Sunday 20 December 2015

Serial Killers: DeVernon LeGrand

Born: 1924

Number of victims: 12+      

Date of murders: 1963 - 1976

Method of murder: Shooting / Beating   

Location: New York / New Jersey 



A self-styled holy man, DeVernon LeGrand established St. John's Pentecostal Church of Our Lord in Brooklyn, New York during the 60’s. He used this “church” to recruit young women as “nuns” sending them out onto the streets to beg on his behalf. These and other illegal activities, including prostitution, earned the “reverend” as substantial income. He was fond of cruising New York in a chauffeur driven Cadillac.

Life for his flock, however, was not so cushy. LeGrand kept them in line by impregnating most of the women, and using threats of violence against them and their children. When threats failed, he resorted to torture and murder. 

In October 1966, church members Gladys Stewart, 16, and her sister Yvonne, 18, testified against LeGrand at a bribery trial, then promptly disappeared. Police would find their dismembered corpses at a property LeGrand owned in the Catskills in 1975. Before that discovery there would be at least 12 more murders, many of the victims beaten and tortured to death inside LeGrand’s Brooklyn church. The list of victims included three of LeGrand’s wives, two of his step-children, and two male employees of his church.

In May 1976, LeGrand was indicted on four counts of murder, including the Stewart sisters and two of his wives, killed in 1963 and 1970, respectively. LeGrand’s 26-year-old son, Steven, was also charged, along with two men employed by Le Grand as pimps.

DeVernon LeGrand was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 1977. He died in prison in 2006. 

Read the full, horrific story of DeVernon LeGrand, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 


Friday 18 December 2015

Blood Brothers Volume 1

25 shocking stories of America's worst African American serial killers, including; 

Henry Louis Wallace: the Charlotte Strangler murdered nine women in a two-year spree that had the FBI’s best profilers stumped.

Benjamin Atkins: serial strangler who terrorized Detroit, Michigan, claiming an astonishing eleven victims in just nine months.

Ahron Kee : child rapist and murderer who turned the projects of East Harlem into his personal killing ground.

Kendall Francois: known as "Stinky," Francois was arrested with the bodies of eight murdered prostitutes decomposing in his attic. 

Carlton Gary: a truly heartless murderer who preyed on frail old ladies, strangling them to death in their beds.

Alton Coleman & Debra Brown: this murderous pair embarked on a killing spree across five states, leaving a trail of death in their wake. 

Calvin Jackson: necrophile rapist who terrorized a New York hotel, claiming nine elderly victims in under a year.

Cleophus Prince Jr: killer who held San Diego in a grip of fear, as he raped and stabbed six young women to death in their apartments.

Wayne Williams: suspected of murdering 29 children, teenagers and young men during a series known as the Atlanta Child Murders. Doubts persist over his guilt.

Vaughn Greenwood: the Skid Row Slasher hacked and stabbed eleven men to death during a killing spree spanning a decade.



Plus 15 more riveting true crime cases. Click here to get your copy now.


Click the "Read More" link below to read the first chapter of

Blood Brothers Volume One

Serial Killers: David Parker Ray

Born: November 6, 1939

Number of victims:  14 - 60   

Date of murders: 1950s - 1999

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation / Asphyxiation   

Location: New Mexico




A truly depraved individual, David Parker Ray spent over $100,000 to build a torture chamber inside his trailer in the New Mexico desert. Then he began trawling for victims, picking up prostitutes from as far afield as Albuquerque and bringing them back to his “Toy Box.” As many as 60 are believed to have been abducted and most were never heard from again.

Ray was a meticulous planner, and he might have gotten away with his crimes indefinitely, had one of his victims not escaped. On March 22, 1999, Cynthia Vigil was being held prisoner in the “Toy Box” after being kidnapped by Ray and his accomplice, Cindy Hendy, three days earlier. She had suffered hours of horrendous sexual torture and was weak from her injuries. Still, she realized that if she did not escape she was likely to be killed. After Ray left for work, she spotted a set of handcuff keys that Hendy had carelessly left on a table, and seized her chance.

After escaping the Toy Box, Vigil ran naked to a neighboring trailer, about half a mile away. The owner then phoned the police and when Ray returned police officers were there to arrest him.     

Despite overwhelming evidence against him (including video tapes of women being tortured) Ray continued to protest his innocence. However, after two accomplices agreed to testify against him, he struck a deal, pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping and assault and accepting a sentence of 224 years in prison.

Ray, however, would serve none of that time. On May 28, 2002, while being transported to the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, New Mexico, he suffered a heart attack and died. The actual extent of his murder spree is unknown, as none of the bodies has ever been found.  


Read the full, horrific story of David Parker Ray, plus 49 more serial killer cases in

Thursday 17 December 2015

Serial Killers: Marc Dutroux

Born: November 6, 1956

Number of victims: 5+    

Date of murders: 1995 - 1996

Method of murder: Starvation  

Location: Hainaut, Belgium




A depraved sex killer, pedophile and pornographer, Marc Dutroux had already built up a sizable rap sheet before his first arrest for rape in 1986. That charge, for abducting and raping five young girls, earned him a ludicrous four years in prison. He’d barely been released when he was up to his old tricks, now assisted by his lover, Michele Martin.

On June 24, 1995, eight-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo disappeared while playing near their homes in Grace-Hollogne. One month later, on August 23, An Marchal, 17, and Eefje Lambrecks, 19, vanished while hitchhiking near the seaside town of Ostend. On May 28, 1996 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne disappeared while riding her bike to school in Kain, southwest Belgium. Just over two months later, on August 9, 1996, Laetitia Delhez, 14, vanished while walking home from a public swimming pool in her hometown of Bertrix.

With six young girls now missing from the area, police launched a massive operation but found no trace and no clues until informants brought up the name of Marc Dutroux.

Dutroux was brought in for questioning along with associates Michelle Martin and Michel Lelievre. It was Lelievre and Martin who cracked under questioning and confessed to their parts in abducting the girls. Faced with these confessions, Dutroux realized the game was up and admitted his involvement.

On August 15, 1996, Dutroux led officers to a basement cell in his home where Sabine Dardenne and Laetitia Delhez were found alive, although filthy and malnourished. The girls had been kept as sex slaves but they were the lucky ones, the other four victims had been killed.

Marc Dutroux went on trial for murder on March 1, 2004. Convicted on all counts, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Martin got 30 years and Lelievre 25 years. 


Read the full, horrific story of Marc Dutroux, plus 29 more serial killer cases in

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Serial Killers: Orville Lynn Majors

Born: 1941

Number of victims: 6+    

Date of murders: 1994 - 1995

Method of murder: Poisoning   

Location: Clinton, Indiana 




Born April 24, 1961 in Clinton, Indiana, Orville Lynn Majors developed an interest in nursing after caring for his ailing grandmother. He later qualified as an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) and found work at Vermillion County Hospital in his hometown.

But it was soon clear that Majors was badly suited to his chosen profession. He seemed to genuinely hate the elderly patients under his care, calling them “wasters,” and telling his colleagues that they all deserved to die. Few would have guessed that he meant this literally. 

Soon after Majors started working at Vermillion there was a dramatic increase in death rates at the hospital. In 1992, twenty-six patients had died at the hospital. Two years later, that number had soared to 101, most of the deaths occurring in the 4-bed ICU, where Majors worked.

Something had to be done, and the hospital therefore brought in an expert to investigate. The consultant soon picked up a pattern. The majority of deaths at the hospital had a common denominator, ICU nurse Orville Lynn Majors. According to the consultant’s calculations patients were 43 times more likely to die on Majors’ shift than on any other. 

The matter, of course, had to be reported to the police and the subsequent investigation firmed up the consultant’s suspicions. First, a quantity of potassium chloride was found at Majors’ home. This drug can cause a sudden rise in blood pressure, leading to heart failure. When autopsies proved that several patients had died in exactly this way, Majors was arrested. As soon as he was out of the picture, the death rate at the hospital normalized.

Orville Lynn Majors went on trial for only seven murders, even though he was suspected of 130. Found guilty on six charges, he was sentenced to 360 years in prison. 


 Read the full, horrific story of Orville Lynn Majors, plus 49 more serial killer cases in

Serial Killer Video: Wayne Williams and the Atlanta Child Murders



Between the summer of 1979 and the Spring of 1981, a series of at least 28 murders of children and young adults occurred in Atlanta, Georgia. A man named Wayne Williams was eventually arrested and convicted for two of the adult murders but most experts agree that he was not responsible for all of the killings. So who was? This is the story of the Atlanta Child Murders.

Monday 14 December 2015

Serial Killers: The Axeman of New Orleans

Number of victims: 7    

Date of murders: 1918 - 1919 

Method of murder: Axe   

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

The still unidentified Axeman committed a series of atrocities in New Orleans between May 1918 and October 1919, hacking his victims to death with an axe or with a straight razor. His usual method was to attack his victims in their beds after gaining entry by smashing in a back door. Most of the victims were Italian-American and many were grocers.

The mysterious killer first struck on May 22, 1918, when he attacked Joseph and Catherine Maggio while they slept, slashing their throats and then clubbing them with an axe. He next appeared on June 27, 1918, killing Louis Besumer and his mistress Harriet Lowe in their bed. The next victim, a 28-year-old pregnant woman, survived before the Axeman struck again, hacking Joseph Romano to death on August 10. As with the other murders, a bloody axe was found at the scene.

On the night of March 10, 1919, the killer attacked Charles and Rosie Cortimiglia at their home in Gretna, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Both survived despite horrendous injuries. Their infant daughter, however, did not. Thereafter, there were two more non-fatal attacks before the Axeman killed his final victim on October 27, 1919. Mike Pepitone was attacked and killed while he slept beside his wife.

After that, the killer mysteriously disappeared, although a letter, purporting to be from him, was received by a local newspaper on March 13, 1919. In it, he said that he would kill again on March 19, but would spare the occupants of any house where jazz music was being played. That night is said to have been one of the noisiest in New Orleans history.


Read the full, horrific story of The Axeman of New Orleans, plus 9 more serial killer cases 




Sunday 13 December 2015

Serial Killers: Heriberto Seda

Born: July 31, 1967

Number of victims: 3   

Date of murders: 1990 - 1993

Method of murder: Shooting  

Location: New York City




A copycat of San Francisco’s notorious "Zodiac," Heriberto Seda, terrorized New York City with a killing spree that spanned 1990 to 1993 and left three dead and many others injured. 

Seda, however, took the Zodiac monicker more literally than his infamous namesake. His plan was to kill twelve people, one for each astrological sign. When the NYPD received a letter from Seda threatening to do just that, they disregarded it as a hoax. On March 8, 1990, they were proved wrong.

Mario Orosco, a Scorpio, was shot in the back but survived. 21 days later, German Montenedro, a Gemini, also survived his encounter with Seda. The next victim, however, was not so lucky. Joseph Proce, a Taurus, was attacked and shot on May 31, 1990. A note found near his body read: "Zodiac -- Time to die!.” Proce died in the hospital three weeks later. 

A fourth victim, Larry Parham, was shot and injured in Central Park on June 21 but thereafter the Zodiac disappeared until August 1992, when he again started corresponding with the police. Soon after, the attacks started up again. Patricia Fonte, a Leo, was killed in a vicious knife attack on August 10, suffering over 100 wounds.

About a year later, on June 4, 1993, Seda shot James Weber, a Libra, in the leg. Six weeks after that, he killed his third victim, a homeless man named John DiAcone, star sign Virgo. On October 2, he shot Diane Ballard, another Taurus, and left her partially paralyzed.

By now the story of the Zodiac Killer had leaked to the press and the city was in panic, fearing another “Son of Sam” type killing spree. But then police got a break in the case. Seda was involved in a domestic altercation with his sister and her boyfriend on June 18, 1996. The police were called and a stand-off ensued, during which Seda fired several times at officers. After he eventually surrendered, the police searched his home and found evidence that linked him to the Zodiac attacks.

Convicted of three murders, Heriberto Seda was sentenced to life in prison.

Read the full, horrific story of Heriberto Seda, plus 49 more serial killer cases in

Thursday 10 December 2015

Serial Killers: Braeden Nugent

Born: 1975 

Number of victims: 2+      

Date of murders: 1995

Method of murder: Beating    

Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario

A particularly savage murderer, Braeden Nugent terrorized the citizens of Thunder Bay, Ontario over a two month period in 1995, during which he beat two men to death with his bare hands.

The first to die was Jean Joseph Boutin who met Nugent and another youth at a Pickle Lake tavern on March 31, 1995. The men left the bar together, but while crossing Hillcrest Park, Nugent suddenly attacked 44-year-old Boutin, leaving him bleeding on the ground before making off with his watch and wallet. Not satisfied, he later returned and started beating Boutin again, this time tying him up and kicking him repeatedly before fleeing the scene. Boutin was found the next day, having asphyxiated on his own blood.

Just six weeks later, on May 16, 1995, Nugent attacked a mentally impaired 41-year-old named Victor Wilson in the driveway of his home. Wilson was choked and beaten, the attack so severe that his face was left “unrecognizable as human.”

By now a massive investigation was underway, involving the provincial police. It led eventually to the arrest of Braeden Nugent in December 1995. Convicted of the two murders plus a number of other attacks and incidents of arson, Nugent was sentenced to life in prison. 

On March 27, 2005, Braeden Nugent was found dead in his cell. It was later determined that he’d died of an overdose of methadone, a drug used to ease addicts off heroin. The drug however had never been prescribed to Nugent and it is uncertain whether he committed suicide or was poisoned by his fellow inmates.  


Read the full, horrific story of Braeden Nugent, plus 24 more serial killer cases in
Canadian Monsters. Available now on Amazon




Wednesday 9 December 2015

Serial Killers: Glen Rogers

Born: July 15, 1962 

Number of victims:  5+    

Date of murders: 1993 -1995

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing   

Location: California / Mississippi / Kentucky / Florida / Louisiana 



Known as the Cross-Country Killer, Glen Rogers was a charming ladies man who killed at least five women during a multi-state rampage in the mid-90s. His first victim was a former housemate whose body was found hidden under a pile of furniture in an abandoned house owned by the Rogers family. Two years later, in September 1995, Rogers showed up in Van Nuys, California where he murdered a woman he picked up in a bar. Her body was later found inside her burning pickup truck. An autopsy would prove that she’d been raped and strangled. Rogers' third victim was picked up from another bar, this time in Jackson, Mississippi on November 3.

With Rogers now identified as a suspect and a major manhunt underway to find him, he fled to Tampa, Florida where he fatally stabbed Tina Marie Cribbs and left her to die in a motel room bathtub. Finally, he showed up in Bossier City, Louisiana on November 11, where yet another young woman was stabbed to death. Shortly afterwards, Rogers was tracked down and taken into custody. Under interrogation, he jokingly admitted to 70 murders, although he later recanted that claim. Police believe he might be responsible for 12 deaths.

Glen Rogers went on trial for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs in Tampa, Florida on May 7, 1997. Found guilty of murder he was sentenced to death. He subsequently received another death sentence in California.


Read the full, horrific story of Glen Rogers, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 




Monday 7 December 2015

Serial Killers: Peter Stubbe

Number of victims: 18    

Date of murders: 1568 - 1589 

Method of murder: Stabbing   

Location: Germany

Know as the “Werewolf of Bedburg,” Peter Stubbe was executed in Cologne, Germany in 1589 over a series of horrific murders. The belief was that Stubbe was a werewolf and had sold his soul to the devil. This was given credence by Stubbe’s own confession, although that confession was obtained under the most horrific torture. In it, Stubbe claimed that Satan had given him a magic belt that transformed him into a hungry and savage wolf when he wore it.

The accusations against Stubbe were that, between 1564 and 1589, he murdered 18 people, literally tearing them apart and consuming their flesh. Fourteen of the victims were children, and there were also two pregnant women, whose fetuses he allegedly ripped from their wombs and ate. Also among the dead was Stubbe’s own son whose brain he supposedly devoured.

Found guilty of these crimes, Stubbe was put to death on October 31, 1589, along with his daughter and mistress. The execution was every bit as gruesome as Stubbe’s alleged crimes. First he was tied to a wagon wheel; then flesh was torn from his body with red-hot pincers; then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axe before he was eventually beheaded. His head was later placed on a pole as a warning to other “werewolves.”


 Read the full, horrific story of Peter Stubbe, plus 29 more serial killer cases in

Sunday 6 December 2015

Serial Killers: Michael Swango

Born: October 21, 1954

Number of victims: 4 - 60     

Date of murders: 1981 - 1997

Method of murder: Poisoning   

Location: Illinois / Ohio / South Dakota / New York / Zimbabwe




Arguably one of the most depraved medical serial killers in history, Michael Swango was a doctor from Tacoma, Washington who poisoned at least 30 of his patients and colleagues. 

Swango began his murderous career while serving an internship at Ohio State University in 1983. Nurses began noticing that apparently healthy patients became seriously ill and died whenever Swango was around. They reported their concerns to administrators but were accused of paranoia. 

In July 1984, Swango was working as an Emergency Medical Services technician in Illinois. Soon, many of his colleagues began noticing that they became violently ill whenever Swango made coffee for them. They took their concerns to police and Swango was arrested after donuts he’d brought in for the staff turned out to contain traces of arsenic.

Swango was convicted of aggravated battery and sent to prison for five years. He was released in 1991, thereafter forging documents so that he could work as a doctor again.  In 1992, he began working as at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota under the alias David J. Adams. However, he was soon exposed as a fraud and asked to leave, although no charges we filed. Next he showed up at the Northport Veterans Administration Medical Center in New York. Sure enough, patients soon started dying there.

Swango was discharged from his latest position in October 1993. A year later he surfaced at the Mnene Hospital in the African country of Zimbabwe. After seemingly healthy patients started dying, Swango was arrested and charged with murder. He fled before the trial. He next obtained a job in Saudi Arabia using a false resume but was arrested at O' Hare Airport in Chicago, during a stop over while on route to the Middle East.

Tried in July, 2000, Swango admitted murdering three of his patients. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He is suspected of as many as 60 murders.


Read the full, horrific story of Michael Swango, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 




Saturday 5 December 2015

Serial Killers: Richard Cottingham

Born: November 25, 1946

Number of victims:  Strangulation   

Date of murders: 1977 - 1980 

Method of murder: 6   

Location: New York / New Jersey




On December 2, 1979, firefighters responding to a blaze at a seedy Times Square hotel discovered two headless female corpses. NYPD homicide investigators later linked the murders to the killing of teenage prostitute Helen Sikes in January that year. She too had been found hacked apart in Times Square. And on May 5, 1980, police had another murdered prostitute to deal with. Valerie Street’s body had not been cut up, but she had been severely beaten, and her killer had bitten off one of her nipples.

Within a week, the death toll had increased to five when prostitute Jean Reyner turned up dead in a Times Square hotel room. Her breasts had been hacked off. A week after that, the police finally got their break when they were called back to the same hotel. A woman had been reported screaming in one of the rooms and officers found her handcuffed to a bed. She had been beaten, raped and sodomized and had also been slashed with a knife and severely bitten. Her attacker was caught trying to flee the scene. He was identified as 34-year-old Richard Francis Cottingham.

Cottingham made an unlikely murder suspect. He was an apparently respectable family man with a job at a major health insurance firm. Nonetheless, the evidence against him was overwhelming, especially when several surviving victims came forward to identify him as their attacker.

Tried and found guilty of the murder of Valerie Street, Cottingham was sentenced to life in prison. 


Read the full, horrific story of Richard Cottingham, plus 49 more serial killer cases in

Friday 4 December 2015

Serial Killer Video: Westley Allan Dodd


A sickening pedophile who preyed on little boys, claiming three victims before he was eventually caught. Dodd went to the gallows at Walla Walla, Washington in January 1993.

Thursday 3 December 2015

Serial Killers: John Straffen

Born: February 26, 1930

Number of victims: 4      

Date of murders: 1951 - 1952

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Somerset / Berkshire, England




In the summer of 1951 the town of Bath, in the west of England, lived in terror of an unseen child killer. The fiend first appeared early in July when he kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Christine Butcher. Just over a week later on July 15, 6-year-old Brenda Goddard was reported missing. She was found three hours later in a copse of trees, bludgeoned to death with a stone.

With the town still reeling from the two child murders, another child went missing on August 8. Nine-year-old Cecily Batstone went to watch a movie and never returned. Her body was found the next morning, in a meadow on the outskirts of town. She’d been strangled to death.

This time, however, there were witnesses who had seen the girl with a local man, John Straffen. Brought in for questioning, the 21-year-old laborer quickly confessed, admitting that he’d also killed the other two girls.

Straffen was subsequently declared insane and sent to be detained indefinitely at Broadmoor secure hospital. However, he was not done yet. On April 29, 1952, he escaped and during the 24 hours he was at liberty, committed another murder, strangling five-year-old Linda Bowyer. 

This time Straffen was declared fit to stand trial. Convicted of murder, he was sentenced to death, although this was later commuted to life imprisonment. He died in prison on November 20, 2007, having served 56 years behind bars.


Read the full, horrific story of John Straffen, plus 14 more serial killer cases in 




Wednesday 2 December 2015

Serial Killers: Roberto Arguelles

Born: 1962 


Number of victims: 4+

Date of murders: 1992

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
 
 
 
 
Between February and March 1992, three young girls and a middle-aged woman were brutally raped and murdered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first to die was 42-year-old school janitor Margo Bond, abducted from her place of work and murdered in February 1992. Just over a week later, 13-year-old Stephanie Blundell was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and then killed. Then in March, there was were two more deaths; 15-year-old Tuesday Roberts was raped and strangled, her friend, 16-year-old Lisa Martinez was stabbed to death with a wood chisel.

With four victims so savagely killed in such a short period of time, the Salt Lake City PD launched a massive operation to catch the killer. One of those questioned was 30-year-old Roberto Arguelles, who had reported to police that he’d witnessed the bodies of Roberts and Martinez being dumped. The lead however led nowhere and the case eventually went cold.

Four years later Arguelles was serving time for child molestation when he asked for a meeting with investigators. He then tearfully confessed that he had committed the four murders. He’d recently become a father, he said, and couldn’t live with the deaths on his conscience.

Arguelles asked for the death penalty and the judge at his trial was happy to oblige. The sentence however would never be carried out. Roberto Arguelles died in prison on November 23, 2003
 
 
Read the full, horrific story of Roberto Arguelles, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 4.  
Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Serial Killers: Anthony Kirkland

Born: September 13, 1968

Number of victims: 5   

Date of murders: 1987 - 2009

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Ohio




A killer with an uncontrollable sex drive and a deep-seated hatred towards women, Anthony Kirkland preyed on young females in the Cincinnati area between 2006 and 2009, claiming four victims, three of them teenagers.

Kirkland had already served time for manslaughter by the time he started his killing spree in 2006. On May 20, 1987, he’d beat and choked his girlfriend Leola Douglas to death, thereafter dousing her body with lighter fluid and setting her on fire. Convicted on that charge, he served 16 years in prison before being paroled in 2004. 

In the spring of 2006, the bodies of 15-year-old Casonya Crawford and Mary Jo Newton, 45, were found strangled to death and then partially burned in an apparent attempt to conceal evidence of sexual assault. Kirkland was suspected, but the police had no evidence against him. Seven months later, in December 2006 another partially burned corpse turned up, that of Kimya Rolinson, aged just 14. Again the police could not tie main suspect Anthony Kirkland to the crime.

In May 14, 2007, Kirkland was sent back to prison for 115 days after a standoff with a SWAT team at his home, during which he threatened to kill his 18-month-old son. Shortly after his release 13-year-old Esme Kenney went missing while jogging near her home. Her strangled and burned body was found in nearby woods and Kirkland was found fast asleep nearby, with Esme’s watch and iPod in his possession.

Kirkland would eventually be sentenced to death for Esme Kenny’s murder. He currently awaits execution.  

Read the full, horrific story of Anthony Kirkland, plus 49 more serial killer cases in

Monday 30 November 2015

Serial Killers: Jack the Stripper

Number of victims:  8   

Date of murders: 1964 - 1965

Method of murder: Strangulation  

Location: London, England 

Seventy-five years after Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of London, another unnamed serial killer appeared to terrorize the citizens of England's capital. Like the Ripper, he was a prostitute killer, claiming at least six (possibly eight) victims during a two year killing spree between 1964 and 1965. Then he disappeared never to be heard from again. The media dubbed him, "Jack the Stripper."

The Stripper first announced himself on February 2, 1964, when 30-year-old prostitute Hannah Tailford was found strangled to death near Hammersmith Bridge, her underwear forced down her throat. Over the months that followed, he appeared with deadly regularity, strangling five more women, discarding their bodies in plain view, as though taunting the police.

The police, meanwhile, launched a massive operation, carrying out over 7,000 victims and eventually focusing in on one man, 40-year-old Mungo Ireland, known locally as Big John. Ireland committed suicide before the police could arrest him but recent research suggests that he was not in London at the time of at least one of the murders and therefore could not have been the Stripper.

The killer's true identity remains as much of a mystery as the identity of the original Jack.


 Read the full, horrific story of Jack the Stripper, plus 9 more serial killer cases in

Sunday 29 November 2015

Serial Killers: Faryion Wardrip

Born: March 6, 1959

Number of victims: 5 +    

Date of murders: 1984 - 1986

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation   

Location: Wichita County, Texas




Over a period of 18 months, from December 1984 to May 1986, the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, was terrorized by a vicious serial killer. The killer first struck on December 20, 1984, brutally stabbing to death 20-year-old student Terry Lee Sims.

Less than two months later, on February 15, 1985, the brutalized body of 24-year-old nurse, Toni Jean Gibbs, was found in a field in Archer County. And a third victim turned up on March 29, when the body of 25-year-old Debra Taylor was discovered near Fort Worth. Then, on October 10, 1985, a county maintenance crew found the decomposed corpse of Ellen Blau. Six months later, on May 6, 1986, 22-year-old Tina Elizabeth Kimbrew was found beaten and strangled to death in her apartment. 

Not long after, the police got a break in the case and arrested 26-year-old Faryion Edward Wardrip. Under interrogation, he admitted killing Tina Kimbrew but denied the other murders. At his subsequent trial, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Wardrip was paroled in 1997, and appeared to be a changed man, marrying and becoming a regular churchgoer. He even started teaching Sunday School. But then, in 1999, cold case detectives sent sperm from the Sims and Gibbs cases for DNA analysis. They got a hit - to Faryion Wardrip.

Rearrested, Wardrip admitted to four murders. This time he was sentenced to death, although that sentence was subsequently commuted to life in prison without parole. He remains the prime suspect in several other murders.


Read the full, horrific story of Faryion Wardrip, plus 49 more serial killer cases in


Saturday 28 November 2015

Serial Killers: Robert Berdella

Born: January 31, 1949

Number of victims:  6+   

Date of murders: 1984 -1987

Method of murder: Suffocation / Poisoning    

Location: Kansas City, Missouri




On April 2, 1988, a man emerged from his home in Kansas City, Missouri to find a  young man hiding on his porch, wearing nothing but a dog collar. The young man claimed that he’d been held captive and sexually abused over five days. His tormentor, he said, was Robert Berdella, who lived next door.

The police were duly called and went to question Berdella. They then carried out a search of his home. They were totally unprepared for what they found. In various boxes were over  200 Polaroid pictures, all of them of naked men, bound and quite obviously the victims of  severe abuse; there were torture devices and sex toys, occult literature and paraphernalia; must tellingly there were bone fragments and two human skulls.

Berdella was originally charged with assault, sodomy, and false imprisonment. But after experts determined that some of the men in his Polaroid collection were dead, he was charged with murder.  He then struck a deal and confessed, revealing a sordid tale of torture, homosexual rape, and murder.

On December 19, 1988, Berdella pled guilty to the first-degree murder of victim Robert Sheldon, and four counts of second-degree murder involving other victims. At least seven young men are thought to have died at his hands.

Robert Berdella was sentenced to life in prison and died there of natural causes on October 8, 1992.

Read the full, horrific story of Robert Berdella , plus 11 more serial killer cases in

Friday 27 November 2015

Serial Killer Video: John George Haigh



“Vampire Killer” John George Haigh went to the gallows in 1949 for the murders of six people who he killed and then dissolved in a vat of acid. Although financially motivated, Haigh claimed that he’d murdered his victims in order to drink their blood. This, incidentally, is the case that sparked my interest in true crime.

Thursday 26 November 2015

Serial Killers: Guy Georges

Born: October 15, 1962

Number of victims: 7   

Date of murders: 1991 - 1997

Method of murder: Stabbing  

Location: Paris, France




For a period of six years from 1991 to 1997 the city of Paris, France was terrorized by a vicious serial killer. The so-called “Beast of Bastille” preyed on young women, raping, torturing and stabbing to death seven victims before the French police eventually identified him from DNA left at one of the crime scenes. He was Guy Georges, a handsome young man of mixed French / American descent, with a long record of sexual offenses. 

The archetypal “organized” killer, Georges would stalk his victims for days before he eventually made his move. He would then engage his victim in conversation and talk his way into her apartment. Once he was inside the victim stood no chance. She would be overpowered and tied to a bed. Then Georges would take his time, raping and torturing the unfortunate woman for hours before he eventually ended her suffering.

In custody, Georges initially denied any involvement in the murders, but changed his story in the face of overwhelming evidence. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no possibility of parole for at least 22 years.


Read the full, horrific story of Guy Georges, plus 29 more serial killer cases in

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Serial Killers: Joseph Briggen

Born: 1850

Number of victims: 12+   

Date of murders: 1880 - 1902

Method of murder: Unknown    

Location: California

Joseph Briggen was a northern California farmer who was particularly proud of his prize Berkshire hogs. So well conditioned were these porkers that Briggen invariable walked away with the top prizes at the annual state fair in Sacramento. When anyone asked the secret of his success, Briggen would smile slyly and say, “It’s all in the feeding.”

Little did the enquirers know that he was being deadly serious. Over the years, Briggen had developed a special diet for the pigs, one that included human flesh. For years, the rancher regularly visited the Embarcadero district of San Francisco, looking for vagrants and transients. He’d offer them a job, including a room and three meals a day, an offer that few of the hard-up men could refuse. Those who accepted were never heard from again. Briggen would kill his victims, chop up their bodies, and feed them to his hogs. He believed this “special diet” was the key to his success as a hog breeder. 

In early 1902, Briggen hired a young man named Steven Korad, ostensibly as a farm hand. He planned on killing Korad the next day, but that night Korad was checking out his sleeping quarters when he found two severed fingers under the bed. Terrified, he fled the farm and went to the authorities. Briggen was arrested the next day and the skeletal remains of at least a dozen men were later found at his ranch.

Joseph Briggen was tried and found guilty of multiple murders. He was sentenced to life in prison, but died before he’d served even a single year. The true extent of his murder spree remains unknown.  

Read the full, horrific story of Joseph Briggen, plus 49 more serial killer cases in
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 4
Available now on Amazon

Monday 23 November 2015

Murder Most Vile Volume 8

18 classic true crime cases from around the world, including; 
 

Beyond Evil: A 16-year-old girl falls into the hands of a group of drugged up miscreants. What happens next is truly beyond evil.

Hard To Kill: Four desperate men decide to pull off a murder for profit scam. They could not have chosen a worse victim.

No Sex Till She’s Dead: A joke that turned deadly, a brutal crime, an innocent life destroyed over petty jealousy.

Rattlesnake James: Meet Robert James, quite possibly the most inventive serial killer to ever darken this planet.

The Man They Couldn’t Hang: John Lee claimed he was innocent and that God had intervened on his behalf. But what really happened at his execution?

A Blueprint For Murder: The handwritten notebook contained a step-by-step outline for murder. The killer claimed it was the first draft of a novel. It wasn’t.

Fit As A Fiddle And Ready To Die: The killer went to his execution wearing the suit of the man he’d murdered. He even composed a special song for the occasion.

In League With Satan: Deep in the night, in the middle of the woods, a flame flickers, reflecting back off a falling blade. “Say you love Satan,” a harsh voice whispers, then is drowned out by a terrified scream.

Bonfire Night: A two-bit Casanova seeking to start a new life away from the women he’s seduced hits on a deadly plan, one that spells death for an innocent stranger.

Body Parts: A globetrotting killer, traveling the world on his ill-gotten gains. A trail of bodies left behind in his wake.


Plus 8 more riveting true crime cases. Click here to get your copy now.


Click the "Read More" link below to read the first chapter of

Murder Most Vile Volume Eight

Serial Killers: Vladimir Mirgorod

Born: 1979

Number of victims: 16 +      

Date of murders: 2002 - 2004

Method of murder: Strangulation    

Location: Moscow, Russia




A horrendously prolific rape slayer, Vladimir Mirgorod prowled the streets of Moscow between 2002 and 2004 claiming at least 16 victims (15 adult women and a 13-year-old girl) during that short period.

The murders all occurred in the north and north-east of the city and Mirogrod seldom wavered from his tried and tested M.O. He would find his victims in parks or in deserted back streets. After overpowering the woman, he would tie her up, then rape her before strangling her to death with his belt.

But his attacks were not always successful. Several victims escaped and reported to police the “glassy-eyed madman” who had assaulted them. Despite this info the police took a low profile approach to the case, with Ministry of the Interior Boris Gryzlov, denying that there was a serial killer on the loose in Moscow. Then in 2004, the attacks suddenly stopped.

The case was solved purely by accident. Russia had been slowly digitizing its fingerprint archives and in 2010 got a hit on a print lifted from one of the Moscow murder scenes. It belonged to Vladimir Mirgorod, currently serving a prison term for robbery (which explained why the murders had stopped so abruptly).

Found guilty on multiple murder charges, Mirogrod was sentenced to life in prison. 

Read the full, horrific story of Vladimir Mirgorod, plus 99 more serial killer cases in 


Sunday 22 November 2015

Serial Killers: Arnold Karl Sodeman

Born: December 12, 1899 

Number of victims: 4     

Date of murders: 1930 - 1935 

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Melbourne, Australia




In November 1930, a group of girls was playing in a Melbourne park when they were approached by a stranger. The man, 30-year-old Arnold Sodeman, gave them money to buy candy but asked one of the girls, 12-year-old Mena Griffiths to accompany him to a nearby house to perform a chore. Once there, he raped and strangled her, leaving her naked body at the scene.

Two months later Sodeman killed again. Hazel Wilson, 16, was on her way to a dance when he struck up a conversation with her. He then attacked and dragged her into a vacant lock-up, where he raped and murdered her.

The crime was very similar to the Griffiths murder and the police were certain that the same man was responsible. Fearful of arrest, Sodeman moved to Inverloch, 70 miles away. There, on New Year’s Day 1935, he committed another murder, luring 12-year-old Ethel Belshaw from a crowded beach, raping and killing her. 

Eleven months later, Sodeman was working as a road digger near Dumbalk when he spotted six-year-old Jane Rushmer. The girl knew Sodeman so she willingly accepted a ride on his bicycle. Her violated body was found in nearby bushes later that day.

This time however, the police had a lead. Jane had been seen riding on a bicycle with a man and as Sodeman was known to cycle to work he was brought in for questioning. He quickly confessed to all four crimes.

Arnold Sodeman was hanged at Pentridge Prison, Melbourne, on Monday, June 1, 1936.


Read the full, horrific story of Arnold Karl Sodeman, plus 23 more serial killer cases in 


Saturday 21 November 2015

Serial Killers: David Alan Gore

Born: August 21, 1953

Number of victims: 6 +   

Date of murders: 1981 - 1983

Method of murder:  Shooting / Strangulation  

Location: Florida




David Alan Gore began his descent towards serial murder when his cousin, Fred Waterfield, offered him $1000 for every pretty woman he could abduct for Fred to rape. Gore quickly got to work, using his position as an auxiliary sheriff's deputy to coax or force his victims into compliance.

The first women to fall victim to this vile pair were 48-year-old Hisang Huang Ling and her 17-year-old daughter Ying Hua Ling. Both were raped and then strangled and buried in shallow graves.

Next Waterfield demanded a blonde and Gore obliged by kidnapping Judith Daley, after he found her beside her broken down car. Daley was raped and strangled, her body dumped in a swamp. Fourteen year olds Angelica Lavallee and Barbara Ann Byer were next, picked up while hitchhiking and later raped and killed.

The murder spree was only ended after 17-year-old Lynn Elliott escaped from Gore’s house and ran naked down the street. Gore, also naked, followed firing a gun and hitting Elliot. He then dragged the body back to his house and hid it in the trunk of his car. Neighbors had however called the police and Gore was arrested. Inside the house officers found another captive, a terrified 14-year-old. 

Gore was eventually convicted of the murder of Lynn Elliot and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on April 12, 2012. Fred Waterfield received two life sentences for his part in the murders.

Read the full, horrific story of David Alan Gore, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 


Friday 20 November 2015

Serial Killers: Sophie Ursinus


Born: May 5, 1760 

Number of victims: 3    

Date of murders: 1798 - 1801

Method of murder: Poisoning   

Location: Berlin, Germany 




Born into a wealthy family, Sophie Ursinus was married off at 19 to the elderly privy councilor of Berlin. She soon embarked on a steamy affair with and army officer named Rogay, apparently with the tacit approval of her husband. However, the relationship came to an abrupt end when the previously robust Rogay suddenly became ill and died, right after he told Sophie he was leaving her for another woman.

Sophie's husband was the next to go. He died on September 11, 1800, apparently from consumption. Then Sophie's wealthy aunt Christina Witte perished on January 23, 1801, leaving her a considerable fortune.

Although the authorities suspected nothing untoward in the deaths, all three had been poisoned by Ursinus. And she'd been less that discreet in her activities. One of her servants, a man named Klein knew about the murders. Fearing that he might give her up, Ursinus began dosing him with arsenic. He, however, recognized the symptoms and went to the authorities.

Ursinus was arrested and charged with murder.  Convicted of killing her aunt, she was sentenced to life imprisonment. But this was hardly a hardship. Transported to the prison at Glatz, she was given a suite of rooms complete with lavish furnishings and servants. She lived their in luxury until her death on April 4, 1836.


Read the full, horrific story of Sophie Ursinus, plus 23 more serial killer cases in 
  German Monsters.  Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Thursday 19 November 2015

Serial Killer Video: Andrei Chikatilo



One of the most infamous serial killers in history, Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo murdered at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990, ripping them apart and in some cases consuming their flesh.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Serial Killers: Ludwig Tessnow


Born: 1872  

Number of victims:  4+  

Date of murders: 1895 - 1901

Method of murder: Stabbing    

Location: Rugen Island, Germany

Known as the ‘Mad Carpenter,” Ludwig Tessnow's murdered at least 4 children between 1898 and 1901, literally tearing them apart. The case is a milestone in the annals of crime and detection, because it was the first solved by blood analysis.

The first double homicide occurred in Lechtingen, Germany on September 9, 1898. Two young girls had gone missing and were later found in nearby woods, savagely killed and dismembered. A local carpenter, Ludwig Tessnow, had been seen near the murder scene and was questioned about suspicious stains on his clothing. Tessnow claimed the spots were wood dye and with no way to prove otherwise the police were forced to let him go.

Nearly three years later, on July 1, 1901, Tessnow again fell under suspicion when two brothers, aged six and eight, were found gruesomely dismembered in the woods of Rugen Island. The two youngsters had last been seen talking to Tessnow and again Tessnow’s clothes were covered in brown stains that he claimed were from wood dye.

Unfortunately for Tessnow, a biologist by the name of Paul Uhlenhuth, had been working on a process for distinguishing blood from other substances, and also for detecting the difference between human and animal blood. When this new process was applied to Tessnow’s clothing it proved that the stains were human blood.

Tessnow was arrested, tried and convicted of the double murder. He was executed by beheading in 1904.


Read the full, horrific story of Ludwig Tessnow, plus 23 more serial killer cases in 
  German Monsters. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Serial Killers: Teet Haerm


Born: 1953    

Number of victims: 7+    

Date of murders: 1984 - 1987

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Stockholm, Sweden  




A talented criminal pathologist, Dr. Teet Haerm was renowned for his work in helping the Swedish police unravel the most baffling homicides. Unbeknownst to his police colleagues, Dr. Haerm had accounted for several of those victims himself, while moonlighting as a cannibalistic serial killer.

At least seven women fell prey to the murderous doctor between late 1987 and early 1988. He and an accomplice, Dr. Thomas Allgren, would cruise the Stockholm nightclubs searching for female prey. They’d then take the unfortunate woman to the morgue, where she would be killed and dismembered on the operating table, some of her flesh consumed.

Haerm was eventually arrested after the murder and decapitation of former model turned prostitute, Katrina da Costa, a crime he committed in front of  his five-year-old daughter. The little girl later recreated the murder for investigators by pulling the head off a doll.

Found guilty at his trial in September 16, 1988, Haerm lodged an appeal and had the verdict overturned. He was acquitted at a second trial and promptly disappeared. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Read the full, horrific story of Dr. Teet Haerm, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
  Human Monsters Volume 3.  Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Monday 16 November 2015

Serial Killers: Bevan von Einem


Born: 1945

Number of victims: 5    

Date of murders: 1979 - 1983

Method of murder: Beating / Strangulation   

Location: Adelaide, South Australia  




The first sign that there was a killer on the loose came when the body of 17-year-old Alan Barnes was found on the banks of a reservoir outside Adelaide, South Australia. Barnes had gone missing a week earlier, on June 17, 1979, while hitchhiking in the area. There was evidence that he had been held somewhere and sexually tortured before being killed.

Two months later, on on August 28, 1979, the dismembered body of Neil Frederick Muir, 25, was found  floating in plastic bags in Adelaide's Port River. Then, on July 24, 1983, 15-year-old Richard Kelvin was found tortured to death. Kelvin had been abducted from a busy Adelaide street five weeks earlier. He was the son of a prominent Adelaide newscaster and his death sparked a massive police enquiry.

Those investigations eventually led police to a 38-year-old Adelaide accountant named Bevan Spencer Von Einem. Von Einem was eventually convicted of Richard Kelvin’s murder and sentenced to life in prison, with no parole for 36 years. 

However, there was strong evidence to suggest that Von Einem had not acted alone. In fact, Adelaide police believed that a homosexual gang, including prominent members of society, was behind the murders, as well as the abduction and rape of as many of 200 boys. Despite an extensive investigation into these allegations no further arrests were made, leading to suspicions that there had been a cover up.

Read the full, horrific story of Bevan von Einem, plus 23 more serial killer cases in 
  Australian Monsters. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Sunday 15 November 2015

Serial Killers: Yoshio Kodaira


Born: January 28, 1905  

Number of victims:  10+   

Date of murders: 1932 - 1946 

Method of murder: Bludgeoning / Stramngulation   

Location: Japan  




As a soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army, Yoshio Kodaira had an early exposure to violence when he participated in the atrocities committed against Chinese civilians during the Jinan Incident. That left him with a notoriously short temper and after a dispute with his wife’s family in 1932, he attacked them with an iron rod, severely injuring six people and killing his father-in-law.

Kodaira was sent to prison for the murder, but served just eight years before being released in 1940. Thereafter, he embarked on a campaign of terror against the women of Tokyo. Ten women would fall prey to this psychopath in the space of just over a year between May 1945 and August 1946. The victims were raped and then either bludgeoned to death or strangled. In some cases, Kodaira committed necrophilia on the bodies.

Kodaira was eventually caught after he killed a young woman that he had begun dating. Foolishly, he’d given his correct name to the girl’s parents leading the police directly to his door. In custody, he admitted to seven murders but denied three. He was executed by hanging on November 16, 1948. 


Read the full, horrific story of Yoshio Kodaira, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
  Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon