Saturday 28 February 2015

Serial Killers: Christopher Wilder

Born: March 13, 1945 in Sydney, Australia 

Number of victims: 8+ 

Date of murders: 1984 

Method of murder: Stabbing / Shooting 

Location: Florida / Texas / Oklahoma / Nevada / California / New York



Born in Sydney, Australia to an American naval officer and his Australian wife, Christopher Wilder moved to the United States in 1970. By that time he’d already accumulated a lengthy arrest sheet for various sexual offenses, although he’d always managed to avoid jail time.

Settling in Florida, Wilder prospered in construction and real estate, building up a fortune and living a millionaire lifestyle of sports cars, sailboats and a luxury apartment. Needless to say, he also had no problem attracting female company. However, consensual partners did not satisfy Wilder’s perverted needs. Over the next decade, he was arrested several times on charges of sexual battery, each time earning no more than probation 

In December 1982, while visiting his parents in Australia, Wilder was arrested for kidnapping two 15-year-old girls and forcing them to pose for pornographic photographs. Granted bail, he was allowed to travel to the US, provided he returned for his court hearing on On April 3, 1984.

Wilder would never keep that date.

On February 6, 1984, 20-year-old Rosario Gonzalez, disappeared from a Miami racetrack. She had last been seen talking to a man fitting Wilder’s description. Then, a month later, Elizabeth Kenyon vanished. Kenyon was Wilder’s former girlfriend and he immediately fell under suspicion. But Wilder wasn’t about to wait around to be arrested. On March 17, he got into his car and hit the road. What followed was one of the most horrific killing sprees in U.S. history. 

Rampaging through Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Nevada Wilder left a trail of murdered young women in his wake. His M.O. was to present himself as a fashion photographer, luring his victims with the prospect of a modelling contract. Once he had the victim alone, Wilder would assault and rape the young woman, often torturing her. He’d then stab or strangle her to death.  

As the body count mounted, Wilder made it onto the FBI’s Most Wanted list and earned the nickname “The Beauty Queen Killer.”

However, not all of Wilder’s victims were killed. On April 4, 1984, he abducted 16-year-old Tina Marie Risico in Torrance, California. Risico was repeatedly raped and forced to accompany Wilder as he traveled east. She even helped him to abduct two more women, before he eventually released her at Boston's Logan Airport, buying her a one-way ticket back to California.

Wilder continued north alone, heading for Canada. On April 13, a couple of New Hampshire state troopers spotted him at a service station. They ordered him to surrender but Wilder produced a gun and started shooting. In the ensuing gun battle Wilder was shot and killed. His killing spree had left at least 8 young women dead.


Read the full, horrific story of Christopher Wilder, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Friday 27 February 2015

Serial Killers: Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega

Born: December 3, 1957 in Santander, Spain  

Number of victims: 16

Date of murders: 1987 - 1988

Method of murder: Suffocation 

Location: Santander, Spain




Known as El Mataviejas" (The Old Lady Killer), Jose Antonio Rodriguez Vega is Spain's most prolific killer. As the name suggests, this heartless brute preyed on elderly women, raping and strangling 16 victims over a period of just nine months.

Vega’s usual M.O. was to befriend his victims by offering to help carry groceries or do work at their homes. Once inside, he’d turn on the helpless woman, fondle and rape her and then strangle her to death. Sometimes he’d commit postmortem rape with a broomstick handle or other object. Then, before leaving the scene, he’d tuck the victim up in bed. Because of this many of the early victims were thought to have died of natural causes.

It was the murder of 82-year-old Margarita Gonzalez that first alerted the police to the presence of a serial killer. However, Vega would commit two more murders before an anonymous tip off brought the police to his apartment. There, they found an elaborate shrine, containing trophies taken from his many victims. When pictures of the shrine were shown on TV, relatives of several victims came forward to identify their possessions. It was only then that the scale of Vega’s killing spree became apparent.

Tried in 1991, Vega was sentenced to 440 years, although that meant in effect that he’d only serve 20. However, fate had other plans for the notorious granny killer. On October 25, 2002, he was stabbed to death by two fellow prisoners in the courtyard of the Topas prison in Salamanca province. 

Read the full, horrific story of José Antonio Rodriguez Vega, plus 29 more serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Serial Killer Video: Hadden Clark - the Cross-Dressing Cannibal



A horrendously warped killer, Hadden Clark was convicted of killing a 6-year-old girl and a 23-year-old-woman, and is believed to have cannibalized their corpses. Based on his confessions and the work of profilers and psychiatrists, investigators believe he may have committed as many as 23 murders. 

Thursday 26 February 2015

Serial Killers: Maury Travis

Born: October 25, 1965   

Number of victims: 12 - 17 

Date of murders: 2001 - 2002 

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: Ferguson, Missouri




There was very little in Maury Travis’ background that suggested the killer he would become. A quiet boy growing up, Travis did well in school and was a regular churchgoer. He appeared to take his parents’ divorce in his stride and eventually graduated and attended college.

But it was at college that he discovered cocaine and the pursuit of that drug led him into criminal behavior. Arrested on five counts of armed robbery in 1994, Travis served five years at Farmington Correctional Center. He was returned to prison in February 1998 for a drug—related parole violation, serving a year. Not long after his release, he killed his first victim, 61-year-old Mary Shields.

On November 29, 2000, Travis was again found in possession of drugs and sent back to prison. He was free again in March 2001. Shortly after, the bodies of strangled women started showing up in and around Ferguson, Missouri, all of them bearing evidence of torture.

Travis was a remarkably prolific killer, claiming 10 victims in less than a year, but while the police had him on their suspect list, there was no direct evidence linking him to the murders. That is, until Travis got too clever for his own good.

On May 21, 2002, the police received a letter, including a map that gave the location of his latest victim. The body was indeed where Travis said it would be, but investigators focused their attention on the map. As it had been downloaded from the Internet, the police could track the IP address. That address belonged to Maury Travis.

Travis was arrested on June 7. At his home, police found an extensive collection of video tapes, documenting the rape, torture and murder of several of his victims. Travis, however, would never stand trial for his crimes. He hanged himself in his cell on June 10, 2002. 


Read the full, horrific story of Maury Travis, plus 49 more serial killer cases in
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of Volume 2. 
Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Serial Killers: Gerrard Schaefer

Born:  March 25, 1946 in Wisconsin

Number of victims: 9+ 

Date of murders: 1969 - 1973 

Method of murder: Shooting / Strangulation

Location: Florida 




A sexual deviant from the age of twelve, Gerrard Schaefer went on to become on of America’s most depraved killers. He committed at least nine murders of girls and young women, some of them while he was serving as a Deputy Sheriff.

Schaefer first came to the attention of the authorities in July 1972 after he picked up two teenaged hitchhikers in his police cruiser. The girls were driven to a swamp where they were tied up with nooses around their necks. Shaefer then left them there, balancing on a tree root, in danger of choking to death if they slipped. He probably intended coming back after his shift was over but fortunately the girls managed to escape and reported him to the authorities. 

Schaefer was fired from his job, charged with kidnapping and assault, and released on bail. But while he was awaiting trial, two more hitchhikers disappeared in remarkably similar circumstances. These victims were not so lucky. According to the pathologist they’d been “tied to a tree and butchered.”

Given the similarities in the abductions, Schaefer was the obvious suspect. The police obtained a search warrant for his home. There they discovered a trophy stash that marked Schaefer out as a prolific and depraved killer. Included in that evidence were personal items linking Schaefer to seven more murders, some of the victims as young as 14. There was also a journal written as “fiction” in which Shaefer described his sick methods, amply illustrated with his own graphic drawings.

Schaefer would eventually be sentenced to two concurrent life terms. But he only got to serve 12 years of that time. On December 3, 1995, Gerrard Schaefer was knifed to death by fellow inmate Vincent Faustino Rivera.       

Read the full, horrific story of killer cop Gerard Schaefer, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Tuesday 24 February 2015

Serial Killers: Dennis Rader

Born:  March 9, 1945 in Pittsburg, Kansas 

Number of victims: 10 

Date of murders: 1974 - 1991

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing 

Location: Sedgwick County, Kansas




Dennis Rader led a double life. By day he was a respectable family man and church deacon, by night a vicious serial killer who went by the nickname BTK - Bind, Torture, Kill. Over a period of almost two decades, Rader terrorized Sedgwick County, Kansas, popping up every few years to commit a series of truly atrocious crimes.

BTK first announced his deadly presence on January 15, 1974, when he wiped out four members of the Otero family, Joseph Otero, his wife Julie and their two young children, Joseph junior and Josephine. The victims had been strangled but there was evidence they’d been tortured prior to death.

On April 4, 1974, BTK struck again murdering 21-year-old Kathryn Bright. Thereafter he remained inactive before surfacing again in 1977 to claim two more victims, Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox. After those killings, BTK took another of his long breaks, this time lasting 8 years. In April 1985, he murdered 53-year-old Marine Hedge. The following year he claimed the life of Vicki Wegerle, 28.

BTK would claim one more victim, 63-year-old Dolores Davis, murdered on January 19, 1991. Thereafter he dropped out of sight again and the police had very little chance of catching him.

However, although Rader was no longer killing, it did not mean he was no longer active. Throughout his murderous campaign he had barraged police and the media with taunting letters. It was a habit that would lead to his eventual arrest.  

In 2004, Rader sent the police a message contained on a computer disk. They were able to track the disk to a computer housed at a local Lutheran church, the same church where Rader served as a deacon. He was arrested soon after.

Rader pled guilty to murder in order to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms. 

Read the full, horrific story of BTK Killer, Dennis Rader, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 23 February 2015

Serial Killers: Jesse Pomeroy

Born: November 29, 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts 

Number of victims: 2 - 10+ 

Date of murders: 1874 

Method of murder: Stabbing 

Location: Boston, Massachusetts 




Jesse Pomeroy was born in South Boston in 1859. His mother was an impoverished widow and life was difficult for the boy, more so because of his physical defects. He had a harelip, and one eye that was entirely milked over. It gave him a sinister look. In addition, he may have suffered mild retardation. Still Jesse managed to mainly avoid trouble until the age of eleven. That’s when he started to lure other children to an isolated cabin and  torture them.

During 1871, Jesse attacked seven younger boys, tying them up, stripping them naked and then beating them and sticking pins in their flesh. He later graduated to cutting them with a knife but always released the victims once his bloodlust was sated.

Unfortunately for Pomeroy his unique appearance made him easy to identify. Found guilty of assault, he was sent to reform school. He was suppose to remain there until the age of 21 but Jesse turned out to be the model prisoner and was released on good behavior after just 18 months. That move would have tragic consequences for two young Bostonians.  

On March 18, 1874, the 14-year-old Pomeroy was working alone at a local general store when   10-year-old Mary Curran came in to make a purchase. Pomeroy lured the girl down to the basement where he beat, stabbed and strangled her. He then hid the body behind a pile of coal where it was discovered days later. Remarkably, given his history of violence, Pomeroy was not suspected.

Emboldened Pomeroy tried to abduct a young boy just weeks later but was prevented from doing so by a gang of youths. There was no one to stop him though when he lured 4-year-old Horace Millen from a sweet shop on April 22, 1874. Horace was taken to a nearby wood where Pomeroy launched a vicious attack, almost decapitating the boy.

This time though, Pomeroy had been seen with his victim. He was promptly arrested and charged with murder. Although only 14 at the time there was a public outcry for the death penalty and the judge duly complied. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison, where Pomeroy spent 41 years in solitary confinement before being released into the general prison population. He died in 1932 at the age of 72.

In addition to his two confirmed victims, Pomeroy was suspected of eight other child murders.


Read the full, horrific story of “Boy Fiend” Jesse Pomeroy, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 9. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Sunday 22 February 2015

Serial Killers: Kiyoshi Okubo

Born: January 17, 1935 in Takasaki, Japan

Number of victims: 8 

Date of murders: 1971 

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: Gunma Prefecture, Japan




Japan produces few serial killers but of those it does produce, Kiyoshi Okubo is one of the most vicious. Okubo was already a convicted rapist before he embarked on a bloody two-month killing spree in 1971. Over the space of just 64 days he brutally raped and strangled 8 teenagers and young women.

Okubo's rampage began on March 31, when he raped and murdered 17-year-old high school student Tsuda Miyako.  Ten days later, he killed Oikawa Mieko, a 17-year-old waitress. Ida Chieko, age 19, was murdered on April 17. Just a day later, 17~year-old Kawabata Shigeko, died at Okubo’s hands. Over the weeks that followed three more unfortunate young women crossed Okubo's path. All of them ended up dead. His final victim was 21-year-old Takahashi Naoko, slain on May 10.

Okubo made little attempt at hiding the bodies of his victims and as the body count mounted, the entire country was thrown into uproar. The police, meanwhile were constantly on his trail. They did not know yet who the killer was, but they had a description of his vehicle, a cream colored Mazda.  

On May 14, patrol officers spotted just such a vehicle in the Takasaki neighborhood. Okubo was in the front seat with a young girl. He was arrested on the spot.

Okubo soon cracked under interrogation and admitted to 8 murders. At trial he blamed the police and prison system for his killing spree, claiming that they had “destroyed his humanity.” (This blame-shifting behavior is typical of serial killers)

Found guilty of murder Okubu was sentenced to death on February 22, 1973, He went to the gallows at the Kosuge Detention Center three years later, on January 23, 1976.  

Read the full, horrific story of Kiyoshi Okubo, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Saturday 21 February 2015

Serial Killers: Donald Neilson

Born: August 1, 1936 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire

Number of victims: 5 

Date of murders: 1974 - 1975

Method of murder: Shooting 

Location: England 




 There was little in Donald Neilson’s early life to suggest the killer he would become. His childhood appeared relatively normal, he graduated school and served in the British army, he married and fathered a child, he made a respectable living as a self-employed builder. But after Neilson’s business failed, he became morose and angry at the world. Unable to find other employment, he turned to crime, committing over 400 burglaries in eight years.

Neilson’s favorite targets were post offices, but the problem was that the postmasters often stayed on the premises, increasing his chances of being caught. To counteract this threat, he carried a shotgun with him during his break-ins. On February 15, 1974, sub-postmaster Donald Skepper interrupted Neilson during a robbery and was gunned down. During the next year he shot to death two more postal employees and brutally bludgeoned another.

But Neilson was unhappy with his meager take from these robberies. He wanted a big score and decided on a kidnapping. The target was 17-year-old heiress Leslie Whittle. Neilsen snatched the girl on January 14, 1975. He hid her in a drainage pipe with a wire noose around her neck to prevent her escaping, then demanded £50, 000 from her parents. Unfortunately, Leslie choked to death on the noose before the ransom could be paid.

The murder of Leslie Whittle made Neilson the most wanted man in Britain, but he still had time to commit one more murder, gunning down security guard, Gerald Smith, before he was eventually captured on December 11, 1975. Tried and found guilty, Neilson drew a life term without parole.    

Read the full, horrific story of the Black Panther, Donald Neilson, plus 29 more serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Friday 20 February 2015

Serial Killers: John Muhammad and Lee Malvo


A.K.A: The Beltway Snipers

Number of victims: 10+ 

Date of murders: 2002 

Method of murder: Shooting 

Location: Washington D.C. / Maryland / Virginia

Over a period of three bloody weeks in September and October 2002, the Washington D.C. area was terrorized by a ruthless sniper. The mysterious shooter appeared out of nowhere, choosing his victims at random, gunning them down without remorse. Victims were shot as they filled their cars at gas stations, as they went to work, as they left restaurants. A child victim was shot and severely injured on his way to school.

As the nation’s capital cowered in fear, the police had no clues, no leads to follow. Then the perpetrator started making taunting calls to police dispatchers, to radio stations, even to a local clergyman. Then came the notes, cryptic messages that demanded a ransom of $10 million to end the carnage. “If my demands aren't met,” he threatened. “You're going to need more body bags. Your children are not safe.”    

An unexpected break in the case came on October 24, three days after the sniper claimed what would prove to be his last victim. A trucker reported two “suspicious looking men” asleep in a Chevy Caprice at a truck stop. As a similar vehicle had been spotted near several of the crime scenes, police moved in and made an arrest. Inside the car, they found a Bushmaster rifle which would be matched ballistically to the sniper attacks. They also found that the Caprice had been modified so that a shooter could crawl into the trunk and fire out, while remaining unseen.

The two men, John Allen Muhammad and his teenaged accomplice Lee Malvo were charged on 10 counts of murder. Muhammad would ultimately get the death penalty while Malvo was sentenced to life in prison. The pair have since been linked to a spate of murders across the country.

John Allen Muhammad was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on November 10, 2009.


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

Thursday 19 February 2015

Serial Killers: Pedro Lopez

Born: October 8, 1948 in Santa Isabel, Colombia 

Number of victims: 57 - 300 + 

Date of murders: 1969 - 1980

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: Peru / Ecuador / Colombia




He was known as the “Monster of the Andes,” and with good reason. A child killer and rapist, Lopez may be responsible for as many as 300 murders.

Born to a Colombian prostitute in 1948, Lopez was one of 13 children. At age eight, he was caught sexually molesting one of his sisters. As a punishment his mother threw him out on the streets, warning him never to return. Survival was tough out there, but the young boy endured by begging and stealing. At age 18, he was arrested for car theft and sent to prison. On his first night inside he was gang raped by four older convicts. Lopez soon got his revenge, killing three of the four attackers. Just two years were added to his sentence.

The murders he'd committed in prison whetted Pedro's appetite for more mayhem. On his release, he began wandering the country searching for victims. His usual tactic was to visit a market town, find a young girl on her own and lure her to an isolated spot with the promise of a gift. There, he'd rape and strangle the child.

Lopez was frighteningly prolific, ranging across Peru, Ecuador and his native Colombia in his constant search for victims. Because his victims were usually poor indigenous girls, the authorities paid scant attention. It was only after flooding unearthed a mass grave containing 53 bodies that they sat up and took notice.

Lopez was eventually arrested in Ecuador on March 9, 1980, after he was caught trying to lure a nine-year-old from a market. In custody, he confessed to his killing spree but the police did not believe him until he started leading them to his burial sites. Tried for the murders of 110 young Ecuadorian girls, Lopez received a paltry 16 year prison term.

He was released from that sentence on August 31, 1994, whereupon he was handed over to the Colombian authorities. They decided that he was insane and confined him to a psychiatric hospital. Lopez was released in 1998 on just $50 bail. He promptly disappeared. No one knows his current whereabouts.


Read the full, horrific story of Pedro Lopez, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killer Video: Leonard Lake & Charles Ng



A horrendously depraved serial killer team, Lake and Ng were a couple of ex-Marines who tortured and murdered at least 11 victims - men, women and children - at their remote cabin near Wilseyville, California. To make things worse, they kept a detailed video diary of their horrific deeds.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Serial Killers: Paul John Knowles

Born: April 14, 1946 in Florida 

Number of victims: 18 - 35 

Date of murders: 1974 

Method of murder: Strangulation / Shooting

Location: Several States, USA



By some definitions, Paul John Knowles would be called a spree killer rather than a serial killer, such was the orgy of senseless slaughter he unleashed between July and December 1974.

Born in Florida in 1946, Knowles was a habitual criminal who served his first jail term at age nineteen. In 1974, while serving yet another period of incarceration, he began corresponding with a wealthy young woman named Angela Covic. Covic believed Knowles' claims of innocence and hired a lawyer to secure his early release. The couple planned to marry, but Covic became afraid of Knowles and ended the relationship. That rejection appears to have pushed Knowles over the edge.

Knowles first victim was 65-year-old Jacksonville, Florida resident Alice Cooper, although the death may have been accidental. He bound and gagged Mrs. Cooper in order to steal her car.  She choked to death on the gag.

In August 1974, Knowles abducted sisters Lillian and Mylette Anderson, aged just eleven and seven respectively. The girls were strangled and dumped in a  swamp. Thereafter, Knowles hit the road, traveling across Florida, Georgia, Alabama and several other states, ranging as far west as Nevada. Anyone who crossed his path he murdered. When he needed money, clothes or a vehicle, he simply broke into a home and killed the occupants. Hitchhikers who he offered a ride to ended up raped and killed. He even kidnapped and executed a Georgia State Trooper. 

Knowles killing spree eventually came to an end on December 17, 1974 when he tried to break through a police roadblock and crashed his vehicle into a tree. Fleeing on foot he was later apprehended by a civilian with a shotgun.

Had Knowles been brought to trial, he would almost certainly have received the death penalty. However, he'd never see the inside of a courtroom. On December 18, 1974, while being transferred to a maximum security facility, he managed to get free of his cuffs and made a grab for an FBI agent’s gun. Agent Ronnie Angel shot Knowles three times in the chest, killing him instantly.   


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

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Serial Killers: Genene Jones

Born: July 13, 1950 in Texas 

Number of victims: 11+ 

Date of murders: 1977 - 1982 

Method of murder: Poisoning 

Location: San Antonio and Kerrville, Texas




As medical monsters go, they don't come more evil than Genene Anne Jones, a pediatric nurse who targeted the most helpless victims of all, babies and infants.

Jones first came to the attention of the medical authorities while she was working at Bexar County Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Between May and December 1981, as many as twenty infants died at that facility, all of them from from cardiac arrest or runaway bleeding. An enquiry was launched and it soon emerged that most of the babies had died while being cared for by Jones. Yet the hospital failed to call in the police, instead forcing Jones to resign. 

Jones next job was at a pediatric clinic in Kerrville, Texas, and it wasn’t long before children who visited the clinic began experiencing breathing problems. As they all recovered, no suspicion fell on Jones. Emboldened, Jones took her murderous activities to the next level. Fourteen-month-old Chelsea McClellan had been brought to the clinic for a routine immunization against mumps and measles, but after being attended by Jones, she suddenly began having a seizure. She died in the ambulance on the way to the San Antonio hospital.

The death of Chelsea McClellan raised new concerns with the medical authorities who already knew about Jones activities at Bexar. Then, after a doctor at Kerrville  discovered a vial of succinylcholine that had been tampered with, she reported it. Succinylcholine was subsequently discovered in Chelsea McClellan's body and Jones was arrested

At her trial in January 1984, Jones was found guilty of killing Chelsea McClellan, and sentenced to 60 years in prison. A later trial saw he pull another 60 year term, to be served concurrently. No one knows the true number of babies she murdered.  

Read the full, horrific story of killer nurse Genene Jones, plus 11 more serial killer cases in 
American Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Monday 16 February 2015

Cannibal Killers Volume 2

Of all the horrendous deeds that man visits upon his fellow man, none repulses us as much as the act of killings someone and then consuming their flesh  them. 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 Andrei Chikatilo and Fritz Haarmann, but have you heard of;

Otty Sanchez: The quite horrendous story of a mother who killed and cannibalized her three-week-old baby, or…

Luka Magnotta: A Canadian porn star who killed a man and ate parts of his body on camera, then mailed other body parts to political party offices and schools, or…

Jose Luis Calva Zepeda: Mexican cannibal who had a nasty habit of cooking and eating his girlfriends, or…

Albert Fentress: A New York school teacher who killed one of his students, then cooked and ate his penis, or…

Mark Sappington: Known as the “Kansas City Vampire,” Sappington murdered four of his friends then drank ate their flesh and drank their blood, or…

Joachim Kroll: Depraved German cannibal who preyed on children and was arrested while cooking a stew that included a little girl’s hand.

Bonus Article: Cannibalism Through The Ages: A unique timeline detailing the most significant instances of cannibalism from antiquity to the 21st century.

This book contains all of these stories and 12 more, plus bonus article, “Cannibalism Through the Ages"

Warning: This is not for the fainthearted!


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

Cannibal Killers Volume Two


Serial Killers: H.H. Holmes

Born:  May 16, 1861 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire 

Number of victims: 27+ 

Date of murders: 1886 - 1894

Method of murder: Several methods

Location: Indiana / Pennsylvania / Illinois / Canada




Although H.H. Holmes (real name Herman Webster Mudgett) was not America's first serial killer, as is commonly believed, he is certainly one of the most infamous. Born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire on May 16, 1861, Holmes was a bright boy with an interest in the macabre. During his teen years he was suspected of killing a playmate, although nothing was ever proven. When he did eventually graduate to a criminal career, it was as a fraudster and huckster of quack medicines. In among all that, he managed to earn a doctor's degree from the University of Michigan.

Yet even with a medical degree in hand he continued to operate as a conman, defrauding several insurance companies in a series of life insurance scams. He also enjoyed seducing and manipulating gullible women. In July 1878, Holmes married Clara Lovering of Alton, New Hampshire, abandoning her nine years later to (bigamously) marry Myrta Belknap in Minneapolis, Minnesota, fathering a daughter by her. He married for a third time in January 1894, abandoning third wife, Georgiana Yoke, to take up with a lover, Julia Smythe, who he later murdered.

Holmes most infamous crimes relate to the “Murder Castle” he built just before the World Fair in Chicago in 1893. This three story building stood opposite a pharmacy he operated on the corner of Wallace and 63rd Street, in the neighborhood of Englewood. He’d obtained the business by defrauding and murdering the owners. During the World Fair, Holmes opened up his “Castle” as a hotel, preferring female guests traveling alone. Little did they know of the sinister nature of the building. It was a maze of over one hundred windowless rooms, some of them soundproof, some with fittings to pipe in gas. There were chutes that terminated in the basement where Holmes had a lime pit and a furnace that was big enough to consume a human body. It is not known how many women Holmes tortured and murdered at his “Castle” but the evidence points to dozens.      

After the World Fair, Holmes left Chicago and continued committing insurance fraud. He eventually came to the attention of the authorities when he murdered an associate, Benjamin Pitezel, and kidnapped three of his children. Holmes went on the lam with the children traveling across the midwest and into Canada.By the time he was eventually arrested in Boston, the children had been killed. 

Brought to Philadelphia to stand trial for killing Benjamin Pitezel, Holmes eventually admitted to 27 murders. He was hanged on May 7, 1896. His last words (addressed to the executioner) were, “Don’t bungle it.”  

Read the barely believable story of Dr. H. H. Holmes, plus 11 more fascinating serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Sunday 15 February 2015

Serial Killers: Luis Garavito

Born: January 25, 1957 in Génova, Colombia

Number of victims: 138 - 200+

Date of murders: 1992 - 1999

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: Colombia/Ecuador




Known as "La Bestia" ("The Beast") Luis Garavito is arguably the world’s most prolific serial killer. Born in Génova, Colombia on January 25, 1957, he grew up in a large family and suffered suffered severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his brutal father. He was also subjected to sexual abuse as a child, eventually growing up to become an abuser himself. 

Garavito preyed on peasant children and street urchins, mainly boys, mostly between the ages of 6 and 12. His tried and tested M.O. was to approach them on the streets and offer them gifts or small amounts of money in exchange for performing some menial task. Having gained the boy’s trust, Garavito would lure him to some secluded spot where he’d overpower the child and tie him up. Garavito would then take his time, raping and torturing him. Eventually he’d dispatch the unfortunate victim by cutting his throat.

Although Garavito was an itinerant serial killer, always on the move, his massive death toll did not escape the notice of the police, especially after they discovered several mass graves. They initially suspected organ harvesters or Satanic cults, but eventually focused in on Garavito after his name was found in the registries of cheap hotels in several towns where murders had been committed. Garavito was arrested on April 22, 1999, when he was spotted trying to drag a boy into some bushes. In captivity he confessed to 140 murders. He is suspected of killing at least 170 more children in 59 towns across Colombia and Ecuador.

Garaviro was eventually found guilty of 138 murders and sentenced to 1,853 years in prison. However, Colombian law stipulates that no prisoner may serve more than 30 years and Garavto received a further reduction because he co-operated with the authorities in finding the bodies. Amazingly, the killer of over 200 children will serve just 22 years in prison. 

Read the full, horrific story of Luis Garavito, plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
Human Monsters Volume 5. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Saturday 14 February 2015

Serial Killers: Michel Fourniret

Born:  April 4, 1942 in Sedan, France 

Number of victims: 10+

Date of murders: 1987 - 2001

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: France / Belgium




Dubbed the “Ogre of the Ardennes,” Michel Fourniret is one of France’s most prolific serial killers. He preyed on young girls, preferring virgins, enlisting the help of his wife to lure his victims.

Fourniret was already a seasoned criminal by the time he embarked on his murder spree, having been convicted for a series of brutal rapes he’d committed near Paris. While serving time for those crimes he began corresponding with a divorcee named Monique Olivier and on his release the two were married. They moved to a large villa in Sart-Custinne, bought with money Fourniret had stolen from a bank robber who had been his cellmate. Soon after, young women began disappearing from the area.

Fourniret’s M.O. usually involved some kind of ruse. He and Olivier would drive around in their panel van until they spotted a likely victim. Olivier would then lure the victim into the van by claiming she had some kind of medical emergency and asking the victim to direct her to a doctor or hospital. Once they reached a secluded area, Fourniret would overpower the victim. Olivier would then conduct a crude examination to ascertain that the victim was a virgin. Thereafter, she’d be taken back to their farmhouse where she’d be raped and then murdered. At least seven victims - aged between 12 and 22 - were killed in this way. They were shot, strangled, or stabbed to death.

As in many serial killer cases, Fourniret’s reign of terror was ended when one of his intended victims escaped and was able to identify him. While in police custody, Monique Olivier cracked and told all. Both Fourniret and his wife were sentenced to life in prison.   


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

Friday 13 February 2015

Serial Killers: Mack Ray Edwards

Born: 1918 in Arkansas

Number of victims: 6+ 

Date of murders: 1953 - 1970

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Los Angeles County, California




On March 5, 1970, a man walked up to the front desk of a Los Angeles police station. He identified himself as Mack Ray Edwards, then handed the surprised duty officer a loaded handgun. “I have a guilt complex,” he announced, before admitting that he was responsible for the kidnapping of three young girls that had occurred the previous day. Two of the girls had subsequently escaped but the third was still missing. She was recovered safely after Edwards directed police officers to an area of the Angeles National Forest where she was being held.

But Edwards was not yet done confessing. He admitted to six previous murderers of children. Edwards told authorities that he murdered Stella Nolan, 8, in 1953, and committed a double homicide in 1956, killing of Don Baker, 13, and Brenda Howell, 11. Thereafter he restrained his murderous impulses for over a decade, emerging again in November 1968 to kill 16-year-old Gary Rochet. Three weeks later, he struck again, taking the life of another 16-year-old Roger Madison. His final victim was 13-year-old Donald Todd, killed on May 16, 1969.

Although, detectives were initially skeptical of Edwards’ claims, he provided proof by leading them to the skeletal remains of Stella Nolan. The 8-year-old had been shot in the head. Edwards also explained what he’d done with his later victims. He’d been working as a heavy equipment operator for Caltrans at the time and had buried them under a section of the Ventura Freeway. The authorities declined to tear up the road to verify his claim. 

At his trial, Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and asked to be executed. He got his wish, but he was not prepared to wait around for his date with the executioner. On October 30, 1971, he hanged himself in his cell. He remains the prime suspect in at least four other child murders.


Read the horrific story of Mack Ray Edwards, plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
50 American Serial Killers You’ve Never Heard Of Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Sunday 8 February 2015

Serial Killers: Nikolai Dzhumagaliev

Born: November 15, 1952   

Number of victims: 9+

Date of murders: 1979 - 1980

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: Kazakhstan, USSR 




Known as “Metal Fang” because of his unique dental work, Nikolai Dzhumagaliev was a Kazakhstani serial killer who preyed on prostitutes mainly in the town Alma-Ata, Kazakhastan. Like Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, Dzhumagaliev was a mission-based killer who made it his goal to rid the world of prostitutes. His usual M.O.was to lure his victims to a local park for sex, then rape them and hack them to death with an axe.

He was also a cannibal, who would cut chunks of flesh from his victims. Some of this he’d consume himself, but he also enjoyed hosting dinner parties for friends and acquaintances. At these, he’d prepare traditional Kazakhstani dishes, heavy on the meat. His guests had no idea that they were consuming human flesh.

Dzhumagaliev was eventually caught when he invited two town drunks home for a meal and one of them discovered a woman’s severed head in the refrigerator.

At trial Dzhumagaliev was found not guilty by reason of insanity, He was committed to a Tashkent mental hospital but escaped in 1989 while being transported to another facility. He was re-captured in 1991 in Fergana.

Dzhumagaliev is currently confined at a mental institution. It is highly unlikely that he will ever be released.  

Read the full, horrific story of cannibal killer Nikolai Dzhumagaliev, plus 29 more serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Thursday 5 February 2015

Serial Killers: David Carpenter

Born: May 6, 1930 in San Francisco, California

Number of victims: 7 - 11

Date of murders: 1979 - 1980

Method of murder: Stabbing / Shooting 

Location: Marin and Santa Cruz counties, California





On August 20, 1979 Edda Kane disappeared while hiking in Mt. Tamalpais State Park, near San Francisco. She was found the following day, killed by a bullet to the back of the head. Eight months later, Barbara Schwartz, 23, was found stabbed to death in the same park. Then in October 1980, 26-year-old Anne Alderson went out for a jog in Mt. Tamalpais Park and never returned. She was found shot to death.

As the police intensified their search for the "Trailside Killer,” he appeared at Point Reyes Park on November 27, where he shot Shawna May, 25. May’s body was found two days later. As if that wasn’t enough, three more corpses were found nearby, the victims identified as Diane O'Connell, 22, Cynthia Moreland, 18, and Richard Towers, 19. All had been shot. The women, as with the previous victims, had been raped.

With a media frenzy now underway and a massive police operation in place, the killer struck again on March 29, 1981, this time in Henry Cowle State Park, near Santa Cruz. Ellen Hanson was shot to death. Her boyfriend, Stephen Haertle, was severely injured but escaped and was able to provide police with a description of the attacker and his car. 

That description got investigators no closer to catching the Trailside Killer. Indeed, it was an apparently unrelated crime, the murder of 20-year-old Heather Scaggs that would crack the case.

The main suspect in the Scaggs murder was one of her co-workers, a man named David Carpenter. Detectives noticed immediately that Carpenter was a deadringer for the description of the Trailside Killer and that the red Fiat he drove was similar to the vehicle that the killer had used to flee the Hanson murder scene. Then, after a gun found in Carpenter’s home proved to be the murder weapon in the Trailside shootings, the police knew they had their man.

Tried and found guilty on multiple counts of murder, David Carpenter was sentenced to death. Three decades on, he has yet to keep that date with the executioner.  


Read the full, horrific story of David Carpenter, plus 11 more fascinating American serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killer Video: H H Holmes



While H.H. Holmes was not the first American serial killer, as many people believe, he is certainly one of the most interesting. Qualified as a medical doctor, Holmes (real name Herman Webster Mudgett) seems to have taken real delight in murder. As the good doctor himself said, “I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing — I was born with the "Evil One" standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since.”

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Serial Killers: William Bonin

Born: January 8, 1947 in Willimantic, Connecticut

Number of victims: 14 - 44

Date of murders: 1972 - 1980 

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: California



Between the years 1972 and 1980, Southern California was deluged by a virtual plague of horrendous torture murders, with the brutalized bodies of over 40 boys and young men found scattered along the freeway systems in seven different counties. The police did not know it at the time, but there were in fact three serial killers (Patrick Kearney, Randy Kraft and William Bonin) operating in the area. Kearney and Kraft preferred older victims, Bonin preyed mainly on teenagers.

By the time Bonin committed his first murder, in May 1979, he had already served several jail terms for sexual assaults against young boys. It appears that he turned to murder only to ensure that the victims could not testify against him. However, Bonin soon realized that he had a taste for killing. Thereafter, he embarked on a quest to find ever more cruel ways of dispatching the unfortunates who fell into his hands.

Working with a succession of equally depraved accomplices, he’d cruise the freeways looking for hitchhikers. Once the victim was enticed into his van, he’d be raped, stabbed, slashed and bludgeoned, before being strangled to death, often with a coat hanger. One young victim had his ribs crushed by being kicked and trampled, another had drain cleaner injected into his veins. The youngest victim, aged just 12, was abducted while waiting for a bus to Disneyland. He was raped and then bludgeoned to death. His killers used the money they found in his wallet to buy lunch.

By then, a major operation was underway to catch the “Freeway Killer.” But the police were not even close to apprehending Bonin until they got an unexpected break. On June 10, 1980, one-time Bonin accomplice William Pugh was arrested on car theft charges. He struck a deal, offering Bonin’s name in connection with the Freeway Killings. The police only had to look at William Bonin’s record of kidnapping, sodomy, child molestation and forcible oral copulation to know that he was a solid suspect.

Bonin was placed under surveillance and was arrested the following day when police caught him sodomizing a teenager in his van. Arrests for his accomplices Vernon Butts, James Michael Munro and Gregory M. Miley soon followed.

William Bonin eventually went on trial  in November 1981. Found guilty, he was sentenced to death. Munro and Miley drew life sentences for their parts in the murders, while Vernon Butts hanged himself while in police custody.  

California is notoriously slow in carrying out death sentences, but in Bonin’s case they at least got around to carrying out the sentence of the court. William Bonin was executed by lethal injection on February 23, 1996.


Read the full, horrific story of Freeway Killer William Bonin, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 6. Available now on Amazon.



Tuesday 3 February 2015

Serial Killers: The Angelmakers of Nagyrev


Number of victims: 45 - 200+

Date of murders: 1911 - 1929 

Method of murder: Poisoning

Location: Nagyrev, Hungary 





Julia Fazekas arrived in the village of Nagyrev, Hungary in 1911. A midwife by trade, she quickly became the de facto village doctor. She could also be relied upon to perform abortions on demand, something that saw her arrested numerous times (although she was always acquitted by sympathetic judges). 

In Hungary at that time, a teenaged girl’s husband was chosen by her family. Usually these were older men and the girl had no say in the matter. Even if the man was abusive or an alcoholic (and many were) she could not divorce. Then came WWI and the men of Nagyrev were marched off to the front. In their place came hundreds of Allied prisoners of war, as the village became the site of a POW camp. Soon many of the local women were involved in liaisons with foreign soldiers.

Then the war ended and the men of Nagyrev returned to their homes. Many had been physically and emotionally scarred by the conflict and wanted only to return to their old way of life. Their wives, having had a taste of freedom, were not prepared to accept that. Many ended up at Fazekas’s door, complaining of rape and rough treatment. She, in turn, offered them a solution, an arsenic concoction distilled by boiling flypaper. 

Over the years that followed, many a troublesome husband was dispatched to an early grave. But the women didn’t stop there. Bothersome parents, unwanted lovers and even unruly children got a taste of Fazekas’s brew. Between 1911 and 1929 as many as 300 may have died in Nagyrev and its surrounding towns. Inevitably though, that many unexplained deaths drew attention. 

After an anonymous letter was sent to the editor of a local newspaper the authorities exhumed dozens of corpses from the local cemetery. Many were found to have traces of arsenic, resulting in Fazekas, her closest confidant Suszanah Olah, and 32 other women being indicted for murder. Twelve received prison terms while eight, including Fazekas and Olah, were sentenced to death. However, only two executions were carried out, Suszanah Olah and one other. As for Fazekas, it is believed that she died after imbibing her own concoction.       


Read the full, horrific story of the Nagyrev Angelmakers, plus 29 more serial killer cases in
Human Monsters Volume 4. Available now on Amazon
 
 

Monday 2 February 2015

Serial Killers: Graham Young

Born: September 7, 1947 in London, England

Number of victims: 3 

Date of murders: 1962 - 1971

Method of murder: Poisoning 

Location: London / Bovington, England




Born in Neasden, North London, on September, 7 1947, Graham Young grew to be a solitary boy with a number of peculiar interests - the occult, Adolf Hitler, and the infamous poisoner, Dr. Crippen. As a teen those interests morphed into a singular obsession with poisons.

At age 13, Young used his knowledge of toxicology to convince a local chemist that he was a university student and needed quantities of antimony, digitalis, arsenic and thallium for study purposes. He then started systematically poisoning a school friend, Christopher Williams, noting reactions to various doses in a meticulously maintained diary. Frustrated at not being able to monitor Williams closely enough, Young turned his attentions to his own family. His father, sister Winifred, and stepmother Molly, were all poisoned, with Molly eventually dying in agony on April 21, 1962.

Young was at first not suspected in the death. But after a tip-off from one of his teachers, the police arrived to question him. He immediately admitted his guilt and seemed proud of what he’d done. At the age of just 14, he was committed to Broadmoor maximum-security hospital, where he’d spend the next nine years. He was the youngest inmate at the institution since 1885.

Young was released in February 1971, with psychiatrists announcing that he was cured of his poisoning obsession. Now aged 23, he found work as a storeman at a company in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, where his employers were unaware of his dark past. He’d been there only a short while when employees of the company began to fall ill. Two of them, Bob Egle and Fred Biggs, eventually died, both in excruciating pain.

Concerned at the deaths, the directors brought in a medical expert to reassure employees that nothing in the workplace had afflicted the two men. While the doctor was addressing the employees, Graham Young spoke up to challenge him, asking if he had considered thallium poisoning. His obvious knowledge of the subject immediately made Young a suspect. The police were informed. Looking into the matter they soon discovered Young’s history as a poisoner.
 
Young was arrested on November 21, 1971. As before, he had no hesitation in admitting the poisonings. Found guilty of murder in June 1972, he was  sentenced to life at the maximum-security Parkhurst prison. He was found dead in his cell on August 1, 1990, having suffered an apparent heart attack. 


Read the barely believable story of serial poisoner Graham Young, plus 9 more fascinating serial killer cases in British Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Serial Killers: Fred and Rosemary West

Number of victims: 13+ 

Date of murders: 1967 - 1987

Method of murder: Strangulation / Suffocation 

Location: Gloucestershire, England


Surely one of the most depraved serial killer couples in history. The Wests preyed of adolescent girls and young women, luring them back to their home in Gloucester, England where they raped, tortured and murdered them. The remains were then buried in the cellar or in the garden.

As many as 13 victims met their fate in this way between 1971 and 1987 including among their number, Rena Costello, Fred's first wife, Charmaine West, Fred’s daughter from his marriage to Rena, and Heather West, the couple’s own daughter who was killed in June 1987. Fred West also routinely sexually abused his other daughters, warning them that if they told they would “end up under the patio like Heather.”

Inevitably, stories of those threats got out and questions began to be asked about Heather’s whereabouts. Fred and Rose  insisted that she’d run away from home but under sustained questioning Fred eventually cracked and admitted killing Heather, although he claimed that the death had been accidental. That claim was soon proven to be a lie when the police  dug up the West’s garden and cellar and turned up several corpses, all of them bearing clear signs of torture.

Fred West would never stand trial for his crimes. He hanged himself in his prison cell on January 1, 1995, leaving Rose to face the music alone. She in turn, sought to put all of the blame on him, insisting that she had not participated in the murders. Evidence found at the couple’s Cromwell Street home suggested otherwise. Tried for murder in November, 1995, Rosemary West drew a life sentence, with the recommendation that she should never be released.        


Read the full, horrific story of Fred and Rosemary West, plus 9 more absorbing serial killer cases in British Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.
 
 

Sunday 1 February 2015

Serial Killers: Dorangel Vargas

Born:  May 14, 1957    

Number of victims: 10+ 

Date of murders: 1995 - 1999 

Method of murder: Bludgeoning

Location: San Cristóbal, Venezuela




Known as the “Hannibal Lecter of the Andes,” Dorangel Vargas is Venezuela’s most notorious  serial killer. Raised by a peasant family in the jungles to the southwest of the country, Vargas left home during his teens and eventually drifted to the city of San Cristobal, Táchira State. There he took up residence under the Autopista Libertador, a bridge that runs through the state park. Soon after there were a spate of disappearances from the area.

At first the police were reluctant to investigate because most of the missing persons were drunks and drug addicts. But after pressure was applied by the media and local politicians, they eventually launched an investigation. They soon discovered human bones in the park, with evidence that the bodies had been dismembered. Further enquiries led them to Dorangel Vargas and he was taken into custody.

Vargas had no hesitation admitting that he’d murdered the men. In fact, he said, he’d killed at least 10 over the two years preceding his arrest. His motive was purely nutritional. He enjoyed the taste of human flesh.

“Sure I eat people,” he admitted. “My favorite parts are the thighs and calves, but I make a very tasty stew with the tongue and I use the eyes to make a nutritious and healthy soup.”

Vargas was quite obviously insane and a judge ordered him sent to a mental hospital. Amazingly, an administrative mix-up saw him released and he went straight back to the park, remaining at large for another two years. He committed several more murders before he was eventually recaptured.

The notorious cannibal has never been tried for his crimes. Instead he was put to work as a janitor at a local police station.


Read the gruesome story of depraved cannibal Dorangel Vargas, plus 29 more fascinating serial killer cases in Human Monsters Volume 2. Available now on Amazon.