Serial Killers: Wayne Boden

Born:1948

Number of victims: 4 

Date of murders: 1969 - 1971

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: Quebec / Alberta, Canada  




Dubbed the "Vampire Rapist," because of his habit of biting his victims breasts, Wayne Boden was a sexual sadist who sparked panic during a two-year killing spree in Montreal and Calgary, Canada. 

The first known victim was 20-year-old Shirley Audette, raped and strangled on October 3, 1969, her body dumped behind an apartment complex in West Montreal. Six weeks later, on November 23, Marielle Archambault left her job at a Montreal jewelry store with a young man she called "Bill." When she did not appear at work the next morning, her employer went to check on her and found her strangled to death. Like Shirley Audette, she had been raped and her body bore telltale bite marks.

On January 16, 1970, the killer struck again, murdering 24-year-old Jean Wray in her Montreal apartment. Then, with the city in uproar, he disappeared only to show up a year later and 2,500 miles away, in Calgary.

Elizabeth Pourteous, a teacher, was found raped and strangled in her apartment on May 18, 1971. According to friends, she had recently been dating a man named “Bill,” who when police tracked him down, turned out to be Wayne Boden. Boden denied killing Elizabeth, but his teeth were positively matched to the bite marks he’d left on her body. 

Convicted on four counts of murder, Boden was sentenced to four life terms. He died in prison on March 25, 2006

Read the horrific story of Wayne Boden, plus 29 more serial killer cases in    Canadian Monsters. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killer Video: Joachim Kroll

Known as the Ruhr Hunter or the Duisburg Man-Eater, Joachim Kroll was a troll-like, mentally challenged killer who prowled the German cities along the Ruhr for over two decades, claiming 14 female victims, most of them children. 

Serial Killers: Alton Coleman and Debra Brown

Number of victims: 8

Date of murders: 1984

Method of murder: Strangulation/ Beating

Location: Indiana / Ohio / Illinois

A deadly crime team, Alton Coleman and his girlfriend, Debra Brown, rampaged through the Midwest between May and July 1984, claiming eight victims on their bloody journey. Their killings were indiscriminate, ranging across three states and claiming the lives of male and female, young and old, black and white.

The first to die was 9-year-old Vernita Wheat, the daughter of one of Coleman’s friends. She was abducted, raped and strangled on May 29, 1984. In June, Coleman claimed and even younger victim in Gary Indiana, 7-year-old Tamika Turks. The following day, he killed Donna Williams, 25, also in Gary. He and Brown then fled to Toledo, Ohio, where they killed Virginia Temple and her nine-year-old daughter Rachelle. Also in Toledo, they robbed and severely beat Frank and Dorothy Duvendack.

By now Coleman had been identified as the perpetrator of the killing spree and was on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” List. But that did not stop the killing. Marlene Walters was beaten to death in Norwood, Ohio, on July 13, her husband Harry barely surviving the attack on him. Then Coleman and Brown showed up in Evanston, Ohio where they killed a 77-year-old man and stole his car.

The deadly duo were eventually captured in Evanston on July 20. Convicted on eight counts of murder both were sentenced to death, although Brown’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Alton Coleman was executed by lethal injection in Ohio on April 26, 2002.       


Read the horrific story of Alton Coleman and Debra Brown, plus 11 more serial killer cases in  American Monsters Vol. 9. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Marcelo Costa de Andrade

Born: January 2, 1967

Number of victims: 14 

Date of murders: 1991

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil   



The son of poor migrants, Marcelo de Andrade grew up in the slums of Rio de Jainero. Physically and sexually abused as a child, he ran away from home at age fourteen and became a prostitute. At sixteen he began a long lasting relationship with an older man but when that ended he began accosting and raping children. It was a short step from there to murder. Andrade soon embarked on a killing spree that would claim 14 young victims. He also drank their blood, later calming that it was so that he could become as beautiful as they were. 

In December 1991, Andrade accosted ten-year-old Altair de Abreu and his six-year-old  brother, Ivan. After strangling Ivan, he told Altair that he was in love with him and asked the terrified youngster to come and live with him. The boy agreed, but made his escape at the first opportunity and went to the police.

Andrade was arrested on December 18, 1991. Under questioning he confessed to 14 murders and led the police to several bodies. Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was sent to the Heitor Carrilho Psychiatric Hospital. He escaped on January 24th 1997, but was soon recaptured, walking along a road. He told his captors that he was on his way the Holy Land.


Read the horrific story of Marcelo Costa de Andrade , plus 29 more serial killer cases in  Human Monsters Volume 1. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Hadden Clark

Born:1951

Number of victims: 2+

Date of murders: 1986 - 1992

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: Maryland  




Born into an affluent but highly dysfunctional family, Hadden Clark was physically and emotionally abused as a child, with his mother forcing him to dress as a girl. This mistreatment led to him becoming an abuser himself, taking out his frustrations on younger children and helpless animals.
  
As an adult, Clark trained as a chef at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and worked in upmarket hotels and restaurants. However, his bizarre behavior saw him fired from one job after the other and he was eventually reduced to doing menial work and sleeping in his truck or in the woods. He also had a stint in the navy but was discharged after being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

The first murder definitely attributed to Clark was that of his six-year-old neighbor, Michelle Dorr, who he killed and cannibalized in May 1986. In 1992, he committed another murder, killing Laura Houghteling, a young woman whose mother had given him a part-time gardening job. Clark, who had become obsessed with Laura, sexually assaulted her and then stabbed her to death. However, he left a bloody fingerprint at the scene leading to his arrest within days of the murder. Under interrogation he confessed to the murder as well as several others going back to his teens. Only the Houghteling and Dorr murders have ever been proven.
   
In June 1993, Clark pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 1999, he was convicted of murdering Michelle Dorr, with another 30 years were added onto his sentence.

Read the horrific story of Hadden Clark, plus 11 more serial killer cases in  American Monsters Vol. 3. Available now on Amazon  

 

Serial Killers: Howard Arthur Allen

Born: February 10, 1949

Number of victims: 3+ 

Date of murders: 1974 - 1987

Method of murder: Stabbing / Bludgeoning

Location: Indiana  




A killer with a taste for elderly victims, Howard Allen committed his first murder in August 1974, beating 85-year-old Opal Cooper to death during a burglary. Convicted on a reduced charge of manslaughter, Allen was sentenced to 21 years in prison. He served less than 11 before being paroled in January 1985 and returning to his home town of Indianapolis. 

On 18 May 1987, Laverne Hale, 87, was attacked in her Indianapolis home and beaten to death. Just days later, another elderly victim was attacked but somehow survived her horrendous injuries. Then, on July 14, Ernestine Griffin, aged 73, was stabbed to death with a ten-inch butcher knife. Her attacker also caved in her skull with a kitchen toaster before escaping with his take of $15 and a cheap camera.

But by then, the police already had a lead on Howard Allen, linked to the murder of Laverne Hale by several witnesses. Allen was arrested on August 4, 1987, and was soon connected to eleven other attacks on elderly victims.

Convicted of the murder of Ernestine Griffin, Allen was sentenced to death. He currently awaits execution on Indiana’s death row.


Read the horrific story of Howard Arthur Allen, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 1.  Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Winston Moseley

Born: March 2, 1935

Number of victims: 3

Date of murders: 1963 - 1964 

Method of murder: Stabbing

Location: New York  




The brutal slayer of at least three women, Winston Moseley is often overlooked at a serial killer. This is because Moseley is usually associated with one of the most infamous crimes in American history, the murder of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese.

Genovese was stabbed to death outside her Queens apartment house on March 13, 1964, and while there is nothing unusual about a murder in New York City, the case received massive media coverage. This was because an estimated thirty-eight witnesses saw the murder taking place and did nothing about it. The stock response, offered after the event was, “I didn't want to get involved.”

Police investigations eventually led to Winston Moseley, a 29-year-old business machine operator. Arrested on April 2, Moseley confessed to killing Kitty Genovese and two other women. Fifteen-year-old Barbara Kralik was stabbed in her Queens home on July 20, 1963; housewife Ann Johnson was shot to death and then set on fire two weeks before the Genovese attack.

Moseley was initially condemned to death for the murders, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.  


Read the horrific story of Winston Moseley, plus 17 more sensational murder cases in  Murder Most Vile Vol. 5. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: William Heirens

Born: November 15, 1928

Number of victims: 3

Date of murders: 1945 - 1946 

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation

Location: Chicago, Illinois   




The case of William Heirens, the so-called “Lipstick Killer,” is one of the most controversial in the annals of American crime. Heirens was a teenaged burglar was confessed to a series of three murders carried out in Chicago in 1945/46. 

The first of those murders occurred on June 5, 1945, when 43-year-old Josephine Ross was found stabbed to death in her apartment. Six months later, on December 11, 1945, Francis Brown, 34, met a similar fate. This time, the killer had used lipstick to write on a mirror, “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself.”

On January 7, 1946, another murder occurred which was very different to the other two. Six-year-old Suzanne Degnan was abducted from her bed in the middle of the might. Her dismembered body parts were later found in an alley, a sewer, and a storm drain.

With the public now baying for action, the police made an arrest on June 26, 1946. William Heirens was subjected to intense questioning and eventually broke down and accepted a plea - a full confession in exchange for avoiding the death penalty.

Heirens was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. However, there is considerable body of evidence to suggest that he was not the killer. He also later retracted his confession, insisting that it was coerced. Despite this, and his advanced years, he remains in prison.  


Read the horrific story of William Heirens, plus 11 more serial killer cases in  American Monsters Vol. 10. Available now on Amazon  

 

Serial Killer Video: John Reginald Christie

The notorious Strangler of Rillington Place murdered at least eight women in the 1940s and early 1950s, burying their bodies in various places at his derelict London home. 

Serial Killers: Robert James

Born:1895

Number of victims: 3 

Date of murders: 1932 - 1935

Method of murder: Poisoning / Drowning

Location:  Colorado / California  

A most unusual killer, Robert S. James was a Bluebeard who murdered two wives and his accident prone nephew in order to cash in on insurance policies. What makes James so unique are the methods he employed, including motor accidents, drowning, and rattlesnakes.

James’ first wife, Winona Wallace, died in 1932. After unsuccessfully trying to kill Winona in a staged auto wreck, James took her home and drowned her in the bathtub, blaming a concussion received in the accident. He then cashed in a large policy.

For his next murder, James again used an auto wreck, and this time it worked. After tampering with the brakes on his car, James loaned it to his nephew, Cornelius Wright, who was on leave from the navy. Wright managed to drive the car off a cliff, killing himself. Again, James profited from a life policy.

James third murder was his most exotic yet. After tying his new wife, 26-year-old Mary Busch, to the kitchen table, he forced her foot into a box containing deadly rattlesnakes. Mary was bitten but didn’t die. Impatient to get things done, James dragged her out into the garden and drowned her in a pond.  

This time though, James had overstepped the mark. After investigators learned of the other suspicious deaths connected to him, he was arrested. Found guilty of murder at the subsequent trial, James was sentenced to death. He was hanged at San Quentin State Prison in California. 


Read the horrific story of Robert James, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 5.  Available now on Amazon  

 

Serial Killers: Andre Crawford

Born: March 20, 1962 

Number of victims: 11 

Date of murders: 1993 - 1999 

Method of murder: Strangulation  

Location: Chicago, Illinois  




Andre Crawford was well known around the suburbs of New City and Englewood in Chicago, Illinois, where he’d go door-to-door offering to do small jobs for cash. Those who employed him found that he did a thorough job at a reasonable price, even if he did spend a lot of the time raving about his hatred for prostitutes. Little did they know that Crawford was taking his hatred way beyond words, and was in fact a prolific killer.

Crawford began his murderous campaign against streetwalkers in 1993, and killed at least 11 over the next six years. His M.O. seldom varied. He’d lure a woman to an abandoned building with the promise of drugs for sex. Once there, he’d strangle the victim, raping her as she died. He’d then smoke crack and have sex with the corpse before leaving the scene. 

Investigators took some time to identify a pattern to the murders. Once they did, they learned of Crawford’s frequent outbursts against hookers and brought him in for questioning. Crawford denied the killings but was linked via DNA to 11 victims. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on December 17, 2009.


Read the horrific story of Andre Crawford, plus 49 more sensational murder cases in  50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 1.  Available now on Amazon  

   

   

 

Serial Killers: Dana Sue Gray

Born: December 6, 1957

Number of victims: 3

Date of murders:1994

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation

Location: Riverside County, California   




Dana Sue Gray was a petite, attractive blonde who killed three elderly women in Riverside County, California between February and March 1994. What makes this case so unique is that the victims were savagely beaten, strangled and knifed to death in their homes. Female serial killers generally prefer "hands off" methods like poison or shooting. Also there was an unusual motive. Addicted to shopping, Gray killer her victims in order to rob them of cash and credit cards. She then embarked on lavish spending sprees, buying perfume, clothes and beauty treatments.

The police had no idea that they were hunting a female killer until Gray tried to murder Dorinda Hawkins, an antiques dealer. Hawkins was strangled into unconsciousness and left for dead. However, she survived and was able to provide police with a description of her attacker. It matched the description given by various merchants in Temecula, California, where Gray had used her victims' credit cards.

Arrested in March 1994, Dana Sue Gray would wait four years for her day in court. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on October 16, 1998.


Read the horrific story of Dana Sue Gray, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 1.  Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Michael Lupo

Born:1953

Number of victims: 4+

Date of murders: 1986

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: London, England  




A native of Italy, Michael Lupo was a former choir boy, who went on to serve in an elite special forces unit of the Italian army. After his military service, he moved to London, and set up a highly successful hairdressing salon. By then he was openly gay and extraordinarily promiscuous, boasting of over 4,000 male lovers. But that lifestyle came at a price and in March 1986, Lupo was diagnosed with AIDS. The diagnoses brought about a change in his personality, leaving him bitter and angry. Eventually, he decided to take out his revenge on the gay community.  

At least four men would pay the price for Michael Lupo’s rage. On March 15, 1986, 37-year-old James Burns was found dead in a London basement, slashed with a razor, sodomized and smeared with feces, his tongue bitten off in a frenzied attack. Three weeks later, on the April 5, Anthony Connolly was found dead in a near carbon-copy of the Burns murder. Three days later, Lupo murdered an elderly tramp who asked him for money. The following day, he attacked Mark Leyland after coaxing him into a toilet at Charing Cross station for sex.

Leyland, however, managed to escape. He reported the incident, but police had not yet apprehended his attacker when Damien McCluskey was found dead on April 24, 1986. He had been strangled, raped, and mutilated with a razor.

Lupo was eventually arrested after another botched attack on a gay man on the night of May 7. Convicted at his July 1987 trial, Lupo received four life sentences. He died in prison from AIDS related illnesses in February 1995.


Read the horrific story of Michael Lupo, plus 29 more serial killer cases in  Human Monsters Vol. 4. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Richard Biegenwald

Born: August 24, 1940 

Number of victims: 6+

Date of murders: 1958 - 1982

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing 

Location: New York / New Jersey 




Richard Biegenwald followed a familiar pattern to serial murder. A severely abused child, he started stealing and committing arson at an early age and spent much of his childhood in juvenile facilities. As an adolescent, he became a car thief and armed robber, eventually graduating to murder when he shot a man during a hold-up. That saw him sent to prison for life, but he was paroled in 1974 after serving only 17 years.

Back on the street, Beigenwald didn’t take long to get into trouble. He was a suspect in a number of rapes, although prosecutors could never get the charges to stick. Then, after 18-year old Anna Olesiewicz was found shot to death on January 4, 1983, a friend of Biegenwald's wife phoned the police and identified Biegenwald as a suspect.

Biegenwald was arrested along with his criminal partner Dherran Fitzgerald on January 22, 1983. Under questioning he refused to admit to anything. Fitzgerald, however, was telling a different story. He implicated Biegenwald in five murders and even led the police to where the bodies were buried. 

Biegenwald was initially sentenced to death for the murders. However, the sentence was later overturned and he was given a life sentence. He died in prison on March 10, 2008.

Read the horrific story of Richard Biegenwald, plus 49 more sensational murder cases in
50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 2.
Available now on Amazon

 

   

 

Serial Killers: Futoshi Matsunaga

Born: April 28, 1961

Number of victims: 7+

Date of murders: 1996 - 1998

Method of murder: Strangulation / Starvation / Electrocution

Location:  Kitakyushu / Fukuoka, Japan 



A horrendously depraved serial killer, Futoshi Matsunaga, along with his lover, Junko Ogata, killed seven people, holding them prisoner in their Fukuoka, Japan, apartment between February 1996 and June 1998 and systematically torturing them to death.

The victims (who included two children) were subjected to electric shocks, starvation. and exposure. They were beaten, strangled, burned and forced to attack one another. Even more shocking, six of the victims were Ogata’s relatives.

The motive for the crimes was ostensibly financial, with Mutsunaga extorting money from his captives by promising them, or their loved ones, freedom or certain privileges. However, there can be little doubt that the warped couple enjoyed the agonies they heaped on those under their control.

Eventually arrested in March 2002, after one of their captives escaped, Matsunaga and Ogata were tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. Ogata’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison. 


Read the horrific story of Futoshi Matsunaga, plus 29 more serial killer cases in  Human Monsters Vol. 4. Available now on Amazon  

 

Serial Killer Video: Coral Watts

A particularly savage killer, Watts struck a deal granting him immunity from all but one murder. However, he privately confessed to killing over 80 women.

Serial Killers: Eric Napoletano

Born: May 2, 1965

Number of victims: 3

Date of murders: 1984 - 1993

Method of murder: Stabbing / Shooting / Strangulation

Location:  Virginia / New York / New Jersey




Eric Napoletano was a man who seemed to attract tragedy. In 1984, his fifteen-year-old girlfriend, Marilyn Coludro, had been stabbed to death, her body found dumped in Pennsylvania. In 1985, his mother-in-law was gunned down on a Bronx street corner. Then, in 1990, his second wife, Myra Acevedo, went missing from their New Jersey home. She was later found buried in a shallow grave in Delaware.

Evidence in all of the cases pointed to Napoletano, but he always had a solid alibi, provided by his mother, and was always cool under questioning, always coming up with the right answers. The police would later find out why. Napoletano’s mother, Carolyn, was a civilian employee of the New York City Police Department, and was accessing confidential police documents and feeding him information.

In the murder of Myra Acevedo, however, the police finally had a compelling case against Eric Napoletano. But again mother came to the rescue. Before the cops could move in to arrest him, Napoletano disappeared.

Napoletano was eventually tracked to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was arrested by federal agents on March 27, 1991. Given their previous experiences in questioning him, the police prepared themselves for a long hard slog. But this time the had a trump card. His mother had also been arrested, on conspiracy charges.

Faced with the prospect of Carolyn doing jail time, Napoletano struck a deal, immunity for his mother in exchange for a guilty plea. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in New Jersey on June 25, 1993. 

Read the horrific story of Eric Napoletano, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 4.  Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Thor Nis Christiansen

Born: December 28, 1957  

Number of victims: 4

Date of murders: 1976 - 1979

Method of murder: Shooting 

Location: California 




During late 1976 and early 1977, a serial killer was preying on female students at the University of California in Santa Barbara. The first victim was 21-year-old Jacqueline Rook, who went missing from a bus stop in the suburb of Goleta on December 6, 1976. That same day Mary Sarris disappeared, and both women were still missing when Patricia Laney, another 21-year-old vanished on January 18, 1977.

A massive search was launched for the missing women and produced tragic results almost immediately. Patricia Laney's corpse was discovered next day, in Refugio Canyon. Jacqueline Rook was found dead in the same area on January 20. Both women had been shot in the head with a small-caliber pistol. There was evidence that both had been raped after death.

As the police began questioning suspects, their attention fell on Thor Nis Christiansen, who had been arrested on a DUI in February 1977, and found in possession of a .22-caliber pistol. However by May 22, when the skeletal remains of Mary Sarris were found in Drum Canyon, Christiansen had been all but forgotten as a suspect.

On April 18, 1979, 24-year-old Linda Preston was hitchhiking in Hollywood when Christiansen picked her up. After driving for a few blocks, he suddenly drew a gun and shot Linda in the side of the head. Bleeding profusely, the brave woman jumped from the car and managed to escape. Despite a good description of the shooter and his vehicle, police failed to make an arrest. 

Three months later, on July 11, Linda Preston spotted her assailant in a Hollywood bar and called the police. Christiansen was charged with felonious assault, but when police learned that he’d once been a suspect in the Santa Barbara shootings, they began questioning him, eventually eliciting a confession.

Christiansen was sentenced to life in prison in June 1980. Less than a year later he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate at Folsom State Prison. 

Read the horrific story of Thor Nis Christiansen, plus 49 more sensational murder cases in
50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 2.
Available now on Amazon

 

   

 

Serial Killers: Mohan Kumar

Born:1963

Number of victims: 20

Date of murders: 2005 - 2009

Method of murder: Poisoning

Location: Karnataka, India 




Mohan Kumar is one of India’s most prolific serial killers, a deadly Bluebeard killer who lured over 20 innocent women to their deaths.

The married, 45-year-old schoolteacher had a simple, but highly effective methodology. Kumar would cruise the markets of Mangalore district looking for victims. If he spotted a woman he liked, he’d approach her and strike up a conversation. If that went well, he’d suggest another meeting. After a couple of such trysts, he’d propose marriage and persuade the girl to elope with him. He’d then arrange a meeting for the next day, instructing the woman to bring along all her money and jewelry. 

The following day, Kumar would take the woman to a local temple and a sham wedding would take place. That night they’d go to a lodge where the union would be consummated. The next morning, Kumar would say he had business to attend to and would leave, taking the woman’s valuables with him “for safe keeping.” He'd arrange to meet up with her later, but before leaving he’d slip her a pill, to be taken to avoid pregnancy.

The pill, of course, contained cyanide, and the woman would be dead within minutes of swallowing it. Yet even after several poisoned woman were found, no suspicion was aroused. The deaths were thought to be suicides. It was only after the families of the victims put pressure on the police that they deemed to investigate.

The trail led eventually to Mohan Kumar and he was arrested on October 21, 2009. Eventually found guilty of three murders, he was sentenced to death.    


Read the horrific story of Mohan Kumar, plus 29 more serial killer cases in  Human Monsters Vol. 4. Available now on Amazon  

 

 

Serial Killers: Harry Powers

Born: 1881

Number of victims: 5+

Date of murders: 1931

Method of murder: Hanging / Bludgeoning  

Location: West Virginia  




A resident of Quiet Dell, West Virginia, Harry Powers was a classic Bluebeard who lured lonely widows and spinsters via matrimonial ads in various newspapers during the 1920's and '30's. Once the women were in under his control, Powers would lock them up in a specially constructed concrete bunker under his house. There he would either starve or gas them, while some later victims were also hanged.

Powers eventually came unstuck when the disappearances of a widow named Aster Eicher and her three children were linked to him. A search of his grounds turned up Mrs. Eicher and the children buried in shallow graves. The three females had been hanged, while Eicher’s 12-year-old son was beaten to death with a claw hammer. A fifth corpse was also found on the grounds, that of another missing widow, Dorothy Lemke.

Faced with evidence of murder, Powers quickly broke down and confessed. He readily admitted that he deriving sexual pleasure from watching his victims die, commenting, “It beat any cathouse I was ever in.”

Although suspected of over fifty murders, Powers was only convicted of five. He went to the gallows on March 18, 1932, taking his secrets with him to the grave.


Read the horrific story of Harry Powers, plus 49 more sensational murder cases in  Dead Men Walking Vol. 1. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Angel Resendiz

Born: August 1, 1960

Number of victims: 15+

Date of murders: 1986 - 1999

Method of murder: Stabbing / Bludgeoning

Location:  Texas / Illinois




Known as the "Railroad Killer,” Angel Resendiz was a Mexican national and illegal immigrant who rode the rails from Texas to Illinois, committing murder whenever the mood took him, 15 in total.

The murders were particular brutal, as Resendiz usually bludgeoned his victims to death, using whatever was at hand, a tire iron, a pick handle or a rock. After each murder he would spend time in the victim’s home raiding the refrigerator and ransacking the place for valuables and other keepsakes. Often, he would flee in the victim’s car, a habit that led to his eventual arrest, as police were able to lift his prints from a Jeep Cherokee he stole from one victim, Dr. Claudia Benton.

However, by the time investigators identified Resendiz as the elusive “Railroad Killer,” he had already fled back to Mexico and was laying low. The police then tracked down Reséndiz's sister, Manuela (who lived in the US), and through her persuaded him to give himself up.

Resendiz was eventually tried and found guilty for the murder of Dr. Benton. He was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on June 27, 2006.   


Read the horrific story of Angel Resendiz, plus 11 more serial killer cases in  American Monsters Vol. 5. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Norman Afzal Simons

Born:1956

Number of victims: 22

Date of murders: 1986 - 1994

Method of murder: Strangulation

Location: Cape Town, South Africa  




Known as the “Station Strangler, Norman Avzal Simons, was a rapist and serial killer who preyed on young boys in Cape Town, South Africa. The moniker relates to his preference for luring his victims from railroad stations.

The case first hit the news in October 1986, when police unearthed the body of 14-year-old Jonathan Claasen, near Modderdam station in Bellville South. Over the next eight years, the corpses of young boys would turn up on a regular basis, many of them confined to communal graves. All of the victims had been sodomised before being strangled to death. All were found buried face down, with their hands tied behind their backs. The victims’ underwear had in some cases been used as a garrotte. Hand-written notes were also found in some of the graves.

With parents in the Cape Flats area in uproar, the South African Police launched the biggest manhunt in their history. It culminated in the arrest of an unlikely suspect, Grade 5 teacher Norman Simons. 

Simons would ultimately stand trial for just one murder, that of nine-year-old Elroy van Rooyen. However, conviction in that case was enough to earn him a life sentence. Although Simons continues to protest his innocence, it is telling that the murders stopped immediately after his arrest.  

  
Read the horrific story of Norman Afzal Simons, plus 29 more serial killer cases in  Human Monsters Vol. 1. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killer Video: The Boston Strangler

Albert de Salvo took the fall but most experts now agree that he wasn't responsible for the 13 deaths attributed to this unnamed serial killer. So who exactly was the Boston Strangler?

Serial Killers: Tommy Lee Sells

Born: June 28, 1964

Number of victims: 13+

Date of murders: 1980 - 1999

Method of murder: Stabbing / Bludgeoning

Location:  Missouri / New York / Illinois / Texas 




A particularly vicious psychopath, Tommy Lynn Sells traveled the country for almost two decades, committing murder wherever he stopped. He had a particular fondness for attacking children or sometimes even wiping out whole families. One example of this latter propensity was the horrendous quadruple slaying of the Dardeen family in Ida, Illinois, on November 18, 1987.

Sells had befriended the family and had been invited for a meal at their mobile home. He thanked them for their hospitality by shooting Russell Dardeen in the head, then beating his wife, Ruby, and their three-year-old son to death with a baseball bat. Ruby Dardeen was heavily pregnant at the time and the trauma caused her to go into labor, giving birth to a girl, two months premature. Sells then turned the bat on the newborn and beat her to death also.

Sells would eventually be convicted of another brutal murder, that of 13-year-old Kaylene Harris in Del Rio, Texas on December 31, 1999. After breaking into the Harris home, Sells tried to rape Kaylene. When she resisted, he cut he throat. He then did the same to 10-year-old Krystal Surles, a friend who was sleeping over. Krystal, however, survived and was able to alert a neighbor who called the police.

Convicted of the Harris murder Tommy Lynn Sells was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on April 3, 2014.    


Read the horrific story of Tommy Lee Sells, plus 11 more serial killer cases in  American Monsters Vol. 3. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: John Floyd Thomas

Born: July 26, 1936

Number of victims: 7+

Date of murders: 1972 - 1986

Method of murder: Suffocation

Location: California 




A native of Los Angeles, California, John Floyd Thomas, Jr. was raised by an aunt after his mother died when he was just 12 years old. Other than that, his childhood appears unremarkable. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, although he was later dishonorably discharged. Back in civilian life, he soon turned to criminality, committing a string of burglaries that landed him in prison until 1966.

During the mid-1970s, Los Angeles was plagued by a series of rape/murders which the police  attributed to a perpetrator known as the “Westside Rapist.” The killer preyed on elderly women who lived alone, raping them and then choking them to death. At least 17 victims were killed in this way before the killings inexplicably stopped. Then, a decade later, a series of similar crimes started up in Claremont, some 40 miles away. Five elderly women were raped and killed, before the killer dropped out of sight.

Although investigators were certain that the same man was responsible, they had few leads and the case soon went cold. It would remain so until October 2008 when when Cold Case investigators got a match to convicted felon John Floyd Thomas, Jr. Thomas was arrested on April 2, 2009. He subsequently admitted to seven murders and was sentenced to life without parole.  


Read the horrific story of John Floyd Thomas, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 1. Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Dennis Duane Webb

Born:1952

Number of victims: 7 

Date of murders: 1973 - 1987

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Texas, California  




A drifter from northeast Texas, Denis Duane Webb committed his first murder in 1973, gunning down a gay man because, as he later confessed, “I don't like homosexuals.” 

A year later, Webb shot and killed a random black man as part of his initiation into a motorcycle gang. He later shot to death two homeowners, who interrupted him during the course of burglaries. 

The law eventually caught up with Webb in Utah in 1981, when he was convicted of robbery and aggravated kidnapping and sent to prison for five and a half years. Paroled in December 1986, Webb waited just two months before killing again. On February 5, 1987, he invaded the home of John and Lori Rainwater, in Atascadero, California, tied them both up and then raped Lori. Afterwards, he shot both of them to death, although he inexplicably spared the couple’s two young children. 

Webb was arrested for the double homicide soon after and went on trial in June 1988. He asked for the death penalty and the jury was happy to oblige him. He is currently an inmate on California’s death row at San Quentin.  


Read the horrific story of Dennis Duane Webb, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard of Vol. 3.  Available now on Amazon  

   

 

Serial Killers: Kenneth Bianchi & Angelo Buono

Number of victims: 12  

Date of murders: 1977-1979 

Method of murder: Strangulation 

Location: California / Washington 

Killer cousins Bianchi and Buono began their killing spree in October 1977, when they abducted 19-year-old prostitute Yolanda Washington, raped and strangled her, and then discarded her body on a Los Angeles hillside. Over the next three months, nine more girls and young women, aged between 12 and 28, young met a similar grisly fate, leading the press to dub the unknown killer, the “Hillside Strangler.”

But by that time, Bianchi and Buono had gone way beyond mere strangulation. They would carry out horrific torture on their victims, including electric shocks, injecting them with drain cleaners and violating them with various objects. Then, in February 1978, with the police no closer to solving the case, the murders suddenly stopped.

Investigators did not know it at the time, but the murderous pair had split up, with Bianchi moving to Bellingham, Washington. But having gotten away with eight murders, Bianchi just could not restrain himself. In January 1979, he strangled two Western Washington University students and was promptly arrested. Under interrogation, he eventually confessed to the killings and also to the “Hillside Strangler” murders.

Bianchi and Buono were tried separately with each earning a life sentence, Buono in California and Bianchi in Washington. Angelo Buono died of a heart attack in prison on September 21, 2002. Kenneth Bianchi is incarcerated at Washington’s tough Walla Walla prison, where he will remain for the rest of his natural life.


Read the full, horrific story of Kenneth Bianchi & Angelo Buono, plus 11 more serial killer cases in American Monsters Volume 3. Available now on Amazon  

 

Murder Most Vile Volume 6

18 classic true crime cases from around the world, including; 
 
Death by Antifreeze: Two police officers die under mysterious circumstances. The common denominator? A femme fatale with a liking for Jell-O.

Bloodsucker: A vampire-obsessed teenager on a quest for immortality commits a breathtakingly horrendous murder.

Over The Edge: A car plummets down a mountainside, leaving one occupant dead and the other barely scratched. Is it murder or a tragic accident?

Death At The Y: A savage decapitation murder pitches police into a race against time. Can they stop the monster before he kills again?

Cold As Ice: Hell hath no fury like an ice cream lady with a gun and a chainsaw!

Have Death, Will Travel: Two deadly miscreants hook up for a road trip that spells doom for 17 innocent people.

Bomber: A warped genius has a warning for those who he believes are destroying the planet… “You’re next!”

The Man In the Attic : A remarkable tale of sex, obsession and murder from 1920’s Los Angeles.

Plus 10 more riveting cases....Click here to grab a copy. 


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

Murder Most Vile Volume Six

Serial Killers: Sean Vincent Gillis

Born: 1963

Number of victims: 8 

Date of murders: 1994 - 2004

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing

Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana  




A particularly depraved killer, Sean Vincent Gillis preyed on Baton Rouge, Louisiana women at a time when another serial killer, Derrick Todd Lee, was also operational there. But while Lee usually stuck to the same M.O., Gillis liked to experiment. His eight victims were killed by a variety of means, including bludgeoning, strangulation, stabbing and even running down one victim with his car. He also liked to keep body parts as trophies, sometimes using them as sex toys.

Another point of difference was that Derrick Todd Lee's murders provoked outrage in Louisiana, while Gillis went almost unnoticed. This had a lot to do with victims' profile. Lee targeted pretty young students, most of them white. Gillis by contrast preyed mostly on prostitutes, many of them black. It was only after he murdered a wealthy white woman that the hunt to find him was stepped up.

Gillis was eventually linked to the crimes by DNA evidence. He admitted to eight murders and was sentenced to life in prison in August 2007. 

Read the horrific story of Sean Vincent Gillis, plus 49 more serial killer cases in  50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 2.  Available now on Amazon  

 

Serial Killers: William Fyfe

Born: February 27, 1955

Number of victims: 9+  

Date of murders: 1979-1999 

Method of murder:Stabbing

Location: Montreal, Canada  




Known as “The Killer Handyman,” William Fyfe committed nine murders in Montreal, Canada between 1979 and 1999. All of his victims were beaten to death, usually after being brutally raped. Fyfe would then ransack their homes before fleeing. 

Fyfe’s initial murders were widely spaced. But after he moved to the small community of Barrie, Ontario, some 300 miles from Montreal, the killings accelerated. Then Fyfe would regularly make the 600 mile round trip to Montreal, to carry out his rapes and murders. And yet no one suspected the handyman, who was generous with his time and money and a popular member of his community. It was only once DNA evidence linked him to the murders that he was eventually brought to book.

Found guilty on five counts, Fyfe was sentenced to life in prison. He is currently serving that term in Saskatchewan. The full extent of his murder spree is unknown, with suggestions he may have killed as many as 25 women.

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