List of serial killers by country
Appearance
This is a list of notable serial killers, by their country of origin or activity.
Convicted serial killers by country
Argentina
- Cayetano Santos Godino -aka "petiso orejudo"; killed four before he turned 17
Australia
- Eric Edgar Cooke - killed at least 7 people; last person to be hanged in Western Australia
- Paul Denyer - aka Frankston Serial Killer
- Peter Dupas - serving two life sentences for multiple murder and rape charges
- John Wayne Glover - aka North Shore Granny Killer; found dead in his cell in 2005
- Eddie Leonski - aka Brownout Murderer; killed at least 4 people
- William MacDonald - aka the Sydney Mutilator
- Ivan Milat - aka Backpack Murderer; killed at least 7 tourists
- Christopher Worrell - the Truro murders; killed 7 victims
- James Miller - the Truro murders; convicted of killing 6 victims
- John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner, Mark Ray Haydon, James Spyridon Vlassakis, Elizabeth Harvey, Thomas Trevilyan - the Snowtown murders; convicted of, or in relation to, killing 10 victims
Austria
- Elfriede Blauensteiner - poisoner of 3 individuals
- Irene Leidolf - Angel of Death who, with 3 other nurses cofessed to murdering 49 patients
- Jack Unterweger - author and sexual sadist; allegedly killed 12 women
Belgium
- Marc Dutroux - Belgian child molester and killer
Canada
- Paul Bernardo - aka the Scarborough Rapist; Ontario man who killed 3 teenage girls (including his wife's sister), with the aid of his wife Karla Homolka
- William Patrick Fyfe - convicted of murdering 5 women; confessed to killing 4 more individuals in Quebec
- Russell Johnson - killer of seven women; confined to a mental institution since 1978
- Allan Legere - aka Monster of Miramichi; killer of 5 individuals
- Michael Wayne McGray - convicted of the murders of 4 individuals; confessed to killing 16
- Clifford Olson - murdered 11 children
- Peter Woodcock - murdered 3 children in 1956 and 1957 and a fellow psychiatric institute patient in 1991
China
- Yang Xinhai - confessed to killing 65 individuals; executed in 2004
Colombia
- Luis Garavito - Admitted to killing and raping 140 boys (also killed victims in Ecuador)
- Pedro Lopez - aka The Monster of the Andes; apocryphal with 300 alleged victims (also killed victims in Ecuador)
Ecuador
- Daniel Barbosa - aka The Beast Of The Andes; apocryphal, with 71 alleged victims
France
- Michel Fourniret - confessed to 9 murders; allegedly killed 10 more
- Hélène Jegado - domestic servant who poisoned at least 23 people between 1833 and 1851; executed in 1852
- Henri Désiré Landru - killed 11 people; inspired the character of Monsieur Verdoux played by Charlie Chaplin
- Émile Louis - preyed on young handicapped women
- Marcel Petiot - doctor who killed 63 would-be refugees from the Nazis; executed in 1946
- Gilles de Rais - 15th century demonolator and child-killer
- Joseph Vacher - aka The French Ripper; 19th century serial killer of 11 individuals
Germany
- Jürgen Bartsch - killed 4, one escaped; died by wrongful overdose during castration surgery
- Karl Denke - cannibal; allegedly killed 30 people
- Karl Grossmann - killed women and sold their flesh on the black market
- Fritz Haarmann - preyed on young men and boys; executed in 1925
- Fritz Honka - killed women in Hamburg and kept the bodies in his apartment
- Joachim Kroll - claimed 13 victims over three decades
- Peter Kürten - aka the Vampire of Düsseldorf; executed in 1932
- Bruno Lüdke - killed at least 51 individuals beginning in 1928; executed in 1944
- Peter Stumpp - self-proclaimed werewolf who killed 16 people during the 1500s
- Anna Maria Zwanziger - Bavarian poisoner, killer of 4 individuals; executed in 1811
Ghana
- Charles Quansah - convicted of the strangulation deaths of 9 women in Accra, suspected of killing 34; sentenced to death in 2003
Hungary
- Erzsébet Báthory - countess who killed servant girls. Purported to have killed over 600.
- Béla Kiss - murdered at least 24 women; escaped justice in the confusion of World War I
- Sylvestre Matuschka - aka the Train Killer; derailed trains for sexual gratification
India
- Thug Behram - leader of a gang of Thugs in Avadh, India, who confessed to participating in 931 individual murders and to having personally strangled approximately 125 men
- Raman Raghav - killed street urchins and others in their sleep
- Auto Shankar - auto rickshaw driver who preyed on teenage girls
- Charles Sobhraj - preyed on Western tourists in Southeast Asia in the 1970s
Indonesia
- Ahmad Suradji - a serial killer who admitted to killing 42 women
Iran
- Mohammed Bijeh - aka the Tehran Desert Vampire; killed at least 16 young boys near Tehran, Iran; executed in 2005
- Said Hanai - aka The Spider Killer; killed at least 16 women around Mashhad, Iran; executed in 2002
Israel
- Nicolai Bonner - killed 4 people in 2005 in Haifa, Israel; most victims were homeless
Italy
- Luigi Chiatti - aka the Monster of Foligno; victims were children
- Leonarda Cianciulli - aka Soap-Maker of Correggio; murderess of 3 women
- Pietro Pacciani - aka the Monster of Florence; victims were young couples
- Roberto Succo - murdered at least five individuals, including his parents
Japan
- Tsutomu Miyazaki - aka The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer, and Dracula; killed 4 preschool-age Japanese girls and ate two of them
Kazakhstan
- Nikolai Dzhumagaliev - aka Metal Fang; cannibal and rapist thought to have killed nearly 50 individuals
Latvia
- Kaspars Petrovs - convicted of murdering 13 elderly Riga women in 2005; confessed to killing 38
Mexico
- Juana Barraza Samperio - aka the Old Lady Killer; operated within the metropolitan area of Mexico City until January 25, 2006
- Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzales - killed a total of 91; arrested and sentenced in 1964
- Abdul Latif Sharif - Egyptian alleged to be responsible for dozens of murders in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Netherlands
- Lucia de Berk - nurse, convicted of killing at least 7 and attempting 3 murders in the 2000s
- Maria Swanenburg - killed 27 with arsenic in the 1880s
Norway
- Arnfinn Nesset - Geriatric assistant nurse who poisoned 22 dwellers at the institution "Orkdal alders - og sjukeheim" over a period of some years before being convicted in 1984
Pakistan
- Javed Iqbal - killed 100 boys in Pakistan
Poland
- Julian Koltun - raped and murdered women in eastern Poland
- Zdzisław Marchwicki - allegedly killed 14; debate on whether he was the real serial killer
- Władysław Mazurkiewicz - aka The Gentleman Killer; killed up to 30 women
- Stanislaw Modzelewski - murdered 7 women in Łódź during the 1960s; executed in 1970
- Leszek Pękalski - killed up to 17 women
- Łucjan Staniak - aka The Red Spider and The Red Ripper; killed 6 to 20 women
Romania
- Ion Rîmaru - murdered and raped young women in Bucharest from 1970 to 1971; executed in 1971
Russia
- Andrei Chikatilo - aka The Rostov Ripper and Hannibal Lecter ; killed 52 women and children throughout the many countries of the former Soviet Union before being arrested, convicted, and executed in 1994
Slovenia
- Metod Trobec[1] - raped and killed at least 5 women, commited suicide in prison in 2006
South Africa
- Daisy de Melker - poisoner; killed two husbands and one son; executed in 1932
- Cedric Maake - aka the Wemmer Pan Killer; murdered at least 27 people. Also serial rapist
- Moses Sithole - believed to have killed at least 38 young women
South Korea
- Yoo Young-Chul - killed and ate about 20 people, mainly rich elderly men and prostitutes
Sweden
- Thomas Quick - child molestor and alleged serial killer
UK
- Beverley Allitt - an Angel of Death; paediatric nurse who killed 4 patients and injured at least nine others, convicted in 1991
- Robert Black - Scottish schoolgirl killer; convicted of 3 murders, suspected of many more
- Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - aka Moors Murderers
- George Chapman - poisoned 3 women, also suspected of being Jack the Ripper
- John Childs - murdered 6 individuals; jailed 1980
- John Christie - aka The Necrophile who lived at 10 Rillington Place
- Mary Ann Cotton - British Victorian killer, said to have taken more than 20 victims
- Thomas Neill Cream - aka Lambeth Poisoner, began his killing spree in the US then moved to London
- Bruce George Peter Lee - aka the Hull Arsonist
- Kenneth Erskine - aka Stockwell Strangler; jailed in 1988 for murdering 7 pensioners
- John George Haigh - aka the Acid Bath Murderer and the Vampire of London
- Anthony Hardy - aka the Camden Ripper
- Colin Ireland - aka Gay Slayer
- Michael Lupo - aka Wolf Man; originally from Italy
- Patrick Mackay - confessed to killing 11 people
- Robert Mawdsley - aka Hannibal the Cannibal, killer of 4; killed 3 in prison
- Peter Moore - businessman who killed men at random in Wales
- Lenny Murphy - leader of the Shankill Butchers
- Dennis Nilsen - killer of 15 (possibly 16)
- William Palmer - aka The Rugeley Poisoner
- Mark Rowntree - 19 year old who killed 4 people at random
- Harold Shipman - doctor convicted of 15 murders; a later inquiry stated he had killed at least 215 and possibly up to 457 people over a 25 year period
- George Joseph Smith - aka The Brides in the Bath killer
- John Straffen - child-killer and Britain's longest serving prisoner
- Peter Sutcliffe - aka the Yorkshire Ripper
- Fred West and Rosemary West - aka House of Horrors murderers in Gloucester
- Graham Frederick Young - aka The Teacup Poisoner; killed 3 individuals from 1947 to 1990
Ukraine
- Anatoly Onoprienko - aka The Terminator; murdered 52 people from 1989 until his capture in 1996
USA
- Charles Albright - killer of 3; known for surgically removing the eyes of victims
- Richard Angelo - aka The Angel of Death; nurse
- Joe Ball - aka The Alligator Man, killed at least 20 women in the early 20th century in Texas
- Martha Jule Beck - with Raymond Martinez Fernandez aka "Honeymoon Killers," "Lonely Hearts Slayers," and eventually in the press simply "Hearts Killers" killed at least 3 women and one child in the 1940s.
- David Berkowitz - aka Son of Sam and The .44 Caliber Killer
- Bloody Benders - a family who killed guests of their inn in Labette County, Kansas, in 1872
- Robert 'Bob' Berdella - convicted of killing 6 men in 1988 in Kansas City, Missouri, undoubtedly killed others, sexually tortured and dismembered his victims
- Kenneth Bianchi - Californian who with his cousin Angelo Buono were the Hillside Stranglers
- William Bonin - aka The Freeway Killer; with several accomplices, claimed the lives of 20 boys in California
- Robert Charles Browne - Convicted of 2 murders in Colorado, but says he has killed 48, some of which have been corroborated.
- Jerry Brudos - aka The Shoe-Fetish Slayer, killed at least 5 women
- Ted Bundy - aka The Campus Killer or Lady Killer; law student who raped and murdered over 30 women in several states
- Angelo Buono, Jr. - Californian who with his cousin Kenneth Bianchi were the Hillside Stranglers
- Dean Carter - murdered at least 4 women
- Richard Chase - aka the Vampire of Sacramento murdered 6 people in the '70s
- Dean Corll - aka The Candy Man; committed the Houston Mass Murders with Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks
- Juan Corona - Mexican immigrant who killed 25 people in the space of just six weeks (aka The Machete Murderer)
- Charles Cullen - nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who killed as many as 40 patients through lethal injection
- Jeffrey Dahmer - Milwaukee cannibal who kept heads, skulls and body parts in his apartment
- Albert DeSalvo - aka The Boston Strangler
- Westley Allan Dodd - child molester and killer of 3 young boys in Seattle, Washington; hanged on January 5, 1993
- Nannie Doss - aka The Giggling Granny; serial poisoner who killed 4 husbands, 2 children, her 2 sisters, her mother, a grandson and a nephew.
- Raymond Martinez Fernandez killed at least one woman indepedently and convicted of killing 3 with Martha Jule Beck.
- Albert Fish - aka The Cannibal, The Moon Maniac and The Werewolf of Wisteria; sadist and pedophile who cannibalised several children
- Wayne Adam Ford - aka Wayward Wayne; confessed to murdering 4 women, believed to have killed others
- Joseph Paul Franklin - racist serial killer who targeted interracial couples and attempted to assassinate Larry Flint and Vernon Jordan
- John Wayne Gacy - aka the Killer Clown; killer of at least 33 men and boys who kept bodies buried under his Chicago home
- Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins - aka the Meanest Man in America; Gaskins, executed on September 6, 1991, confessed to over 200 murders, but due to inept police work, this number was never verified.
- Ed Gein - elements of Gein's life and crimes have inspired, at least in part Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Kristen Gilbert - original Angel of Death serial killer, convicted of killing 4 by injection of epinephrine while working as a nurse
- Harvey Murray Glatman - Californian rapist and killer of three women; lured women to pose for "bondage photographs" and would rape and murder them.
- Jeffrey Gorton - convicted of 2 rape-murders in Michigan, suspected of more
- Belle Gunness - murder-for-profit killer who murdered her suitors and her own children in Indiana.
- Robert Hansen - Alaskan baker who killed prostitutes at his cabin
- Donald Harvey - aka Angel of Death; hospital orderly, confessed to more than 80 "mercy killings" with 37 confirmed killings
- Gary M. Heidnik - serial killer from the Philadelphia area
- "Wild Bill" Hickman - killed in the name of religion (many of his alleged exploits are disputed)
- H. H. Holmes - active 1890-1894 during Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
- Philip Carl Jablonski - killed at least 4 women in Utah
- Vincent Johnson - aka the Brooklyn Strangler; a homeless crack addict who killed at least 5 prostitutes
- Genene Jones - Texas pediatric nurse who poisoned infants in her care
- Patrick Kearney - necrophile who killed 28 men in California
- Edmund Kemper - started killing when he was aged fifteen in Santa Cruz, CA
- Sante Kimes - grifter and murder-for-profit killer who, along with her son Kenneth Kimes, is believed to have killed upwards of 4 people
- Paul John Knowles - raped and murdered 18 people
- Randy Steven Kraft - murdered as many as 68 young men in California
- Leonard Lake and Charles Ng - ex-marines and survivalists who collected female slaves
- Posteal Laskey aka the Cincinnati Strangler
- Derrick Todd Lee - aka the Baton Rouge Serial Killer
- Eddie Leonski - aka the Brownout Strangler
- Henry Lee Lucas - confessed to hundreds of murders, although most confessions were false
- Charles Manson - most famous for his participation in the Tate-LaBianca murders of the late 1960s
- John Allen Muhammed - Washington D.C. area sniper
- Herbert Mullin - schizophrenic in Santa Cruz, CA who killed people to prevent earthquakes
- Earle Nelson - aka Gorilla Man; necrophiliac serial killer
- Carl Panzram - murderer, rapist, arsonist
- Paul "Tooth Decay" Pissarro - aka "The Douche Baguette Killer", His Modus Apparatis in killing his victims was due to his lack of friends, having nobody to talk to except his imaginary friend "Sylvester". In jail, The Supreme Court permitted his marriage to his left hand, one that he fell in love with after many and his only sexual experiences. His weapon of choice in killing his victims would be his smile, which killed over 20 people right on sight of the terrifying tool of fatality.
- Jesse Pomeroy - teenaged psychopath who killed 2 children
- Dorothea Puente - killed and robbed 9 elderly boarders
- Dennis Rader - aka the BTK Killer; killed 10 people over 20 years
- Richard Ramirez - aka the Night Stalker; terrorized Los Angeles in 1984 and 1985
- Angel Maturino Resendiz - killed 9 people in Texas, Kentucky, and Illinois
- Gary Ridgway - aka theThe Green River Killer
- Joel Rifkin - murdered 17 women in the New York City and Long Island area
- John Edward Robinson - aka the Cyber Sex Killer; lured victims through the internet
- Danny Rolling - pleaded guilty to murdering 5 students in Florida
- Michael Ross - raped and murdered 7 women in Connecticut
- Efren Saldivar - respiratory therapist who killed 6 patients, and possibly as many as 120
- Gerard John Schaefer - aka The Killer Cop and The Florida Sex Beast; police officer who killed up to 34 women and girls
- Tommy Lynn Sells - admitted to murdering dozens of people from all over the USA, possibly in excess of 70
- Arthur Shawcross - aka the Genesee River Killer
- Lemuel Smith - confessed to the murders of 5 people, including that of an on-duty female prison-guard
- Morris Solomon Jr. - handyman killed 6 young women between 1986 and 1987 in a Sacramento, California, neighborhood
- Gerald Stano - convicted murderer of 41 women.
- Cary Stayner - aka the Yosemite Murderer who killed 4 women
- Michael Swango - physician and surgeon who poisoned over 30 of his patients and colleagues
- William Suff - aka the Riverside Killer who killed up to 19 women near Riverside, California
- Marybeth Tinning - poisoned 9 of her children
- Ottis Toole - Henry Lee Lucas's accomplice; convicted of 6 murders in Florida
- Henry Louis Wallace- Charlotte serial killer of at least 9 young Black women over a two year period(1992-1994)
- Coral Eugene Watts - aka The Sunday Morning Slasher; killed dozens of women in Texas and Michigan
- Wayne Williams - aka the Atlanta Child Murderer; convicted of two (and believed responsible for more) of the murders of over twenty children in Atlanta, Georgia
- Randall Woodfield - aka the I-5 Killer
- Aileen Wuornos - female serial killer who shot 6 men dead in Florida
- Robert Lee Yates - murdered at least 13 women in Spokane County, Washington
Unidentified serial killers
- The Axeman of New Orleans (USA)
- The Austin Axe Murderer, AKA the Servant Girl Annihilator (USA)
- Bible John (UK)
- Claremont serial killer (Australia)
- "Lisbon Ripper" (PT) — Believed to have killed at least seven women since 1992, three in Portugal and one each in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark and The Netherlands. All his victims, were young, drug-dependent prostitutes. Some theories suggest also that the Lisbon Ripper died of Aids, because some of the victims (raped by him) had Aids and he did not protect himself from it.[2] [3]
- The Cleveland Torso Murderer, AKA "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run" (USA)
- Jack the Ripper, the most famous serial killer of all, murdered prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888 (UK)
- Jack the Stripper (UK) 1964-65
- The Monster of Florence - For decades, this bizarre predator stalked men and women in love, then murdered them. AKA: "The monster" (Italy)
- The Oakland County Child Killer
- The Original Night Stalker (USA)
- The Zodiac Killer (USA)
- The Stoneman (India) — An individual or gang that killed a number of homeless individuals through the 1980s.
- New Bedford Strangler (USA) — Killed nine prostitutes in the Massachusetts seaport city over four months in 1989. Due to the areas high Portuguese immigrant population, the timing of killings and choice of victims, some speculate that this killer is also Europe's "Lisbon Ripper".[4]
- Baseline Killer (USA)
- The Phantom Killer (USA)
- 2006 Ipswich murder investigation (UK) (unidentified killer, aka the "Ipswich Ripper" or "Suffolk Strangler") — Nobody yet convicted, but one man has been charged with five murders.
See also
- List of terrorist incidents (includes Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski)
- Mass murderer
- List of criminals by nickname
- Spree killer