List of serial killers by country
Appearance
This is a list of notable serial killers, by the country where the murders were committed.
Convicted serial killers by country
Argentina
- Cayetano Santos Godino: AKA "Petiso Orejudo" ("Big Eared Midget"); at 16, killed four children in 1912; died in prison in 1944
- Robledo Puch: killed 11 people before his arrest in 1972; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1980
Australia
- David and Catherine Birnie: AKA "Moorhouse murders"; couple from the suburban Perth area responsible for the murders of four women
- Eric Edgar Cooke: killed at least seven people; last person to be hanged in Western Australia
- Paul Denyer: AKA "Frankston Serial Killer"; murdered three women in 1993 in the Melbourne suburb of Frankston
- Peter Dupas: serving three life sentences for multiple murders and rape charges
- Kathleen Folbigg: murdered four of her infants
- Leonard Fraser: convicted of killing four women in Rockhampton, Queensland
- John Wayne Glover: AKA "The Granny Killer"; killed six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore; committed suicide in 2005
- Caroline Grills: AKA "Auntie Thally"; serial poisoner of five family members
- Mark Jefferies: Tasmanian penal colony escapee responsible for the murders of four people; executed in 1826
- Eddie Leonski: AKA "Brownout Strangler"; American serviceman who killed three women in Melbourne; executed on November 9, 1942
- William MacDonald: AKA "the Mutilator"; killed at least five men between June 1961 and April 1963
- Ivan Milat: killed at least seven tourists in Belanglo State Forest, New South Wales; suspected in similar disappearances in Newcastle
- Snowtown murders AKA "Bodies in the Barrels Murders"; (John Bunting, Robert Wagner, Mark Haydon, James Vlassakis): convicted of, or assisted with, the murders of 11 people between 1992 and 1999
- Truro murders (James Miller and Christopher Worrell): convicted of killing six victims
Austria
- Elfriede Blauensteiner: poisoner of three individuals
- Lainz Angels of Death (Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Meyer, Waltraud Wagner): nurses at the Lainz General Hospital in Vienna who admitted to murdering 49 patients
- Jack Unterweger: author and sexual sadist; convicted of 10 murders; believed to have killed 12 women
Belgium
- Marc Dutroux: child molester and killer
- András Pándy: AKA "Vader Blauwbaard" (Father Bluebeard); convicted of the murder and rape of his two wives and four children
Brazil
- Abraão José Bueno: nurse who killed four child patients
- Pedro Rodrigues Filho: AKA "Pedrinho Matador"; convicted and sentenced to 128 years imprisonment for 70 murders; however, the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years; claimed to have killed more than 100 victims, including 40 prison inmates
- Edson Isidoro Guimarães: nurse who killed four patients but suspected of 131 deaths in total
- Anísio Ferreira de Sousa: gynaecologist who was convicted of the murder of three children but linked to the disappearance of a total of 19
Canada
- Paul Bernardo: AKA the "Scarborough Rapist"; Ontario man who killed three teenage girls (including his wife's sister) with the aid of his wife Karla Homolka
- Wayne Boden: serial killer active from 1968–1971
- John Martin Crawford: convicted in 1996 for the murders of three women
- Léopold Dion: AKA "Monster of Pont-Rouge"; raped and killed four young boys in 1960; murdered in 1972
- William Patrick Fyfe: convicted of killing five women in Montreal; suspect in several other murders
- Gilbert Paul Jordan: killed between eight and 10 women by alcohol poisoning
- Allan Legere: AKA "Monster of the Miramichi"; killer of five individuals
- Clifford Olson: murdered 11 children in British Columbia
- Robert Pickton: charged with the first degree murders of 26 women; allegedly confessed to 49 murders; convicted December 9, 2007 of six charges; reduced to second degree murder
- Peter Woodcock: murdered three children in 1956–1957 and a fellow psychiatric institute patient in 1991
China
- Gong Runbo: found guilty of the murders of six children and teenagers aged between nine and 16 from 2005 to 2006
- Huang Yong: between September 2001 and 2003 killed at least 17 teenage boys; executed in 2003
- Shen Changyin and Shen Changping: found guilty of the murders of 11 prostitutes
- Shi Yuejun: between September 24, 2006 and September 29, 2006 he murdered 12 people and wounded four others
- Yang Xinhai: confessed to killing 65 people between 2000 and 2003; executed in 2004
Colombia
- Daniel Camargo Barbosa: AKA "The Beast of the Andes"; 71 alleged victims (most of his victims were killed in Ecuador)
- Luis Garavito: admitted to killing and raping 172 people (also killed victims in Ecuador)
- Pedro López: AKA "The Monster of the Andes"; 360 alleged victims (also killed victims in Ecuador and Peru)
Croatia
- Vinko Pintarić: murdered five people, including his wife, between 1973 and 1990. Escaped from custody three times, killed in a 1991 shoutout with the police.
Czech Republic
- Václav Mrázek: convicted of the murders of seven women; executed in 1957
- Marie Fikáčková: female nurse who was executed by hanging in 1961 for the murders of 10 babies
- Petr Zelenka: male nurse convicted of seven murders to "test" doctors
Denmark
- Dagmar Overbye: childcare provider who killed between nine and 25 children; sentenced to death in 1921 then reprieved
Egypt
- Raya and Sakina: Egypt's most famous serial killers and the first Egyptian women to be executed by the modern state of Egypt
Estonia
- Aleksandr Rubel: convicted murderer of six people
Finland
- Antti Taskinen 1976–: poisoner of three men; sentenced to life imprisonment
- Matti Haapoja 1845–1895: convicted murderer of three people, admitted to the murders of 18 probably killed 22–25; sentenced to life imprisonment, hanged himself in a prison cell
France
- Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers: French poisoner; executed in 1676
- Pierre Chanal: serial killer of 17 boys between 1980 and 1987 who committed suicide in 2003
- Michel Fourniret: confessed to nine murders of young girls; allegedly killed 10 more between 1987 and 2001
- Guy Georges: AKA the "Beast of the Bastille"; serving a life sentence for seven murders between 1991 and 1997
- Francis Heaulme: serving a life sentence for 20 murders between 1984 and 1992
- Hélène Jégado: 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 (seven murders) in 70's
- Christine Malèvre: nurse sentenced for the murders of at least 30 terminally ill patients
- Thierry Paulin: AKA the "Beast of Montmartre"; preyed on the elderly in the 1980s and Murderer of 21 old women
- Marcel Petiot: doctor who killed 63 would-be refugees from the Nazis; executed in 1946
- Gilles de Rais: 15th century satanist and child killer (400 killed)
- Joseph Vacher: AKA "The French Ripper"; 19th century serial killer of 11 people
- Jeanne Weber: convicted of the murders of 10 children
Germany
- Jürgen Bartsch: killed four, one escaped; died by wrongful overdose during castration surgery
- Karl Denke: cannibal; allegedly killed 30–40 people in the 1920s
- Volker Eckert: accused of 19 murders between 1974 and 2006
- Gesche Gottfried: serial poisoner who murdered 15 people in Hanover and Bremen; publicly executed in 1831
- 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: murdered four 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
- Stephan Letter: male nurse who killed 29 patients; arrested in 2006
- Marianne Nölle: female nurse who was convicted of killing seven patients between 1984 and 1992; suspected of killing 17; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993
- Norbert Poehlke, AKA 'The Hammer-Killer': police officer, bank robber and serial killer
- Peter Stumpp: self-proclaimed werewolf who killed 16 people during the 1500s
- Anna Maria Zwanziger: Bavarian poisoner; killer of four people; executed in 1811
Ghana
- Charles Quansah: convicted of the strangulation deaths of nine women in Accra; suspected of killing 34; sentenced to death in 2003
Greece
- Antonis Daglis: AKA the "Athens Ripper"; convicted in 1997 of the strangulation murders and dismemberment of three women and the attempted murder of six others
Hong Kong
- Lam Kor-wan: sexual sadist who murdered and dismembered four women in the 1980s; sentenced to life imprisonment
- Lam Kwok-wai: murdered three women
Hungary
- Erzsébet Báthory: countess who killed servant girls; rumored to have killed more than 600
- Béla Kiss: murdered at least 24 women; escaped justice in the confusion of World War I
India
- Thug Behram: alleged to have killed over 900 people; executed in 1840
- Raman Raghav: killed homeless people and others in their sleep
- Auto Shankar: murdered nine teenage girls in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai during a six-month period in 1988; executed in 1995
- Charles Sobhraj: killed at least 12 Western tourists in Southeast Asia during the 1970s
- Joshi-Abhyankar Serial Murders: Quartet committed around 10 murders.
- Moninder Singh Pandher and Surender Koli : Killed at least 17 children and 1 adult in Nithari, Noida, UP.
Indonesia
- Ahmad Suradji: admitted to killing 42 women; sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on July 10, 2008
Iran
- Mohammed Bijeh: AKA the "Tehran Desert Vampire"; killed at least 16 young boys near Tehran; executed in 2005
- Saeed Hanaei: AKA "The Spider Killer"; killed at least 16 women around Mashhad; executed in 2002
Israel
- Nicolai Bonner: killed four people in 2005 in Haifa, three of them homeless; sentenced to life imprisonment
Italy
- Wolfgang Abel and Mario Furlan: German-Italian duo found guilty of 10 of 27 counts of murder in 1987
- Donato Bilancia: murdered 17 people in seven months between 1997 and 1998
- Leonarda Cianciulli: AKA "Soap-Maker of Correggio"; murderess of three women
- Roberto Succo: murdered at least five people, including his parents
Jamaica
- Lewis Hutchinson: Scottish immigrant convicted of shooting dozens of people in the 18th century; executed in 1773
Japan
- Sataro Fukiage: raped and killed at least seven girls in the early 20th century
- Hiroaki Hidaka: killed four prostitutes in 1996; executed on December 25, 2006
- Miyuki Ishikawa: murdered an estimated 103, but could have been up to 169 infants in the 1940s
- Yoshio Kodaira: rapist thought to have killed 11 people in Japan and Chinese people as a soldier
- Genzo Kurita: killed six women and two children and engaged in rape and necrophilia
- Hiroshi Maeue: AKA "Suicide Website Murderer"; lured people from suicide clubs promising to kill himself with his victims
- Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko Ogata: AKA "House of Horror"; tortured and killed at least seven people between 1996 and 1998, including Ogata's family
- Tsutomu Miyazaki: AKA "The Otaku Murderer", "The Little Girl Murderer" and "Dracula"; killed four preschool-age girls and ate the hand of a victim; executed in 2008
- Norio Nagayama: killed four people with a handgun at the age of 19; a novelist in prison
- Seisaku Nakamura: AKA "Hamamatsu Deaf Killer", murdered at least nine people
- Akira Nishiguchi: killed five people and engaged in fraud
- Kiyoshi Ōkubo: raped and murdered eight young women during 41 days in 1971
Latvia
- Kaspars Petrovs: convicted of murdering 13 elderly Riga women in 2005; confessed to killing 38
Macedonia
- Vlado Taneski: crime reporter arrested in June 2008 for the murder of three elderly women on whose deaths he had written articles; committed suicide in police custody; suspected of killing another woman
Mexico
- Juana Barraza: AKA "Mataviejitas" ("Old Lady Killer"); operated within the metropolitan area of Mexico City until January 25, 2006
- José Luis Calva: cannibal; police found the remains of multiple female victims in his house; committed suicide on December 11, 2007
- Gregorio Cárdenas Hernández: AKA "Goyo" and the "Strangler of Tacuba"; raped and killed four women in 1942; hailed as a successful case of rehabilitation and pardoned in 1976
- Adolfo Constanzo: AKA "The Godfather of Matamoros"; serial killer and cult leader in Mexico; committed suicide in 1989
- Delfina and María de Jesús González: AKA "Las Poquianchis"; killed a total of 91; arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1964
- Raúl Osiel Marroquín: AKA "El Gato Imperial"; killed four male homosexuals in Mexico City
Netherlands
- Lucia de Berk: nurse convicted of killing at least seven and attempting three murders in the 2000s (2008: case reopened by the Dutch supreme court and she was found innocent)
- Maria Swanenburg: killed 27 with arsenic in the 1880s
Norway
- Arnfinn Nesset: geriatric assistant nurse who poisoned 22 dwellers at the Orkdal Alders- og Sjukeheim institution over a period of years before being convicted in 1984
Pakistan
- Javed Iqbal: believed to have killed 100 boys
Poland
- Zdzisław Marchwicki: AKA "Zagłębie Vampire"; convicted of murdering 14 women; executed in 1976
- Władysław Mazurkiewicz: AKA "The Gentleman Killer"; killed up to 30 women
- Stanisław Modzelewski: murdered seven women in Łódź during the 1960s; executed in 1970
- Leszek Pękalski: AKA the "Vampire of Bytów"; killed up to 17 women
- The Skin Hunters (Andrzej Nowocień, Karol Banaś, Dr. Janusz Kuliński, Dr. Paweł W.): four medics in Łódź who killed patients for profit
Portugal
- António Luís Costa: ex-GNR officer who murdered three women between 2005 and 2006.
Romania
- Vera Renczi: poisoned two husbands, one son and 32 of her suitors in the 1920s and 1930s
- Ion Rîmaru: murdered and raped young women in Bucharest from 1970 to 1971; executed in 1971
Russia
- Valeriy Asratyan: arrested in 1990 and convicted of three murders and dozens of cases of sexual abuse; executed
- Andrei Chikatilo: AKA "The Rostov Ripper"; killed 52 women and children throughout the Soviet Union; arrested, convicted and executed in 1994
- Sergey Golovkin: AKA "The Fisher" killed 11 boys between 1986 and 1992
- Vasiliy Kulik: killed 13 people aged between seven months and 75 years; executed
- Maxim Petrov: AKA "Doctor Killer" and "Doctor Death"; doctor who killed 12 patients
- Alexander Pichushkin: AKA "The Chessboard Killer"; convicted of 48 murders; confessed to killing 63
- Sergei Ryakhovsky: AKA "The Hippopotamus"; convicted of the murders of 19 people aged between 14 and 78
- Darya Saltykova: 18th century countess who tortured and killed serfs on her estate
- Anatoly Slivko: convicted of killing seven young boys; executed
- Alexander Spesivtsev: cannibal convicted of the murders of 19 women
- Alexander Tchayka: killed four women between January 1994 and February 1994
Slovenia
- Silvo Plut: killed three women; committed suicide in prison in 2007
- Metod Trobec: raped and killed at least five women; committed suicide in prison in 2006
South Africa
- Daisy de Melker: poisoner; killed two husbands and one son from 1923 - 1932.
- Cedric Maake: AKA the "Wemmer Pan Killer"; serial rapist; murdered at least 27 people from 1996 - 1997.
- Jimmy Maketta: AKA "Jesus Killer" convicted on 16 counts of murder, 19 counts of rape from 1996 - 1999.
- Johannes Mashiane: AKA "The Beast of Atteridgeville" 13 counts of murder, 12 counts of sodomy from 1982 - 1989.
- Elifasi Msomi: AKA "The Axe Killer" murdered 15 people under the influence of the Tokoloshe from 1953 - 1955.
- David Randitsheni: AKA "Modimolle Serial Killer" raped and murdered 10 children (kidnapped and raped more) from 2004 - 2008.
- Norman Afzal Simons: AKA "Station Strangler" raped, sodomised and murder 22 children on the Cape Flats from 1986 - 1994.
- Moses Sithole: AKA "ABC Killer" raped and killed at least 38 young women in Atteridgeville, Boksburg and Cleveland from 1994 - 1995.
- Sipho Thwala: AKA the "Phoenix Strangler"; raped and murdered 19 women in the sugarcane fields of KwaZulu Natal from 1996 to 1997.
- Gert van Rooyen: allegedly abducted and murdered at least six girls from across South Africa from 1988 - 1989.
- Stewart Wilken: AKA "Boetie Boer"; raped, sodomised and murdered at least 7 victims from 1990 - 1997.
- Elias Xitavhudzi: AKA "Pangaman" murdered 16 people in Atteridgeville in the 1960s.
- Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode: AKA "Donnybrook Serial Killer" murdered 18 people in Donnybrook, KwaZulu Natal from 1994 – 1995.
South Korea
- Yoo Young-chul: cannibal; killed 21 people from September 2003 to July 2004, mainly young women and rich men
Spain
- Francisca Ballesteros: between 1990 and 2004 killed her family and attempted to kill her surviving son
- Francisco Garcia Escalero: beggar convicted of 11 murders
- Enriqueta Martí: self-proclaimed witch who murdered and cannibalized six children in Barcelona; executed in 1912
- José Antonio Rodriguez Vega: raped and killed at least 16 women
- Manuel Delgado Villegas: 48 alleged murders; convicted of eight
Sweden
- Thomas Quick: AKA "Sätermannen"; confessed and convicted of eight murders, later recanted confessions
Turkey
- Özgür Dengiz: serial killer from Ankara, who killed four people and cannibalized at least one
Ukraine
- Dnepropetrovsk maniacs (Viktor Sayenko, Alexander Hanzha and Igor Suprunyuck): three 19-year-olds who murdered 21 people during a one-month period in 2007
- Anatoly Onoprienko: AKA "The Terminator"; murdered 59 people from 1989 until his capture in 1996
- Serhiy Tkach: convicted of raping and murdering 36 women, but claims the total is 100
- Nighttime Killers (Vladislav Volkovich and Vladimir Kondratenko): charged with shooting, stabbing and bludgeoning 16 victims to death in Kiev between 1991 and 1997; Kondratenko committed suicide in prison during the trial; Volkovich was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment
United Kingdom
- John Bodkin Adams: Was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer. Between the years 1946–1956, more than 160 of his patients died under suspicious circumstances.
- Beverley Allitt: AKA "Angel of Death"; paediatric nurse who killed four babies in her care and injured at least nine others; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1991
- Robert Black: Scottish schoolgirl killer; convicted of three murders, suspected of many more
- Ian Brady and Myra Hindley: AKA "Moors Murderers"; murdered five children, aged between 10 and 17 and buried them in Saddleworth Moor
- William Burke and William Hare: notorious body snatchers in Edinburgh in the 19th century
- George Chapman: poisoned three women; suspected by some authors of being Jack the Ripper
- John Reginald Halliday Christie: killed at least six women (including his wife) between 1943 and 1953 and hid the bodies in his house. He has been implicated in the murders of one other woman and her infant child, of which Christie's fellow tenant, Timothy Evans, was convicted in 1950.
- Mary Ann Cotton: British Victorian killer; said to have poisoned more than 20 victims; hanged in 1873
- Thomas Neill Cream: AKA "Lambeth Poisoner"; began his killing spree in the United States then moved to London; hanged in 1892
- John Duffy and David Mulcahy: AKA the "Railway Killers"; killed three women near railway stations in the 1980s
- Amelia Dyer: murdered infants in her care; executed in 1896
- Kenneth Erskine: AKA "Stockwell Strangler"; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 for murdering seven pensioners
- Steven Grieveson: AKA "The Sunderland Strangler"; murdered three teenage boys in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in 1993 and 1994
- John George Haigh: AKA the "Acid Bath Murderer" and the "Vampire of London"; active in England during the 1940s; convicted of six murders, but claimed to have killed nine; executed in 1949
- Archibald Hall: AKA the "Monster Butler"; killed five in the 1970s, three with accomplice Michael Kitto
- Anthony Hardy: AKA the "Camden Ripper"; convicted of three murders; suspected of at least four
- Trevor Hardy: AKA "The Beast in the Night"; killed three teenage girls in Manchester from 1974 to 1976
- Colin Ireland: AKA "Gay Slayer"; killed five gay men in the early 1990s
- Michael Lupo: AKA "Wolf Man"; convicted of four murders and two attempted murders
- Patrick Mackay: charged with the murders of five individuals, convicted of three; confessed to killing 11 people
- Peter Manuel: Scottish murderer of seven, suspected of killing 15; executed in 1958
- Robert Maudsley: AKA "Hannibal The Cannibal"; killer of four; killed three in prison
- Peter Moore: businessman who killed four men at random in Wales
- Raymond Morris: AKA the "A34 Killer"; convicted of one murder, considered to have committed at least two more
- Robert Napper: AKA the "Green Chain Rapist"; killed two women and a child in the 1990s
- Donald Neilson: AKA "Black Panther"; killed four people, including heiress Lesley Whittle
- Dennis Nilsen: killer of 15 (possibly 16) men between 1978 and 1983
- Colin Norris: nurse convicted of killing four patients in Leeds hospitals
- William Palmer: AKA "Palmer the Poisoner"; doctor suspected of numerous murders, convicted of one; hanged on June 14, 1856
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters: murdered an unknown number of babies put up for adoption
- Harold Shipman AKA "Dr.Death": 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 of three women
- John Straffen: child killer and Britain's longest serving prisoner until his death on November 19, 2007
- Peter Sutcliffe: AKA the "Yorkshire Ripper"; convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attacking seven more from 1975 to 1980
- Peter Tobin killer of three women
- Thomas Griffiths Wainewright: artist considered to have poisoned four people
- Fred West and Rosemary West: AKA "House of Horrors"; she was convicted of 10 murders; both are believed to have tortured and murdered at least 12 young women between 1967 and 1987, many at the couple's home in Gloucester; he committed suicide in 1995 while awaiting trial
- Catherine Wilson: nurse considered to have poisoned seven people in the 19th century
- Steve Wright: AKA "The Suffolk Strangler" or "The Ipswich Ripper"; killed five women in six weeks around Ipswich in late 2006
- Graham Young: AKA "The Teacup Poisoner"; killed three people from 1962 to 1971
United States of America
- Charles Albright: AKA "The Eyeball Killer"; convicted of murdering three prostitutes in Dallas, Texas; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1991
- Rodney James Alcala: AKA "the Dating Game Killer"; convicted rapist and serial killer.
- Joe Ball: AKA "The Alligator Man"; killed at least 20 women in the early 20th century in Texas
- Herb Baumeister: suspected of killing 20+ men along I-70; fled and committed suicide after remains of 11 were found on his Westfield, Indiana property
- David Berkowitz: AKA "Son of Sam" and "The .44 Caliber Killer"; convicted of six murders in New York
- Bloody Benders: family who killed guests at their inn in Labette County, Kansas in 1872
- Robert Berdella: convicted of killing six men in 1988 in Kansas City, Missouri; sexually tortured and dismembered his victims
- Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr: AKA the "Hillside Strangler"; killers of 13 women and possibly involved in three other killings
- Richard Biegenwald: convicted of killing five people in the early 1980s in the Asbury Park, New Jersey area; suspected in at least six other murders
- Arthur Gary Bishop: Utah man who murdered five young boys; executed in 1988
- Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris: kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered five girls in 1979
- Terry Blair: Kansas City serial killer and rapist; active 1982–2004
- William Bonin: AKA "The Freeway Killer"; with several accomplices, claimed the lives of 20 boys in California
- Robert Charles Browne: convicted of two murders in Colorado; confessed to 48 murders
- Jerry Brudos: AKA "The Lust Killer" and "Shoe Fetish Slayer"; killed at least five women in Oregon
- Ted Bundy: law student who raped and murdered more than 35 women in six states; executed in Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989
- David Carpenter: AKA the "Trailside Killer"; murdered five women on San Francisco-area hiking trails between 1979 and 1981
- Michael Bear Carson and Suzan Carson: nomadic hippie killers involved in the counter-culture movement; suspects in 12 homicides; sentenced to life imprisonment for three San Francisco Bay Area murders in 1983
- Dean Carter: murdered at least four women
- Richard Chase: AKA "The Vampire of Sacramento"; murdered six people in California the 1970s
- Doug Clark and Carol M. Bundy: AKA "Sunset Strip Killers"; killed at least seven people during 1980
- Carroll Cole: killed 16 people between 1948 and 1980; executed in 1985
- Alton Coleman and Debra Denise Brown: multi-state killers whose killings took place during two months in 1984; convicted of murder in three states
- Ray Copeland and Faye Copeland: oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States at the ages of 75 and 69; convicted of killing five men; modus operandi was to hire unskilled drifters as farm hands and later kill them
- Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks: committed the Houston Mass Murders in the 1970s
- Juan Corona: California killer convicted of murdering 25 men in 1971
- Andre Crawford a convicted serial killer, who killed 11 women between 1993 to 1997
- Charles Cullen: nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who killed as many as 40 patients through lethal injection
- Jeffrey Dahmer: Milwaukee, Wisconsin cannibal who kept heads, skulls and body parts in his apartment for sexual gratification; convicted of 15 murders, but believed responsible for at least two others
- Albert DeSalvo: AKA "The Boston Strangler"; convicted of unrelated rapes; DeSalvo was never indicted for the Strangler murders, although he did confess to them
- Westley Allan Dodd: raped and murdered three boys in 1989; executed on January 5, 1993
- Ronald Dominique: confessed to raping and murdering at least 23 men in Louisiana; sentenced to eight life sentences in 2008
- Nannie Doss: AKA "The Giggling Granny" and "The Jolly Black Widow"; serial poisoner who killed 11 family members
- Paul Durousseau: murdered seven in southeast United States between 1997 and 2003; may have killed while stationed in Germany with the Army
- Mack Ray Edwards: convicted of murdering three children after confessing to the murders of six in Los Angeles County between 1953 and 1969; claimed at one point to have killed as many as 18
- Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck: AKA the "Lonely Hearts Killers"; killed at least three women and one child in the 1940s but suspected in up to 20 murders in New York and Michigan
- Albert Fish: AKA the "Werewolf of Wisteria"; sadist and pedophile who cannibalized several children; convicted of one murder, confessed to 2 others,claimed to have molested 100 children
- Wayne Adam Ford: AKA "Wayward Wayne"; confessed to murdering four women; believed to have killed others
- Kendall Francois: serial killer from Poughkeepsie, New York who targeted prostitutes; after strangling the women, he would store them in various crawl spaces in and around his home
- Joseph Paul Franklin: racist serial killer who targeted interracial couples and attempted to assassinate Larry Flynt and Vernon Jordan; convicted of 11 murders and confessed to nine others
- John Wayne Gacy: AKA "Killer Clown"; killer of at least 33 men and boys; kept bodies buried under his Chicago home
- Gerald and Charlene Gallego: AKA the "Gallego Sex Slaves Killers"; kidnapped, raped and killed victims in the late 1970s; most of them were teenagers
- Carlton Gary: convicted of the murders of seven elderly women in Georgia
- Donald Henry "Peewee"" Gaskins: AKA "Meanest Man in America"; convicted of nine murders; confessed to more than 200; executed on September 6, 1991
- Ed Gein: two known victims, one suspected victim, four missing persons; elements of Gein's life and crimes have inspired, at least in part, the films Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and the novel/movie The Silence of the Lambs
- Janie Lou Gibbs: Georgia poisoner who killed five family members
- Kristen Gilbert: AKA the "Angel of Death"; nurse convicted of killing four by epinephrine injection
- Lorenzo Gilyard: killed up to 13 prostitutes in the Kansas City area 1977 to 1993
- Harvey Glatman: Californian rapist and killer of three women; lured women to pose for "bondage photographs"; executed September 18, 1959
- Jeffrey Gorton: convicted of two rape-murders in Michigan, suspected of more
- Dana Sue Gray: convicted of murder of three elderly women and attempted murder of a fourth in California
- Vaughn Greenwood: convicted of nine counts of murder, including eight of the "Skid Row Slasher" killings in southern California
- Belle Gunness: Norwegian-born murder-for-profit killer who killed her suitors and children in Indiana
- Anna Marie Hahn: German-born murder-for-profit killer who poisoned five elderly men; executed in 1938
- Robert Hansen: Alaskan baker who killed prostitutes at his cabin; convicted of four murders but admitted to 11 others
- Donald Harvey: AKA "Angel of Death"; hospital orderly; confessed to more than 80 "mercy killings" with 37 confirmed killings
- William Heirens: AKA "The Lipstick Killer"; confessed to three murders spanning from June 1945 to January 1946
- Dr. H. H. Holmes: active from 1890 to 1894 during Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition; convicted of only one murder but definitively tied to at least eight more and confessed to a total of 27
- Waneta Hoyt: New York woman who murdered her five children
- Michael Hughes: killed four women in the Los Angeles area between 1992 and 1993; charged in 2008 with raping and murdering four additional women between 1986 and 1993
- Leslie Irvin: AKA "Mad Dog"; convicted of killing six people in Indiana in the mid-1950s; his Supreme Court case set a precedent for fair trials of highly publicized defendants
- Phillip Carl Jablonski: killed at least four women in California and Utah
- Keith Hunter Jesperson: Canadian serial killer convicted in the United States
- Vincent Johnson: AKA the "Brooklyn Strangler"; a homeless crack addict who killed at least five prostitutes
- Genene Jones: Texas pediatric nurse who poisoned infants in her care; convicted of only one murder but suspected of 10 or more others
- Patrick Kearney: necrophiliac convicted of 21 murders in California and admitted to seven other murders
- Edmund Kemper: started killing when he was 15 years old in Santa Cruz, California; convicted of six murders and implicated in four others
- Tillie Klimek: Chicago woman who poisoned five husbands; sentenced to life imprisonment
- Paul John Knowles: raped and murdered 18 people
- Randy Kraft: convicted of the murders of 16 young men and boys; suspected of 51 others in California
- Timothy Krajcir: confessed to killing more than nine women—five in Missouri and four others in Illinois and Pennsylvania
- Peter Kudzinowski: killed children in New Jersey in the 1920s
- Leonard Lake and Charles Ng: ex-Marines and survivalists; killed at least 11 people and suspected of 25 in Wilseyville, California; collected and murdered female sex slaves
- Derrick Todd Lee: AKA the "Baton Rouge Serial Killer"; convicted of two murders; linked by DNA evidence to five others
- Henry Lee Lucas: convicted of 11 murders and confessed to approximately 3,000 others, although most of his confessions are considered outlandish; a task force set up to investigate his claims suggested that the true number of his murders may be as high as 213
- Rhonda Belle Martin: Alabama poisoner who murdered six family members; suspected of poisoning at least nine; executed in 1957
- Michigan murders (John Norman Collins and Gary Leiterman): committed separately in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor between 1967 and 1969
- Frederick Mors: Austrian who killed 17 elderly patients by poisoning in New York
- John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo: AKA "Beltway Snipers"; Muhammad was convicted of seven murders and was executed for the murder in Virginia, leaving nine others unprosecuted; Malvo was convicted of, plead guilty to, or confessed to at least nine murders
- Herbert Mullin: schizophrenic in Santa Cruz, California who killed people to prevent earthquakes; convicted of 10 murders and confessed to three others
- Earle Nelson: AKA "Gorilla Man"; necrophiliac convicted and hanged for one murder; implicated in about 20 others
- Marie Noe: murdered eight of her children between 1949 and 1968
- Gordon Stewart Northcott: AKA the "Wineville Chicken Coop Murders"; California man who confessed to kidnapping, raping and murdering nine young boys with the aid of his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott in the 1920s; suspected of the murder of nearly 30, executed in 1930
- Carl Panzram: murderer, rapist and arsonist; convicted of two murders; confessed to 19 others; executed in 1930
- Gerald Parker: AKA the "Bedroom Basher" raped and murdered five women and killed the unborn baby of a sixth woman in Orange County, California
- Christopher Peterson: AKA the "Shotgun Killer", confessed to shooting seven people with a shotgun in a killing spree spanning from October 30, 1990 to December 18, 1990 in Indiana.
- Dorothea Puente: convicted of three killings in Sacramento, California during the 1980s; suspected of six others
- Dennis Rader: AKA the "BTK Killer"; killed ten people between 1974 and 1991 in Sedgwick County, Kansas
- Richard Ramirez: AKA the "Night Stalker"; terrorized Los Angeles in 1984 and 1985; convicted of 14 murders
- David Parker Ray: convicted of rape and torture and sentenced to 224 years in prison; FBI believes he was responsible for the deaths of 60 women in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
- Paul Dennis Reid: killed seven people during armed robberies between February and April 1997
- Ángel Maturino Reséndiz: killed nine people in Texas, Kentucky, and Illinois
- Gary Ridgway: AKA the "Green River Killer"; convicted of murdering 48 women in Washington state
- Joel Rifkin: murdered 17 women in the New York City and Long Island areas
- John Edward Robinson: AKA the "Cyber Sex Killer"; lured victims through the internet; convicted of murdering six women in Missouri and Kansas
- Dayton Leroy Rogers: murdered at least six women in Oregon
- Danny Rolling: pleaded guilty to murdering five students in Florida; executed in 2006
- Michael Bruce Ross: raped and murdered seven women in Connecticut; executed May 13, 2005
- Efren Saldivar: respiratory therapist who killed six patients, possibly as many as 120
- Altemio Sanchez: AKA the "Bike Path Rapist"; responsible for three murders and numerous rapes spanning a 25-year period in Buffalo, New York; currently serving three consecutive 75 years-to-life sentences for the murders
- Heriberto Seda: New York City copycat killer of the "Zodiac Killer" active from 1990 to 1994; convicted of shooting eight individuals, killing three; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998
- Gerard John Schaefer: Florida police officer who killed up to 34 women and girls
- Tommy Lynn Sells: convicted of only one murder; admitted to murdering dozens of people across the United States, possibly in excess of 70 although only six are confirmed
- Serial Shooter ( Dale S. Hausner and Samuel John Dieteman): Convicted of killing 8 people in random drive-by shootings in 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona
- Arthur Shawcross: AKA "The Genesee River Killer"; convicted of 12 murders; confessed to one more
- Robert Shulman: convicted of murdering five prostitutes between 1991 and 1996
- Lemuel Smith: confessed to the murders of five people, including an on-duty female prison guard
- Morris Solomon Jr.: handyman who killed six young women between 1986 and 1987 in Sacramento, California
- Gerald Stano: convicted murderer of 41 women; executed in 1998
- Cary Stayner: killed four women in Yosemite, California
- Michael Swango: physician and surgeon who poisoned over 30 of his patients and colleagues
- William Suff: AKA the "Riverside Killer"; killed up to 19 women near Riverside, California
- Marybeth Tinning: New York woman who smothered nine of her children to death
- Ottis Toole: Henry Lee Lucas' accomplice; convicted of six murders in Florida; confessed to but never tried for Adam Walsh's murder
- Maury Travis: St. Louis area torture killer of 12–17 prostitutes from 2000 to 2002
- Chester Turner: murderer of women in Los Angeles, California; convicted of 12 murders and linked through DNA evidence to another
- Henry Louis Wallace: Charlotte, North Carolina killer of at least nine young women from 1992 to 1994
- Coral Eugene Watts: convicted of two murders; admitted to killing 80 people in Texas and Michigan; possibly guilty of 100 murders
- Nathaniel White: convicted of stabbing to death six women in the Hudson Valley, New York area from 1991 to 1992
- Wayne Williams: convicted of two murders; police claim his arrest solved 23 others in a string of 29
- Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood: Michigan duo who murdered five elderly nursing home residents in their care and claimed to have killed another
- Randall Woodfield: AKA the "The I-5 Killer" and "The I-5 Bandit"; convicted of four murders; believed responsible for 14 others
- Aileen Wuornos: shot six men dead in Florida; executed in 2002
- Robert Lee Yates: murdered at least 13 women in Spokane County, Washington
Venezuela
- Dorangel Vargas: killed and cannibalized at least 10 men.
Unidentified serial killers
Australia
- Bowraville Murders: murders of three Aboriginal children in between 1990 and 1991
- Claremont serial murders: murders of two young women and the disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997
Brazil
- Paturis Park murders: AKA the "Rainbow Maniac"; series of 13 gunshot murders of gay men between July 2007 and August 2008 in Paturis Park (Parque dos Paturis) in Carapicuiba
India
- Beer Man: murdered seven people in south Mumbai between October 2006 and January 2007
- Stoneman: responsible for 13 murders in Kolkata in 1989
Italy
- Monster of Florence: murderer or murderers who targeted couples; killed 16 individuals between 1968 and 1985 in the province of Florence, Italy
Mexico
- Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez: AKA "The dead women of Juárez"; the violent deaths of hundreds of women since 1993 in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez
Portugal
- Lisbon Ripper: murdered three women in Lisbon between 1992 and 1993
South Korea
- Hwaseong serial murders: series of murders between 1986 and 1991 in Hwaseong; ten women were found raped, bound, and murdered
United Kingdom
- Bible John: thought to be responsible for the deaths of three women in Glasgow, Scotland in the late 1960s
- Jack the Ripper: murdered prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888
- Jack the Stripper: responsible for the London "nude murders" between 1964 and 1965
United States of America
- 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders: murders of seven by poison-laced pain-relief capsules
- Alphabet murders: murders of three young girls in the Rochester, New York area during the early 1970s
- Axeman of New Orleans: killer of at least eight people in the New Orleans area from May 1918 to October 1919
- Baseline Killer: one man has been charged with nine murders attributed to the Baseline Killer in Phoenix, Arizona
- Cincinnati Strangler: raped and strangled seven mostly elderly women in Cincinnati, Ohio between 1965 and 1966
- Cleveland Torso Murderer: AKA the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run"; responsible for 12–13 murders in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the 1930s
- Colonial Parkway Killer: believed to have murdered at least eight people in Virginia between 1986 and 1989; left three couples dead and one couple missing and presumed dead
- Connecticut River Valley Killer: stabbed to death six women in New England in the 1980s
- Daytona Beach killer: murdered four, possibly five, women in Daytona Beach, Florida between 2005 and 2007
- The Doodler: sketched then stabbed to death 14 gay men in San Francisco in the 1970s
- Frankford Slasher: allegedly responsible for nine murders in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Leonard Christopher was convicted of one murder; another murder was committed in same style while he was incarcerated; believed to still be at large
- Freeway Phantom: raped and strangled six young women and girls in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s, dumping their bodies by freeways
- Goleta Murders 1979, 1981: series of three home invasion attacks on couples living in a roughly two-mile-square (5 km²) area of Goleta, California
- Grim Sleeper: believed to be responsible for at least 12 murders in Los Angeles since 1985
- North Side Strangler: one man is in custody after DNA evidence linked him with nine murders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Oakland County Child Killer: responsible for the murders of four or more children in Oakland County, Michigan in 1976 and 1977
- Original Night Stalker: killer and rapist who murdered six people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986
- Phantom Killer: believed to have committed a number of murders in Texarkana, Texas between February 23 and May 4, 1946
- Servant Girl Annihilator: AKA the "Austin Axe Murderer"; responsible for at least seven murders in Austin, Texas between 1884 and 1885
- Smiley face murder theory: theoretical serial killer(s) thought by some sources to have drowned college-aged young men across the northern part of the country since 1997; most experts suggest that the deaths were accidental
- Zodiac Killer: operated in northern California during the 1960s; five known victims; claimed to have killed as many as 37 people
See also
- List of murderers by number of victims
- List of terrorist incidents (includes Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski)
- Mass murder
- Spree killer