The definition of serial m****r varies across law enforcement and academia, but generally, it refers to three separate killings with a “cooling-off” period between them. For someone to be considered a serial k****r, the m*****s must be distinct events, most often driven by psychological thrill or gratification.
Serial killers also tend to lack empathy and guilt, and many display highly egocentric behavior. Some even fit the clinical traits associated with psychopathy. What makes many of these cases especially disturbing is that serial killers often appear completely ordinary — sometimes even charming — while hiding violent tendencies behind what experts call a “mask of sanity.”
Pop culture has long been fascinated by serial killers. Films like Zodiac and The Silence of the Lambs, along with TV shows such as Mindhunter and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, occasionally turn real-life cases into some of the most widely discussed stories in entertainment.
And while the obsession can sometimes go too far, the interest itself is understandable: we feel that learning how these people operate may help us understand criminal behavior and recognize its warning signs.
So here’s an online thread people started to share the most unsettling serial-k****r facts they know.
#1
A congressman in Texas proposed a bill to make David Berkowitz day in Texas for his contribution towards population control.
It was a joke to prove no one read the bills they were asked to vote on?
And it passed.
It was an April fools Day joke And it was for Albert DiSalvo the Boston Strangler. It still passed
Wiki:
In 1971, the Texas legislature unanimously passed a resolution honoring DeSalvo for his work in "population control". After the vote, Waco Representative Tom Moore Jr. admitted that he had submitted the legislation as an April Fool's Day joke against his colleagues—his declared intent was to prove that they pass legislation with no due diligence given to researching the issues beforehand. Having made his point, Moore withdrew the resolution.
It was a joke to prove no one read the bills they were asked to vote on?
And it passed.
It was an April fools Day joke And it was for Albert DiSalvo the Boston Strangler. It still passed
Wiki:
In 1971, the Texas legislature unanimously passed a resolution honoring DeSalvo for his work in "population control". After the vote, Waco Representative Tom Moore Jr. admitted that he had submitted the legislation as an April Fool's Day joke against his colleagues—his declared intent was to prove that they pass legislation with no due diligence given to researching the issues beforehand. Having made his point, Moore withdrew the resolution.
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77points
#2
The fact that Ted Bundy worked at a s*****e hotline and was apparently really good at talking people out of k*****g themselves sounds completely made up.
The human brain really doesn’t like the idea that someone can be both deeply helpful and deeply monstrous at the same time.
The human brain really doesn’t like the idea that someone can be both deeply helpful and deeply monstrous at the same time.
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70points
After the arrest of a serial k****r, one question almost always comes up: how does someone become capable of this in the first place? According to researchers and law enforcement experts, there’s no single answer.
Human behavior is shaped by a mix of biological, psychological, social, and environmental factors, along with personal choices made over time. Childhood neglect or abuse, substance abuse, head injuries, and difficulty developing healthy coping mechanisms have all been linked to a higher risk of violent behavior, though none of them alone “create” a serial k****r.
Experts also stress that there’s no universal serial k****r profile. They can come from different backgrounds, age groups, religions, and social classes, and there’s no single trait that separates them from other violent offenders. Most researchers agree that serial killers develop through a rare combination of factors — and, ultimately, their own decisions.
#3
When a female employee at a trucking company expressed her fear of becoming a victim of the infamous *Yorkshire Ripper* if she walked home alone, her male colleague offered to give her a lift, and she arrived home safe and sound.
The colleague... was Peter Sutcliffe.
The colleague... was Peter Sutcliffe.
61points
#4
The Night Stalker (Richard Ramirez) went to the dentist because he had an impacted tooth. The police tracked his profile to this dentist, but didn’t know who it was. The cops installed an emergency button for the dentist so that when the k*ller returned for his final dental work, the dentist could hit the silent alarm and the police could arrest him.
They observed the dental practice for a week, left the dentist to push the button himself, and never came back. The VERY next day, Richard Ramirez came back. However, the button was never even tested. It didn’t work. The cops never came. He left the dentist and went on to m****r dozens more.
They observed the dental practice for a week, left the dentist to push the button himself, and never came back. The VERY next day, Richard Ramirez came back. However, the button was never even tested. It didn’t work. The cops never came. He left the dentist and went on to m****r dozens more.
59points
#5
The fact that one of Dahmer's victims escaped, made it to the police and then was returned to Dahmer because he told them the 14 year old was his lover and drunk.
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58points
Forensic science has become one of the most important tools in serial m****r investigations. Over the past decades, advances in DNA testing, fingerprint databases, ballistic analysis, and trace evidence collection have made it much easier to connect cases that once seemed unrelated.
Even tiny pieces of trace evidence — such as hair, fibers, carpet material, or tire residue — can sometimes tie multiple victims to the same environment or to the same suspect.
What keeps serial m****r cases especially complicated is that when multiple jurisdictions are involved, different agencies may use different labs, procedures, or evidence collection methods. That’s why investigators increasingly rely on standardized documentation, close communication between forensic teams, and advanced databases to avoid missing connections between crimes, both domestically and on an international level.
#6
Robert Durst, a real estate heir worth hundreds of millions, agreed to be interviewed for an HBO docuseries called The Jinx while being linked to multiple m*rders. In the final episode, he forgot his mic was still on, went to the bathroom, and muttered to himself "What the h**l did I do? K****d them all, of course." He was arrested the morning the episode aired.
57points
#7
Basically everything about the Marc Dutroux case.
Like how his own mother wrote to authorities that he was kidnapping girls and holding them prisoner and they didn't do anything about it.
How police when they were finally forced to search his house, they actually heard cries for help from the victims but didn't try to find them.
How two of his victims died while he was in jail for unrelated crimes and nobody fed the girls he had imprisoned.
How some video tapes found in his possession that supposedly held snuff videos, were never looked at by police.
How police again and again failed to bring him to justice.
How when he was finally caught, the people lost confidence in the willingness and ability of the state to do their job and authorities reacted by firing the only person involved who actually had the trust of the public.
How Dutroux managed to escape from custody for seversl hours despite being the most infamous prisoner in the country.
How investigators lied about having evidence DNA tested.
The list goes on and on.
Like how his own mother wrote to authorities that he was kidnapping girls and holding them prisoner and they didn't do anything about it.
How police when they were finally forced to search his house, they actually heard cries for help from the victims but didn't try to find them.
How two of his victims died while he was in jail for unrelated crimes and nobody fed the girls he had imprisoned.
How some video tapes found in his possession that supposedly held snuff videos, were never looked at by police.
How police again and again failed to bring him to justice.
How when he was finally caught, the people lost confidence in the willingness and ability of the state to do their job and authorities reacted by firing the only person involved who actually had the trust of the public.
How Dutroux managed to escape from custody for seversl hours despite being the most infamous prisoner in the country.
How investigators lied about having evidence DNA tested.
The list goes on and on.
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49points
#8
Edmund Kemper is a f*****g fascinating man.
He was only caught because he realized what he was doing was wrong, didn't want to continue, so he turned himself in. Problem is, he was friends with several cops specifically to keep tabs on what they knew about the m*rders, so they did not believe him.
He was (and presumably still is) a model prisoner, largely considered to be a really nice and likeable guy, and I don't believe he still does this but he spent thousands of hours recording audio books for the blind.
... He just also happens to be a brick sh*thouse of a man that m******d women, decapitated them, defiled their corpses, and tried to shred his grandma's vocal cords in the garbage disposal.
He was only caught because he realized what he was doing was wrong, didn't want to continue, so he turned himself in. Problem is, he was friends with several cops specifically to keep tabs on what they knew about the m*rders, so they did not believe him.
He was (and presumably still is) a model prisoner, largely considered to be a really nice and likeable guy, and I don't believe he still does this but he spent thousands of hours recording audio books for the blind.
... He just also happens to be a brick sh*thouse of a man that m******d women, decapitated them, defiled their corpses, and tried to shred his grandma's vocal cords in the garbage disposal.
46points
#9
In 1990 I tried to report a guy I met who scared the —- out of me to 3 different police stations in Pinellas County, FL. No one would even take the report- they all blew me off.
I was working- servicing a vending machine on the bar at a waterfront restaurant and this BIG guy kept asking me to go out in his boat (For reference sake, I was a 5’11” 19 yo gym girl and cyclist- my nickname was Xena lol. He wasn’t a lot taller but he was a massive, muscular from construction or farmer work type of guy with huge arms and hands. I felt like a little kid beside him).
Each time he’d ask me to go with him he kept getting more aggressive and more physically imposing, stepping closer to me. I could feel his anger and see it- his jaw and neck muscles clenched and he made fists each time I would turn down his invitation to go with him.
I finally had enough when he got so close he was almost touching me (after 4 or 5 somewhat polite yet definite refusals), and made it crystal clear (in a loud enough tone that others noticed) that I didn’t know him and wouldn’t be going anywhere with him as I was finishing servicing the vending machine.
I have never been easily intimidated, but I was terrified of him from the start and had a sickening {visceral} feeling the entire time he was near me…it was like I was in a room with a hungry male lion who got bigger and more imposing with each breath.
THEN he said I looked “just like one of the b*****s I tied cinder blocks to”.
I was so thankful my car was only a few feet away and that it was daylight! I remember driving around paranoid- terrified he was following me.
This was around 2pm- That night on the 6pm news they reported finding another woman with cinder blocks tied around her in Tampa Bay…which made 3.
Edited to add- When they finally identified the 3 women, the older daughter definitely resembled me, I was only a couple of years older.
I called the 1st police station (Gulfport) around 3pm and was shocked that they blew me off. When I saw the 6pm report I called another station (St Petersburg) and then the Pinellas County Sheriff- neither felt it was worth their time- “probably just a drunk”. A friend knew a Hillsborough County detective- that guy took me deadly serious and interviewed me early the next
morning.
Years later they caught that man- his name was Oba Chandler. He ran an AC company and is suspected of k*****g multiple women, including 3 he tied cinder blocks around and threw into the waters around the Tampa Bay Area.
I saw a news report after he was executed and the female police detective who interrogated him expressed the same thing I did- it’s like you were in the room with dangerous predator who would k**l you in a heartbeat- pure evil vibes.
I always wonder if he k****d again after that and whether it would have made a difference if the local police had bothered to go out as soon as I reported it. They probably could have gotten there before he was gone or at least talked to someone else who saw or talked to him.
I was working- servicing a vending machine on the bar at a waterfront restaurant and this BIG guy kept asking me to go out in his boat (For reference sake, I was a 5’11” 19 yo gym girl and cyclist- my nickname was Xena lol. He wasn’t a lot taller but he was a massive, muscular from construction or farmer work type of guy with huge arms and hands. I felt like a little kid beside him).
Each time he’d ask me to go with him he kept getting more aggressive and more physically imposing, stepping closer to me. I could feel his anger and see it- his jaw and neck muscles clenched and he made fists each time I would turn down his invitation to go with him.
I finally had enough when he got so close he was almost touching me (after 4 or 5 somewhat polite yet definite refusals), and made it crystal clear (in a loud enough tone that others noticed) that I didn’t know him and wouldn’t be going anywhere with him as I was finishing servicing the vending machine.
I have never been easily intimidated, but I was terrified of him from the start and had a sickening {visceral} feeling the entire time he was near me…it was like I was in a room with a hungry male lion who got bigger and more imposing with each breath.
THEN he said I looked “just like one of the b*****s I tied cinder blocks to”.
I was so thankful my car was only a few feet away and that it was daylight! I remember driving around paranoid- terrified he was following me.
This was around 2pm- That night on the 6pm news they reported finding another woman with cinder blocks tied around her in Tampa Bay…which made 3.
Edited to add- When they finally identified the 3 women, the older daughter definitely resembled me, I was only a couple of years older.
I called the 1st police station (Gulfport) around 3pm and was shocked that they blew me off. When I saw the 6pm report I called another station (St Petersburg) and then the Pinellas County Sheriff- neither felt it was worth their time- “probably just a drunk”. A friend knew a Hillsborough County detective- that guy took me deadly serious and interviewed me early the next
morning.
Years later they caught that man- his name was Oba Chandler. He ran an AC company and is suspected of k*****g multiple women, including 3 he tied cinder blocks around and threw into the waters around the Tampa Bay Area.
I saw a news report after he was executed and the female police detective who interrogated him expressed the same thing I did- it’s like you were in the room with dangerous predator who would k**l you in a heartbeat- pure evil vibes.
I always wonder if he k****d again after that and whether it would have made a difference if the local police had bothered to go out as soon as I reported it. They probably could have gotten there before he was gone or at least talked to someone else who saw or talked to him.
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44points
#10
Albert Fish sent a letter to the mother of his victim Grace Budd, describing what he did to her daughter. The letter is what got him caught because the envelope had a distinctive hexagonal logo from a private chauffeur's association, which police traced to a specific flophouse where a former member had left some stationery behind. Fish was 65 years old and looked like somebody's harmless grandfather. The detectives who read his full confession said it was the worst thing they'd ever encountered in their careers.
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39points
#11
Russian serial k*ller Andre Chikatilo was under suspicion of a number of k*llings, but his blood type was type A (tested by blood draw) and the blood type found with the victims (from s*men) was type AB, so authorities discarded him as the perpetrator. Chikatilo had a rare (at the time unknown) genetic condition that caused this difference. By the time he was brought to trial, he had k****d over 50 women and children.
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35points
#12
Paul Bateson... Mid-70s serial k*ller who worked as a medical technician.
When William Friedkin made the film version of The Exorcist, he wanted to use real medical technicians, not actors, in the hospital scenes where Regan is undergoing an angiography. Bateson is one of the techs who appeared in that movie. That's his voice telling Regan "You're going to feel some pressure. DON'T. MOVE."
Making it even stranger, Bateson's serial k*****g spree (targeting gay men during the mid 1970s) was partial inspiration for the controversial 1980 film "Cruising", which was directed by... William Friedkin.
When William Friedkin made the film version of The Exorcist, he wanted to use real medical technicians, not actors, in the hospital scenes where Regan is undergoing an angiography. Bateson is one of the techs who appeared in that movie. That's his voice telling Regan "You're going to feel some pressure. DON'T. MOVE."
Making it even stranger, Bateson's serial k*****g spree (targeting gay men during the mid 1970s) was partial inspiration for the controversial 1980 film "Cruising", which was directed by... William Friedkin.
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35points
#13
Richard Ramirez's entire life.
His mother worked a dangerous job in an industrial plant. She lost several pregnancies and at least one of her children was born profoundly disabled.
His father was an a*****e POS. His whole family was beaten and a****d by this man. RR witnessed his father violently r*ping his mother more times than he could recall in interviews.
His uncle was a sadist and Vietnam war vet. He showed RR multiple explicit pictures of him r*ping and/or k*****g Vietnamese women and children. He would also wax poetic about his k*****g process and the thrill he felt at other's terror.
And as the cherry on top, he was concussed more times than he could recall in interviews. Not always by his father, but most of the time.
His mother worked a dangerous job in an industrial plant. She lost several pregnancies and at least one of her children was born profoundly disabled.
His father was an a*****e POS. His whole family was beaten and a****d by this man. RR witnessed his father violently r*ping his mother more times than he could recall in interviews.
His uncle was a sadist and Vietnam war vet. He showed RR multiple explicit pictures of him r*ping and/or k*****g Vietnamese women and children. He would also wax poetic about his k*****g process and the thrill he felt at other's terror.
And as the cherry on top, he was concussed more times than he could recall in interviews. Not always by his father, but most of the time.
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35points
#14
Robert Pickton was found with handcuff keys in his pocket that were used to uncuff his victim. Both were in hospital and his charges were stayed because the woman was deemed too unreliable, he proceeded to m****r more women after he was released.
During that violent struggle in March 1997, the woman said she slashed Pickton’s jugular vein and was able to escape, flagging down a passing car for help.
She had lost three litres of blood and had no pulse when she arrived at Royal Columbian Hospital with st*b wounds to the upper chest, the abdomen, hands and arms. The woman, who was then 30, remained unconscious in hospital for four days.
Pickton, who also lost three litres of blood that evening, drove himself to Eagle Ridge Hospital, and was then transferred to Royal Columbian. The two st*bbing victims were in separate operating rooms when a handcuff key was found in the pocket of Pickton’s pants. It was taken to the woman’s room and used to unlock the cuffs dangling from her wrist.
Pickton was charged with attempted m****r, a*****t with a weapon and forcible confinement following the incident, but the charges were eventually stayed because the Crown considered the woman too unstable to testify in court at the time.
The st*bbing that occurred 13 years ago predates the disappearance of all six women Pickton was convicted of m*rdering at his 2007 trial – and also predates the disappearance of 15 of the other 20 women he was accused of m*rdering.
During that violent struggle in March 1997, the woman said she slashed Pickton’s jugular vein and was able to escape, flagging down a passing car for help.
She had lost three litres of blood and had no pulse when she arrived at Royal Columbian Hospital with st*b wounds to the upper chest, the abdomen, hands and arms. The woman, who was then 30, remained unconscious in hospital for four days.
Pickton, who also lost three litres of blood that evening, drove himself to Eagle Ridge Hospital, and was then transferred to Royal Columbian. The two st*bbing victims were in separate operating rooms when a handcuff key was found in the pocket of Pickton’s pants. It was taken to the woman’s room and used to unlock the cuffs dangling from her wrist.
Pickton was charged with attempted m****r, a*****t with a weapon and forcible confinement following the incident, but the charges were eventually stayed because the Crown considered the woman too unstable to testify in court at the time.
The st*bbing that occurred 13 years ago predates the disappearance of all six women Pickton was convicted of m*rdering at his 2007 trial – and also predates the disappearance of 15 of the other 20 women he was accused of m*rdering.
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34points
#15
26… twenty six…. More than the amount of players on a football field for both teams were found underneath John Wayne Gacy’s house.
That fact has always blown my mind. The fact that skulls are not easily demolished means at one time there were 26 skulls in this dudes house. That’s a lot of skulls.
That fact has always blown my mind. The fact that skulls are not easily demolished means at one time there were 26 skulls in this dudes house. That’s a lot of skulls.
34points
#16
Jack Unterweger worked as a journalist and reported on his own m*rders.
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31points
#17
Dennis Rader aka 'BTK k****r' was caught thanks to Microsoft word. They recovered a Microsoft word file off the disc that had his work credentials in its Metadata.
31points
#18
There was a serial k****r known as "The Phantomn of Heilbron" this serial k****r operated for over 26 years and was linked to 40 cases. They spent so much time, energy,and money trying to catch her. Some of thr crimes were horrific abd very brutal. Come to find out "The Phantomn" didn't exist The Phantomn was trace DNA shed by an innocent female factory worker in Austria who packaged cotton swabs used by investigators.
Besides this making them look like "Keystone Cops" all the money and resources wasted, so many evil people were not charged and many families had to wait for justice and im sure many committed more crimes, because they were cleared or where never suspects because the DNA didn't match. To me that's crazy.
Besides this making them look like "Keystone Cops" all the money and resources wasted, so many evil people were not charged and many families had to wait for justice and im sure many committed more crimes, because they were cleared or where never suspects because the DNA didn't match. To me that's crazy.
31points
#19
A lot of John Wayne Gacy's victims were never claimed by anyone, which caused a lot of problems trying to identify them.
Back then, a lot of kids got kicked out of the house if the parents thought they were gay. When the police were sent by the schools to check why the kid wasn't attending school, the parents claimed the kid ran away. But cops knew "runaways" meant gay kids so they never bothered to search for them. Those same kids wandered the streets and were eventually picked up by Gacy.
When the cops talked to the parents again, a lot of them refused to help identify the bodies because they didn't want anything to do with their gay kid.
So pretty much every level that was supposed to protect them refused to help them at all because they were gay. And Gacy's version of events is now the only version anyone really knows about the victims. Gacy blamed the victims constantly and claimed he k****d them after they cheated him, robbed him, or tried to blackmail him. From the very few that survived, we know he would offer jobs or a place to stay to get them to go with him and then tried to r**e and k**l them. So his version is most likely b******t.
Back then, a lot of kids got kicked out of the house if the parents thought they were gay. When the police were sent by the schools to check why the kid wasn't attending school, the parents claimed the kid ran away. But cops knew "runaways" meant gay kids so they never bothered to search for them. Those same kids wandered the streets and were eventually picked up by Gacy.
When the cops talked to the parents again, a lot of them refused to help identify the bodies because they didn't want anything to do with their gay kid.
So pretty much every level that was supposed to protect them refused to help them at all because they were gay. And Gacy's version of events is now the only version anyone really knows about the victims. Gacy blamed the victims constantly and claimed he k****d them after they cheated him, robbed him, or tried to blackmail him. From the very few that survived, we know he would offer jobs or a place to stay to get them to go with him and then tried to r**e and k**l them. So his version is most likely b******t.
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31points
#20
The fact that after k*****g and r*ping 100+ children, a South American prison just let Pedro Lopez out in 98 after he was declared "sane" and released on $70 bail and no one has seen him since.
27points