Monday 30 November 2015

Serial Killers: Jack the Stripper

Number of victims:  8   

Date of murders: 1964 - 1965

Method of murder: Strangulation  

Location: London, England 

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

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

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

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


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

Sunday 29 November 2015

Serial Killers: Faryion Wardrip

Born: March 6, 1959

Number of victims: 5 +    

Date of murders: 1984 - 1986

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation   

Location: Wichita County, Texas




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

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

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

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

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


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


Saturday 28 November 2015

Serial Killers: Robert Berdella

Born: January 31, 1949

Number of victims:  6+   

Date of murders: 1984 -1987

Method of murder: Suffocation / Poisoning    

Location: Kansas City, Missouri




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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday 27 November 2015

Serial Killer Video: John George Haigh



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

Thursday 26 November 2015

Serial Killers: Guy Georges

Born: October 15, 1962

Number of victims: 7   

Date of murders: 1991 - 1997

Method of murder: Stabbing  

Location: Paris, France




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

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

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


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

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Serial Killers: Joseph Briggen

Born: 1850

Number of victims: 12+   

Date of murders: 1880 - 1902

Method of murder: Unknown    

Location: California

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

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

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

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

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

Monday 23 November 2015

Murder Most Vile Volume 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

Murder Most Vile Volume Eight

Serial Killers: Vladimir Mirgorod

Born: 1979

Number of victims: 16 +      

Date of murders: 2002 - 2004

Method of murder: Strangulation    

Location: Moscow, Russia




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

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

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

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

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

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


Sunday 22 November 2015

Serial Killers: Arnold Karl Sodeman

Born: December 12, 1899 

Number of victims: 4     

Date of murders: 1930 - 1935 

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Melbourne, Australia




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

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

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

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

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

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


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


Saturday 21 November 2015

Serial Killers: David Alan Gore

Born: August 21, 1953

Number of victims: 6 +   

Date of murders: 1981 - 1983

Method of murder:  Shooting / Strangulation  

Location: Florida




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

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

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

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

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

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


Friday 20 November 2015

Serial Killers: Sophie Ursinus


Born: May 5, 1760 

Number of victims: 3    

Date of murders: 1798 - 1801

Method of murder: Poisoning   

Location: Berlin, Germany 




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

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

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

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


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

Thursday 19 November 2015

Serial Killer Video: Andrei Chikatilo



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

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Serial Killers: Ludwig Tessnow


Born: 1872  

Number of victims:  4+  

Date of murders: 1895 - 1901

Method of murder: Stabbing    

Location: Rugen Island, Germany

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

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

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

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

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


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

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Serial Killers: Teet Haerm


Born: 1953    

Number of victims: 7+    

Date of murders: 1984 - 1987

Method of murder: Strangulation   

Location: Stockholm, Sweden  




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

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

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

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

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

Monday 16 November 2015

Serial Killers: Bevan von Einem


Born: 1945

Number of victims: 5    

Date of murders: 1979 - 1983

Method of murder: Beating / Strangulation   

Location: Adelaide, South Australia  




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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 15 November 2015

Serial Killers: Yoshio Kodaira


Born: January 28, 1905  

Number of victims:  10+   

Date of murders: 1932 - 1946 

Method of murder: Bludgeoning / Stramngulation   

Location: Japan  




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

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

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


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

Friday 13 November 2015

Serial Killers: Anthony Jackson


Born: 1939 

Number of victims:  5+   

Date of murders: 1972

Method of murder: Shooting / Strangulation   

Location:  Massachusetts 

Known as the “Hitch-Hike Killer,” Jackson preyed on young co-eds who he found thumbing rides in and around Boston, Massachusetts. The killer first announced his deadly presence in September 1972, when he murdered 18-year-old Kathleen Randall and 19-year-old Debra Stevens within two days of each other. Their bodies were found raped and strangled, discarded at the roadside.

On November 9, the strangler struck again, killing 19-year-old Emerson College sophomore, Ellen Reich. Her body was found five days later, hidden inside a closet in an abandoned house.

Sandra Ehramjian, a Boston taxi driver was killed on November 27, after she vanished en route to a dentist's appointment, Two days later, honor student Synge Gillespie was abducted and killed while thumbing rides in Boston.

Three more young women were brutally slain before the police eventually got a lead on 33-year-old Anthony Jackson. Confronted by officers, Jackson made a break for it, but was captured after a high-speed chase and shootout. His bloodstained Cadillac provided all of the evidence that prosecutors needed to put him away for life. 


Read the full, horrific story of Anthony Jackson , plus 49 more serial killer cases in 
  50 American Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of Vol. 4
Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Thursday 12 November 2015

Serial Killer Video: Douglas Clark: The Sunset Strip Slayer



Together with accomplice Carol Bundy, Clark murdered at least seven young women in just two months during the summer of 1980, committing necrophilia and severe mutilations on the bodies.

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Serial Killers: Il Mostro (The Monster of Florence)


Number of victims: 16    

Date of murders: 1968 - 1985

Method of murder: Shooting / Stabbing    

Location: Florence, Italy   


Il Mostro, or the Monster of Florence, is an unidentified serial killer who appeared periodically between August 1968 and September 1985 to carry out a series of quite horrific murders. Sixteen victims would fall victim to this savage killer, all of them couples.

The Monster’s usual M.O. was to approach couples making out in parked cars. He would them shoot the male before attacking the the female, raping and killing her. Afterwards, he’d severely mutilate the woman’s corpse, sometimes carrying body parts from the scene. All of the murders were committed in and around Florence, Italy, with the same gun used in each one.

Il Mostro has proved to be to be an elusive quarry for the Italian police. During the decades long investigation, a number of suspects have been arrested, tried and even convicted of the murders, most notably, Stefano Mele, Pietro Pacciani, Mario Vanni, and Giancarlo Lotti. However, these convictions have generally been ridiculed by the media. They believe that the real killer is still out there and there is little reason to doubt them. 


Read the full, horrific story of Il Mostro, plus 9 more serial killer cases in 
  Serial Killers Unsolved. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Serial Killers: Lucian Staniak



Number of victims: 6 - 20+    

Date of murders: 1965 - 1967

Method of murder: Stabbing   

Location: Poland   





Lucian Staniak is Poland’s most deadly serial killer, a depraved ripper who raped and severely mutilated his young female victims. Appearing first in 1964, Staniak would go on to murder at least six (and possibly as many as twenty) women.

The Polish state at first attempted to deny evidence of the murders, but Staniak took that option away from them by leaving the bodies in places where they could easily be discovered. He also began taunting the police by leaving notes at the crime scenes. Written in a spider-like scrawl using red ink, they earned the elusive killer the terrifying epithet, Red Spider. 

Staniak was eventually arrested on February 1, 1967, after the mangled body of 17-year-old Janina Kozielska was found aboard a train. Janina’s sister had been murdered by the Red Spider a year earlier, leading police to speculate that the killer had known both girls. That led them to the Art Lover’s Club in Cracow, where the girls had worked as models. Staniak was a member there and attention eventually honed in on him. 

Convicted of six murders, Lucian Staniak was sentenced to death. The ruling was later overturned and he was declared insane and sent to a mental institution for life.


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

Monday 9 November 2015

Serial Killers: Gilbert Paul Jordan


Born: December 12, 1931 

Number of victims:  10   

Date of murders: 1965 - 1987 

Method of murder: Alcohol Poisoning   

Location: Vancouver, Canada  




A unique serial killer, Gilbert Paul Jordan used alcohol as his weapon of choice. An alcoholic himself, the ‘Boozing Barber’ would coax, and then coerce, his female victims into consuming large quantities of alcohol. Ten women died as a result. 

The “Alcohol Murders,” as they became known, occurred in Vancouver, British Columbia between 1965 and 1988. Jordan, an ex-con with a record for rape, abduction and car theft, was working as a barber at the time. His favored victims were First Nations prostitutes, lured from Vancouver's sleazy Eastside to dive hotels. There he’d offer them financial inducements to drink large amounts of vodka. After they passed out, he would continued to pour liquor down their throats.

Jordan was eventually caught after a call made to report a dead body in a hotel room was traced to him. Tried for manslaughter he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison in 1988, reduced to nine years on appeal. He was released in 1994 and died on July 7, 2006 at age 74.

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

Sunday 8 November 2015

Serial Killers: Volker Eckert


Born: 1959 

Number of victims: 18+   

Date of murders: 1974 - 2006

Method of murder:  Strangulation  

Location: France / Spain / Germany  




A deadly German trucker, Volker Eckert traveled the highways and bi-ways of Europe between 1974 and 2006, murdering at least 19 women, most of them prostitutes. His usual M.O. was to pick the women up at truck stops, strangle them to death in his truck and dump their bodies miles away. And because he killed in several countries including France, Spain and Germany, the murders were never tied together until EUROPOL, the Europe-wide police force, got involved. 

Eckert was eventually identified as a suspect when his rig was picked up on CCTV near a site where one of the bodies was found. He was arrested on November 17, 2006, in Cologne, Germany and the evidence quickly mounted up against him after that. The police found tufts of human hair inside his vehicle, as well as souvenirs taken from his various victims. Most telling was his polaroid collection, showing women being subjected to various tortures. 

Faced with the evidence against him, Eckert quickly confessed, telling investigators: "I am so crazy. I am glad it’s over.”

Volker Eckert, though, would never stand trial for his crimes. He committed suicide in his cell on July 2, 2007. 

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

Saturday 7 November 2015

Serial Killers: The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run


Number of victims: 12 - 20    

Date of murders: 1935 - 1938

Method of murder: Stabbing   

Location: Cleveland, Ohio  

One of the most enigmatic killers in American history, the “Mad Butcher” murdered at least 12 people in Cleveland, Ohio between 1935 and 1938. The victims, both male and female, were mostly from the ramshackle shanty towns that sprung up on the outskirts of Cleveland during the Depression era. Most were never identified, due to the extreme mutilations inflicted on the bodies.

All of the victims were beheaded and in many cases, the decapitation was the actual cause of death. In addition, the Butcher often cut the torso in two along the sternum. Most of the male victims were castrated, although it is unclear whether this was done before or after death. 

Needless to say, the spate of horrific murders caused an uproar. Desperate to catch the killer, city authorities turned to Eliot Ness, the man who had brought Al Capone to justice. Ness was appointed to the position of Public Safety Director of Cleveland and immediately kicked the investigation into a higher gear, leading to the arrest of one of the chief suspects in the case, Dr. Francis E. Sweeney.

However, there was never enough evidence to pin the murders on Sweeney (or any other suspect for that matter). Ness eventually resorted to ordering the demolition and burning of the Kingsbury Run, the shanty town from which the killer had taken most of his victims. That stemmed the flow of murders, although the Mad Butcher was never caught. Some believe that an additional eight murders - committed between 1938 and 1950 - were his handiwork. 


Read the full, horrific story of The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, 
plus 9 more unsolved serial killer cases in 
  Serial Killers Unsolved. Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 

Friday 6 November 2015

Serial Killers: Cedric Maake


Born: 1965 

Number of victims: 27+    

Date of murders: 1996 - 1997 

Method of murder: Bludgeoning / Shooting    

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa   




One of several horrifically prolific serial killers to come out of South Africa, Cedric Maake claimed an astounding 27 victims in a little over a year between 1996 and 1997.

Maake is  unique in the annals of serial murder in that he simultaneously carried out two seemingly unrelated killing sprees. As the “Wemmer Pan Killer” he preyed on courting couples visiting a popular lakeside picnic spot in Johannesburg. The male victims were either shot or bludgeoned to death, the women were then raped before being killed. At the same time, Maake was robbing and shooting to death small business owners (primarily Indian tailors) in the Johannesburg city center.

The South African Police had no idea that the two series of murders were linked until Maake was arrested for the Wemmer Pan murders. Then, a lay-by slip found at one of the tailoring establishments linked him to the tailor murders. Confronted with the evidence, Maake confessed.

Cedric Maake was eventually convicted of 27 murders, 26 attempted murders, 14 rapes, and 41 aggravated robberies. He was sentenced to 1,340 years in prison.


Read the full, horrific story of Cedric Maake , plus 29 more serial killer cases in 
  Human Monsters Vol. 5.  Available now on Amazon
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday 5 November 2015

Serial Killer Video: Arthur Gary Bishop


One of the most notorious child killers in US history, Bishop sexually molested and murdered five young boys in Utah between 1979 and 1983. His youngest victim was just four years old.

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Serial Killers: Anna Zwanzinger

Born: August 7, 1760 

Number of victims: 4+     

Date of murders: 1801 - 1811 

Method of murder: Poisoning    

Location: Germany

Born in Bavaria in 1760, Anna Margaretha Zwanziger was known as the German Brinvilliers after the infamous French noblewoman, Marie de Brinvilliers. Whether or not Zwanzinger deserves that epithet is open to conjecture. Only four victims have definitely been linked to her, whereas Brinvilliers was responsible for at least 50 deaths. Nonetheless, Zwanzinger was an inveterate poisoner, someone who referred to the vial of arsenic she always carried, as “my truest friend.”

Anna first took to poisoning while working as a maid. Her intention was to curry favor with her employers by giving them just enough arsenic to make them ill, and then nursing them back to health. Inevitably however, she overstepped the mark. At least four victims died at her hands between 1801 until 1811, one of which was a baby. Several other people were poisoned and became seriously ill, but survived. 

Zwanziger was eventually arrested after several members of a household became ill. As she had been seen tampering with a salt cellar, the police tested it and found that it contained a copious amount of arsenic.

Tried and found guilty of murder, Zwanzinger was sentenced to death and executed by beheading on September 17, 1811. Just before her death, she said that it was probably a good thing she was to be executed, as she was addicted to poisoning and did not think she could stop.  


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

Monday 2 November 2015

Serial Killers: Kathleen Folbigg


Born: June 14, 1967 

Number of victims: 4     

Date of murders: 1989 - 1999

Method of murder: Suffocation    

Location: Australia 




It is one of the most sensational cases in Australian criminal history, the story of Kathleen Folbigg, a New South Wales housewife who cold-bloodedly murdered four of her children over a ten year period. The reason? According to a diary kept by Folbigg, the children’s crying annoyed her, and the effort she had to devote to their care cut into her personal time.

The first to die was 19-day-old Caleb, smothered to death by his mother in 1989. His death was attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Within two years, Folbigg’s second son, 8-month-old Patrick, was also dead, from the same apparent cause. When 10-month-old Sarah died in August 1993, you might have thought that the authorities would have taken action. But the death was again deemed natural, despite obvious bruises on the toddler’s neck.

That oversight would have tragic consequences for Folbigg’s fourth child, Laura. The little girl lived longer than any of her siblings, reaching the age of 19 months before she was murdered by her mother in 1999. This time however, the police decided to investigate and after Folbigg’s estranged husband found her diary, recording in sickening detail her reasons for murdering her children, Folbigg was placed under arrest.

Kathleen Folbigg was eventually found guilty of four murders and sentenced to 40 years in prison. 


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

Sunday 1 November 2015

Serial Killers: Georg Karl Grossman


Born: December 13, 1863 

Number of victims:  20 - 50+   

Date of murders: 1913 - 1921

Method of murder: Stabbing / Strangulation   

Location: Berlin, Germany   




On August 21, 1921, police were called to an apartment in Berlin after neighbors complained of screams and banging noises. The man who greeted them at the door was the burly, ogre-like Georg Karl Grossman, who timidly stepped aside and allowed the officers to enter. They had hardly begun their search of the premises when they discovered a freshly butchered female corpse lying on the kitchen floor. 

Grossman was taken into custody and charged with murder. Neighbors revealed that a steady stream of women appeared to enter Grossman’s apartment but few were seen to emerge. This immediately piqued police interest as they had been investigating the disappearances of several, mostly destitute, young women from the area over the last few years.

Investigations also revealed that Grossman had been running a hotdog stand near the railway station and was always well stocked with meat, despite near famine conditions in Germany in the aftermath of World War I. Putting two and two together, the police realized to their horror that Grossman had been butchering women and selling their flesh. 

How many victims Grossman claimed is unknown, although blood found in his apartment suggested at least three victims in the weeks prior to his arrest. As he was active for at least eight years before that, it has been speculated that at least 50 women may have fallen victim to the “Berlin Butcher.”

Grossman was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. He escaped the guillotine by   hanging himself in his cell.


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