Saturday 31 January 2015

Serial Killers: Andrew Urdailles

Born: June 4, 1964 in Dolton, Illinois 

Number of victims: 8+  

Date of murders: 1986 - 1996 

Method of murder: Stabbing / Shooting 

Location: Illinois / Indiana / California




A native of Dolton, Illinois, Andrew Urdailles endured a difficult childhood during which he was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. He was also the subject of bullying at school. After graduating he joined the Marines and he did well enough to earn the rank of Corporal. However, he was later demoted when the men refused to take orders from him.

Angered by this humiliation, Urdailles decided that someone had to pay. The unfortunate victim was Robbin Brandley, a student at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California. Urdailles encountered the young woman in the college parking lot on the evening of  January 18, 1986, and stabbed her 41 times.

His appetite for murder now roused, Urdailles embarked on a murder spree, killing five California prostitutes before his honorable discharge from the Marines in 1995. Thereafter, he returned to Illinois, where he claimed three more victims in just four months.

Urdailles was eventually caught when he was found in possession of an unlicensed firearm that was linked ballistically to one of his victims. Under interrogation, he almost immediately confessed to the other murders.

Convicted on two counts of murder in Illinois, he was sentenced to death, although that sentence was later commuted to life in prison. The trial for the murder of his third Illinois victim also resulted in the death penalty, and this time there would be no reprieve.

Andrew Urdialles currently awaits execution in Illinois. He has yet to stand trial for the murders committed in California.


Read the full, horrific story of Andrew Urdailles, plus 11 more gruesome serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Friday 30 January 2015

Serial Killer Video: Peter Sutcliffe - The Yorkshire Ripper



One of Britain’s most horrific serial killers,  “Yorkshire Ripper” Peter Sutcliffe carried out a reign of terror between 1975 and 1980, during which he murdered 13 women and severely injured seven others. He used an array of weapons to bludgeon, slash and stab his victims, including hammers, screwdrivers and Stanley knives. Most, but not all, of his victims were prostitutes.

Serial Killers: Jane Toppan

Born: 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts 

Number of victims: 31+ 

Date of murders: 1887 - 1901

Method of murder: Poisoning

Location: Massachusetts 



Born Honora Kelly, in Boston, Massachusetts, in October 1857, Jane Toppan did not have the best start in life. Her mother died when she was still a young girl and she was raised by an eccentric father who eventually went insane. Adopted by the Toppan family, her name was changed to Jane. Despite her difficult formative years she was a happy child who was known as Jolly Jane, due to her sunny disposition.

But behind that facade a darker persona lurked. After finishing school, Jane decided to study nursing and was excellent at the job. However, her supervisors were concerned about her obsession with autopsies. And they were also worried about the number of elderly patients who died on Jane’s shift.

Toppan was eventually dismissed after she was found to be handling drugs she wasn’t authorized to use. Thereafter, she forged the paperwork necessary to work as a private nurse. Over the next two decades, she worked for many prominent New England families. Few of her patients survived her ministrations but somehow she always managed to avoid suspicion.

But Toppan overstepped the mark in July 1901, when she wiped out four members of the Davis family in just three weeks. Autopsies were demanded and lethal doses of morphine were found in the victims.

Toppan was arrested on October 29, 1901 and quickly admitted to 31 murders. Grinning and giggling as she made her confession, she said that she derived sexual pleasure from climbing into bed with her victims and hugging them as they breathed their last. “My ambition,” she said at her trial, “was to have killed more people - more helpless people - than any man or woman who has ever lived.”

Declared insane, Toppan was confined for life to the state asylum at Taunton, Massachusetts. She died there in August 1938, aged 84. 


Read the incredible true story of killer nurse Jane Toppan, plus 29 more fascinating serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Serial Killers: Harold Shipman

Born: January 14, 1946 in Nottingham, England 

Number of victims: 15 - 250+ 

Date of murders: 1974 - 1998

Method of murder: Poisoning 

Location: Yorkshire / Greater Manchester, England




Considered by most experts to be the world’s most prolific serial killer, Dr. Harold Shipman was a medical monster who was convicted of killing 15 of his female patients and is suspected of murdering over 200. Shipman dispatched his victims with overdoses of diamorphine, delivered while they were under his care. His apparent motive was that he enjoyed playing God, deciding who would live or die. He also killed a number of patients simply because they annoyed him.

Eventually, in March 1988, the high death rate among Shipman’s patients was brought to the attention of the South Manchester District coroner. An enquiry was launched but failed to turn up evidence of wrongdoing. Despite the finger of suspicion being pointed at him, Shipman’s patients remained fiercely loyal. Three more would die before he was eventually caught. It would take the man’s own greed to expose him for the cold blooded killer that he was.

On June 24, 1998, Kathleen Grundy, the 81-year-old former Mayor of Hyde,  was found dead at her home. Shipman was the last person to see her alive, and later signed her death certificate, recording "old age" as cause of death. However, Grundy’s daughter, a lawyer named Angela Woodruff, was concerned when a will was presented leaving her mother’s entire estate to Shipman. The will was inspected and found to be a rather crude forgery.

Angela Woodruff took the matter to the police who began an investigation. Kathleen Grundy's body was exhumed, and was found to contain traces of diamorphine, leading to Shipman’s arrest on September 7, 1998. Subsequent exhumations on 14 other Shipman patients showed that they too had died of diamorphine poisoning.  

Shipman was found guilty of 15 murders on January 31, 2000. He was sentenced to life in prison with the judge recommended that he never be released. However, Shipman had no intention of spending his life behind bars. On January 13, 2004, he hanged himself in his cell at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire. 


Read the harrowing tale of Dr. Harold Shipman, the world’s most prolific serial killer, plus 9 more serial killer cases in British Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killers: Gary Ridgway

Born: February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah 

Number of victims: 49+ 

Date of murders: 1982 - 1998 

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: King County, Washington




The most prolific serial killer in American criminal history Gary Ridgway ( a.k.a the Green River Killer) preyed on prostitutes in and around Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. He is suspected of killing more than 70 women over a period that spanned most of the 1980s and 1990s.

Ridgway was a strangler, dispatching his victims with his bare hands or sometimes with a ligature. He’d then dump the bodies without much attempt at concealment, sometimes leaving behind enigmatic clues for the task force that was hunting him. His first victim was found in the Green River in 1982, and four subsequent victims were also found in that river, earning him his nickname.

Ridgway appeared on the task force suspect list several times during the course of the investigation, due to previous arrests for violence against prostitutes. However, he was never a primary suspect until DNA evidence linked him to four of the victims. He was arrested at his place of work on November 30, 2001, and eventually struck a deal to avoid the death penalty. As part of that deal, Ridgway agreed to lead investigators to the bodies of women who had still not been found.

Gary Ridgway was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms, in December 2003. He is currently serving that sentence at Washington’s Walla Walla Prison.


Read the full, horrific story of America’s most prolific serial killer, Gary Ridgeway, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 10. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Monday 26 January 2015

Serial Killers: Dorothea Puente

Born: January 9, 1929 in San Bernardino, California 

Number of victims: 9+ 

Date of murders: 1982 - 1988 

Method of murder: Poisoning 

Location: Sacramento, California




To social worker Peggy Nickerson, it sounded like a good deal. Dorothea Puente, a sixty-something lady with impeccable manners, was offering to provide accommodation for elderly persons on fixed incomes. As such lodgings were usually in short supply, Nickerson agreed to check it out.

She was suitable impressed. Puente’s home was spick and span and the meal that Puente served her proved that the lady was a good cook. Puente’s rates were also extremely reasonable. What Nickerson didn't know that the grandmotherly Puente had done time for drugging and robbing strangers, before she opened her rooming house in Sacramento, California. 

Over the next two years, Nickerson sent 19 clients Puente’s way, but by May 1988, she was concerned that several of them had disappeared. Puente always had a ready explanation and as the individuals concerned were still cashing their social security checks, Nickerson reckoned they must be okay. However, went 51-year-old Bert Montoya went missing in November 1988, she went to the police.   

Officers arriving at Puente’s home noticed immediately the horrendous reek that neighbors had been complaining about for months. Puente said it was from fertilizer she’d spread on her lawn and also explained away Montoya’s disappearance. She said that he’d returned to Mexico. The officers left, but were dissatisfied with Puente’s story. They returned five days later with shovels and a search warrant. 

When the first corpse came out of the ground on November 11, Puente seemed as shocked as anyone. That same afternoon, she asked if she could do some shopping. The police agreed, and Puente promptly disappeared. As a search was launched for her, the dig continued, eventually unearthing seven corpses. All had died of drug overdoses administered by Puente. She had then cleaned out their bank accounts and continued cashing their social security checks. 

Puente was eventually tracked to Los Angeles and arrested on November 17. She went on trial in February 1993. Convicted on three counts of murder, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Read the full, horrific true story of Dorothea Puente, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 10. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Sunday 25 January 2015

Serial Killers: Dennis Nilsen

Born: November 23, 1945  in Fraserburgh, Scotland 

Number of victims: 16

Date of murders: 1978 - 1983

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: London, England



 
Dennis Nilsen is one of Britain’s most horrendous serial killers, a deadly necrophile who strangled to death at least fifteen men and boys between 1978 and 1983. Nilsen would keep the bodies in his apartment, bringing them out on occasion for sexual purposes or simply, as he later explained, “to keep me company.” Due to the similarities between their crimes, Nilsen is often referred to as the “British Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Nilsen began his killing spree on December 30, 1978, while working as a social worker and living in north London. The victim was Stephen Dean Holmes, a 14-year-old who Nilsen had met in a pub and invited home. Nilsen later claimed that he killed Holmes because he didn’t want the boy to leave. Holmes' death, though, had given Nilsen a taste for murder.

Over the next three years, Nilsen murdered 11 more men, stashing their bodies under the floorboards in his apartment. When the stench from the decomposing corpses became too much, he cut them up on his kitchen floor then hauled the body parts out to the garden when he burned them on a bonfire. He would usually burn a car tire at the same time, to disguise the reek of broiling flesh.

Nilsen had found an efficient way to get rid of the evidence of his horrendous crimes. But in October 1981 that method was lost to him when he was evicted from his apartment. His new residence, in nearby Muswell Hill, was a loft apartment and had neither a garden, nor space under the floor to hide bodies. This should have discouraged Nilsen from committing murder, but it didn’t. Three more men were killed between December 1981 and February 1983.

Nilsen’s new method of disposal involved chopping the body up and flushing the pieces down the toilet. Inevitably, this led to a blockage and Nilsen was eventually caught after a plumber was called and discovered chunks of human flesh in the drains.

Tried in October / November 1983, Nilsen was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He will never be released.   

Read the full, gruesome true story of British necrophile Dennis Nilsen, plus 9 more serial killer cases in British Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Saturday 24 January 2015

Serial Killers: Ivan Milat

Born: December 27, 1944 in Guildford, New South Wales

Number of victims: 7+

Date of murders: 1989 - 1992 

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing

Location: New South Wales, Australia



In September 1992, hikers in Australia’s Belanglo State Forest found the decomposed remains of two women. The corpses were identified as Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne Walters, 22, British tourists last seen alive in Sydney on April 18, 1992. Autopsies revealed that both women had been raped before Walters was stabbed to death, and Clarke shot.

A short while later, the skeletal remains of James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, were discovered in the same area. They’d been missing since December, 1989. Then, after the decomposed corpse of 21-year-old Simone Schmidl was found, a task force was hastily put together. The police now knew they had a serial killer working the area, preying on hitchhikers and  backpackers.

November 1992 brought the gruesome discovery of two more bodies. Like Simone Schmidl, 21-year-old Gabor Neugebauer and his fiance,  20-year-old Anja Habschied, were tourists from Germany. They had last been seen alive on December 26, 1991, when they set off to hitchhike from Sydney to Darwin.  

The police investigation, meanwhile, was getting nowhere. Then a man named Paul Onions contacted the task force from Birmingham, England. Onions described an incident that had happened in January 1990, while he was touring Australia. He’d been thumbing rides when a  man in a Nissan truck had picked him up. Just north of the Belanglo State Forest, the man had pulled a gun and threatened him, but Onions had managed to jump from the vehicle and escape. Onions was able to provide a description of his assailant, and the police were very interested, given the proximity of the attack.

The trail led eventually to a man named Ivan Milat. An Australian national of Croat descent, Milat had an arrest record for an attempted rape and was known to be something of a weapons enthusiast. When police raided his Sydney home on May 22, 1994, they found all of the evidence they needed, including firearms that would later be linked to the murders by ballistics and camping gear stolen from the victims. 

Milat was charged with seven counts of murder, and was convicted on all counts in July 1996. He was sentenced to seven life terms. Police also regard him as the primary suspect in a series of 12 murders, committed in and around Newcastle, Australia, during the late 1970’s. 


Read the full, horrifying story of Australian serial killer Ivan Milat, plus 29 more serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Friday 23 January 2015

Serial Killers: Leonard Lake and Charles Ng


Number of victims: 11 - 25 

Date of murders: 1983 - 1985

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Calaveras County, California


On June 2, 1985, employees at a lumberyard in San Francisco called police to report a shoplifting incident. An Oriental man had walked out of the store with a bench vice, placed it in the trunk of a car parked outside, and then run away.

When police arrived, the car was still there, a bearded man behind the wheel. The vice was found in the trunk, along with a.22 caliber pistol fitted with an illegal silencer. The bearded man was therefore taken into custody.

Initially identifying himself as “Robin Stapley,” the man eventually admitted that his name was Leonard Lake and his partner’s name was Charles Ng. However, as police continued questioning him, he suddenly began convulsing. He was rushed to hospital where he died four days later, without regaining consciousness. It turned out that he’d swallowed a cyanide pill. 

As police began checking into Lake’s background they found that he owned a property in a remote area near Wilseyville. Searching that property, they found a bunker containing an arsenal of weapons, video equipment, torture devices and Leonard Lake’s diaries. These described how the deadly pair had kidnapped, raped and tortured various women. Lake’s video collection provided sickening and ample proof that the diaries were genuine. They showed the torture and murder of several victims.

A major search was conducted on the grounds of the property where the police found the charred remains of several victims, men, women and children, among them friends and neighbors of the deadly duo. Lake and Ng had lured other victims by responding to newspaper ads offering cars and video equipment for sale. Forensics determined that at least 11 people had been murdered at the cabin, but other evidence pointed to more, possibly as many as 25. 

While all of this was ongoing, the police had launched a nationwide hunt for Charles Ng. He was eventually tracked to Canada, where he’d been arrested for shooting a security guard while trying to shoplift food from a market in Calgary.

It would be 1991, before Ng was extradited to the United States. Legal maneuvers delayed his trial for another eight years. Eventually, on May 3, 1999, Ng was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He currently awaits execution.


Read the full, shocking story of torture killers Lake & Ng, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Thursday 22 January 2015

Serial Killers: Jose Calva Zepeda

Born: June 20, 1969 in Mexico City, Mexico

Number of victims: 3+

Date of murders: 2004 - 2007 

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: Mexico City, Mexico



On October 8, 2007, police officers arrived at the Mexico City home of José Luis Calva Zepeda. They wanted to question Zepeda about the disappearance of his girlfriend, Alejandra Galeana, who had gone missing two days earlier.

When their knocks went unanswered the officers forced the door. Inside, they found cutlets cooking in a pan, seasoned with lemon. The flesh was human and would later be matched by DNA analysis to Alejandra. The police also found human flesh in the refrigerator and the rest of Alejandra’s mutilated corpse jammed into a closet.

Zepeda, meanwhile, had been taken into custody. When the police arrived, he’d tried to escape by jumping from a window, seriously injuring himself in the process. He was in no condition to answer questions but investigators found adequate proof of his guilt in a book he’d written called, Instintos Caníbales (Cannibal Instincts). Based on those writings the police linked him to two more murders, those of his former girlfriend, Veronica Consuelo Martinez Casarrubias, and of a prostitute known locally as La Jarocha. Both women had been found severely mutilated, with chunks of flesh hacked from their bodies.  

Tried and found guilty on two counts of murder, Calva Zepeda was sentenced to 84 years in prison. He had no intention of serving that time. On the morning of December 11, 2007, he was found hanging by his belt from the roof of his prison cell, the victim of an apparent suicide.


Read the full, horrific story of Mexican cannibal Jose Calva Zepeda, plus 29 more serial killer cases from around the world in Human Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killer Video: David Carpenter



Known as the "Trailside Killer" Carpenter stalked the parks of Marin and Santa Cruz Counties in California during the late 70's and early 80's. He stabbed and shot 11 victims to death before eventually being arrested in May 1981 after he changed his M.O. and murdered a co-worker. Sentenced to death but has yet to be executed over three decades later.

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Serial Killers: John Joubert

Born: July 2, 1963 in Lawrence, Massachusetts 

Number of victims: 3 

Date of murders: 1982 - 1983 

Method of murder: Stabbing 

Location: Maine / Nebraska




On September 18, 1983, 13-year-old Danny Joe Eberle was delivering newspapers in Bellevue, Nebraska, when he disappeared. Danny’s bicycle was found abandoned along his delivery route but he would remain missing until September 21, when searchers found his body among some roadside weeds. He had been repeatedly stabbed, and there were bite marks on his naked corpse.

Just over two months later, on December 2, 12-year-old Christopher Walden vanished while walking to school in Papillion, Nebraska, just three miles from the scene of the Eberle murder. His body was found two days later, hidden in a grove of trees. He had been stabbed to death.

On January 11, 1984, with the community on high alert, a young man was spotted loitering around a schoolyard in Bellevue. When challenged, the man jumped into his car and raced away, but not before a teaching assistant jotted down his license plate number. The vehicle turned out to be a rental. It had been hired by John Joubert, a 20-year-old private based at nearby Offutt Air Force Base.

A search of Joubert's quarters turned up a hunting knife and a length of rope identical to that used to bind the victims. He quickly confessed to the two murders, pled guilty at trial and was sentenced to death on July 3, 1984.

With the Joubert case making headlines, detectives in Portland, Maine could not help but notice the similarities between the Nebraska homicides and an unsolved case on their books. John Joubert was a Portland native and had been living there in August 1982 when 11-year-old Richard Stetson had gone missing while jogging near his home. Richard’s body was found beside a rural highway the next morning. He’d been stabbed and strangled and there were bite marks on the body. Those bite marks were now matched to John Joubert.

Indicted on the Stetson murder, Joubert drew a life sentence in Maine that he was never going to serve. He was executed in the the electric chair in Nebraska on July 17, 1996 

Read the full, horrific true story of child killer John Joubert, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Cannibal Killers Volume 1

Few crimes disgust us more than  the act of murdering someone and then eating their flesh. In this volume, we examine 18 such stories, some featuring infamous cases, others involving killers you may not as have heard of before.

You may, for example, have read about the repellent exploits of Albert Fish and Jeffrey Dahmer, but have you heard of;

Vince Weiguang Li, a deeply disturbed individual who killed a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus and then ate his flesh in front of horrified onlookers, or…

Omaima Aree Nelson, a beautiful Egyptian model who killed and devoured her American husband, or…

Michael Woodmansee, a teenaged cannibal who killed and ate his neighbor’s 5-year-old son, or …

Peter Bryan, a British serial killer who enjoyed eating his victims’ brains, fried in butter, or …

Boone Helm, a western outlaw who made a habit of eating his traveling companions, or…

Daniel Rakowitz, a deranged New York City drug dealer who killed his girlfriend and cooked her in a stew, which he fed to the homeless.

This book contains all of these stories and 12 more, plus bonus article, A Brief History of Cannibalism.

Warning: This is not for the fainthearted!


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

Cannibal Killers Volume One


Tuesday 20 January 2015

Serial Killers: Edmund Kemper

Born: December 18, 1948 in Burbank, California

Number of victims: 10 

Date of murders: 1964 - 1973 

Method of murder: Shooting / Bludgeoning / Stabbing 

Location: Santa Cruz County, California




When Ed Kemper was 15, he murdered his grandparents, because he later said, he “wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma.” That saw him committed to Atascadero State Hospital where he underwent a barrage of psychiatric tests that diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and also found him to have a near-genius IQ. 

Kemper remained at the hospital for six years until, in 1969, doctors deemed it safe to release him. Now 21 years old, the hulking 6-foot-9, 300 pound, young man was placed in the care of his mother, in Santa Cruz, California. His juvenile record was also sealed.  

After working a series of odd jobs, Kemper found employment with the Department of Public Works Highways Department (these days known as Caltrans). Thereafter, he began cruising the highways and picking up hitchhikers.

At first, Kemper did not harm the women he offered rides to. Instead, he used these runs to develop a placid, non-threatening persona, offsetting his massive size, which naturally intimidated people.    

Murder, however, was never far from Ed Kemper’s mind. On May 5, 1972, he picked up college students, Mary Anne Pisce and Anita Luchese, drove them to an isolated spot, then stabbed and strangled them to death. Unsure of what to do with the bodies, he drove around with them in his car, then took them back to his mother’s house where he dissected them. He later dumped the body parts in a ravine, although he held onto the heads until they rotten and had to be disposed of.   

Over the next eight months, Kemper murdered four more female students, bringing their bodies back to his home to mutilate and have sex with. He would usually cut off the victim’s head, depersonalizing her, before raping the headless corpse. The bodies would later be discarded in ravines or open fields, although he buried one victim’s head in his back yard.   

In April 1973, Kemper’s love/hate relationship finally boiled over and he battered her to death with a hammer while she slept. Thereafter, he decapitated her and raped her headless corpse. Later, he used her head as a dartboard and also cut out her vocal cords and pushed them into the garbage disposal. His murderous urges still not satiated, Kemper then phoned his mother's best friend and invited her over for dinner. When the woman arrived, he killed her too.

Kemper must have realized that he would be the number one suspect in the murders, so he got into his car and fled east. However, after hearing a news bulletin about his crimes on the radio, he stopped the car at a Colorado gas station, called the police and confessed. He was still waiting when they arrived to arrest him. 

Once is custody, Kemper had no hesitation in admitting to murder, providing a sickening confession that included admissions of necrophilia and cannibalism. At his trial he entered an insanity plea, but was found guilty on eight counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison (the death penalty was suspended at that time). He remains incarcerated at Vacaville State Prison in California.


Read the full, horrifying story of necrophile killer Ed Kemper, plus 11 more gruesome serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Monday 19 January 2015

Serial Killers: Leslie Irvin

Born: April 2, 1924 in Indiana 

Number of victims: 6 

Date of murders: 1954 - 1955 

Method of murder: Shooting 

Location: Indiana / Kentucky



Leslie "Mad Dog" Irvin was a serial shooter who terrorized the citizens of Kentucky and Indiana during four blood-soaked months, between December 1954 and March 1955.

Irvin first announced his deadly presence on December 2, 1954, gunning down Mary Holland, a 33-year-old liquor store owner. Mrs. Holland was pregnant at the time and was shot in the back of the head, execution style.

Three weeks later, on December 23, Irvin appeared at a gas station on U.S. Route 41, where he killed the night clerk, 29-year-old Wesley Kerr. Ballistics and the manner of the shooting linked the murder to that of Mary Holland.  

With the county now in an uproar, a local newspapers offered $1,000 for information leading to the capture of the “Mad Dog Killer.” But just as suddenly as he’d appeared, the killer dropped out of sight. He surfaced again on March 21, 1955, shooting to death 47-year-old Wilhelmina Sailer, on her farm near Mount Vernon, Indiana.

A week later he was in Henderson County, Kentucky to carry out his last, and most deadly spree. Goebel Duncan, along with his son and daughter-in-law were shot to death. Goebel’s wife, Mamie, survived but was permanently blinded.

A massive police operation was now under way but it took a vigilante group of youngsters to bring Irvin to justice. After spotting a car with Indiana plates parked beside a country road, the boys noted that it was similar to the vehicle seen driving away from the Duncan farm. They jotted down the license plate number and passed it on to police. The car belonged to Leslie Irvin. He was arrested on April 8, 1955. 

After several delays, the trial eventually got under way on December 7. But Irvin had another surprise for his captors. He escaped from the courthouse, remaining at large for four months before eventually being recaptured in San Francisco.

Leslie Irvin was found guilty of six counts of murder and sentenced to death. Unusually for the era, that sentence was later commuted to life. Irvin died in prison of lung cancer on November 9, 1983.


Read the shocking true story of Leslie "Mad Dog" Irvin, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 2. Available on Amazon
 
 
.

Sunday 18 January 2015

Serial Killers: Robert Hansen

Born: February 15, 1939 in Pocahontas, Idaho

Number of victims: 17 - 21+ 

Date of murders: 1973 - 1983 

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Alaska



In 1980, the remains of murdered women began showing up in remote wilderness areas around Anchorage, Alaska. All of the women had been shot with a high-powered rifle and once ballistics matched the bullets to a single weapon, the police knew that they had a serial killer on their hands. A task force was assembled but it would be three years before a lucky break led them to a suspect, a local businessman and avid hunter named Robert Hansen.

Hansen was originally from Pocohantas, Idaho and had come to Alaska in 1967, looking for a fresh start after serving time in his home state for arson. In Anchorage, he set up a successful bakery business and mostly stayed out of trouble. He did serve a short jail term for theft, although that minor offense gave no hint of what was to come.  

On June 13, 1983, a young woman flagged down a trucker on a road near an Anchorage air field. The woman claimed that a man had assaulted her, then handcuffed her and tried to force her into a small aircraft. The police were called and the perpetrator was quickly identified as Hansen.

Hansen, however, had an alibi. Two friends claimed that he’d spent the evening playing cards with them. That set the investigation back, although the police were convinced that the alibi witnesses were lying and that Hansen was the serial killer they’d been tracking. Eventually, they brought in Hansen’s friends and threatened them with jail time if they were found to be lying. The men then cracked and admitted that they had been covering for Hansen.

A search was carried out at Hansen’s house, turning up several rifles, including one that proved to be the murder weapon. There was also a map, with red crosses indicating the sites of each of the murders, 17 in all.

Faced with the evidence against him, Hansen quickly confessed. He said that his victims were all prostitutes or exotic dancers who he’d lured to his house by promising them money to pose for nude photographs. Once there, he’d overpower the woman, cuff and rape her. He’d then force her into his car and drive to the airfield. From there, he’d fly out to his remote cabin, where he would continue assaulting and raping the victim. Once he’d  satisfied his carnal lusts, Hansen would turn the woman loose, naked and on foot. He’d give her a short head start then follow, hunting her down as he would game, killing her with his rifle, or with a hunting knife.

Robert Hansen was eventually found guilty on four counts of murder and sentenced to 461 years in prison. He died on August 21, 2014, aged 75.


Read the full, horrific story of Robert Hansen, plus 11 more gory serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon.
 
 


Saturday 17 January 2015

Serial Killers: Harvey Glatman

Born: October 10, 1927 in the Bronx, New York 

Number of victims: 3 

Date of murders: 1957 - 1958

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: California 




Harvey Glatman, who would later attain lasting infamy as the Glamor Girl Slayer, showed signs of his perverted psychology early in life. As a four-year-old he was caught indulging in auto-erotic asphyxiation; as a teen, he became a compulsive Peeping Tom; as a young adult, he threatened a girl with a fake gun and forced her to undress. That latest offence resulted in a warrant being issued and Glatman fled his home in Yonkers for upstate New York. In Albany, he committed a number of burglaries and assaults on women, leading to his eventual arrest.  

Found guilty of burglary, Glatman served prison time before being released in 1951, whereupon he moved to Denver, Colorado to live with his parents. He remained there only a short while before moving to Los Angeles, where he found work as a TV repairman. 

Despite his obsession with sex, Glatman was terrified of approaching a woman and was still a virgin into his late twenties. He channeled his sexual desires in another way, developing an interest in photography and hiring women to pose for him.

Thus it was that on July 30, 1957, Glatman arrived at the home of Judy Ann Dull, a 19-year-old model and aspiring actress. Glatman told Judy that the photo shoot was for the cover of a detective magazine and under that pretext she allowed herself to be bound and gagged. Glatman then raped the woman several times before driving her out to the desert,  125 miles east to Indio. There he took more photographs before strangling Judy with a rope and burying her in a shallow grave.

Glatman found his second victim, Shirley Bridgeford, through a dating agency. On April 8, 1958, he drove with her into the desert east of San Diego. There he attacked the woman, tied her up and took explicit photographs before strangling her. This time, he didn’t even bother burying the corpse. Less that three months later, Glatman struck again, killing model and part-time stripper Ruth Mercado.

But Glatman’s murder spree was about to come to an end. On October 31, 1958, he hired a woman named Loraine Vigil for a photo shoot. However, when Glatman produced a gun and ordered Lorraine to strip, she fought back, jumped from the car and ran. A police patrol car just happened to be passing at that time and Glatman was arrested on the spot.

Glatman quickly confessed to murder and said that he wanted to die. That wish was granted to him after a three day trial. He was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber on September 18, 1959.

Read the shocking, true story of Harvey Glatman, plus 11 more fascinating serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Friday 16 January 2015

Serial Killers: Albert Fish

Born: May 19, 1870 in Washington, D.C. 

Number of victims: 3 - 10+

Date of murders: 1924 - 1934 

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation 

Location: New York



One of the most heinous serial killers in history, Albert Fish was a pedophile, sadist and cannibal who preyed on children during the early part of the 20th century.

Fish's most infamous crime was the abduction and murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd. On May 28, 1928, Fish called at the Budd residence in Manhattan, ostensibly to interview 18-year-old Edward Budd for a job (Edward had responded to a fake advertisement Fish had placed in the newspaper). Fish's real intention was to lure and kill Edward, but when he saw Edward's pretty 10-year-old sister, Grace, he shifted his focus to her instead. Claiming a prior appointment, Fish left, promising to return the following day. When he did, be persuaded the Budds to let him take Grace to a children's birthday party.

The party, like everything else about Fish's visit, was of course a lie. Rather than taking the girl to Upper Manhattan, Fish took her to an abandoned cottage in Wisteria where he strangled her. He then carved chunks of flesh from her corpse, wrapped them in newspaper and carried them home with him.

A massive search was launched but despite police efforts, no sign of Grace or her abductor was found. Fish might well have gotten away with murder, but for two things. First there was NYPD detective William King who refused to give up on the case; then there was Fish himself, who could not resist the temptation to taunt the grieving parents.

In November 1934, seven years after the disappearance of Grace Budd, her parents received a letter from Fish, in which he described in sickening detail how he'd killed, cooked and eaten their daughter. That letter would be traced to a New York rooming house, where Detective King eventually arrested Fish on December 13, 1934.

Despite compelling evidence that Fish was insane, the jury found him guilty of murder.  He was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on January 16, 1936. He has been definitely linked to two other child murders, and is suspected of many more.

Read the horrific true story of depraved cannibal Albert Fish, plus 11 more notorious American serial killers in American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killers: Larry Eyler

Born: December 21, 1952 in Crawfordsville, Indiana

Number of victims: 21

Date of murders: 1982 - 1984

Method of murder: Stabbing 

Location: Indiana / Illinois / Kentucky




Beginning in March 1982, a number of severely mutilated male corpses began to show up along the freeways running through Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. At first, the police were slow to pick up a pattern, but as the body count continued to mount a pathologist warned senior detectives of a possible serial killer on the loose. His warning was ignored.  

On September 30, 1983, with the body count now standing at 13, an Indiana highway patrolman spotted a pickup truck parked along Interstate 65. As the officer pulled over to investigate, he saw two men appearing from a nearby copse of trees. The taller of the men identified himself as Larry Eyler, and said that the truck belonged to him. Both Eyler and his companion were coy as to why they had stopped at that spot so the police officer carried out a search of the truck. Inside, he found duct tape, nylon clothesline, and a hunting knife stained with human blood. The blood would later be linked to one of the victims and the truck’s tire tracks would be matched to tracks found at one of the murder scenes. For the moment though, the police had no reason to hold Eyler and he was released.    

Eyler was now the prime suspect in the “Highway Killings” but while the police worked to firm up their case against him, the murders continued unabated. Seven more bodies were found between October and November, all of them mutilated, one even decapitated. In the interim, Eyler had filed a civil suit against the Lake County sheriff's office, claiming he was being harassed. That action was dismissed and as Eyler left the courtroom officers were waiting to arrest him for murder.

The case against Larry Eyler appeared strong, resting as it did on solid forensic evidence. But when the judge suppressed all of the physical evidence taken from Eyler’s truck, the police had no option but to withdraw the charges. Eyler was set free and immediately left Indianapolis for Chicago.   

On August 21, a janitor at a Chicago apartment building was placing garbage bags in a dumpster when one of them broke open, ejecting a human leg. The police were called and discovered the rest of a dismembered corpse. Then one of the building’s residents came forward and said that he’d seen a tall man putting the bags in the dumpster. The man had recently moved into the building. His name was Larry Eyler.

The victim was identified as 15-year-old Danny Bridges, a male prostitute. Charged with Bridges’ murder, Eyler was found guilty and sentenced to death. However, Eyler would never keep his date with the executioner though. By the time he entered death row he was already infected with AIDS.

Larry Eyler died in prison on March, 6, 1994. Before his death he confessed to his attorney that he had murdered 21 men.


Read the horrifying, true story of Highway Killer Larry Eyler, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 
.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Serial Killers: Westley Allan Dodd

Born: July 3, 1961 in Richland, Washington

Number of victims: 3  

Date of murders: 1989

Method of murder: Stabbing 

Location: Clark County, Washington




One of the most repulsive serial killers in American history, Dodd murdered three young boys over the course of two months in 1989. He would undoubtedly have killed more had he not been caught.

Dodd had been fantasizing about killing a child for a long time when he accosted brothers Cole and William Neer (aged 11 and 10 respectively) in Vancouver, Washington’s David Douglas Park on September 4, 1989. The boys were led back into the bushes, tied up and sexually molested before Dodd stabbed them to death.

Eight weeks later, Dodd abducted 4-year-old Lee Iseli from a school playground in Portland, Oregon. He took the toddler back to his apartment, where he spent the night molesting and torturing him before hanging him with a leather belt. The child’s tiny corpse was left hanging in a closet for several days before Dodd dumped it at Vancouver Lake.

On November 11, Dodd tried to abduct a 10-year-old from the men’s room of a movie theater in Camas, Washington. However, the boy kicked and screamed alerting his stepfather who apprehended Dodd just as he was trying to force the child into his car.

Once in custody, Dodd admitted that he’d been sexually assaulting children since the age of 13 and had molested as many as 175 boys over a 15-year period. During that time, he had graduated from exposing himself to his victims, to fondling, to sexual assault and eventually to sexually sadistic murder. “Thoughts of killing children excite me," he said, as though that justified everything.

Westley Allan Dodd pled guilty to murder at his January 1990 trial. He was hanged at Washington’s Walla Walla Prison on January 5, 1993.   

Read the horrific story of child killer Westley Allan Dodd, plus 11 more American serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Serial Killers: Andrei Chikatilo

Born: October 16, 1936 in Yablochnoye, Ukraine 

Number of victims: 56 

Date of murders: 1978 - 1990

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation

Location: Ukraine / Russia




One of the most fearsome serial killers in history, Andrei Chikatilo was a pedophile and cannibal who slaughtered over 50 victims in Ukraine and Russia between 1978 to 1990.

A former schoolteacher, Chikatilo lost his job due to accusations of child molestation. He then accepted a position as a supply clerk, something that afforded him the opportunity to travel throughout the Soviet Union. The new job suited Chikatilo’s needs as a serial killer down to the ground. Although he had already committed two murders, he now upped the ante, embarking on an unprecedented killing spree.

Chikatilo’s M.O. was simple. He generally hunted around bus terminals and train stations, luring his young victims with promises of money, drugs or alcohol. If a potential victim turned him down, he simply shrugged his shoulders and moved on immediately to someone else. Once someone agreed to go with him, he’d lead them into a forested area where he’d attack. The victim would be stabbed, beaten and strangled into submission. Leaves and dirt would be forced down the throat to stop the victim screaming. Chikatilo would then get to work with his knife, slashing and stabbing, cutting out tongues and genitals, slicing off noses and nipples, consuming these as the scene. He’d often gorge out the victim’s eyes because he believed the old wives tale that the eyes retained an image of the last thing the victim saw. Often, Chikatilo would reach sexual climax while carrying out these mutilations. Afterwards, he’d cover the victim with brush and walk back to the station to resume his journey as though nothing had happened.

Chikatilo remained at large for so long mainly because the Soviet state suppressed information about the atrocities he was committing. This severely hampered the police investigation, until the investigators caught a break in November 1990, when Chikatilo was spotted coming out of some woods where the mutilated body of a young girl was later found. Placed under arrest, he eventually admitted to 56 murders.

The trial of Andrei Chikatilo began on April 14, 1992, with the killer enclosed in a steel cage to protect him from distraught relatives of the victims. Chikatilo’s bizarre behavior during the proceedings suggested to all present that he was insane but he was found guilty nonetheless and sentenced to death.

He was executed by a single bullet to the back of the head, on February 14, 1994. His last words were reportedly: “Don't blow out my brains! The Japanese want to buy them!”   

Read the horrific true story of Andrei Chikatilo, plus 29 more serial killer cases from around the world in Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.


Monday 12 January 2015

Serial Killers: David Berkowitz

Born: June 1, 1953 in  Brooklyn, New York

Number of victims: 6

Date of murders: 1976 - 1977

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: New York City, NY 



Better known as the "Son of Sam," serial shooter David Berkowitz held New York city in a grip of terror between July 1976 and July 1977. His preferred victims were couples sitting in cars or women walking alone, and his M.O. was simple - he'd walk up to the victim and start shooting without warning. Then he'd walk away from the scene as though nothing had happened.

Originally referred to in the media as the ".44 caliber Killer" (because of the weapon he used), Berkowitz acquired his infamous nickname after addressing a series of letters to the media. In them, he blamed his killing spree of a demon that inhabited his neighbor's black Labrador dog.

Berkowitz carried out his final attack on July 30, 1977, shooting Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante as they sat in a parked car in Brooklyn. Moskowitz died, Violante survived, but was blinded.

However, the shooting finally gave investigators a lead in the case. A woman who lived close to the murder scene reported that she'd seen a man removing a parking ticket from the windshield of a car shortly after the shooting. That prompted police to check on all tickets issued in the area and led them to Berkowitz.   

Once in custody Berkowitz almost immediately admitted to the murders. He was sentenced to six life sentences, meaning he would have to serve 365 years before being eligible for parole.

Read the full, terrifying story of the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, plus 11 more horrific serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon.
 
 
 
 

Sunday 11 January 2015

Serial Killers: Wolfgang Abel & Marco Furlan


Number of victims: 10 - 27+

Date of murders: 1977 - 1984   

Method of murder: Stabbing / Bludgeoning / Burning

Location: Italy

Unlike most serial killers, Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan were both from privileged backgrounds. The boys grew up in Verona, Italy and met at school where they became firm friends. Both were highly intelligent and easily bored. That is until they developed a hobby that intrigued both of them - murder.

The deadly duo began their murderous career in 1977 when they burned a man to death in his car. Next, they traveled to Padua, where they knifed a casino employee and a waiter to death. With ever increasing brutality they hacked a prostitute to death with an axe, then killed two priests in frenzied hammer attacks, hammering a nail into the forehead of one of the padres.

By now the Italian police had linked the murders together, mainly because the perpetrators  left pamphlets at the scenes, sprouting Nazi propaganda. All of the pamphlets were signed “Ludwig.” 

A massive manhunt was launched for the fictitious “Ludwig.” Meanwhile, the killers started a fire in a pornographic movie house in Milan, burning six people alive. Encouraged by their success, they next set fire to a discotheque, killing one woman and injuring forty more people. They then attempted to burn down an even bigger nightclub, this one containing over 400 revellers. Fortunately, they were caught before they could get the blaze going. 

Abel and Furlan went on trial towards the end of 1986 and were found guilty of 10 of the 27 murder charges levelled against them. Both were sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, after serving just three years, they were allowed to live in “open custody.” This meant that they were essentially free, having only to report in to the police at regular intervals. 

Marco Furlan was given full release in 2009, Wolfgang Abel in 2013.


Read the harrowing tale of serial killers Abel and Furlan, plus 29 more fascinating serial killer cases from around the world in Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killers: Zodiac

Number of victims: 5

Date of murders: 1968 - 1969

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing

Location: California

He is America’s most enigmatic killer, an unknown fiend who appeared in northern California in 1968 and spent the next year claiming victim after victim, while delivering taunts and threats to the police via the media.

Zodiac’s first victims were a couple of teenagers,  shot at a lovers lane in Benicia, California in December 1968. Six months later, he committed an almost identical shooting in Vallejo. This time the male victim survived.

He attacked another couple at Lake Berryessa in September, although on this occasion he changed his M.O. Wearing a bizarre outfit that included a hood and a circled cross symbol on his chest, he attacked a young couple with a knife. The female victim died at the scene. The male survived, despite suffering eight stab wounds. Finally, the Zodiac showed up in San Francisco in October, where he shot a cab driver to death. 

During his murder spree the Zodiac sent a number of letters to San Francisco’s main daily newspapers. These letters included four cryptograms, of which only one has ever been solved.

Despite several suspects being investigated by police, no conclusive evidence has ever been found to identify the killer. The case is currently marked “inactive” by the San Francisco Police Department but remains open.

Read the full, incredible story of the Zodiac, plus 9 more unsolved serial killer cases in
Serial Killers Unsolved Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Friday 9 January 2015

Serial Killers: Robert Lee Yates

Born:  May 27, 1952 in Oak Harbor, Washington 

Number of victims: 18+

Date of murders: 1975 - 1998

Method of murder: Shooting 

Location: Spokane, Washington 




Between the years 1996 and 1998 a number of prostitutes were found murdered around Spokane’s Skid Row, centered on East Sprague Avenue. All of the victims were shot in the head, eight of them with the same .25-caliber handgun, so the police knew that they had a serial killer on their streets. However, despite the relatively small area in which the murders were committed, investigators had no solid leads until one of the intended victims escaped.

Christine Smith told police that she’d been picked up by a man in a white Ford van and driven to a parking lot where the john had suddenly produced a gun and shot her. Despite a bullet wound to the head, Smith was able to flee.

Information gleaned from the victim led police to Robert Lee Yates Jr. On the face of it Yates made an unlikely suspect - he was a well respected family man, as well as a National Guard helicopter pilot - but when he refused to submit blood for DNA comparison, he was elevated to the top of the suspect list. Then, after Yates’ wife gave the police information about his late night drives, he was arrested. A subsequent search turned up the body of one of his victims buried on his property. 

Yates faced several trials for the murders linked to him, the first two dating back to 1975. He was sentenced to death October 3, 2002 and currently awaits execution at the Washington State Penitentiary.       

Read the frightening, true story of Robert Lee Yates, plus 11 more American serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Thursday 8 January 2015

Serial Killers: Yang Xinhai

Born: July 17, 1968 in Henan Province, China 

Number of victims: 67 

Date of murders: 2001 - 2003

Method of murder: Bludgeoning

Location: Henan Province, China





Yang Xinhai is China’s most prolific serial killer, a brutal home invader who bludgeoned to death an astonishing total of 67 people between 2001 and 2003. The motive, he’d later claim, was revenge against society after his girlfriend dumped him.

Yang displayed some of the classic signs of serial killer behavior early on in life. As a child he’d spend hours doodling away in a notebook. When a relative sneaked a peak at his work, she was horrified to find that the book contained drawings and writings about murder and mutilation.  

A promising student when he was younger, Yang lost interest in his studies at high school and dropped out. Thereafter, he began traveling from town to town, looking for work as a laborer. He also started committing crimes, graduating from petty theft to burglary to rape and eventually to murder.

Yang’s M.O. seldom varied. He targeted isolated farmhouses, entering at night and killing everyone inside, men, women and children. His instruments of death included axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. Often, he raped the female victims.

Xinhai was eventually captured during a routine police sweep of nightclubs in Canzhou, Heibei Province. Found guilty of murder after a trial that lasted less than an hour, he was sentenced to death. He was executed by a bullet to the back of the head on February 14, 2004.

Read the full, horrific story of Yang Xinhai, plus 29 more classic cases of serial murder from around the world in Human Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killer Video: Jack the Ripper



Perhaps the most notorious serial killer of all time, Saucy Jack terrorized London's East End for nine bloody weeks during 1888. His victims were five prostitutes who he literally tore apart, sometimes removing body parts from the scene. Then, after committing his most brutal murder yet, the fiend disappeared never to be heard from again. Jack has never been identified and likely never will. It is one of the reasons why this case holds such fascination over us.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Serial Killers: Coral Watts

Born:  November 7, 1953 in Killeen, Texas 

Number of victims: 22 - 100

Date of murders: 1974 - 1982

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation / Bludgeoning / Drowning

Location: Michigan / Texas 



Coral Watts is a name that often escapes attention when discussion arises about America’s worst serial killers. Yet the so-called “Sunday Morning Slasher,” might well be that nation’s most prolific murderer,  responsible for killing over 100 women.

Like many of his ilk, Watts showed his dark side early in life. He was just 15 when he throttled a woman into unconsciousness while working his newspaper route. That saw him sent for psychiatric evaluation. Despite warnings from doctors, he was released and allowed to return to school, graduating in 1973 at the age of 19.

Beginning in 1974, a series of brutal murders occurred in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan. The victims were young, white women, accosted on the street, stabbed and slashed to death in frenzied attacks, one of them suffering over 50 stab wounds. At first, Watts was not suspected as serial killers seldom kill outside their own racial group. But as he was elevated up the suspect list and the police began putting the heat on him, Watts left town, moving to Houston, Texas. Inevitably, death followed.

Watts managed to avoid detection in Houston because he began varying his M.O. Some victims were stabbed, others bludgeoned, some were drowned in their bathtubs. Eventually caught while attacking two young women in their apartment in 1982, Watts struck a deal and accepted a life sentence. He was due to be paroled in 2006, but Michigan prosecutors stepped in and nailed him for two murders committed there.

Coral Watts died of prostate cancer at the maximum security prison in Ionia, Michigan on September 21, 2007.

Read the full, horrific story of Coral Watts plus 11 other infamous American serial killers in American Monsters Volume Five. Available now on Amazon.
 

Tuesday 6 January 2015

Serial Killers: Joseph Vacher

Born:  November 16, 1869 in Bourg-en-Bresse, France

Number of victims: 11+

Date of murders: 1894 - 1897

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: France




A contemporary of Jack the Ripper, Joseph Vacher is sometimes called “The French Ripper” and with good reason, his victims were literally torn apart. Vacher showed early signs of mental instability, twice attempting suicide before being committed to an asylum. There, his behavior was so intimidating that even the most homicidal of inmates gave him a wide berth. Unable the control his violent outbursts, the authorities simply declared him “cured” and turned him loose on an unwary populace.

Vacher began drifting, ranging throughout south-east France. He also began acting out his  homicidal compulsion, raping and mutilating anyone who crossed his path. He seemed to prefer female victims, but would not shy away from killing boys and men when the opportunity arose. At least 11 victims died at his hand, more than twice the victim count of his more illustrious counterpart, Jack.

Vacher was eventually caught after he attacked a woman in a field near Bois des Pelleries. Unbeknownst to him, the woman’s husband and son were working nearby and rushed to her aid. 

Arrested on the relatively minor charge of “offending public decency” Vacher was sentenced to three months in jail. While incarcerated, he inexplicably wrote a letter to the local magistrate, admitting to 11 mutilation murders.

Despite his confession, Vacher was charged with only one murder, for which he was sentenced to death. He was dragged, kicking and screaming, to the guillotine on December 31, 1898.     

Read the horrific story of Joseph Vacher, plus 29 other serial killer cases from around the world in Human Monsters Volume Four. Available now on Amazon.