Serial Killer Facts

A serial killer's motive can be categorized into four reasons.

When a serial killer kills, there’s usually an underlying motive. Of course, no one just murders someone without getting something out of it. According to research, serial killers have four motives. First, those who kill to fulfill a mission. These are those who want to rid the world of prostitutes or those curing societal ill. Second, those who are hedonistic. Killers who just find pleasure from killing. Third, visionary murderers. These are killers who feel like they are called by the devil or God to do the deed. And lastly, the control-hungry killers.

The two-dozen serial killer murders of Ted Bundy.

In January of 2019, Netflix released a documentary about Ted Bundy. He was a serial killer in the 1970s and the documentary ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes’ gives the viewers a glimpse of the crimes he committed. Research reveals that he’s killed at least 36 women but up to this day, there is still no confirmation for that number. Bundy’s killing ground was within Washington, Colorado, Florida, and Utah.

With all the trial proceedings, he was finally convicted of murder and was sentenced to death via an electric chair. The execution of the infamous killer was on January 24, 1989. This is just the beginning of all these chilling serial killer facts.

Jeffrey Dahmer was a victim-eating serial killer.

Easily one of the most famous serial killers of all time is Jeffrey Dahmer. No one dares to forget how he lures his victims from public locations to his apartment. Dahmer would put them in chains, drug them, and strangle the life out of them. Right after that, he would eat some of their body parts and the remains were left in his apartment. Dahmer did this in the 1970s until the 1990s in the Milwaukee area.

On July 22, 1991, he got arrested because one of his victims got away from a possible murder. Finally, in February 1992, Dahmer was sentenced to a total of 15 life terms. This was after pleading guilty to all 17 killings. He did not live to spend all these years in prison as he died in 1994 due to prison beatings.

A peach orchard gave away serial killer Juan Corona.

Juan Corona was from Yuba City, California. One would not suspect him as a serial killer as he lives a normal life in the city as a farm labor contractor. However, on May 26, 1974, Corona got arrested because of the bodies found in an orchard. Neighbors near that orchard reported to the police that there was some kind of suspicious activity in the area.

All evidence led to Juan and he was finally convicted in 1973. His final sentence was life conviction without the possibility of parole. He never admitted the crime but was seen as guilty by the court. In a 2011 hearing, Corona finally admitted to the crime of stabbing all 24 workers to death while shooting the 25th victim. According to him, his victims were alcoholic trespassers on the orchard.

A police officer turned serial killer.

Joseph James DeAngelo was a police officer before he did a series of rapes, killings, and assaults in the 1970s until the early 1980s. To date, he has a total of 13 confirmed victims. He moved from one country to the next without being apprehended for the crimes that he committed.

On April 24, 2018, DeAngelo was arrested and he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of special circumstances and murders. Detectives of the case traced back all evidence to him because of a public genealogy website as well as the DNA samples from his car and trash. Since he pleaded guilty, he will not be facing the death penalty however, 11 life sentences would not give him any kind of light for parole as well. All these serial killer facts just prove that truth will surface no matter how long it takes.

A crawlspace convicted a party clown serial killer.

John Wayne Gacy was a construction company owner. But he also did side jobs as a party clown for children as this is where he gets to abduct young boys and men. Gacy lured them to his house and it was where he performs his killing fantasies. On December 21, 1978, Gacy was arrested because the remains of his victim were found in his house’s crawl space.

After 16 years, he was convicted of 33 counts of murder was sentenced to the death penalty via lethal injection. His execution took place on May 10, 1994.

The Grim Sleeper serial killer

Somewhere between the 1980s to the 2000s, Loonie David Franklin Jr. was out targeting drug addicts and prostitutes in downtown Los Angeles. He had his nickname Grim Sleeper because authorities believe that he stopped all the murders for at least a decade before doing another murder spree in the early 2000s.

Franklin was married with two children and he was a former garage attendant and a city sanitation worker. But nothing lasts forever as he was arrested by the police on July 7, 2010, after his DNA was matched to a series of killings. Because of all 10 victims, he got a death sentence in 2016 but he died last year in prison.

Samuel Little was a travelling serial killer.

Studies say that there’s a slim chance that serial killers would switch from one area to another to have their kills. But Samuel Little is another story. He’s a nomadic serial killer from the 1970s until 2005. After he left Ohio in the 1950s, he traveled around the US committing crimes. Some of his killing locations were Arkansas, Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

In an interview with the FBI, he admitted to over 93 murders but he was only convicted with 8. Little’s targets were often vulnerable women who were drug addicts and prostitutes. He would punch them first, stun them, and then strangle them to death. Since there were no stab marks or bullet wounds to his victims, most of the kills he did were said to just be drug overdoses or accidents.

Little pleaded guilty and was given a life sentence first before getting an additional four life sentences. But he did not get to see those years pass by as he died in 2020 while serving his sentence.

One serial killer kept a journal of his murders.

Randy Steven Kraft murdered most of his victims in Michigan, California, and Oregon from the 1970s until the 1980s. His targets were young hitchhikers with military backgrounds.

On May 14, 1983, he was arrested by the California Highway Patrol when they found a dead body in his passenger seat. Plus, they also found a notebook in his briefcase containing all his killings. The notebook also had details for all the murders of at least 60 people. During his trial, he was convicted of at least 16 murder counts and was sentenced to the death penalty. Kraft is currently at the San Quentin State Prison awaiting his execution date.

The Night Stalker serial killer

One of the most interesting things in this list of serial killer facts is that there are also murderers linked to satanism. Richard Ramirez had a fascination with Satanism and this led him to do horrible things in his lifetime. During the 1980s in California, he stalked unlocked doors and windows at night in the neighborhood. He looked for women victims but he shot men that he encountered while looking for his main targets. Most of his victims ranged from 9-83 years old.

On August 31, 1985, he was captured by a mob of Los Angeles citizens before he got arrested by the police. Ramirez was convicted for at least 13 murders but another killing in San Francisco gave him a spot on death row. In 2013, he died due to cancer at the San Quentin State Prison while waiting for his execution.

A churchgoer could also be a serial killer.

Dennis Rader was also called BTK Killer. BTK stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill”. With at least 10 victims in the 1970s to the 1990s at Kansas, Rader was low on the radar as suspicious. He was a husband, father of 2 children, a Club Scout leader, and he was also a devout churchgoer. Radar was a compliance supervisor in Kansas and this is where his first killings began. According to records, his co-workers were his first victims. Right after that, Rader also killed his co-worker’s husband and children.

Unlike other killers that hide in the dark, Rader leaves crumbs for the police to find. He sent cryptic letters to the police and media all those years of his murders. Rader eventually got arrested after one of the floppy disks he sent was traced to his church. The killer’s DNA gave away his freedom and he pleaded guilty with 10 consecutive counts of life terms. He’s currently at Kansas’ El Dorado Correctional Facility serving his time.

A serial killer got a 200-year sentence for murdering prostitutes.

During the 1990s in New York, Joel Rifkin is out and about strangling and killing prostitutes. Rifkin’s an unemployed landscaper living with his mom in Long Island. His tactic was to pick up prostitutes on the street and then he’d strangle them while taking their thing. On June 28, 1993, his car was pulled over by the police and they found a dead woman in the trunk.

Rifkin went on trial and confessed to the murder of 17 women. However, his attorneys came to the rescue and justified that he was suffering from a mental illness. Nevertheless, he has 200 years of sentence in prison and currently at New York‘s Clinton Correctional Facility for his incarceration.

The Green River serial killer

Washington State’s Green River killer is also one of the infamous serial killers of all time. Gary Leon Ridgway lurked in the 1980s to 1990s to target prostitutes and runaways. He was given that nickname because he leaves his victim’s bodies at the Green River banks right after killing them.

His arrest happened on November 30, 2001, after his DNA matched the killings from years ago. In the trial, he pleaded guilty and confessed to murdering 48 victims and in 2011, a 4th slaying was charged as well. He’s currently at the Washington State Penitentiary serving his time for a life sentence.

A serial killer targeted drug users.

Chester Dewayne Turner was married and had four kids while he was on a killing spree for drug users. His location centered on the south of Los Angeles between the 1980s and the 1990s. Turner was already in prison for rape when police charged him with the murder of 10 women. Before he was charged, David Allen Jones, a janitor who was mentally challenged, was put into prison for 9 years for a crime that Turner committed.

Thankfully, they found out the truth after Turner’s DNA samples matched that of the samples from the crime scene forensics. In 2017, he was sentenced to the death penalty for the slaying of 10 women, and an additional of four murders were added in 2014. Turner is currently at the San Quentin State Prison serving his time and waiting for the day of his execution.

When a sex offender and a serial killer combined into one.

Do you know how some people abuse those who are helpless and could not do anything? That’s how Anthony Sowell took advantage of his victims. In the state of Ohio in the year 2000s, he preyed on women victims that were homeless or struggling with abuse of drugs. Sowell would invite these women to his house, offer them food and beer, and kill them eventually.

According to his statements, he had the urge to kill these kinds of victims because they reminded him of his ex-girlfriend who did him wrong. All his victims were strangled and then buried inside his property. On October 31, 2009, he got arrested for sexual assault, and after a house sweep, several bodies were found inside his property. Because of this, he got the death penalty via lethal injection. But in 2021, he already died in prison.

There’s a serial killer who was once in the army.

Robert Lee Yates was a former pilot for the National Guards and the Army. But one secret he kept close was that he had a thirst for killing prostitutes. He was doing it in the areas of Washington State from the 1970s until the 1990s. On April 18, 2000, Yates got arrested after a prostitute’s blood sample matched the blood found in Yate’s car. Thanks to DNA and the advanced technology of science, he was easily linked to 12 other murders.

During his trial, he pleaded guilty in the hopes of getting a life sentence instead of the death penalty. But up to this day, he’s still on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary awaiting his execution.

There could also be a female serial killer.

It might sound odd to others but yes, not all serial killers are men. There are women, too. Aileen Wuornos had a history of prostitution, drug abuse, and robbery. She started killing men who picked her up for sex in the interstate of Florida between 1989 to 1999. According to her, she only killed them because of self-defense. Wuornos claimed to have been repeatedly raped and beaten by these men. Richard Mallory, her first victim, was a sex offender.

On January 9, 1991, she got arrested after her lover reported all the murders to the police in exchange for her freedom. Her lawyers tried to bail her out on the grounds of having borderline personality disorder but she was still found guilty by the jury. On October 9, 2020, her execution took place after saying that if she got released, she would still find a way to kill again. Creepy stuff in these serial killer facts, right?

There is no distinct pattern for serial killer profiles.

Movies and social bias descriptions would often portray killers as middle-aged sadistic white men who have sexual motives. While some serial killer profiles fit this, this image is often misinterpreted. If one would take a closer look, the serial killers, as well as their victims, come from a variety of backgrounds and age groups. This just shows that anyone could be a serial killer. You will come across at least 36 serial killers in your lifetime.

They will have a wide range of reasons and motives, and some might be suffering from mental issues. These are the usual perpetrators who get caught easily because they do not act rationally compared to those who are deemed normal in society.

Serial killer Ed Gein skinned the body of his victims.

Edward Theodore Gein or Ed Gein had the nickname, “The Butcher of Plainfield”. He’s an infamous serial killer who’s known for skinning the bodies of his victims. Because of this, his story became the inspiration of many films and books like the novel, ‘Psycho’. Police found the gutted and headless body of a missionary woman in Gein’s farmhouse in November 1957. Along with it, authorities also discovered human skulls and suits made from skin and parts of the human body. He told police that he dug all of these bodies to remember his mother.

Since he was found to be mentally unfit, he was sent to Wisconsin in a mental state hospital. The judge found him guilty of insanity so he spent his days in the hospital instead of a prison cell. Gein died on July 26, 1984 due to cancer complications.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was inspired by a real serial killer.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an American slasher film in 1974. The main protagonist of the story was Leatherface, a person/creature who skins people alive and tortures his victims to death.

The inspiration for Leatherface’s character was the serial killer, Ed Gein. Although the film was initially marketed as based on true events, the plot was fictional altogether. It’s interesting to know that these serial killer facts are somehow linked to films and novels.

Serial killer drove around the city with bumper stickers saying he kills.

One would think that serial killers would do everything they could to stay away from police radar. But that’s where we got it all wrong. Not all serial killers worry about that. PeeWee Gaskins was one of them.

According to reports, he was one of South Carolina’s prolific serial killers. Gaskins even drove around the city with a bumper sticker on his hearse that said he’s hauling dead bodies in his truck. When people pass him by, he just said that he needed to take all the bodies of his victims to the cemetery for him to bury. When he was on trial, he claimed to have murdered around 100-110 people.

Fat people are not on this serial killer's list.

Dorangel Vargas is known as the people eater or ‘El Coomegente’. He’s a serial killer in Venezuela and he’s also known as the Andes’ Hannibal Lecter. Vargas ate and killed at least 10 people in his lifetime. But he had a specific preference when it comes to eating the meat of a person. He did not eat the flesh of a woman – he only eats men. According to him, a guy’s meat tasted so much better than that of a woman.

Also, he avoided eating fat people because according to him, they contained too much cholesterol and could be harmful to him. Well, these serial killer facts show that even murderers have their own definition of class.

Doctors could be serial killers, too.

In modern history, Dr. Harold Shipman is known to be one of the world’s most prolific serial killers. He’s a British doctor and according to sources, he killed over 250 innocent victims. Shipman preyed on his patients and murdered them to his liking. His youngest victim was a man in his 40s while the oldest is a 93-year old patient. He never got to face the full scale of his trial because Shipman hung himself in the year 2004, a day before he’s supposed to turn 58.

Serial killer movies are popular.

One of the most interesting serial killer facts is that society is very much interested in topics like this. This is the reason why serial killer movies and documentaries are available at our discretion. Aside from the new Netflix series and documentaries, Se7en is a movie for those who are into creepy thrillers. The serial murderer in the movie kills his victims according to the known seven deadly sins (pride, envy, lust, sloth, anger, gluttony, and greed).

Most serial killers begin their killing fascination through animal torture.

Studies reveal that most convicted serial killers started their killing fascination after doing animal torture. Before moving to human murders, they somehow started by experimenting with smaller animals. According to records, most killers confessed to having some sort of pleasure and fulfillment after killing these defenseless creatures.

Since most killers come from dysfunctional families, abnormal and pathological behaviors like these often get ignored.

There's a serial killer who just got married so she can kill.

Belle Gunness was an immigrant from Norway in 1881. She came to America and settled in Chicago where she also married a fellow immigrant. However, her husband mysteriously died. His death gave her several insurance policies which she used to purchase a farm. She got married the second time, but her husband met an untimely death, too.

After this, she began placing advertisements in newspapers for suitable partners to come and visit her on her farm. And guess what? Those suitors made their way to her place and never came back. A fire devastated Gunness’s house which led to the discovery of several buried bodies on the farm.

This serial killer had a murder castle.

H.H. Holmes was an insurance scammer turned pharmacist in the late 1980s. In his Illinois property, he built a three-story murder castle filled with murder chambers. Most of the rooms have soundproofed paddings with peepholes, trapdoors, and gas lines.

During and before the World’s Fair, he would lead young men to his place where he would gas them. Holmes then took his victim’s unconscious bodies to the torture chamber where he started experimenting on them. He was convicted for only 4 murders but he admitted to killing at least 27 people. This is one of those creepy serial killer facts to date.

Not all serial killers are men.

There’s a common myth that labels men as the only people capable of murder. This does not come as a surprise because a former FBI profiler said in a report that female killers are non-existent. Right after this, stereotyping has been around ever since.

But this is where we got it all wrong. Through the years, we have seen female serial killers appear. Numbers can’t lie. And it just shows that the thirst for killing does not choose a specific gender.

The infamous Pig Farmer Serial Killer

Who would forget Robert Pickton, a serial killer from Canada? In 2007, he got convicted for the murders after his arrest in 2002. Reports show that Pickton put all his poor victim’s bodies in the same processor where he’d put his pigs in for ground pork making. This led police officers to believe that the townspeople who got meat from him were also unknowingly consuming and eating human remains.

A serial killer couple killed their kids.

Fred and Rosemary West were English killers on trial for the murder and torture of 9 women. These gruesome killings happened from 1973 up until 1987. What’s worst in all of this is that they were also accused of killing their child, Charmaine. She was only 8-years old at that time in 1971.

It does not end there. The duo would even tell their remaining children to behave and be good or else, they’d end up with the same fate as the other child.

Serial killer murders got out of hand.

It’s common to hear kidnappers and robbers stealing people away for ransom money. But it’s rare to find a serial killer who wants to have the best of both worlds. Israel Keye was a rapist, bank robber, arsonist, and burglar. In 1996, he pleaded guilty to sexual assaults and violent crimes against teenage girls.

Keyes sent the family of his victim a photo of their daughter for ransom money. With this, the family was under the assumption that their child was still alive. But little did they know that she was already dead. Keyes sewed her eyes wide open so she’d appear alive in the photo he sent.

This serial killer won a live gameshow during his murder spree.

Rodney James Alcala was a rapist and a serial killer who got a death sentence in California. He was found guilty of the murders of 5 women between the years 1977 to the 1980s. During a time when he was on his killing spree, Alcala even won an American game show called “The Dating Game”. The good thing here though is that the bachelorette from that game, Cheryl Bradshaw, turned down all of Alcala’s requests for a date. According to her, she did find him creepy and kind of different.

There's a 'vampire' serial killer from Sacramento.

We all know what vampires do. They suck their victim’s blood for food. But what do we know about serial killer vampires? Richard Chase is an interesting item in this list of serial killer facts. He’s an American rapist, serial killer, and cannibal. In just one month, Chase murdered a total of 6 people in Sacramento, California.

He got his nickname “Sacramento Vampire” because not only would he kill, but he’d also drink the blood of his victims. Wait, there’s more. Chase would also cannibalize the remaining flesh. Yes, you got that right. A serial killer, vampire, and cannibal all in one person.

A serial killer in the form of a doctor.

Health professionals are supposed to take care of sick people. But what happens when they intentionally kill their patients just for the thrill of it? Joseph Michael Swango, or also known as Dr. Death is a doctor and a serial killer. Swango would visit one hospital after another to find his next victim. He would kill them via lethal injection.

This serial killer would release his victims in the woods.

Also known as the Butcher Baker, Robert Christian Hansen is one of America’s prolific serial killers. Between 1971 until 1983, Hansen had abducted, raped, and murdered 17 women in Anchorage, Alaska. What’s sickening with his killing technique is that he’d let these kidnapped women let loose in the wild, only to hunt them down with his rifle. He’d eventually kill them using his knife.

A mother's love led her to become a serial killer.

Mothers are the best. They’d do everything for their kids. But Leonarda Cianciulli has a different way of showing this love. She was from Italy and is known as Correggio’s soap maker. In two years, she murdered 3 women and used their body parts in making tea cakes and soap. In an interview with Leonarda, she did the murders because she believed that these women were some sort of sacrifice. She thought that if she did this, her son would be kept from harm in World War II.

Nannie Doss is a giggling serial killer.

America has a lot of weird serial killer cases, and Nannie Doss is one of them. From the 1920s until 1954, she killed 11 people including her husband. Whenever police would ask her about the death of her victims, she would giggle a lot. A laugh that could send chills down your spine. Media attention gave her all sorts of nicknames including Lady BlueBeard, the Giggling Granny, and the Black Widow.

One serial killer only killed women during their menstrual period.

John Norman Chapman or also known as John Collins is a Canadian serial killer in his time. He would pick up his female victims using his motorcycle. The bodies ended up dumped everywhere but what’s unique about his victims was that all these bodies were washed. Investigations reveal that he would only kill women who were on their menstrual period.

There were many weird serial killers on the loose.

Hamilton Howard or Albert Fish was a child rapist, cannibal, and certified serial killer. We already know what he does for fun. But what’s interesting are the things that he does to himself. Fish was fond of burning himself with pokers and irons. He even ate his own poop. Needless to say, Fish was fascinated with cannibalism and masochism. He even told the police that whenever he masturbated, he’d stick needles deep into his pelvis to heighten his senses.

One serial killer has a rare genetic condition.

Murders often get convicted through the help of DNA, blood samples, and traces from science. But Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo had a rare condition that made it harder for police to charge him. He had a rare genetic condition where his blood sample type was different from that of his semen sample. From his recent murders, Chikatilo was released because the crime scenes did not match his blood type.

Direct families of serial killers could be their target, too.

Based on research, serial killers have a knack when it comes to blood and suffering. But did you know that they could also target their own families? Edmund Emil Kemper III is a perfect example of that. He’s an American serial rapist, killer, necrophile, and cannibal. In his time, he murdered at least ten people including his mother and paternal grandparents. Not only that, but he’s also remarkably noticeable as he’s 6 ft 9 inches tall and has an IQ of 145.

There's a serial killer writer, too.

Mark Brandon Read was one of Australia’s most renowned killers. One of the most interesting serial killer facts in this list is his story. Read was a gang member and a convicted criminal. But he was not only known for that – he was also a writer. When he was still alive, he wrote children’s books and autobiographical fiction crime novels.

When he knew that he had a terminal case of liver cancer, he confessed all of his murders. Read did it during an interview with the TV show ’60 Minutes’. Needless to say, everyone was shocked by his revelations.

Not all of this serial killer's victims remembered him.

David Parker Ray or also widely known as the Toybox Killer kidnapped, raped, and tortured women. Surprisingly, many of his victims survived the ordeal. But not all of them could remember him and what happened at that time. Ray would kidnap these women, drug them, and use them as his sex slaves for many months. Before he dropped them off the road, he would clean them thoroughly. One of the most chilling serial killer facts, indeed.

16 years of prison sentence for this serial killer who killed more than 300 people.

Colombia is known for a lot of things. Pedro Lopez’s story is one that people would be shocked to know about. He’s a child killer and a certified killer who was convicted of killing at least 110 girls. Lopez even claimed to have killed and raped at least 300 girls from Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru. But did you know that he only got 16 years in prison for his crimes? That’s because, at that time, it was the only maximum possible sentence that a person could get in Ecuador.

Unfortunately, some kids can be serial killers in the making.

Children are innocent in nature. But Mary Bell was an English child who proved to be different. When she was only 10 years old, she strangled two boys to death in West End, Newcastle. What’s chilling with this is that she left notes about her killings and even had the audacity to visit the victim’s mom. Bell asked the mom if she missed her sons or if she was sad. Later that year, she got convicted of manslaughter.

A serial killer and a ring leader at the same time.

Richard Kuklinski was a murderer and a criminal. In most of his adult life, he was involved in all sorts of criminal activities. Kuklinski was the leader of a burglary ring and was a distributor of pirated pornography. He put one of his victims in an oil drum in front of a diner to see how long someone would notice. Most of his victims were led to believe he’d have business offers only to meet their untimely death in the hands of Kuklinski.

The Angel of Death was once a hero before becoming a serial killer.

Josef Mengele was a physician and an SS officer during World War II. Before all of this, he was awarded for his bravery as he jumped into a tank that’s burning to save a wounded soldier. But things shifted 360 from there. Mengele became known as the Angel of Death because he was the one who performed experiments on prisoners in the camp. He was also part of the doctors who chose who’d be in the gas chambers. Indeed, a serial killer in all their evil ways.

A serial killer made his own sex zombies.

We already have a background on who Jeffrey Dahmer is. But one interesting serial killer fact about him is that he makes sex zombies. He would drill holes in his victim’s heads while they were still alive. And then, he’d pour acid in these holes.

Mack Ray Edwards was a child abuser and a serial killer.

Mack Ray Edwards was a known serial killer in America from the 1950s to the 1970s. He was not only a serial killer, but he was also a child abuser. Edwards sexually abused his victims aged 6 and up. Most of his victims were from Los Angeles, California.

He was a Caltrans heavy equipment operator. With this, some of his victim’s dead body part was found in one of the freeways he worked on. According to Edwards, he also had victims that were disposed of in the Ventura Freeway and Santa Ana Freeway.

White people are most likely prone to becoming serial killers.

In the US, most of the convicted serial killers are white males and single. The majority of them come from middle to lower-class backgrounds. There are also known serial killers coming from Asian, African, and Hispanic backgrounds. But the FBI said in a report that based on numbers and percentages, most serial killers come from the white race. It might be odd for some but this is definitely one of those shocking serial killer facts to date.

David Berkowitz was a serial killer who claimed that a possessed dog pushed him to kill.

Also in the 1970s, David Berkowitz was arrested for the murder of 6 people. During his trial, he initially said that his neighbor’s dog was possessed by a spirit. This spirit gave him the command to shoot all those people. Since the owner of the dog’s name was Sam, David was given the nickname, ‘Son of Sam’.

Eventually, his arrest in New York happened on August 10, 1977. Berkowitz pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to 2 years to life for every victim. He is currently locked up at the upstate New York Shawangunk Correctional Facility.

There's a difference between spree killers and serial killers.

The FBI aims to establish a very precise classification for criminals. They have what they call spree killing and serial killing. Serial killers in general will have a cooling off or emotional period in between their crimes. It’s like a hiatus that would last them at least a few months or even years. On the other hand, spree killers would not have this period. They would string several murders in several locations all at the same period.

Serial killers usually do not have normal sexual relationships.

Studies have shown that most serial killers cannot keep a steady sexual relationship with the opposite sex. This results in having solo sexual activities. Mainly because they cannot keep a normal social structure. In most cases, serial killers would then turn into an unhealthy masturbation routine. Andrei Chikatilo was a perfect example of this.

Most serial killers have a low or average IQ.

Research results suggest that most serial killers may have low or average IQs. It’s a common misconception in these serial killer facts that they have above-average IQ levels. Serial killers who use bombs in their kill usually have an average IQ above its population mean.

However, Harold Shipman is an exemption for this. He was a general professional practitioner and even won several awards for the work that he does. But this does not hide the fact that he’s one of the most prolific serial killers in the world.

A noblewoman turned serial killer.

Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a Countess in Hungary in the 1590s. According to the Guinness World Records, she’s the most prolific female serial killer/murderer of all time. After the death of her husband, Elizabeth was accused of killing and torturing at least 600 young women and girls. She did it together with four other collaborators.

Serial killers do not feel any kind of sympathy.

There’s no doubt that people who kill for the thrill of it are psychopathic in nature. Because of this, they generally do not feel any kind of sympathy for others, let alone their victims. Yes, they may learn to adapt to normal behavior through observing others. But according to a psychologist, this is a mere manipulative act. Henry Lucas describes being a serial killer as that of being a movie star actor, they just play the part. And in most cases, these killers envy those who are in authority.

Fetishism and voyeurism interest serial killers.

Studies show that most convicted serial killers started young. Numbers are as follows: 44% in their 20s, in their 30s at 24%, and teens at 26%. They have also found an interesting discovery that serial killers were intensely interested in fetishism, voyeurism, and other paraphernalia. This is at an early age. Many start as young peeping toms and escalate to becoming murderers, rapists, and serial killers.

Serial killers have a fascination with those in authority.

Reports have shown that several convicted serial killers attempted to become security guards, military men, and police officers. Many also tried to disguise themselves as part of law enforcement to access victims. Some of the most popular names include John Gacy, Ted Bundy, and the Hillside Stranglers.

There are warning signs for kids who have serial killer tendencies.

Although it’s hard to predict if a kid will grow up and become a serial killer, criminologists say that “The Triad” is something that parents should look out for. These are three warning signs that may or may not be signs of psychopathic behavior in kids.

The first among the three is interest in animal torture. The second, impulse control disorder. And lastly, prolonged bedwetting. And while it may seem weird, these signs may have a deeper pathology when it persists up until the child turns 12. Did you know that one of the weirdest serial killer facts is that 60% of known killers still wet their beds?

Serial killers keep souvenirs.

Among the list of many bizarre and weird facts about serial killers is in this last item. Most killers keep a treasure of souvenirs from their victims. For instance, Ted Bundy keeps a polaroid of all his victims. According to him, it’s a must since he worked hard for it. He said that when you do something memorable, one does not want to forget it that easily.