Serial Killers
The serial killers who terrorized towns and cities, from the ones caught to the ones never named.
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The Doodler: The San Francisco Killer Who Sketched His Victims Before He Struck
In the mid-1970s, a young man charmed victims in San Francisco’s nightlife by sketching them — then killed them. Police had a suspect, but terrified, closeted survivors wouldn’t testify. Fifty years later, the Doodler may still be alive. Continue reading
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The Axeman of New Orleans: The Killer Who Promised to Spare Anyone Playing Jazz
In 1918 and 1919, a killer broke into New Orleans homes at night and attacked Italian grocers with their own axes. Then a letter, signed “the Axeman,” promised to spare any house playing jazz on one specific night. The whole… Continue reading
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Aileen Wuornos: The Highway Killer Whose Story America Never Agreed On
Between 1989 and 1990, seven men were found shot along Florida’s highways. The killer was a homeless drifter named Aileen Wuornos, who said it was self-defense. Decades later, people still can’t agree what she really was — predator, victim, or… Continue reading
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The Grim Sleeper: The Los Angeles Killer Who Hunted for Twenty-Five Years
For a quarter century, women were murdered in South Los Angeles and barely noticed. The killer was finally caught in 2010 by a DNA match — not to him, but to his own son. Then police found hundreds of photos… Continue reading
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The Green River Killer: How Gary Ridgway Murdered Dozens and Hid in Plain Sight for Twenty Years
For nearly two decades, women vanished along the highways south of Seattle. Police had Gary Ridgway early — and let him go after he passed a 1984 lie-detector test. By the time DNA caught him, he’d killed so many women… Continue reading
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Jeffrey Dahmer: How a Quiet Milwaukee Apartment Hid Seventeen Murders
On a July night in 1991, a man ran through Milwaukee with a handcuff still hanging from his wrist. He led police to apartment 213 — and to the evidence of seventeen murders that had nearly been stopped, again and… Continue reading
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Ted Bundy: The Charming Law Student Who Hid America’s Most Notorious Killer
He was handsome, well-spoken, a former law student who once worked a crisis hotline. Ted Bundy used that ordinariness to lure at least 30 young women to their deaths across seven states. The most chilling part is how easily he… Continue reading
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Jack the Stripper: London’s Forgotten 1960s Serial Killer
Between 1964 and 1965, six women were found dead along the Thames in west London. Flecks of industrial paint nearly led police to the killer the press called Jack the Stripper — before the prime suspect died and the murders… Continue reading
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The Servant Girl Annihilator: The Austin Killer Who Came Before Jack the Ripper
Three years before Jack the Ripper, a killer stalked Austin, Texas, attacking people in their beds and dragging them into the night. Eight were dead by Christmas Eve 1885. He was never caught — and most of his victims were… Continue reading
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Bible John: The Glasgow Dancehall Killer Who Quoted Scripture
Between 1968 and 1969, three young women were murdered after nights at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, each last seen with a polite, red-haired man who quoted the Bible. One survivor’s sister shared his taxi. He was never named. Continue reading
