at least 13 people by breaking into homes at night and bludgeoning the homeowners. He was finally caught in 1985 when Boyle Heights residents recognized him from newspaper photos as he got off a bus. They chased him through the streets, restrained him and gave him a right good beating before police arrived.
Ramirez claimed to worship Satan, and his trial was a global media sensation. He was sentenced to capital punishment but died on death row in 2013 from cancer. To find out more about this killer, who is evil personified, watch the excellent Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer.
8. EDMUND KEMPER, THE CO-ED KILLER
Edmund Kemper, aka The Co-Ed Killer, stands 6'9" and is your typical bespectacled, highly intelligent serial killer. He murdered ten people in California during the early 1970s, mainly female college students, often decapitating them and doing unspeakable things to their bodies. He eventually turned himself in after killing his mother and grandmother.
Kemper's articulate descriptions of his crimes provided invaluable insights for the FBI to establish its Behavioral Science Unit. No Kemper, no Clarice Starling. He appears in David Fincher's brilliant Netflix series, Mindhunter.
7. THE ZODIAC KILLER
The Zodiac Killer terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, killing at least five people but claiming 37. He earned his nickname by sending cryptic letters and ciphers to newspapers, taunting the police and public with puzzles and threats.
He was never caught, meaning amateur sleuths have searched for his identity for five decades. The case has inspired countless books, films, and documentaries, including David Fincher's excellent 2007 film Zodiac.
The Zodiac Killer's ability to evade capture makes him one of America's most enduring criminal mysteries, with tens of thousands of fans still trying to uncover his identity. We'll get there one day, Team Zodiac!
6. JOHN WAYNE GACY
John Wayne Gacy is partly where we get our fear of clowns from. When he wasn't performing as Pogo the Clown at children's parties, he was forcing himself on, torturing, and murdering at least 33 young men and boys in Chicago between 1972 and '78. Police caught him when investigating a missing teenager and found 29 victims' bodies in his home's crawl space.
Gacy was executed by lethal injection in 1994, becoming one of America's most infamous serial killers and giving us all nightmares. You can watch Conversations With A Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes on Netflix.
5. JEFFREY DAHMER, THE MILWAUKEE CANNIBAL
Jeffrey Dahmer, aka the Milwaukee Cannibal, murdered 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991, doing unspeakable things to their bodies, eating them, and keeping trophies.
A man named Tracy Edwards would have been Dahmer's 18th victim, but he escaped the killer's apartment and waved down a police car. Police found human remains, photos, and evidence of shocking experiments that Dahmer had tried to create "zombie" slaves through crude lobotomies.
While serving 16 life sentences in Wisconsin, a fellow inmate took Dahmer's life in 1994. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is on Netflix now.
4. TED BUNDY
Ted Bundy murdered 30 women across seven states during the 1970s, though the actual count might be 100+. Devilishly handsome, charming, and intelligent, Bundy feigned broken arms and asked women to help him move sofas into the back of his van before knocking them unconscious, forcing himself on them, and murdering them.
In August 1975, a Utah highway patrolman pulled Bundy over during a night patrol because his stolen Volkswagen Beetle sped from a residential area with its lights off. Bundy escaped custody twice, once jumping out of a second-story courthouse window in Aspen, Colorado, to continue his killing spree. Talk about police ineptitude!
The psychopathic narcissist famously represented himself in a televised trial that drew massive public attention. America's most famous serial killer went to the electric chair in 1989. You can watch Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer on Amazon Prime Video.
3. GARY RIDGWAY, THE GREEN RIVER KILLER
Gary Ridgway, aka The Green River Killer, terrorized the Seattle and Tacoma, Washington areas for over 20 years. Between 1982 and 1998, he killed at least 49 working girls and runaways, but the number could be as high as 71. After strangling his victims, he dumped their bodies in woods and undergrowth along the Green River but would often return to the bodies to engage in acts of necrophilia. He was finally caught in 2001 via DNA evidence, becoming the most prolific serial killer in US history.
To avoid the death penalty, Ridgway confessed to 71 crimes and led police to additional burial sites, providing closure to many families. Now in his 70s, he's serving life in Washington State Penitentiary. Check out Green River Killer: Hunting the Monster on Amazon Prime.
2. H.H. HOLMES
Born in 1861, Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H.H. Holmes, was America's first documented serial killer, going on an insane killing spree before, during, and after 1893's Chicago World's Fair.
Also known as The Beast of Chicago and The Devil in the White City, he built a hotel specifically designed for murder, complete with gas chambers, acid vats, secret passages, and soundproof rooms. Holmes lured victims with promises of employment or romance before torturing and killing them in his Murder Castle.
The conman, swindler, forger, and horse thief was captured in Boston by Pinkerton detectives during insurance fraud investigations and held on an outstanding warrant for horse theft in Texas. He confessed to 27 murders, but he may have committed up to 200, and claimed he was possessed by Satan. H.H. Holmes was hanged in 1896. Learn more on Apple TV.
1. SAMUEL LITTLE
Samuel Little is the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. He was convicted of eight murders and confessed to committing 93 murders, nearly all women across 19 states between 1970 and 2005. He targeted vulnerable women and sex workers. After knocking them out, he strangled them, leading police to believe many of his victims were overdoses.
Little was finally caught in September 2012, when he was arrested at a homeless shelter in Kentucky on a narcotics charge and extradited to California. Once he was in custody, Los Angeles police used DNA evidence to connect him to three previously unsolved murders from 1987 and 1989.
He was convicted in 2014 of those three killings and received three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Texas Ranger James Holland later got Little to confess to dozens of additional killings, helping investigators solve many of his other murders across the country.
Little remained imprisoned until his death on December 30, 2020, aged 80. The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program has confirmed his involvement in at least 60 murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in US history. You can find out more about him by watching The 93 Victims of Samuel Little on Apple TV.
The United States has the most documented serial killers in the world by a wide margin. The US population makes up about 4.2% of the total world population, but accounts for over 60% of all recorded serial killer cases globally. That said, several other psychos in other countries have a higher number of kills than Samuel Little.
In Colombia, Luis Garavito confessed to 193 proven victims, but police suspect his total is over 300 young boys and teenagers during the 1990s.
Pedro López, aka The Monster of the Andes, confessed to kidnapping, raping, and murdering over 300 young girls in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru between 1978 and 1980. He was caught when a flash flood uncovered many of his victims' shallow graves. Police could only prove he killed 110.
And finally, across the pond in England, Dr. Harold Shipman, aka Doctor Death, killed up to 250 of his patients between 1975 and 1998. A public inquiry verified 218 of his victims. Luckily, these three stories of The Andes and Britain's best serial killers will have to wait for another day.