Top 10 Creepiest Serial Killers in Us History
Surprisingly enough, serial killers fascinate: novels, films, series, video games ... we talk about them in a considerable number of works with more or less credibility and if we have already told you about serial killers who have the more admirers , female killers or even the best series on serial killers we decided today to focus on the creepiest of the United States, because there have been a lot of them there.
1. HH Holmes, the Beast from Chicago
He is the first and longest-serving serial killer in US history (the first listed at least) and is credited with between 20 and 200 victims. So yes, there is a difference between the two numbers but the sources of the time complicate the trick a bit to have an exact estimate. Already known for various frauds when he was a medical student, his serial killer activity would have really started in 1885 when he moved to Chicago.
He had a three-story building built, which he organized as a real horror castle. Traps, secret rooms, torture rooms, hidden entrances and labyrinthine corridors… The place became a hotel in which Holmes killed and tortured customers until they got rid of the bodies in the cellar.
He was finally arrested in 1894 and reportedly confessed to nearly 27 murders before being hanged. The problem is that by cross-checking the number of local disappearances at the time, it is believed that the real number could go up to 200. Holmes notably inspired the film Psychosis of Hitchcock and season 4 of American Horror Story on the hotel, you see the board.
2. David Berkowitz, Sam's son
Between 1976 and 1977, David Berkowitz killed six people in New York City, creating a wave of panic and a consequent manhunt. Berkowitz almost randomly killed groups of two people by shooting at them (couples in cars or walking in the streets). It was because he used the same weapon for every murder that the police found him.
Once arrested, Berkowitz said it was his neighbor who ordered the murders by using his dog to dialogue with him, a dog allegedly possessed by a demon. It was after his trial that he finally confessed that the whole thing was bullshit, but he is nonetheless an impulsive and creepy killer and also an active arsonist (he confessed to nearly 1,500 arson attacks).
He is still in prison today and his killer name (which was given to him because he called himself that in a letter) was given to a US law which obliges the proceeds from the sale of products linked to a serial killer to be donated to the families of the victims, to an American state or to associations (rather than to the killer himself).
3. David Parker Ray, the "toy-box" killer
While doubts remain about the number of Parker Ray victims , estimates reach up to sixty women killed. He used a truck with a trailer that he called his "toy box" in which objects of torture were placed to commit his crimes (which will give his nickname). Kidnappings, rapes, forcible confinement, torture, murders… Parker Ray sometimes acted with his wife to commit his crimes and got rid of his victims (only women) by killing them or drugging them to erase their memory.
The abuses he caused his victims to endure were as varied as they were horrible, he used a large number of torture instruments: blades, shears, electric generator, chains and pulleys, syringes, saws, spreaders… He kept his victims for a long time. several months before getting rid of it. David Parker Ray did not always act alone, he brought his wife but also friends whom he invited to rape his victims when they were immobilized. His dogs also participated in the abuse and rape.
4. Richard Trenton Chase, the vampire of Sacramento
Why was Trenton Chase called the vampire? I'm not going to maintain the mystery any longer: he drank the blood of his victims and ate parts of it as well. As a teenager he exhibited the three signs of the Macdonald Triad which is a way of "preventing" the development of a personality that could become violent: enuresis (wetting your bed frequently after the age of five), animal cruelty and arson.
While heavily consuming hallucinogenic drugs, Trenton Chase began killing and devouring animals because he believed it would keep his heart from shrinking. He subsequently began to kill humans, devour and rape the corpses of his victims and drink their blood, pushing the limits of horror with each murder.
5. John Wayne Gacy, the killer clown
He's kind of responsible for the very creepy side that we gave to clowns over time and he inspired the character of Pennywise in the Stephen King novel It . Wayne Gracy disguised himself as a clown to abduct children and young adolescents. There are nearly 33 victims, all boys, whom he began to attract by offering them odd jobs, he mostly kills his employees, which will bring the police back to him.
After torturing and raping his victims, he kills them and continues to rape them before burying them on his property, these are the odors that will alert neighbors and police officers when they arrive at his home. He was arrested in 1978 and executed in 1994.
6. Edmund Kemper, The Ogre of Santa Cruz
The massive Edmund "Ed" Kemper (2.06m and 136kg) was made even more famous worldwide after the Mindhunter series . His first crime is the murder of his grandparents when he was not yet 16 years old. He then focuses on hitchhikers whom he kills before raping and, on occasions, engaging in cannibalism. One of his latest crimes is the murder of his mother which he beheads and uses as a dart target (and whose head is believed to have been used for sex).
Extremely intelligent, courteous, cultured and outgoing, Kemper has been extensively "studied" by a significant number of FBI interviews aimed at understanding his psychology. He is currently still in prison where he leads reading sessions for blind prisoners and he is one of the sources of inspiration for the character Hannibal Lecter.
7. Rodney Alcala, the dating game killer
If it is certain that Alcala did indeed commit 9 murders, the number of victims could be much higher and reach up to 100. With a high IQ, Alcala used his intelligence to deceive his victims (women and young girls ), raping and killing them while torturing them. He displayed unhealthy cruelty by making them hope they were going to be okay, strangling them until they passed out and then killing them when they came to themselves.
He put his victims in confidence by playing with his charm and pretended to be a photographer, which could justify the lack of mistrust of his future victims to follow him. His nickname comes from the fact that he appeared on an American dating tv show in the 1970s. He was finally arrested in 1979.
8. Tommy Lynn Sells
The childhood of Lynn Sells is a succession of misfortunes: he catches meningitis with his twin sister before being two years old and his sister dies of it, which his mother blames him violently by abandoning him (and by inscribing his first name on the tombstone of his sister among other things). He grew up with an aunt and at the age of eight grew closer to a much older man who is suspected to be a predator who abused him.
Sells begins killing at age 15 by attacking a single mother whose home he leaves after also murdering her four-year-old. He rapes and kills his victims, whose ages vary between 9 and 30 years. By his own admission he would have murdered nearly 70 people while always staying on the move and traveling from city to city. It was a surviving 11-year-old girl who managed to identify him and led to his arrest in 1999.
9. Ed Gein, the Plainfield Ghoul
After the death of his mother when he was 39, Ed Gein attempts to make incantations on his grave to bring her back. He is alone for the first time in his life and it is at this time that he begins to dig up other corpses to recover their skins. Obsessed with his mother, he is the second source of inspiration for Norman Bates' character in Psychosis.
He is believed to have committed his first murder in 1954 but it was only after the disappearance of a second local woman in 1957 that the police came to his farm thanks to the report of a witness. The agents find the two corpses at his home but also human skins "stolen" during the exhumations that Gein collected. He made many objects with the skins: lampshades, sheets, curtains… But also clothes like gloves and a jacket. His goal, according to him, was to "make his mother" with the parts of the corpses.
10. Dean Corll, the candy man
The myth of the predator who gives candy could come from him, knowing that in addition to using this technique to attract his victims (only children) he owned a candy factory at one point in his life. Between 1970 and 1973, Corll killed nearly 28 young boys whom he also tortured and raped, often accompanied by two teenage accomplices (one of whom would end up shooting and mortally touching him).
His case was called that of the Houston mass murders, as the number of victims is so striking. Most of the children were also friends of his two accomplices, which gave them confidence. Following an argument, one of the two teenagers shoots him and kills him, which leads the police to name the perpetrators of the murders and stop the killing.
